Having to engage in research into the Social Cognitive Theory for my Pop-Culture group presentation, I came across the experiments of Albert Bandura…in particular, his experiments with the bobo doll.

Upon reading and watching the experiments, my memory was sparked and reminded of the electoral in which Brian touched on these experiments and their importance into how messages are subliminally received by the audience.

This idea behind the cognitive ramifications of messages has altered the way in which I perceive certain media artefacts and has prompted me to continue in my own personal research on the topic.

For those of you who have yet to witness the experiments:

– donandsherri

Week 9.

3/4 of the way through the first semester of the Media degree.

The first lecture I have attended in approximately 2 weeks and it was a great reintroduction back into the ideas surrounding the Media Industries as a whole. Having recently been divided into our groups and designated our discourse, I can only imagine the lectures from here on out will be of high relevance to our degree and ultimately our future in the Media field.

Audiences.

The topic of todays lectorial centred around the ideas of Audiences.

The two major components of the interactive discussion that resonated the most with me was the ideas of Mass Culture and Mass Audiences… with the common perception that there is no masses, only a capitalisation of people for the purpose of cultural or political exploitation. That in fact, acting in stark contrast, there is an audience that is engaged with the media thrown at it and the audience is active in their involvement with the media artefacts.

I feel that I fit comfortably into the category of the active audience, as my interactions with media is always highly critical and analytical; as I am always looking for the motives behind certain scenes and edits. If I were to be studied by a theorist or academic, I feel that they would find me somewhat of an anomaly, for one reason I may dislike a certain piece of media, is the exact reason I like another piece of media.

Until next week, I feel I will ponder these thoughts about the active audience and attempt to discover why it is that I resonate and repel from certain media artefacts.

– donandsherri

“Texts are material traces that are left of the practice of sense-making : the only empirical evidence we have of how other people make sense of the world”

This was the first quote that was delivered to us today by Brian Morris in his Lectorial focusing around the ideas of Texts as cultural meanings and the post-structural analysis of text that occurs today (in all its denotative and connotative forms).

Post-structural textual analysis aims to address all what were and what are the reasonable sense making practices employed in a text and what effects these practices exhibited on the targeted society as both a whole and individually.

The idea of Semiotics and Signifier & Signified managed to resonate the most with my analytical thought process and develop traction as the class drew to a close. Upon leaving the class, I made note to further research the theorists that Brian made mention of during the class : Albert Bandura & George Gerbner.

Albert Bandura and his works with the Bobo Doll drew my attention.

Housed under the theoretical framework of ‘Social Cognitive Theory’, Bandura proposed the idea that : People, after seeing behaviours acted out by a respectable person, will subconsciously recreate the same actions, no matter the consequences. He formulated these theories off the experiments he undertook on children; who were subject to an adult ‘beating up’ a Bobo Doll. Upon watching the adults behaviour, the children exhibited the same traits and ‘beat up’ the Bobo Doll too.

I feel that this ‘Social Cognitive Theory’ remains of high relevance in a modern media world, as consumers follow the traits of their own personal idols and exhibit these traits somewhat subconsciously. The epitome of this would be a person who succumbs to fandom; literally recreating and reshaping their whole life to fit within the constraints that their idol mediates.

– donandsherri

Having just attended my first Lectorial in 3 weeks (due to the mid-semester break) I was pleasantly surprised at the content that was delivered today.

Touching on some sociological theories about semiotics and the ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ theory has prompted me to go into a lot more in-depth viewing experiences on all media that I encounter on a daily basis.

– donandsherri

17-March-2015

This was the day that the mysterious and complex world of Copyright Law was unpacked and the folk law behind it completely unraveled.

Having guest speaker Anne Lennox command the attention of the entire class for 30 minutes is quite impressive in its own right; but to have that underrated attention when talking about copyright law, that’s something completely unheard of.

Anne mannaged to present to complexities behind copyright law in a manner that almost all of the class could easily digest and connect with. By presenting in this way, Anne managed not only to grab the attention of everyone, but to also engage in relevant conversation.

I would like to say that this Lectorial completely diffused any problems with copyright law, however I would be selling you a lie. What this Lectorial did do, however, was to highlight the complexities behind copyright law and enlighten me to the thin line that must be navigated to avoid any form of legal action.

I now fear Copyright Law as much as I fear the rise of Godzilla.

– donandsherri