Globalisation

As technology continues to advance through time, the concept of globalisation becomes increasing evident. Globalisation “refers to an international community influenced by technological development and economic, political and military interests” (O’Shaughnessy 2012 p. 458). Basically, it is the increasing interactivity between the different nations of the world which is becoming simpler due to the ease in which people can contact anyone, anywhere at any time. The video below provides a useful explanation of the concept.

Appadurai (1949) breaks the cultural flows of globalisation into 5 areas;

Ethnoscapes refers to the flow of people throughout different countries, resulting in more multiculturalism.

Mediascapes refers to the flow of media content throughout the world. This is easier than ever today with the internet.

Technoscapes refers to the advancements of technology which are being shared throughout the world, resulting in more and more connectivity.

Financescapes refers to the inter connectivity of finances and the flow of this throughout the world. Thing such as being able to purchase shares in a foreign company within seconds.

Ideoscapes refers to the movement of ideologies throughout the world, which can vary from thing such as political ideology to economic ideology.

However while there are these positives, there are also negative aspects. O’Shaughnessy (2012) argues that globalisation has led to the westernisation of many cultures, which has seen many of their traditions fall by the wayside for western values such as consumerism. The importation of western films has also seen a change in the way many of these cultures speak, as well as their taste in media. This concept is known as cultural imperialism

Globalisation has brought about many positives that were previously though unattainable, however we also have to be careful that this doesn’t result in the loss of tradition and cultures.

Sources:

O’Shaughnessy, M 2012, “’Globalisation’, in Media and Society”

Appadurai, A 1949, “Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPD477FuqtY

Image – http://theconversation.com/britain-fails-to-understand-the-nature-of-globalisation-at-its-peril-61392

 

The International Student Experience

Many English speaking countries are seeing a huge influx of international students to their universities. Australia is no different, with just under 230,000 international students enrolled in its universities in June 2016.

Universities love international students as they have to pay their fees up front rather than being deferred through HECS. Because of this, they try to market the experience to potential students as a wholly positive one such as the video below.

However this is not always the case. These students face issues that are not as common with most domestic students. Being so far away from home, with no support network and in an unfamiliar culture is a big thing for these students to deal with. Marginson (2012) suggests that Australian students are not helping with this problem as many are not interested with interacting with the international students which increases the isolation that they feel. This leads to many interacting with other students from their country which takes away from the experience they should be enjoying.

This is compounded by the pressures they have from home. These students don’t have the option of deferring their fees through HECS so they have to pay upfront. This places a large amount of stress on them as they are dealing with heavy expectations from their families back home to do well due to the large financial outlay

The mix of cultures at university is one of the great experiences that we benefit from while we are here. As local students, we need to understand the difficulties that many of these international students are facing and do our best to make them feel a part of the community. Without the international students, fees for domestic students will rise and the current multiculturalism at universities will cease to exist.

Sources

Marginson, Simon 2012, ‘International education as self-formation: Morphing a profit making business into an intercultural experience’

https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/International-Student-Data/PublishingImages/IST_2016/2016Graph_Table3.png

Image – https://www.postgrad.com/blog/new-rules-for-international-students-in-the-uk/

 

 

 

 

The Rise of Nollywood

If you asked most people to name the three biggest film industries in the world most would get Hollywood and Bollywood, but how many would be able to name Nollywood? This is surprising considering Nollywood is by volume the second largest film industry in the world behind Bollywood.

The Nollywood movie industry is very different to others around the world. Firstly, movies are not screened in cinemas, they go straight to video and are shown on street corners or video parlours. The street corners are a place where the general public can congregate and watch the films, though these are without the comforts of a cinema as they stand the entire time (Okome 2007). The video parlors are locations that groups can get together, which can be anything from a small room to a hall and the technology can be very limited (Okome 2007)

xxnollywood-web2-master768

One complaint of these films is that they are of low quality, however this is due to the limited budget and time frame that filmmakers have to work with. They will often only have a very limited budget and will have to finish the film with in time frames as short as week. However the filmmakers will adopt new technology as soon as it is affordable, until then they make do with what they have (Khorana 2016)

While not hugely popular worldwide, Nollywood is wildly successful in Africa. Most of the movies cater to that audience by presenting themes that appeal to them, as well as audiences being happy to view films made by other Africans. Due to this, they are happy to forgo the fancy effects and top name actors as they would prefer the previous. It is a local industry that caters to their wants and they respond by steadfastly supporting it.

