Media 6 – Five Minds for the Future Reading

Blog Post Week 6

Howard Gardner – Five Minds for the Future

 

One of the biggest points I gained from Gardner’s reading was that everyone has a different kind of mind and one is not more important than the other. But all of the minds can create a very successful, functioning, productive workplace if treated properly and given the time and space to grow. From a work perspective, I think this is particularly essential to keep in mind, especially if you are in any kind of management or leadership position and leading a team. But from a human being perspective, it is an important lesson that all minds are equal and all humans are equal regardless of what ‘mind’ they have or what they choose to do with it. Disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind and the ethical mind – these are all posed to us and being somewhat self-centred I immediately want to know where I fit into the categories. However, I’ve come to my own realisation that not everyone fits perfectly into these boxes but each of our minds can potentially contain multiple of these. And what we want to do with our life is completely up to us.

 

The second was when he said “as human beings, we cannot afford to sacrifice the local for the global, any more than we can afford to sacrifice the arts and humanities in our efforts to remain current with science and technology”. At this point; the naturist, the vegetarian and the supporter of local shopping in me screams ‘finally’. In terms of globalisation, I think this is important to keep in mind, and remember our roots and what is natural. Swapping diets for extremely processed food and ordering cheap clothing online isn’t helping our local community – in fact, it’s just making the big rich people richer and the poorer even more poor – worsening the current divide. I’m not saying that globalisation is bad, and maybe by buying the cheap clothes online you are helping a mother provide food for her kids in Nigeria but I fully believe you need to do this research first. Globalisation has undoubtedly many great aspects, the ability to reach remote communities and provide them with help and support or increase educational standards with online resources.

Media 6 – Finding Time in a Digital Age Reading

Blog Post Week 5

Judy Wajcman – Finding Time in a Digital Age

 

Technology, whilst useful in terms of productivity is increasing working hours, rather than decreasing them. This is mainly due to the nature of the services it provides. Emails and text messages are instant and everyone now has grown accustomed to being able to contact someone at anytime and gain an immediate response. Meaning we are all constantly connected to work and to eachother. This ultimately makes it harder for the worker to escape from work after their allocated hours for the week.

 

Constant connection and delivery is not just limited to your working life, but also to your life as a consumer. Most companies now allow you to shop online and some deliver same day, meaning that you can order a box of books from Amazon on the train on the way to work and they will be at your house waiting for you when you get home.

 

This chaotic lifestyle caused by instant information and communication serenaded by beeping notifications has brought on a trend of ‘slow’ living. This includes a Slow Food movement and Slow Cities.

 

I personally don’t think we should all start jumping aboard the slow lifestyle train. Information technology is still new and very much a novelty. Hence, why I believe people are overusing it. There is no reason to ignore it all together, the best option is to embrace it but try and integrate it into your lifestyle in a balanced way where it does not take over. I may be hypocritical because I am very much guilty of working ridiculously long hours and overloading my schedule, however, finding a balance is very important to remain happy and healthy, both mentally and physically.

Media 6 – Annotated Bibliography 3 & 4

  1. Lhamo T, Oyama T 2015, ‘The Role of Mass Media in Bhutan: Accessibility, Influence and its Impacts’, Journal of Mass Communication and Journalism 5:266. doi:10.4172/2165-7912.1000266

 

http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/the-role-of-mass-media-in-bhutan-accessibility-influence-and-its-impacts-2165-7912-1000266.php?aid=59515

 

 

This journal article goes in depth into the introduction of TV and the Internet in Bhutan (both in 1999!) and how that affected the Bhutanese community. The article also points out the growth of the film industry in Bhutan, with 241 films being produced out of Bhutan by 2012.

 

The biggest change for Bhutan outlined was the growth in social connections throughout the country. However, despite the benefits of the internet Bhutan has noticed the bad aspects as well, potentially more so than other countries due to the rapid introduction of these technologies in the country. These negative impacts include weakened familial bonds, more youth violence, less attention to homework, increase in materialism etc.

 

The growth of the Internet has also meant an increase in pop culture in Bhutan. For example, most of the time, people were entertained by live music, that’s what they sang along to and danced to, however, now there is an increase in the use of recording devices and listening to prerecorded music. These changes are also severely impacting the traditions and culture of Bhutan.

