university

We presented our rough cut to Catherine on Thursday – link here.

I really liked the sound clip that Ben prepared.
Having not been able to come up with an idea as a group, Ben took the inititave and threw a recording together, akin to what he had been trying to describe to us a week prior.
We felt that it worked in jest, as those of us in the group weren’t keen on being too serious throughout – Ben had accomplished a happy medium.

Our rough-cut was very rough but it gave the overall idea for how we wanted to present our findings.
It began with Ben, narrating and setting the tone with a little sarcasm, which was later described as arrogance by Catherine.
She suggested that we use it as a means of further developing characters throughout the podcast.
Considering our limited time frame, we found the concept of creating characters for four people to be an additional weight that we didn’t wish to carry. We were aiming for simplicity.
Catherine mentioned that she had not watched the show we were discussing, Game of Thrones.
Having only watched one episode and seeing the stereotypical female roles as mother and exotic female, she was unimpressed and didn’t give the show a second glance.
Which was what a lot of my findings were telling me too – articles in abundance convincing the public that women do in fact like GoT.
Catherine’s reaction to it as being ‘sexist’ was something that we took on board, myself especially as gender was my primary focus on the project.

She went on to say that she liked the overall tone of the clip but she didn’t think that we should poke fun at the audience, as was lightly done in the recording – so we scrapped that but kept the overall theme set by Ben in the beginning; music intro, then narrator, then launch straight into the topics broached.

Overall, the feedback was helpful and allowed us to gain a firmer grip on what we didn’t want, which eventually paved the way for what we should do.

Thanks!

I can’t say that I was shocked to learnt that there were 6 devices per household.
6.4, to be exact – I’m not sure what the .4 would encompass but it’s shocking that it’s not shocking news, y’know?

Guest lecturer, Dr Ramon Lobato came in to talk to us as a group today about Netflix and media streaming.
In his book, Shadow Economies of Cinema, Lobato argues that ‘the pirate networks should be viewed as part of an informal, rather than criminal, economy.’

As someone who doesn’t have pay tv, nor watch much for that matter, I’ve not really experienced recommended viewing, other than by friends, who know me.
Netflix, as I understand it, uses algorithmic means of deduction based on your viewing habits; no wonder 25% of Australian subscribe to it.
I’ve only really experienced music stations recommending me music; Pandora, Soundcloud and whatever that other station is – something else music related. Spotify!

With Netflix, it does the same, which is great – it helps guide people to shows or movies that they may have otherwise not have been aware of.
It helps generate an interest and I hear that you can share Netflix accounts too?
All I know is that a friend of mine offered to share his with me but I’ve no idea how it works but I’m pretty excited and also terrified that I may never be seen in the public sphere again.
Pray for me.

“Some claim that users are now in charge and celebrate their newfound ability to control the media environment. They see the death of hit-driven culture and the birth of a cultural democracy that is no longer dominated by commercial interests… [Others] fear that digital media are eroding the common cultural forum of mass media and promoting social polarization.”- James G Webster

An article on public broadcasting, with a particular interest in the ABC, states that while public broadcasting, namely the ABC some 20 odd year ago had a larger budget of 20m, it produced only a fraction of the content of today.
The ABC doesn’t have any where near as many employees, a much smaller budget, yet it spans across a much larger spectrum.
Some 40 years ago, Senator Jim Callelland, as Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on broadcasting once referred to the ABC as “a dithering, timid, old fuddy duddy”.
‘Today’s ABC consists of four television networks, five radio networks and more on digital. A host of online services and sites including ABC iview.’
Shifting to digital has been a costly necessity, ABC News 24, iview having come into being without a cent spent by the taxpayer.
It’s a very costly and cumbersome aspect of broadcasting, keeping up with the shifts and changes like additional stations and offerings such as Netflix.
We’re not exactly suffering over here as a result of pay TV though – we’re embracing it while still enjoying public broadcasting, otherwise we wouldn’t have so many more channels, would we?

So, in regards to piracy, will it effect quality of media produced?
Jonathan Rose (IP litigator) says that “piracy in TV and film is not new and many producers expect to experience shrinkage due to the practice. “So salaries may already be lower than they would be but for pirating, and the workforce in certain industry segments may be smaller than it would be but for pirating.”

At most, I like a little streaming here and there to keep me going on a cold night or while I’m painting my nails, or procrastinating when I should be working or finishing projects.
We’re all guilty of it one way or another and in any case, it creates a level of competition, thus the rise of more pay TV stations that have much more engaging and obscure content.

Happy watching!