5th Article

5th article
Flew, T. 2002. “ What’s New about New Media?” New Media: An Introduction, (pp. 9-29). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Yue, A. 2006. “ The Internet”. Lecture.

Objective Summary
New Media is defined through three characteristics: computing and information technology, communication networks and digitised media and information content. The article also discusses a very important concept; that is convergence. It also discusses about the concept of globalisation. Hence, the article is about what factors makes new media new.

Subjective Summary
The topic of new media is one that everyone recognises. The Internet, for example, is a part of new media. The frequent use of the Internet is our daily lives places new media with importance, especially since we live in an increasingly modern society, which places emphasis on technology. I think this article explains the debate of the ‘newness’ of new media well. However, some of the ideas could be explained in simpler terms in order for the reader to have a better understanding.

Five Quotes/Points and Their Subjective Analysis
1. “ The Internet constitutes the electronic network of networks that link people and information through computers, and increasingly through other digital media technologies, and allow for both interpersonal communication and information retrieval.” (DiMaggio et al. 2001) (pg 12)





The Internet has been a useful source for information. The point states that the Internet, which is a form of new media, is a network structure that helps people connect to the information that they need through computers, palm tops and mobile phones. The World Wide Web is a major component of the Internet. It is made up of many websites that are collected in the Internet. Although the Internet is a good source of information, its credibility is of a certain doubt. The reason being that many people can easily post opinions and comments on the Internet, hence it is difficult to differentiate which ones have the most credibility and is factual.

2. “ Ryder and Wilson (1995), in an early study of the implications of ‘virtual learning’, understood the Internet in terms of a series of affordances it presented for users, or the range of potential uses that a person saw for that item. They also noted that affordances could also be constraints, as the awareness of new possibilities arising from a new media technology also draws attention to practical limitations in achieving these gains.” (pg 15)

The point argues that the public views the Internet as a point of learning, entertainment and information. The term ‘affordances’ means the requirements or limits that a person could have to access the Internet. One important aspect of the point made by Ryder and Wilson is that they admit that these ‘affordances’ are also constraints, limitations. These limitations arise because they may come from sources that are not credible and these sources may not help achieve the purposes that the person accessing the Internet desires.

3. “Convergent products and services are forms of media and information content that take advantage of a networked broadband infrastructure, the capabilities provided by digitisation, and the scope for interactivity and user customisation of services.” (pg 20)

These products and services originate from the merging of multinational companies. This merger is very significant, as it allows new technological products to merge with the older products. For example, the Internet can now be accessed in mobile phones and even play station games. Multinational companies also benefit from these mergers, gaining a higher income and profit. In 2000, America On-line (AOL) merged with Time Warner becoming one of the biggest media conglomerate in the world. I agree that convergent products and services provide more capabilities and areas for digitisation, which benefits contemporary society.

see more on digitisation: http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Global_Communication

4. “ The World Wide Web, as an electronic database of text, images, sound, video, and voice communication, is the exemplar of interactivity in new media technologies, where each pattern of use leads the user down a distinctive ‘pathway’, creating what is termed a hypertext, or a text made up of other texts.” (pg 21)

It is important to know the existence of hypertext, as it is an important feature of the Internet. In order to go to a certain link or website, one must first undergo through a hypertext. According to Nelson (1981, cited in Lecture 22 2006), the hypertext is a non-sequential writing that allows the choices of the reader to be presented and engaged in an interactive medium. The hypertext thus transforms the readers into authors, engaging and challenging them to create their own information and text.

see more on hypertext and its importance: http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/greco2.html

5. “ Critics argue that such developments mark the latest and most insidious phase of cultural imperialism, where technologies developed by and for the economically dominant powers are used to exercise new forms of ‘soft power’, defined by Joseph S. Nye jun., Assistant Secretary for International Affairs in the Clinton Administration, as: ‘the ability to achieve desired outcomes in international affairs through attraction rather than coercion. It works by convincing others to follow, or getting them to agree to, norms and institutions that produce the desired behaviour. Soft power can rest upon the appeal of one’s ideas or the ability to set the agenda in ways that shape the preferences of others’ (quoted in Thussu 1998, pp. 66-7).” (pg 28)

