James Bowman
s3603919 

I Declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understand and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services

 Blog Reflections:

Week 1: Blogs

Week 2: Affordances

Week 3: Networks

Week 4: Social Media

Annotated Bibliography

Selected Text 1 – Blogs

(word count – 602)

Miles, A 2006, Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning, Screen Education, (43), pp. 66-69

The magazine article explores the various benefits educational blogs can provide when used effectively. The article suggests that these benefits are not just limited to the students but states that educational blogs are just as relevant to teachers. The author also argues that the usefulness of blogs is such that using them as a media teaching tool will provide benefits both educationally but also “for the collateral outcomes that blogging achieves” (69), putting forward the idea that blogs are a meaningful way for both students and teachers to become familiar with the network but also to contribute to it.

The main arguments the author puts forward are to do with the users of educational blogs learning to become part of the broader network, but also to create a ‘rich, communicative environment’ (p. 68) within the class network. The reason for this is because, according to the article, blogs offer different opportunities and tools for students to use as opposed to other writing forms like journaling or writing in a diary. While there are many differences between these forms, the author places particular emphasis on blogs being a “public document” (p. 67), meaning that others can freely read, interact and give feedback to each other’s entries. This can then also evolve into user collaboration. This, according to the author, is what creates the unique community that only blogs provide.

The author’s research and theories are based on personal experience, as is mentioned at the beginning of the article, Miles is an experienced university media teacher and most of his ideas have come from his practical experience in this position using blogs as a teaching method. While there is no statistical research used to support the contention of the article, it can still be considered reliable based on the teaching experience of the author, who has “maintained and educational blog since 2000” (p. 66) but more importantly he has personally been involved in implementing an educational blog program at a university. The author also makes sure to mention that these blogs need to be carefully implemented and curated by the teachers, and the tasks assigned need to well thought through, therefore not overstating the potential of educational blogging.

This article provides a straightforward and for the most part useful rationale behind the overall usefulness of educational blogs in media classes. The author gives an in-depth explanation to what blogs actually are and why they can be used as an important tool to keep up with the ever-evolving network that is the internet. The article also provides practical information for teachers, recounting the step by step way in which the author has implemented the educational blogs in the past.

One potential weakness in this articles’ usefulness is that it is now 12 years old, and the “paradigm shift” (p. 69) of the internet that the author mentions has now again shifted. In particular, social media was nothing like it is today in 2006 when this article was written, and this may in turn impact the usefulness of educational blogs slightly as users will most likely already be part of the network in some form. However, it could then be argued that right now is more important than ever both properly understand the network and to become an active participant in it is imperative. While students these days may have a limited understanding or participation in the network, the benefits of educational blogging outlined in this article are still for the most part relevant as overall it provides a more full, conceptual and practical understanding of the network if implemented in the ways that Miles outlined.

Selected Text 2 – Networks

(word count – 550)

Miles, A 2012, ‘Soft Cinematic Hypertext (Other Literacies)’, PhD thesis, RMIT University, Melbourne.

(Section: Network Literacy: The Path to New Knowledge p. 201-208)

This article explores the idea of network literacy and what it means to be a member of the network. The author firstly explains what traditional print literacy is, stating that all the conventions of behaviour, protocols and understanding of the ‘print defined and governed information economy” (p. 201) is what makes someone print literate, rather than just being able to read or write. Using this explanation as a base, the author uses it to suggest that being network literate requires just as much understanding, but in particular requires users to be able to participate as a peer within the network.

The author contends that to be network literate “is to contribute as much as it is to consume”, and that this is what is the biggest difference between print and network literacy. According to the article, print literacy, while requiring some understanding of how to be a peer, does not involve the level of interaction and communication that network literacy demands.

The article also explores the idea of “sharing and naming” (p. 204) by looking at RSS, XML and tagging. His contention is that these are very important tools that foster the interaction between users that network literacy demands; these are the tools that allow users to find, mix, generate and ‘weave’ together all the various parts of information that is available to us on the network.

