Week 11 Lectorial Reflection

Dan’s lecture on remixes was extremely engaging as it showed how media can evolve into different forms of art.  His question on how reproducing something changes it and whether it is seen as legitimate is core at most debates over remixing as copyright laws and ownership of art makes many remixes are not seen as legitimate by the original artist. Yet I feel that people who make remixes of content does so to honour the original work, especially fans of some televisions, movies, and music.

The Girl Talk remix “This is the Remix” is a fantastic example of how a combination between many different songs creates something new while showing how diverse and great the music landscape is. Dan asked us to listen to it a pick out the songs we could hear and I walked away with a total of… two, The Jackson Five and the Beastie Boys. The rest of the class fared better, a cumulative effort revealing these other bands.

  • DMX
  • Cecilia
  • INXS
  • Lil’ Jon
  • Salt n Pepa
  • Lady Gaga
  • Ace of Base
  • Busta Rhymes
  • The Clash
  • Rick Ross
  • B.O.B.
  • U2

It was said in the lecture that remixes rely on the audiences knowledge of pop culture to understand a specific mash up and that is what I think is so great about remixes. Appreciators of a certain remix can come together as fans an understand what makes the mash up great, allowing each individual part of the new whole to be reflected on and honoured.

 

May 24, 2015 Lectorial Reflections No Comments on Week 11 Lectorial Reflection

I Am Not An Artist, But I Wish I Was (Wk 11)

Our penultimate lectorial was centred on remixes which was fascinating to me because I am a huge fan about everything television and film. Having access to the internet allows me to find other fans who share my interests and the fan art they produce always blows me away. Not being able to draw I appreciate the amazing pieces of fan art all over the internet and what makes fandom art pieces so special is the ability to mix and match various television and film pieces into one work. The following pieces of fan art represent the coming together of some of my favourite media artefacts that show how remixes honour the original works.

It always surprises me that the creators of my favourite content are fans of shows as well and it was such a surprise last week when the Adult Swim released the couch gag for the season final of The Simpsons which had been animated by Justin Roiland to include his creation, Rick and Morty. While serving as cross promotion for both shows, introducing fans of The Simpsons to Rick and Morty, it was a fantastic insight into the show and seeing this collaboration was a great treat for fans of both shows.

May 21, 2015 Inspirations and Ideas No Comments on I Am Not An Artist, But I Wish I Was (Wk 11)

Week 11 Tutorial Reflection

With only  a few weeks left in the semester to complete our project, and a lack of tutor in our Monday class, Aidan, Cheyenne and I have decided to record a few short podcasts on the topic of mediums for our website. These will be backed up with supplementary material relating to the theme of each podcast. While informing the reader of the separate subjects it will also provide a context to how different mediums work together to deliver information. Even though Robbie was absent this week, Brian came in to give us feedback on our idea. We explained our idea to him and he informed us that two podcasts of approximately ten minutes each was enough if we backed them up with supplementary information on the website. This gave our group a lot more clarity on what our final product will look like and we now have a concrete image of how the website will function. With two weeks to go, we are about to record the first podcast as a draft to determine the best way to deliver them. I am excited about recording a podcast as it allows for us to explore the ideas we have researched in a more dynamic and natural way.

Our website has now begun to take shape, each section containing a podcast with the information following it. Here is the link to see it come to fruition.

https://mediumpodcast.wordpress.com/

May 19, 2015 Tutorial Reflections No Comments on Week 11 Tutorial Reflection

Week 10 Lectorial Reflection

I have never really reflected on media institutions as a concept before this lectorial, my love of the content trumping how it was made from a studio side of things. Yet having Brian use marriage, a social institution to provide context for how media institutions are seen gave a clear and concise entry point for me into this topic. A group brainstorming session on how marriage is an institution yielded responses such as

    • Governed by expectations
    • Values/monogamy
    • Legal framework/ regulatory
    • Meta-institutional frame
    • Widely accepted/practice
    • Cultural ‘rules’
    • Rituals, symbolic
    • Community recognition
    • Social
    • Reproduce social relations, expectations
    • Historical continuities
    • Superstitions
    • Romantic love – cultural narratives
    • Economic cultural

