Category Archives: Iniative

Individual SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths; Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

Terrible stock images give me joy. Source

In regards to the project you need to complete, what are your strengths?

My strengths definitely lie within organisation and communication. I think I’m good at making sure the everything is on track and we’re never held back because something hasn’t been organised. I also think I’m quite creative so I can bring that to the project as well. I also find the topic of audience interesting and I’ve studied it somewhat before, so that previous understanding might come in useful.

In regards to the project you need to complete, what are your weaknesses?

I think my technical and production skills are not as good as other members of my group. I’m not very skilled in recording and mixing audio, so the audio essay will be a weakness for me.

In regards to the project you need to complete, what do you perceive is of particular interest, or presents an opportunity to extend your knowledge in a way that interests you?

I’m interested in extending my skills of working with others. Previously I’ve mainly worked alone and have always seen this as the most efficient way to work, but after the Lectorial and readings about collaboration I’m convinced that working with others is a great skill to have and this can also lead to increased productivity.

In terms of your own personal situation, what threats do you identify which impede the completion of the project? 

One threat that might impede with the completion of the project might be that I’m quite busy with uni and work so it might be difficult to organise times to meet up or record interviews/footage.

Outcome: The members of my group have lots of different skill that will hopefully compliment each other and lead to a successful project.

“YOU DO NOT CASUALLY PLAY THIS GAME, JUST AS YOU DO NOT CASUALLY TAKE HEROIN”

..said Pat Puller, mother of a 16 year old boy who shot himself through the heart after playing Dungeons & Dragons.

This fantastic quote originates from this article, published January 27, 1985. It jumped out at me as it is an intriguing example that fits into the ongoing debate regarding moral panic and the ability of the media to influence audiences. Arguments for and against the ability for Dungeons & Dragons to drive young people to commit suicide are included in the article, with the spokesperson for the game, Dieter Sturm, saying “this is a game. It’s make believe.”

New media has been freaking out concerned parents since the printing press. Time and time again, this debate this brought up, for example after the Columbine shooting in 1999, when two boys were said to have been influenced by violent media to go on a shooting rampage at their school.

David Morley, in an entry on ‘Audience’ in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, outlines that in the past audiences were largely assumed to be passive entities, which I think is an assumption that Pat Puller, and others who believed that Dungeons & Dragons was as dangerous as ‘heroin,’ was making.

This may be an interesting case study to look at in regards to Project Brief 4.

[1] David Morley (2005), Entry on ‘Audience’ in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Ed. T.Bennett, L. Grossberg & M. Morris (Wiley-Blackwell), pp.8-10.

Afternoon shadows at RMIT

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Today I decided to notice, mark, and record some of the shadows I saw on my walk across campus. It was late afternoon and the shadows were getting quite long and pretty which was fun to observe until I entered into the dark abyss of building 9.

 

(Pro tip: it looks nice if you zoom out your browser so the photos look like a triptych)

Funeral Services Advertisement

I was recently watching TV/procrastinating and noticed an interesting advertisement for a funeral services company whose name I cannot remember and cannot find online anywhere. Instead, I’ve provide you with a different funeral related video that is no less interesting and a good way to spend 10 minutes instead of reading my blog.

The advertisement comprised of snippets from interviews of different people, saying things like “there would have to be fairy bread” and “I’d have one of those big floaty men outside” and more. The advertisement leads the audience to think that these people are talking about hosting a party, which I also believed, however at the end it reveals that these people were talking about their own funeral.

Personally, I felt a bit betrayed as I’d been excited about the prospect of parties and fairy bread and funerals were the last thing I wanted to think about at that point in time. Then I thought that the advertisement was a great example of manipulating audience expectations to present an argument (in this case, sell a service), and was thus also a good example of rhetorical form in non-narrative film. I think it uses a subject centred argument, which according to Bordwell and Thompson in Film Art, An Introduction (2006) say “ appeals to beliefs common at a time in a given culture.” (p. 349). I would propose that the dominant belief in 21st century Australian culture is that funerals should be personal and reflect the life and desires of the person they are commemorating, which the advertisement appeals to in an attempt to persuade the audience that this service is right for them and their loved ones, as it recognises this value.

