BCM112

One does not simply, spot a bot..

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

For this weeks post, I have explored the topics of social media, the online persona, micro-celebrities and the concept of non-humans and Twitter in the form of a podcast. I apologise sincerely for the rambling however I tend to travel off into stories unknowingly.. Exploring Soundcloud as someone that uploads rather than just listens was interesting for me, however not as interesting as the cringe fest when having to listen to my own voice played back over and over..

Please have a listen and I hope you enjoy!

References

Bosker, B 2013, ‘Twitter Bots Have No Trouble Fooling You, Getting More Influence Than Oprah’,The Huffington Post: Tech, 08/07/13, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/twitter-bots-influence_n_3542561.html>

McMillan, R 2012, ‘A Twitter bot so convincing that people sympathise with “her”‘, Wired UK, 26 June 2012 <http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/26/twitter-bot-people-like>

Kessler, S 2014, ‘How Twitter Bots Fool You Into Thinking They Are Real People’, Fast Company,June 10 2014 <http://www.fastcompany.com/3031500/how-twitter-bots-fool-you-into-thinking-they-are-real-people>

Lets take a look at Stop Animation.

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

Stop motion animation is a cinematic process, or technique that allows still objects to appear as if they are moving. It is commonly used in claymation and puppet-based animation. The objects are brought to ‘life’ by breaking up the figure’s motion into increments. A photograph is taken for each movement, and when the photographs are stitched together in a continuous sequence the illusion of movement is created.

Stop motion animation is something that takes me right back to my childhood. ABC kids programs in the late 90’s/early 2000’s would frequently use stop animation such as the ever so creepy ‘Gogs’. I remember watching it every afternoon, freaked out but so entertained; mesmerised by the incredible claymation.

When I think of stop animation, I think of being a wee little Emily watching ABC Kids, so I had a crack at creating my own stop animation called ‘Bay Day for Babushka’. Don’t be too harsh on me.. Enjoy!

You’re not even a real journalism..

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

meme (2)

Citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do, report information.

The current world we live in is all about producing, sharing and consuming. Citizen journalism is incredibly popular. No degree required or fees to pay unlike qualified journalists, and no filter or direct risk. Citizen journalism is the absence of authority, an open process with no closure. The arrival of the Internet with blogs, podcasts, YouTube and other Web-related innovations is what has made citizen journalism possible. Blogs and social media have taken away the feature of ‘gatekeepers’ (publishers, editors, content controllers) allowing individuals to post what they want, free from control.

As social media allows for immediate uploads, it is quickly becoming the host to report news before any other form of media.

However, one problem it poses is that Citizen Journalism has been marred by inaccurate reporting; such as reports during Superstorm Sandy that the New York Stock Exchange had been flooded.
With the majority of citizen journalists not being paid for their work, it seems unrealistic to expect them to have the same commitment to their work as paid professionals would, this being a problem that doesn’t seem likely to disappear any time soon.

Nevertheless, Citizen journalism allows for instant access and immediate information for people all around the world, we just have to be careful as to what we take as fact and fiction..

To wrap this up, a video that most likely expresses how qualified Journalists feel about Citizen Journalists..

The World of Transmedia.

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

Henry Jenkins describes Transmedia storytelling as representing “a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.”

Transmedia is not about repurposing (telling the same story over and over) but rather about creating fictional worlds in which different elements of the story can be explored across multiple platforms. The movie, the game, the mobile phone app, the comic book etc. each look at the story from a different perspective exploring areas in the main narrative that would never have been explored if the narrative was ‘multimedia’ rather than ‘transmedia’.

Now in light of those two words which can be easily confused, ‘Multimedia’ is telling a single story over multiple platforms. Transmedia is telling multiple stories over multiple platforms. To give you an example of transmedia, ‘The Matrix’ released in 1999. Within 5 years of its release, it had spanned across numerous platforms, including 2 sequels, 9 animations, 3 video games, 4 printed books, 2 printed comics and 3 web comics. Safe to say, it was incredibly successful.

Transmedia is meant to allow for more consumers and generate more interest across the multiple platforms. This has enabled countless companies, movies, books etc. to expand the narrative to a wider audience.