Cultural imperialism is defined as a country’s culture and ideologies integrated and forced upon another country’s culture. One such example is McDonald’s. McDonald’s is an established fast-food chain of restaurants that have at least one outlet in almost every country in the world. This is an example of the effect of cultural imperialism. McLuhan and Fiore (1967, cited in Flew 2002: 28), further support this argument by stating that global villages have started to emerge, enabling technologies to communicate without the presence of cultural and geographical boundaries, in order to promote culture awareness. I personally think that cultural imperialism is bad, as it causes a loss of traditional culture.

Question
Is new media a good thing or a bad thing? Will new media affect the ‘dumbing down’ of society?
This question is highly significant, as I would like to know whether within the next 10 years, and the upcoming new technology, would technology overcome the cultural meanings and backgrounds of our countries as well as the social and moral values of our households?

4th article

4th Article
Ellis, J. 1992. “ Broadcast TV as Cultural Form.” Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video. (Revised Ed.), (pp. 111-126). London & New York: Routledge.

Levine, M. 1996. Viewing Violence: How Media Violence Affects Your Child’s and Adolescent’s Development. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

Objective Summary
The article is about how broadcast television is a cultural tool in contemporary culture. The focus on the article is on how the domestic life is fixated around the television. It also focuses on the characteristics of broadcast television and how it affects the domestic life in contemporary households.

Subjective Summary
I think that the article’s idea of broadcast television as a cultural tool in domestic life is very significant and useful. It helps us reflect on how the television affects our daily lives and how much of our attitudes and social values are learnt from the television. It is also very interesting to note that as viewers, we do not contemplate on whether the television is segmented or even the notion of flow. Thus, learning these ideologies increase my understanding of broadcast television.

Five Quotes/Points and Their Subjective Analysis
1. “ The broadcast images depend upon sound to a rather greater degree than cinema’s images. The image is characteristically pared down, and appears as though it is immediate or live. This generates a kind of complicity with the TV viewer, a complicity that tends to produce the events represented as an ‘outside world’, beyond the broadcast TV institution and the viewer’s home alike.” (pg 112)

The point claims that the images that appear on broadcast television present a view that the events occurring outside the domestic space is foreign and unwelcoming. It gives the viewers an illusion that the domestic space is comfortable and safe. For example, the viewer is watching news on the television and a segment on ‘disturbing news’ appears showing footage of accidents and bloodshed (Levine 1996: 9). This image causes the viewers to perceive the events on broadcast television as an “outside world” precisely because it is dangerous and foreign. Foreign because you think that it would not happen to you. This concept has enabled me to have a deeper understanding of humanity’s thoughts.

2. “ It is one of Jean-Luc Godard’s characteristic throw-away lines to inquire why it is that we divide cinema and TV so rigidly into ‘fiction’ and ‘non-fiction’, when we do not regard this distinction as fundamental to other means of representation.” (pg 112)

Jean-Luc Godard’s perception on the division between ‘fiction’ and ‘non-fiction’ in cinema and television is very accurate. In today’s contemporary culture, especially in our daily lives, we always regard television as an accurate and factual point of information. Therefore, causing our view on television to be ‘fiction”. Going to the cinema to see a film is clearly ‘non-fiction’, because we know that the film is commercial and is meant for entertainment purposes. We are paying money to be entertained. Accessibility is also a factor in the whole experience of watching a film, thus we view the cinema as ‘non-fiction’.