Sources

Okome, O 2007. Nollywood: Spectatorship, Audience and the Sites of Consumption

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/nollywood-second-largest-film-industry

Meet ‘Nollywood’: The second largest movie industry in the world

Khorana, S 2016 – BCM111 Lecture Slides Week 4

Image – https://www.one.org/us/2015/06/15/first-hollywood-then-bollywood-now-nollywood/

Image – http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/insider/how-the-times-named-nollywood.html?_r=0

What is Real Online?

With a majority of people having some form of social media account, it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish between the real person and the person they portray online. There are a few reasons people change who they are online but it mostly comes back to one thing, attention. Whether it’s your normal average person with a Facebook account or a celebrity posting photos on Instagram, they both crave attention from others. This comes in the way of likes, followers, comments, views and subscribers. People see this as some sort of validation of their life, as though more people liking their photo or agreeing with their status or tweet makes them feel more important. This encourages people to post things that they feel others will approve of, whether it is an accurate indication of their life or not.

With the world being constantly connected in today’s society, we are constantly being hit with these social media posts so it is becoming extremely difficult to differentiate the actual person from the online person

Sources:

http://www.seoblasts.com.au/img/preview/forum-profile-link.png

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2015/07/29/facebook-is-testing-new-tags-for-your-profile-page/#gref

http://www.wikihow.com/images/e/ef/View-Profiles-on-Facebook-Step-4.jpg

http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/twitterprof.jpg

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=online+persona%27s&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW9ciO2tTMAhXElJQKHTRyCcQQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=602#tbm=isch&q=taylor+instagram+followers&imgrc=junVB48Wo852NM%3A

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/ea/a9/a4eaa945b6bd8e6de24b560b37502beb.jpg

http://newmediarockstars.com/2014/01/pewdiepie-makes-20-million-subscribers-a-club-of-one/

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQDILsIpyp1702t5NFmENm_UEQQvnwtJLfayOm5PexRaT6lEeV4

http://www.internetmarketingteam.co.uk/youtube-advertising/

http://www.rrautotech.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/r-r-autotech-new-car-log-book.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSw08j3zFEMnrEHxsUcoMyTMy-s7iIywrb7VQjgzqbx3tYHRT0PCw

Citizen Journalism

Pages such as the one spoken about in this article have become more and more common with the change in role of the audience. These pages are commonly started by members of the community who have no connection to legacy media outlets. They serve as a source of news and information for the community, with members of the public sending in news, photos and other information to be published on the page. This ‘citizen journalism’ is made possible by technology such as smart phones which enable anyone at any time to take photos or record an event and distribute it through social media to a worldwide audience.

However this can have negative consequences as well, one of which is outlines in this article. These contributions sent in are often not fact checked which can lead to cases such as the one stated in the article where a man was incorrectly accused of being a part of the Boston bombings, was found dead, apparently from suicide. Cases such as this show how important fact checking and information quality can be.

Citizen journalism will continue to grow as a concept as the world becomes more and more connected. However we need to be wary that we don’t accept anything we read on the internet as fact and still apply the same high standards that we have/do to legacy media.

 

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/05/14/4004510.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-social-media-is-suppo_b_3239076.html

Remix Culture

Most people immediately think of music when they hear the word remix, however this is only one type of remix. A remix can be anything that has been altered to give it a new meaning. You can basically remix anything. With the rise of sites such as YouTube, producers are easily able to get their work out to a large audience. This has led to a huge influx of remixes, both serious and parodies. The example below on YouTube is one of my favourites. It is a remix of the popular AC/DC song Thunderstruck but played on Cello’s.

In class we discussed whether remixes are classified as original and if originality is even important. In my opinion nothing is original. Everything has inspiration from somewhere and it is virtually impossible to be truly original. I also don’t believe that being original is important. The video above is clearly inspired by AC/DC so isn’t original, but it is definitely creative, which to me is a whole lot more important.