J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter is another key example of transmedia. Pottermore is an online realm of Harry Potter that focuses on the unexplored nuances of the Harry Potter series. Featuring unpublished pages from the novels, Rowlings thoughts on different aspects of the series and fan stories of their own, the site generated so much internet traffic, that there was a period of time when if you registered for Pottermore, you were put onto a ‘waiting list’..

meme (1)

“Transmedia refers to a set of choices made about the best approach to a particular story to a particular audience in a particular context depending on the particular resources available to a particular producers. The more we expand the definition, the richer the range of options available to us can be.” – Henry Jenkins.

There is no doubt that Transmedia is an incredibly powerful tool, you only need to take a look at the world of Harry Potter and The Matrix to see that. One thing I know for sure is if I came up with a book or movie good enough to be taken into the world of Transmedia, I’d be a wealthy, happy lass.

One more thing, creating memes is way too much fun..

meme

References:

Jenkins, H 2007, ‘Transmedia Storytelling 101‘, viewed on 25 April 2015, <http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html>

Transmedia Storyteller, n.d., ‘Transmedia Storytelling‘, viewed on 25 April 2015, <http://www.tstoryteller.com/transmedia-storytelling&gt;

Rutledge, P 2015, ‘What is Transmedia Storytelling?’,  A Think Lab, viewed on 25 April 2015, <http://athinklab.com/transmedia-storytelling/what-is-transmedia-storytelling/>

Dude, thats my song?

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

Remixing is defined as the act of rearranging, uniting, editorialising, and adding originals to create something entirely new, it is said that we live in the age of the remix. The question is though, what is original, and does it even matter? A remix will take the original form and by remixing, completely change the content and/or context of the original piece. If I head out for the usual Wednesday uni night, I can guarantee I will not dance to one original piece of music, I’ll be dancing to a continuous stream of remixes.

This article published by the ABC highlights how our current copyright laws are not keeping up with digital era and the age of the remix.

http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1645533.htm

Driving this ‘remix culture’ is the growth of new digital technologies and of course the Internet, which has made it increasingly easy to re-use and remix existing content, producing a new age of creativity. The challenge for creativity and the economy of digital content production is the level to which mash up and remix artists should be entitled to borrow from the past to create the future?

Would you be happy if someone were to take a song you created, and remix it to claim as his or her own?

Virtual world vs reality.

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

Gone are the days, where you could only access the Internet at home. Where you had to wait for your sister to get off the phone to her boyfriend, wireless was yet to come and dial up sounded something like this..

These days a phone is no longer just a communication device. The smart phone has become an integral part of our everyday life offering a range of services in one small, sleek, interactive unit.

Standing in line waiting to order a cup of coffee? Waiting for the bus? Stuck in the doctor’s waiting room or the dreaded RMS? There once was a time in human existence when all of these scenarios would have left us staring at the walls in a zombie-like stupor, or browsing through the array of outdated magazines almost every waiting room provides. Now? Browse the web, tweet about how you’re waiting for your coffee/bus/doctors appointment, check your Facebook or fling birds at pigs.

Smartphones put computing power in your pocket that would have taken up an entire room a generation ago.

years

We compulsively take our smartphones with us wherever we go. The bathroom, the classroom, the bedroom- everywhere. Our phone is always in hand, pocket, bag, bra, whatever you fancy. ‘The internet is now a part of your body’ (Mitew, Teodor)

So what does this mean to our non-virtual reality?

This all happened so fast! We didn’t have the time to set boundaries for smartphones vs every other factor of our lives, and now consequently, we find ourselves struggling to preserve our relationships and form meaningful interactions with those dear to us. We’ve become irrevocably immersed in our digital lives. The virtual world is prioritised over everything else. We must Instagram our dinner, rather than actually savouring it and sharing impressions, or maybe a forkful of the dish, with the person next to us. A Snapchat story is formed to document every event, but not in the way a photo documents and preserves a moment. A Snapchat is temporary. It merely satisfies the need for us to prove how great of a night we’ve had, and after 24 hours the videos and photos you spent half the night taking, half the night absorbed in your smartphone, are erased.

