Hipsters. Love them or hate them, they are definitely here to stay; at least until they realise that there are only so many ugly knitted jumpers to go around. I am kind of on the outer when it comes to hipsterdom, I think I missed the moment when moustaches became cool and not just a relic of the Magnum PI days. This is not to say that I am not a hipster fan, on the contrary, I am glad that boob tubes are no longer in fashion, and I definitely agree with their whole bike riding philosophy, for both physical and environmental benefits. But I think it will be a long time before I begin to wear lenseless glasses and ‘ironic’ cowboy shirts. I should also confess now that my favourite time passing game on campus is to play ‘hipster or just badly dressed’. Judgemental I know, but I often find myself wondering if that person is wearing that aquamarine sweater with a cartoon figure from the 90’s to be ironic, or if it’s washing day and they couldn’t find much else. Rather than finish on such cynicism, I have compiled a bunch of links and what not, that together form my ‘Ode to Hipsters’. You can decide on the level of irony present.

http://dadsaretheoriginalhipster.tumblr.com/ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4n6OVoyYQ

http://stuffhipstershate.tumblr.com/

http://www.verbal-vomit.com/2011/03/how-to-be-hipster-chapter-1.html

Final Lecture

The final lecture of the semester was delivered by guest lecturer Steve Molk. Steve is an entertainment blogger, and it was really interesting to hear from someone who has found success from a beginning using new media. His comment on ‘your brand starts now’ was really quite thought provoking, as everything we produce as individuals affects our marketability and employability. Steve now has a successful television blog and his articles have been picked up by Fairfax media. Here is a link to Steve’s site: http://molkstvtalk.com/

Investigative Journalism: Assume Nothing

The lecture in week 12 was all about investigative journalism, its processes and outcomes. Investigative journalism has had a long and chequered history, with many investigative stories changing the world and many journalists experiencing backlash as a result of their findings. There are a five ‘ins’ involved in producing an investigative piece: Intelligent, informed, intuitive, inside, invest. The main point driven through the lecture was that for a good investigative piece, a lot of time is needed to be invested, time in checking sources, gathering information, physically chasing the story. Also discussed was the key idea that investigative journalism should give a voice to those without one, and should hold public personalities and institutions responsible for their actions. It is also important that investigative journalists take nothing for granted in terms of information on sources, and remain sceptical, not cynical. The lecture gave examples of some ground breaking journos and their stories, such as Edward Hall Smith, who campaigned for convict rights, WT Stead, who exposed a people trafficking trade in the UK and Woodward and Bernstein, who were behind the Watergate affair resulting in the impeachment of president Nixon. Locally, there are the individuals behind the story that began the Fitzgerald inquiry and drew attention to police corruption in Queensland. These individuals and their stories have all changed the world, and have illustrated the power of investigative journalism. At the end of the day a good investigative journalist must do two things: Assume nothing and check everything.

Cottoning on to low cost fashion

I recently stumbled across this article in the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/11/overdressed-book-elizabeth-cline_n_1587413.html?ref=topbar and a more in depth version from the New York Post http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/books/crimes_of_fashion_bWqYjXdI61cTY6fPndkrMJ/0, and I have to say, it definitely made me question my shopping habits. A recent study has revealed that an average American household spends $1700 annually on clothes, the smallest percentage of income ever dedicated to fashion, and are getting more and more items from their dollar than ever before. As someone who is always on the lookout for a bargain, and a frequent purchaser of low cost goods in high quantities, the idea of shopping differently is a rather alien concept. When broken down however, the amount I spend frequently on bulk ‘disposable fashion’, could easily be saved up and put towards a high quality, possibly even designer item. Do I really need four tops for $30 when I already have a cupboard overflowing with near identical pieces? I have a housemate who works full time, and rather than buy a single high-end designer piece, buys multiple items from her favourite shop, Cotton On. I am not criticizing my housemate or the store here, however the article has made me question her practice of wearing a cheap piece of clothing once or twice and then getting sick of it, thus relegating it to the back of her wardrobe, only to be seen again on clean up days. The constant demand for more fashion more often, has resulted in polyester being the fibre du jour, which is more harmful to the environment to produce, as well as less comfortable to wear than natural fibres such as cotton and linen. The article also draws attention to the ecological impacts resulting from such a rapid rag trade, as well as the economic losses stateside, such as loss of local production and skills. So will I change my already set ways when it comes to buying clothes? Only time will tell, however I know I am not above a moment of weakness, particularly when faced with a Myer sale. 

