Thought – Ilham's

Final Reflection

There are certainly a lots of new things I have learn through out my first undergraduate semester in RMIT. The first time I stepped into RMIT, I am not sure what to expect. For sure it is going to be a new kind of experience for me compared when I did my diploma back in Malaysia. I have learn a lot, not only academically but also for the other part of life. I believe I am improving in term of media knowledge nowadays and being able to absorb something different to be brought back home. Though it is already the end of the semester, I feel that this is just the beginning of my life here in Melbourne, specifically in RMIT.

Through four project I have done, I have learn on how to work independently and also how to develop the creative sides of me. I also have learn the importance of good communication for my last project brief. As for my last project brief, I have also learnt on to look deeper into my own country media perspective. Australia’s media is not perfect as well, but I personally thinks that there are certain improvement we can make back home in Malaysia.

The course is almost entirely based online and its amazed me on how time flies and changes everything. I still remember back in my diploma, we still used physical books to study and even now, undergraduate students in Malaysia are still using physical books. Besides, there are no final exams for this course and it surprise me at first. Compared to Malaysia, we had to do all the assignments and we also need to sit for the final exams. In my own opinion, media is all about learning new things, you can never expect on what are you going to see or to do for the next days. Media nowadays keep on changing rapidly and project based assignments really help us a lots to understand more about media that surround us. Not to say that theory aren’t needed, but with the emphasis of both practical and theory, I believe that media students is well aware and well equipped for the future.

The most challenging for me as an international student is definitely to adapt with the news systems and surrounding. It was hard for me at first to get along with some of the students here but hey, that how media students need to do, mingle around. I also have some difficulties at first to understand the online learning system we had here as I don’t have that kind of exposure back in Malaysia. I love hands on experience, learn how specific camera or mic differ from other and etc.

I really feel that I need to engage more with other in my coming second semester. I do thinks that I have chose the right university to pursue my passion in media and it has been verified in my first semester here. First semester is over and I truly had a blast!

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Favorite Five

As the semester is coming to an end, we were asked to select five blog post which basically demonstrate my engagement with the course this semester. The links are provided below :

The reasons why I chose above mentioned post rather than the other is because each one of it truly describe what I really learnt through out the first semester. I was asked to portrayed my self and what do I wanna achieve within this two years. I had new sets of friends in my first workshop and it goes on from there. I learn something new and explore some new gadget in my workshop 6.

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Brief 4 Reflections

In my last project brief for my first semester in RMIT, I have been grouped with two new friends, Daniel and Dylan. Honestly speaking, this last project brief is so far the toughest ones I have encountered with due to the challenges faced throughout the research. I have been lucky to be in the same group with Dylan and Daniel where both of them are very idealistic and commit in finishing this project brief. Even there are some challenges for example, we need to postpone our meeting twice due to our personal problems, we are proud to say that we manage to finish our project brief.

For our last assessment for the semester, we have been assigned to do a specific research about ‘audience’. It is quite a challenge since at the first two or three weeks, we still haven’t got any clue on what we are going to focus on. But with Rachel’s help, and others commitment, we finally ended up decided on to explore the differences between broadcast cultures in two different country, Australia and Malaysia. The focus of our research is basically the comparison of Malaysian and Australian (or Western) news. The Malaysian culture still uses a conceptually broadcast era media format to present their news, with the vast majority of news being told through a single, Government run news program once a night, broadcasting to a mass audience. We compared this to the post-broadcast western culture, which has many different news programs available for very specific demographics, as well as a higher level of reliance on internet based news. Exploring other cultures is always fun, yet challenging. We decided to talk about the different between the broadcast cultures had in Malaysia, which is full with government rules and related it back with the ones which Australia had, more open and have specific programs for specific audience.

The most successful part of this project I think is that we manage to differentiate the broadcast and audience culture between this two countries. We are also able to discover more about the broadcast and post broadcast era and find out which one is preferable in this modern world society. We also manage to figure out the reasons why Malaysia still have some issue related to censorship, and how Malaysia’s media has been shaped by its government’s laws. Furthermore, the communication among the three of us are good as well. Even though we weren’t able to meet up that often, but each one of us respect and trying to communicate to each other either through email, Facebook messenger or even text messages. By doing so, we were able to cope with what’s we are left behind.