3. “ The TV set is another domestic object, often the place where family photos are put: the direction of the glance towards the personalities on the TV screen being supplemented by the presence of ‘loved ones’ immediately above. Broadcast TV is also intimate and everyday, a part of home life rather than any kind of special event.” (pg 113)

The point states that domestic life in households evolve around the television. The arrangement of furniture and the placement of photographs all indicate that the television is a domestic object. It is interesting to note that even some family dinners are orientated towards the television. The family eating their dinners in front of the television together, engaging in the television, rather among themselves. Perhaps it is the reason as to why people say that society is ‘dumbing down’. TV dinners are invented purposely for this sort of domestic trend. The article further supports this argument by stating, “broadcast TV assumes that this is the basis and heart of its audience.” This re-emphasises the notion that broadcast TV is normal and ordinary and is part of the cultural lifestyle of the household.

4. “ Williams describes flow as a liquid and even confusing process by which broadcast TV tends to average out the various programme forms that its formal organizations of production claim to keep separate. According to William’s model of flow, then, everything becomes rather like everything else, units are not organised into coherent single texts like cinema films, but form a kind of montage without overall meaning: ‘like having read two plays, three newspapers, three or four magazines, on the same day that one has been to a variety show and a lecture and a football match. And yet it is not like that at all, for though the items may be various the television experience has in some important ways unified them’ (ibid., p. 95)” (pg 117)

The notion of flow is very important in order to understand the concept of broadcast television as a cultural form. Flow is when you switch on the television, and you see an on-going show. The show does not just stop and goes back to the beginning for you. It continues on and it is the viewer, which has to catch up with the show in order to understand what is going on. Advertisements appear to disrupt the television programme, and hence disrupting the flow. This is not the case. In fact, advertisements are part of the notion of the flow. It is an order, in which the viewer must go through to attain that broadcasting experience on television. Hence, although it may seem segmented, broadcasting television is actually continuous and unified by the programmes and advertisements connecting them.

5. “ Programming, the art of scheduling, appears in this context as the deliberate policy of TV organizations of ensuring that segmentation does take place. Scheduling determines the way in which an evening’s TV will be organised so that one class of segments does not dominate, yet the series will find a permanent ‘slot’, a place where its particular pattern of repetition can take place.” (pg 125)

It is rather ironic that scheduling is meant to avoid the domination of a particular show, yet it puts that show in a permanent “slot” causing it to be permanent. This concept of scheduling and programming is not credible, as there are conflicting ideas. Although putting a show at a permanent slot attracts the audience and achieves sky-high ratings, the idea that it does not dominate is a sham. I agree with the author’s statement, but disagree with the concept of it.

Question
What impact does programming and scheduling have on us in our daily lives?
This question will help me understand why I need to know and understand this concept.

3rd Article

3rd Article
Hill, J. & Gibson, P. C. (Eds.) 1998. “ The Star System and Hollywood.” The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, (pp. 342-353). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brett, F. (2006) “ Cinema as Textual Form: Editing.” Lecture.

Objective Summary
The article is about how the star system has progressed and transformed over the years. It further discusses about the processes and ideologies of the star system in contemporary culture by its star production, star reception and star semiotics.

Subjective Summary
Stars and Hollywood has always been a topic that everyone is interested in. I thought that the ways that stars are use as part of Hollywood’s strategic measure to sell and promote a movie was very smart. This tactic that Hollywood uses to sell its stars, as a commodity is highly effective, as it causes the public to relate, identify and have the desire to be the star.

Five Quotes/Points and Their Subjective Analysis
1. “Film could be justified as an art from, they argued, because the filmmaker did not just mechanically reproduce reality; he or she actually manipulated reality or even fabricated an entirely new reality.” (pg 342)

This point that the author makes is very credible. In contemporary society, many films are taken from autobiographies. The plot and certain narratives are twisted to make the film more interesting and captivating. Films like “Memoirs of the geisha” and “ Erin Brokovich” are such examples. Other films like “ Oceans Eleven” and “War of the Worlds” are clearly fabricated films, which create a new dimension of society. These films create the effect that they do exist. The public can escape to these “new realities” by watching the movie. Therefore, film really is an art form. It is a technique, a way of entertainment-a form of relaxation. I fully agree with the author’s point. Film must be appreciated. The public buys this art form because they want to escape reality, and experience what they will not get to experience in the reality that they are living in. I can identify with that. That is why film is an art form.











