Author Archives: fanzhang

The 2nd year is beginning now, although I actually don’t like the class start at 8:30 because I will really feel hungry during the class.

The professor named Adrian Miles, nice name, and he is nice.

I like his speaking speed that helps me to understand what he said, a bit of British accent?

In the class, he let us to draw a picture about the changing study level you think you will be in this semester.

Yes, this is my graph. Firstly the line goes down because I know that I need some time to be suitable to new professor and classmates. Then going up with the time because I get used to the environment and getting more knowledge. However, when I meet projects on week 2, week 4 and week 8 I will be confused, the line will down.

Moreover, Professor Adrian let us discuss what we do can support us to participate in class and make the line come true. From my clever classmates, listening, writing, noticing, attending to classes, watching documentaries and more.Good job everyone.

As Professor Adrian said we need to write down five key points that we personally will do during this semester and we will be required to judge ourselves at the end of this semester on about week 13 for project 4.

My 5 key points:

#1 Read the readings every week and make conclusions.

#2 Attend to classes and record important points which helps me to understand knowledge.

#3 Give myself feedback after each projects.

#4 To use the knowledge I learn in classes to analyse documentaries I saw

#5 Don’t be afraid and shame to ask questions.

Bless to the rest of this semester.

Authoritarian Resilience

This week, I read an article named Authoritarian Resilience, which is about the authoritarian system in China. In this article, author Andrew J. Nathan indicates that the special and particular Chinese style authoritarian is resilient. Andrew elaborates this perspective in four aspects. Above all, it is the increasingly norm-bound nature of its succession politics. Then, is the increase in meritocratic as opposed to factional considerations in the promotion of political elites. Thirdly, is the differentiation and functional specialization of institutions within the regime. Finally, it is the establishment of institutions for political participation and appeal that strengthen the CCP’s legitimacy among the public at large.

In the second half of the article, Andrew shows that all Chinese media are owned (at least formally, and for the most part actually) by Party and state agencies before, and now, the media have become more commercialized and therefore less politicized. Although most media have become more commercialized, however, as a powerful weapon and method to control and manage the country, couples of important media such as People’s Daily, the New China News Agency and China Central Television are still politicized and directly controlled by the party’s propaganda department.

Now we can question that it is good for the public that some important media are controlled by the government? How to analyse the positive and negative effects of politicized media? Is it significant for the government to control people through media?

As a Chinese who lives in China almost 18 years, I want to state my point. I do not think it is bad for public because the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government give a degree of freedom and right to Chinese. I always believe that the freedom that everyone seeks and love, to a certain extent, is dangerous, although that is the fundamental right of being a human. The politicized media could lead most of the commercialized media to a correct direction. For example, the government business enterprises and the private enterprises in China. Since the Chinese economic reform started, more and more private enterprises came out to the Chinese market, and the leader of these private enterprises are the government business enterprises. This is one of the reasons that China can develops quickly in recent decades.

Reminding the whole first semester, I gain many knowledge and useful experience. I still remember that when I just participate in this course, I was very confused about everything around. What I could learn from this course? What job I will do when I graduate from the university? Could this course and the knowledge I learn help me to realize my dream? However, now, I can say definitely that everything I have done will be useful skills and experience for realizing my dream, and I am so satisfied with this course and the knowledge I learned. Now I will recount with some links of my posts.

Week 2# Workshop

I remember that in week two, we talked about the Melbourne Moment, and everyone has showed their photos about this topic. At that time, I was not understand well about the intention of this assignment. Nevertheless, I think that is a good way to train us to find out something interesting around us. Because, as a media people, we should be sensitive about every beautiful and interesting things around us. When I was looking the photos that took by my classmates, I found out that every student has different understanding of the Melbourne Moment. To express our diverse understanding of something is what we media people have to do. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/fan-zhang/2016/03/08/workshop-1-media-1/

With regard to my photos, they all are in the above link.