But in the meantime, I also realized that there are some lacking in our research. The least successful things for this project is we obviously can talk more about the different between these two broadcast cultures. Also, I personally thinks that there could be some more creative side in our blog, means more interactive pictures and videos can be uploaded to show the real different between these two countries in term of broadcasting. Pictures draw a thousand words, means more picture or videos is much more meaningful than text. But I am also quite happy that we manage to thoroughly explain about the differences.

During our second and final draft presentation before submission, we received a lots of feedback from Rachel and it is kind of encouraging us to do more for this project. Only during the last few weeks before the submission we barely manage to have a clear ideas on what are we going to talk about and how do we want to present it. We choose ‘website’ because we do think it is one of the easiest and effective way to talk and spread the information about our topic.

As for myself, with this project, I am able to understand more about broadcast cultures I had back in my country and also be able to compare it with other country audience cultures. I must admit that there are a lots need to be improved back in Malaysia in term of their news delivering ethics.

Last but not least, this project have thought and give me a better view on how each country media is shaped off. To have a view about my country from a different perspective really make me understand on how the media in Malaysia is working and how it is being differentiate from other country such as Australia. There are of course pros and cons, but I need to admit that I need to be open and sensitive towards what other may think especially when talking about sensitive issue, for example back in Malaysia. Hoping to work in media management field, I managed to learn about the management of media in two different countries and also have realize that it is not easy to please everyone.

I also learn that how crucial good communication could be when working in group. By communicate a lots through email and other messaging apps, we are able to keep everyone update on what each one of us need to do even we do not have a chance to meet up that often due to other commitments and clash. Overall, I am pleased with the results and hoping to work with these two guys next time.

June 5, 2015 Project, Reflections, Thought No Comments

Final Meet Up

Finally, we as a group manage to met today. I arrived about 40 minutes due to work and train delays. It was the first time for three of us able to meet as a group since the first time we assigned in a group. Though without proper meeting before other than inside the class and other circumstances, yes we are happy to see that we managed to come up this far.

We pulled out all of our part together and made few changes in the website. I even add some of the videos showing the different between BBC coverage about Bersih 3.0 with the one that broadcast by Astro in television back in Malaysia. I am more than happy when the boys agree and say that that videos is relevant enough with our case study. We also decided on what can we improved and what other relevant videos we can put up on our website.

We can say that this is the most successful meeting we had as we were able to get everything done. Before leaving, we are all set to meet on the 11th of June. Thanks boys for the hard work.

Cheers!

June 5, 2015 Project, Thought, Weekly Reflection, workshop No Comments

Learning Graph

Rachel gave us graph paper. I was quite unsure of the relation of graph and media. Lol. So basically everyone need to draw a graph on :

How much have I learnt about making media objects/stories?
What is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways or with new systems and tools?
How much do I understand and think critically and creatively about what I make?
What is my understanding of the role/value of the blog to me?

Here is my expression of these four questions.

I believe I have achieve something through out my semester in RMIT. All I need to work on is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways and systems as the systems here is different from the one I had before in Malaysia,

Cheers.

June 5, 2015 Reflections, Thought, Weekly Reflection No Comments

Technology Overpower?

Is it harsh to say that we, human, becoming too reliant on machines to get all our works done? Are we depending too much on machines to get all the dirty works done for us?

For instance, internet is one of the technology which has been rapidly expanding. Over the past few years, it is proved that internet can be one main source of information and also entertainment. Comparing to the the era where newspaper were the one and only source of information for the people, nowadays people can get all sorts of information with just one click away.

It is true to say that technologies have help us a lots these days especially in the factor of time for example. Just look at Japan, how many company were racing to build and own their own robot? Even there are some now. But one things for sure, we shall not let the power of technology degrading our human social values, instead we should use the technology to enhance the humanity among us.

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Second Draft

As I promised before in previous post, here is our draft for final project.

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Connection

I love something connected to our self. Our daily life. There is no doubt that some of the music I listened to really can relate me with my surroundings. At this very moments I am listening to one of my favorite rapper back in Malaysia, Akeem Jahat. Most of his songs are meaningful and at the very first of his debut, he actually used other’s music and applying a lyrics of his own.

Here is one of the remix he had and what I love listened to most.

