Interviews going well...

So I have finally handed in my last piece of coursework and can now concentrate on *doing* my research and writing it up!

Have had two great interviews this week - one with Lowell Cremorne, the editor of the Metaverse Journal and aussie virtual worlds new site and one with Pixeleen Mistral, the editrix of the SL Herald. Two quite different perspectives, and both very informative!

For those who are passing by this blog and who don't think they'll be able to sit down and chat one-on-one with me, these are the kinds of questions which I'm asking my interview subjects. Please feel free to comment or provide some answers:

• How do you *do* journalism in SL? How is it different from traditional journalism?
• What role does journalism perform in SL?
  
• What kind of interaction with readers do most media have? Can readers comment on stories and do these comments provide a kind of 'public sphere' function?
• How does Linden Lab govern SL?
  
• Do residents bring expectations of rights and/or obligations with them into SL?
• How does Linden Lab communicate with residents?
• What happened in the so-called 'Banking Ban' event? Did public opinion or journalism play a role in that decision?
• Which is more pertinent to Linden Lab: real life media or second life media?

Any comments or opinions welcomed!

Theoretical governance conundrum

I've found big problems trying to fit a theory of governance to SL because two conflicting situations exists concurrently.

Firstly, the situation resembles (Note resembles, not is!) a totalitarian government, whereby all aspects of the ‘contituents’ lives are effectively controlled by the government, they hold absolute power over their society and can rule without any real mandate or permission from the people. Developers hold the power over access to the world and control over the code.

Secondly, worlds exist in a consumer-producer relationship whereby the developer relies upon the users for their continued profits and existence yet, in SL at least, the users are also intrinsically involved in the production of the good – which is indeed never finished. So perhaps it is a more a producer-produser relationship. And lastly many parties in this world appear to be applying values associated with democracy to their experiences in world, such as individual liberty, right to protest and expression and defence of avatar civil liberties.

How might these different scenarios be consistently integrated into a model of virtual world governance?

Contradictions of Citizen Journalism in SL

In my research I've been reading about this interesting style of journalism called "citizen journalism". The basic tenet of this journalism is to include the voice of citizens in mainstream media, through publication of citizen-authored articles and citizen driven agenda's.

However I've found that often citizen journalism relies upon the existence of ‘mainstream’ and professional journalism in order for it to make sense. I.e. there is no such thing as 'alternate' or citizen media, if there is no mainstream or professional journalism against which to define it.

Is is then appropriate to compare this to SL? Can SL's media industry be characterised as citizen journalism? Is there a ‘mass media’ or dominant media which presents the institutional view? Or does the SL media only present a citizen perspective? Are SL residents even citizens?

Introduction & Research Directions

This my first attempt at blogging so please excuse any faux pas that I make! As I'm already half way through my research year I thought I would put up a few of my rambling thoughts and see if anyone has any comments. Please feel free to run with any of the ideas laid out here - any feedback would be great!

Also just to give a bit more context than the Participant Information Statement (which everyone has read of course!), I'm doing an Honours research year in Sydney, Australia - which basically means I get to do a one year research project in my final year of my undergrad degree. I'm looking at the relationship between journalism and governance in Second Life, and am hoping to make some interesting contributions to this area of study! (Fingers crossed.)

So my plan of attack has been to look at what kind of journalism is happening in Second Life - what sort of theories and understanding we already have of journalism might explain it, or are people doing something radically new and different? Then I'm looking at governance in Second Life, trying to find out what kind of values and models represent the funny mix of consumerism and citizenship which appears to characterise life in a virtual world. Then I'm looking at how these two elements of virtual life interact, through a case study of the couple of events which led to the banning of unchartered banks in Second Life in January 2008. I don't think anyone has done any research into this area before, but if I'm mistaken please point me in the direction of anything you've read before.

So here goes, wish me luck!
/dives in head first