Week 3# project brief 2

This is the project brief two that is a video of myself. Remembering that moment, I did not know what is premier, how to edit and cut the video I shoot. Also, I did not know there should has a narrative story in the video. So, obviously, I got a low source of this video. Now, I do feel this video is a rubbish, there is no start, the climax and a good ending. Honestly, this is my first video, I forgive myself. If you ask me to judge that what is the most difficult and challenged I met in this project brief, I will say that is conception. How to express the main idea and ideology of the story and director. How to make to story attracting? The questions like these, in my opinion at that moment, is the most difficult part.

week 4-the sound I made with sylvia

week 4 – workshop

This week, I learned how to use voice recorder, the Zoom H2N, and I practiced with Sylvia. This practice was treated as a part of the next project brief so Sylvia and I both want to make it well. According to Professor Louise, we need to find a quiet place to record voice, actually, I did not want to follow her because I wanted to make a feeling that everyone is in the recording environment that is full of vox pop and other voice. Finally, when I was editing the voice, I found out that although I used software, the Audition, to reduce the noise of the voice, the quality was still not good to hear. In this case, I know that for high quality of recorded voice, recording studio is the best choice. If I do not have this studio, the place for record should be quiet, big and less sundries. Because the place that is big but not too big and has less sundries will produce less aftersound.

week-9 Initiative

This posts is initiative, and at that moment, movie called Captain American: the civil war released so my post is about that movie. Because I know my professional knowledge and skill is not well enough to judge how was the filming, I just talked about something behind this movie. Why this movie and its series movies are popular in the world? Audience are the consumer of film, and their choice could reflect some social situation and phenomenon. Moreover, I could confirm that every movie must be based on public, produced for public, and consumed by public. A director, and other media people, to some extent, it is very helpful for them to learn more knowledge about sociology, history, humanity and others. To understand the world, to collect the perspectives from people, to express story and ideology, these missions that our media people need to do. For me, I am interested in the courses and knowledge that I mentioned above, and the hardest thing I think I will meet in the future is that how to be well versed in media and these knowledge.

In this post, I want to talk about the goals of the rest of my university life.

1. I want to do better, get higher score than this semester, like DI.
2. I want to be an exchange student, study abroad to other countries such as Japan and the United State although I am an international student as well.
3. Keep my hobbits, painting, reading, playing the piano, photography and others
4. To form a hobbit that exercise at least three times every week
5. Believe in that two heads are always better than one, be modest to study from everyone around me
6. ……

I just remember these, I would edit it when I find out something new.

Anyway, I believe that everything you learn would be useful in one day so I will keep learning and changeling for my dream that is change the world in my way.

Finally, this is the last class for this semester, and we mainly remind the first semester, talking about some interesting moments in the last few months.

For me, I did learn and gain many things during this semester. Let me list that one by one.

1. I know how to use the premiere to edit video
2. I studied how to use the Audition to edit audio and sound, especially how to reduce noise
3. I study from the video I made before, conclude something that I could do better
4. By collaboration, I made some friends such as Hannah Tepoorten and Reza Sulaeman
5. Compared to me at the begin of this semester, I know more information and knowledge now
6. I studied how to make a video more narrative
7. ……

If you ask me about the interesting moment in this semester, I will tell you that I very enjoy and prefer to work with my group mates, we could discuss how to shoot, how to express, how to ……

Moreover, I also like the moment that I was editing the video. Editing is the soul of a video. By editing, the story will become completed; it is just like a communication between director and audience.

I admit that if I did not choose to study this project, the communication and media, I am studying sociology, history or humanities because I like to explore culture, more concretely, I prefer study human. However, I found out a point that if there is no one can express every interesting and attractive culture with some forms that people like, everything I found and researched could not be received by people. Everything I have done will become ash finally. So I chose this project, I want to express, to transmit information and anything I want people know.

Week 12 lecture

This lecture was the last one for this semester, and this mainly talks about the studio for the next semester. At the beginning, Professor Brian Morris remind us the whole semester and the assignments we have done and will finish. We need to write a final reflection that curates and includes links to a selection of at least five posts from throughout the semester that I think best demonstrate my engagement with the course and its key ideas and objectives. After this, concluding the first semester, I need to finish a learning graph in order to reflect my learning experience. There are four areas we should think over of our study, technical skills, conceptual/theoretical skills, professionalism and a sense of your media practice. In the lecture, Professor Brain explained the content of each area, helping us to consider how to complete the graph.

Also, he still mentioned a little mail that I remember that we have been wrote in the first lecture. That is about the goals and targets we want to realize.

Dear future myself:

If someone gives me a chance to know my future, I believe that I will not choose to know because I prefer to know that step by step. I prefer my future is mysterious and unbeknown.

My future is full of possibility so there is only one goal I have to realize when I graduate from the university. That is I have to be a person who I think is improved. After three years, I will appreciate my effort in the last three years.

Hearing about the studio, I am very interested in that, and I hope I can participate in one thought I do not know what these studios are about. I believe that would improve my technique skills and other things.