June 5, 2015 Reflections, Thought, Weekly Reflection No Comments

I’m sorry guys

My lack of attendance for the meeting has left the boys stranded. With the due date coming nearer, we definitely to sit down together but due to my personal problems, I haven’t manage to meet them up personally. We only been communicate mainly through email and exchanging text messages among other. It was something better than nothing, right?

So in the workshop, Daniel and Dylan worked out on something with Rachel’s help. With Rachel’s help, they asked her to set up a blog so that we can put up some written paragraph that we had. Dylan also did sent me an emails and it looks like this :

“Hi Ariff,

Daniel and I have discussed a lot of the ideas that we have had floating around in some depth and have defined our key focus in a way which provides a better way to frame these. In doing so, we feel that are using all of our existing ideas and presenting them in a more coherent and connected manner.

We have retitled ‘Old Media vs. New Media’ to ‘Broadcast vs. Post-Broadcast Era’, which changes how we define certain characteristics of how we define each culture. For example, Malaysia, while technically a post-broadcast era society, has many characteristics which define it more closely to a broadcast era society.

To show how we are going to present this, the following pages are planned:

– Home Page

oIntro into Broadcast/Post-Broadcast, Rachel supplied some rough ways to phrase this:

“The death of ‘broadcasting’ has been largely over exaggerated, as broadcast programming still exists, just within a media ecosystem which contains a wider level of media formats”
The debate surrounding technological change and its effects
‘We use these terms loosely as a way of framing and examining the differences for audiences if the broadcasting experience in a digital age”

– Broadcast Era

o Definition of the characteristics of a Broadcast era and its audiences

o The role of the audience, the content creators/producers/marketers and the Government

o Discussing and analysing this through audience and media theories (Many of which Daniel has researched, the agenda setting function as an example)

o No specific references to Malaysian or Australia culture

– Post-Broadcast Era

o Definition of the characteristics of a Post-Broadcast era and its audiences

o The role of the audience, the content creators/producers/marketers and the Government

o Discussing and analysing this through the new introductions in media forms presented, and how it changes media, audience and content relationships

o Introduction to individualised media, target audiences, the ‘prosumer’

o No specific references to Malaysian or Australia culture

– Case Study

o Comparing and contrasting Malaysian and Australian cultures, and the characteristics of each ‘era’ that they have and which ones are more prominent.

o Specific reference to the purpose of this media, reference will be made to the ABC charter (which states that content must be supplied which fosters Australian culture) and link this back to the idea of Malaysian censorship. Is this an attempt to achieve the same thing, or create a level of control over the audience?

o How does each form effect the audience’s level of knowledge or idea of identity?

o Key differences in these two audiences and the media supplied

o Specific example to news broadcast programs (ie. Government controlled versus widely produced in many different formats)

Daniel and I are completing some more research on these areas and have planned to write a paragraph or two each on these first two areas in some depth.

What we would like you to do is write a paragraph for each section or at the very least expand on some ideas in the notes that you sent last night, as some of them are more relevant than others. For example, Malaysia is a post-broadcast era society, but one which does not use it for its full potential due to Government involvement. Remember, we need literature to support our ideas to some degree, so try to do a little bit of research in broadcast/post-broadcast cultures.

Daniel will send a scanned version of the direction that Rachel has supplied us with hopefully by tonight.

The audience bios have also been scrapped from further discussion until a more fully realised idea of how this could be implemented has been found. Otherwise, this will be scrapped.

The website will hopefully be up and running soon, once this occurs, I’ll format it and it’s as easy as getting content up there.”

I sent some stuff related to Malaysia’s broadcast cultures to Dylan a night before. After reading this email, I knows that I need to work on something and make sure I get my part done.

June 5, 2015 Project, Thought, Weekly Reflection, workshop No Comments

Decision Made!

After deep consideration about the the viability of the different mediums available and how we wanted to present what we had available to us, Dylan and I decided to go with website to present our ideas. Having Dylan in class was relieving as he is a person full of creativity and ideas. We choose website as a form to present our ideas mainly because it is kind of hard to explain about our topic in different forms and also due to the lack of discussion we had among us three. But hey, at least we have come up with something which we find could be more informative since we are talking about serious issues.

Here are some of the copy of the email sent by Dylan to Daniel and I to show our progression of our ideas.