 

Lhamo and Oyama’s article looks at the various aspects of mass media in Bhutan and how it has affected the country on multiple levels, positively and negatively.

 

  1. Chepesiuk, R 1998, ‘Bring Internet to the Developing World’, American Libraries, vol. 29, issue 8, pp. 55-58

 

http://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/197162852/abstract/36FC232DD1564769PQ/1?accountid=13552

 

This article is severely outdated – I’m not denying that. Especially considering the topic of the Internet. So much as changed in the past 18 years. However, looking past that, the general points that it makes in terms of how the Internet can help the developing world are still valid.

 

Despite a lot of changes occurring in the last 18 years, there are many developing countries with little or no access to the internet or with access but no information and education surrounding it.

 

One of the biggest points that the article brings up are the access to libraries worth of information that a lot of communities couldn’t dream of. Chepesuik describes the electronic library as the future of all libraries for the developing world. These thoughts are still very relevant, we can look at situations now where the infrastructure is in place, however, the internet is only being used for games and videos.

 

The other valuable point is how many countries in Africa are worried about the impact the internet is going to have in terms of the social and cultural aspects of their society. Censorship is a valid point raised and stills a highly debated topic, especially considering the case study of China.

 

The costs that Chepesuik evaluates are even more of a worry now, with some of these things being more expensive, communities cannot afford to pay for access to license fees, server costs and copyright charges.

 

This is why this article can still remain a useful resource when considering the Internet in third world countries.

Media 6 – Annotated Bibliography 1 & 2

  1. Tobgay, S & Wangmo, K 2008, ‘Can ICT (Internet) overcome the natural geographical barriers of Bhutan in developing the nation?’, International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), Vol. 4, Issue 4, pp. 148-158.

 

http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=4594&article=577&mode=pdf

 

This article explores Bhutan and it’s access to the Internet. It provides figures into the growth of the Internet in Bhutan and the restrictions it faces surrounding the infrastructure and culture of the Bhutanese. It also compares the statistics of the Internet in Bhutan with other Asian countries, which provides a nice way to look at its significance in the topic. The article then delves into the government and the education surrounding science technology.

 

One of the most fascinating facts it presents is that the Internet was not introduced to Bhutan until 1999, 10 years behind Australia. Bhutan is a particularly different country to be looking at, so it was great to find this somewhat recent (2008) article about the technology advancements and the Internet in Bhutan. This aids my research well and gives me further information into the situation in Bhutan, which interests me greatly and fits into our topic for the group project nicely, especially if I can do a case study of Bhutan as an international factor for our project.

 

The figures presented are accurate from what I have discovered in various other articles and information online.

 

The best thing about this article is that it looks at the various cultural factors in Bhutan and how these react with the Internet and potential it has in the country. I feel as though that insight is not as strong in other articles that I have come across.

 

 

 

  1. Thimpu, Y 2010, ‘Media: Internet Bringing the World to Bhutanese’, Global Information Network, New York

 

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/pqrl/docview/759765503/36FC232DD1564769PQ/3?accountid=13552

 

This article by Yasmin Thimpu is quite short, yet the reason why I’ve included it is because it looks at particular stories coming from Bhutan and how they relate to the Internet. This also provides insight into how the Internet affects the people directly and their daily lives.

 

I like how it feels as though it has been written with an inside perspective, and rather than being filled with facts and statistics it is using a more personal point of view. This gives the culture of Bhutan a bit more credit and dismisses the general lack of connection to the people.

 

Being from 2010, it is still 6 years old, however, you can see the connection of data from Tobgay and Wangmo’s article which was written only 2 years earlier. Thimpu has written other articles on Bhutan so I feel as though it is a credible source coming from some background.

 

Thimpu also looked at many people in the community, of different ages and professions. The first case was an 11 year old girl and the second one was a 23 year old business student who is hoping to utilise the up and coming trends in online marketing opening up a restaurant and promoting it via Facebook.

 

While this may not be an overall and expansive case study of the Bhutanese, it gives in depth examples and interlocks these with some statistical figures.

