STILL GOING!

‘Audiences Defining and Researching Screen Entertainment Reception’
Ian Christie
http://primo-direct-apac.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do;jsessionid=5E275316578327C6B90CBADEF3ACDC1F?tabs=viewOnlineTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=RMIT_ALMA5160048250001341&indx=8&recIds=RMIT_ALMA5160048250001341&recIdxs=7&elementId=7&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=2&vid=RMITU&dscnt=0&vl(freeText0)=audiences&dstmp=1461908241417
This text delivers a complex understanding of how audiences work and their responses to various mediums, particularly focusing on television and other visual based mediums of the modern age, showing the transition of the media of yesteryear to the state of our current day consumers.  The Acknowledgments of the text states that” audiences are an essential yet often neglected part of the audiovisual scene” to which became a key focal point in shaping our arguments around the prospects of a passive audience.
Whilst the text is lesser drawn on for example in the construction of my main body points of my arguments, it was still crucial in influencing my arguments to come in reference to other texts.  IN terms of authenticity I viewed this to be a respectable source for the presentation as that it was acquired via the RMIT online library. Whilst the relevancy of such is subjective, I personally found it to be a great help, albeit a lengthy read, in the creation of my essay and the standpoint of my arguments, attempting to remain unbiased but observing, drawing on factual evidence rather than personal opinion or claim.

LET’S KEEP THIS LIL’ ADVENTURE GOING

http://www.freetv.com.au/SiteMedia/w3svc751/Uploads/Documents/Free_TV_Australia_FREE_TV_TODAY-1.pdf
The original intent of this presentation was to promote and elaborate on the extensive reach and popularity of FreeTV in Australia, claiming it to be the strongest medium in the nation in terms of views and reception. The presentation primarily covers frequency of media use in Australia, as well as age and regional demographics in terms of use, showing favour for popularity of both channels and time of day in which a programme was viewed.
Whilst the presentation was rather biased in favouring FreeTV over paid TV, it offered its legitimacy in fact rather than assumption or claim, making it a  trustworthy source of material for our argument. In this, the FreeTV presentation became the bulk of reinforcement for my arguments in audio presentation, offering the comparisons needed for radio. Not only to be used for comparisons, it offered its own basis for arguments in displaying the rise of all media platforms in Australia, showing a growing use of TV, radio as well as internet in consuming media. IN this we were able to speculate the exponential growth of media consumption, whether it be due to expansion of device availability and reaching a larger audience or merely an increase of consumption in a fluctuating market, that rather than reaching more people, it’s reaching the same amount but more frequently.

As it appear I had nearly forgotten about being able to post each of our bibliography sections as blog posts. Therefore, in order to catch up on some much needed blogging, I’ll indulge in a quick way to increase my blog count #NotShiftyAtAll #Sorry #IHopeThisDoesn’tLookRushed.

AUDIO PART 1

http://www.commercialradio.com.au/content/mediareleases/2015/2015-01-23-figures-show-a-strong-year-in-commercia#.VzV7WPlcSko
The purpose of this census was to gather data on the Australian radio audience between the year of 2014 and 2015, comparing the figures of the current year (at the time) to those before it and determining the growth of the medium. In this, not only were we able to see a growth in radio audiences, but a rise in listeners despite the growing audience for television, indicating that rather than an audience shift, it was gaining numbers by its own merit. This became an integral part in my argument for the audio essay in attempting to prove that the strength of audio based mediums had not diminished amongst more modern media, but in fact had increased. Being both a recent study and being from a respected and official source, not only was with trustworthy source for the presentation, but a relevant one as well, offering vast amounts of useful information.

It was so long ago. If only I remembered or bothered to actually do a blog post relevant to the day of the event, but oh well.
I recall feeling despair and fear followed by relief. Feeling doubtful in what I had produced editing wise for the visual portion of the assessment, I became worried for what Rachel would say about it. However, surprisingly, or unsurprisingly enough, I don’t know, I don’t have a great deal of confidence, she said she liked and and was pleased with what had been produced. So alright then. That was neat. After that I became a little bit more comfortable with my editing and was given a slight confidence boost in my efforts.
Anyhow, I’m being distracted right now. Back to editing I go!

