Another conceptual approach to advertising could come in the form of students, as Gloria, Michael and I traveled to Federation Square with film gear in hand. Many individuals asked what we were recording, this caused us to answer with a statement involving that we were university students from RMIT studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications and has to fulfil a certain assignment.
As an update on our project the interviewing process went well, at first we assumed it would be harder than imagined. There were a hefty amount of rejections but a surprising amount of applicants wanting to be involved, some who were even quite charismatic about the topic. I was the camera operator, Gloria on sound and Michael was the interviewer as well as the individual handing out the release forms.
Overall it was interesting to hear about this topic, one Irish individual even included he knew that there were potential risks involving wearable devices but didn’t care change his lifestyle, I believe this says a lot about the society we live in.
“Grace Neutral explores how younger generations are challenging traditional views around beauty and body image across the world. In the first four episodes of Beyond Beauty, we follow Grace to South Korea as she investigates the ways in which Seoul’s youth conform and challenge mainstream beauty ideals. Although it’s socially acceptable for teenagers to have cosmetic surgery within its six billion dollar domestic beauty industry, it is illegal to be a tattoo artist. From underground tattoo studios to specialist club nights, Grace meets the young South Koreans embracing alternative ideas of beauty and discovers the impact it has on their lives.” – (Youtube i-D)
As an individual in a first world (Australian) society self expression has become relevant through visual aesthetics and ones choice to choose most importantly what they decide to do with their body. It is interesting to watch this short ten minute documentary based around a country where tattoos are seen not only as taboo but degrading and criminally related. I believe this relates back to present day society where our image of beauty is still so distorted around what the media releases and chooses us to view. It should also be noted that the country ‘Grace Neutral’ narrated this documentary in (South Korea) is also the number one leading country for cosmetic surgery in fact “50% of 20-year-old women in South Korea are reported having undergone plastic surgery”.
It baffles me how out of these two body modifications one is seen as ‘dirty’ and the other has become normalized.
A women Neutral interviews in the documentary states that if she wasn’t allowed to continue receiving plastic surgery she “([I]) would die”. This documentary really got me into what would influence a whole generation to change their physical identity- the answer Neutral found was ‘Kpop’. In South Korea K pop is more than just a form of popular music it is an industry which has immense influence on it’s consumers, and this can visually be seen to the extent of physical transformation.
I also want to note that this documentary has given me an insight into my visual and audio essay, the presentation, the visuals and overall the dramatic and lasting feel it left on me once it had finished. It was definitely a feeling of wanting more, luckily i-D (the youtube channel which uploads Neutrals content) had a few other visually stunning documentaries based around the fixation on perfection (created by the South Korean media), This makes me question how one whole country can be influenced vastly more than another- this is a subject I will want to look into further and hopefully find some results.
Media institutions; the topic for week 10’s lectorial. A media institution is an overarching company that has ownership over numerous companies within the mass media, these can include television, radio, publishing, film as well as online (the internet).
It is important that a company’s values runs across through all of its businesses, including the employees and other individuals associated with the company.
A prime example of a media institution with prominent values is Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg continues to stream his views on connectivity throughout the social media website. It was built as a platform for connection, sharing and to build social relations of course this also comes back to being their core values.
I can’t help comparing this platform to Rupert Murdoch in which he has major influence and owns a large part of the Australian media. His biased (extreme right winged) political views and values can be seen running through ‘The Herald Sun’ which is one of the many companies he has ownership over. Of course the views and values of this company would reflect a right-winged political stance as Murdoch does. Is is a reflection and example of a media institution mainly owned by a single individual with influence.
These two images below from the Herald Sun are all that needs to be shown to represent the strong biased political pull.
A project brief four update; of course as this project is our final statement piece for the semester this tutorial was spent giving notes and feedback about our topics the way we will be going about the essay. The idea we have on forming our essay is to take brief summary notes from our annotated bibliography and turn it into a dialectic script. This would mean we won’t have to spend time researching beyond the information we have already collected thus we can spend more time on the construction of the Audio essay (which will eventually lead to the construction of the film essay). The three topics we will be focusing on is smart wearable devices and the pros and cons they bring to modern society as well as security from Location Bases Services (LBS) and applications proximity settings (including dating apps and facebook) as well as possible radio frequencies and long term danger these devices could possibly have.