Agenda Setting

This week’s lecture looked at the topic of agenda setting, and the role the media plays in the construction of public opinion. Agenda setting is can be simply summed up as: The more coverage an issue receives, the more important it is to people. There are four different agendas, public agenda, policy agenda, corporate agenda, and media agenda. With regards to media agenda setting, assumptions are made about the audience, such as mass media do not merely reflect and report reality, they filter and shape it. Walter Lippman, a newspaper columnist, wrote in 1922 that ‘the mass media creates images of events in our lives’. This is particularly true in today’s media landscape, when many people turn to visuals for news. It seems that agenda setting was first ‘discovered’ in 1968 during Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign, when media researchers surveyed 100 undecided voters on key issues. They were testing the hypothesis that the mass media set the agenda by emphasising specific topics. There are two main types of agenda setting theory, the first level, at which the media suggest what the public should focus on through media coverage, and the second level, at which the media suggests how people should think about an issue. It is also evident that elite media set the agenda for issues in other media, for example the larger publications and news channels will run stories that smaller outlets will pick up on and use. There is also what is termed to be an agenda setting ‘family’.

A new issue faced by the agenda setting theory is the 24 hour news cycle. This means that there is less time for a single issue to be pushed forward and gain large amounts of attention, as there is a large volume of stories being produced in shorter time frames. There is also a new ‘prime time’, in that you cannot always guarantee that people will consume their news at 6pm as they did prior to the advent of new media.  

Mad Men Madness

One of my favourite shows on TV is Mad Men, and as it draws to the end of its fifth season, I thought I would write a post on it, seeing as I spend plenty of time watching and rewatching my favourite episodes. As it has been one of the most talked about and critically acclaimed series in recent times, there is quite a bit of buzz surrounded, but for the uninitiated here is a synopsis. Set in the 1960’s it explores the illustrious New York advertising scene, mainly revolving around the central character, Donald Draper. The sets and costumes are absolutely stunning, and the episodes are always executed brilliantly. I would absolutely die for one the many dresses paraded through the episodes.

In its presentation and examinations of the issues of the time in which the show is set, it also brings to light the fact that many of these issues are still prevalent today, such as gender inequality and racism. In fact there have been many articles and posts about these issues, check out http://jezebel.com/5914058/mad-men-working-girls re women in the workplace. In Mad Men there is a show that is both entertaining and thought provoking, and the perfect cure for a miserable rainy day.

Here is a link to the Huffington Post’s Mad Men section, it’s full of stories and galleries related to the show: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/mad-men

Lecture 9

News Values. What makes a story news worthy? How do media outlets decide what to publish? News values are certain elements that journalists use to determine if a story will be successful. It’s ‘official’ definition (as given in the lecture), is: The degree of prominence a media outlet gives a story and the attention that is paid by an audience. It is also a broadly agreed set of values that determine newsworthiness. News can encompass many things; however across all aspects it is usually something that will grab the reader, or audiences, attention. People like to read, see and hear news that is relevant to them and their world, hence why audience identification is an important element of all news stories. In the lecture we were introduced to the adage, if it bleeds it leads, referring to the high level of interest in news stories regarding violence and tragedy. In local media outlets, however, they prefer leading with local stories, ones which they believe will resonate the most with the audience. In the lecture we were introduced to several sets of news values from different eras. Despite the ongoing changes as to how media is delivered and consumed, the news values haven’t changed all that much. The set that I believe is the most applicable today is the set from 2001 by O’Neill and Harcup. They are power elite, celebrity, entertainment, surprise, bad news, good news, magnitude, relevance, follow-up, newspaper agenda. They have also been summed up into 6 general headings, of:
 1. Significance (impact)
 2. Proximity
 3. Conflict
 4. Human interest
 5. Novelty
 6. Prominence

 These are all elements that make up a successful news story, and are evident when looking at any news story today. Here is the more detailed list with some brief explanations. 