7/5/15

‘Alright boys, we’re finally getting somewhere!

Factoring in the brief amount of time we have to get a prototype artefact, combined with the wide range of material to choose from at this point, we’ve decided to present our theme in the form of a website. I will be developing this, and will have a prototype (lacking in written and visual content) by next week pretty easily.

Ariff and I have broken it down into 4 pages at this point:

Home Page:

Introduction

Understanding the Audience

Definition of an audience
Discussing audience theory
An interpretation of the factors that make up an audience reading

Old Media vs. New Media

Comparison of audience culture
The introduction of technology that shapes the audience
Globalisation of the audience

Role of the Audience

The media-audience relationship
Consumer vs. Prosumer
The mass audience vs. the individual

Breaking it up in this form allows us to assign a topic to each member based on the group’s research, which we have to make available to each other on the groups google drive folder by tomorrow. The website form also allows us to make changes or expand our scope at any time, so have a think about what we really want to put up on there.

We’re hoping to another meeting next Tuesday at 12:30, most likely in the atellior space (building 9, floor 2). We can discuss more specific stuff then and decide what everyone wants to do going forward. We will also need to come up with a visual style for the site, so we’ll have to discuss colours, images, tone etc.

Thanks guys,
Dylan’

‘To build upon this, each point needs to have an argumentative element to it. This isn’t a summary of these areas, we need to provide research evidence purely as the basis of our point. We have discussed the importance of case studies to present these ideas and made a couple more decisions (or suggestions, in some cases).

Ariff will explore a case study for globalisation, perhaps based in part on his own experiences. For this reason, he’ll be assigned to ‘Old Media vs. New Media’.

For the ‘Role of the Audience’ page, some possible case studies would be social media platforms (facebook, twitter) or creator platforms (youtube, vimeo). Changes in media usage are also relevant here (like the figures that were presented to us in the audience lecture the other day)

‘Understanding the Audience’ has a smaller scope, but we could also possibly discuss ideas based around marketing/advertising of products within this, or audience culture surrounding reviews of movies/TV/games.

It is also possible to do an almost character-bio-esque setup for the site, discussing our own usage of the media and highlighting the differences between us as ‘an audience’ to highlight the individual element. This could be easily achievable if we break it up across the page, or even across the site as a whole (the profiles being the relevant pages that we wrote). Just labelling it as something like ‘I am the audience’ could communicate a lot.

I’ll be (hopefully) sending out a timetable for these tasks by tomorrow.

Have a think about it and let me what you know.’

‘And a final decision has been made!

After careful consideration, we’ve decided to place the emphasis on Ariff’s case study, so this means a change in setup and focus.

We will now be looking at a comparison of Malaysian and Australian (or Western) news. The Malaysian culture still uses a conceptually broadcast era media format to present their news, with the vast majority of news being told through a single, Government run news program once a night, broadcasting to a mass audience. We can compare this to the post-broadcast western culture, which has many different news programs available for very specific demographics, as well as a higher level of reliance on internet based news.

To go with this, the new format of the site will scrap a lot of the ideas based on audience theory. However, it will allow us to expand upon ideas of the mass audience in Malaysia against the highly individualised media that Western culture has. We can also briefly talk about censorship and the wider range of content available to Western audiences, as this forms much of the media-audience relationship that we have. A large emphasis will be placed on this comparison on the ‘broadcast vs. post-broadcast’ era.

The character bio element at this point will most likely stay, we’ll decide what we want to include in this in the future.

Due to the change, I’ll wait out on making the project timeline, and we can discuss all of this further in our meeting Tuesday. The one focus will allow us to find a more fitting visual style to the site (which apparently must be through media factory).

That’s it for today guys, make sure you put your annotated bibliographies in the dropbox by tomorrow night at the very latest. Have a think and maybe do some research before our meeting next week.

Thanks,
Dylan’

By using some of my knowledges about Malaysia’s media, we were able to narrow down some of the topics that we were going to present in our websites. We can talk almost about everything since website format has been chosen. The three of us will start looking into some research related to the different of Australia and Malaysia audience culture. As for me, of course I was assigned to do some in depth research about Malaysian audience and by using some of my knowledge, I can relate it to our research topic.

Till next week!

June 5, 2015 Project, Reflections, Thought, Weekly Reflection, workshop No Comments

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