Thanks to everyone who helped me, touch me in any ways.

For our audio essay, we spent two days, Monday and Tuesday, to interview students in Rmit building 80, and Kerri Ritchie who is working in the ABC for a long time.

In my group, each person has independent mission. Reza Sulaeman held the camera to shoot the interviews, Hannah Tepoorten is the reporter to ask people questions, and I held the Zoom H2N to record voice of interviews. We started from level seven, searching people who looks like that agree to be interviewed. In several hours, we interviewed almost 10 hours, although we invited about 15 people.

On Tuesday, we have make an appointment with Kerri at 10:30 am, however, because some problems of the tram, Reza was late. The interview start at almost at 11 o’clock, and we chose a crush-room, actually it is a restaurant, to interview. This interview last about 17 minutes, during this time, I was holding the recorder and never put it down. It is difficult to avoid noise from everywhere such as engine sound of cars and sound of machine in the kitchen, when we were interviewing. Before that day, I thought I could have a see the inside of the ABC, but it does not come true, I feel a little disappointed.

There are several articles for this week as reading, of course, these all about the medium and technologies. After reading these articles, there is an article named Introduction: ‘Culture’ and ‘Technology’ that leaves me a deep impression.

This article, Introduction: ‘Culture’ and ‘Technology’, does not have a dominantly main idea to explain the cultural impact of technology, the appropriate goal is to understand and elaborate some questions, discussing a wide range of theoretical perspectives.

1. How things work technologically, as how they work culturally?
2. How do technologies from the printing press to the Internet function culturally?
3. How do they affect the manner in which we think about ourselves and the world?
4. From which cultural shifts do such new technological forms arise?
5. Do they bring new cultural possibilities into being?

(these questions have been mentioned in the lecture on Monday)

Anyway, this article does help me to understand the relations between culture and technology, extending to the relations between medium and technology. As the author of this article says that, ‘technology plays a crucial role as well in the large-scale and popular forms of culture’, technology also plays a significant role in medium that belongs to culture. Technology, as a form of productivity, is one of the basis of this modern society, sustain the working of the human society. People improve the productivity, in the contrast, the productivity also affect human life that we called culture broadly. This is bidirectional relation in this world.

To identify technology is positive or negative, this depends on everyone who live in contemporary world and times.

This class, at the beginning, talked about the work attachment that the email we students received from Paul Ritchard. As the saying goes, some important and necessary things and knowledge you can only learn from the society and social experience. Like us, as a university and adult, it is time to think over our future career and life. Extending to digital producers, there are many job related to this, such as programmer, online-video producer, social media manager, graphic artist and others.

Well, almost all the students in our class, or in this project, are interested in film and television so I suppose the best career for most of them is director. Me? I am still not sure about my future, but I like it. I do not want my future will be limited by my concrete goal, and I would like to challenge new things.

For the rest of the class, we edited our rough cut of our interview that we recorded few days before. When we were editing, I forget how to reduce noise so we study that again.

This week, we talked about the mediums and technologies, and this was separated in three parts that are medium theory, technology and culture, and communication ‘revolutions’.

To discuss medium, I think the first step is that identify the definition of medium. Just like the most influential and controversial medium theorist, Marshall Mccluhan, said that ‘the medium is a message.’ I agree with this idea, and the message here means the thing that just is a container, containing many information people will read and get.

In recent centuries, because of the developing technologies, medium is changing with times. From newspaper, magazine and radio to internet, Facebook and mobile phone, the changing medium inconspicuously affects people’s daily life and culture. In the lecture, there were some questions asked by professor.

Firstly, how do technologies from the printing press to the Internet function culturally?

Secondly, how do they affect the manner in which we think about ourselves and our world?

Thirdly, from which cultural shifts do such new technological forms arise?

Indeed, technology is changing our life and the world. In some other words, technology is the most obvious and necessary form of productivity, and human life is based on productivity from human. In my opinion, these three questions actually are asking about what changes of culture happen in modern society, and how it is changed by productivity that is human themselves.

For the last part that is communication revolution, there is only an important sentence we need to take care and concern, which is social revolution follows communications revolution. This means that the reason why the society changed is because of the communication revolution in the society and the world. The communication revolution here, I think it refers that depending on technologies, people in the world can communicate with others closely, and their minds, opinions, ideologies and any information could be passed. In this case, the productivity that is based on human develop, the society revolution happen.