Lecture 8

Lecture 8 was on ethics, and in my opinion it was one of the most interesting lectures of the semester so far. Exploring the polarity of ethics, the notion that everything is black and white, was thought provoking. It seems that we need to have the ability to distinguish between what is just tacky, and what is actually unethical. Our guest lecturer, John Harrison, gave us some examples of such media. He asked us to do an exercise, where we marked on a scale whether we thought the ad was in good taste or bad taste, ethical or unethical. It seems that everyone’s opinion on what is good taste and bad taste differs, as that is something which develops individually, however it is important that publishers of media have the ability to determine what is genuinely unethical. He then went on to explain some of the theories involved in ethics, as well as some of the ethics codes which apply to the journalism field. Here are some of the ads used in the lecture, but rather than tell you what I thought of them, I will let you make up your own mind.

Annotated Bibliography

Nicholls, S., Sykes, J., & Camilleri, P. (2010). The role of the media and communication in recovery from natural disasters: A case study of the Canberra firestorm and its aftermath 2003-2007. Australian Journal of Communication, 37(3), 33-50. http://search.proquest.com/docview/884025474?accountid=14723

There are three contributors to this article, all of whom have an academic background. Dr Susan Nicholls is an Associate Professor at the University of Canberra, Jolyon Sykes is a Journalism Researcher at the same institution and Peter Camilleri is a Professor of Social work at the Australian Catholic University. All contributors have also previously published research papers and have established high levels of credibility in their respective fields. The varying specialisations of the contributors add depth to the article as the subject matter, how the media impacts on the recovery of victims of natural disasters, can be examined from different viewpoints. There is a varied and comprehensive list of references which add credibility and gravitas to the information put forward in the article. The text examines the role the media plays in the aftermath of a natural disaster, using the Canberra bushfires as a case study. Using information gathered from their research, and a questionnaire completed by 500 survivors, the study concludes that the media ‘played a significant role in the recovery of the community, both positively and negatively’.  Through the study, it is revealed that at the time of the fires, the most trusted media sources were local newspapers, and the ABC, both radio and television. The paper also contrasts the views of survivors who either relied heavily on media coverage for information, and those who chose to avoid all forms of media, thus presenting a balanced view from those affected by the disaster and the role of the media in reporting them.

Calligeros, M. (2011, January 14). Brisbane flood victims to confront the destruction. Brisbane Times. Retrieved from http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au

Brisbane Times is an online newspaper with a large amount of local content, as well as international information, however it is primarily targeted at a South-East Queensland readership. It is a branch of Fairfax media, one of Australia’s largest publishers of print, online, and radio media. Fairfax has major news publications in several states and has a large percentage share of the Australian media. Brisbane Times is a form of commercial media, and it stands to reason that because of this, they wish to only publish articles that they believe will meet public demand. The article covers the 2011 Queensland floods, with a particular focus on the Brisbane area. There is an accompanying photo gallery featuring images of the floodwater and the destruction it caused. The article does feature some dramatic language, such as ‘monster river’, ‘devastating destruction’ and ‘putrid, tar-like sludge.’ This is in contrast to the more straightforward reporting style of the ABC publication. It can be seen that from the graphic images to the descriptive language, the article is presenting the disaster in a dramatic light in order to gain a wider audience. Despite being a Brisbane publication, the article offers little tangible information and advice for Brisbane residents affected by the floods, instead choosing to sensationalise the event for a broader reading public.

Santow, S. (2010, December 30). AM [Radio broadcast]. Australia: ABC

This AM program broadcast by the ABC discusses the financial and emotional costs of the floods on those affected, with a particular focus on farmers. The ABC is one of Australia’s premier providers of news across all platforms, and in contrast to Fairfax, is a form of public, or non-commercial media. The ABC is not driven by making profit, and is therefore in a position to produce news stories which may not appeal to advertisers and a broad target market. In this radio piece flood victims recount the damage to their property and crops and the likely loss of revenue that will come from downgraded crops. The piece then relates this damage back to all Australians by revealing that with a decrease in farming in the region, there will be a ‘spike in retail prices’ across the eastern seaboard as well as an all over shortage of goods. This report speaks to a flood victim in Millmerran, as well as two farming officials, from Queensland and Victoria and it is this selection of interviewees that help give the report its depth. There appears to be little bias in this piece, and this is in keeping with the findings by Nicholls et. al. that Australians trusted the ABC in their coverage of natural disasters.

