Whirling in thoughts and conundrums

Ann— aspiring writer. In my spare time, I think of plots I can never manage to finish and binge-watch TV. 

[ayleeannx]

[ayleeannx]

Cuba Street: The Hidden Soul of Wellington’s Coffee Culture

Wellington is undoubtedly well-known for its coffee culture that has become a crucial part of the city’s own identity. Cuba Street, while being the heart of Wellington’s coffee culture in this contemporary society, is, however, hardly acknowledged for its unique cafés and its contribution to the iconic coffee culture today. Due to the fact that it is relatively underrepresented, through this story map project, I want to emphasize Cuba Street’s role as the heart of Wellington’s coffeeculture so that people will be able to see Cuba Street in a different light.

Cuba Street was one of the first places I went to upon arriving in Wellington. It not only represents Wellington on its own with its artistic vibe and boutique shops, but also has great dining places and great cafés along the street. Overtime, Cuba Street has become one of my favorite places where I can throw away all my worries just with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Cuba Street and its coffee hold much more significance than it lets on. People might go to Cuba Street for a cup of coffee, and yet the realization that this might just be the hub of Wellington’s coffee culture has possibly not been registered in their minds. Cuba Street has been mostly overlooked as an iconic coffee place despite the soul and value it adds to Wellington’s coffee culture.

(New Zealand’s capital city is famously known for its sophisticated coffee culture) 

Cuba Street is defined and represented through “a mix of materialities and imaginaries” which impose meaning and value to it (Gieryn 465; Goggin et all 44). Regarding the representation of Cuba Street, on Wellington’s official website, it is described as “New Zealand’s coolest street”. It is the meeting place of culinary arts and creative souls, of the purest values that partly form the identity of New Zealand’s capital. Cuba Street has also been registered as a Historic Area under the Historic Places Art since 1995. However, Cuba Street is less known for its sophisticated coffee culture itself. The representation of the place still heavily relies on dominant narratives which do not speak for a whole representation. According to Farman, there are often stories left untold in places which would need to fall back on spatial storytelling for a better picture (106). On the New Zealand History website, Wellington’s coffee culture is discussed but Cuba Street as the so-called hub of the culture itself is barely acknowledged. This is the first search that pops up when one searches about the capital’s café scene on Google, and yet it was last updated in 2014 by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, meaning that most of the perspectives and views from the article might not fall in line with people who come from all walks of life.

As someone who occasionally enjoys a cup of good coffee at ungodly hours, Cuba Street has always been the place to go to when I am craving for some caffeine. Opposed to the iconic cafés on Lambton Quay, there is something irresistibly quaint and appealing about the ones on Cuba Street. They are not dull cafés with monotonous colours. The people that frequent these cafés consists of a younger demographic, contributing tremendously to the vibrant, young, and dynamic vibe of the cafés on particular Cuba Street in general. While Lambton Quay has a myriad of iconic cafés, Cuba Street is increasingly known for providing enrichening experiences and its considerable contribution to many aspects of the capital city’s coffee culture.

(Cuba Street-- a melting pot of beauty, arts, culture, and above all great coffee which more often than not goes unnoticed, however)

The story map will give the audience an idea of how diverse the café scene is on Cuba Street with different cafés that give off completely different vibes and embody distinct auras. The one thing they have in common is their devotion to serve high quality coffee only to further enrichen their customers’ experiences. The story map can be seen as the result of “the interplay between the virtual and the material” (Farman 105). In this sense, both the virtual and the material are collaborative spaces that result in embodiment instead. On the other hand, the story map will also draw attention to the little cafés one might have walked passed many times, but never really noticed until “it calls attention to itself” through the story map (108). It makes the seemingly invisible become visible in the eyes of the viewer. All in all, through the story map I aim to present Cuba Street differently and put more emphasis on its role as one of the key streets of Wellington’s coffee culture.

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Reference List:

Farman, Jason. "Stories, spaces, and bodies: The production of embodied space through mobile media storytelling." Communication Research and Practice 1.2 (2015): 101-116.

Gieryn, Thomas F. "A space for place in sociology." Annual review of sociology 26.1 (2000): 463-496.

Goggin, Gerard, Fiona Martin, and Tim Dwyer. "Locative news: Mobile media, place informatics, and digital news." Journalism Studies 16, no. 1 (2015): 41-59.

[ayleeannx]

Online Activism

Q: — Provide an example of an online activist campaign (eg. A link to a news story, website, online petition, FB group or something similar) & briefly explain the goals of the online action. Do you think your selected action has the potential to result in real-world change or is it merely an example of “slacktivism”? Why? 

The meaning that social activism entails has changed over time. In contemporary society, social activism has taken a new form through the implementation of the new tools of social media. Through various social media platforms, it has been relatively easier for the powerless to “collaborate, coördinate, and give voice to their concerns” without having to take to the streets and start a movement there.

(New World has proposed an online BagVote to let the public have their say on whether to keep the plastic bags or to have fees charged for the bags.)

