Category: Assignments

So far I have completed the movie for my Hip Hop project. I am currently trying to figure out the best way to upload the project. As for the paper I have 2.5 pages and counting so far. I am just hoping that the project is not too long. I will upload it as soon as I figure out the best way to do so.

For my final project I will do a slide show including audio to portray the development of hip op culture. To many hip hop was thought to be and is still thought to be by some as a remix.  The evolution of hip hop and its effect on society can be contributed to the development of technology in society. Whereas before Dj’s used scratching and mixing records to show their skills in hip hop, many know use computers.

So far I have gathered information about its history so that I can get an idea of how I want it to look and who I want to include. I’ve also jut recently signed up to soundcloud so that I can get an idea of how to get my audio.

My spring break was not really a spring break because I worked throughout it.  Due to the fact that I work in an office I work amongst a variety of different people, some are more computer savvy than others. One of the projects that I worked on that relates to topics discussed in this new media class was an excel training.

In setting up this training for the newer version of excel because technology is always developing, I had to decipher who would take what class. At first when I sent a sheet around telling the employees to indicate whether they wanted to attend the basic training or advanced everyone selected the advance training.  Then when everyone was told that it was for a newer version of excel many signed up for the basic training as well. After this I went and sat with my boss and realized that some of the people who signed up for the advanced would not be able to take the class because it was too advanced for them.

I believe that this is because the development of new media in which many people from older generations are not able to cope with the development in technology which is constantly developing. I notice that many people are apprehensive about change and do not want to use updated technology even though many proclaim that it is better.  I begin to wonder if technology keeps developing will I be as apprehensive about change as as this older generation is now?

MacArthur proclaims that publishing works should not be something that is free and that free content on the Internet diminishes the value of publisher’s works. He states that a pay wall should be up for published work to pay all author’s for there hard work. In this day in age that is unrealistic and not accurate.

Writing is something that should be done with passion and should be done because you love to write not because you are trying to make money off of it. However, there are instances where I agree writers should be paid and to me that is those who write novels and have enough recognition to demand an audience that is willing to pay for their work. To ask for bloggers to receive some sort of compensation for their work is unrealistic.

When I post a blog I am doing it freely just to exploit my inner thoughts freely but I do not wish to be compensated for it but if I wrote a novel that is a different story.

 

In Jay Rosen’s blog post entitled “The People Formerly Known as the Audience”, there are many interesting points brought up. One that I find particularly interesting is the role in which people play with the media. Whereas, media content used to be one sided and a majority of people were just on the receiving end, it is not like that today. However, as Rosen stated in his blog post there are not too many speakers and the speakers will listen to each other. Information is shared by all the users of the media, which is what makes it such a good experience. The people using the media give information about things others may have not known about and you can pick and choose which information you want to be informed about. If you allow people to express themselves they will do it and in doing so they find others who share the same feelings that they do and different organizations can be developed because of it .

With the development of different organizations or groups media is dispersed in ways that were not available to others before. There is a vast number of people who use social networking sites so just posting information on these sites allows for widespread information to be spread at rapid speeds. This is not something that old media people should be intimitated by it is something that should be embraced because we can do so much with media now and at such a fast pace.

Shirky discusses how it was a mistake to think that as children grew up and got jobs, they would be so tired that they would slump on the couch after work and watch television. I agree with his view that computers and phones are participatory compared to the television which is  consumption.

Before developments in new media, many people have spent many hours watching the television, which unless it is being watched as a faamily can beome sometimes lonely. I can see how Shirky says it may be sometimes depressing adn lead to unhappiness because it leads to more wants and desires from people. People on the television are idolized in that they have fancy cars, housing and clothing. It is natural for people wanting television to want to possess those same materialisitc possessions and not being able to have all of those things can be depressing.

Due to advances in new media we still want some of those materialistic possessions but our focus shifts to different things. People spend more time communicating with each other through their computers or cellular devices. Peopuse their friends are not as lonely or depressed because their friends are only a phone call away.

According to Manovich, “all new media object, whether created from scratch on computers or converted from analog media sources, are composed of digital code; they are numerical representations.” Manovich also proclaims that many new media objects are converted from various forms of old media. He expresses that this is evident in the fact that new media objects are subject to algorithmic manipulation. I agree with the evidence that he portrays and have witnessed it before on many different media objects.

With only focusing on the computer, there are many instances where digital coding is evident during the use of it. When a website is uploading digital coding is showed at the bottom left hand corner that directs web browser where to go. Next time a website is uploading notice the digital codes at the bottom of the screen. Digital coding is also present when the URL is typed into the browser. If you have ever edited a homepage on social networking sites like MySpace or twitter, you have probably played around with digital coding. For instance I constantly remember editing my page when I had MySpace. I would embed different videos and links to other websites on my page for others to view. I even remember going into the coding for my page’s background and changing some of the numbers to change the colors of my background. I did not notice it then but I was altering the old digital coding and altering it to create something new. Digital coding is in all media objects as a set of data that gives a command to let the media object know what function to do. Whether we pay attention to it, it is used in all media objects.