fin

Posted on June 4, 2015 by elizablake under Assessment, Final

During the semester I was lucky enough to meet some awesome people in the course in general but also in my weekly tutorial and the great teaching staff as well. I thoroughly enjoyed going to class each week to see what was next in the course. What I learned straight off the bat in the first few weeks of the semester surprised me. I learnt that university and especially the course in general doesn’t teach you practical skills like how to use a camera or how to use editing software, but more about the approach in which you take to things while learning. University teaches you how to think, how to go outside of the square and how to be creative. I also learnt that it is a very good thing to be critical of yourself (sometimes people can do this a little too much) but also to take credit and appreciate yourself and the work you do. It is good to give personal feedback as well as peer feedback and take all of that on board.

Probably the thing which I found most challenging throughout the course was being critical of myself and write reflections on my work and my thoughts. Throughout the course I got better at all of this, but first up from never doing anything like it before, it was quite difficult. Another thing I found challenging was working with other people. I know that sounds kind of silly, but I am such an independent person and worker I find that it is so much easier to get things done on my own and not have to rely on everyone else or other people in general. I have different ways of working to other people so I prefer to just get things done on my own. But I learnt to deal with this which will help me for the future. In the ‘real’ world or when I get a job after uni in general, I will no doubt be working with people ALLLLLLLLLL the time. So you know what, you just have to get on and deal with things you don’t like sometimes.

I found that during the course I love editing and creating. I remember when I was about 11 or 12 and I would sit on my old Mac laptop with probably the first version of iMovie and make videos to Rihanna’s song Umbrella. I just used to love playing around with editing and movie making and that’s what led me on to do Film and TV at school and to do what I am doing now. When filming things I kind of get bored and don’t really know what to capture, however, when it comes time to editing, I couldn’t be happier. I could sit there for hours and hours just editing stuff – I love it! I didn’t really realise how much I liked it until this course. I also feel as though I am quite practical and an organised person so I like to get things done, by brainstorming all my ideas first and then going out, capturing waaaaay more than I need and then going for it… whatever comes, comes!

Below you can find my learning graph which I put together in the last tutorial for the semester (week 12):

How much have I learnt about making media objects/studies?
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?
My understanding of the role/value of my blog.

Below you will also find my five best blog posts which I have posted over the course of the semester:

Enjoy!

Reflection Project Brief Four

Posted on June 4, 2015 by elizablake under Assessment

During the process of creating our media artefact for Project 4 I have learnt a lot about different aspects of the working process. I have been involved in group projects in the past, but this group project, I felt was quite different to others. It required extended thinking and for all group members to come together to have an input to the main ideas. Because the task was more complex than most, the collaboration and thinking from all group members was very important in order to be able to have a successful outcome. In the end Kelsey, Amalina and I all came together to create a magazine styled website aimed at young girls and their interactions online and especially through social media. We were to comment how they (young girls) as audiences connect with and interact with online devices. We each did our own research on our own chosen topics within the larger theme. From that we created our own major articles, our own question entry to the ‘dear diary’ section, as well as any interesting videos or media we found.

I feel that one of the most successful parts of our work was the whole aesthetic of the website. When entering the site you get the feeling straight away that it is girly. Each page that you go to changes slightly but also keeps the main ‘girly’ theme, without being full on, in your face, pink girly. Doing it that way, we were able to aim the site to all types of teenage girls, not just girly girls. Our ‘dear diary’ section is quite cute and quirky and is something I used to love reading in magazines like Girlfriend or Dolly when I was a young girl. I also feel like the concept of all of our articles were very good and stayed very on topic, all relating to each other in some way or another as well. We did come over a few little problems along the way. To begin with we wanted to make our articles quite ironic but we felt that this was a bit difficult as you have to be quite skilled and not everyone can pull it off writing in that style. We felt it would be easier to write more generally as it would relate more to our research as well. I also feel like the media page is not as strong as the others. It contains relevant material but I feel like our main focus was on the articles and that section was a little neglected. However, what each of the videos is conveying is relevant and relates to our whole theme of the website.

