WEEK SIX

Technological Determinism

Refers to how technology shapes culture, how it conveys information and that it’s the main social change.

Pros

• Gives insight into the specific properties of technologies

Cons

• Cause-and-effect thinking
• “treats technologies in isolation”
• Reductionist

Cultural Materialism

The internet is commonly considered to have “profound real and potential effects on social relations, everyday life, culture, politics, and other social activities.”

Pros

• Views technology in relationship with those who use it
• Sees the diverse nature in how technologies work
• Embodying

Cons

• Cause-and-effect
• Only considers cultural factors

 

Poststructuralism

Studying “technologies beyond their form to see how they function in various contexts.”

Pros

• Adaptable and open to change
• Embodying

WEEK FIVE

Most of us use the internet everyday, but most of us don’t really know how it works. When are you actively interacting on the internet, have you ever noticed that you ended up somewhere you did not expect? Like let’s say … cat videos!? haha c’mon, I’m sure we’re all guilty of this at some point 😉

But this shows how much click bait there is on internet. The line of links (also known as networks) is never-ending, and you can end up never really knowing how you got to this part of the internet.

I decided to trial this out; starting on an area that interested me and seeing where it took me:

1. Youtube -> Tori Kelly & James Bay Grammy performance -> Tori Kelly ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Cover -> The Late Late Show with James Corden -> Adele Carpool
2. Ashley Benson Blogs -> ‘Why it’s okay to text first’ blog -> Ashley Benson’s Instragam -> Lucy hale Instagram
3. Tyler Ward Music website -> Kurt Hugo Schneider Youtube -> Alyson Stoner -> Step Up Movie
4. Instagram feed -> Selena Gomez -> Vanessa Hudgens -> Grease the Musical

I was so amazed at how far I got away from the original source!

WEEK FOUR

HYPERTEXT & HYPERMEDIA

How do they enhance  your experience of story?

Ultimately ‘hypertexts and hypermedia’ presents us with the opportunity to broaden the content of a blog. Not only are you watching or reading infomation, but you’re interacting. You get to decide on what journey you want to take. They essentially enable you to have that agency to move through it at your own pace.

Examples of Hypertexts and/or Hypermedia on our blogs … what participation is involved?

• Hypertexts – instagram, facebook, youtube
• Links to other blogs if people want to explore further
• Option to comment
• Videos / audio / pictures (posting and sharing)

As a class, we also discussed how blogs are hypertexts / media because …

• Intertextuality: embedded media, links beyond blog to other media sources
• Participation: commenting, liking, linking
• Fragmentation: posting, categories, tags
• Nodes: Posting
• Technically: immediate access, coding, spontaneity in writing

WEEK THREE

DIFFERENCES:  Creative Commons Vs Copyright

Copyright:

• Can’t be used without permission of the creator
• Long process to obtain a license
• Protecting own work
• More rigid / restriction
• Automatically covered

whilst …

Creative Commons:

• You can use other people’s work under certain circumstances
• License is right in front of you
• Sharing work
• More flexibility on what people can take and use / allowance
• Manually put a license on your work

Creative Commons

Creative commons … what the hell is ‘Creative Commons’?!

Prior to last week’s tutorial, I would have had no clue what the term meant. However after getting the opportunity to make my own ‘creative commons‘, it began to make a lot more sense …

I think creative commons is such a great idea! Not only does it allow people download and share digital content legally, but it also lets them know that you, as the author / creator, encourage them to reuse your work.

When something is created online, it is automatically protected by CopyRight. However, creative commons helps by providing licensing tools that are free to use, without the hassles of granting permission over and over again!

This customisable tool makes it a lot easier for authors and artist to signal the kind of right they’re happy to give way, whilst also signalling the right that they want to keep so that it facilitates sharing and building on top of the content already published by the author or artist.

Another great factor to creative commons is that it covers all mediums presented on your site, whether it’s pictures, audio or video, it’s all protected. This therefore also means that we must acknowledge the fact that each creative commons license is different, and be very aware of the restrictions when it comes to downloading and sharing other people’s content.

References:

http://vogmae.dropmark.com/182742/3366285

http://vogmae.dropmark.com/182742/3366284

WEEK TWO

Copyright: Someone else’s content cannot legally be published onto your blog, unless …

• Written permission has been granted
• Creative Common licenses the work
• The work is the list for public domain

Widgets: adding extra information on the side, acting like an app on your blog

Network Literacy: the basic knowledge and skills/tools needed to understand the world of interactive online environments.

“What are some ways we can demonstrate network literacy on our blog?” was our main focus during class discussion. We had a quick brainstorm and this is what we came up with:

• Linking our own social media pages (such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud etc), in order to keep readers involved in our lives, outside of the blogging world
• Linking other people’s social media blogs or pages and perhaps continuing discussion
• Branding / Advertising
• Adding categories and tags
• Embedding images, videos and audio
• Asking questions to start up debate or conversation
• Allowing commentation

There is no doubt that I will definitely be incorporating these elements into my blog!

WEEK ONE

During my first week of university, we learned a lot about the fundamentals for the course, such as simply what a blog is. It is argued that “a blog is a web-based publication” (Miles, 2006, pg. 66).

It’s a place, similar to a journal, where I’m able to document “ideas, reflections, [and] activities” (pg. 66), a space to freely “express doubt and insecurity about [my] knowledge” (pg. 67).

In regards to this course, my aim / goals include:

• Being consistent with blogs
• Creating a professional, welcoming and exciting online identity – positively presenting myself
• Seeing what it’s like to produce content (online)
• Discovering new platforms
• Telling stories
• And building a target audience and maintaining them

However, like everything in life, I will definitely have some challenges ahead of me, such as;

• Choosing a topic to write about – one that is appropriate and one that people actually want to read
• Becoming a successful blogger
• Maintaining my image
• Sharing things in a unique way – thinking outside the box. Being different
• Building a more public audience (outside the classroom) and keeping them intrigued
• Coding
• Developing a voice without compromising depth of content
• Advertising myself

References:

Miles, Adrian. Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning [online]. Screen Education, No. 43, 2006: 66-69