The New World supermarket has recently put a vote online where customers all over New Zealand can voice their opinions in whether plastic bags should be kept. This action is an attempt to reduce pollution to the lowest level possible. Plastic bags have long been a controversial issue calling for solutions to protect the environment at threat. It has been revealed that plastic bags are a constant threat to living things in the sea in New Zealand. This is one of the reasons why New World decided to take action and move one step closer towards reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic in environmentally friendly ways.

(Regardless of the result, there will be changes brought about to protect the environment in the end. Particularly, New World will go plastic free in 2018.)

The results of the voting have proven to be a huge factor determining New World’s new policy in terms of plastic bags. On October 10th, a statement was released announcing that New World would go plastic free by the end of 2018 because the results of the BagVote only emphasised people’s strong opposition against bags. Although people were skeptic about the outcome of the voting as well as the measures New World will take, the online voting has resulted in drastic changes that stuck with what the majority of the people wanted. Rather than being an example of slacktivism which refers to activities that do not have an influence on real–life social outcomes, but “only serve to increase the feel–good factor of the participants”, this BagVote action has shown to change the way New World will operate in the future. 

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Representing Space and Place

Question: Locate the space/place you will build a story about for your digital storytelling assignment. Explain the various ways this space is represented in existing digital media/platforms. Who is the “author” of this space? In other words, what opportunities does the technology user have to contribute to the definition of this space/place?

The current existing mobile technologies have significantly transformed the way the notion space is created, understood, and practiced in people’s daily lives. According to Farman, one particular area of study where this transformation is especially prevalent is mobile media story telling. Storytelling is essential for the “production and practice of space” for space is distinctively known for communicating the meaning of the space itself through the stories linked to it.

(The Bubble is a friendly space for students to relax, do fun activities, and make new friends.)

The On Victoria’s official webpage, the Bubble is described as a comfortable place for students to “take a time out, relax, find regular support and connect with other students”. There are also a range of entertaining activities listed along with the support provided for students that go there ranging from peer support to workshops that are run on a weekly basis. From all the things that the Bubble has to offer for students at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), it is definitely a great place to connect with other students or spend time usefully.

(this is the only post regarding the Bubble on Twitter which was posted over 2 years ago when the Bubble was just established)

Nevertheless, its representation on social media is relatively poor, having only a limited exposure to the student body. On Twitter, there is only one post so far related to the place which has been posted by Victoria’s Students’ Association account back in 2015. On Facebook (FB), the Bubble does not have its own page but is promoted through another FB account named SWAT VUW (Student Wellbeing Awareness Team, Victoria University of Wellington). On Instagram, the location of the Bubble can not be found which only further limits the contribution to defining what this place embodies. The only “authors” of this place until now are the Victoria’s website page and the SWAT VUW FB page which does not include much of students’ perspectives.   

[ayleeannx]

Self-Branding & Micro-Celebrity

The term micro-celebrity is defined as “a new style of online performance in which people employ webcams, video, audio, blogs, and social networking sites to ‘amp up’ their popularity among readers, viewers, and those whom they are linked online. When discussing micro-celebrity, Senft also goes into how the audience can be seen as the fan base, whereas self-presentation is cautiously mobilized to be consumed by the audience.

Ryan Higa, who is also known by his YouTube username nigahiga, can be considered a micro-celebrity whose fame is mostly confined within the scope of YouTube. In the wake of the YouTube explosion, Ryan Higa gradually rose to fame after sharing his own made videos that were initially uploaded for his family to watch only. From then on, he has been consistently creating his own videos with original content to share with his audience. His channel is currently in the Top 20 most subscribed channels on YouTube 

(Ryan Higa became widely known thanks to his homemade videos and his channel held the position as the most subscribed one in 2009-2011 on YouTube)

Higa’s channel is an action of self-branding because it has provided him a chance to become a free agent in an economy free of agents. Furthermore, a series of marketing strategies can be found in which there is a fixed set of practices, mind-set, and certain way of defining the self. In other words, the concept self-branding refers to “the strategic creation of an identity to be promoted and sold to others”. The content of his videos vary greatly but the thing that these videos all have in common is that the issue is mostly about what the audience would care about— it might be about the US presidential election, about some pressing issues, or simply just about some of the recent trends. Regardless of the content, Higa makes sure it is something that can resonate with the audience’s liking.

(His videos are known for being able to address current issues while giving the viewers a good laugh. His videos are also liked for having a high sense of originality)

Aside from his own strategic creation of content, Higa’s brand also involves (1) a distinct username (nigahiga), (2) multiple social media accounts, (3) the distribution of content using the internet, and (4) the promotion of this content using social media which are 4 criteria that ensure successful personal branding.

[ayleeannx]

Social Media Marketing

Question: Post an example of a company you think is doing social media “right” or “wrong”. How do they use different social media platforms differently and for what purpose? 

Converse- an American shoe company- operates as a considerably large brand with a massive following number on different social media platforms. While it is doing a great job on some platforms, there is definitely still room for improvement.