Sources:

Youtube Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3SBzmDxGk

 

Annotated Bibliography

Source 1 – http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/category/photography-tips-2/

The page provides tips on photography and information on how to shoot many different types of photos. With our digital artefact heavily involving photography this is an extremely useful source for us. It covers a wide range of different styles of photography and overall provides a large amount of information. I think this is an extremely detailed source and will provide us with some great information on little things we can implement to keep improving our photography and to make it look like it was taken professionally.

Source 2 –  http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/08/30/best-photo-editing-tips-for-beginners-18-quick-fixes-to-common-image-problems/

Photo editing is important with our digital artefact as we post solely photos. This page provides 18 tips on editing photos for beginners. Being a beginner in the area of editing photos, this is something that I need to use. The tips are for common image problems which is something that I will likely encounter being a beginner and won’t have the knowledge to fix. The page provides the solution to these problems and explains it in a clear and concise way which makes it easy to read.

Source 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqKHo1Q7OMc

This video provides information on how to get started on Photoshop and 10 tips on editing photos with the program. While it is quite a lengthy video, it is very detailed and provides great insight into how Photoshop works and things that beginners such as myself can do with it. Many of the things listed are editing techniques that we can use on our photos for our digital artefact and will provide useful in improving the quality of our artefact, which is just as, if not more important than producing a large quantity.

Source 4 –  http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/3789/abstract-photography-beginniners/

As our digital artefact is primarily taking abstract photos, I found this source useful. It gives tips for beginners on taking abstract photos and what they can do to go in the right direction. I haven’t had much experience in photography at all let alone abstract photography so this source provides useful information for me. It provides good detail of different methods for producing abstract photography however I feel it could go into depth a bit more with some of the tips. It still gives some starting points for us to go with

Source 5 –  http://artunderus.tumblr.com/

This source is a Tumblr page that posts abstract photos taken or uploaded by the user. It has a large amount of photos in a wide variety of settings and with a lot of different focal points. I found many of the photos very interesting and it provided me with a lot of ideas for potential posts that we could make. It also reiterated the point that we need to post often and have a larger amount of content if we want to get a larger following.

Source 6 –  http://scarpgodenot.tumblr.com/

The same as my previous post, this is a Tumblr page that posts abstract photos. The difference with this source is that the user frequently posts and interacts with the audience. This seems to have helped build a bigger audience as this user has a lot more views and followers to each of their posts. Having seen this, it has shown me the importance of interacting with the audience and not just blindly posting content all the time and then ignoring the page. We need to engage the audience. I have also had a few ideas for future photos from looking through this source

Source 7 –https://www.facebook.com/facesofuow/?fref=ts

Faces of UOW is an established page on Facebook that takes pictures of people at UOW and then has about a paragraph of text below with a quote from the person which is usually something interesting about themselves. This appears to have been inspired by the wildly popular blog Human of New York. The page posts on a regular, almost daily basis and constantly interacts with its audience. As of this post, it has 4626 followers which shows that the creators have done a fantastic job building an audience. By following these strategies they use we can hopefully start to build a large audience as well.

Source 8 –  http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/improve-facebook-news-feed-performance/

Our digital artefact uses Facebook as a platform that we promote our artefact on. Therefore it is important utilize Facebook correctly to get the largest amount of views possible. This site provides 18 ways to improve the viewership of your Facebook page. How the Facebook promotion system works is explained and the page actually provides some very useful tips and explains them thoroughly. I found it useful as I didn’t understand how ‘reach’ worked on Facebook and having never had a page on Facebook it helped me understand how we can increase our following.

Source 9 – http://mashable.com/2012/06/03/the-beginners-guide-to-tumblr/

Tumblr is the other major platform we have our digital artefact on. With Tumblr being completely new to me, I need information on how to use it and how to take advantage of the features it possesses. This source provides a beginners guide to Tumblr and information about how to use its features. It is a useful source and while it only covers the basic features of Tumblr I have found it extremely useful in teaching me how to use Tumblr and to now utilise it for the digital artefact.

Source 10 –  http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/get-followers-tumblr/

Similar to my previous source, this one gives tips on how to get more followers and views but this time on Tumblr. Like I stated in my previous source on Tumblr, I have no experience using it so this source was helpful in explaining ways I can attract more followers to the page. I like how it simplifies it down into three steps and then further elaborates on these steps. This source will be great for giving us ideas on how to promote our page and get it out further into the public eye.