2. “Meaning did not exist in the actor’s performance, but rather in the manipulation of performance through editing.” (pg 342)

According to Stephen Heath (cited in lecture 11), editing is a process of constructions and this process is what makes cinema powerful. The actor’s performance is only there to support the plot, to make the storyline more interesting. But, what really gives the film meaning is the ability to edit it seamlessly. Editing should be unnoticed. The audience should not realise that the film is edited. What was originally made during the film process may not get to appear on the film premiere. The process of editing presents the style and context of the film. Therefore, it is through editing that the actor’s performance is manipulated and thus give meaning.

3. “ The construction of off-screen star identities, of true star images, had a significant economic impact on the cinema…Thus, the Hollywood mode of production quickly absorbed the star as commodity, as a source of product differentiation as significant as narrative-based genres and more powerful than studio identities.” (pg 345)

The point argues that the star off-screen persona became more important and significant to Hollywood’s method of production. The star is seen as a way to promote a movie. Different stars have different identities and this affects which star the movie casts. For example, Will Ferrel is always cast in comedies and Tom Cruise is always cast in action movies. I think it is relatively hard to change the star’s identity to another identity. It is difficult to see Tom Cruise in a romantic comedy. Therefore, the star’s off –screen identity is highly important to the selection of casts and promotion in a film.

see more on Hollywood's star system: http://www.fathom.com/course/21701722/session3.html




4. “Instead, the (many) meanings associated with a star are seen to form a part of the meaning system of that star’s society, the ideology of that particular time and place.” (pg 345)

It was previously seen that the star’s off-screen personality and behaviour is a reflection of what contemporary society has become. However, this point argues that the implications related to the star form the meaning of the star’s environment and situation. It also is part of the star’s beliefs from the star’s society at that specific time. This point is a bit confusing. I would like the author to further elaborate on this point, to make this idea clearer.

5. “ In his own words, ‘From the perspective of ideology, analyses of stars, as images existing in films and other media texts, stress their structured polysemy, that is, the finite multiplicity of meanings and affects they embody and the attempts so as to structure them that some meanings and affects are foregrounded and others are masked or displaced’” (Dyer 179: 3) (pg 350)

The quote is a summary of the third factor of star system, that is star semiotics. Stars have a structured polysemy, meaning that they have many meanings, but these meanings are limited. To further understand this concept, the article provides an article that an individual may believe that Kevin Costner may have originated from space. However, this belief that the individual has is clearly not from contemporary culture, because individuals in contemporary culture would think that this belief is ridiculous and odd. I agree with Dyer’s opinion that stars have a multiplicity of meanings, but these meanings and its consequences are sometimes ignored and ridiculed, such as the Kevin Costner originating from space belief.

Question
What is the purpose of looking at the past films when we should be focusing on films in contemporary culture, since we live in contemporary culture?

2nd Article

2nd Article
Thwaites, T., Davis, L. & Mules, W. 1994. “Signs and Systems.” Tools for Cultural Studies: An Introduction, (pp. 25-43). Melbourne: MacMillan.

O’Shaugnessy, M. 1999. “Pictures.” Media and Society: An Introduction, (pp. 63-89). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Eunson, B. 2005. “ Non-verbal Communication.” Communicating in the 21st Century, (pp. 231-254). Queensland: John Wiley & Sons.

Objective Summary
This article is about how there are many concepts and ideologies relating to the sign process. The several main ideas are significations, commutation tests, codes and paradigms and syntagms. These concepts provide an understanding and a deeper meaning on how the sign process works.

Subjective Summary
This article was very easy to read and I understand all of the concepts regarding the sign process. The language used was very clear and precise. In order for the reader to fully comprehend the idea, the example of a cat was used in terms of how it sounded and the mental picture that by saying the word ‘cat’ produced. This article has increased my understanding for the structure of signs and its processes.