Media 6 – The Clarity of The Craftsman Reading

Blog Post Week Four

Cal Newport – So Good They Can’t Ignore You

 

Cal Newport’s chapter, ‘The Clarity of the Craftsman’, investigates the mindset of a creative worker. This can probably be replicated in any profession, however, I feel as though it is more relevant to those working as a creative. Newport uses the example of Jordan Tice, a guitar player and how he deals with the pressures surrounding artistic work. His music is described as his passion and that is what drives him everyday and he is happy to sit there practising something small if it adds to the quality of his music. This attitude is described as the craftsman mindset. Stop being bothered by whether the job is right for you or if you should be doing it, just focus on being really good at what you are doing.

 

This concept of not being so self-centred and just doing what your doing is really useful for me. I am a chronic stress head when it comes to my abilities and how good I am at something. And then the passion will come later and I think that will come when you relax and start to feel more confident.

 

Newport’s chapter reminded me of a Ted talk we watched in my Graphic Design elective. The teacher (Joe) put this on at the end of a class and even though it isn’t exactly saying what Newport is; I found it a very useful resource for creative work and having a new mindset in terms of your craft. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Ted Talk – ‘Your Elusive Creative Genius’ goes into how you are just a vessel and basically you work hard at what you are doing and your ‘genius’ might give you a hand. It’s definitely worth a listen.

 

These ideas being presented about creative work are very important for me, to get me out of my ingrained way of thinking and attempt to embrace a new mindset towards my work.

Media 6 – Work Reading

Media 6 Blog Post Week 3

 

Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas – Work

 

‘Work’ by Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas covers a lot of topics regarding workplaces and creative industries. The main issues that I got out of the readings are the exploitation of workers, especially young people working as interns and women. The line fine between flexibility and exploitation is discussed, the rhetoric of flexible workplaces and jobs sounds great, however, this is encouraging staff to work many more hours because the physical boundaries of the workplace are not there. Due to digital technology, people can now work anywhere because they can always be connected which makes turning off and finishing work for the day extremely hard when your phone keeps buzzing with emails or text messages.

 

The ability to employ people as freelancers is also increasing, people can now post jobs online with a pay rate and anyone can do it. However, in developed countries, these pay rates are very low and not worth the effort. Yet for someone in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India or Kenya, this money will go really far. So as much as it might seem exploitative to us, it is a fantastic opportunity for them to earn a decent amount of money. This is also opening up opportunities for both employers and employees worldwide to work together. The other side of this is that if all Australian media companies started doing this then there would be no work left for anyone in the country, causing media professionals to start losing their jobs.

 

This globalization of the workplace is going to continue and as creative workers we are going to have to learn to adapt to these conditions.

Media 6 – A World of Differences Reading

Media 6 Blog Post Week Two

Chris Lederer and Megan Brownlow – A World of Differences

 

A World of Differences looked into the media industry and where the potential areas of growth and opportunity are for businesses.

 

The rhetoric we have been hearing since the beginning of our degrees and any experience we have had with technology of how the younger generations adapt much faster to new technology was a core part of this reading. One of the biggest parts is that older consumers struggle with constantly changing technology and get left behind. So, as an entertainment and media company, the best way to keep the older demographic of consumers is to maintain some of the more traditional media sources. If you quickly throw them out in preference to online or digital media you will lose that part of your consumer base.

 

Different media and entertainment companies based in various countries will have to think of the demographic of the country they are in. As the reading looked at, Pakistan is completely different to Australia. Because in Pakistan 70% of the population is under 35, whereas in Australia there is a much older demographic who are all still consumers. In Pakistan the growth of E&M will be a lot higher, whereas, in Australia, the growth will be a lot slower due to the differences in consumption of media. In Australia, there is also a high preference to watch local content over global content, this is also the case in countries like India, Nigeria and China where they have big movie production businesses.

 

This International business perspective in terms of the entertainment and media industry is very helpful to me as I hope to work in this industry overseas.

Media 6 Week 1 Klaus Schwag

Klaus Schwag – The Forth Industrial Revolution

 

This reading was interesting for me and took me out of my comfort zone. There were a few aspects that I have no knowledge of. Topics such as robotics, various new materials and biological mega-trends went straight over the top of my head. However, looking at platforms for business and income as well as human inequality.

