Category Archives: Networked Media

CULTURE OBSESSED WITH EXPOSURE

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Are technologies neutral in themselves, that is, does the way in which they are used determine their cultural impact? Or do technologies have intrinsic properties that shape the cultures into which they are introduced?

This weeks reading on Theoretical Frameworks was essentially about the interaction between culture and technology. Thorsten Veblen in the 1920’s coined the term technological determinsm which refers to the belief that technology is the agent for social change. Technological determinsim refers to progress.During the industrial era, speed of production, and how much was produced were benchmarks of progress. This progress related to the capabilities of the technology and so, technology determined progress.

Successful technological innovation is thought to generate a new type of society i.e. the age of electricity, the age of information etc. Technology has the capability to influence society in many different ways. An example is the technology of writing, and how it has developed from the printing press to the social media thus having the capability to influence religion, the economy, science etc. Thus technology creates new posibilities for human thought, activity and expression and thus has an immence cultural effect.

McLuhan’s most famous idea is the one of ‘the global village’ which relates to the age of the World Wide Web. McLuhan argues that the cultural significance of media lies in the way in which it changes our perception of the world i.e the way it effects us and our actions as humans. This ‘global village’ commenced in the 1960’s as sattelite broadcasting fascilitated the flow of information.

I think its really interesting how McLuhan believes the lack of harmony in Western societies in the 1960’s was due to a culture lag i.e. older generations holding on to tradition print technology, whilst the younger generations were more spontaneous with new electronic media. Joshua Meyrowitz examines the impact culturally of television and the way in which it conveys information. Books require the skill of reading and writing, whilst television only requires viewing and listening. For this reason television is more accessable to all ages. Therefore, this mediums cultural effect is in the way it conveys information. It has dulled modern society and has reduced our need for recieving information through reading and writing, and now, our culture is obsessed with exposure. I think this is a really fascinating idea, because I knew that itt was the case, but couldn’t really articulate what it was about our culture and television. Reality tv links to exposure, whilst televised news triggers emotions. Books contain secrets whilst tv is accessable and exposes. Its a really interesting concept that we will never really have a ‘Great Leader’ due to the way in which television reveals the lives of politicians.

 

MAKING THE CUT

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Emma Freeman – Director

  • Director
  • On Offspring there are 5 directors and 4 of them are women; its encouraging to see more females in the media industry
  • With a film, she can say something about how she sees the world
  • Wasn’t a fan of networking – decided to take the approach to work and put her work out there and hope someone would see it

Chris Bendall – Producer

  • Began producing The Today show and now calls the shots on The Project
  • Graduate of RMIT after doing the journalism course
  • Started with the Today show before he finished his degree (was in his final year). Commenced in an entry level job. Someone he had worked with on channel 31 informed him of openings for work on the Today show. After doing work experience they gave him a job
  • News and Current Affairs – plety of opportunities in Melbourne and Sydney, but don’t restrict yourself to the capital cities: think of regional areas which will build up your experiences and allow you to have a better job when you return to the main cities
  • Australian TV is a very small place: always leave on good terms if you switch networks etc coz you’ll probably end up back there
  • I understand that networking is important, but I’m bad at network. If you try and push really hard to network, it can seem a little bit obvious, My experience has been: let your work network for you. When it comes to networking, if you purely are networking just to get a job, then make sure you’ve always got the answer to a problem so they know what you can do for them.
  • Went from a network to a production company: they are different but similar. There are standard ways of doing things. The production company provides a bit more freedom.
  • The Project provides a more entertaining aspect of news.
  • Don’t be picky when you first look for a job: just accept anything.
  • The difference between those who have a successful career and those who don’t end up doing anything are the ones who pick up more jobs – the persons that prepared to stand up and be willing to fill in. That’s when you get experience and get noticed.
  • Freelancing is a lot more common now; starting your own company is possible.
  • He never feels bound to stick to network or news television.
  • If you’re asking someone to do a job, you need to know exactly what that job is. Don’t ask someone to do a job you cant or wouldn’t do yourself.
  • From a TV news point of view, you really need to go somewhere where they are really under resourced. They will be producing two new stories a day, cutting on the way back to the office. There is an opportunity to do more. On shows like The Project you tend to get pigeonholed into a certain job. So there is more opportunities to do more in regional TV.
  • RMIT Media degree students leave equipped to be Producers more than any other roll
  • The majority of people who have great degrees are the ones who have looked at a situation and thought “I can’t really do that but I’ll give it a go, even if they fail.’