As project brief four consists of multiple tasks (including a developmental process) more time was given during this week’s tutorial to focus on our topics. Group discussions and feedback was formed in order for our tutor and fellow peers to evaluate and remark on any aspects they think we were able to improve on. It is interesting to see how our personal intrigues into the subject material (mediums and technology; wearable devices) reflects on what we choose for our annotated bibliography. Michael had chosen items that reflected developing technology (google glasses, smart bra) were as I had chosen articles focusing more on the privacy of this developing technology (social media applications such as tinder, happn and grindr). I believe we have quite a good work ethic and collaboration happening, as even if a team member is sick we schedule regular meetings around times which would be easiest for everyone to attend as well as keeping our facebook group page updated and consistently connected through its messenger.
The audio essay is our first tackle and as discussed we will be including interviews from people involved within the technology industry based around wearable devices, we are looking more on items that exclude the smartphone (such as a fitbit or smartwatch) but are also taking smartphones into account to discusses Geolocators and proximity settings as well as privacy. It is good to work with peers who are willing to put in the effort to help each other which can be a Russian roulette in the real media industry where you will not always get paired with the right people.
“A mysterious case of the topsy turvies and a return to the question of what felines feel when they fall.”
In order to gain more of an insight into the world of audio essays I had a deeper delved into the site ‘radio lab’ (http://www.radiolab.org/) which was discussed in a recent weeks tutorial.
In particular I looked in to the essay of ‘Gravitational Anarchy’ which involved guests David Quammen and Neil deGrasse Tyson, I choose this particular example because I am quite a fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson and the topic does relate to growing technology, in this case for astronomical reasons (where as our essay will be conducted on technology in regards to wearable devices). The piece begins with a story excerpted from an essay by Berton Roueché. This is an excellent example of referencing and using other sources for the audio aspect within the essay.
The mixture and choice of music within the intro dialogue (Rouechés except) is quite interesting a church organ is used to build suspense as the character almost overlaps her own voice in order to delay the level of silence in the piece creating a very fast paced narrative which keeps listeners on edge. The use of other voices to play separate characters within the story adds in extra excitement and helps personalize each individual. As the story is set in another era slow jazz music is used, the music is also deliberately warped as the character explains her imbalance. This connection between the music and the narrative helps the audience picture what the characters balance would be like visually although conveyed purely with audio.
Finally there is also aspects of discussion between two guests as they reference back to the narrative piece excepted into the essay and refer back to how Rouches story conveys meaning towards the term gravitational anarchy. Of course there is so much more detail used within this essay and all the essays posted onto Radio Lab but listening to each one allows a user to note down certain prominent characteristics and they can choose if those characteristics would work well within their own essay in this case linking soundtrack to the narrative is very important especially when describing a scene or a dramatic reading.
David Morley’s piece of writing discuss the difference views and values of modern audiences as well as the values they have held historically. The platforms on which audiences have been based across was discussed and it was intriguing to see the difference between an audience of a novel (spread across space and time) compared to that of other instant platforms. Inventions through history which include the newspaper, radio and television also allowed for individuals to retrieve information from difference locations within the same time frame making a shared sense of “life in common” or connected-ness. The article discusses the progression of the television platform and how it has evolved into many channels in which its users can actively change and select what they want to watch. Morley uses different categories of audiences as examples including the mass audience, mediated audience and active audience. This particular note reminded me of other main theories in media involving audiences.
The ‘Active Audience Theory “media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved, often unconsciously, in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts”. The ‘Uses and Gratifications Theory “This theory created by Blumler and Katz’s suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media. “There also was the ‘Hypodermic Needle Theory’ which isn’t used anymore in modern society but originally the “hypodermic needle theory implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences overall the theory played with the idea that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience”. Of course this was mainly used during a political time of propaganda (i.e WW2) but it is a good reflection on how the views and values of audiences have changed and how we have come to understand that active audiences are needed in order to contain media bias. In Morley’s article he discusses these ideas; weather an audience is passive or active. Are individuals controlled by the power of the media or are they actively choosing and arguing the content they intake. In an overall reflection Morley continues to note that it is those two groups (passive or active) that are in debate to see who makes up most of today’s audiences.