 

 

How do we communicate?

One of the topics covered in this week’s Lectorial was teamwork, and how communication is crucial to a successful team. However, different people can have different ways of communicating, which can be a cause for conflict. Personally, I’m a big fan of communicating through messaging on Facebook – it’s quick, easy, and has almost instant gratification as you can tell when a person has received a message. But I do recognise the flaws of this way of communicating. Some people are not active often enough, or will give you the dreaded ‘seen’ treatment, whether this be intentional or not.

I’m not one to make a phone call unless it’s absolutely necessary. If it can be done through a message or email, I’ll take the easy way out. Other people, particularly older people (I’m looking at you, my grandparents) are of the sort that believes mobile phones are solely for phone calls, and will call for anything. There are also those who are difficult to communicate with via any media, and who will prefer face to face communication in almost any situation.

In all aspects of life, you’ll meet people who communicate differently. Whilst it may be difficult, a way to work around this must be found, especially when having to work as a team. This will be especially relevant going into Project Brief 4.

Noticing things on my daily walk

Every day I walk to and from the station to make my way to uni. Today, however, freshly inspired by the Media 1 workshop and John Mason’s Researching your own practice: The discipline of noticing (London: Routledge), I decided to make a deliberate effort to notice, mark, and record (right here!) some of the interesting things I saw. So without further ado, here you go.

  1. The smell. The first thing that I noticed emerging from the sub-terranean kingdom that is Boronia station was the lovely smell in the air. I remembered that I’d noticed this same smell last week when I got home around the same time, and concluded that this smell must just be evening.
  2. The sky. As daylight savings has ended, my walk home on Wednesdays now occurs when the sun is setting, granting me some beautiful vistas.
  3. The girl walking behind me. I realised she was the same girl who I’d witnessed awkwardly missing the bus yesterday morning. I was the only one who saw and she tried to brush it off but know I feel I know some sort of secret only shared between us.
  4. An abandoned trolley with an empty can of beer in it sitting all by its lonesome on the naturestrip.
  5. A bus stop covered in empty cans of beer. I’m not kidding, an entire mountain. The only explanation I can muster is that the empty trolley and the bus stop are somehow related. I’m imagining some sort of incident involving someone very drunk pushing a trolley full of beer down the road and it not ending very well.
  6. The roadworthy assessment place on the other side of the road is actually closed, and has been for some time. I can’t believe I never noticed this before – I always just assumed it was a quiet business.
  7. A weirdly exposed backyard. When I walked past this morning, I was thinking that it was very odd everyone walking past could see right into this house’s entire backyard, and how it must be awkward if people were in it. Of course, when I walked past the same backyard that very afternoon, there was some one it, and we made very uncomfortable eye contact.

These are only a few of the things I noticed that I was able to mark and record. I quite liked this exercise – it was a fun way to get more acquainted with my neighbourhood and add some life to an otherwise mundane walk.

I HEREBY DENOUNCE THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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It’s only Monday and ‘Murica has already delivered the goods.

The highlight of the news today is the Southern mom shooting up her children’s iPhones with a rifle, denouncing ‘the effects social media’ as the cause of her children’s disobedience and disrespect. The whole incident was filmed, on what I can only assume is another iPhone, and ironically posted on social media. Naturally, as a blossoming media practitioner I found this interesting on a variety of levels.

Firstly, the mother’s overwhelmingly negative view of social media is noteworthy, as it highlights a distinct discord between her (the older generation) and her children (the younger generation). This generational divide is quite common, not only in regards to 21st century emerging media, but also throughout history. When the printing press became easily accessible, older generations were concerned that children would spend all day reading and never go outside; when radio was introduced, similar concerns were expressed. Fear of change, especially fear of changing, emerging media, is cyclical; change is almost always met with a negative reaction.

DailyMail author Anneta Konstantinides writes that as the children watch their phones be destroyed, “the only outlet they’ve ever known to a social life disappears.” This reinforces the generational bias I discussed earlier, suggesting that the author believes that children no longer know how to socialise outside of social media. One could certainly argue that social media is a large part of how 21st century kids socialise, but is difficult to substantiate the argument that it is the only way they know how to socialise. It’s not my place to comment, but one could suggest that the mother’s reaction is more a reflection on her method of parenting than the presence of social media in her children’s lives.