Peter Hitchener – Channel 9 News Legend

  • All started back at school. Thought he was going to be an actor.
  • Got a job in the newsroom due to his work on radio. Wrote and presented breakfast news. Didn’t really get appreciated for the work he did in his early years.
  • When getting your first job, a good place to start is in the news library, because that gives you an entree to the news room, and you get to work with the librarian methodically on a news story. Its a great in way to a news room. Then you’ll probably need to head out to WIN, and the reporters there are so smart and good because they get to know who the good locals are. The idea of getting a job in a big city news room is pretty hard to do. There are jobs around, and if you’re lucky.
  • Bad at networking.
  • Called Instagram ‘Instrum’
  • Any opportunity you have to find out whats going on, take it (i.e. visit a newsroom).
  • All skills in radio were possible to transfer to TV. SYN is a great opportunity to get experience in radio. One of the highest paid people (Ross Stevenson) in radio started in community radio and is now at the top of his ground. The idea of being comfortable with an audience and add lip gives someone the skill and experiences.
  • 40 years with the one network
  • Any job is a good thing to have. Any company would have its challenges. You make your own waves. Its about getting on with people.
  • The audience will always want to know what’s going on, what the stories are, what’s happening in the world. Whether its delivered on the iPhone or tablet, television, radio, online or blog, they will all be okay to work for as people will want to absorb the information in some way.
  • Follows everyone back on twitter. Believes communication is a two way street.
  • Once upon a time feedback was frowned upon in TV. Now its a regular thing.
  • Developing breaking stories – channel 9 can cover live stuff well
  • Free-to-air
  • Television, whilst it is an old technology, it will still have a role to play in the future. Broadcast media is still alive.
  • Once he started working in the industry, he now can’t see himself retiring.

RICHARD STALLMAN QUOTES

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Richard Stallman’s interview on Spotlight had him discussing liberating software and the fact that as a society “we are heading for total disaster”.
  • Free software means free as in “freedom”. It’s not a matter of price.
  • There are many people who volunteer for causes and many who have hobbies. Developing software is a sort of hobby for many people and is a political cause for many.
  • If someone believes a simple minded economic theory that says there can’t be free software, well that theory must be false. It’s like someone who has a theory saying satellites can’t stay  up. Well they do. Look up at the moon one day and you’ll realize they do.
  • Interviewer: If God wanted people to fly, he would have given them wings, true? Stallman: Well there is no God so that’s not a really meaningful question.
  • Free software was still common around 1970 when I entered the field. But during the 70’s it was driven out by users subjecting proprietary software. But I had the good fortune to work in a place where the software was free, I experienced life in freedom. But then that community died in approximately 1982 and I saw myself facing a life of proprietary software. And it was ugly. It was disgusting. So I said: I’m going to dedicate all my efforts to creating another free software community, to replace the one that was gone.
  • I had experienced life in a free software community. So I knew that it was possible and a good way of life. And I didn’t think that money could compensate for the ugliness of life that I would have with proprietary software. I didn’t want to be subjugated and I didn’t want to subjugate others. In fact it made me morally ashamed -the idea. It was morally wrong in my view. 
  • We’re heading for total disaster if we don’t put an end to extreme capitalism and re-established democracy. This doesn’t mean eliminating capitalism – just to eliminate the empire of the corporations doesn’t mean we stop having business. Free software combines capitalist ideas, and socialist ideas and anarchist ideas.
  • Our government betray the citizens. When the empire of the corporations imposes its governments occupation, these governments exist to keep the public under control of business. Free software doesn’t control the public. Free software is software that the users control.
  • Free software doesn’t mean it’s free. If you buy something you control it. Often that’s true – but not software. If you buy or even get gratis, a copy of a propriety program, you don’t control what it does. It is designed to frequently mistreat you.

80/20 AND POWER LAWS

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Each power law is characterized by a unique exponent, telling us, for example, how many very popular Websites are out there compared to the less popular ones. As in Networks, Power Law describes the degree distribution; the exponent is often called the degree exponent. 