Copywriting as my favourite reliable source would put it is “written content conveyed through online media and print materials. Copy is a content primarily used for the purpose of advertising or marketing. This type of written material is often used to persuade a person or group as well as raise brand awareness.” (Wikipedia)This topic was exactly what week 9’s lectorial focused upon, to be more precise the aspects we ourselves as students may not be aware off and the complexities various copywrite materials hold. Grey areas of the copywrite law include material museums, education, libraries and other areas where information and recourses that may want to share information for a non-profitable gain.
This brings me to my personal use of understanding and using copywrited material throughout the years. Apart from directly asking a content creator if you are able to use their material there are things known as licensing, where you can either buy and use the material, use it for your personal use, or it may come under a category known as Creative commons (CC).
The creative commons license s is a “worldwide non-profit organisation that provides copyright owners with free licences allowing them to share, reuse and remix their material, legally” (Creative Commons Australia). This has helped many budding filmmakers, students, and youtubers who do not have enough funding to be able to create and share material. It is important to note “offering your work under a Creative Commons licence does not mean giving up your copyright. It means permitting users to make use of your material in various ways, but only on certain conditions.”
Overall when choosing what material you will be using in a project (whether personal, public of educational) it is vital to look at the license that material comes under, if an individual has not stated where their material stands in terms of copywrite it is necessary to ask, infringements and defamation is the last thing any student would want for creating work to share with the world.
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (feat. Fresh Big Mouf) by CSWS is a very upbeat contemporised hip hop track I was enjoying the other day so it came as a surprised when I learnt that the music artists Mighty & High make can be licenced for users to work with for free. This means I would be able to use this song in any media creation I want to. It made me want to understand why these particular artists and many more established ones choose to make their music royalty free when they could be earning money from licensing like other high achieving artists do.
At first note, exposure- allowing the track to be used without individuals having to pay allows for a wider audience to hear the music, giving the band an overall wider exposure. “The CSWS has been featured (via Youtube partnerships) on the homepage of some of the most prestigious culture sites on the web. Buzzfeed, Gawker, ESPN, YouTube, Huffington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, TechCrunch, TheChive, etc. All totalled, and across platforms, CSWS’ music has been listened to over 150 million plays.” (CSWS Facebook biography) I doubt the artists would have had as many users playing their track if again it wasn’t for the complimentary licensing.
In a different light having the artists give free royalties also means that they create music because they believe in the music giving them a sense of authenticity and ‘realness’ that other artists in modern pop culture music seem to lack. Overall I am excited to be able to use this track in future creations and look forward to looking for more royalty free music that stems away from just the standard audio beats we hear within many Youtube videos.
This article explores an in-depth analysis into the social media trend of dating apps and the privacy risks uses can encounter when participating with these platforms. The article suggests Proximity-based GSNs or ‘proximity systems’ and other GeoSocial apps that broadcast a user’s location can lead to potential invasions of privacy. The researches also explore the analysed use of Facebook login credentials as an authentication provider in which many applications can access to a user’s profile information including that which may be switched onto private. The article is useful to the research within our topic as it provides an in depth insight into the use of applications within wearable smartphone devices and the influx of these devices in modern society. It also examines the statistics within the number of users using the apps as well as which application use different proximity systems. The article is beneficial to our topic since it touches on an issue inherent to the subject of wearable devices.
The findings relate to how privacy on mobile dating apps is quite limited almost stating in half of the apps the article presents the researchers were able to recover messages sent or received by a user. The article also notes almost all of the applications mentioned leaked profile images to some extent. The overall summary being that in using GeoSocial dating apps, much of the data can be easily recovered even once deleted. This article had a personal interest to me as well having used many apps that involved GeoSocial retrieval of information. It makes me question which ones I would allow to have access and which could potentially be unsafe. Farnden, J, Martini, B, Choo, K-K R, 2015. ‘Privacy Risks in Mobile Dating Apps’, University of South Australia, Association for Information Systems, pp. 13-15
