Sophia Matelli – s3663366
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Blog Posts
Selected Text: Blogs
Word Count: 546
Miles, A 2006, “‘Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning’.” Australian Screen Ed, vol 41, pp 66–9.
Adrian Miles’ text Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning highly suggests the usefulness of blogging as an educational tool, specifically for media students and teachers. Miles provides a description of blogs within several paragraphs, describing them as “web-based publications” that provide networked and easily-collaborative spaces. He continues on to identify the different aspects of a blog and why using a blog can create an accessible learning environment for students, which include supportive reflections on each other and assisting with idea establishment. He also includes ‘Consequences and Conclusions’ regarding blogging and having an online presence and teaching strategies to make blog use in education as effective as it can be.
He begins the article with his own involvement of using a blog for academic purposes, which guides readers to understand why he believes in the advantages of blogs. He has experience using them therefore can deliver an honest familiarity forward “The use of blogs as a networked writing technology, which I developed over this period, explores what is ‘peculiar’ to blogs: what sorts of things they make possible that other forms of writing (such as diaries, journals, notebooks and web pages) do not, and how these possibilities might contribute to teaching and learning”. (Page 66) This article successfully engages not only teachers but students, as Miles backs up his reasoning for blogging as a good teaching method by mentioning the students’ benefits, such as participation within each other’s work and creating a good learning environment that includes different types of voices and learning styles. Miles’ style of writing within the article is straightforward, yet is spoken in an intelligent manner which provokes Miles’ opinions to be notably acknowledged. He essentially presents this article in a blogpost’s typical structure, which uses short paragraphs that flow together so the reader remains intact with the information being delivered. One limitation this article offers is that it is all nearly based of off Miles’ own observations and opinions, with no supporting feedback from any other faculty member from the “large and ambitious project within the Bachelor of Communication (Media) program”. (Page 66) Using another teacher’s experiences regarding blog use could’ve backed up Miles’ ideas and opinions, making his article a stronger discussion.
When relating this reading back to the prompt “How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?”, Miles refers to blogging as “a networked writing technology” and how this explores what other forms of writing don’t make possible, such as contribution, collaboration and networking. He also talks about the ‘online identity’ of students through their blogs and how they can control a certain persona showcased through their blogposts, which become networked and publicised on the internet. On Instagram, online personas are created through the images and videos we choose to display and how we edit and manipulate them. This usually captures a certain demographic, your following, which is equivalent to owning a blog, except this is mainly shown through the personality of someone’s writing (which can also lead to chosen graphics and videos attached on the blog post). Instagram’s networking is demonstrated through the features of hash tagging images which sorts posts out into categories for like-minded people to find, similar to how a blog is constructed through tags.
Selected Text: Affordances
Word Count: 466
Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things , Basic Book, New York (Sections: Preface vii-xv; Chapter one pp 1-13; Chapter 4 (constraints) pp 81-87; (computers) pp 177-186).
The Design of Everyday Things was written by designer Donald Norman, which discusses the difference between good and bad design. He quotes that “Well-designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation.” (Page 2) These visible clues are termed ‘affordances’ by Norman, which he defines as “the perceived and actual properties of the thing” (Page 9) and the properties of that thing and how it could be used for. Norman also introduces the concept of “perceived affordances” which are actions that users view as possible due to how the object has been designed to look. Along with affordances, good design includes constraints, which Norman divides into physical, semantic, cultural and logical. The use of both affordances and constraints within a design can communicate its proper use. The book provides an abundance of examples, demonstrating good and bad design.
Norman’s reading was useful and informative as he delivers information through experience and comparisons with familiar designs, for example, using the invention of scissors to furthermore define the meanings of the terms ‘affordances’ and ‘constraints’. Pointing out each aspect of the scissors and how this outlines the meanings of affordances and constraints made the information easy to gather as Norman is using a simple model, making these topics less broad. Another example used is the experiment Norman constructed through building a Lego building blocks motorcycle set; this was applied to furthermore explain the different types of constraints, physical, semantic, cultural and logical. Norman’s book displays supporting images for each example, a visual representation of each description, which backs up his idea of affordances and how we are able to figure a design’s function just by looking at it. While providing a lot of examples gives the readers a clearer understanding of Norman’s studies, this can also be a limitation as it becomes redundant and can make the commentary dull and repetitive.
Relating Norman’s reading to our prompt, we focus on the ‘affordances’ of Instagram and how they have developed. Instagram’s “perceived affordances” have grown from its original affordance of posting images and videos onto your account by adding features like direct messaging, stories and advertisement boosting. This was brought up in my blog post where Instagram is now more than a photo-sharing application; it can be a platform to make new friends, collaborations and to promote businesses through advertisement (image and video based). From Norman’s descriptions of an object having good design explained in the quote “When affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction is required.” (Page 9), we can dissect whether Instagram fits into this category from the way its affordances are displayed, such as symbols like the heart-shaped button which we can interpret as “loving/liking” an account’s post.
Selected Text: New Media
Word Count: 440
Siapera, E. 2013, Understanding New Media. SAGE Publications, London (Section: pp.1-16).
Understanding New Media by Eugenia Siapera defines ‘new media’ using the alternative terms ‘digital’ and ‘online’ and their differences. Fundamentally, new media is digital and found online. She gathers the arguments of experts McLuhan, Kittler, Stiegler and Castells and distributes their ideas through her writing, as well as others. Siapera examines that digital media is referring to the encoding of numbers, sharing the idea of Lister by referring to the four outcomes of digital media and how data and information can become compressed, be accessed very fast, can be manipulated and how “Media texts can become de-linked”. (Page 3) Siapera outlines online media as “a direct reference to the internet” (Page 4) and describes how connectivity between different media, meaning computers and mobile phones is an important factor of new media and “prioritises the element of connectivity”. (Page 4) These two terms brought together describe new media.
Siapera’s book discusses digital, online and new media in an organised matter, separating digital and online media into different sections and then ultimately leading to new media. This structure is effective as it clearly displays the definitions of the three types of media without bringing them together all at once, possibly drowning the reader with a great amount of information. Another effective aspect of Siapera’s book is the inclusion of other experts’ beliefs such as McLuhan’s argument that “The media can extend our senses, but they can also limit them” (Page 7) as well as Kittler’s idea that “The media determines our situation” (Page 8), two different theories. From adding other perspectives to the study of new media, Siapera is able to relate back to her own ideas. While providing opposing theories to the research of new media can help evolve the idea itself, it doesn’t offer a clear route to what new media specifically means. Instead, this could be seen as a limitation, confusing readers to thinking about the many different definitions of new media. Along with this is the lengthy paragraphs that the information is structured in, providing another limitation of how readers could struggle to absorb Siapera’s gathered information.
Relating Siapera’s book back to the prompt, we can refer to Instagram as new media as it possesses the four outcomes of digital media, especially how photos and videos can be manipulated and then published. Instagram is a networked application found on mobile phones, relying on connectivity through the Internet, fitting it into the category of online media. As a social media app meant for showcasing ‘the perfect image’, Instagram can have the limitation of reducing ‘real life moments’, which relates to McLuhan’s study and how media can limit our senses.