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.