Interactivity and all that

Reading this lecture I noted that there were several arguments that surrounded the topic of interactivity, some academics regard it as a force of nature or more technically known as techno-determinism. This can be seen as a negative because there is not controlling figure in the making of it and to some may seem like it is going to spiral out of control which would support the cyber- dystopian argument. On the other hand other analysts see the new technology as a form of control of those higher up in society this process is called socio-determinism. What this argument fails to note is that the audience is not a passive one they are discriminating and are aware that the material that they are being provided with might not be the gospel truth.
Another point that is stated is the same continuing one from the lecture last week which is new media really new? But a key point that has to taken into account is that the audience can influence what they read online unlike pervious media such as television which is a one way medium. The development of new technology as enabled society to take part in a range of communication formats/methods, but like Sonia Livingstone says, we must not assume that because the technology makes something possible it always happens. Issues such as globalization also have to be taken into account are they for the benefit of society or is this leading to a break down local cultures and traditions?

research on interactive websites

MTV recently launches a program whereby the members create avatars and then the avatars assume the role of the individual. These avatars were influenced by the popularity of the avatars used in the MTV commercials. After the creation of the avatar the user is then asked which one of the MTV avatars is their favourite (mine personally is the MTV Dance one) and you get taken to their rooms, in this facility you can speak to your favourite avatar, party and play games against other users. Technically this is a forum with the option of creating a moving virtual person to represent you and also it give you a virtual picture of what the other forum users might look like or dress like. In my opinion I think that hypertext does shape the www experience because apart from possibly television no other media can come close to the different types of text that are available on the internet. The internet incorporates all the media that we used in the past singularly and puts them in one place where by the user gets the full experience.

topic 3 week 2 part 2

e) In blogs no one is in charge really, everyone who chooses to take place in a certain respect is in control, the user can take charge but either preventing certain individuals from posting on the blog or by stopping comments from being posted till the account holder approves of them
f) I believe forums have a mixture of speech and writing, I noticed that between students speech was used more and a written form was used when responding to comments by the lecturer
g) I have just the basic user skills at the moment but that is because I am still new to the program, skills will improve as one uses the program more, I feel fairly confident with using the facilities but sometimes encounter slight problems

Topic 3 week 2 part 1

a) When looking at blogs that have been going on for years, in my opinion it is more than an online conversation it is more like an online version of the persons thoughts, things do not always follow a particular order such as found in everyday conversations. Some of the material posted can be very random (extremely random at times)
b) Depending on the type of blog being created determines how people will ‘speak’ in it, my blog for new media cultures contains a more formal structure of thought and a lot more thought goes into my sentence construction as compared to if the blog wasn’t intended for academic work it would contain much more informal language and more free flow thought rather than structured sentences. In a seminar formality is still required maybe (depending on who is conducting the seminar) the way people put information on their blogs is the way they would speak in a seminar. In an essay very formal and grammatical address is needed as it is part of the assessment. In blogs we take turns by waiting for someone to comment on the information presented and we can respond after that comment
c) The computer in general cuts down on what is considered to be ‘interaction’ so to speak, sure people can leave comments and feedback can be left on the blog it still lacks that personal touch that face to face has. Points can be expressed more clearly and meaning has less of a chance if being mistaken for something else
d) As with everything time management is essential, if careful planning is conducted it the tasks can be completed

the internet and society

The internet has been linked with several moral panics in society for example the suicide packs that were widely reported last year and the focusing of utopian ideals such as the introduction of avatars that can be designed to present people’s desired appearance, weight etc. The raise of paedophiles in the internet has also contributed to giving internet a bad name, when such things take place people tend to focus on the negative side of the internet and disregard all the positives it has brought to society. Never before has obtaining information, buying products or correspondence learning been easier. With facilities that cater for all age groups the internet has proved to be quite a huge phenomenon. But with this it is making society lazy, which every thing at the click of a mouse, people have lost that drive to research certain things any other way other than the internet. With this some in society are seeing this as a way of conning people with identity theft on the raise the internet has become a profitable business for hackers.

