Digital Media Cultures - Development of the Assignment

Today our group had a catch up to work out what we are going to do for the assignment. Our topic is social media and so we wanted to narrow this down to just Facebook. In a normal dissertation we would talk about other sites, however because we only have 1000 words in each pair to talk, we need to narrow our field.
We decided that we all need to find 2 references to use in the assignment, we need to read them, make notes on them, and then allow everyone else to read them before Monday. We wanted to have this done by Monday because we have a meeting at 10:15am to discuss the progress we have made so far.
We also wanted to have a question/hypothesis to present on Monday to see if we have chose a good direction go in. We came up with 'How does Facebook prove Marshall McLuhans theories of globalisation?'. We are not sure about this yet so with our finding from the research this could change over the weekend.
So, the subjects that I need to look up and find articles or chapters for are:

• Globalisation
• Marshall McLuhan
• Facebook
• Social networking
• Focus groups that use social networks
• Clay Shirky

So that is the progess so far, I will update on this when we have had the meeting on Monday to see where we stand with the articles and what ones we have chosen.

Speak Soon!

Convergence Media Teamwork - Transmedia Activism

Today in Convergence Media Teamwork, we discussed transmedia activism and various examples of this in action. Transmedia activism is when a campaign about political or social change uses various platforms in the media such as social networking.
A prime example of this activism is the Barbie deforestation campaign by Greenpeace. Greenpeace attacked Mattel on many levels after the amount of deforestation the company causes due to their packaging choices was unearthed.
Here are a few aspects of Greenpeace's transmedia campaign:

Barbie hunt!

Ken is leaving Barbie!




I have made a note of Henry Jenkins because of his work in the convergence design area; and also Lina Strivastava because of her work on transmedia activism.

Embrace the following:

• Multiple platforms each utilised for what it does best
• Multiple entry points (story)
• Opportunity for collective action rather than passive consumption
• Each piece of content should be able to stand alone

Documentary filmmakers try to create a linear story wold to engage the audience - like a drama. Web and social networks have provided a new form of engagement for such shows.

There are many types of narrative, here are a few that we explored today:

Branching Narrative - This narrative just keeps expanding and many users have different experiences because they do not reach the other end of the branches.

Fish Bone Narrative - A narrative structure that is faily linear but with small extras but these can sometimes distract from the main story.

Concentric Narrative - This gives a level of freedom for the user to explore, the authors view may be blurred and users need to be motivated.

Why do we join virtual spaces?

• To soialise
• To work together
• To have topical discussions
• To share interests and ideas

Social Media

Participation:

Encourages contribution and feedback.

Openness:

Most are open to feedback, rare to find barriers for access to/making content.

Conversation:
Conversational 'two way' rather than 'broadcasting' to an audience.

Community:

Allows communities to form quicky and communicate effectively around interest.

Connectedness:

Making use of links to sites, resources and people.

1 : 9 : 90 rule

90% consumers, 9% curators, 1% creators

After the presentation, we watched a video of Clay Shirky called 'how social media can make history'. Here is that video.

My Reflection
In this lecture I discovered various forms of activism and how social media can enhance the following of positive campaigns such as that of Greenpeace. However it can also fuel negativity such as the Kony 2012 campaign. Over all transmedia activism is a positive thing and can enhance the awareness of a cause from a small density to a worldwide knowledge in just minutes. I also found that Clay Shirky is a very interesting theorist when it comes to social media and he will be very useful for the other module Digital Media Cultures as we are currently working on an assignment about social media and globalisation.

You Learn Something New Everyday
Today I learned that using multimedia platforms to promote a cause, an event or even yourself can be the best way to get noticed fast; but you need to have something different to catch the audiences eyes or ears.

Speak Soon!

Credits:

www.treehugger.com

www.sofreshandsogreen.com

www.greenpeace.org

www.youtube.com/user/sydneycopwatch

Student Union Meeting

Today we had our first meeting about the new projects we are starting this year with the Student Union. Mark, Joe and I went to the SU excited because we couldn't wait to start the next lot of work. I have been glad to have some steady income whilst at university because every student knows that it is a struggle to pay for everything you need when living away from home. I am finding the work enjoyable and I am learning new things as we go along because Mark and Joe help me as I do them.

