This weeks readings discussed the theory of five minds to have for the future.  The kind of minds are as follows:

The Disciplinary Mind (mastery of a major school of thought)

The Synthesising Mind (ability to combine different disciplines into a whole and communicate to              others)

The Creative Mind (capacity to come up with solutions and answers)

The Respectful Mind (appreciation for differences in the human race)

The Ethical Mind (fulfilment of one’s responsibilities as a worker and citizen)

The author writes about how these type of mindsets will be beneficial in an environment that is constantly changing.  He also discusses how these mindsets can effect efficiency and productivity in the workplace.  Most people strive to acquire knowledge to make their lives better and education is often critical to pursue a worthwhile career.  In regards to the disciplinary mind, I find myself discontent being stuck in a warehouse driving a forklift all day and listening to managers that don’t have any idea how to actually manage.  So I decided to become more educated and evolve my disciplines so I am not stuck in a warehouse doing the same menial tasks for the rest of my life.  This reading gave me encouragement to keep persisting with developing new skills to achieve job satisfaction.  Some of my skills will also become inferior when the work becomes replaced by new technology.  So I had to get creative to avoid this foreseeable problem in the future.

The reading also talks briefly about globalisation and how the process is weakening individual states.  It talks about how our schools are still educating for the world of the past rather than the future.  We haven’t figured out how to prepare young people to survive and thrive in the future world.  I’m not a fan of globalisation and evidence shows that the consequence has been the disappearance of a middle class.  Current politics are seeing a shift against globalisation which is evident with Brexit and the rise of Corbin, Sanders and Trump.  Nationalism has become a popular notion, especially when governments are negotiating global agreements in secrecy which exclude the citizens taking participation like the Trans Pacific Partnership.  So how can you prepare the right form of education in this current climate?  There is no easy answer.  With the current form of global politics it appears that if you don’t get a decent education, you can join the working class and be completely left behind.

This weeks reading discusses the issue of finding time in the digital age.  In regards to my own time, I find the older I get, the quicker time goes.  Cliche I know but it’s true.  But I also find myself wasting so much time these days on digital technology as well.  I can spend hours just surfing around the internet and not even accomplish what I intended to use it for in the first place.  I have also found with digital technology that I spend more time with some friends online than I do actually seeing them in reality.  The amount of sleep I get is also disturbed by playing ‘just one more game’ ten games later on my iPad.

The author makes reference to economist John Maynard Keynes on how he thought that the advancement of technology will inevitably make people work less hours and have more leisure time.  But in reality the digital age has just made everything seem more rushed.  History shows in the last fifty years the average working hours for the week has remained steady.  The simplification of some tasks due to technology has just increased the expectancy on the volume of work required.  Although I am looking forward to the day driverless cars are on the market.  I would love to just be able have the time to watch breakfast tv or take a snooze commuting to work.  But the article argues that driverless cars could cause even more congestion on our roads.  I also look forward to the technology of having machines clean my house for me.  Now that would be a great time saver.

This article discusses a way to develop a positive mindset in regards to having a fulfilling career.  Calvin writes about having a certain approach to work, which he calls the clarity of the craftsman.  This concept basically makes you grasp the idea of what you can give to the world, not what the world can give to you.  Calvin makes an analogy to this concept by telling the story of a musician named Jordan.  Jordan constantly practises playing his guitar in a tiny little room.  He keeps practising his art until it is to near perfection.  Then Calvin makes the case using Steve Martin’s philosophy that  Jordan will eventually become so good that the industry won’t be able to ignore him.  It can take plenty of dedication to achieve recognition in a particular industry.  Steve Martin mentioned the anxiety attacks he experienced when trying to improve his routine.  But hard work and perfecting your art will eventually achieve success.  He believed there was no shortcut to his eventual fame.