Having associated the term institutions with companies such as the BBC and Facebook, I never realised that the news and journalism could be considered institutions. This opened my eyes to the collaboration between institutions that have become more prevalent in today’s society. On page 152 of the Dijck & Poell reading, the mention the BBC issuing a policy report embracing digitisation, and this a prime example of how ingrained social media has become in other institutions. Television shows more often than not, nowadays, have hashtags at the bottom of the screen to invite the audience to start a conversation on a global scale, thus keeping the content in the zeitgeist for longer than its airtime. Events from natural disasters to movies are made popular by the global conversations on Twitter, ensuring social media is an institution that as become a necessity in the media landscape.

 

May 14, 2015 Lectorial Reflections No Comments on Week 10 Lectorial Reflection

Evolution of Social Media Institutions (Wk 10)

I tell people that I am not a person who spends most of their time on social media. To an extent that is accurate, I don’t have my phone out every minute checking Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, yet I do have an account on all three. As of writing this blog post, the last time I posted on Facebook was ten days ago, yet when there is a lull in my life (fancy way of saying ‘when I am bored’) I will pull out my phone and check social media. They are a way to fill the time of a train ride, or a quiet period at work yet I do not feel the need to know what is happening on them at all times.

This is just to explain that even though I don’t spend a lot of time on social media, (compared to some of my more addicted peers) it has permeated my life. As a society, we know the history of Facebook and where and when Twitter and Instagram came to be. Yet Facebook did not become a industry defining institution through sheer luck, adaption is key to its success. I have been on Facebook for a few years now (I was considered a late adopted by my friends) and I have seen it change a few times. These changes have often been met with an uproar, demanding the new facade be taken down with the one everyone is more comfortable with. Yet, within weeks, everyone has become used to the changes and are using them as if they are second nature. Facebook has modernised to a sleek new look for show of course, but also to keep up with the constant evolution of social media audiences and that it why it is still thriving has a institution.

Just in case you are feeling nostalgic in terms of Facebook, here are some of the major changes to Facebook’s facade over the last 11 years.

The first Facebook homepage
2004 – The first Facebook homepage when it was for Harvard students only
2006 - First major redesign, adding a news feed and a mini feed to profile pages
2006 – First major redesign, adding a news feed and a mini feed to profile pages
2009 – Facebook Homepage added a real time stream and asking users “What’s on your mind?”
2010 - Facebook Pages invited fans to like and follow brands and celebrities
2010 – Facebook Pages invited fans to like and follow brands and celebrities
2011 - Facebook Timeline urged users to "tell your life story"
2011 – Facebook Timeline urged users to “tell your life story”
2013 - Facebook acquires Instagram
2013 – Facebook acquires Instagram

 

May 13, 2015 Inspirations and Ideas No Comments on Evolution of Social Media Institutions (Wk 10)

Week 10 Tutorial Reflection

During my week ten tutorial, my group continued to work on Project Brief 4. We began creating posts on our blog relating to our chosen areas from last week. We used this time as a meeting to discuss how each of our areas can interact with the others. For example, while she was finding example of conflict represented using audio, Cheyenne found a news radio broadcast concerning the bombing of Pearl Harbor which linked to my current research topic of comics and pamphlets being used to add fuel to the fire of patriotism after the attack.

To showcase the advantages and disadvantages of each type of medium, I have written scripts for a short audio, comic and video presentation for our blog. The dialogue of each medium’s story is exactly the same but I will present them in the following order; audio, comic, video, to allow for the audience’s perception of the conversation to drastically change as they consume each of the pieces. I will use the audio scene to establish some expectations only to have those be altered in the final video form to show how people lend their own images to a solely audio experience that differs from every other individual’s perception of the event. This will allow us to explore the advantages and disadvantages of various mediums throughout our project and to show how each medium was used to its full capacity during times of conflict.