AAP. (2011, January 13). Brisbane wakes up to water logged streets. Ninemsn. Retrieved from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/

This article offers a broader look at the events of the floods than the previous pieces, featuring many links, images and other online content, in an attempt to please its tech savvy readership. Ninemsn is the online branch of channel 9, which is in turn owned by Publishing and Broadcasting limited, which runs many publications as well as online and television content, and is owned by the Packer family. This, like the Brisbane Times piece, is a form of commercial media however this piece is aimed at a wide audience on a national level. It is because of this that is offers little localised content and information for Brisbane readers. Ninemsn does not have a reputation for producing quality and unbiased news, however this piece provides a relatively straightforward, albeit slightly dramatized look at the events of the floods. There is no journalist credited with writing the piece, rather it is attributed to AAP, thus revealing that there is little, if any, specialised content for a Queensland audience. The article does feature quotes from then Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, however these quotes were originally given to the ABC and reused for this story and don’t offer the reader any great insight into the local reaction to the crisis. This lack of local content would be a contributing factor as to why victims of natural disasters would turn to local and trusted national media. 

Factual Storytelling

Landing in Cairo was an assault on the senses. It was the first time that either my little sister or I had been overseas, and following a 20 hour flight, all we wanted was sleep. Cairo, however, is not a city for the weary, or the faint hearted. We had headed to Egypt to celebrate my mother’s birthday. She had not wanted a party, but instead chose to take her husband and two teenage daughters to the Middle East. The first shock was the airport. The dank, dark and dilapidated building was literally a world away from the airy Brisbane International airport and the bright lights of Singapore that we had just left. Emerging from the terminal, we were hit with the unfamiliar. Sights, noises, smells, crowds, all of which I had never seen before, were suddenly sprung upon me. Fortunately we had arrived in January, their winter, so the temperature was mild and the weather was one less element to contest with. We had read the travel guides prior to departure, all of which had attempted to illustrate the atmosphere in their knowledgeable pages, however nothing could have prepared two teenage girls for what was about to ensue.

The first few days passed by in a flurry. We were going to be there three weeks in total, and Cairo was our first stop. Visiting the requisite sites, such as the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx were both surreal and in a strange way, slightly disillusioning. The great monuments were not, as I had originally thought, located in the middle of the desert, but a city had rather unceremoniously built itself around them. Now after visiting the Sphinx it’s possible to pop across the road for Pizza Hut. The crowds were something I had never encountered in such a magnitude. The population of the city is approximately seven million, an amount of people that I had never considered, let alone experienced. We quickly learnt to stick together, as it was far too easy to get separated in a crowd. My parents kept a watchful eye on my sister and I, as even a brief trip to the supermarket was hazardous.

Following our time in Cairo, we travelled south along the Nile. Our next destination was Luxor, home to a vast array of temples and tombs. My mother was on a mission to see as many ancient sites as possible so the next item on her list was the temple at Karnak. Karnak is a complex of several different temples and ancient chapels and is considered to be the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is also the second most visited site in Egypt, after the pyramids. With a tourist attraction, however, comes large amounts of tourists. Tourists in turn, attract large numbers of locals attempting to sell a variety of paraphernalia. What ensues is excessive amounts of shouting, shoving and sheer astonishment. It was in Karnak, amongst the semi-organised chaos, that we lost my sister.

“Where’s Edwina?” my mother asked. I looked around, expecting to find her standing behind us. Her absence was both alarming and frightening. Had we just lost a 13 year old girl at one of the busiest monuments in the Middle East?

Edwina wandered through the temple complex, unaware that she was alone. Having been unwittingly separated from her family a mere five minutes before, she strolled along, admiring the workmanship and scale of the ancient hieroglyphs. She turned, hoping to find either my parents or myself, but was instead faced with an unknown family of Japanese tourists. In her version of events, this is the point at which she became afraid. She was unsure of what her next move should be. Should she stay in the one spot, on the chance that we were looking for her? Should she attempt to look for us, despite the unlikelihood of finding someone in an area and crowd this large?

My mother is not normally a panicker. I could see, however, the lines of worry beginning to form on her forehead. My father too, is an equally calm person, yet I could see that he was beginning to, in his own words, ‘freak out.’ Had we been in Australia we would have employed the search method that is divide and conquer. We were not too keen at the prospect of losing another family member though, so we stuck together. Unsure of how to begin our search, we just began looking.

