Hi everyone,

This is the link to my group’s final project. We had to upload it to YouTube in order to post it on our blogs.

Please enjoy!

Final CIS 3810 Project

My spring break was surprisingly relaxing considering the activities that I did. When the weather permitted, the majority of my mornings were spent fishing on Long Island and the afternoons were spent building a brick oven in my backyard. Even though I didn’t go away to a beach resort, I found relaxation in the things I was doing. However, I depended on different new media to gather information for the things I was doing. I downloaded a fisherman’s report type of application on my friends iPhone. This app gave us constant weather updates when we were fishing on the boat. As for the brick oven, I relied on YouTube videos during the process. I underestimated how difficult it would be to build the oven and I would have been completely lost if it wasn’t for guidance videos on YouTube.

I completely agree with Jay Rosen’s blog and how the once audience now has so many different powers of media at their hands. The media giants no longer have the power of putting out media that people are forced to settle on. The horizontal citizen-to-citizen transfer of media described in the blog is much more effective because it allows for a flow of subjective comments that lead to a widespread of factual opinions instead of the conventional objective reporting that the audience is used to. People now have the ability to relate to other bloggers about their opinions of the controversial media. In fact, there have been many instances where people completely disagree with the media’s projection of certain events and create their own reports of the stories.

A perfect example of this change in control is when Baruch students protested last Fall about the tuition increases. They used public demonstrations to educate New Yorkers about what was going on in the CUNY system and there were videos being uploaded everyday of students giving their opinions of tuition increases.

While reading this blog I couldn’t help but to disagree and think that Rosen was wrong and how the audience would always exist. The reason I felt this way is because people will always listen to the radio, watch breaking news on TV, and follow other sources of mass media because individuals don’t have access to the same information that media giants do. Then towards the end of the blog, Rosen made a connection to what I was thinking about and how people will always use mass media. He ended this connection by saying something that I believe sums up his entire argument. Rosen’s comment was, “But were not on your clock anymore.” This statement shows that people want the media to realize that they are not the only source of information, and as a result, the information they’re putting out there better be good.

I created this meme, or an attempt on creating a meme, using a character from one of my favorite movies. I was trying to think of the most random ideas for my meme and this is what I came up with. My favorite part of this process was researching other memes to get ideas of what type of text has to be used. People come up with very creative ideas and this is my attempt at doing the same.

To create this meme, I wanted to use a picture that was completely random. I thought of the movie Weekend at Bernie’s and started looking through google images trying to find a goo picture of Bernie. Then, I uploaded the picture I found into the meme generator website  that Professor Gershovich posted in the class blog. After cutting out the edges of the picture, I used a quote from the movie for the caption of the meme.

Shirky makes arguments that the majority of America can relate to. What I realized after his reading of cognitive surplus is how technology has changed over the years, and as a result, how people have changed too. Years ago, when technology was not that interesting and advanced, families would rather go for a day trip to a park or the beach. Instead, many families today consider their family time as gathering and watching TV shows and being a “couch potato.”

I personally agree with Shirky’s connection of gin and television. When I was younger, my entire day consisted of beings outside and staying active. However, when all the new improvements to internet, gaming systems, and TV came about, it was the end of my active lifestyle. Now I spend way too much time on the Internet and watching TV. In my opinion, it is quite sad how powerful the TV and the internet can be and how it takes people away from the more basic enjoyments of being productive outdoors. What will it be like 10 years from now?

I use to play video games quite often until I realized how much time they waste. As a result, my PS3 has been stored away in my closet since 2010 . About a month ago I got a racing game called Forza as a gift and decided to take my PS3 out of retirement. However, when I hooked up my console there was no audio or video. I immediately thought it was my HdMI cable so I change the cable with a brand new one my brother had. Still no audio or video. I had no idea what else could be the problem.

As I do with most problems, I googled it and hundreds of posts appeared from people with the same problem. It turns out that PS3’s can return to factory settings which work with RCA cables even if you have always used HDMI. On these posts, they show you how to reset your PS3 so that it works with HDMI.

Here are the steps:

First, turn your TV on and make sure it is on HDMI output.

Second, turn the PS3 main power button on from the back of the PS3 and make sure it is in standby mode (solid red light).

Third, hold down the on button until you hear a single beep followed by two simultaneous beeps or for about 7 seconds. A prompt                  will appear on the screen telling you to connect your controller using the USB cable.

Fourth, press the PS button on your controller and out of the list of six options that will appear, select number 2 (Restore Default Settings).

After following these steps your PS3 should be working properly using HDMI.

It is amazing how far media has come in the past century. Mediums of media have gone from newspapers and radio to severely sophisticated forms that use coding with algorithms and other math based computer sciences. Lev Manovich has truly portrayed the journey that media has gone through with his five principles of new media. It truly is surprising to a person like myself, who is not familiar with coding and how media works, to read the Numerical Representation section of Manovich’s chapter. Never would I have thought that media consisted of numerical data that must go through processes such as digitization in order for it to be used by people like myself.

Another interesting principle of new media according to Manovich is Modularity. It is unique how basic media elements such as images, sounds, and shapes can be used in many forms. Although these essential elements are combined to make entire presentations of media through complex software, they still maintain their individuality. Modularity relates exactly to the idea of life and how many experiences and moments are all made possible through the compilations of smaller events.

I’ve found YouTube to be more like an addiction than an occasional luxury. It is such an excellent source of media, news, information, and so much more. The problem is, at least for me, it is impossible for me to only watch one video and then go back to what I was doing. I opened my computer with the intention of writing this blog, however, I couldn’t help myself but to spend about 50 minutes looking at YouTube videos before writing my first word.

YouTube is my resort for any problem I need a visual answer for. For instance, when I don’t know how to do a problem for my calculus homework, I immediately look up a tutorial of a similar problem someone has posted on YouTube. Before booking my snowboarding trip to Vermont this weekend, I watched GoPro videos of the trails at Okemo Resort that people had posted so that I knew what to expect. One of my favorite things about YouTube is that they list videos similar to the one you watch, this way you’ll always find videos that you’re interested in. This is probably the reason I spend so much time on YouTube.

As sad as it sounds, I actually feel I would be more productive during the day if YouTube didn’t exist. I’m sure this is also the case with most people concerning social networks other than YouTube.