Moreover, the incident is an interesting case study in terms of the saturation of the media in our lives, and the speed with which news travels.

 

 

The Art of the Interview – Masterchef Style

In the spirit of Louise’s lecture on ‘the art of the interview,’ I decided to focus this post on the function of this ‘art’ in one of my favourite guilty pleasures – you guessed it, Masterchef.

The interviews in this show, as with most reality TV shows, are interesting because they are recorded after the action has occurred. It’s always a bit strange to see a contestant talking how much they want to win a challenge, when you already know that they already know if they won or not. It’s a prime example of interviewers asking the right questions to get the response that they want. Moreover, they have already been assured to be ‘good talent’ because the casting directors for the show have made sure that the contestants work well in front of the camera, and the other contestants.

Masterchef is the only reality TV show I can watch because of the high production quality, which also extends to the settings of the interviews. They are recorded in a controlled studio environment, where the lighting and sound is manipulated carefully, and the backdrop relates to the show (usually cooking utensils or something else relevant).

Of course, this type of interview is different from, say, interviews for a documentary, but it is still an interesting example to look at.

Online VS Face to Face Communication

In our blossoming world of social media, one question is often debated. Are online friends less valuable than face to face friends?

For what it’s worth, I think that face to face interaction is always more meaningful than texting or messaging online. It is simply impossible to the catch subtle social and emotional clues than you get from being around someone, through online interactions. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve almost been in an argument over something that was poorly expressed in writing but would’ve made perfect sense if it had been said with the right tone of voice and expression. Emojis can only get you so far.

Online interactions can also be authentic and meaningful, however. I know people who have met their best friends or even partners through online interaction. The superficial nature of social media and the likes might even help to form friends. It is easier to approach people online, as it is easy to turn away if a situation becomes uncomfortable.

Sites such as Facebook have also reunited old classmates, friends from across the world. My mother talks more to her family in Holland through Skype and Facebook than she ever did whilst she still lived in Holland. Despite being on other sides of the world, they have never been closer.

At it’s best, the social media is a supplement to our existing relationships. Whilst it may aid friendships, or even form new ones, I don’t believe that it can completely replace face to face interaction.

Deep Attention VS Hyper Attention

Which method of focus is better? Which allows us to be more focused, efficient, and fast? If you’d posed these questions fifty years ago, the answer would have leaned greatly towards deep attention. If you’d asked this question a hundred years ago, you’d be asked how you invented time travel. However, as evidenced by discussions in both the Media One Lectorial and the practical, with the onset of new media such as the internet, smart phones and social media, the concentration methods of most of us have become more superficial.

Raise your hand if you regularly scroll down your newsfeed on your phone whilst watching the latest episode of I’m A Celebrity. Or if you’re constantly checking Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram whilst you’re trying to write a blog post for your university course.

We are a distracted generation. Always busy, multitasking, perhaps more productive, but also easily bored and side tracked. Yet it is unfair to say that deep attention is entirely out of vogue. One of the last truly immersive experiences is going to the cinema, which is still practiced and revered by many if Hollywood’s billion dollar profits are any indicator. Video games also require a lot of our attention; they provide visual, audial stimulation, as well as active participation from the player, and the risk/reward feedback that provides deep engagement. I, for example, lost many, many, hours of my youth deeply engaged in the Sims 2, not noticing the passing of time until my fingers grew cold and it became too dark to see the keyboard.

One could also argue that we can be deeply attentive towards technological devices as well. A recent study found that we may be rendered temporarily deaf when engaged in mobile devices. Anyone who has been deeply lost in a book can attest to becoming ignorant of their surroundings and losing track of time, which the study suggest can also occur when people are using mobile phones. Therefore, the use of modern technology can also be a form of deep attention, just like reading a book.

I believe that it depends on the person. The question, “are you deep attentive or hyper attentive?” is moot. We may all be capable of changing our modes of attention to suit the task at hand, but modern media certainly often asks us to be hyper attentive.