Something To Lighten Your Mood
Sometimes when life gets stressful, and I start to feel overwhelmed I turn to YouTube.
This is a particular favourite of mine. I hope you enjoy it.
Banksy On Copyrighted Advertising Material
The week two readings on Copyright and Creative Commons have got me thinking.
First of all, I must tell my little sister who spends a lot of time blogging about fashion, to be careful. I’m sure she has no idea about Copyright laws, or where to find material that can be used freely.
Secondly, the discussion on Copyright makes me think of something Banksy wrote on Copyright in the Context of Advertising.
I think Banksy’s view on Copyrighted material is a valid one. What it comes down to is keeping money in certain people’s pockets, money that comes from us, the subjects whose public space is saturated with this material. So, why can’t we have a slice?
Adrian’s example from last week, the case of Michelle Phan shows how Copyright laws protect the wealth of big conglomerates. It’s interesting to note in this case that the creative artist (Kaskade) was happy about Michelle’s sharing of his music, because he’d gained a healthier following. However, it was the record company (Ultra Records) suing Michelle for using material that is legally owned by them. I wonder if they’d have bothered suing Michelle had she not made money out her of blog? Probably not, as there’d be nothing in it for them.
To expand on this a little further, what about when Copyrighted material is used to create something new? Why shouldn’t we be able to use other people’s material to create new things, new ideas and new cultures? Is anything really original anyway? What is original? Is there such a thing?
In my opinion creativity is for sharing, but it seems money and greed are the biggest thwarter of creativity.
When I Grow Up I want To Be A Blogger
In 2013 I worked as an intern with the Brand Marketing Team at Adidas. One of my jobs as an intern was to search the net for influential Australian fashion blogs to seed product through (seeding product is basically giving away product to people who’ll blog about it and make others want to buy it), and by influential I mean, any blog with more than a thousand followers.
I found some pretty impressive fashion blogs I have to say. I was quite impressed at the amount of creativity that’d gone into making each blog stand out – note to self: a blog should have an edge and a target public if you want it to be a hit.
In the process of searching for fashion blogs, I came across some other fabulous blogs about dogs, cooking, job-hunting, gardening, DIY projects etc. Then I got to thinking; blogs are really just public diaries about people’s passions, and if others find them interesting then you could be in for some serious business opportunities.
Not only will companies like Adidas be throwing free product at you, but also if you have a service to offer and you have developed a strong relationship with your followers, you may be able to turn your followers into customers.
Fancy being a professional blogger? Here are some tips to get you started.
One more thing…
In my search for influential blogs I noticed that great blogs are built on very simple ideas. Think of something that you’d love to read about, something that’d really come in handy.
Here’s a blog I found today that I’d have loved five years ago when I was flying to New York on a regular basis; How To: NYC in a Day (Summer). In fact, this blog has inspired me to use my travel experience in a blog of my own!
Food for thought anyway.
Rhyme or Reason?
Tuesday’s symposium left me feeling a little unsettled.
How can a story not have a beginning, middle and end? Isn’t this the intrinsic pattern of everything?
Adrian made a helpful point in his blog post on Tuesday evening; if a book were not bound together with each page numbered, how would we make sense of it? How would we distinguish its beginning, middle and end?
This made me think of a children’s game that allows kids to create their own story. The best way to describe this game is to imagine a picture book with its binding and page numbers removed. Children are then free to arrange the story’s pages in whatever way they like. For example, what was once a middle might become a suspenseful end, or the beginning might start with the end, and so on.
If we forget about the conventions of a book we are free to create the meaning of our choice. The point I am trying to make here follows on from what Adrian said in Tuesday’s symposium; language can override reason (the reasonable conventions of a book i.e. beginning, middle and end) even though most of us think that reason comes first.
Laura Doguet’s post on this week’s symposium points to the internet as a contemporary communication platform that exists without traditional conventions, like a book without binding and page numbers. Does this mean the internet allows us to freely arrange (or rearrange) meaning in a similar way to the children’s game I mentioned earlier?
I will stop now before I completely confuse myself, but I think this is an interesting way to think about language and reason.