Goebell Speech

After reading the speech delivered by Goebell he seemed to push radio as the most reliable medium of the time he said it would be like the press was in the 19th century. This was to become the key source of information to the German nationals but with this we can see that the government’s ideologies would have been passed through the radio which had now been given the exclusive status of being the most reliable source of information. “The radio is the most influential and important intermediary between a spiritual movement and the nation, between the idea and the people.”
Goebell wanted to push radio because it was easily accessible to the people of the time (he refers to them as masses supporting the Arnoldian ideology that certain people in society were lower than others) he had already establish radio as a medium that would effectively carry out the government’s message, the radio would be used to impose the dominant group’s way of thinking to the less powerful groups and as the process of hegemony works, the ideas might be met with resistance and will later be accepted and incorporated in society.
"We live in the age of the masses; the masses rightly demand that they participate in the great events of the day. "
His key to selling this idea is that he would introduce radio as a demand form the people thus enabling the medium to be more easily be accepted into everyday life.
In modern time is it is quite difficult to convince people that they should use a particular medium over another because of the range of choice available. With the advent of television most people tend to use this as a key source of information, however our generation is a transitional one whereby the internet is replacing television with its ability to gather so much information and most importantly varied view points whereas the problem with T.V is that bias is quite often noted. In modern day society radio seems to have taken the back seat and is not really used especially by the younger generation as a key source of information rather it is more for background noise or entertainment.

Discourses in New Media

a lot of discourses surround this topic , the first being is new media really new? or does it only present an improved version of what was previously available. a point that was started in the lecture was that old media formats are used as a frame work to build upon new ones. so what we consider to be new is not new rather it has always been there and has just been modified. the advantages with new media is that unlike old media forms the products such as pc's and other such devices have become compact as compared to the products that were previously availbale. the transportation of data has also improved data and easily be imported and exported between different users and can be manipulated or edited. another benefit with using new media is that it is cheap to reproduce to a wider audience as compared to post, telephone calls or even conferences. new media such as the internet has enabled the users to have access to a range of multimedia, because on websites one can find text, videos, audio material and a range of other things such as games. games were one of the first types og media that were used as an interaction format between people. the level of interactivity has also changed ther are now different types and levels of interactivity on the internet. with services such as skype one to one free communication has never been easier, less interactive one to one formats like forums are still proving to be still popular with the advent of tservices such as facebook and myspace. despite this there have been some problems with new media especially the internet such as identity theft due to the use of alias names. new forms of internet such as wireless broadband have received complaints because of the loss of network or signal, these are problems that were limited when using cable broadband. in this we see that new medai has its benefits as well as pit falls.

research into usenet and BBS

usenet is a worldwide forum that started between two universities in America but now has become global. it is used to publish articles, usenet can be seen as a longer version of a blog, once you post your material everyone within that group can read your article and respond to it, however the artices that are posted are renewed every so often to make space for new ones. Bulletin Board Systems were very popular in the 70's till about the beginning of the 90's when they were replaced by the internet. they were used for uploading and downloading software as well as gaming these were accessed over a phone line using a moderm. advanced systems with multiple phones would enable users to have a chatroom forum however users had to pay to use this forum. without any personal experience i cannot comment on how using any of these sysytems is like :) however using services like IM (Instant messenger) which is a free service would have been much popular within the polulation.

Email and Email lists

email has become a very popular method of communication not just for personal use but also for large cooparations. emails allows one to to write in an basically an unlimited space using text and also has the option of attaching data and pictures within the massage, this makes it more effective than letter writting because a lot more information can be incorparated within it.
Email lists have become an essential part of businesses since they allow companies to retain information of customers for future reference and also allows them to send information in the future. the main problem with email lists, in my personal opinion is that spam message end up being sent by third party companies and also irrelevent materials can be bombarded to one's mail box. the use of email has enbled communication between people in different countries to be quick and easy as well as the cost factor ...it is cheap and as dave said in the lecture sending an email to a person across the world or even 100 will not change in terms of cost just maybe a few extra minutes to attach all those email addresses

hey everyone

hey ...
sorry i had to make a new blog my other one has completely gone crazy and wont let me do anything its crazy ..