Week 10 group blog task question 1 & 2

How is sound represented in electronic sound equipment such as a radio?

When somebody speaks into a microphone, the microphone converts the vibrating sound waves into an electrical signal; the signal is shown as a fluctuating wave, the wave varies depending on the loudness, pitch and tempo of the original sound wave.

How does the speaker change the electrical audio signal into a sound wave that can be heard?

After the sound waves have been converted into an electrical signal, the device reads the electrical signals and uses that to vibrate and move the speaker back and forth, recreating the sound waves originally picked up by the microphone.

The death of the cinema?

As our technology is increasing, we are also losing things throughout the way, the outdated, old and forgotten media which are now only remembered as stepping stones to what we have now.

Due to the whole media convergence, nowadays everyday people can create their own media content and share it to millions of different people through websites such as YouTube.

Not only that but technology has allowed us to bring the old unique experiences into our own homes. We now have the ability to bring the Cinema experience into our everyday lives through HD televisions, surround sound and Blu-Ray DVDS.

Despite being this more convenient for us, this is effectively killing the market for Cinemas. The cinema used to be a unique place where friends would gather for a social and immersive experience, and now almost all the qualities found in a cinema can be brought back to your home.

The reason why Cinemas used to be so successful is because there was nowhere else where people could immerse themselves so well into a movie, even when they started mass producing them on VCR to allow people to own their individual copies. They had problems which put off some of the audiences. This was due to the scale of the movies in comparison to the user’s television. Televisions those days could not fit the entire clip into the television screens, resulting in large sections being cropped off. The producer’s came up with a simple method called “pan and scan” which panned the camera around the movie to focus on important sections while leaving out the less important parts. It worked well but some people were still not satisfied.

Now that all these problems have been resolved, the cinema’s are struggling too keep up with today’s market. You can tell they are now relying more and more on the food and drink as the prices of them keep rising. There have been attempts at reviving the market through 3D films and classic movies (Toy Story! Lion King!). But even now Television companies have successfully implemented the 3D effect into their televisions. This could be the end of the cinema!

Convergence

Convergence culture is a new mixture of new and old technology, solely based on the idea of new and old media, on how they were noticed, labelled by age and then combined to create a new potential medium for everyone to use.

By combining the two different types of media it allows a whole new set of media to be created; allowing even the audience to become the creator. An example of this is Web series which are programs which are only available to view through a pc, giving the user a new way to watch programs; it also allows communication and feedback which can go back to the creators through emails, forums and much more. Another example of this is the traditional television shows, but streamed online, this sometimes even containing old videos which are no longer aired on TV. This allows more choice in television as it gives them the freedom to watch any show anytime compared to some TV digital boxes allowing only some content to be re-watched.

A strange but good example of this is a television show, is called “Rudetube.” It’s a television series which completely relies on online videos as its content. The show combines the two media types by finding the most popular videos on the internet, and showing the audience on television, increasing its’ view count and popularity further.

Other ways which convergence culture can be used is for advertisements for companies; they can advertise their products online through videos and gaining popularity unique videos becoming viral. This different method can potentially save a lot of money and time; it also gives them different methods of presentation allowing their products to be shown in a whole new light.

Week 4 - online learning material

After doing this task I feel like I haven’t learnt anything new, but rather I refreshed my memory over the last couple of week’s lectures and labs. Despite this I found the task quite tedious and slightly irritating. This was because of the task itself, it felt like I was being forced into reading it which put me off quite a bit. If it was an optional choice similar to being allowed to download and view lecture and lab presentations, I probably would of liked it more since I would of went out of my own way to find the notes to revise and learn.

However I did like the layout and the choice of notes written down. For example, the use of the same images when the same subject is brought back up from past presentations will help me refresh my memory of that specific presentation. I also like the fact that an hour+ lectures can be summed up in a few, memorable notes.

I think the task information could be improved if it had some sort of emphasis or colour coding of the main points to help me remember the different subjects in each presentation. I think to further improve the information they could repeat unique events which happened on specific presentation days (jokes, YouTube videos, etc) but overall I think the task has and will continue to be an important asset for me.

A slideshow about an interest....

Team fortress 2

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Compared to traditional television and cinema culture, is online video a different or novel experience of media in everyday life?

When looking at the different types of media and explaining the experience of the two, there is no solid answer for this. When comparing old media (Television, radio) to new media (YouTube) it all depends on the user. If you ask an active YouTube user the same question he/she would most likely say that online media is the same since he/she uses it very often and they know a lot about it. Whereas if you ask a parent, they would more likely say it was difference since they may not be up to speed in technology and understand the capabilities of the internet.

For my point of view I would say that it is different to traditional media to an extent but also similar. This is because of the capabilities of the internet, these days you can pretty much stream/download everything which airs on TV, meaning almost the same experience can achieved though online video. I can also argue against that because of the effort needed to achieve the “same experience.” Despite being able to view the same materials online, the amount of interactivity needed for this is completely opposite than traditional media. Say you wanted to watch your favourite show, for traditional media you would have to wait a specific day and time to be able to view it whereas online video you could watch it anytime you want, the material may be the same, but the effort the audience puts in is different.

Nokia N8 ‘viral video’ advertising campaign

Nokia has currently released a new advertising campaign to show off the capabilities of the mobile phone, mainly its video camera. They decided to create a viral video of some action movies recorded entirely with the camera. I’ve watched both the videos and I actually think they’re pretty impressive for a standard camera phone. What the campaign is trying to show is that anybody can create good quality video if the user knows what he/she is doing. This type of advertising is taking a different approach than the standard advert shown on television. It gives the audience a bit of freedom, choice and inspiration, for me when I watched it, I thought in my head “I also like filming and video editing, if they can do it with a standard camera phone, why can’t I?” This effect encourages the audience to take part in the creation of viral videos, creating a media culture. Despite drawing the attention of media creation fans, it also shows them the full capabilities which this specific mobile phone can handle, so it also sells itself in the video.  This method of advertising may also be cheaper than the default method of using a television advert, a simple but effective advertising video, can be uploaded for free online (such as YouTube) , it can then get very popular and turn viral, (through the audience sharing it with friends and family)  effectively using the audience to advertise their product for free.

Overall I think it is a very productive, effective and quite a sneaky way marketing a product to an audience.

"Catch instants. Spontaneity, freshness”

This photo was my submission for the SPNP (Street Photography Now Project). My instruction for this task was “#53 Catch instants. Spontaneity, freshness” I thought this picture suited this instruction as it was something that happened as a surprise event at the Republic Club, I’m not exactly sure who he was, but he was a rapper, and his appearance, clothing and style emphasised the whole street culture reminding me of the project, making me jump in and take a picture at the spur of the moment.

I thought this project was a wonderful experience as it allowed normal everyday people with an artistic hobby to get involved and to get their work shown to different people throughout the world. This also works on people’s imagination as the guidelines for each photo are quite vague. This allows every person to capture an image which they can then respond to theme in their own way making potential masterpieces.

Not only that but this project also brings people with similar hobbies closer together, creating a social event worldwide. The project allows anybody involved to view and leave comments behind, giving people inspiration and feedback. It also gives people motivation to go out and capture unique moments which may only happen in their area, allowing them to share their culture and lifestyles of other people.

Overall I think this project is a very fun and interactive learning experience suitable for anybody who may have a slight interest in photography.

First week

First lecture was kind of strange, a little unorganized with the rooms and stuff. But I can kind of see what’s going to happen with each of the different subjects. I just can’t wait for the video production and animation modules. \o/