Captains Log: Day #579 without a blog post, the due dates for the assignments are drawing nearer and the stress is setting in. My breakfast was too much sugar and a jar of salsa, my mind and my body are faltering, not sure much how much I can take….

and with that, the old Cody dies off alone at sea on a wooden door where there was totally enough room for Jack, and in his place comes the NEW Cody! So dear future self: Don’t be a freakin’ idiot. If you have blogs to do then do them, if you have an assignment to do, then start it when you get it, not a week before it’s due and freak out about time constraints, ‘coz that’s just time. A problem so simple that it could only be made from an issue from someone being so stupid. C’mon man, get yo shiz together. Future you doesn’t want to fail, nor does past/current you. Talking in 3rd person like this feels strange, but I guess that’s the point of a ‘dear future self’; to seem more motivating in seeming as though it was written by someone else. Which technically true as that our memories determine who we are by by the time you read this in the future you’ll have a different set of memories and experiences, thus being a different person… but I digress. You have nice hair and a good taste in music, good job future Cody, don’t change those aspects.
All in all I think the entire point of this is to say don’t be shite, man. I don’t know. it’s difficult thinking right now. Just keep going. Do what you can, and don’t give up, no matter what.

TL;DR – You’re shite. Don’t be,

Uni as we know it is coming to a close, and it is time for us to realize we’re waist high in shite. With one eye on our homework one eye on the approaching end of semester, and one eye on everything that isn’t school-related to give us some sense of escape, us three eyed freak students all unify and say “help”.
As much as I loved it and how much it got me looking forward for next semester, this weeks lecture didn’t help. I thought I’d be happy about the lack of readings, but as I have slowly began to sacrifice more food, sleep and energy for homework it has dawned upon me that we are fast running out of time.
Still though, I bloody can’t wait for the studios; to actually be creating media, to make a mark and be able to say “yo, I helped make this.” I kinda have to pass this semester first though. Suffice to say it’s going to be an interesting week!
Good luck to all, Merry cramming and remember: caffeine, sugar, and crack are your friends.

I won’t lie, that class got me worried. With the impending due date for PB4 coming faster and faster in its approach, I was a tad worried. After handing in what was admittedly not the greatest rough cut of the audio essay, I was quite frankly shitting bricks. I hadn’t done enough and there wasn’t much time to fix what had been done. But it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Yes it wasn’t the worst thing ever, but it was a starting point for us. in having a third party view what we had done we were able to realize what was needed to be done; separately the three of us had created what seemed like 3 body paragraphs of an expository essay, so why not complete it as such, and work together to create an intro and complete this shiznit. We were behind and had poor communication, but after that class we slightly more ahead than before with somewhat more decent communication. We were on the rise.

What a lot to take take. I don’t think even Dick Smith could have had something so jam-packed. Up until this point I had completely forgotten about the work attachment for the course, so it was somewhat of a surprise for Brian to say “YO BITCHEZ, Y’ALL GON’ BE IN THE FIELD OF WORKIN’ ‘N’ SHIZ” (slight paraphrasing). Not only do we have to do 80 hours of work and a 1,500 word report, but ALSO actually interacting with people in the industry, (which means talking and being professional somehow), and I’ll be damned if I don’t say that that’s daunting. Should maybe almost definitely be fun.
Oh yeah, we also discussed technology and its progression in society as well as its development in culture, cementing itself as a new grounding on which we found society and progress itself, comparing success to the advancement of technology. It was neat.

This weeks’ readings did a swell job on elaborating on the definition of technology; taking what is seemingly a simple question and turning it into a 500 page headache, for technology is everything; representing the forefront of popular culture and the scientific world, being the latest advancement in equipment (even notions and ideals) that may better society or make even the most mundane task easier. In that, it’s rather difficult to specifically pinpoint what technology actually IS or what it defines. the laptop I’m writing this on? TECHNOLOGY! The phone that keeps distracting me? TECHNOLOGY! That one jaffle maker you remember having as a kid that was amazing but unfortunately broke then all jaffles that you had after were comparatively disappointing? TECHNOLOGY! Even those three dozen alarms that decide to sound in Bowen street every second is is technology. It’s a beautiful world when you look at technology and think “wow, someone actually improved on something and designed THIS”. Then again, there are some days when you look at some things and think “how the Hell was this an improvement!?” or “was this the best they could do?” (seriously, jaffle maker at home… I hate you). Oh well!

Institutions, institutions, institutions.  This is  a word that I had always heard and I always knew but for a long time never really understood, like ‘dichotomy’, or ‘fastidious’  or ‘friendship’. But this Monday I finally got my answer despite being able to read a dictionary for the last 15 years!
I had never realized how much power they held in the scheme of things; being able to shape our day to day lives and how we consume texts. And so like the Dutch controlling the export of diamonds in Africa, so too do institutions effectively control what media we have access to, being the ones who endorse and fund many programs and both make and enforce the rules of the industry, and that’s some freaky, scary stuff, yo. I’m sure there’s much more to this subject than what I’m saying here, but this is merely a brief interpretation.