In other words Calvin advises that if you develop the passion mindset of what the world can do for you, then you are setting yourself up for failure.  Sometimes you have to do the mundane tasks to eventually reach your dreams.  Jordan constantly practising in a bedroom will eventually lead to bigger and more pleasurable experiences.  Steve Martin rehearsing and crafting his comedy lead to his confidence and success in front of audiences.  Hardly any student at the start of their career will automatically get their dream job straight away.  It’s the grinding and the gaining of experience that will eventually achieve job satisfaction in the future.  It is unrealistic to expect the journey towards achieving your goals to always be pleasurable and handed to you on a platter.

Pat Aufderheide, Interactive Documentaries:Navigation and Design, Journal of Film and Video, Volume 67, Numbers 3-4, Fall/Winter 2015, pp 69 -78

Paolo Favero, Getting our hands dirty again:Interactive Documentaries and the meaning of images in the digital age, Journal of Material Culture, pp259-277, 2013

This article talks about what an interactive documentary is and the scrutiny that arises in the making of this new visual medium.  Interactive documentary uses a variety of different materials compared to the normal convention when on a digital platform.  It forces the producer to contemplate how to incorporate these materials together (sounds, videos, images, texts, etc) to make this format.  There is also reference to a computer program called Korsakow.  This program can be used to create an interactive documentary with a variety of digital content.  It briefly discusses how the program works and gives reference to a few documentaries made in this format.

There are also other interactive documentaries mentioned in the article and the types of methods that were used to create these formats.  The article concludes that interactive documentaries could be the future venue for documentary film and for cinema at large.  But this view appears to be somewhat  flawed as this form of media making still hasn’t become mainstream.  This form of media is still a niche market and hasn’t become a common form of practice in documentary making.  Maybe this could change when more programs become available to make this format.

For myself to make any my decent money on freelance writing I better type this summary in less 5 minutes otherwise I won’t be make my benchmark measly $15 an hour.  It will be fairly poor standard of writing because I’me in sush rush to make this profession feasible.  (The spelling and grammatical errors were intentional by the way.)  Some of the articles on Yahoo read like they have been written by a ten year old.  A giant race to the bottom when it comes to quality in journalism.  This weeks reading discusses the topic of creative labour and the challenges that workers face in the creative industry.

Now that we are in the age of globalisation and digital content, it is somewhat troublesome how media agencies can now exploit and underpay workers in the name of  freelance employment.  I’m just wondering how I am meant to compete on a global scale for writing jobs against people who are willing to accept next to nothing.  I can forget a decent salary when someone from Bangladesh will do the same job for peanuts.  As long as I can do the work where I want, whenever I want.  I don’t have to go to a bricks and mortar office anymore.  I can just be a slave labourer in the luxury of my own lounge room now.  What a blessing!

The big challenge for the workers of the media industry is to try and maintain some sort of protection against exploitive behaviour practices.  The government can also help by creating laws and policies to help stem the tide. The banning of free internships could be a good start.

Judith Aston, Sandra Guadenzi, Interactive Documentary:Setting the Field, Studies in Documentary Film, Volume 6 Number 2, 2012,  pp125-139

This article discusses what an interactive documentary is and how the emergence of digital technology has allowed different types of interactive documentary to be created.  It also explains the different modes that these documentaries are made and why they play an important part for the consumers of the new media.  There is also reference to how the narrative of interactive documentaries is formed and how this form of storytelling continues to evolve with developing technology.  The narrative is usually controlled through the use of action and choice, which in turn creates a non-linear structure.  It also articulates the importance of capturing the audience and letting them have control the interactive process.

There is also information on issues and debates raised by the first symposium on Interactive Documentaries.  The key themes that were discussed included ethics and the nature of participation, transmedia storytelling and multi platform production.  Media practitioners from large media organisations gathered to share their ideas and experiences on creating interactive content.  The overall general consensus suggested that interactive documentaries are flourishing and they are here to stay.  But the formula is not rigid and will continue to redevelop and change.  Overall I thought this article was informative in describing the genre of interactive documentary.  But it doesn’t really delve into the issue of monetising this digital content.  Would consumers be willing to pay for this sort of content?  Or would they only view these type of documentaries through the websites of large media organisations?