So this semester we have 2 main projects to focus on. The first is Advice Blogs that will be set up situations where an SU representative will speak about various issues and problem solving. We will first do 2 of these videos and then see how things go. I had a good idea of maybe doing the top 10 tips so that the videos will be easily digestible for the viewers. We all agreed that the videos should be no longer than 3 minutes, as to not bore the viewers and also we would just have the talking and no cheesy cutaways about the situations being spoke about.
The videos will be scripted so that the information is all correct and the most information is given; however the rep will be free to speak in any way they like as long as all the information is conveyed. We don't want them to look scripted and so giving the rep the chance to ad-lib will make it more relatable and genuine.
The second project that we are going to be doing is a video about all the things you can do as a student with the SU. The last film we made was about the sports and societies and this one will include that footage and more. We need to include things like forums, voluterring, hall reps, course reps, etc. This video sounded interesting to me and I think we will be able to get a lot of content for this as me and Joe are course reps ourselves. 
These videos will be mainly for the website so of course the audio is important; however they will also be put on screens around the SU and the university buildings, so we need to be able to subtitle them.
In the 'things to do' video we will talk to hall reps about their work, but we could also make a seperate hall reps video where we visit the halls and talk to the hall managers about the benefits of hall reps and their work.

This meeting was really productive and we know exactly what we need to do for these projects. We just need to get cracking with all the preperation, starting with a location for the advice blogs, I suggested our university building and so we need to go and find a suitably lit and coloured room. Anyway,

Speak Soon!

Presentation Day!

Today was the big day for Applied Media Research. It was the day of the presentation that Josie, Elicia and I had been working towards. We went it very confident and ready to just show everything that we had researched and made to answer the question we were given. Instead of me just talking about the presentation, here it is!



I am really proud of the final product and I know that we did a few things that other groups didn't. I hope it stood out from the rest so we may have a chance of getting a 1st! We really worked hard for this, the biggest thing I am proud of is the Focus Group film we made; we wanted to incorporate various media on the show and using a video that we actually made really adds to the efforts that we put in.

My Reflection
Of course I am writing a report on this presentation now and the work that led up to it, but I would just like to say that at the beginning of this project, I wasn't convinced that I would find it interesting or fun. But by the end I was really involved in the subjects that we were handing. I suppose it helped that we ended up using shows that we each individually liked, because if we would have just done the same as everyone else I don't think I could have got in to researching reality TV shows and game shows. Its just not what I'm in to!

You Learn Something New Everyday
It just goes to show that you can really have fun with your work, like we did. We dressed up as characters from the shows that we researched; so here is me as a zombie...

Speak Soon!

The Snow!

Thought I would do a little photography post because I haven't done many recently. Here are a few photographs of the snow in Livepool.

Digital Media Cultures - Study Skill

In today's lecture we looked at study skills and analytical writing. The main topic was the work of Stella Cottrell and her book 'The Study Skills Handbook'. The 7 points she speaks of in her book that you should follow when writing an essay or dissertation are:

1. Clarify the task
2. Collate and record information
3. Organise and plan
4. Evaluation and Reflection
5. Refine plan and first draft
6. Draft development
7. Final Draft

Discussing these points I realised that I need to plan my essays more and give myself a timetalbe to work in. This would make me more organised and I would then have more time to work on an essay rather than last minute checks and drafts.

A few more points that I picked up from this lecture:

• Avoid conversational language
• Do not use abbreviations
• Be objective not subjective
• Find a strategy to retain information (Breaks, rewards, timed chunks)
• Always use research that is relevant to the task

After the main bulk of the lecture and slide show; we were put in to our groups for the next assignment. Me, Josie, Gemma and Amy are working as a team on the subject of social networking.

At the end of the lecture we stayed behind for 5 minutes just to discuss the first steps we should take with getting started. We decided that we would focus on globalisation as a feature of social networking. We will use Facebook, Twitter and MySpace for examples and we could refer to Marshall McLuhans research. For next week we are all going to bring in 3 articles relating to the subject we have chosen; we are to read and explain them to the others. After this we are going to narrow it down to 5 articles that we will focus on for the assignment. 

Speak Soon!

Albus :)

So my dog had a haircut today. He looks like a little movie star :) I thought I would share this with you all!

Speak Soon!

Applied Media Research - More Research!

To do more research for the presentation, we need to use more platforms than just giving out questionnaires. So I decided to go on to Facebook and do a poll with an online audience. I made a few status updates asking everyone to comment their favourite show out of the three we have researched; and they responded very well!

In groups you can actually make a poll where people just tick the choice they want rather than typing it. So in the Media Professional Studies group that we have on Facebook I added a poll for all my classmates to vote.