I found the analogy between a road map and a map of airline flight routes quite interesting in relation to the nodes and connections between them. There is an unevenness between them, as the road map is a uniform network with similar nodes and links. The airline route, however, had direct flights from airports. Each node had a few links between them. This unevenness characterizes networks with power-law degree distribution. 

Power laws mathematically formulate the fact that in most real networks, the majority of nodes have only a few links and that these numerous tiny nodes co-exist with a few big hubs, nodes with an anomalously high number of links.

The analogy really helped me understand what the reading was talking about in relation to power laws, as I got lost a lot in the sciency ascpect of it.

CLASS IDEAS

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– There is never one absolute meaning to be gained from a text. Meadning is dependent on context, thus interpretations of a text will differ between individuals.

– Hypertext is musical – it has cadence, repetition, flow, loops and redundancies.

– Hypertext opens up space for interpretation and leaves text open to more than one dimension.

– Adrians ‘pinbacks’ make us feel like our opinions are invalid (isn’t the point of the blog to write our own opinions?)

– The Long Tail is the online, virtually unlimited space for publishing.

– Hypertext provides an opportunity for readers to travel along their own desired journey within the text. For example

SOME TAKE AWAY AND A GOD-LIKE-FIGURE

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Commencing this class, we decided to discuss some take away thoughts from the readings.

  • Extracts from Landow, George. Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
  • Extract from Douglas, J. Yellowlees. The End of Books — Or Books Without End?: Reading Interactive Narratives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.

Gina’s take away idea from the reading:

  • The online world is an endless resource of information and opportunity. It cannot be restricted. An example is in the shops or at Blockbuster where there are limitations to what can be in the store at one time. Blockbuster will only have two maximum of each DVD for customers. Online, there are unlimited copies of movies, and a wider range as it doesn’t need to be confined to the restrictions of one small shop. The same applies to online shopping, where there is an infinite shop online.

Kevin’s take away idea from the reading:

  • They are so critical about the change from books to online. They are so scared of change when they should be excited about it. We should be more worried about what technology is doing to society – how being on Facebook is not actually being social at all.

My take away ideas from the reading:

  • The number of people who have read hypertext narratives isn’t as many as those who have read the narratives in books. That being said, nothing in a hypertext narrative is preordained. It is up to the reader to determined where they go, their choices, and consequentially what they read. A hypertext novel may have a range of different outcomes and pathways, and so, can become something which is re-readable and enjoyable every time. This isn’t to say that re-reading a classic novel isn’t enjoyable each time, but that they excitement of not knowing what is next is eliminated after the first reading of a narrative in a printed book. With hypertext narratives, the possibilities are endless; the combinations numerous.

The rest of the classes take away ideas:

  • There is never one absolute meaning to be gained from a text. Meaning is dependent on context, thus interpretations of a text will differ between individuals.
  • Hypertext is musical – it has cadence, repetition, flow, loops and redundancies.
  • Hypertext opens up space for interpretation and leaves text open to more than one dimension.
  • Adrian’s ‘pin-backs’ make us feel like our opinions are invalid (isn’t the point of the blog to write our own opinions?)

The last dot point created quite a discussion amongst the class. Some groups thought that Adrian’s posting about our ideas came across as criticism. Some felt like it was a bit of a put down, but then, after discussing it, we decided that it would be quite time consuming for Adrian to read our blogs then think about our ideas in order to write about it. We came up with various different ways in which we could overcome this problem: perhaps we could have an anonymous feed-back area; Adrian could acknowledge ideas from the blogs as being good, then state his opinion; we should just sit back and not say anything. I read through the pin-backs and personally think they help our understanding and increase our thoughts on the ideas brought forward. They encourage discussion and further thought.

We then moved on to the Niki task. For the next two weeks I am working with Courtney, Sam and Memphis and we are doing our Niki on Richard Stallman. Our research led us to find that he is:

  • An American software freedom activist
  • Doesn’t care about PR
  • Doesn’t care about his appearance and has low emphasis on aesthetic
  • Lived cheaply like a student his whole life
  • Has serious problems with privacy issues: doesn’t own a cell phone, doesn’t use swipe cards to go through doors and he doesn’t like being tracked
  • Anti-copyright
  • Believes that the term ‘intellectual property’ is an excuse for not sharing information
  • Was an avid hacker
  • Fluent in French and Spanish
  • Has never been married
  • Launched the GNU program
  • Has a beard

From here, we decided that to give it a personal touch we would write it in HTML code. Sam is somewhat a professional on this.