Five Quotes/Points and Their Subjective Analysis
1. “ The signifier is not the actual sounds heard, nor the actual graphic marks seen, but the mental impression of them.” (pg 28)

The point argues that the signifier of a sign is not the sign. A sign can be iconic, symbolic and indexical. According to Peirce (cited in O’ Shaugnessy 1999: 68), iconic signs are the literal image of a picture. Symbolic signs are what the signs stand for using language. Indexical signs are signs that indicate a certain thing. For example, smoke is an indexical sign representing fire. The signifier is not what is pronounced, it is the mental picture of the sign. The word ‘rose’ is the iconic sign. But, the signifier of the sign ‘rose’ indicates love, romance.







2. “If a sign gets its meaning from other signs, it works through a system of differences (from what it isn’t), rather than of identity (with itself).” (pg 32)

This point argues that a sign’s meaning is originated from other signs. Its identity is formed because it is different from other signs. For example, the sign ‘pot’ is different from the sign ‘dot’. The pronunciation and meaning of both two signs are different. Therefore, a sign derives its meaning from other signs because it is different from the meanings of the other signs. I do not fully agree with the point here, as it is a bit confusing. But, a sign derives its meanings depending on the sentence it is in.

3. “Even within any given code, any number of subsidiary codes may also be operating. These may overlap, or may be relatively separate from each other, even conflicting.” (pg 36)

A code is a system from which a word can be used and interpreted. The point explains that a same word can be interpreted in many different ways. For example, a nod means ‘yes’ in most cultures. But, it also means ‘no’ in other cultures like Greece and some parts of Bulgaria (Axtell 1998, cited in Eunson 2005: 235). Therefore, codes may overlap with each other, even though they may be contradictory or unconnected. This understanding and different interpretations are based on nonverbal communication.

see more on nonverbal communication: http://zzyx.ucsc.edu/~archer/intro.html

4. “ If any individual sign may have several possible meanings, the actual utterances in which a sign is used tend to narrow somewhat the field of probable meanings.” (pg 40)

This point is a bit hard to understand. However, the point that the author is making is that a sign by itself has many meanings. When used in different sentences and situations, the meanings are decreased and eventually one specific meaning will come out from the sign. For example, the sentence ‘The top is nice’ refers that the top is a piece of clothing. However, in the sentence ‘Judy cannot reach the top of the cupboard’ indicates that the top is referring to the outer surface of a cupboard. Hence, a sign’s possible meanings are “narrowed” down to a smaller number of meanings depending on how the sign is used.

5. “ Paradigms provide a plurality of possible meanings, while syntagms tend to narrow these down according to context.” (pg 40)

Paradigms are a set of signs, which are interchangeable. For example, the iconic sign of a dress + the symbolic sign of “Sarah Jessica Parker” + the iconic sign of a perfume bottle gives the ideology of elegance and stardom. But, what if the symbolic sign of “Sarah Jessica Parker” is interchanged with an iconic sign of an unknown model; the ideology would then be changed to elegance and accessibility. Syntagms are a set of signs, which are arranged in a certain way to give a certain meaning. The first example is a syntagm. Hence, this shows that it narrows the meaning of the signs down to just a few possible meanings. This point is very important, as it shows how different meanings can be interpreted through different arrangements. It is interesting to show that just by changing a word, the whole meaning or ideology of a sentence could change dramatically.







Question
Why are diagrams such as the second one on page 27 and the diagram on page 33 needed?
I personally do not think that diagrams such as these are needed. They do not help in any way to my understanding of this concept.

1st article

E-journal of CCM
1st article
Clarke, G. 1997. “How Do We Read a Photograph?” The Photograph, (pp. 26-39). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Objective Summary
This article is about how photographs are much more than just pictures. They are texts, which have a series of meanings based on its surroundings, culture and social values.