Nay Kim, Sangheon Kim, Interactive Documentary on Perspective of New Media, International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering Vol. 9, No. 12 (2014), pp. 117-128

<http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijmue.2014.9.12.11>

This article discusses the framework of how to create an effective interactive documentary.  It explains some of the concepts of new media when creating this form of narrative.  Lev Manovich’s theory regarding the five principals of new media are briefly summarised and his name is mentioned throughout the reading.  Lev Manovich has written a few books on the subject and is a professor of Computer Science at the City University of New York.  There is also quite an amount of discussion on some of the challenges faced when creating this format.  This includes the duration of the documentary, the variety of media to use, the amount of clicks on a mouse to include and avoiding a linear structure.

The reading also addresses the important issue that confronts everyone making this format.  What type of authoring tool should be used to create interactive documentaries?  There are four different modes of interactivity discussed and each mode names an example of that particular method used.  I found this article helpful in explaining the issues that are confronted when producing this type of new media.  There is no set formula for non-linear storytelling but reading this article helps the reader understand the pitfalls to avoid when creating this type of content.  There are some quality examples of interactive documentaries named in the reading to help research what makes the interactivity successful.  These examples highlight the differing ways on how the audience can interact with the new media.

The reading for this week discussed the opportunities of future growth for Entertainment and Media Companies.  The report written by media experts Chris Lederer and Megan Brownlow discuss the threats and opportunities in the media industry and have corolated statistics and data showing the current trends on a global scale.  They are positive about continual growth in this industry with statistics showing that E&M spending is growing more rapid than GDP in most countries.  The report makes the claim that there is a growing shift from publishing businesses to internet and video businesses.  With traditional media slowly in decline the shift is highly inevitable if companies want to continue making a profit.

The report also discusses how the youth are driving the change on how people consume media.  “Young people consume more media than older people and are more open to adopt digital changes.”  Older people are more likely to view media through traditional channels like television, radio and newspapers.  My father can’t even send a message on a smart phone.  Although in some countries some traditional forms of media are growing in popularity again like physical form of music in Norway and Italy.  Newspapers also remains a popular form of media consumption in Japan.

But the statistics show that media is being viewed on multiple platforms and companies are offering bundles for these type of services.  The rise of subscription has grown highly for services like Netflix and Stan.  These streaming services can be viewed on multiple devices including smart phones, tablets and computers.  In Australia the price has considerably dropped for pay tv services such as Foxtel and Optus.  The new competition from these streaming services has become problematic for Foxtel.  These streaming services are free from advertisments and appeal more to consumers that like to watch tv shows with no interruption.  Foxtel have to be careful now to not frighten off their customers with too much advertising.

In our Media 6 tutorial class we were divided into groups to discuss  topics related to media.  The group I was in talked about media as a force of change and how the media landscape is evolving.  Our group recognised a number of factors regarding the continual change in media, which included:

• Social Media
• Government legislation
• Campaigning
• Media diversity
• Multiple platform communications
• 24 hour coverage and access
• Decline of traditional media
• Monetising the media industry

We all had a general consensus that the media is currently in a form of transition and that society is changing their behaviour on how they access material like news and entertainment.  We also discussed circumstances where new media created political change like the recent Arab Spring uprise.  Ethics was also a talking point when referring to the rise of social media.  There was a precedent set recently when a man was recently charged for posting offensive comments on Facebook.  He was posting racially abusive messages to recently retired Senator Nova Peris.  A petition was signed by over 7000 Facebook users for the police to investigate the posts.  Now under Australian law Facebook users can be held accountable and charged if their comments are deemed to be discriminative, threatening or racially abusive.

The abusive post Senator Nova Peris made public.