May 11, 2015 Tutorial Reflections No Comments on Week 10 Tutorial Reflection

Week 9 Lectorial Reflection

The difference between audiences in the broadcast era and the post-broadcasts era is the ease in which audiences can communicate with each other.  Social media especially plays a central role in this communication, as it allows for an immediate global reaction to a media. Audiences also have a large ability to effect media and its creation, from reality television to Kickstarter, they can play an important role in some aspects of certain media. With a media landscape brimming with countless content, creators are looking to make texts that are more personal to their target audiences. In Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/ Culture’, Henry Jenkins states that their are “significant shifts are occurring which are providing the people greater voice and influence in the decisions that impact their everyday lives” and this helps to show the change broadcasters have had when approaching audiences. The term mass public is longer seen as depicting a media audiences because they have many ways in which to showcase their individuality and opinions.

Another aspect of the lectorial I found interesting was the fact in which audiences were not considered as made up of individual people as much as during the post-broadcast era. Now it is clear that personal biases/experiences/life views shape how people respond to texts and with the introduction of social media into the media landscape it made it impossible to ignore this fact any longer.

May 8, 2015 Lectorial Reflections No Comments on Week 9 Lectorial Reflection

The Death and Return of Superman (Wk 9)

My group’s project on mediums has led me to research comics culture and the adaptation to screen. My love of Superman as an under appreciated character in the popular zeitgeist is my focus at the moment and how he was utilised during World War II as an American propaganda vessel. He was an immensely popular hero during the 1940’s, and while he is still popular today, the general public see him as a ‘boy scout’ and a boring superhero. Superman was created before the war but the approach to his story arcs changed during the war to make him a figure for patriotism.

To give a little personal touch to this post, the video below is a rant by screenwriter Max Landis (Chronicle (2012)) about the comic arc ‘Death of Superman.’ This was a 1992 run of DC comics that killed off the character of Superman for financial gain. This video tells the story of this arc, explains the (pretty obvious) reasoning behind the death of an icon, the impact it had on popular culture and how comic books as a medium effects audiences. Even if you do not thing Superman is an interesting character, this short will allow you to see how comics as a medium can be used to engage global audiences. It’s also pretty damn funny.

 

May 5, 2015 Inspirations and Ideas No Comments on The Death and Return of Superman (Wk 9)

Week 9 Tutorial Reflection

During the week, Cheyenne, Aidan and I decided to focus on how conflict is portrayed by media, across history. Aidan found interest in interactive media, especially video games and their presentation of war and conflict. Cheyenne focused her medium of audio into broadcast radio and news coverage which lead into depictions of war through radio. I researched video as a medium and how it was utilised during war times to broadcast propaganda to the mass public to win their favour and turn them against the enemy. I also interested in comics and superheros as vessels for partiotism, especially Superman as he was a fictional figurehead in the fight against Nazi Germany. I have begun to focus on Superman as a character portrayed in comics and will research his adaption to the silver screen to show how mediums interact with each other.

Superman no. 17

May 4, 2015 Tutorial Reflections No Comments on Week 9 Tutorial Reflection

Approaching Creating A Narrative (Wk 8)

Again falling back into my comfort zone of talking about my personal hero, Dan Harmon, and his approach to writing a story in a three act structure. With the talk of narrative this week in the lectorial and having to assign a point value to characters in Finding Nemo based on their importance during the three acts of the film I realised that as I was talking about the three acts with my group I was thinking of the breaks in terms  of Dan Harmon’s Story Circle.

Story Circle 1

I was confusing my group with my insistence that Nemo going down the drain was the end of act two because this was the return threshold. Marlin had had an atonement with the father over the fact that he thought Nemo was dead and so he and Dory had parted ways. Yet to become master of both world and finish his journey of change he had to find Nemo and bring him home. Nemo finally making it to the ocean began this reconnection and begins act three as they save Dory from the net, utilising what they learned on their journey and return home changed. This story circle is always in my mind when I discuss or create narrative and so if you are ever confused about what I am talking about when I describe a narrative in these terms, I now know to direct you right here.

Story Circle 2

April 29, 2015 Inspirations and Ideas No Comments on Approaching Creating A Narrative (Wk 8)
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