Facebook can be seen as the largest operation platform where most of the effort is put into. The engagement numbers do speak for themselves showing a high rate of interaction between the brand and the followers which can be labeled as many-to- many communication. Followers can leave reviews or questions on the page which will be tended to by the admins of the page. The private messaging and posting on the wall features also allow for active engagement on the page.

Branding on the Internet has gradually meant “exemplifying participation and co-creation of meaning”. Therefore, Facebook seems to be the most active platform due to its easy features that enable interaction from both sides.

(followers can freely share their own content on the page and interact with the brand as well as other followers)

On Instagram, there is a Converse page for each country as well as the official Converse page which posts the main announcements related to new products or the brand in general. It has also made excellent use of some affordances that Instagram provides such as Instagram Video and Carousel.

(the Instagram page is aesthetically pleasing with great relevant photos to keep users updated)

On Twitter, however, Converse is not that active. A moderate number of 1.07 million followers already shows the limited affordances of this platform. For the most part, the Converse twitter page is rather bland without much going on beyond its own company broadcasting. This, in turn, is considered as “unsuitable for the dynamic nature of computer mediated environment”.

On another note, Converse is not as active on these platforms as other competing brands, landing itself rather low on the list of average posts made by brands on social media.

(the daily posts made by Converse accounts are below average according to this chart)

The content, itself, is also not as engaging as it should be, hence, it is missing in the list of 50 Most Influential Brands on Social Media in 2016 despite Nike and Adidas being there.

[ayleeannx]

Participation Norms

Question:  Complete one of the “norm-breaching” activities listed here and write a blog post that describes the experience. Interpret your experience by mobilizing one or more of the week’s key concepts

I chose the ‘always mix media’ as my social media norm-breaching experiment this week in which I would respond to a communication using a different medium of communication than the one that was used to contact me. The reactions collected in the span of three days did not vary greatly.

My parents, who are more used to calling me, thought my text messages in response to the missed calls confusing at first. When I continued to text instead of taking their calls, they got rather irritated and told me to call to make it easier and more convenient for them. When I called my friend after receiving her message on Facebook, she complained about my phone call, saying that it was not a great timing. She asked me to go back to messaging on Facebook like usual. Both my parents and my friends felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar with my change in media and asked me to go back to the usual way of communicating.

(these statistics show the preferences over means of communication amongst different age groups but they also reflect the media usage made by each age group and indicate the adjustments that need to be made accordingly)

The reactions were quite similar in both cases due to the contexts that produce and transform attitudes and practices also known as cultural field. In this case, there are tacit rules as to how communication should be with a set of discourses and activities. Habitus, on the other hand, refers to the unconscious taking-in of values/disposition across contexts. There are many aspects associated with habitus including a) knowledge, b) certain attitudes, values, or behaviour, c) moments of practice, and d) a partly unconscious operational level which indicates that there is nothing necessarily natural or essential about the practices and attitudes people have. In the end, habitus shapes people’s response to cultural rules and contexts which can be distinct but also mainly determined already.

[ayleeannx]

Week 4: Affordances

Question:  Evaluate the affordances / limitations of an ‘old’ and ‘new’ technology. Pick someone you know. Hand-write them a letter; then send an email; then message over some form of social or interactive media. How did the experience compare across all 3 media? Discuss this in terms of technical affordances and limitations.

Technologies, regardless of type, should be treated as texts which are written in certain ways. The meanings imposed on these technologies, however, are open to be contested and vary according to the different social contexts involved. According to Hutchby, different technologies entail distinct affordances which in turn constrain the ways these technologies are perceived as well as the affordances and the limitations they offer.

Hand-writing a letter, sending an email, and chatting with my sister who is half a world away have been three entirely distinct experiences that offer different aspects to communication. Emails, for one thing, have mainly been regarded as business related. One of the characteristics of this kind of technology is that it offers instant and efficient communication despite the location.

(Emails, in general, have proven to be a competent way of communicating, transcending the limitations of hand-written letters. This, on the other hand, does not refute the limitations that emails still harbor.)

However, compared to hand-written letters, the tone of emails is more formal and does not have the capacity to express feelings. It also takes much more time getting a message across by hand-written letters. In this case, as Hutchby puts it, the affordances of intimate expressions of feelings through letters are constrained by geographical factors, setting a limit on what is possible to do. Emails then would be a more effective and faster way to communicate messages across.

(whatsapp is one of the most popular social media apps that has over 1 billion users who communicate by sharing pictures, videos, and messages. It offers simultaneous communication through simple steps. It’s more directed towards one-on-one communication which is casual and personal on some levels.)

Lastly, using social media as a means of communication has become increasingly popular in the last decade. One of the most common social media I fall back on is whatsapp through which my sister and I can exchange short texts back and forth, send pictures whenever needed. It is a means of communication that transcends space and time-- an affordance that emails and letters cannot offer in the same way.