Another Facebook Article

Week 10 Blog Post

Facebook reveals new 'Groups' feature to bring cosy cliques back to online social networking

REFERENCE DETAILS
Glenn Chapman, “Facebook reveals new 'Groups' feature to bring cosy cliques back to online social networking”, Associated Foreign Press (October 7, 2010)http://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-reveals-new-groups-feature-to-bring-cosy-cliques-back-to-online-social-networking/story-e6frfro0-1225935349578#ixzz11eKblxCa (accessed on 07/10/10)

RELEVANCE
Importance - Update
As we have been discussion online networks and communities - an article that popped up today regarding charges to facebook sparks some interesting ideas in relevance to the future of these websites.
As we all know, Facebook is currently King of all social networking websites, and any changes that happen often make front page news.

This article talks about changes to Facebook's 'news' feed - to exclude people from it. Facebook is rolling out changes to allow people to have open, closed or secret "groups" - meaning you can choose which clusters of friends that you want to see information from or give information too.
This raises questions about how this online community is becoming more and more like a real life community, and it also presents the problem of exclusion in online communities.
And interesting part about this online article is the comments on it. Many readers have commented with things such as "pick up the phone people" and "A better way is just don't have a stupid account in the first place and stop posting every little thing you do and say!"
There are a lot of these negative comments, this could show that perhaps people like to make fun of online communities if they are not a part of one.

What
"Founder Mark Zuckerberg said the biggest problem in social networking was that people tended to divide their friends into separate circles they interacted with differently, such as colleagues or former school chums."
'"Now, people can map out all the real world groups they have in a graph," Mr Zuckerberg said.'
'"If we can do this, we can unlock a huge amount of sharing people want to do that they don't do now because it's too annoying or the privacy," he said.'

Issues
I don't agree with how this article uses a picture from the movie Mean Girls, accompanied by the caption Now you can form your own little cliques on Facebook. Just don't use them to be evil. However I do see the point that the story is getting across.
It suggests that there could be exclusion from this new feature - however it really does not go into this at all, and does not discuss exclusion or online communities, which would have been relevant.

Forming Argument - example
In an argument about online communities I would utilise this article to show, as I explained earlier, the growing connection between real and online communities.
This new feature is attempting to mimic real life, where we often keep some friends separate from others.

This article fails to discuss in detail the exclusion that will happen from this feature - what if many people do not have a group?
Also, it discusses that Facebook is trying to allow its uses to control their own privacy, but many users may not be bothered or understand how to utilise these new settings.

Relationship to other references - counter
This supports references that discuss the expansion of the online community to moving closer and closer to 'real life' communities. It doesn't provide an example of an argument in another reference however it could be used with other resources, such as an article about the new "places" feature on facebook.

CRITICAL EVALUATION
1. Character:

• Source Title- Facebook reveals new 'Groups' feature to bring cosy cliques back to online social networking
• Type- news article
• Online- http://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-reveals-new-groups-feature-to-bring-cosy-cliques-back-to-online-social-networking/story-e6frfro0-1225935349578#ixzz11eKblxCa
• Primary/secondary- This is a secondary source, it uses quotes from a media conference that would have been given by Zuckerberg, which news.com.au would have taken from another publication
• Edition / revision-This article is written to pursuade readers one way or another, and thus many omissions would have been made to present an argument - showing that 'cliques' will be created through the new Facebook groups feature.
• Bibliography-News articles bibliography is provided
• Evidence- The informations would have been heavily edited before being posted on the website, as the writers need an editor's approval before posting. The information is valid to the points the article is getting across, and the quotes from Zuckerberg are relevent and pertinent to the piece
• Writing style- The article seems to begin fairly one-sided, with the picture showing that they are against the new feature, however as it goes on it becomes more passive and less emotive - showing little opinion as Zuckerberg is quoted throughout, telling the facts.
• Reliable- It is a fairly reliable source, although I would go to a less commercially influenced news provided than this, to ensure less bias

2. Currency:

• Date- October 7, 2010
• Current-Very current, the feature still hasn't been rolled out yet - so once it becomes a part of facebook then there will possible be further news articles on it's impact.
• Location-Written in Palo Alto, California - this article was found on News.com.au. They would have used it as it has quotes from Zuckerberg (an American). It is reliable as the writer may have got his quotes first hand, although there is know saying if it's true. It is provided by the AFP (Associated Foreign Press) to be allow to be posted on news websites across the world.
• Links- the link takes you to news.com.au and it should work until it gets put into websites archive (after it has become too old).

3. Intention:

• Author- Glenn Chapman wrote this article to be received by a large, but mainly young, audience, as it has multiple pop-culture references.
• Source- Subsequently the sources adresses a technology-savy audience, but also a large, diverse audience - as there is no telling who of the billions that use facebook would be interested in it - they are who he is targetting.

4. Authority:

• Author- Glenn Chapman
• Credentials-Glenn Chapman works for the Associated Foreign Press, and writes one Technology surrounding the internet, Facebook and Google to be exact.
• Institution-The Associated Foregin Press (AFP) "covers the world with a combined 5,000 stories a day in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Arabic." (from the website http://www.afp.com/afpcom/en/taglibrary/know-how/text)
• Expertise- Glenn Chapman is a reporter for the AFP covering all internet technology areas
• Reference- The article is clearly in his area of expertise, he has written many articles on Facebook and the internet overall.
• Address - Mr. Chapmann clearly has a willingness to share his work and to be attributed to, as he shares his work with news networks all over the world throught the AFP.
• Publisher/Source- The News Limited Corporation owns news.com.au, as well as multiple other afiliated Media outlets.

5. Notes:
This article provided a good example of the continuing changes to online communities. The Facebook "Groups" feature highlights how online communities are trying to survive by becoming more like their real-life counterparts through isolating some friends from others. It also demonstrates the exclusion that many face from these online communities. I think it will be interesting to look at the reaction when the features is fully operational - to gain the public's thoughts on it. Although this is a news article, and subsequently may contain some bias - it provides the facts, from quoting Zuckerberg, and gives readers a quick shot of all the information that they need.