Richard Stallman has become a ‘Jesus’ like figure in the future, where everything he tried to accomplish during his lifetime is now out-dated and banned. We want to write the Niki as if it is a celebration of his achievements when he was alive, like a brochure trying to turn people and alert them to his cause. This will be written in sort of Old English writing and will appear to be reaching out to an audience who miss the old days where software was free and everything wasn’t controlled by the government (as that was another concept Stallman strongly believed in: that all of our actions are monitored by the government and our privacy is no longer a privilege).

Stallman even looks like someone who generations in the future would worship, for we predict the future to be very controlled, with a heavy focus on the materialistic aspects of life. Stallman presents the complete opposite and so our concept of him being a figure to worship could be quite credible. We don’t want to complicate too much (as we only have 300 words), however, as it is an informative piece about Stallman’s achievements (just as Jesus and his accomplishments are continuously celebrated), our research can easily be incorporated into the piece. The point of view it is written in is from a believer in Stallman, still fighting for his cause in almost an ‘underground’ world in the future.

Our group was super productive this class and I believe this Niki task will be very entertaining to complete. I am actually starting to like the process of establishing the Niki – I think it’s a really creative idea to take a subject and write about it using a personal touch. Would have never thought to do that prior to this course.

 

YOU HAD ME AT TITANIC

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I engaged a lot with this reading partly because it had me from the word Titanic. It was actually fascinating reading about how the story can always change in hypertext. It reminded me of the books that I have read which were able to always change the endings depending on the various different pathways we chose (i.e. the Goosbumps series). I liked how it talked about how the narrative will always change depending on our actions and what we choose, which is completely different to a book which will stay the same no matter how many times we pick it up and read it – we cannot influence or change the outcome.

I looked up the hypertext novel afternoon and I really want to read it. It seems fascinating that how one person reads it can be completely different to the next.

In a way this sort of reminded me of playing The Sims 3, where we completely influence the pathways of the characters. It isn’t so much a novel in which we pick the pathway through different links etc, but we establish it ourselves and can either make the sims teachers, ghosts, playboys, housewives, extremely rich, poverty ridden, fat or skinny or even socially deprived. But this is a game where we create the outcome from scratch. There are several influential factors, like the hours in the day and the aging of the sims, but they can even be influenced by the gamer. In hypertext, we simply chose a link and a pathway is decided for us.

QUESTION TIME

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This week in our class, Jasmine told us that we were the guinnea pigs for something they would be trying out at the next Un-Lecture. We were to come up with 5 questions through a process of elimination which would be brought to the panel to answer.

First step – Brainstorming. What makes a good question?

  • generates more than a yes and no answer
  • what a phrase or sentence or passage means
  • could be about how one thing relates to something else: making connections between various things
  • how things might be applied
  • “does this mean this? does anyone agree? why?

We came up with 5 questions (after a hectic voting system) and managed to join questions together and eliminate some so that what we wanted to know was more concise. The white board got wiped pretty fast, but two that were up there were:

  • After we graduate can we separate the blog from the mediafactory? ♥ #BBB
  • As content producers is it more important to speculate for into the future or pay more attention to the present?

Eventually we ended up with 5:

  • What is the practicality of design fiction for people who are not designers? What separates it from science fiction?
  • How is a network influenced by its constituents, and how does it influence them?
  • As content producers, is it more important to speculate far into the future or pay more attention to the present?
  • What do you think the future of networked media will involve, and how will it benefit us?
  • How have mobile devices changed the way blogs are produced and consumed

Looking forward to how it all unfolds next Tuesday.

 

BEING CYNICAL

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This weeks readings were actually quite interesting, and I appreciated the use of multimedia to keep us engaged as well. I never really thought that there was a fictional element to design… apparently I was wrong. To create we have to use our imaginations, and what we produce, at the present time doesn’t exist until we make it.

My idea from this stemmed from movies I’ve seen.