Its all about a balance. Just as we’ve always had to balance friends, family, work, responsibilities etc; with the advancement of technology allowing us to be constantly online, always connected, we have a new element to balance amongst the others. Our online presence vs the rest.

References:

Youtube video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

Image sourced from Google images – http://www.thatericalper.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/years.jpg

Information sourced from Ted Mitew, BCM112 Lecture 23/03/15

Acknowledgments:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/the-antisocial-network-20120723-22ep2.html

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/02/20/3694457.htm 

I can copy, right?…Wrong.

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

It’s hard to believe that there was once a time where anyone could claim ownership of another individuals work. You had no protection over your own work, and everyone was free to share, copy and reproduce without penalty or punishment.

This is a world I have never known, and will never know. Instead I have grown up in the complete opposite; where somehow the Terms and Conditions I frequently click yes to without hesitation can potentially sign the data away I produce, forever.

The introduction of Copyright laws has completely altered what we as the consumer can and can’t do. and subsequently changed the way in which we interact with information.

Understanding Copyright laws is confusing, and lengthy, probably why I click yes to the Terms and Conditions without reading what I am selecting yes to..

The public domain is basically where anything not under copyright law can be retrieved, copied, and re-distributed as either ‘original content’ or an ‘altered piece of original work’. Anything outside the public domain will generally fall under copyright law; therefore it is owned and controlled by whoever holds the rights to the work. However with the digital world we live in, enforcing copyright laws is incredibly problematic, and these laws are violated everyday.

‘The internet imposes no barriers to entry, no economics of scale, no limits on supply’ (Shirky, Clay)

References:

Information sourced from Teodor Mitew, BCM112 Lecture 16/03/15

Image sourced from Google Images – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Simbolo_C.jpg

The Medium is the Message.

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

‘All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unadulterated.‘

-Marshall McLuhan The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects (1967)

The phrase, The medium is the message was a concept that was not easy for me to understand. Right now I’m 65-70% sure I have a decent grip on its meaning.. However that is after deleting, rewriting and re-evaluating this post an incredible amount of times over the past few weeks, (each time dying a little inside..).

SO, for the 30th time I shall attempt to explain to you how I understand Marshall McLuhan’s phrase.

‘The medium is the message’- meaning that the form of a medium entrenches itself within the message. This creates a symbiotic connection by which the medium effects how the message is perceived, thus creating subtle change over time. McLuhan is stating that media themselves, not the content they carry, is what we need to consider; he states that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the matter delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.

The medium is not the message, it is the element that defines the boundaries of the message, and in turn the response and the influence it has on the audience. The medium is the foundation on which the message builds itself.

If you’ve come this far, thank you for reading till the end, and if you wish comment please do! Feedback would be delightful.

Cheers,

Emily.

References:

– Marshall McLuhan The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects (1967)

– Medium is the Message Meme http://s.quickmeme.com/img/d2/d2ba4ade517534a6699c568013c0c66c2b02fc14b71d37590596b350851a7ae9.jpg

Acknowledgements:

– Federman, M. (2004) What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? 

http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm

Where to begin..

Posted on by emilyjkeyes

Well, to begin..

My name is Emily, I’m a first year student at the University of Wollongong studying a B/Journalism with a B/Communications and Media. This is my first experience with blogging.. and WordPress (yay for watching countless video tutorials on youtube and still feeling like a complete rookie).

With this blog I plan to create a space to voice my perspective on various topics, and if I’m lucky you’ll be interested enough to read till the end!

To tell you a bit about myself we’ll do a brief introduction to EMILY101. I’m 19 years old, fresh out of a working gap year and quite keen to be rid of retail and continue my studies. My hobbies include bike riding, dancing, Zambrero, reading etc etc I could inform you of them all but I’m sure if you get to know me you’ll get to know the rest. I moved to Wollongong from Wagga Wagga, four and a half hours away isn’t such a short trek so thankfully I didn’t forget anything!… except a towel.

I’ll leave the rest to my next blog posts. I sincerely hope you enjoy the content that is to come!

Emily.

 

P.S. So you can understand my blog name. You can (and I will) relate every situation somehow back to The Simpsons.

Homer Simpson smiling politely