As Edwina made her way through the crowds, the tall pillars that had once seemed magnificent now seemed menacing. The random eye contact with strangers had initially been comforting, now it made her fearful. She couldn’t remember what any of us were wearing, thus making it even harder to spot us. The sun, no longer in the middle of the sky, was beginning to sink into the horizon. We had planned on leaving the temple before sunset. Edwina made her way to the entrance of the complex, in the hope that we had decided to wait there.

The worst possible outcomes were running through each of our heads. Had she fallen? Was she hurt? Ducking and weaving through the stones and pillars, each turn came with a new thought. Our unmapped path through Karnak had lead us back to the starting point, the entrance. 

We approached the entrance feeling somewhat defeated. Edwina was yet to be found, and it was getting late in the day, the crowds surging towards the exit point. It was then that we spotted her.

Edwina says she can’t remember the feeling of when she first saw us. The most basic description of what we were feeling was relief. She did later refer to the incident as one of the scariest moments of her life. Luckily for all of us though, she is able to look back on it in amusement. My mother fully recovered, and no longer felt the guilt that would stem from misplacing a child. Had it been socially acceptable though, I imagine she would have got her children leashes for the remainder of the holiday. 

Public Media

Lecture seven discussed the topic of public media, something I suppose you could call the opposite of last week’s lecture on commercial media. Public Media is media whose mission is to serve or engage a public, its ultimate purpose is to serve the public and not turn a profit. The public media in Australia consists of the ABC and SBS, in both tv and radio. Internationally, public media broadcasters include BBC and channel 4 in the UK and PBS and NPR in the US. Public media can also include community media. The aspect I found most interesting in this lecture was looking at the role of public media and the ethos of public media. The public value, according to the BBC, is to embed a public service ethos, provide value for licence fee money and weigh public value against market opinion. It seems from this that public media could be considered quite ideological, however when put into practice, it appears that public media broadcasters adhere to this standard. Take for example, the ABC. According to information given in the lecture, 41% of Australians get their news from the ABC and 85% don’t believe they project any bias. This lack of bias is vital, as whilst being majority funded by the government, the ABC have a responsibility to present quality and bias free stories regardless of which party is in power. And as Dr Redman said in the lecture, as soon as the ABC stops enraging politicians, then we are in trouble. 

Which Direction?

One direction

It would appear that One Direction are in Australia. This is no secret, it has been headlining practically every news outlet for the past few days. But if you are unsure of who One Direction are, here is the lowdown: a group of five British males, aged from 18-20, manufactured as a singing group by reality program X Factor, all of them dress rather well for teenage boys, and they all have better hair than I do. In case my description was not quite vivid enough, here is a picture:

Now I am not going to practice musical snobbery and say that they are ‘too mainstream’ or ‘too manufactured’, because let’s face it, a large number of recording artists have had their images slightly tweaked by record companies. If the conspiracy theorists are to be believed , then ‘indie darling’ Lana Del Rey has had more than a helping hand in the image department, thus nullifying her apparent indie status (for more: http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/2011/09/lana-del-rey-exposed-b4-she-was-alt-she-was-failed-mnstrm-artist-without-fake-lips.html). But back to One Direction. I am not going to preach ignorant, or try and play the cool card and pretend I have never heard their music. I will even admit, as embarrassing as it is, that I have been caught humming along to their catchy hooks and inoffensive lyrics. But what exactly is their appeal? Their concert tour in Australia sold out in just three minutes, and One Direction figurines have apparently been flying off the shelves in Britain. Typing ‘One Direction’ into the ebay search bar results in a plethora of merchandise, from coffee mugs to personalised pillow cases. In my attempt to understand the phenomenon, I turned to a valuable source: the target audience. In conversation with my little sister and a friend of hers, I casually dropped One Direction into the mix. Their response was not as overwhelmingly positive as I had imagined, but then they did point out to me that ‘it’s a bit lame for grade 12’s to like them. If you asked some year 8’s they would probably scream’. So I did as anyone looking for answers does, and turned to the internet. Well. After trawling through countless fan sites I still struggled to come up with a definitive answer as to why One Direction, and subsequently boy bands in general, were so popular. Is it their slightly matching outfits? Is it their catchy melodies and inoffensive lyrics? Is it because they are just so cute? Who really knows, but I know in this case, their record labels are laughing all the way to the bank whilst screaming fans are all too eager to jump on the bandwagon. The bandwagon that is heading in only one direction.

