Blog Posts 

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Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Miles, A 2006, ‘Blogs In Media Education: a Beginning’, Australian Screen, vol.41, pp.66-69 [Accessed 29th March 2019]

In this article, Miles introduces and explores the possible uses of blogs in media education. Furthermore Miles discusses how blogs are different from other forms of publications such as print literacy and how blogging has become a more engaging way for students and individuals to learn and self-express. Miles gives the reader context in the beginning of his article by discussing his academic background at RMIT University. As well as this he also comments on how he has maintained an academic blog since 2000. Miles article is organised in an easy to understand way, with sub headings categorising the article into small sections creating a reader friendly approach to his main ideas. Some of the sub headings include “Why use a blog?” and “ What is a blog?”. In doing this Miles creates an easier way to read his comments as readers can easily identify what each section of the article is covering. Miles writing style is basic and fluent which makes it accessible for anyone to read. It is also written sophisticated enough where information on this subject can be taken in a way that is not overwhelming for readers.

In regards to the course prompt relating the affordances of Instagram to Miles article itself, this article provides a good insight into the benefits and downfalls of posting content online. An example of this that Miles comments on is how users need to take care posting online because of the publicness of blogging in general. He also mentions how users need to take more care in writing their posts as it has to be user friendly and easy to read. Although Miles is about blogging at its core in this article the points that he discuses can also be applied to Instagram and other social media networks. Miles talks about how blogging creates a sense of community for those who chose to blog. This was something that I reflected in my week 1 blog post on how I felt a part of a community on Instagram by posting photos and having like minded people like my photos or comment on my work. This is a great point that is relevant to the prompt because it highlights the benefits of joining a part of a network or community with people of similar interests. It creates this sense of contribution in the community where ideas and work is created better by others.

A drawback of this article in relevance to this study is the time it was created. This article was published in 2006 so it can be perceived that the article has an absence of what is occurring on social media platforms in 2019. This article was released 4 years before Instagram was created which can mean it lacks the awareness of how social media operates in the current time period. Miles also comments on how the internet is ‘decentralised’ which can be argued isn’t entirely true as these days internet is centralised or run by servers instead of peer to peer networks. Another limitation of this article is that blogging is essentially made up of literacy, where as Instagram is visual based with images and videos which Miles does not cover in his article.

Lister, M et al 2009, New Media: A critical Introduction, Routledge, New York [Accessed 29th March 2019]

In this book Lister dissects a ‘comprehensive introduction’ to the culture, history, technologies and theories of new media. This book considers the way the ways in which ‘new media’ really are new, assesses the claims that a media and technological revolution has taken place and formulates new ways for media students to respond to new studies.  Lister gives the reader context about this book from the start with an introduction to what the book is about and its key features, as well as giving the reader some information about the education of the authors. The book itself is fairly large and as a result has an easy to follow contents page which helps readers find what they are looking for in an easy way. As well as this each topic has their own heading with sub headings underneath such as with chapter 3 which focuses on ‘Networks, Users, and Economics’ and then is broken down into easy to follow sub headings. All these sub headings also follow a linear numerical system which helps with the flow of the book. Lister’s writing style can be described as academic which helps Lister to emphasise his points in a more thorough way.

In regards to the course prompt of the affordances of Instagram and the way that content is published and distributed through the network, Lister’s book is relevant is more towards the networking side of the prompt. Lister’s section in his book titled ‘User Generated Content: We are all fans now’ relates closely to the idea of networks in relation to the course prompt. Lister comments on how the new media technologies have “profoundly altered the relations between media producers and consumers’. In relation to Instagram this could be seen as them introducing things such as live streaming where Instagrammers with a large fan base can live stream to their fans. This is also directly related to his section titled “The Long Tail” which talks about the more economic side of new media. Lister comments “The incredible diversity of blog culture has of course generated its own ‘short head’ in the demand curve, in which a small number of blogs command a very large amount of attention and advertising revenue” which can be directly related to Instagram and their ad revenue or paid promotions through Instagrammers.

One drawback from this book is that because it is quite lengthy at times it feels as if there is an information overload. Although the book is organised in a linear way, paragraphs are quite long with some intense scholarly language which can deter readers from truly reading the actual content, which may lead to some miscommunication. As well as this the article was published in 2009 which was one year before Instagram was created. This means that the content in this book even though it is not talking about Instagram, rather social media as a whole, can lead to some misconceptions on what the social media environment was like back then compared to today’s standards.

