Week 6 – The 5 Minds

Howard Gardner, 2007, ‘Minds Viewed Globally: A Personal Introduction’ in Five Minds For the Future, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, ch.1.

It seems that each week these readings delve deeper into the bigger questions in life – this week had an overarching question of where is our society, and planet headed in the foreseeable future?

Psychologist, Gardner this week drew on a scientific perspective to introduce us to “The Five Minds” or the “Five Dramatis Personae” as he put it. He suggested that a person with these five different minds could deal with what is expected, but also what cannot be anticipated. They are applying what is required of everyone to live in a future that functions and co-operates.

The five minds mentioned are as follows:

1: The Disciplined Mind – a mode of cognition, with the skills to perfect any sort of specialization

2: The Synthesizing mind – the ability to not only take in and understand information, but also evaluate its meaning.

3: The Creating Mind – the constant ability to think of new ideas, and conjure new ways of thinking.

4: The Respectful Mind – an understanding of people’s differences, which is essential for productivity.

5: The Ethical Mind – putting others needs before your own is necessary in order to improve the way you, and other people work.

These five minds span both the cognitive spectrum and the human enterprise, also focusing on the policy of things rather than the psychology behind them.

Gardner then continues to connect his theory to some interesting points about our future. He believes that the current education system is preparing students primarily for the world of the past, rather than focusing on the possible world of the future. I can understand this – we are taught subjects like history, science and psychology – not that it is at all irrelevant – but they are more the reasons for why things are the way they are, or what has already happened. I think Gardner is suggesting we need to learn more about what might happen in the future. To support this, he also suggested that science can never tell you what to do in class or at work – what you do and how you operate among others has to come from your own value system. In order to do this you must be respectful (or otherwise you are toxic in the workplace), and you must have a number of disciplines in order to meet demands and succeed.

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WEEK 5 – Acceleration & Detoxification

Judy Wajcman, 2015, ‘Finding Time in a Digital Age’ in Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ch.7.

The concept of living in an “acceleration society” is the focus of this weeks reading. We supposedly live in a Frankenstein style society where we have “lost control over the machines to which we gave birth”, meaning that technology doesn’t produce leisure and downtime but instead creates a faster pace lifestlyle. We as society make sense of the world, with the machines of our making.

An interesting point that resonated with me this week was that a counterproductive way to free up time is to have a “digital detox”. There seems to be so much talk about doing these detoxes by going a day without technology or putting your phone on silent for the day but really, in this day and age, it only creates more pressure and stress on the person once that “detox” is over. It is so easy to fall behind on the world and the constant demands of other people online, even in just 24 hours. Personally I feel so disconnected when I don’t have reception, or I’m at work and can’t check my phone – even if it’s just for a few hours.

Touching on the idea of work, this reading discusses that we live in a “capitalist economy” that “gives employers to dictate hours and terms of work” – which becomes relevant when discussing if the most straightforward way to alleviate stress is to simply cut down hours of work. I don’t see how this could possibly work, given the demands of consumers, especially for people like myself in retail who really are an asset in terms of the company’s success. I really liked the quote that was used too, which summarises a typical 9-5 job/life very well – “they work too much, eat too quickly, socialise too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep and feel harried too much of the time”.

We live in a self-service economy – checkouts at supermarkets, petrol stations, and even the new McDonalds create your own burger stations. This is because we have become so focused on immediacy and getting a personalised touch on our service. This is why companies such as Apple – who offer services that the average person couldn’t understand (such as an iPhone repair) seek to emulate this self service idea in order to make us feel like we’re getting it done ourselves, if the Apple employee is only helping us.

Week 4: The Craftsman Minset

Cal Newport, 2012, ‘The Clarity of the Craftsman’ in So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work, NY Business Plus, ch.4.

I just read this weeks reading and I kind of like I’ve been part of a motivational speaker workshop. For so long I’ve seen the quote “be so good they can’t ignore you” in framed prints, Instagram photos and Twitter biographies but I’ve never really known where it came from or exactly what it meant. There’s the obvious side to the quote which says to be so outstanding at what you do that everyone notices it, but the more important idea which was raised in this weeks reading suggests that we should “stop focusing on the little details” and “focus instead on becoming better” just like Jordan did.