(didn’t quite give the answers I was looking for, but interesting nonetheless: http://jezebel.com/5891583/start-shrieking-ladies-boy-bands-are-back)

Commercial Media

 Commercial media. What is it? What does it do? Who uses it? All these questions were answered in lecture 6, with the topic being commercial media and a specific look at it in Australia. Commercial media encompasses television, newspapers, magazines and radio. It can also include telecommunications companies, such as Telstra and Optus. Some examples of the commercial media in Australia today are channels 7, 9 and ten, companies such as News Limited and Fairfax, and radio producers like Austereo. The purpose of commercial media is to ‘sell audiences to advertisers’. This is to say, every time you sit down to watch a show on your favourite commercial station, you are in fact wanted there to view the advertisements, rather than the programs themselves. Commercial media is a form of profit driven media production, which requires audiences in order to attract advertisers and generate profit. That said, commercial media outlets still attempt to gain the trust of the audience. Media has a responsibility in a democracy, as well as having to meet formal state requirements, such as legal prescriptions and statutory boards. The lecture also made mention of a public sphere, which is space between commerce and government where people can debate freely and form public opinion (for a more in depth look at this concept, and others associated with commercial media: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611795/100438659076).

There are also new controls on commercial media, such as government agencies regulating content, state press subsidies and licensed journalism in nations such as Indonesia and East Timor. Some believe that commercial media is corrupt and lacks quality (John McManus – Market Driven Journalism 1994) and that ‘In this regard, one thing stands out above all others –the view that the very nature of the commercial equates to a corruption of the social. In other words, as media become more commercial, they do so at the expense of their social function. This is seen as a zerosum game. Profits come before quality’ (Prof. Michael Bromley – SJC  2009). This is an interesting concept, and I have to say, that to a certain extent, I agree with the aforementioned opinions. To be honest, I was unaware that the majority of media I consumed was considered commercial, and that the main drive behind these entities was profit. So are their claims of commitment to delivering quality content or local productions merely a strategy on their behalf to attract a wide, previously elusive audience, to advertisers? I believe that this is probably the case, however I do also believe that commercial media is not necessarily bad. At the end of the day, these media outlets are businesses, and the goal of business is to make money. So no, I will not stop watching, reading, or buying things produced by these commercial media bodies, but I will view them differently, with the knowledge that for the big players, the news isn’t always about the story. 

Lecture 5

Lecture 5 was delivered via sound recording, as the subject matter was radio as a form of communication. It was challenging for me to listen and process information delivered in this format, as I hardly ever listen to radio or podcasts. I also have to admit I am not a fan of talkback and AM radio, so I really had to apply myself to the task. Initially I was bored, the radio announcer voices made me want to switch off and watch TV instead. I persevered and discovered a lot about radio. The fact that the majority of listeners are multi-tasking when listening to radio means that the content needs to be engaging, but also easy to process. Additionally, when interviewing a guest, you still need to keep the listener involved in the conversation. What I found most interesting though was the way in which the announcers approached interviewing guests. It was said that it’s important to give the guest space to talk as well as giving them the opportunity to reveal themselves to the audience. One of the last points made was the radio is getting bigger around the world, and is good for the time poor, so bearing this in mind I tried to pay more attention to radio. I mainly only listen to radio whilst I am in the car, and usually when the presenters start talking I change the station in order to find music. Hoping that old habits don’t die hard, I was driving around and tuned into the science program on triple J in the hope that I might actually learn something. Whilst not being immediately enthralled, I realised that radio is a vital communication and information presenting tool, as well as having a large array of fans. Who knows, maybe if I keep the listening up I might become a fan myself. 

Titanic: The unsinkable film?