Subjective Summary
This article has changed my perspective on photographs. I have always thought that photographs are just pictures which captures moments of everyday life. In fact, when a viewer interprets a photograph, it is not exactly what the viewer sees. The photograph is so much more, it tells a story. A story behind the photograph and the little subtle detail that one thinks is minute, is actually so important to telling the difference or a story. This article has made me more aware of the importance of photographs, as they can make a statement or as an important piece of evidence.

Five Quotes/Points and Their Subjective Analysis
1. “ The intelligibility of the photograph is no simple thing; photographs are texts inscribed in terms of what we may call ‘photographic discourse’, but this discourse, like any other, engages discourses beyond itself, the ‘photographic text’, like any other, is the site of a complex intertextuality, an overlapping series of previous texts ‘taken for granted’ at a particular cultural and historical conjuncture” (pg 27).

This quote claims that photographs are a means of communications. They have a motive to communicate cultural and historical meanings. For example, the identical twins picture taken from Diane Arbus, what seems to be two identical twins are actually two entirely different twins. The subtle little details, like their facial expressions, the way the folds of their dresses are different and the different stockings all indicate that these two supposedly identical twins are actually very different twins. Hence, this shows that there are many meanings, which are literally “taken for granted”. I never knew that there was so much more to reading a photograph than actually just looking at you and accepting it for what it looks like. This quote is an important one, as it gives a summary of what the article is about. It is one, which I appreciate greatly, because I now look at photographs with a different perspective.









2. “Every photograph is not only surrounded by a historical, aesthetic, and cultural frame of reference but also by an entire invisible set of relationships and meanings relating to the photographer and the point at which the image was made” (pg 30).

The point argues that each photograph is very different from one another, not in terms of what is photographed, but by the meanings and background from which the photograph was taken. I agree with the author because every photograph tells a different story and the context in which the photograph is taken is also different.

3. “Thus we can read a photograph within its own terms of reference, seeing it not so much as the reflection of a ‘real’ world as an interpretation of that world” (pg 33).

This point argues that the photograph is not what occurs in reality, but the photographer’s interpretation of what reality is. For example, a Benetton ad of a car set on fire does not mean that cars are set on fire in everyday life. It certainly does not mean that in reality, the world is filled with chaos and pandemonium. The photograph is taken because it shows the extent of how cruel and disturbing humanity can be. The photographer’s aim in taking this picture is to capture the public’s attention and emphasise the attitudes and concerns that Benetton has. Therefore, I agree with the point made in the article as it truly reflects on what different people interpret photographs to be.



4. “ Photography, as a medium, is deceptively invisible, leaving us with a seamless act of representation, an insistent thereness in which only the contents of the photograph, its message, are offered to the eye” (pg 34).

Clarke’s point shows how the photograph only offers us, the viewers, a certain point of view. I agree with the point made. The public does not think about other viewpoints relating to the picture. It only thinks about and accepts what is put in front of them. For example, war photography offers a record of what is happening in the war. However, some photographs are not actually what is happening in the war, but what the photographer thinks is happening in the war. The photograph can create the photo by directing what should be in the image and what should not. Hence, “the contents of the photograph”, and not the representation of the photograph, are “only offered to the eye”.

5. “ When Barthes declared that photography ‘evades us’ and is ‘unclassifiable’, he alerted us to the paradox of something seemingly so obvious and yet so problematic” (pg 39).

The point that Barthes makes is that photography is used in our daily lives, so much that is “evades us”’ and is problematic when reading, interpreting and analysing how the image has come about. When we look at a photograph, we just accept and admire it from what we can see about it. Yet, a photograph is a complex image in which photographic space (the boundaries that the photograph is taken) and the purpose of the photograph are all taken into consideration. This idea is perplexing and we cannot really understand it, until we are educated by the various concepts and ideas that we need to learn in order to read the intertextual meanings of a photograph.

Question
What is the purpose of knowing how to read a photograph in relation with our daily lives?
This question is important to me because it will show me the importance of reading a photograph, especially in our daily lives. Perhaps it will help me understand the reason as to why it is important to consider the background information of why the photograph was taken in the first place.