As a human that was by chance born in to a white-skinned body immediately symbolising privilege, I feel almost ashamed to be part of a race that, in this nation, is so concerned with shunning those humans who were born in to bodies with ‘coloured’ skin. In saying that, I know that I must be grateful for the privilege associated with being caucasian and I am fully aware that many people of colour would do anything to experience such privilege. Privilege which in itself is just so darn unjustified and bizarre.

What seems almost more unjustified and bizarre to me is the death of a young man in what is now being labelled a “terrorist attack” by the sensationalist commercial media outlets. I’ll admit I’m no terrorism expert, nor am I particularly informed on the issue of ISIS nor even Islam or muslims. But personally I feel it is so wrong for the media to be calling the tragic death of a muslim man during a violent confrontation an act of terrorism.

What if it had been a white man who had stabbed the police officers? Would the media still be calling it a terrorist attack? Would Australians still be applauding his death? I think not.

So what’s the deal with the media attacking muslims at the moment? It’s not a direct attack, and nobody is encouraging caucasians to turn against muslims (which itself is a strange thing to say given the former is an ethnicity while the latter a religion). But the sensationalism about Islam bookshop owners in QLD being arrested, raids of muslim communities in NSW and again this alleged terrorist attack in VIC is obviously instilling fear in some Australians; I’ve witnessed it in my very conservative and at times blatantly racist family. And this will only cause further divide, and by extension perhaps it will cause even more tension between the two ‘sides’.

Sure there are extremists out there who take their religion to the next level of intense violence and threats. But the same goes for Christianity (i.e. KKK, Westboro Baptist Church) and just about every religion out there. I just think the Australian media and the government is handling this all so awfully and making minorities feel isolated, excluded and unwelcome. Those are the exact feelings described by one of my best friends, who belongs to the minority. Having seen the identity crisis they face at the moment, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this issue. Hence this blog post.

I just want all 7 billion of us humans to come together for one big group hug. It won’t solve any problems but it would be really nice, wouldn’t it?

I’m back with another apology to my emotion-less, computerised and rather impersonal blog that I’ve been so cruelly neglecting.

As I’ve already whinged about in previous posts, I’ve been a little busy with having teeth cut out of my face and stuff. Which is hardly an excuse, as realistically I’ve been sitting at home doing nothing for two weeks in recovery mode which would have been a perfect opportunity to catch up on all my mandatory Network Media blogging. However things did not pan out this way as I chose instead to procrastinate (as I do so very well) and sleep all the time. Also my cat got really sick and had surgery and I was at the vet’s 5 times in one week so that’s kind of a legitimate excuse. I apologise for not blogging at all about any of the readings – despite having actually read them! I guess I did do a few productive things in my time off.

I’m also very sorry for neglecting to post non-Network Media related things. I really enjoy rambling away on the internet with my thoughts that are of no real relevance to anything at all. Again also sorry that I haven’t posted any more cat videos despite previous promises of doing so.

Despite my poor history with keeping internet based promises with myself about my blogging responsibilities, I’m about to make another promise which I’m almost certain I can and will fulfill.

I promise that on later this week I will go on a blogging binge in which I will catch up on several weeks of readings, Network Media ideas, media ideas in general, personal feels and maybe even some novelty cat images/videos just to tie it all together nicely.

And that’s the truth. I promise.

I know I’m late to the bandwagon, but as previously noted I was a little preoccupied having teeth removed from my face (and binging on Game of Thrones).

This new scandal among a vast history of similar issues terrifies me to my very core. Aside from the fact that I’m not a celebrity nor do I have any nude photos out on the big bad internet, this scandal really drives home the message of just how unsecure the internet can be! The fact that a total stranger could hack on to the iCloud account of the countless famous female who were attacked and access their private information is frightening. What else could they have accessed on those accounts?

In my home this scandal has been a huge point of discussion among my family. My mum’s used it as a means of teaching my younger sister how important it is to consider every piece of information (be it a photo, message, video, etc) you put online and that it may very well be seen by anyone in the future. My 17 year old brother has taken this as an opportunity to be an arrogant bad human and blame the celebrities for taking the photos in the first place. Me personally, I’ve been busy freaking out about the lack of privacy we have on the internet.

I guess in summary it’s just a huge learning experience for all of those using the internet for any personal means, because nothing is ever really secure and safe from the eyes of strangers!

You’d think having four wisdom teeth out at once would be an awful experience?

For the most part, you’d be correct.

Last Friday I was lucky enough to have four impacted chompers extracted in hospital (also very appreciative of anaesthetics). It wasn’t the surgery that had me concerned, it was the week that followed that stressed me out.

The surgeon had stressed time and time again that I was to spend a week minimum at home resting in order to recover and avoid infection or damaging stitches. A week?! One day inside makes me insane. How was I meant to endure a week?!?!

It wasn’t until I had an intense light-bulb moment in which I grasped the full potential the internet could offer me during this week of inevitable cabin fever. Gone are the days of isolation and being cut off from my social life!

With the power of social media I’ve been able to keep up to date with group assignments for uni, keep in touch with all of my friends, (almost) feel a part of a group outing celebrating a pal’s birthday through picture messaging and annoy my mum with countless videos of cute cats.Not only this, but I’ve been able to (legally) download tonnes of movies and TV shows to entertain myself.

There’s hardly been a moment of boredom! 20 years ago this would never be possible. In the spare seconds in between my various modes of entertainment, I’ve come to appreciate the internet so much more than I could have ever imagined. A week resting in bed has been bearable, and at times enjoyable!

But the diet consisting of nothing but mush has been anything but good…

To my blog,

I am so sorry for neglecting you.

I’ve been too busy with uni, work, being sick and trying to keep myself alive as my mum decided to go to Europe and leave me to fend for myself.

It’s mid-semester break now and I promise to shower you with love, posts and cat videos.

Yours truly,

Amy

Last night I went and saw Australian DJ duo Peking Duk perform at the Corner Hotel and without getting in to too much detail about how insane it was or how extreme my post-gig depression is, let’s just say it was pretty bloody good.

The one thing that compromised the quality of my night was my little ‘media-voice’ in the back of my mind wondering if they had legal rights to use all the songs they incorporated. After discussing musicians’ access to the work of others in the Network Media symposium a few weeks ago, I spent the whole night thinking about the process they would have gone through to be legally able to use the songs of others in their remixes – which they make a lot of money from in both sales and at gigs.

The pair behind the music in this band seem like pretty laid back dudes and are friends with some of the musicians they borrow songs from, so I can’t exactly imagine them pursuing strict guidelines in regards to getting proper legal rights to content. I guess they probably have a whole team of managers and assistants taking care of this business for them. That would make a whole lot more sense.

Since the gig I’ve been left halfway between annoyed and impressed with these thoughts lingering in my mind. I never anticipated my love for music would combine with my love for studying media in such a way.

Every week in class we’re asked to fill out a little survey, ticking the boxes of what we have and haven’t completed on our blogs.

And every week I see the little requirement about embedding pictures/moving images/sounds/etc in to blog posts and inside my brain starts screaming.

What am I supposed to use? At no point during the creation of any of my blog posts have I had a light bulb moment in which I thought the incorporation of another media source would improve the post. The only thing I could see myself potentially using is cute pictures of cats – however I hardly thing that’s relevant nor beneficial.

However I did just have a small little idea as I wrote that paragraph. What if I embed media source that directly relate to our media learning?! Mindblowing!

Here’s hoping I muster up the courage to take the step into never-ending media source embedding in the near future.

Until next time, here’s a video of groovy kitty rockin’ the keyboard.