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LB127 Homework. Week 3. Euan McAleece. Radio Production.

  For our homework this week I worked with a group of classmates to come up with an idea for a programme.  My group utilised Angela Merkel’s recent comment on the failure of multiculturalism reported in the news, as a basis for a programme. We discussed many programme ideas based upon multiculturalism and narrowed our focus to look at the question “Does multiculturalism matter in today’s virtual social networks?” I will write a short summary of the programme and then develop this into a Treatment.

  This week’s “Thinking Aloud” on Radio 4 at 4pm this Wednesday, will see Laurie Taylor examining the question “Does multiculturalism matter in today’s virtual social networks?” He will be joined in the studio by Mark Granovetter from Stanford University and the author Danah Michele Boyd. They will discuss this in depth in the studio, get involved go to the “Thinking Aloud” page on bbc.co.uk

  Laurie will be joined in the studio for a live discussion with two experts. This will then be re-edited for broadcast to fit the 30 minute running time, along with a brief introduction from the presenter to state the question to be discussed and to give context and definitions of “multiculturalism” and “social networks”. The target audience of the piece will be informed older listeners who are well educated as well as those interested and studying Sociology. The studio discussion will be in depth but hopefully not too academic.

  Research into the subject, in particular the writings of the two experts should be made available to the presenter. Some audio clips and possibly VOX POP’s could be used to provide more context for the show.

Mark Granovetter.

• Granovetter, Mark S. (May 1973), "The Strength of Weak Ties", American Journal of Sociology 78 (6): 1360–1380, doi:10.1086/225469 
• Getting A Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University, 1974, ISBN 978-0-674-35416-6 
• Granovetter, Mark (November 1978), "Threshold Models of Collective Behavior", American Journal of Sociology 83 (6): 1420–1443, doi:10.1086/226707 
• Granovetter, Mark (1983), "The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited", Sociological Theory (Blackwell) 1: 201–233, doi:10.2307/202051, http://jstor.org/stable/202051 

- Reprinted in Marsden, Peter V.; Lin, Nan, eds. (1982), Social Structure and Network Analysis, Sage, ISBN 978-0-8039-1888-7 

• Granovetter, Mark (November 1985), "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness", American Journal of Sociology 91 (3): 481–510, doi:10.1086/228311 
• Nohria, Nitin; Eccles, Robert, eds. (1992), "Problems of Explanation in Economic Sociology", Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action, Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School, ISBN 978-0-87584-324-7

Danah Michele Boyd.

References

1. ^ Boyd, Danah. "a bitty autobiography / a smattering of facts". danah.org. http://www.danah.org/aboutme.html. Retrieved November 2, 2008. 
2. ^ Fast Company Staff (2009-02-01). "Women in Tech: The Evangelists". Fast Company. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/the-most-influential-women-in-technology-the-evangelists.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Debelle, Penelope (August 4, 2007). "A space of her own - Encounter with Danah Boyd". The Age. 
4. ^ Erard, Michael (2003-11-27). "Decoding the New Cues in Online Society". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/27/technology/circuits/27frie.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "Taken Out of Context -- my PhD dissertation". zephoria.org. January 18, 2009. http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/01/18/taken_out_of_co.html. 
6. ^ Doctorow, Cory (2009-01-19). "danah boyd's PhD thesis: Teen sociality online". Boing Boing. http://boingboing.net/2009/01/19/danah-boyds-phd-thes.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
7. ^ "Members of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force". Berkman Center for Internet & Society. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/isttf/members. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
8. ^ "Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative". Berkman Center for Internet & Society. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/digitalnatives/policy. Retrieved 2010-05-022. 
9. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (September 22, 2008). "Microsoft hires social-net scholar Danah Boyd". CNET. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10047795-36.html. Retrieved January 12, 2009. 
10. ^ "MacArthur Foundation Project Summary". http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.4773555/k.27DE/Mizuko_Ito.htm. Retrieved January 9, 2009. 
11. ^ "Final Report". The Digital Youth Project. http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report. Retrieved January 9, 2009. 
12. ^ boyd, danah. Buckingham, David. ed. "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life". Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning (Cambridge: MIT Press). doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.119. ISSN 978-0262026352. http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.119. Retrieved 16 May 2010

  Our initial assignment of coming up with a programme idea and doing research in a group setting in 15 minutes was very challenging. Our original ideas where far too broad, looking at too many factors. After some useful group discussion we narrowed down our idea to something more manageable. We then met briefly and contacted each other by phone, email and indeed using social network sites. Through this we formulated a firmer idea for our story and where and when and why it should be broadcast.