At the beginning of the project I was not to keen on working in a group as it requires more effort and I also had my doubts about group members pulling their weight. However, I feel as though I ended up with sufficient group members that were easy to work with and put in as much effort as I did. That is such an important thing when working with other people, that you will all put in the weight as you are all relying on each other. That is one of the biggest things I learnt during the process. Although I got good group members this time around, it may not always happen and most of the time will not happen in the real world. We will always be faced to work with people we may not get along with or may not agree with, but that is all a part of the learning experience. You have to learn to deal with things you may not necessarily enjoy, which in turn helps to make you a better group member in the long run and people will enjoy working with you a lot more.

Here is the link to the final website: http://elizaat1.wix.com/magazine

It Girls

Posted on May 29, 2015 by elizablake under Week 12

Since this weeks topic was on media materialism, I would like to talk to you about the new show coming out on MTV Style called ‘It Girls’. It is a new mini series presented by a few of Australia’s fashion icons Mimi Elashiry, Alexandra Spencer and Kate Peck. The show will take viewers behind the scenes to a world unseen by most – the fashion and social media world. The three new age supermodel hosts have nearly one million social connections in combination, giving the show a lot of background. It looks very interesting indeed, as I have never really seen or heard of a show like it. Sure, you have you Next Top Model and Project Runways, whatever, but never something that is like this. I am looking forward to it. Especially with the gorgeous hosts!!

WOOHOO EVEN CLOSER NOW

Posted on May 28, 2015 by elizablake under Week 12

So today was our last tutorial for semester one!!! OMG THOSE FEELS. Anyway, it was so good to finally come together all as a group and talk about our final drafts and see some of the amazing ideas that other members of the class have produced/are still producing. It was also a chance for my group to come together for nearly a final time to discuss our final project. It felt really good to have made it this far. If I have made it through the first hurdle, I’m sure I can make it through the rest. Now only to finalise the website. Wooooo!

(sorry for my over enthusiasm)

We are nearly there

Posted on May 26, 2015 by elizablake under Week 12

Is it bad that I was very pleased about our last lectorial for the semester, well year…. Ooh I was so happy for it to all be over (sorry not sorry) but very surprised at how quickly it all flew past! I am glad I survived the first semester of university, well almost. Anyway, in our last lectorial for the semester we looked at Media Materialism. I didn’t listen very much (oops) but here is what I did take some notes on:

One thing in particular surrounding the topic that interested me was social constructivism and social determinism, which are two conflicting ideas attempting to explain the past, present and future – both including factors of technology and humanity. You have to ask if humanity is in charge of its own future? The question that stands in front among the topic of social constructivism. This represents a theory that suggest technology is something which is created and progressed by the actions and decisions of humanity. Therefore humanity should be in charge of its own fate.

Ugh it all bored me a tad. But you know what… That is all. We are done. We have survived the lectorials for semester one. Hoorah!!!!

tutorial eleven

Posted on May 21, 2015 by elizablake under Week 11

During today’s tutorial, Dan was basically just looking at where we at in terms of project 4, and our overall progress as a group. Over the past week, my group and I have been working on the general aesthetic of the website and how we want it to look. We were also giving everything we are including in our website a place and a page giving a rough outline of what each page will include,etc. just to give everyone a general idea of how it will finish. Dan’s feedback was very helpful, and helped us with any elements of our research and final project we were having trouble with. We have decided to keep our articles a lot more general in terms of relation to our research as we believe that there is a talent to writing in a ironic or funny way and it doesn’t always appeal to all audiences. After having a discussion with Dan we also set a length for our articles as well as any extra little bits we feel we need to add on.

Change

Posted on May 20, 2015 by elizablake under Week 11

Throughout our lives we like to mix things up and change things all the time. In a way we like to ‘remix’ our lives. We do the same old thing every day get in a routine then something flicks in your mind and you think, ‘no, I need to make a change here’. Things get boring so you do make a change. Much of the same in the virtual or media orientated worlds. If a TV show isn’t doing as well as it should be or a radio station isn’t getting as many listeners as it should be, something needs to change; change is good. Change is what keeps us going. Change is everywhere and it needs to start happening on a bigger scale…

