this is the end

Dear Weblog,

This is my last post for New Comm Tech.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank Jim Morrison.

I joined the class late in the semester, week 4 I think, but Mr. Mamouzelos was very helpful. I didn't have a clue what new comm tech was about when I enrolled, just thought the name sounded cool, anything with 'tech' sounds cool.

The lectures were cool, a 2 hour Steve Stockwell lecture each Friday morning is a great way to start the last day of the week.

The subject itself wasn't particularly appealing to me, however the teaching staff were great. The fact that the tutors are also students establishes an instant relation. Chris is a patient tutor, with domestic and international students alike, especially the ones from a non-english speaking background - like me.

The blogs were interesting, I've never kept a blog before. I understand why they have to be done during the tutes... it's boring doing them at home on your own and also not as stimulating... I can still hear my bed screaming my name.

The essay: I stuggled with the word limit. 1500 would have been more adequate. New Comm Tech being a first year course, it is understandable though.

The exam: no comments

The tutor: I'd enrol in any class he teaches.

Thanks for the semester everyone. Godspeed.

the essay

ok...this is supposed to be the epitome of what we have learnt in the course so far. mine was on the legume, I mean the pod - ipod. Here it goes...

Ipod. Youwhat?

Since its launch at the turn of the millennium, Apple’s Ipod has made considerable leaps in popularity, with recent press reports praising the sale of its 100 millionth ipod in just 5 years (SMH Tech Lift out April 10, 2007). This text will consider the ipod’s function in its users’ lives, and the changes it brought to them, if any. Through analysing various discourses of different theorists, I will conversely argue that the Ipod is a not a new media device, but merely a gizmo with so much hype surrounding it that it now sits on a sensationalism pedestal. This paper will also explore Apple’s strategic marketing of the said device as a supposedly ‘new medium’ and how it relates to cultural commodity fetishism and pseudo-individuality in our post-modern society.

The cliché that form follows function stems from the modernism era, whose grand narrative was that everything had a rationale, a name, and thus could be easily pigeon-holed (Isakhan, 2006). Although the ipod is a very post-modern device, the former cliché applies to it: a conveniently pocket-sized item, slimmer than a lot of mobile phones. Its ultimate function is to store information and make it accessible to its user at any given time, at home or on the move. Lyotard said that “communication technology, information and power go hand in hand” (in Isakhan, 2006). In fact the ipod does allow its user convenience and flexibility of use over the information it stores, be it music, video, photos, organisational data (notes and reminder), and games. The palm/hand held pc (pda) does all that, hence it is not accurate to tag the ipod as a new media device. The latter’s so widespread because it has been mass produced as a super-brand, using the familiarity of other hegemonies (see Annex 1). The initial ad Apple used to market the ipod: U2 appeals to different generations of a same family, and the colours remind of Andy Warhol. This contributed to turn the ipod into a the must-have device for tech savy people, or just a cool fashion accessory that still had a bit of novelty to it back then. I, for one, don’t find long journeys aboard public transport as burdensome as they used – I’ve an ipod and as Leichman (2006) points out, the earphones around my neck are my do-not-disturb sign. It is my escapism, but this doesn’t necessarily mean I disconnect myself from my surrounding. The ‘I’ implies selfishness. This escapism can be linked to Baudrillard’s Simulacra (Stockwell, 2007: week 8). It is quite a common sight in public spaces seeing people walk around like they’ve just come off the Warholesque ad campaign for Ipod. PBS Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown expresses the same school of thought in his interview. He advances that having earphones plugging our ears puts us in a “bubble” (originally aired on pbs.org 15/5-2006).

Nowadays, competing brands like Microsoft have released similar devices to the ipod but few have enjoyed as much endorsement from artists themselves (See Annex 2 & 3). Besides their obvious entertainment value, ipods have also been used in the educational sector. They are used as study aids in quite a few North American universities, downloading lectures as video podcasts, and/or voice recording them if the students bother attending them (Tyre in Newsweek Nov 28/2005). This can be rebutted as being commercially-driven product placement, however, that’s the way the education industry goes these days. Along the same lines, Griffith University is supplied in hardware by Dell and HP. Journalist Noah Blundo, goes one step further, likening that very concept to ‘communism or even worse’ (The Post Online 6/04-06). But I find his article just short of a killjoy’s rant rather than illustrating a scholar who reads Marx.