This links to the overall theme of this weeks reading which was The Craftsman Mindset that focuses on “what you can offer the world” versus The Passion Mindset which is “what the world can offer you”. It is suggested that focusing on what the world can offer you will lead to a lot of self-doubt, such as questioning who are you?, is what you’re doing you?, are you doing what you love?. The craftsman mindset offers a sense of clarity that the passion mindset cannot. Personally, I have always encountered a lot of self-doubt in what I do – because I’m so quick to look at the work of other people and professionals, and have enormously high standards set for myself. This at times can be the best thing, but I have always been told I need to trust my instincts more because that often is the idea that is most “me”. I’m all about going against the grain and not doing what everyone else is doing, but I’m not the best at actually doing that. I think this reading has encouraged me to trust myself more and use the craftsman mindset to work hard on what I am passionate about.

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TV Cultures – Blog Post #2

Back in high school we learnt about flashbulb memories – vivid memories associated with particular events. It was September 11, 2001 and I was about six years old. I woke up to my Dad and some of his friends who were helping him renovate our house. We were all gathered around our TV in the front lounge room, all comprehending the events unfolding in front of us on the news. My six-year-old self was sitting on the floor with pencils in hand, drawing my interpretation of what was going on in front of me. Pencils or not, almost everyone I know has a vivid memory of how they saw that day unfold – and for most of us, it was on a TV.

It wasn’t until I was thinking about how to respond to this question that I realised how much of my life has been experienced or learnt through TV. In the early 1990’s, a man named Neil Buchanan created a show that myself, and many other 20-something year olds can give credit to for their love of art and general resourcefulness. That show was Art Attack – the show that really got the most out of old egg cartons and tissue boxes in the best way possible. Around this time too, was Hi-5. I wore beads in my hair to kindergarten, layered colourful t-shirts and basically thought I was Charlie (one of the members). So much of my early childhood was based on hours spent around the TV in my living room, wishing to be just as creative and stylish as what I saw.

Fast forwarding time to the awkward tween years, I was just about to finish primary school and embark on the great unknown – high school. Coming home from school every day to The Sleepover Club that was on almost every weekday at 4pm was my favourite thing. In hindsight this show was absolutely appalling, however, to my impressionable 12-year-old self, it was everything. It gave me such a clear idea of what high school would be like and all my friends loved it. We’d all pretend to be members of the show and got so caught up in the little world we had created. After The Sleepover Club came arguably the most defining show of our childhoods – 6pm Simpsons. I recall so many arguments with my parents over the TV remote because it was always on at the same time as dinner, or the news. The Simpsons was, and will forever be, a part of everyone’s lives.

In my opinion the power of a flash bulb memory, pertaining to the individual is an absolute phenomenon. The ability to recall their experience/s of a certain show or event is the power of television – events and memories that can be vividly recalled, which have impacted our lives in different ways. I will always be thankful for being a millennial – learning about the world and discovering myself through television is such a resource, one that I will never take for granted.

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TV Cultures – Blog Post #1

“The Grown Ups” from the AMC series Mad Men centres around societies reaction to the assassination of JFK after his fatal shooting on Friday November 22, 1963. The episode makes a key observation about how television has been used as “cultural technology” witnessing the event unfolding through the television – with the event forcing changes in relationships, activities and lives of the characters.

What is most interesting to myself about this episode is the connection between the behaviours of people here, in 1963, and in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. Creator of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, stated that there was an “intentional association” with the events of 9/11 and particularly the “reaction to the attacks”. The further you get into the episode – the more this makes sense and becomes more noticeable in the actions of characters. The heightened sense of security, temporary closures of businesses, and a resounding sense of grief among all people run parallel to that of 9/11. Another issue that is raised about television in this episode is the concept of TV being used as “cultural technology”. TV had not always been a broadcast medium for events such as the JFK assassination – it existed purely as an extension of radio. However over time, people turned to television as their news source, thus its role within society was negotiated and television became a primary news and entertainment source.