I also decided to ask if people would fill in the questionnaire for me through Facebook; this way I was getting the results faster and didn't have to keep pestering people in public. The people who filled in the questionnaire on Facebook volunteered and I was very grateful!

My Reflection
Using social networking to gather research is a good way of engaging with those who use online content and social networking for their TV interaction. Making the poll was quick and easy and the results were gathered over a couple of days. The results were easy to collect and I was able to get a lot of people involved. As for the questionnaire; we did get a lot of people to fill it in by hand when in university, but this way I got a wider audience of people to fill in the questionnaire. Different ages and genders filled it in for me and this allows the research to be broader.

You Learn Something New Everyday
Facebook isn't just a place for socialising and looking at silly videos and pictures; it can actually be useful! Thanks Zuckerberg!

Speak Soon!

Applied Media Reseach - Editing

The focus group that we did just before Christmas was filmed and now its time to edit it for the presentation for next week! We have been working all day to create the film; it consists of timelapses of the participants during the task of using online content for 3 different shows - The Walking Dead, Doctor Who and Breaking Bad. We then asked them questions and they answers these throughout the footage.
Editing this took some time but was not a difficult task because I find myself being very apt at AVID now because we have used it so much.
Well here is the film that will be in the presentation next week, a few of you might even be in it ;)

Speak Soon!

Applied Media Research - More Research

As I said in the previous post we had a lot to do individually so I cracked on with the research about Question Time and Big Brother. 

Question Time

• Topical debate tv programme featuring politicians and other public figures
• David Dimbleby has been the face of the show for nearly 15 years
• A panel sit in front of a live audience. Debate, audience can ask questions
• Viewers can send in comments via text message
• The past 3 years they have used the Twittersphere allowing online debate
• 2.7 million viewers on average (more intense debates create more viewers - Iraq war)
• Can watch past episodes online (BBC iPlayer)

Big Brother

• Reality game show franchise created by John de Mol (Endemol)
• 12-16 contestants in a house for around 3 months
• Final cash prize for the winner
• A psychological science experiment about behaviours gone out of control
• Celebrity versions
• Heavily involved in the internet - live 24 hour feed
• 291 people have won big brother worldwide
• Big Brother app
• Website - full off games, gossip and more
• Social networking is a major factor - information, gossip, celebrities

Speak Soon!

Credits:
www.youtube.com/user/ukipmedia

www.sussexstudent.com

edmayes.wordpress.com

en.wikipedia.org

www.youtube.com/user/dirtymonkey2013

www.eatock.com

www.digitalspy.co.uk

Convergence Media Teamwork - Transmedia Storytelling

In this lecture we focused on transmedia storytelling and the ways in which it has been used in the past. we also eventually made our own transmedia tale.

Greek culture used transmedia stories of their gods throughout their history on various things such as temples, pots, they even acted them out in the amplitheatres. People would travel far and wide to read/see these stories and so the stories travelled.

Films, games, websites and more are used for transmedia storytelling in the modern age. Films such as The Blair Witch Project, A.I, Prometheus, Ted and The Dark Knight Trilogy have all used various forms of transmedia storytelling.

Prometheus had a marketing promotional video that focused on one of the characters and their back story. Here is the example of that video:

This video gives an enhanced version of the information you find out about 'David' in the film Prometheus. Die hard fans will have found this and had extra information going in to the film than others who did not; changing the movie experience.

There are many examples of transmedia storytelling in our world today, and sometimes without even noticing, we are using the media to access the footage, images and information add ons that the production companies create.

We were then introduced to the models of traditional storytelling and transmedia storytelling. Here they are:

The models illustrate the differences between a normal storytelling experience and that of the transmedia storytelling. You can also see the different in user generated content and how much this is a key feature in some transmedia storytelling.

After the lecture, we were asked to re-imagine a fairly tale suing the transmedia world. So images, text, Tweets, Facebook, Tumblr, games, apps, videos, YouTube, Google, Flickr, books, illustrations.

Our group got together and decided we wanted to tell the story of Repunzel. We began by choosing a character each to portray. I was the witch in the story. Once we all had a character, we went off and decided to make purely online content. For my character I made a fake blog on Tumblr which would reveal the true identity of the witch to actually be the mother of Repunzel herself. Being the witch I talk about general day to day activity of a witch such as making potions, but then more layers of Rapunzels story is revealed through some emotional blogs.
Other people in the group used Facebook and created fake profiles, they also used Flickr to upload photographs.