I would have loved to be my parents generation instead of now, grew up through the 70s and 80s. Sure we have come far since then and their was obviously issues back then… Since, society has managed to distinguish equality between men and women, racism has come a very long way and we are getting there on gay marriage!! But we have unfortunately gone downhill in many ways as well. When our parents were our age, there weren’t clowns running the country (well they actually had a choice between liberal and labour… now it’s all basically the same). People weren’t so entranced and obsessed with technology. I know it is kind of ironic of me to say that when I am studying media, but even though technology was supposed to be for the better, all I think it has done is made things worse. Everyone has become so reliant on these tools to make life so much easier, but in turn has made us as human beings so lazy. We have big CEOs who run the world and are all so power and money hungry… They don’t see what they are doing to the world because they are so bewitched by money. We are getting self service checkouts and robots are on their way to start taking the places of workers. Everyone is so aware of how downhill everything is going but something really needs to change and we all need to start using our voices to make a change. I don’t know how or where we will start but if something isn’t done soon, I have no idea what it will be like for our children when they are our age. But all I can do is hope and pray that things will make a change, by also creating this conversation with everyone to spark the change in everyone else too.

this is da remix

Posted on May 19, 2015 by elizablake under Week 11

In today’s lectorial the topic was ‘the Remix and the Glitch’; how people break things in order to make or get art. Unfortunately there is no such thing as an original idea… someone always had your idea first. Dan, delve further into this topic by posing the questions, how does reproducing something change it; how is the reproduction of something considered to be authentic? He also spoke about the use of social media, whether it is authentic or not in terms of portraying someone. Dan argued the point that it is authentic as it adds another layer on to how people connect with the world. He believes than you can get an aura or a sense of somebody through their engagement with social media as the interact with the different social mediums and that it is a somewhat pure mode of engagement. I personally agree with this to some degree, but I feel as though sometimes people only show you what they want you to see, or they even convey themselves to be something that they’re not. It is a debate which I’m sure will be coming forward more very soon.

The section of the lectorial that I found most interesting, was that focused on djs (disc jockeys) and more specifically Girl Talk. We did an activity where we listened to one of Girl Talk’s mash up songs ‘This is the Remix’ and we had to write down every song or artist that we recognised in the mash up. To be honest I wasn’t that great at recognising songs in this task and only recognised about two! However, with the help of other students we put together a list of the ones that we recognised. We got these ones out of the total 31 used:

Jackson 5 – I want you back
Another one bites the dust – INXS
Cecilia
Justin Timberlake
Lil Jon
Lil Kim
Far side
Lady Gaga
Busta Rhymes
Beastie Boys
DMX
Clash
Donkey Kong
U2
B.O.B

Listen below to see how many you recognise:

(video source: https://youtu.be/DZu_lLGFDtM)

netflix

Posted on May 15, 2015 by elizablake under Week 10

Netflix has just come to Australia and like many others I am blown away. I always heard or rather read about people overseas in the US who had access to Netflix and how they would just spend hours after hours watching. I thought, ‘yeah, yeah whatever just another stupid thing’, but I must say after a few weeks of having access here in Australia it is fantastic (I don’t actually have my own account yet, I’ve been using my boyfriend’s…. shhhhh). This huge institution which has now become so much more widespread in groundbreaking. Everybody knows that Australia is one of the most expensive countries in the world which is why we do so much downloading of films and TV series. However, with Netflix, the price of a monthly subscription with access to anything on there is about the same price it would cost you to go and hire two DVDs from the video shop, or nearly half the price it would cost you go to and see a movie in the cinemas. Netflix is changing lives. I love it and can’t get enough.

progress on project 4

Posted on May 14, 2015 by elizablake under Week 10

In class today we got together in our groups and continued broadening our ideas as well as developing ideas and creating our artefacts for our first draft next week. We have come together and created a basis for our girly magazine formatted in a website. Each of my group members will take on a lump each and write an article relating to the topic. Here are our basic ideas for each of our articles:

My article:

Sexualisation of young people
Sexting and Online behaviour
Social media’s false sense of maturity
Children and Makeup (representing sexualisation, e.g. why shouldn’t little girls wear makeup? Because it’s the gateway to sexualisation?)

Kelsey’s article:

Online identity/performing for an audience (the ‘imagined audience’)
Consuming the product (social media) to perform identity and to thus transform yourself into the commodity with a viewing audience.

Amalina’s article:

marketing of women on social media + how social media targets young women?
Creating online values e.g. “10 signs he’s cheating on you

As well as having the articles as the bulk of our artefact we will also have fun things like the latest music, movies etc. As well as an ‘ask’ section or a photo essay. Next week we have to have a draft of our artefact so this week we will be working on our articles and fixing up the website for how we want it to look.