Television families such as in Mad Men, reflects either a utopian or dystopian spectatorship. A utopian spectatorship regards television as a “catalyst for renewed domestic views” and also that it can “restore faith in family togetherness” and become the heart of a home. Much of this runs parallel to the original promotion of television where the TV was seen to be the “electronic hearth” and brought a sense of unity into households. Looking at the other perspective – the dystopian spectatorship, which is reflected in this episode of Mad Men. An aspect to this dystopia is the cultural authority, which is something that is still relevant in society today. An example of this, not necessarily from Mad Men is where a father, or patriarchal head of most families is the one allowed to operate the TV remote.

Also a part of dystopian spectatorship is the idea that television has “divisive effects” on families, which lead to it being a disruptive and often isolating part of our homes. This is evident in the scene where Don returns home to his family watching the coverage of the JFK assassination and his children are shown glued to the television. One way to look at this is that it was intentional and television was used as a method of keeping children quiet. If this is the case, I suppose there isn’t too much difference between this and a parent handing a child an iPad or iPhone for them to play on, in order to keep them quiet.

Overall this episode of Mad Men is an excellent example of the way television has gained cultural authority established a place in the family home, but has also shown the negative, dystopian ways in which television can divide homes.

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WEEK 3: What a way to make a living

Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas, 2015, ‘Work’ in The Informal Media Economy, Polity Press, Cambridge UK, ch.3.

I feel like the average person would have a glamourized perception of what a media related job entails, however there is a general diversification of what we understand work in the creative industry to be versus what the work actually is. In this weeks reading, Thomas and Lobato gave a realistic description of the nature of work, suggesting that media workers, especially freelancers are often exploited if it benefits the company in some way or can add to the freelancers resume. It was said that the majority of workers within the media industry are not “stars” – they are the workers toiling in “anonymous enterprises” and live off erratic incomes such as occasional freelance work. This instability and unpredictability is a major deterrent for people looking to work a standard 9-5 job however like myself and many people my age in particular, we preger the choice to work in a “less routine way” and enjoy a fluid boundary between work and leisure. However there is a definite difference between infrequent work and underpaid work which is essentially a company setting a price far too low for the hours of work involved. The reading mentioned the companies “Elance” and “Odesk” who were offering $50-$70 for a complete summary of a novel requiring 20-30 hours of work, meaning the person was getting as low as $1.60 an hour. Personally that horrifies me, knowing things like that exist out in the world, but workers are so desperate for money that they are willing to do it.

WEEK 3: Annotated Bibliography

EntrepreneursTribe 2013). Blogging, Brand Design & Social Media Tips | Fashion Blogger Lady Melbourne.

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z16_5kG1x4 [Accessed 3 Aug. 2016].

In this interview with Phoebe Montague, owner of popular Melbourne blog “Lady Melbourne” the interviewer discusses with Montague her secret ingredients for creating an authentic online persona. She states how important it is to understand the blogosphere to engage people on a personal level. It is important connection to establish between the influencer and their audience. Montague therefore decided it was in her best interest to work alone so that she “could travel with [her] blog”. Montague was self-taught in programs such as Final Cut Pro and the basics of blog HTML Coding. This lead her to the production of her blog layout, which she states that any layout must always be very clear, with the links to other socials made obvious because “you can’t avoid other forms of social media”. She further adds to this statement by saying that your blog should reflect your personality, but allow a broad audience. Outside of her career, Montague states how working as a blogger/influencer allows her to work at home and make up her own hours. She says she has been enabled to take on a variety of opportunities because the people around her have been supportive of this career that doesn’t run to a standard 9-5 schedule. Lastly, she says how important it is for herself, and everyone else entering the blogging industry to “believe in what you are doing”.