Norman, D 1998, The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Book, New York [Accessed 29th March 2019]

In this book Norman discusses the design of objects such as doors and the troubled designs of everyday objects. The book has an introduction to Norman and his background in England whilst on a sabbatical when he first stumbled upon his frustrations of poorly designed things.  The book also features a preface where Norman discusses his ambitions about his book and why he decided to write it. The book is fairly easy to follow with a table of contents clearly highlighting what Norman is going to discuss in detail.  The book also has a suggested reading section where Norman highlights some other work that is also relevant to his. Normans writing style is very clean but to the point which helps readers to stay engaged with the content. As well as this Norman asks rhetorical questions throughout his book which also adds some character to his writing, which helps make his writing more captivating.  Norman also references a lot of other sources in his work, including a reference page at the back.

In regards to the course prompt of the affordances of Instagram and the way that photos and videos are authored, published and distributed into the network, Normans book helps to understand more of the backbone of Instagram. An example of this is when Norman is discussing what affordances are. “ The term affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of how the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used”. This statement made by Norman can be related to the Instagram and what their perceived vs actual use of Instagram is. Instagram originally started as an app to post photos, but now it has become an app that is used more than just for photos. Normans section in his book titled ‘The Foibles of Computer Systems’ also related to the course prompt more in terms of how content is authored, published and distributed into the network. In my blog post I talked about how Apple creates software which essentially makes it easier for non-computer people to use new technology. And as a result more software and apps are created for users to consume. It also correlates to perceived vs actual use as consumers don’t just buy a phone to use it as a phone, they use it for social networking as well.

A limitation of this article would be the year that it was published. It was published in 1998 which was when the internet was blooming into the dot-com bubble. As a result the internet at that time was web 1.0 which pretty much does not exist today. As a result this book can be seen as not as relevant because the web today is drastically different. As well as this the book itself is not talking about social media which can create difficulties when applying Norman’s ideas and theories to the course prompt. Also another potential limitation is that Norman does not touch on software affordances, which can make it hard to relate his ideas to the course prompt.

In this weeks class we covered the topic of social media. And more specifically we Siapera’s book ‘Understanding New Media’. I thought in this weeks lecture Elaine did a great job in contextualising what the reading was about with the information regarding social media. Elaine said Siapera provides a useful summary of the issue. In short, Siapera argues that new media is different from media in three main ways. First, it’s sometimes digital, second, it’s sometimes online, and thirdly, perhaps most important, new media is always evolving. This comment I thought really helped me to grasp what this week was about in terms of social media, because we cannot move onto social media without learning what new media is. Her third point about new media constantly evolving was something that struck out for me. In terms of Instagram it has changed drastically from when it first came into use to what it is now. In terms of a user interface

 point of view Instagram is a lot more user friendly now than what it was back in the day. As Nash commented in today’s class its easy to say yes, Instagram has a nice user interface and it makes it easy for people to use but it is the stuff behind the scenes that us users don’t get to see. A lot of work is put into Instagram to create a set of standards so that everyone who is posting is only posting good content because that’s what we all see in our newsfeed. Our Instagram’s are our owns because they have been personalised our way, not by someone else. This is both good and bad for users. We as users feel we are truly getting the most out of the app, only seeing what interests us because Instagram is constantly learning what we like through who we follow and what we like. This is even taken as far as personalisation  in the adds we receive in the news feed. Half the time when scrolling through my news feed I cant even tell what’s an add or sponsored post because it flows so well into my news feed that it feels seamless and unobtrusive. This can kind of be a scary thought, how well does Instagram now us? Pretty damn well is probably the answer. I think this leads nicely into the reading under Technologies, Media and Society. Mark Hansen comments ‘The importance of the new media does not lie in their attributes, on whether they are digital or analogue, new or old and so on. Rather the crucial issue regarding the media is that they are at the same time artefacts or material devices, as well as ‘transcendental’, that is they exist and do things beyond and above their material use.’ This is the essentially a link between social media and affordances. The primary use for Instagram is to view photos or videos of those who we follow, but Instagram has gone above and beyond pushing for ads that make for a 1 or 2 click shopping experience. If I can buy a phone case through 2 clicks on Instagram I am going to feel more enticed to buy that phone case because the user experience is so much easier than going onto eBay an clicking on 10 things before I can make a purchase. This basically becomes another use for Instagram in the form of personalised online shopping 

This weeks reading:

Siapera, E. 2013, Understanding New Media. SAGE Publications, London

In this weeks reading we covered The Design Of Everyday Things by Donald A Norman. At its core the reading looks into the design choices of objects and how they are used in a wider and broader perspective. This reading had some interesting points being made, an over-all I largely understood what Norman was trying to convey. How ever one section of the reading stood out to me because I couldn’t quite grasp what Norman was trying to say. ‘The Foibles of Computer Systems’ was a section that I struggled to fathom. Norman comments ‘The abstract nature of the computer poses a particular challenge for the designer’(Norman,1998, Pg 177). With regards to earlier parts of the reading I would tend to agree with what he is saying here. Every computer is different and has their own little tricks and characteristics that can be hard for users to identify. It creates difficulty for designers to try and get their users to engage with their products in the most user friendly way possible.  In this weeks tutorial we expanded on this chapter of the reading extensively and with some help from Nash I started to understand what Norman was talking about in regards to computers. An example that I thought of with Nash was Apple and their products. Whether you like or not we cant ignore the fact that Apple pretty much revolutionised the home computer experience for users on a global scale. And how did they do this? We’ll design is at the core of Apple, everything they make is made to the highest quality as possible but this alone is not enough to get consumers to buy your product. What Apple did was create reform in the software department of their products in a way that no other company was able to do. In doing so it made computers more accessible because people weren’t scared of owning one, people didn’t have to be tech nerds to understand what the product can and cant do. This trend in the software department also meant that they were able to change the way in which people use phones. When the first iPhone was released the app store was horrible, with only a handful of first party apps available. But people saw this App store as an opportunity to create things that their devices weren’t intended for. This is what Norman discusses in terms of affordances and their perceived and actual uses. Apple did not intend for their iPhone to be used as nothing else but a phone and maybe to take some pictures, but app developers started to realise the potential of the platforms they had been given and as a result started to develop apps such as Instagram and Facebook.

Another small thing that apple has done correspondingly is create such a user friendly interface between devices that it essentially locks you into their ecosystem. What I mean when mentioning ecosystem is that apple provides a certain users interface between their devices that seamlessly integrates with their hardware so well. Take someone who has an iPhone for instance. That person isn’t locked into their ecosystem, but they use Apple’s services such as iCloud. Lets say that this person needs to buy a new laptop, Apple know that the person is more likely to buy a Mac Book than a windows laptop because they can reply to iMessage with their Mac, and they can back up and restore information through iCloud. And once you start to purchase more and more Apple products and services the walls to the ecosystem become higher. This makes it harder for someone to break free of the ecosystem to try something else. Apple know that their customers are willing to pay more money for hardware that isn’t as good as something half the price because people are going to pay for the convince of the ecosystem.

This weeks reading: Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things , Basic Book, New York

In this week additional reading we read about this idea of Network Literacy. Upon reading the title of this piece I wasn’t quite sure what this article was going to discuss, as I for one had no clue what network literacy was or was about. The article discusses ‘the establishment of a robust framework for the exchange of information between online services’ (Miles,2007, Pg 203). This line I think was an interesting leeway into the topic itself and made me think about how the online services I use integrate with each other. An example of this would be something like news outlets posting news on their social media accounts. When they post something to do with the news they don’t just post to their Facebook, they’ll also post to their Instagram, Twitter, etc. In doing this what they achieve is being able to spread word of mouth a lot faster than if they had chosen to just post to one media platform and it keeps the general public or those who follow them in the loop with what is happening around the world. Something else that stood out for me in this reading is that Miles talks about integrating other peoples work or information into your own, and that this essentially creates a new publication. I thought about this in reference to Instagram. Yesterday there was a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand and I’ve started to realise that whenever there is some sort of horrific event happening in the world we always see people reposting the same things in support of that event. I saw this photo yesterday and today all over my Instagram news feed and stories and I’ve come to realise how important a platform like Instagram is in terms of showing the world that people really do care about these events and tragedies whether it is just reposting a photo to spread word of mouth.

One of the images that I have seen in the past few days on Instagram

Lewis Hamilton sends his prayers to those effected in New Zealand ahead of the Australian Grand prix

Another interesting part of this reading was Miles take on ‘tags’. Miles comments ‘Tag is a keyword that I can apply to anything in any of these social software systems.’ (Miles,2007, Pg 205). Continuing on with the discussion about Instagram using tags is an essential way for information to integrate with other users. When I first started using Instagram I never posted anything with tags, but now whenever I post a photo I use at least 20 tags. What I’ve noticed in doing so is that people who life my photos are often following that tag word and as a result I’m able to find new content that I actually like and is suited to me. The uses of tags creates a new world of content for everyday people, and majority of the time tags actually save you from the hassle of finding users just like yourself, super useful in my opinion.

This weeks reading: Miles, Adrian. “Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge.” Screen Education Autumn.45 (2007)