I found this task interesting because it allowed me to create a whole back story for a character that doesn't really have many layers in the real story. We totally reinvented the idea of Rapunzel locked in her tower and brought it in to modern day.

My Reflection
So I thought that today's lecture was a bit repetative with the slides just giving example after example of the same sort of transmedia ideas. However, I did really find the diagrams helpful for me to understand how the transmedia storytelling world works. I liked the activity that we did because I was able to go online and create a whole fake blog about someone who doesn't even exist. To me this raises questions about fake people on the internet and how we are supposed to know who we are talking to, reading about or listening to. We don't really think about who these people might be. If anyone see's this blog about Rapunzels witch/mother who has a nack for Tumblr, they might think that a psychopathic weirdo is on the other end of the keyboard. But who knows!

You Learn Something New Everyday
Today the biggest thing I learned was just to let my imagination run wild, because not all the ideas are good, but some of them are just wacky enough to get peoples attention...

Speak Soon!

Credits:

www.youtube.com/user/prometheus6812

Applied Media Research - The Presentation

Today we were working towards finishing off the presentation; we divided the task equally so that we all had the same amount to talk about during the presentation itself. My main tasks were these:

Big Brother and Question Time

• Research
• Find Image
• Generalise research and bullet point
• Add to Prezi

The Walking Dead

• Research comic books, tv show, games, spin off shows, online
• Find images and videos
• Shorten research in to points
• Find ratings of each aspect
• Add all to Prezi

Questionnaire

• Collect all of the questionnaires in
• Collate the results
• Create graphs for each question
• Add to Prezi

American Audiences and Shameless

• Research both
• Compare UK and US versions of Shameless
• Shorten research in to points
• Add to Prezi

As you can see we each had a lot of work to do. At the moment I am nearly finished with my parts of the presentation. Here are the graphs that I have made to represent the results of the questionnaire:

As you can see there isn't a graph for Question 6 but this is because the results are text based so we will have a few points about what people wrote on the questionnaire for this.

With the graphs I will talk about each one of them briefly during the presentation just so the results that we found can be translated. We got a lot of people to fill in questionnaires for this so the results are really good!

My Reflection

I believe that we are on target with the time that we have left and what we have done so far. We are working hard with this project because we all find the subject we have chosen interesting. I like doing research especially when its primary research that I have created and collected myself. I think that we will do well on this project, and if we don't I am still proud of all the work we have put in together. We now just need to write a script for the presentation so we don't trip each other up! Good job I don't get nervous :)

You Learn Something New Everyday

Sharing the workload when working in a group really helps make the process easier and faster.

Speak Soon!

MALTA!!!

So last year there were a few conversations in lectures happening about Erasmus; a scheme that the university runs which allows students to travel to somewhere in Europe and do work experience. Well of course when I heard about it I was interested from the start; and began to look in to things.

Since the end of first year we didn't hear anything about it until now. And so something will actually be happening over this summer! I am very excited and really hope I get a place on the trip because we would be going to Malta for 3 months! This would be the best thing to come out of university. I love travelling and I would love to do work experience in the media industry and so this trip would kill two birds with one stone.

I will post again when I hear any more news on the trip, apparently the leader of Erasmus is coming in soon to have a chat with everyone who is interested.

Fingers crossed!



Speak Soon!

Credits:
www.beachholidayguide.com

Beyond The Camera - Digital Artefact Result

Well we got our results today for the digital artefact that we made; the soundscape. In the report I wrote a lot about improvements that needed to be made and things that we should have done differently, because I know it was not my best work at all. We got a high 2.2 and I wasn't really expecting any better than this. SO. Its time to look ahead and improve my work ethic for the next few assigments; lets do this!

Speak Soon!

Digital Media Cultures - 1st Day Back

As it always is with the modules, the first lecture back after Christmas is an introduction and a chance to catch up. A lot of information was said in this lecture and I made a fair few notes too; things about or work this year, the dissertation next year, student support with essay writing, and so on.

First we had a quick chat about our essay that we recently got the results for. I have to say that I am somewhat dissapointed in myself about my result because I really tried hard and thought I had done everything in my power to reach a high 2.1 or even a 1st. But this didn't happen; just scraping a 2.1 was not how I expected things to turn out. Keith reassured me that my mark is a very good one and he even went through my essay with me to explain where I went wrong. Before having the conversationg with Keith I was really beating myself up about the result; but now I see what I need to do and I can improve for the next assigment that we have.