 

Nalty, K, Scott D.M, 2010, Beyond Viral, vol.1 pp.131-144

Chapter 9 of Beyond Viral explores a grey area of stardom and fame which is marketing via webstars. It focuses on how brands partner with webstars to create entertaining promotion, which is a more credible source than a hard-sell TV or radio advertisement. By definition in this book, a webstar is considered a person who “has an authentic and regular connection with a growing audience, and has as many as 100k – 1 million subscribers”. These are the people that brands seek out to endorse products in an authentic and transparent way. For example, sponsored Youtube videos may include a webstar talking about their favourite makeup products in less detail, then featuring a Revlon mascara which has sponsored the video. Sometimes these sponsorships go unnoticed and are “often as entertaining as regular videos”. Then comes the legality of it all. If a video is sponsored, the webstar is legally required to mention the brand and also that the content is an “ad” or “Sponsored” somewhere in the title or video thumbnail before a person has even clicked onto it. I believe this is a grey area because some webstars can be seen to be a “sell out” because they receive money from their sponsored mentions. Alternatively, this reading explores the concept that “branded storytelling” is fair game, and creators should be allowed to endorse products to produce income.

 

Carah N, Shaul M, 2016, Brands and Instagram: Point, tap, swipe, glance Vol.4(1), pp.69-84

This article explores the social media platform of Instagram as a method of branding and advertising for companies. Instagram is so unique because of its multifaceted engagement that can take the form of likes and comments, but also pauses on particular images, hash tags and individual profiles. It has a sophisticated home feed, but also the explore feed algorithm that is personalized according to the individual and their interests. The explore tab curates content similar to what has previously been clicked on. A predominant mode of branding is the positive interactions between brands and mini communities being formed based on similar interests. This exists in the form of comments, likes and re-grams where brands and individuals promote. This is essential to the success of a brand as “each interaction with an image generates data that makes the image available in wider flows of content on the platform”. Basically, one like could make an image known to the whole of Instagram. This article also looks at “cultural intermediaries” that is essentially, in this case, the communication and interaction between accounts and people. Supposing someone wanted to be noticed wearing a necklace from a particular brand and wanted the brand to –re-gram – they would post a photo of them wearing the necklace in a similar to the style and vibe of the brand’s Instagram account.

 

Crosson, A, 2016 “Grow Your Brand With a Culture of Content Creators” Available at: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/grow-brand-culture-content-creators-01594556#IKcpoTYYKdKZdIbh.97 [Accessed August 3, 2016]

 This online article begins with a really good quote which states “If people like you, they will listen to you. If they trust you, they will do business with you”. This forms the idea that for companies to invest in you, you must be likeable. As defined in the article, a content creator is traditionally something like a copywriter or graphic designer – but nowadays it is more inclusive to professions like Youtuber or Blogger. One of the challenges faced by brands is creating awareness and credibility around products, therefore employing content creators is ideal for cross promotion. A key idea raised is that “content that influences isn’t selling a product. It is selling an ideal”. Take Kylie Jenner for example – the most influential teenage girl on the internet (at the moment). They are frequently shown on Instagram wearing and endorsing what is called a “waist trainer” – a corset that assists in shaping a woman’s figure. Girls aren’t really buying the product – they’re buying the figure of Kylie Jenner. To summarise, this article answers the question of “what can content creators do for my brand?” the answer is simple – a creator generates authenticity, brand awareness and engagement with the brand.

 

WEEK TWO #CONSUMPTION

Reading: CHRIS LEDERER AND MEGAN BROWNLOW – A World of Differences

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/global-entertainment-media-outlook/assets/2016/a-world-of-differences.pdf

E&M, otherwise known as entertainment and media is the central focus of this weeks reading. In an insightful report by Brownlow and Lederer, I took away some key ideas surrounding “consumption”.

According to this reading the youth of today are consuming more media than older people and are more open to digital spending. This makes sense considering products like iPhones, Netflix and so forth have a youthful, and very modern approach to all their advertising. This was mentioned in the reading where it stated advertisers are moving away from “the big idea” and towards Facebook and Google where their main differentiator is their algorithm. This is a beneficial method of advertising for companies so that they can see just who is clicking what and personalise that experience for each individual. An example of this would be looking at ASOS online at “blue handbags” and afterwards, all your ads on Facebook are for other websites with “blue handbags”. It is mutually beneficial. Another aspect of consumption is the type of program or product being purchased, viewed or listened to by both the young and old. According to the reading, Netflix has stated that “locally produced content is its future” meaning that they are aiming to promote Netflix original content such as the new series “Stranger Things” aimed at teenagers and young adults. The preference for local and original content is also evident in the older generation. The idea of localisation and generating “home grown” content is of particular importance to a mature, English speaking country such as Australia. Locally produced shows such as “Neighbours” and “Home & Away” has for so long taken preference in homes all around Australia.