When I try and imagine what the world will be like in the future, I always picture such dramatic technology changes. This makes me think back to when I was little and watched Back to the Future, and the main guy (Michael J Fox) was standing in front of multiple T.V’s, watching them all. I might just google that now so you can see what I’m visualizing.

Six Channels at once? Oh wait, we do that now.

Isn’t it funny how back in the 80’s our vision for the future was so hopeful, colorful and inspiring. It seems like now when we make movies set in the future, they are depressing commentaries of what society thinks we will become, and generally are of an apocalyptic nature. It’s as if technology will take over, or there will be world wars resulting in the extinction of the human race.

 

Contagion – a virus threatens the human race
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KoyvHCPKlW4/ToY0C_FpbxI/AAAAAAAAAyo/5aAG25-SLlU/s1600/Contagion-movies-wallpaper.jpg

World War Z – the war to end all wars
http://msmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WWZ.jpg

Terminator Salvation – technology vs man
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/terminator_salvation87.jpg

They don’t really paint a positive picture.

This isn’t saying that technology which will make our lives more efficient and easier (such as those developed by design students) will ruin us, but they are essentially predictions of what we will need in the future. In a way, predicted human behavior will influence what we design.

“We always design for a world that sits, sometimes just slightly, out of sight.”

So making reflective mirrors with the time built into them along with access to internet and emails … is that saying that we will eventually become workaholics, with a thirst to constantly be connected to the rest of the world? That could be good, that could be bad. The technology will only do as it is wired to do. We have the control to use it how we wish. It’s like having guns. Leave it in a cabinet and it won’t kill anyone. I could be getting into some political territory there, I might stop.

But basically, whatever we design now is thinking towards the future. And something I find really interesting, is this article on Back to the Future:

http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Predictions_That_Back_to_the_Future_Part_II_Got_Right.

The film wasn’t designing for the future, however it was fictional – but the writers were highly accurate with a lot of what they predicted.

THE FALL OF THE RIGID SYSTEM

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Seeing as we are permanently old school and only writing with paper and a pen, it feels like my fingers just can’t keep up with taking notes. So it was a blessing in disguise when a friend asked me to record the lecture for her as a voice memo, as I can now listen back to the important parts which went so fast I had no time to take notes.

During this session, Adrian did not implement the same system as last week. There were no more question boxes (which was a shame, as I actually did have a few questions to ask). But Adrian explained that next week, he hopes to have a panel of the four experts in Networked Media (Jasmine, Elliot, Brian and himself) to answer questions, debate the readings and discuss important networked media related subjects. I think that this will work extremely well and perhaps be more interactive and productive than last weeks.

“Structure emerges through practice… the structure preexists the individual. In networked media there is no pre-given structure.” – Adrian

Adrian explained that eventually, our blogs will become more popular for the certain things they do well: some may be more technically savvy than others and give good descriptions of how to do certain things in our blogs; others may discuss more about the lectures; and other blogs may specialize in random, everyday events. This made me wonder what mine would excel in.

“Some of you will struggle in this model. The fault is not with the model. The fault is not with you. It’s just that some people struggle with what I define as highly defined and rigid systems.” – Adrian

Relating to the above quote, Adrian used the example of constructing an essay in high school where there are specific rules as to what ideas can be introduced and where i.e. no introducing new content in the conclusion because that is a sin and you will fail etc. English was my best high school subject, and I knew the correct method of writing a VCE essay. I can stick to a rigid system.. but I guess what this subject is testing, is can I do the opposite? Can someone take away the guidelines and mess up the system? Will I flourish then? I bloody well hope so, and I guess time will tell.

At the start, I put blogging off because I thought I would sound a bit pretentious and silly talking about myself – why should I think my voice is that important? I guess I had the same mentality in school: ask me to write an essay about Terry Malloy and I could do it. Ask me to write an essay about a personal event and I wouldn’t really know where to start.

But I now I realize it’s not really like that, and my voice is important, as well as my ideas and thoughts. I’ve broken down the mentality that I need guidelines and rules to direct my learning. I’d like to think I am navigating well under the circumstances of not really having many constraints in this subject. I don’t think I’m floundering without the strict system… yet. I guess well have to see how I keep managing over the next few weeks.

Oh and apparently Wikipedia is a reliable source… ? Try telling my high school teachers that.