Monday Mashup: Narration and Control of Information

By David Miller On May 3, 2010 · 10 Comments

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Every Monday we mash up different articles, ideas, and questions relevant to writers, photographers, and journalists. This week we look at a couple different sides of how information is controlled.

Photo: kafka4prez

HAPPY MONDAY everyone. Over the weekend I thought a lot about the concept of “narration” within the context of control.

How to remember what “framing” is

A few years ago I saw a documentary that explained the concept of “framing an issue.” It showed a picture of a young couple. It was obviously an old picture, black and white. From the way the couple was dressed it appeared to be the early 1900s. They were smiling in a way that seemed very happy.

Then the camera started zooming out so you saw more people in the picture. The other people weren’t looking at the picture, but all in the same direction–looking towards the right. None of them were smiling.

Then the camera kept zooming out so you could see the entire picture, and what everyone else in the photo was looking at: a lynching, two black people strung up in a tree.

Then it zoomed back to the two people smiling, and explained how framing an issue was equivalent to showing only one part of a picture so the person looking at it isn’t able to see the whole context.

I don’t mean to use this example in a way that seems “menacing,” but more as something to remember when you’re reading, writing, taking pictures, looking at pictures, and using the internet: what is the narrator, photographer, or website leaving out? What are you leaving out of what you write or take pictures? What am I leaving out here? [(a) The documentary was about Mumia Abu Jamal.]

Facebook’s privacy policy

On the opposite side of this is the idea of how much personal information you’re willing to have revealed and who has access to it. This brings me to Facebook.

I tried to delete my Facebook account over a year ago, and was pretty surprised that I couldn’t actually delete it, but only “suspend” it, which keeps other people from viewing it. All of my information is still there on their servers, however.

I didn’t suspend my account because I was worried they might jack my personal info, I just didn’t have time to use it anymore. After reading this timeline published last week though, I’m glad I got out when I did (if that even matters?).

Check this excerpt from Facebook’s Privacy Policy in 2006:

We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information.

And now compare it with this excerpt from the privacy policy as of April 2010:

When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. … The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.”

The article concludes: “Viewed together, the successive policies tell a clear story. Facebook originally earned its core base of users by offering them simple and powerful controls over their personal information. As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those controls. Instead, it’s slowly but surely helped itself — and its advertising and business partners — to more and more of its users’ information, while limiting the users’ options to control their own information.”

Mini Travel Writing Contest based on different narrators

Last up, this week I’m running a min travel writing contest based on different styles of narration in nonfiction. The inspiration is Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, a novel told from the point of view of 15 different narrators.

Please check the website for details. Deadline is on Thursday at 2 PM EST.

Community Connection

what is your opinion of Facebook’s privacy policy? Do you use Facebook? Let us know in the comments below.

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About The Author

David Miller

David Miller is senior editor of Matador (winner of 2010 and 2011 Lowell Thomas awards for travel journalism), and BETA magazine. After living for the last two years in Patagonia, Argentina, he is returning with his wife and two young children to the Southern US. Follow him @dahveed_miller.

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http://www.sierrasurvey.com David Page

Saw a comment a few days ago (that I now can’t find–which is I think my biggest complaint about FB: its lack of search-ability, or whatever that word should be) to the effect that whoever it was didn’t see cause for all the privacy hubbub on Facebook. I have to admit I’m not really seeing it either. I mean, Facebook: what’s it for? Either it’s a bathroom wall for you to scrawl your name on (in public), or its a publishing tool, a massive, sprawling, unedited community blog with a big audience. You publish something in a trad magazine, or post a notice on craigslist, or put a sign up at the grocery store selling an old pair of skis, it’s out there for everybody to see–you can’t take it back because later you’re ashamed of it, or whatever. That’s the nature of publishing, right? Note the root of the word. You want to keep it to yourself, or between real friends, you don’t post it on the internet, right? You don’t put something in the comments field on matador unless you’re willing to open the conversation to the whole world… or am I missing something? That’s where the impulse to transparency is an important one. Say what you know, say what you mean. If you’re not sure, say so. Etc. As for the marketing side of it, people collecting data about your spending habits and the things you “like,” what’s so scary about that? That’s been going on since bartenders started paying attention to what their regulars were drinking. They’re just getting better and better at it–and it’s getting further away from face-to-face and personal. But, ultimately, perhaps, that’ll be how we pay for what we do as writers and photographers and entertainers. I don’t know. Just thinking out loud. I’m open to being scared about losing my identity–especially the idea that someone might erase the last few pennies from my bank account. But I think I might need somebody to explain it to me.

http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/david-miller David Miller

d (and @carlo too),

i admit i don’t really understand this 100% either, and i’m not sure there is something to be ‘afraid of’ — especially if you’re not doing transactions or sharing bank info — but i do distinguish, for sure, between your example of the bartender keeping track of what regulars like vs facebook keeping track of millions of ppl’s data.

essentially the bartender and customer are interacting at ground-level. there’s a default level of transparency. you see who you’re dealing with, you probably know where he / she lives, who his / her real ‘friends’ are.

facebook on the other hand, is ‘faceless.’ something goes wrong and you’re dealing with. . .who exactly?

i guess it comes down a feeling of wanting to control on what terms i ‘share’ – and i simply don’t like the pattern / direction this is going at facebook.

http://carlo-alcos.com Carlo

David (Page), you just said what I’ve been thinking about this whole thing. Maybe I don’t understand it enough either, but I agree that we’re all putting ourselves out there for the world to see, whenever we post anything to the Internet. I don’t put my credit card details or banking information in Facebook, so I’m not really all that worried.