One of my housemates is obsessed with Titanic. So obsessed that she has seen the 3D release of the James Cameron film 3 times. So obsessed that she has been anticipating the mini-series on tv since she first saw the ad. And because of this obsession it is all too easy for me to stir her up about it. Admittedly this love has been renewed with the recent publicity surrounding the 100^th anniversary of the ship’s sinking, however her love for Titanic (actually mostly Leo and Kate), has been long standing. When I asked her why she liked the Titanic so much, her response was the love story and the subsequent tragedy. I then did as all good internet users do and turned to Google in a bid to see what others had to say. Rather than trawl through countless reviews from raving fans, I found an article in the Guardian, and though it didn’t offer a direct opinion on the film, it did make a rather interesting comment on the impact that the film had on cinema: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/apr/03/titanic-event-movie-james-cameron . 

What I found most interesting was the large increase in box office takings over the past 15 years, especially when it was put forward that it is not a rare thing for a film to make $900 million. Which then lead me to wonder what the highest grossing films were. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the 100 highest grossing films were made in the last 15 years. And also unsurprisingly, I had seen a large number of them. Here is the link if you are interested: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/. The number one film on the list is Avatar, directed by James Cameron, who also directed the number two film on the list, the aforementioned Titanic. Is this an indicator of Cameron’s directorial genius? Does it suggest he has a greater influence on culture than we realise? Or does he simply know how to tell a good story? If you ask my housemate, and the hordes of Titanic fans out there, I think you would find the answer to be the latter. 

Lecture 4

The topic of lecture 4 was picture stories in their many and varied forms. It was a topic that I had never really given much thought, so it was interesting to consider pictures and their prevalence in today’s society. As it turns out, pictures are literally everywhere, from television, movies, magazines, advertising, with even money containing pictorial representations. Pictures are one of the oldest forms of communication, with discoveries of cave paintings confirming this, and their place in history as a form of storytelling is both valuable for both informational and societal purposes. Images can be a useful accompaniment to a written piece, yet also have the ability to tell a story on their own.

With the relatively recent development of digital images, the issue of photoshop was raised in the lecture, with question being posed ‘is it good or evil’. Whilst many models and actresses will no doubt espouse the greatness of photoshop, the prospect of manipulating images to present an unrealistic image is potentially dangerous. Photoshop is useful when it comes to altering light and shading, or changing a tone here or there, however sometimes the results can be disastrous. Below is a link that looks at the lighter side of photoshop and its outcomes:

http://weburbanist.com/2010/04/29/photoshop-fail-14-more-hilarious-blunders-and-goofs/

The lecture also discussed the composition of a good photograph. This includes framing, angles, focus, exposure, timing and the rule of thirds. The first are all rather self-explanatory, however a new concept to me was the rule of thirds or ‘the golden mean’. This concept revolves around dividing up an image to create points of interest for the viewer. Here is a link which illustrates this concept:

http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

Cinema also plays an important part in story telling with pictures, as it can be used to get a message across to a wide audience. Not only for entertainment purposes, motion pictures were used to distribute information, in the forms of news reels in cinemas. The power of the medium was exploited by some, with propaganda films being released throughout World War II by the Nazi party. The idea of capturing events on film, however, changed the way in which we consume news, as many people regularly watch news programs. On the whole, the use of pictures as a form of storytelling is effective and informative, and given its place throughout history, is a fibre of society. 

Media Use Diary

Media Use Assessment

Media is everywhere, and to a certain extent, the majority of us access and engage with some form of media every day. It would seem that media, in all its shapes and forms, is inescapable, particularly in today’s world where everything is just a click, google or smartphone tap away. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the number of people with access to this information is increasing, but then conversely so too does the time spent accessing it. For a period of ten days I logged my media usage, documenting everything from time spent browsing the internet and watching the news, to every text received and phone call made. I was surprised with the results, for whilst I was aware I used the internet frequently, I had not actually considered it as a percentage of time I spent, and what this meant as a media user.

Below is the complete breakdown of the 10 day usage, note that all figures are time (in minutes), with the exception of texts, emails and phone calls, which have been recorded as the actual number of individual items

