PODCAST: Psy & The Rise of K-Pop : Mark Russell – 16TH MAY

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Joss Utting

A podcast with Mark Russel and his understanding of Psy and the Rise of K-POP.

“With worldwide familiarity of Korean pop culture increasing through the viral exposure of Korean musician Psy’s hit record “Gangnam Style”, this episode Korean Kontext speaks to Mark James Russell, author of “Pop Goes to Korea”.

Having lived in South Korea for over 13 years, Russell is a regular writer on Korean culture and entertainment for the New York Times, Newsweek, and Hollywood Reporter among other titles. Having also spent several years developing and producing several documentaries about Korean pop culture and history, Korean Kontext thought he would make an ideal candidate for trying to understand South Korea’s increasing prominence in the worlds of film, music and art.

What does the rise of Psy tell us about the popularity of Korean music in the United States, how is the internet helping bubble Korean content creators to the top of the game, and what role can government play in catalyzing the cultural output of its people? Mark answers these questions and more in essential listening for anyone interested in Korea’s growing cultural prominence”

The interrelated pregnancy of globalisation, institutions, and media and their birth to KPOP.

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Joss Utting

PB4 so far has been quite a challenging task to grasp. It’s symbiosis of the topics; media, institutions, and KPOP and their demonstration within a video and audio documentary essay, proves to be quite challenging as correct structure is needed to coherently prove … Continue reading →

The turn of creativity in media

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Joss Utting

David Gauntlett discusses what does it mean to study media, and how does one study it? Traditionally, media was organised into three main components; conversations, inspirations and transformation that throughout the 1980’s were driven by the ambitions of institutions, production, audiences and text. As Gauntlett introduces us to these topics in his clip, opening with the confession that ‘every video needs a gimmick’ – a remark with transcending irony as an audience of media students sits back in their chairs to process his wisdom of textual analysis – we are alike subjected to the modern media’s gimmick of creativity that verses in weight with it’s surveillance and data exploitation. Gauntlett presses the issue that the knowledge that we need to know now revolves around the concepts of how things work, how they feel and fit and how they can make a difference. In a society that continuously works with the framework of an even more ever growing, mobile framework whilst living and thus, even subconsciously studying media through new trends and real life gimmicks, students need to be aware of the technical, emotional and creative areas of the industry.

Gauntlett’s main point within these readings is to confirm that there has been shift from broadcast medias to personalised, privately owned organisations. The increase of technology has influenced a deploy of broadcast media’s that use to house information for majority to an age of transformational and unique relationships between brands and organisations. With cognitive shift that comes with the personalisation of media and it’s frequency of use is the reason why the post broadcast era has come to full effect.

The authenticity of pre-modern and modern society.

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Joss Utting

The debate between virtual and face to face.

The history of the 21st century is marked by the radical phenomenon of imagined communities – Benedict Anderson. In Anderson’s Imagined Communities: Reflections of the Origin and Spread of Nationalism he discusses that the new age world is defined through the limitations of imagination, as members even from the smallest community will never really know most of their fellow members. Paradoxically, the 21st century is an era exposes to some argue the point of violation, personalised image, and it continues to grow. By living a life where the relationships produce an image perceived as personal communion whilst never actually witnessing the reality of it’s experience, how does one truly belong to it. In the same way that the the morning paper has created a traditional sense of connection through its media form – being used as a vehicle that informs it’s readers of the same issues in a communal perspective – devices such as social media and FaceTime create environments that are isolated to the individuals personal tone. This has created a shift from the broadcast paradigm to a post broadcast paradigm, where commercial stations and public television which use to be as influential as the morning paper is now ‘personalised’ through remodelled systems such as Netflix or the Daily Mail.

As media and technology develop in conjunction with one another they have an affect upon each other that tips the scales of traditional and the new age. Does the ability to personalise one’s life to such an extent decrease public camaraderie through the dismissal of public convention and awareness. Or does an individual’s ability to formulate a surrounding suited for their own preference enhance the dimensions and relationships of their surroundings, opening the gates to new ideas and expanded territory. As the media gains the task of governing society’s desire to seek to establish, does it destroy a system of form of order within a population, a collectivity, a territory, or even the entire surface of the earth?

Media moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Joss Utting

Thank you Matthew Broderick for your eternal words of wisdom that are applicable in any situation, shape or form. In the same way that John Hughes liberated old Bueller from the constraints of his high school mediocrity, in today’s lecture we got to go into the big wide world, yes, world, not web, and acknowledge media’s experimentation and omnipresence within the matrix of our lives.

Federation Square