Marvel & Transmedia

Dr. Pamela Rutledge describes transmedia as “Transmedia storytelling uses multiple media platforms tell a narrative across time. Each media piece—whether it’s a comic, novels, video games, mobile apps, or a film—functions as a standalone story experience—complete and satisfying. Like a giant puzzle, each piece also contributes to a larger narrative.” This to me is a perfect definition of transmedia.

A great example of this would be the Marvel Universe. Through a wide range of mediums including film, television, comics, games and books, multiple stories are told through different characters that all contribute to the overall story of the Marvel Universe.

954375-36203_20061006170620_large

 

As shown above, the film Captain America: Civil War, the comic book Iron Man and the television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D all each add their own individual piece the Marvel Universe and even connect with each other through crossovers and cameo appearances. Transmedia such as this gives the opportunity to tell a large amount of new stories and keep fans engaged.

Sources:

Transmedia Definition: http://athinklab.com/transmedia-storytelling/what-is-transmedia-storytelling/

Civil War Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrVegVI0Us

Iron Man Picture: http://comicvine.gamespot.com/iron-man-1-2-amour-in-armor/4000-171042/

Agents of Shield Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PerIAuv27SQ

 

Live Game Streaming

http://prezi.com/llizrmsrp0pn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Earning hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to sit at home and play video games. Doesn’t it sound great? This is a reality for some though as the live streaming gamer becomes more and more popular. The basic premise is that the gamer has a live stream of them playing an online game, allowing the internet to watch, and interacts with the audience through a chat box. They do this through sites such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. As explained in the IB Times, it is easy and relatively cheap it is to start up one of these live game streams.

The most popular example of this in the world today is PewDiePie. He currently has over 42 million subscribers to his YouTube channel which gives him an extremely wide reach. His earnings in 2015 were in the millions and is the most popular channel on YouTube. His popularity has spawned many others attempting to replicate his efforts with varying degrees of success. One of the most popular in Australia would be xMinks, with over 300000 followers.

With such interest in the live game streaming market, it will be interesting to see where it evolves to and what the next step is.

Sources:

http://www.ibtimes.com/how-live-stream-video-games-twitch-youtube-gaming-any-budget-2160659

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/youtuber-pewdiepie-opens-up-about-his-73-million-earnings-from-playing-video-games-10374402.html

https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

https://www.twitch.tv/xminks

 

 

 

 

 

Media Convergence

Henry Jenkins (2006) defines media convergence well, “By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want.” The video below also gives a good description of media convergence.

Media convergence has made our lives easier. One excellent example of this is the smart phone. It is a phone, computer, camera, radio, music player, speaker, audio recorder, video camera, GPS and much more in one. Previously we would have required different products to achieve all of these things, but the media convergence into the smart phone has made it so this is all bundled into one. Many people’s lives revolve around their phones. I know that I spend a lot of my day on my phone for different reasons. Playing music in the car, chatting to friends, checking emails, doing banking, getting directions and making purchases. This one small device does the job of many others and it fits inside my hand.

The rise of media convergence has had a big effect on legacy media. One major effect is on that of print journalism. The fact that most people possess a phone with a camera and access to the internet means that they can report on events and upload images and videos seconds after it happens. Through platforms such as twitter, these ‘citizen journalists’ can report on news much quicker than journalists employed by legacy media outlets and many of these outlets are now choosing to use twitter updates and reports as their sources. This has led to many lost jobs in the print journalism industry, with Fairfax recently planning to cut 120 editorial jobs.

The television and film industry has also been effected by media convergence. The ability of users to now stream television shows and films has led to a reduction in viewership through traditional means of watching television and going to the cinema. This has led to the industries having to adapt and embrace these changes. Many channels now have a streaming ability, which allows the audience to watch the shows online at their own leisure. These legacy media industries will need to keep evolving to keep up with media convergence or risk being left behind.

 

Sources:

Henry Jenkins – http://henryjenkins.org/2006/06/welcome_to_convergence_culture.html

Media Convergence YouTube Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQmspwy4OY

Fairfax Jobs – http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-17/fairfax-staff-strike-in-solidarity-over-job-cuts/7254372