Knowing How and Knowing What
An important distinction made in week one’s symposium was between tacit and explicit knowledge. Essentially, this is the difference between ‘know how’ (tacit) and ‘know what’ (explicit).
Tacit knowledge, or knowing how to do something is not easily communicated. I like to think of it as something the body just knows how to do.
On the other hand, explicit knowledge is something that’s easily communicated. You could say the majority of what we learn at university is explicit knowledge.
Something I’ve always known how to do is sing. I never learnt how to do it, it just came naturally to me from a young age. I know many people who’ve had singing lessons and developed their voices to a decent level, but I think there’s an obvious difference between a person who can sing naturally (tacitly), and a person who has learnt how to sing (explicitly). The quality is different. I know this makes me sound like a singing snob, but it is what it is.
In my opinion tacit knowledge is special because it can’t be taught. Anyone who is somewhat determined can go to uni and gain explicit knowledge, but tacit knowledge allows people to be individuals with unique talents.
Here are some more examples of tacit knowledge Ten Examples of Tacit Knowledge
I’d love to know your thoughts. Do you think tacit knowledge can be taught?
Get Your Blog On And Participate
After reading ‘Blogs in Media Education’ by Adrian Miles, I’ve come to a better understanding of the importance of blogging. It’s not just a means of expressing one’s views, passions and ideas i.e. communicating in the traditional sense, but a fundamental part of a network of media, which represents the contemporary communication environment.
One idea from the reading that struck me as particularly important is that blogging enables us – consumers – to not only learn from others, but to play an active role in the production of information. Thus, it facilitates a culture of participation that subverts the conventional idea that media is produced by certain actors and passively absorbed by consumers. Furthermore, blogging or participating in an online network of media, allows us to have a say in the meaning of things, thus we are not limited simply to the information produced by media powerhouses.
Now that my critical response to the reading is out of the way, let me show you what people are actually blogging about. What kinds of information are people like you and I producing? The answer is, anything and everything! You name it, from Politics to baking it’s being produced.
I’ve spent the last couple of days searching for blogs to add to my blogroll, and I’ve come across some that are more like works of art! Check out the 2013 winners of the Australian Writers’ Centre Best Australian Blog for some inspiration. Applications for the 2014 competition are already closed, but if you really get into it you could be in the running for 2015!
Getting Off To A Good Start
Procrastination is like a debilitating disease; at least for me it is. I’ve only been back at uni for a week and already it’s started creeping back into my life. I must admit, I’m a lot better at getting things done these days (my high school friends can certainly vouch for that, I was a shocker in my younger years), but I still struggle from time to time.
This weekend I’d planned to spend time getting a head start on readings and assignments. Instead, I ate about 20 Tim Tams, knitted a scarf, skyped a few of my mates overseas, babysat, and then ate more Tim Tams. It’s now 11:07pm on Saturday night, and this is the first bit of writing I’ve done all day!
I know why I procrastinate (and eat way too much chocolate) at times; it’s because I feel overwhelmed and nervous that I won’t be able to keep on top of uni work, money work and everything else in my 30-year-old-life. Consequently, this anxiety causes me to think of myself as some kind of failure, who has no hope of achieving an exciting and successful career. So, instead of sitting down and writing something, I sit down and write nothing (and eat Tim Tams). It becomes easier for me to do nothing, than to try to do something.
On the up side, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only student who experiences anxiety-induced procrastination, which is my reason for highlighting it in this post. I did a bit of online research this afternoon about how to avoid procrastination, and I found some advice that really helped me to get the ball rolling. I want to share it with you in the hope that it will help you (if you need it) get off to a good start this semester. 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Beat Procrastination
And one more thing, it’s now 11:32pm and I’ve managed to do something instead of nothing.
Small amount of weight lifted off shoulders? Check.
Bienvenue
Welcome to my blog for Networked Media Semester 2, 2014. I’m still trying to get my head around all we’re supposed to achieve in this course, but feel better for being able to rely on my network of classmates to help out. If I can help anyone in return please let me know.
Best wishes.