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This is one of the families from the TV show Gogglebox Australia. As an avid watcher of the show i’ve always noticed the divide in interests between the daughters (left) and the parents (right). Most would say it’s a pretty pointless show but I believe it’s an interesting social experiment in regards to who is interested in what.

Week ONE #schwag

Reading: Klaus Schwag – The Fourth Industrial Revolution

“We are at the point where the desire for purposeful engagement is becoming a major issue. This is particularly the case for the younger generation who often feel that corporate jobs constrain their ability to find meaning and purpose in life” 

What resonated with me most throughout this weeks reading was the nature of work and income, that our generation, the youth of The Fourth Industrial Revolution, are encountering and constantly inventing. As the reading implies from the quote above, life is no longer about finishing school and sticking at the career path you choose. There is an abundance of opportunity for us, particularly with our media-savvy brains to use a magnitude of assets in almost any career we wish.

New York Times columnist Farad Manjoo draws upon the idea that “we may end up with a future in which a fraction of the workforce will do a portfolio of things to generate an income – you could be an Uber driver, an Instacart shopper, an airbnb host and a Taskrabbit“. These are all careers that stem the futuristic idea that someone or something else can complete this task for us. It’s the cliche vision of the future in many futuristic films – robots, machines and so forth cooking, cleaning and running our lives. I wouldn’t say we have the technology capable of that yet, however the idea we can have someone else drive us somewhere, or someone else assemble our Ikea furniture for us all at the click of a button on our iPhones, leads me to believe we’re heading towards some kind of “service at your fingertips” future. That being said I don’t think it’s a bad thing if it is a form of income for someone.

For me, the idea that I might be working in a career next year for something media related that hasn’t even been invented yet is so exciting. Technology is constantly changing and evolving and our ability to adapt and obsess over new things like a popular app or new iPhone never cease to amaze me.

walle_humansAbove: A still from the film “Wall-E” set 800+ years in the future. A dystopian vision of what life might be like for humans in the future BUT also a subtle swipe at how machines are making us lazy thus obese. A bit extreme in comparison to what this reading was implying however, you never really know what the future holds beyond our lifetime.

Digital Director Project Brief 5 – A Sketchy Reflection

When I think of “group projects” I think of small collaborations between no more than five people who don’t know each other and never really get to know each other despite this supposed “collaboration”. Digital Director and Sketchy Students was my first experience with an entire class project that allowed people to work with their passions and strengths, and gave us a change to know like-minded people through the countless hours required to produce what we did.

For myself this was an incredibly positive experience working alongside my social media team who all showed similar interests to me and had pre-existing knowledge of this aspect to the overall production. As Sketchy Students Instagram Manager, I discovered that overall it is best to “aim low, shoot high” in order to not over-estimate the potential of such a short time frame project. As I articulated in Project Brief 4, I found throughout the month or so of actively posting on the account, it generated very little discussion and/or attention from Instagram despite following what myself and the class believed to be the most successful method of reaching audiences – through tagging.

I guess the best way to look at this experience of running the account is that despite its failures, I learnt a lot using accepting failure of something like this and considering that sometimes things need to go wrong before they can go right. Meaning that an Instagram account needs to be well established before it can go actively seeking an audience. Essentially I believe if there’s not much to look at on the Instagram, someone isn’t going to pay much attention (at least I feel that way when I go on Instagram and see an account with

To briefly make mention of the way the whole class got along – I observed the class dynamic on many occasions. Mostly what I noticed was that people with roles in other areas at times would butt heads with my team in order to have their ideas shown over decisions that our team had made which we thought would be in the best interest of the project. Naturally, this was hard for my social media team to understand because we felt that our knowledge of what would be successful was sufficient and after all, it was our designated area of the project.

Ultimately what I’m going to take away from this project is a newfound understanding of big collaborations and how I can still use what I love (social media) to contribute to it. I have genuinely enjoyed the experience and I’ll miss working with such creative, fun people.