 

Schwag looks over physical, digital and biological mega-trends. The physical megatrends such as robotics investigates how they can be integrated into society, potentially replacing household chores and mass production. My main issue with the growth in this industry is the limitation of human contact and interaction. This also joins in with inequality in terms of skilled labour, as labour is now decreasing in numbers of workers and only the best are getting the jobs. This could potentially raise unemployment rates and create social unrest. Schwag develops some ideas around wealth and the middle class, claiming those with middle class jobs will no longer be able to live a middle class lifestyle and education is becoming a luxury in both the US and UK.

 

However, technology is providing a myriad of platforms in which people can make money. For example, driving with uber and hosting air b’n’b. This relies on people having access to connected smart phones or devices. A lot of people don’t at the moment. The tipping point table shows the growth in populations having access to the Internet and personal devices. Technology is also empowering some people who are in dire situations, Schwag used the example of Syrian refugees using google maps and facebook to escape the country.

 

There are many advantages and disadvantages discussed in Schwag’s reading. But these are the points that appealed to me and where I am hoping to go in my career within the media industry.

The Art of Persuasion Reflection

I think the biggest thing that must be done to make a documentary both political and poetic is simply to ignore some of the fundamental aspects of what it is that makes a documentary a documentary.

 

This sentence may be slightly contradictory, however, if you’d taken part in my past semester you might understand. Documentaries are classically known for a variety of structures that make them a documentary. Examples of these are interviews, voiceovers, generally all of the footage is shot by the documentary makers and is ‘real footage’ of the events, all of the imagery is photorealistic and must seem real, as well as many others. By purposely not adhering to some of these constraints of documentary, your film can seem much more poetic whilst still having the ability to tackle serious political topics.

 

The first documentary task we did was to make two short documentaries, one, which was all found footage and the other, we shot ourselves, neither of which could contain interviews. This really started to get our heads around how we could be creative and do something a bit different with the documentaries we make. Finally we settled on our final ideas and started collecting footage for our found footage documentary. There were a lot of documentaries and videos containing footage of animal cruelty in chicken factories. The biggest issue was finding footage with high enough resolutions. We started looking at how we would piece it together in terms of a structured plot and most importantly what we were going to do with the soundtrack. We spent a quite a while listening to music until we found an appropriate track but the dialogue was going to be a fundamental part of how it was going to turn out. Brady and I trialled multiple ideas that could work, this included things such as children laughing and talking, cooking shows, children’s cooking shows, cutting dialogue out of other documentaries (but they were always terrible quality for what we wanted to hear) until we found a BuzzFeed video of people taste testing various brands of fried chicken. Hearing them describe the flavours and texture of the chicken while watching the horrific visuals of the conditions of the chickens seemed to work as it numbed the imagery to a certain extent but still managed to get the point across. I feel like by having the people eating chicken it adds an extra layer to the argument because they are eating chicken from the exact kind of places that encourage the conditions in the farms. It feels like less of a sob story and more truthful. By having this connection between the audio and the visuals I feel like it is a somewhat ‘poetic’ way of presenting the topic and our standpoint.

 

The second documentary we made was the one with our own footage. The way Brady and I worked was to select one each and then work on them separately and then help each other out. Brady did the found footage and I mainly focused on this one. We chose to do a far more abstract documentary on beauty, attempting to make the point that it is not how attractive your features may be but the enjoyment and beauty that they can give you. Some of the main inspirations for me with this assignment has been from photographers such as Michaela Noroc and her ‘The Atlas of Beauty’ project, Marcos Alberti and his Wine Project and even to a certain extent Brandon Stanton the photographer behind Humans of New York. I love this profiling of people and concept of seeing the beauty in anyone; I wanted to incorporate this idea in this project. I filmed various friends of mine in uncomfortable situations and tried to capture them in moments of raw beauty and happiness. I also filmed scenic shots on a road trip down the Great Ocean Road (below are some photographs I took during this trip as well). This documentary didn’t include any formal interviews or specifically talk about to the concept we were trying to cover. This is much different in comparison to Patrick and Ruby’s found footage documentary about Climate Change, which was fantastically sharp, and to the point about the topic in a very witty way. Or even Kiralee and Evan’s shot footage film about Safe Schools, which was also very clear as to what they were discussing. Whereas, ours was much more abstract, I don’t necessarily think this was a bad thing, because I believe “You’ve Got Beautiful Eyes” turned out to be poetic and was still appealing to watch.

