Title: Different Opinions on the Use of Social Media in the Iran Election Protests of 2009
Prepared for: Faiza Hirji, Professor of CMST 3K03, McMaster University

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Introduction

Iran, 1997: Politicians discover the internet as a platform from which they can campaign.

Iran, 2003: Students discover rudimentary social tools online to organize and express their opinions, even if they be completely against the regime. (Rahimi, 2003)

Iran, 2009: Iran is ripe for a revolution where social media would be a major proponent. Iran has a population of about 70,000,000 people, where just over half of those people are below 25 years old. (Chiesa, Sukarya, Temes & Kageyama, 2008) Their generation has grown up with technology and the internet; they’re much more agile with it than ever before. Mozorov said it best: “The government’s tight control of the Internet has spawned a generation adept at circumventing cyber roadblocks,making the country ripe for a technology–driven protest movement.” (Mozorov, 2009).

June 6^th, 2009. Merely 6 days before the fated presidential election in Iran, a government-sponsored poll was issued that showed the incumbent Ahmadinejad fighting a losing battle. 16 to 18 million Iranians stated that they were going to vote for Mir Hossein Mousavi, compared to the 6 to 8 million who sided with Ahmadinejad. The election seemed that it was going to be a landslide victory for Mir Hossein Mousavi. (Bahari, 2009)

On election day, however, Ahmadinejad came out on top with over 60% of the votes. The Iranian population cried foul, took to the streets, and began what would be a massive protest, and one that fully relied on the new technology.

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Title: Music in Digital Games
Prepared for: Dr. MacTavish, Professor of MMEDIA 3K03, McMaster University

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Introductions

Digital games are often lumped together with the cinematic medium for several reasons. Whenever a new medium is introduced, it’s usually compared to an older, more familiar medium to ease the transition. For example, e-mail, while vastly different from traditional mail, was described as such to make things simpler to understand. In that regard digital games have been compared to the medium of film. A second reason is that many publishers believe that trying to associate one’s game with a cinematic experience is good for business, or a valuable bullet point to put on the back of the packaging. In doing so, publishers and media evangelists alike have simplified the digital gaming medium to nothing more than a film + 1 to be had in your own home. To be fair, film and digital games often (but not always) exchange notes, and many of the stylings of the cinematic genre have bled into games.

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Title: An Ethnography of a Virtual World: The Political Economy of EVE Online
Prepared for: Dr. Lori Shyba, Professor of MMEDIA 3B03, McMaster University

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Introduction

Virtual worlds have been proliferating for years. From the MUDs of the 80s to the MMORPGs with millions of players, virtual worlds have grown to proportions unimagined when they began. From the blistering deserts of Kalimdor in World of Warcraft to the cold empty space of EVE Online to even the isometric pixel-world of Habbo Hotel, all of these virtual worlds have one thing in common: social human interaction.

These virtual worlds are sometimes better known as social games. They involve massive amounts of users logging into the server at once and playing the game usually together. For example, in World of Warcraft, one could conceivably play the game without interacting with anyone, but it would hardly be effective. To be able to play the game to the fullest, with all of the dungeons and the bosses and the player versus player battles, one must join a guild.

Guilds are the basis for any social structure in virtual worlds. They are organized and run by players and they have different purposes. Some guilds aim to complete all of the high-level dungeons, feats that require the utmost practice and precision. Some guilds aim to help out low level characters, to make it so they have an easy time learning the world. Some guilds are even just made up of low level characters, helping each other out to eventually become one of the high-level dungeon guilds.

How do players form these kinds of groups? Do natural leaders begin groups, or is it simply players who have more time to invest in the game? Are guilds age-restrictive? Gender restrictive? There are so many questions pertaining to how players organize and operate within guilds, it requires an ethnographic approach to really understand how these social structures are formed.

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