The author most often uses his examples of print literacy to articulate the differences and similarities to network literacy. In a sense he uses the old to explain the new in this way. While not having much statistical research to back up what he’s saying, the author uses his own experience to justify the relevance of the topic, particularly when talking about what his day-to-day experience is like right now as a media lecturer. The article also relies heavily on illustrating its relevance through personal anecdotes or examples he may experience in his line of work, such as his references to ‘CiteULike’ and so on. Overall the article aims to convince its reader that right now network literacy has become just as, if not more, important than print literacy. As such the author is trying to dispel any preconceived ideas that network literacy might be something that future generations will learn, but instead highlights its relevance to current society.

While being eleven years old now, the article provides a practical understanding of what network literacy actually is, breaking it down to make it easy to understand and even pointing out subconscious parts of print literacy that readers will already know. Despite its age and how the network has evolved since being written, the article maintains its relevance through the network still being reliant on user participation and collaboration. The idea that network literacy requires just as much user contribution as it does consumption of information is useful in understanding how the network functions as a whole. Moreover, the pieces’ suggestion that writing in the network is now done with the awareness that anyone may read it is as relevant as ever. The article also provides useful information on the concept behind tagging, subscribing and archiving and using these functions to collaborate and weave together different parts of the network as understanding these gives a clearer picture as to what the network actually is.

Selected Text 3 – Social Media

(Word count – 544)

Siapera, E 2013, Understanding New Media, London, SAGE Publications, pp.1-16.

This chapter of Understanding New Media (Siapera, 2013) attempts to develop the idea of “new media” and look into what that actually means. The author validates their reason for exploring the concept by stating that humanity and media are fully linked, and “understanding media therefore means understanding humanity” (p. 2). The chapter also explains why the author chose the title of the book “Understanding New Media” rather than “Understanding Digital Media” or “Understanding Online Media”, then unpacking each of those terms and explaining why they aren’t suitable titles for such a broad subject, while admitting that the term ‘new media’ still has its flaws. The third part of the chapter is then devoted to exploring the reasons why we should study media and technology, again reiterating that to understand humanity properly, the human relationship with media and technology must also therefore be understand. This part of the chapter however is then broken into summarising and explaining the theories of four different “thinkers”: McLuhan, Kittler, Stiegler and Castells.

Put simply, McLuhan’s theory on the relationship between humanity and media and technology is summarised by the statement: “the medium is the message” (p. 7). It essentially suggests that the importance of media should not be placed on the content but how the content is being broadcast. Kittlers theory, while similar to McLuhans’, places a bigger influence on interpreting how the development of technology is very structured and “reveal the operation of power” (p. 9). Stieglers’ theory differs from both. Rather it suggests that media and humanity are “inextricably bound” (p. 11), and that the evolution of both should be studied without prioritising either one as they “co-determine each other” (p. 9). Castells’ point of view is the most different however, as he theorises that “new technologies are associated with a new form of social network” (p. 14). In this way the author interprets Castells’ theory as one based around the idea of the network.

This chapter overall offers a useful discussion around what new media is and why it’s so important. The research is quite extensive, and most points are validated by other works of thinkers like McLuhan, Kittler, Stiegler and Castells, but also many more. It is a useful introduction to the exploration of new media and would be particularly useful for someone who had little prior knowledge on the topic. The authors’ offering of different counter points on the topic allows the reader to understand the conflict within trying to understand and define new media and the relationship between it and humanity, however only through the lens of her summations. One weakness of this piece may be that some of the concepts are touched on and not fully explained (this is because it’s the opening chapter of a whole book on new media), and as such is most useful as an overview on the broad topic of defining new media and its relationship with humanity rather than an in-depth look at one aspect of new media in particular. However, all in all the piece serves its purpose effectively as it presents a brief explanation as to why new media is bigger than just online media or digital media, but more significantly why new media should be studied to better understand the evolution of society.