		Internet				TV	Audio	Communication
	Video	Shopping	Social Networking	News sites (includes online publications of newspapers and magazines)	Blogs	(also includes watching dvd’s)	Radio, podcasts and ipod usage	Texts & emails sent and received	Phone/skype calls sent and received
14/03/12 (Wednesday)	45	20	120	90	0	180	40	12	1
15/03/12 (Thursday)	60	0	60	80	0	30	0	29	3
16/03/12 (Friday)	40	45	80	90	15	60	30	9	2
17/03/12 (Saturday)	0	0	90	60	0	30	0	36	4
18/03/12 (Sunday)	120	0	80	20	10	30	45	31	2
19/03/12 (Monday)	120	20	80	100	60	60	20	26	1
20/03/12 (Tuesday)	0	20	30	60	0	120	20	32	2
21/03/12 (Wednesday)	20	0	40	90	10	60	30	24	1
22/03/12 (Thursday)	200	15	120	90	0	0	10	17	3
23/03/12 (Friday)	60	20	80	60	15	30	10	19	1
Total:	665	140	780	740	110	600	205	235	20

As can be seen from the table the majority of my media use was through the internet. This is not uncommon, with a significant majority of my fellow Jour 1111 students spending between 1-5 hours on the internet a day, with 29.6% spending 2-3 hours online. I then broke my internet usage down further, to see what actual activities took up the majority of my browsing time.

As can be seen from both the table and the graph, most of my time spent on the internet was on social networking sites, in my case, Facebook. With a total of 665 minutes over the 10 day period this equates to roughly an hour a day. This result is mirrored in the class survey, with 94.7% of respondents having a Facebook account. This is, I believe, indicative of the global popularity of social networking sites, also including Twitter, Tumblr and photo sharing sites such as Instagram. With over 500 million people now part of the Facebook community, it is difficult to deny the impact these sites have had on our lives. I also regularly access Facebook through my Samsung smartphone, and have included this time in the results. This once again is not uncommon, with 77.3% of the cohort owning an internet enabled smartphone, with the most popular application used being Facebook.  I have not created separate divisions within this category as prior to this course I only had a Facebook account and had not yet been introduced to Twitter.

The second and third highest categories are news sites and general browsing, and video. For the purpose of this task I have not included a separate category for academic use of internet as I do not currently have any assignments which require intensive research, so any university based use is included in the general browsing category. I regularly stream video online, usually television programs. This did not rate as high in the survey, with only 36.6% regularly streaming video. The reason I do this so frequently is I am often unable to watch programs when they air, so this is a good way for me to catch up. The video category also encompasses watching films online as well; however I don’t watch them as often as television programs. I also get most of my news from the internet, another reason why this category is so high. As a student not living at home, I don’t really have access to large amounts of print media so rely mainly on internet news sources to keep updated, and large percentage of the group (67.8%) frequently access online news. This is also why I have not included a separate print category in the overall diary.  

I have chosen to include a separate category for online shopping, for whilst spending significantly less time on this than other categories, it still takes up time on the internet. I prefer the convenience of online shopping, and now with many sites offering free delivery, it is greatly beneficial for cash and time poor students.

I recently started my first blog as part of the jour1111 course, thus explaining why blogging doesn’t take up a high percentage of my time. I am not alone in this instance, with only 32.4% of the cohort reading blogs regularly. Since beginning the course, most of my time spent on blogs has been looking at other jour1111 students’, as well as updating my own.

Here is a comparative graph illustrating the time on the internet as compared to other forms of media:

As can be seen from the graph, television and audio only make up a small percentage of my media use. This is also in keeping with the rest of the class, as my total television time of 600 minutes equates to an hour a day over the 10 day period, and the majority of students, 29.9%, watching 1-2 hours of television each day. If you were to include television online however, my number would be much higher, but I have chosen to categorise that as internet usage.

In the audio category I have combined radio and ipod usage. As can be seen I am not a heavy ipod user, nor do I frequently listen to the radio. The only time I do listen to the radio is in the car, but as I am a frequent user of public transport, it is really only when I am driving to work that I listen. This is in keeping with the class results, as 82.9% listen to the radio in the car, and 53.9% listen to it for less than an hour a day.

I believe that my mobile use is neither excessive nor limited, and I feel as though my use is average for someone of my age. I have chosen not to graph my mobile usage in comparison to other media as it is measured in different values and the final data presented would not be accurate.  

In conclusion, I was rather surprised with the outcome of this exercise. I did not consider myself to be a large media user, as I had previously considered media to be limited to newspapers, magazines and television. When broken down though, it appears that my reliance on the internet results in a large amount of media consumption. My media use does vary from day to day, dependent on various factors, such as when I drive my car, or when I am not physically at university. Overall I believe that this study has been an interesting way to examine our use of media in the ever changing technological age.