Improving is something that I really want to do throughout university and Keith mentioned a really useful person to talk to and take work to if need be. I am going to look in to contacting the student support next time I need help because, well, I am paying for it after all!

Back to whats happening now. Our next assignment is due in on the 11th February; it is a group piece of work and will be 2000 words. We work in a 4 but divide in to two pairs for the work. One pair does a report and one pair does a dissertation, both 1000 words long. I don't mind the sounds of this, it does seem pretty straight forward.

After discussing briefly the next assignment, we went on to the subject of our dissertation. Now it is approaching the time when we need to start researching and finding the topic that we would like to use; so Keith gave us all some pointers.

Dissertation Preperation

• Find a few subjects
• Research those areas
• Choose one and read up on that area
• Data research/focus groups/etc

A dissertation should:

• Answer a research question
• Develop a hypothesis
• Test that hypothesis
• Adhere to academic conventions
• Analyse and critically engage with academic literature on specific topics
• Show in depth knowledge of the chosen topic

Choosing a subject:

• Should be decided well in advance, ideally over the summer
• The topic chosen should not be too broad, it needs focus
• There should be extensive reseach for you to build on
• Limit potential problems with ethical clearance
• Choose something that interests you!

Dissertations should focus on one or two major points.

Stay away from media affects.

Plan an effective strategy - effective management is essential. Set a timetable.

Think of a phenomena or dilemma that you wish to address.

My Reflection

I got a confidence boost from this lecture because I went in thinking that I had done so bad on the essay but really I had done pretty well. I know now what I need to do for the next assignment and that is to time manage and to make sure what I am saying has focus.

I also learned a lot about the dissertation which I previously didn't know and this lecture has shown me that I need to start looking now for a topic of I want to get an early handle on things. Overall I feel a lot better about written work than I have done up to now; I feel like if I just stick to a plan and make a timetable for my work then everything will go smoothly!

You Learn Something New Everyday

There is nothing wrong with a 2.1!

Speak Soon!

Finished SU Video!!

Our promotional video for the Student Union is finished! Joe, Mark and I shot it all and Mark edited it over Christmas! Take a look :)

Applied Media Research - Group Meeting

Today we had a meeting with Sarah and the other groups that are doing the same question as we are. These meetings are to see where we are and how we are progressing with the research and development of the presentation. Sarah went round each group and asked where we were up to concering the assignment. Doing this gave everyone a chance to see what other people were doing to gather their research; we all dicussed our ideas and a few people even decided to use things to aid their research that others had suggested.
Here are the notes I made during the meeting:

Presentation is on the 24/1/13 for 15 minutes (each group will have a time slot)
This is 30% of the module grade

Report is due on the 8/1/13 and is 3000 words
This is 50% of the module grade

Blog is due 8/3/13 and should include all lectures and research done for presentation
This is 20% of the module grade

What we have done so far:

• Questionnaire has been sent out and we are waiting to collect all of the results
• We are going to do graphs for the questionnaire results once collected
• We are individually researching each show we have chosen
• We will look at how each show uses social networking, online content, etc

What we will do:

• Find which show is the most popular
• Look at the differences in gender (focus group)
• Look at the differences between American and British shows and audiences
• Research in to other shows (reality tv and game shows)
• Make a short film using the footage of the focus group we have done

My Reflection

I found this meeting very useful because we were able to share everything that we are doing for the project and we also recieved feedback that will help us develop our research further. We were also able to collect more ideas from other group and they did from us; sharing ideas allowed everyones goals to become clearer. I think that actually writing down what we have done so far and what we need to do gives us the chance to see where we are up to and what sort of time scale we have left to do everything in.

I believe that our work is going very well and I feel confident that our presentation will have enough content and will also answer the question that we have been given.

You Learn Something New Everyday

Collaborating ideas is a better way to get a project moving; working alone on something is far more time consuming than sharing ideas and thoughts.

Speak Soon!

Reports, reports reports!

Over the Christmas period everyone gets a bit lazy and doesn't do work. But now its January I really need to get these two reports finished! One is for the TV Studio Production Module and one is for the Beyond The Camera Module. Both are pretty similar, just talking about what the process of the practical work was and using appendices to illustrate what was done.

I don't really mind writing reports because it gives me a chance to show all the work that I have done throughout the module. I hope that I can do enough to get really good marks for these so that even if the practical marks are low, I can pull my grades up with all the evidence of pre-production work I have done. We will see anyway!

Speak Soon!