Tag Archives: psychology

SEMESTER REFLECTION

After completing one Bachelor’s degree in music already, I was tentative in my approach to start a second degree in media. I wasn’t too sure of what I was getting myself into. Thankfully, cutting the program down by a year put my mind at ease by the time classes began.

For project brief 1 though, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I was kind of just mashing together ideas in a rush to the deadline. As the semester went on though, I viewed the briefs less as assignments and more as a chance to experiment. Allowing assignments/projects/tasks to breathe by getting on to them early is a major part of my learning thus far. I put more time, effort and thinking time into project briefs 2 and 3 and as a result they were certainly of a higher creative standard than brief 1. Using found footage was a huge eye-opener for me. I really enjoyed sourcing old clips and mixing them with HD material. The contrast in quality made for an appealing retro effect.

In regards to feedback, I have always been a bit reserved when it comes to putting myself out there. Especially creative projects. The collaborative/feedback aspect of this program has been very helpful in creating media. Although it has felt a bit forced, the bouncing around of ideas with other people has greatly contributed to the thought process behind a task. I often feel stuck when I write music and the same happens for when I make a media product. Another person’s input, I have found in this setting is extremely beneficial to the product itself.

The most challenging parts of the course for me so far have been:

Not having a computer system that could keep up with the demands of the program. My laptop is getting old and slow, and needs a service. Over the break, I am keen to invest in an updated system so I make media more often and productively. This way I can go into semester 2 with a fresh mindset and better knowledge of programs.
Reading and critiquing scholarly articles. This is something I have always struggled with. I am getting better by the day, but I think the issue is how dry most of the set readings are. My research skills are certainly getting better though as I have been coming across interesting articles more frequently. And to turn a negative into a positive, when these good articles come along, they are captivating.
Keeping up with blog posts! My opinion of blogging has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Looking at my graph, you can see that during the week on Audiences, I questioned the value of the blog. Since then I have realised that it gives me a chance to write and express myself. Regardless of having an audience, it is very good practice.

A visual progression within the course can be found in the graph below:

My understanding of the blog had its fair share of peaks and troughs. That being said, I consistently enjoyed the freedom to write. Now just to keep it up! The 5 posts that I feel best show my engagement within the course are: Your Retention Please, Sawyer’s Basketball Group Flow, Approaching Media Texts, Who’s My Audience and Remix Culture. Rather than looking at this course as a strict Media degree, I have tried to incorporate past and current knowledge to better my understanding of Media. These five posts thoroughly explore my interests in Psychology, Media, Music, Collaboration, Basketball, Text, Technology and Advertising, and how they intertwine with each other.

– Gabriel

PROJECT BRIEF 4 WEEK 9 UPDATE

For our project brief we are focusing on texts. We’ve decided to take on advertising as a form of text, and more specifically we will be creating a website relating to advertising used by Volkswagen.

Between the three of us this website will be broken down into:

Sponsorship (Promotional media (film/TV), Events, product placement)) – Chloe
Print Media (Magazine, newspaper) – Shannon
Television and Radio Commercials – Gabe

As a group we will discuss the influence of social media and the Internet on advertising, with a focus on facebook. Current and future trends of these methods will be discussed in a summary of sorts.

Each of the above sections will have a focus on:

The history
Importance and effectiveness (psychology)
Interpretation
Semiotics (Roland Barthes)
Which advertisements work best in different cultures
Creativity
Demographics of source targets
Culture targets

For the website, we would like to keep the aesthetic in line with that of the conventions of advertising. Therefore the layout will be:

Simple
Informative
Attractive
Clean
Easy to read

We want to emulate the style of Volkswagen advertisements and adapt this to the format of our website.

Before the next session, we plan to have more specific research relating to our delegated areas. As well as this, we will spend the next week or so finding Volkswagen advertisements that will aid in the construction of the website.

– Gabriel

YOUR RETENTION PLEASE

After spending a couple of years at RMIT, I feel comfortable with the practice of interactive lectures. It is a great way of engaging students and involving them rather than sitting and passively absorbing information for 2 or 3 hours. Being apart of the media means being able to interact and communicate with not only peers but potentially people outside of our comfort zones. These lectorials push the boundaries and will push development. But this seems to depend on how focused and willing we are as students.

The Deep attention/hyper attention reading task piqued my interest. It was a funny experiment, asking students to attend to an essay on attention span. I didn’t feel like a guinea pig or anything, it was just a clever way of getting the class to talk about study habits among other things. Our ability to disperse our attention while studying among media platforms is suggested to be a rapid form of hyper attention, or multitasking. Although, the reading suggested a decline in efficiency when it comes to multitasking, it seems to be a subjective matter. For me, listening to music while studying can create a comfortable atmosphere in which to study and focus. The comfort factor is very important to me when it comes to gettin’ stuff done. If I wasn’t comfortable then I would do absolutely nothing. Where’s the efficiency there? Perhaps it is the sweet rhythm of music that keeps me on track.

The reading encouraged me to think about the science behind retention of memory and this is something I am keen to explore. There is a definite relationship between Psychology and Media, and I want to understand it. Being able to give an explanation of the relationship would be better. Media is about getting inside people’s heads and tapping into their thought processes in order to create appealing content. To get through to an audience, you have to think like them. You have to be the audience. In this program, I expect we will have plenty of opportunities to be an audience member and plenty of opportunities to be a cast member. I look forward to collaborating and discussing with my peers.

If you’re game, have a watch of this video…

Source

Reference Material

N. Katherine Hayles (2007), ‘Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes’, Profession, pp.187-199

– Gabriel