Month: May 2016
Week 9 Lectorial – Audiences
During the period from 1976-1985, there was a sharp drop in the number of people who would like to go to the cinema. However, TV-watchers are rapidly on the rise. Many factors have led to the sharp contrast between film-goers and TV-watchers. First of all, with the development of the economy, people have more money. Most families can afford at least one TV set at home, so people have more chance to watch TV. On the other hand, it is becoming more and more expensive for people to go to the cinema. Therefore, many people choose to stay at home instead of going to see a movie. But there are still some people who prefer to go to the cinema to see films, for they think they can enjoy better visual effects in the cinema and what’s more, they can share the happy moment with their loved ones.
Nowadays, SMS interaction has become a major part of various programs. Recently, there has been a fierce argument over the issue among the netizens. Opinions are divided as follows.
The defenders consider it a good way for us to take part in the program, while the critics hold the opinion that it is just another way for the TV stations to make more money. As for me, frankly speaking, I stick to the former.
In the first place, seldom does everyone have the opportunity to watch the live show. Therefore, via sending short messages, people can really take an active part in the program rather than just passively watch it, which allows them to support their favorite performers as well as comment on them. Additionally, being cheap, sending short messages is affordable to the average person. What’s more, the rules of many live competitions have been changed due to the participation of the audience by sending messages. For instance, the final result of some programs are no longer only determined by the judges but also by the audience..
In conclusion, SMS interaction has largely changed the way people enjoy TV programs. However, it is indisputable that there do exist some drawbacks that need further improvement. Anyway, whichever way it chooses, it should serve the fundamental purpose of the programs—to reach a large audience and entertain us.
PINHOLE CAMERA
Because one of our PB4 idea is about pinhole camera. When i search the resources about it, i found it is really interesting. So i just search some way to do it by myself.
I use the pinhole camera to take photoes of plants around us, such as plants in the university, around the cafe and even on the road.These plants i took are all very normal plants,not very beautiful. Plants are very important for human being.However, some of us still destroy them. I want to show that we should take care the plants around us and protect them. Plants which even very tiny and not beautiful as flower is still important. They help us to breathe fresh air. And the huge plants, such as trees even can keep out wind,rain and sunshine for us. I shoot these normal plants because i wish people to respect every plants’ life especially some normal ones.
Week 8 Initiative Post – Library
This week, we learned how to use online library to research the resources. Actucally i have a long time did not go to library before study in university. The library is the most important part of our university.Marking a proper use of it will certainly help you very much in your study.Now,look at the diagram below.To the right of the doors there me shelves with a lot of current periodicals.The new issues are so arranged that the students can see the covers of the current magazines.Daily newspapers are also in this area.There are eight comfortable chair and two tables for the student reading newspapers and periodicals.The card catalog is in the middle of the room just in front of the doors.The cards are in alphabetical order according to the title of a book or periodical,the author,and the subject,which makes it easier for the student to find the book they want.www.joozone.comThe major part of the room on the left is another study area.Beside four tables,all books are on shelves in order.The shelves are called the stacks.This library has open stacks so that the students can look for books themselves.If you want to borrow or return books,the librarians at the circulation desk will he at your service.If you want to photocopy some good articles from books,you can go to the leftmost end of the room.The photocopy machine in the corner will do it for you.
Week 8 – Workshop
For this week’s workshop. We discussed our PB4 more:
| OBJECTIVE |
| Narrowed project statement: |
| Exploring what/who are the major influencers and how they afffect trends and relationships |
| between technological gadgets and online platforms |
| Brian suggested we define project statement more specifically |
| Changed project statement: |
| To document how accessibility of camera has changed out use of it |
| Established Objectives: |
| How has changes in the physical camera expanded its functions and types of users? |
| Established sub-topics: |
| – History of processing photos |
| What are the specific events in evolution of camera? |
| E.g. pinhole camera, digital camera, etc. |
| – Photography’s expanded functions |
| E.g. photojournalism, fine arts vs perosnal self-expression, photography business |
| Delegated Work: |
| – Significant changes in photojournalism |
| – Photography as fine arts vs personal self-expresison |
| – How photography business has evolved |
Week 8 Reading – Annotated Bibliography for Project Brief 4
Hochman, N & Manovich, L 2013, ‘Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media’, First Monday, vol.18, no. 7.
This article talks about users’ experiences of production, sharing, and interaction with the media they create mediated by the interfaces of particular social media platforms. How they use computational analysis and visualizations of the content of visual social med to study social and cultural patterns. How they visualize this media on multiple spatial and temporal scales. In this paper, author examines these questions through the analysis of the popular mobile photo–sharing application Instagram. First, we analyze the affordances provided by the Instagram interface and the ways this interface and the application’s tools structure users’ understanding and use of the “Instagram medium.” Next, we compare the visual signatures of 13 different global cities using 2.3 million Instagram photos from these cities. Finally, we use spatio–temporal visualizations of over 200,000 Instagram photos uploaded in Tel Aviv, Israel over three months to show how they can offer social, cultural and political insights about people’s activities in particular locations and time periods.
Week 11 Lectorial – Mediums and Technologies
‘Mediums and Technologies’ is my gourp’s PB4 theme.
So i will discuss this topic with our PB4 idea which is based on our phone camera.
Today, the phone has become a necessary, everyday item. This handy piece of technology instantly connects us to our friends, emergency hotlines, the web, the world. We keep up-to-date with news and trending events through our phones and especially through social media.
Among the many social media apps, Instagram seems to be the most popular choice for businesses and market influencers. As a photo and sharing service app, its simple and user-friendly interface has garnered more than 400 million users with 80 million photos uploaded each day. Coupled with our high tech phone cameras, it is a breeze to produce and share user-created content. The phone’s screenshot function also allows content from instagram to be uploaded and circulated on other media platforms. Communication between producers and consumers is also easily set up with the like button and comment section. In this way, businesses can analyse their product’s reception as well.Instagram has definitely contributed to our modern photo-taking culture. The app encourages us to share pictures with the world while advanced phone camera functions has spurred our instant-shoot-and-upload culture.
And some people hate that. Some camera lovers prefer to experience the slower processes of photography. They may say that taking time to work with natural lighting, tweaking focus and aperture to compose a well-proportioned image; that playing with the many knobs and buttons on the camera is what’s most important in photography.
Why go through the trouble of studying photography process when we can take advantage of our smartphone’s auto-adjust technology? The latest iPhone 6s Plus has a 12-megapixel camera and Apple says it has added a “state-of-the-art sensor, new image signal processor, advanced pixel technology, Focus Pixels, improved local tone mapping and optical image stabilization”. One may not understand what these jargons mean but one knows it means good quality. Apple even launched a photo competition upon releasing their iPhone 6 series to prove their point.
Even before the popularity of phone cameras, DSLRs had always been expensive. Its price tag and many functions to study, made photography an elitist affair. Comparatively, phone photography is accessible, easy, instant and mainstream.
Rather than being labelled a “dying art form”, use of digital or film cameras have become a high-end niche activity. Where there is time to appreciate the photo-taking process, these chunkier tools are superior to phone cameras. Because DSLRs allow users to change lenses, this function allows a wider range of aesthetics and quality that the phone camera and editing apps cannot achieve – at least not yet. Today, many business and public event photographers still use DSLRs.
Ultimately, businesses need to be social-media-savvy to establish brand presence and promote their services. And if you want a consistent global audience to follow your advertisements, well Instagram is a great place to start!