Someone please share how the information that can be gleaned from Facebook can be used in dangerous ways against the users? People join free contests all the time in grocery stores, sign up for mailing lists, even tell a cashier what area (zip) code they live in. It’s all information gathered up to try to sell us stuff. What’s the difference?

http://evaholland.com Eva

For me, it’s not so much a matter of feeling that it’s dangerous – I just don’t like the way Facebook has lied to its users. It’s all about expectations – as David Page said above, for some people Facebook is like a big giant blog, but for me it’s always (I’ve been on since the “original” incarnation of Facebook in ’05) been a way to keep in touch with a widespread group of friends, a quick way to share photos and updates with folks I’m not close enough to that I skype or see them regularly. Now, when I joined, Facebook led me to believe that I could keep it that way – a closed loop for my friends. And repeatedly now, they’ve changed their privacy guidelines without notifying me, editing my settings and opening my info to the world, and then I have to scramble around to re-set all my defaults, etc.

I don’t have my credit card information on there, obviously, or my address or phone number, but I’ve been given the expectation of a certain amount of privacy by Facebook and they need to own that. People can say “it’s the internet, why expect any privacy?” but we all put our faith in websites to do what they say they do, whether that’s PayPal or Air Canada or, hell, I paid my taxes online last week. If Revenue Canada’s site can be trusted with my SIN and my banking information, Facebook should be able to man up and say, “Eva, we won’t broadcast your current location and vacation photos to the world without your say-so” – and then actually follow through on that promise. It’s the deception that gets me.

http://www.sierrasurvey.com David Page

Good points, Eva. Indeed, I came to it late and expecting the worst, found myself surprised by its usefulness, but am still uncomfortable with it as a means of communicating with real friends (my grandmother always used to say, quoting my granddad, I believe, that “fool’s names and fool’s faces always appear in public places.”) But then here we are. And I agree, it ruffles the hell out of me when they change anything. I mean, just when I get used to the concept of being a “fan” of something or other, they change it to I “like” something!? If I’d expected any kind of privacy protection I’d be livid. What’s it gonna take, you think, for all us millions of faces to jump ship and swim elsewhere?

http://evaholland.com Eva

Sweet, David. Your comments on framing remind me of that Hemingway line in A Moveable Feast. He’s at the cafe, working on a story, and he says that he has this new theory about writing – that “you can omit anything so long as you know what’s being omitted.” I think the example given was a story about a man who’d just come home from war, only there was no mention of war in the story. He’s used that pretty effectively in a lot of stories I think – the classic high school English example being “Hills Like White Elephants” – and it’s a powerful technique when it works. I’ve seen some pretty stripped-down Russian short stories that leave an awful lot unsaid, too.
http://volunteeringvagabond.com The Dame

Yes I use Facebook because Im always moving around thw world and my friends are widely spread on it too. However, I use Facebook wisely, making sure no one but my friends can see my account and photos and not adding people Ive never met.

The people complaining about FB are the ones who dont know how to change their privacy settings.
jlc

I work in the legal field. We routinely access people’s facebook information and file it as evidence in court, even from “friends only” profiles. I have a friend in law enforcement, facebook is now used for randomized background checks. That friend who casually sells weed could, in theory, cost you a job when your “contacts” are run through their databases (which go beyond convictions to include surveillance, calls in to the police, dropped charges, whatever). This doesn’t apply to everyone, but it’s happening now. Of course, these are two examples that shouldn’t concern a lot of people.

My greatest concern is that it will eventually be used by governments to monitor and restrict travel. I’ve been to no-go countries, but the visa is conveniently removed from my passport on exit and no stamp is left behind. There’s a lot of information on facebook allowing a government to profile and harrass you if they want. For example, do you have a lot of left leaning contacts? Academics? You could end up on the next generation’s notoriously unreliable “terror list”. Or, just harrassed more at the border. I have friends who do certain kinds of political/aid work in tightly controlled countries whose real life contacts get them held up on the way. Supplies get confiscated. Questions are asked. Facebook just makes that process, in theory, easier. And, anyone who’s been bounced from an American border will tell you about the potential long term ramifications that can flow from something as simple as a visa mistake. If they want to cause problems for people, it’s not hard.

Do I have a profile? Yeah. It’s a real-time rolodex, full of people to look up in different places, employment connections, and a way to maintain important relationships more easily. It would take me far more work to keep this information updated on my own, and the trade off, for me, is worth it. But I never stop being aware of the above and make sure that I’m using it more than it jeopardizes me.
http://www.sierrasurvey.com David Page

Eek. That IS scary. Ain’t no hiding in this new world of ours, eh? Gone are the days of just stealing a horse and riding out beyond the telegraph lines…
http://www.sierrasurvey.com David Page

In case y’all missed this one: check out this sharp, sophisticated look at where FB has gone wrong–and how it might steer a better course:

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2010/05/08/confusing-a-public-with-the-public/

and don’t miss this cool visual of the evolution of privacy on FB (what gets shared and with whom and how that’s changed since 2005):

http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

Monday Mashup: Narration and Control of Information

How to remember what “framing” is

Facebook’s privacy policy

Mini Travel Writing Contest based on different narrators

Community Connection

MatadorU

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