 

My photo of a lizard on the Great Ocean Road

My photo of a lizard on the Great Ocean Road

My photo taken off a lookout on the Great Ocean Road

My photo taken off a lookout on the Great Ocean Road

Through a bush onto a port along the Great Ocean Road

Through a bush onto a port along the Great Ocean Road

Off a pier on the Great Ocean Road

Off a pier on the Great Ocean Road

 

The final documentaries we made I personally feel like was our best work. At this point we had settled into the course and I had learnt a lot about the best ways to edit and what makes a documentary better. I think that the entire class made these with a lot less speed bumps and everyone’s final documentary turned out really well. My personal favourites were Nikki, Bridgette and Ali’s documentary about gender fluidity. I really like their visuals and the effort they made to shoot some of their own images really showed. The whole thing flowed really well and I found it fascinating and informative. My other personal favourite was ‘Flow’ by Ruby, Elaine and Haylee, they were looking at another great topic and I think it pieced together effectively. For ‘it’ we all went out separately and got interviews, then we came together to create a soundtrack incorporating the interviews. Making the soundtrack first was an interesting way to do it but it worked out very well for us. From here we designed a storyboard with imagery relating to ‘it’ (or sex) that were not photorealistic. We then managed to act this out and do it all in a long take. I’m happy with how it turned out and I think in terms of all the work I’ve created this semester this one has spoken to how a documentary can be both political and poetic. By covering a topic and not actually using any words or visuals relating to it but still making it very clear what you are talking about is quite an achievement and I think that answers the overarching question of the studio.

Art of Persuasion Project 1

Filmmakers who make documentaries are generally trained in how to edit, film, storyboard and script the story they want to tell. Documentaries are inherently a political act. The filmmaker has an opinion or perspective of the World that they want to share. In this way, documentaries cannot ever be objective or unbiased. Waugh divides documentaries into two categories – commitment and documentary. Commitment is created from a specific ideology and documentary is created from a political agenda (Waugh, pg. 6). Documentaries are often seen to be very political but they can also be a work of art.

 

An Inconvenient Truth by Davis Guggenheim is obviously fully supportive of climate change. He uses Al Gore’s lectures to explain the science and inevitability behind climate change. This documentary is extremely political, tackling a huge global topic head on. It is a good example of a film that is acting with someone and for them, not necessarily just speaking about them but also giving them their own voice. This is one of the biggest claims that Bill Nichols speaks about, not victimising the subject of the film.

 

The realistic-ness of documentary is important to the genre in some extent. People often reach for documentaries to be given some form of truth rather than fiction. Dziga Vertov wanted to display truth in his documentaries, however, he got the people involved to re-enact the scenes. This may be considered staged to some, but it did work for him as by getting those involved to put themselves back in that situation it generated the same feelings they had at the time. Vertov’s described his style as ‘kino-eye’, he believed “all true cinema fell under the banner of kino-eye” (Nichols, B. pg. 144). Vertov thought that this style embodied all truth, however his style of creativity was very formal. Joris Ivens collaborated with Vertov also shared the view that it is important to collaborate with the subjects of the film. He also used re-enactment to create the qualities that he wanted to capture. Ivens believed “activism to engage aesthetically and transform politically” (Nichols, pg. 150).

 

Documentaries can also be seen as an art form and be presented poetically. Leni Rifenstahl is a famous example of someone who has argued that her films were entirely art based, despite the fact that they were covering political events. Her film Triumph of the Will, was filmed at the Nuremburg rallies, however, her style is less strict in comparison to something created as a ‘documentary’ that “combines ideas of nonfiction and education with social seriousness” (Waugh, pg. 9). Rifenstahl created very political films but with an artistic and poetic style, particularly through the use of camera angles and techniques such as panning. Despite the fact that these films were works of art they are still considered propaganda films and have a strong political backbone. Her camera angles work to create a certain perspective. She has a lot of shots looking up at Hitler, presenting him as some sort of ‘God’, which is how Hitler wanted to be seen and what made it such a successful piece of propaganda. Riefenstahl’s films are a good example of documentaries that can be both political and poetic. A documentary is not necessarily one or the other, but a combination of both.