Let’s look at Gramsci rather, because his theory of hegemony, which is basically that one specific social group hold power and exerts dominance over another (cited in Barr, 2000: p. 17). According to Gramsci, “[…] media are tools that ruling elites use to perpetuate their power, wealth and status [by popularising] their own philosophy” (Barr, 2000: p. 17). Now, paralleling this to communism, is far fetched. Blundo is of the idea that it becomes problematic when institutions which are supposed to mould tomorrow’s elitism are advocating notions that such and such band rocks.

This point-of-view draws a bit closer to communism in the sense that the student population are being policed into what they should deem is cool and what is not. Again, this brings us back to Gramsci’s aforementioned theory.

The same theorist also has a discourse that even within hegemony, struggles does happen.

“culture, society, and politics as terrains of contestation between various groups”

(Kellner, 1995: p. 101).

This has already begun when iTunes, the 99cent/song online reliable store, made its appearance. The songs’ dirt cheap legit prices not to be outdone, iTunes then had popular tv shows available for download at similar rates. It goes without saying that consumers were delighted at that this novelty, because as Flew puts it,

“it changes the means of distribution and storage, and in the associated business models, of these media” (2005: p. 2).

Having the most loved soapies available for viewing at one’s discretion brightened the lives of more than one couch potato, who might as well be bus/train potatoes with the mobility that comes with ipod.

Benjamin, from the Frankfurt School, suggested that if specific media optics are used, they would steer and mystify the audiences into adhering to certain (political) ideologies (Isakhan, 2006). The ipod is cool. UN Ambassador and U2 frontman uses it, it has to be cool. While keeping an element of newness to it, the ipod is not a novelty item. It is a multi-media device. The only element of newness that I can find to it is that it connects to a computer, and it also connects to the human psyche in some respects.

Ends

Bibliography:

Isakhan, Benjamin (2006) 2404ART Culture, Media and Society Lecture week 12, semester 1, School of ARTS, Griffith University

Stockwell, Stephen (2007) 1501ART New Communication Technologies Lecture week 7, semester 1, School of ARTS, Griffith University

Flew, Terry (2005), ‘New Media: An Introduction’ 2^nd ed Oxford University Press, Melbourne

Barr, Trevor (2000), ‘newmedia.com.au’, Allen & Unwin, Sydney

Kellner, D. (1995) Chapter 3: For a cultural studies that is critical, multicultural, and multiperspectival. In Media Culture. London: Routledge.

Web References:-

Sydney Morning Herald Tech Lift out 10/04/2007

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-music/apple-serves-up-100-millionth-ipod/2007/04/10/1175971055932.html>, last accessed 11/05/2007

Brown, Jeffrey 2006, ‘Apple's IPod a Technological, Cultural Phenomenon’,

, last accessed 11/05/2007

John, W 2004, ‘The World at Ears' Length’,

<http://www.ministryofsluggo.com/ipod.html>, last accessed 11/05/2007

Leichman, A 2006, ‘iPod means tuning out of the world around you’,

<http://www.cnet.com.au/mp3players/0,39028967,40061024,00.htm>, last accessed 11/05/2007

Tyre, Peg 2005 Newsweek 28/11

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10117475/site/newsweek/>, last accessed 11/05/2007

Blundo, Noah 2006, The Post Online 6/04/2006

, last accessed 11/05/2007

week 11

Complete the Exercises below
Were there any problems?
What were your solutions?
Did you find it too simple, or was it confusing?
Can you see how this software might be useful to you?

The task for this week, I have to admit, gave me headaches... Me and numbers we have a pact: I don't bother them, they don't bother me.

The first few parts of the tasks were fairly straight forward... the rest, well, made me lose the plot so much I was about to smash my puter.

I did do those things on MS Excel before, this doesn't mean I enjoyed it though. This is the kind of software that requires you to go and peruse a good book written on that subject. Especially the steps by steps instruction: there's no way I can memorise those functions by heart.

MS Excel is obviously very useful to accountants, project managers, payroll officers, train station masters. I am an actor, I can at least pretend that I know, but in all honesty, Excel gives me headaches.

week 10

Write a report in your blog about your experience doing the exercises;
Were there any problems ?
What were your solutions?
Did you find it too simple, or was it confusing?
Can you see how this software might be useful to you?

I'm quite well versed in fiddling with MS word. Got the papers to prove it. I did the exercises with the job letter, they weren't anything new to me, however, I didn't quite remember how to do them on my own, and in that respect found the instructions helpful.

I'm sure MS Word is a very practical piece of software, though I found those exercises burdensome.

MS Word is more like a bunch of stationery products bundled up together.

week 8

what are the qualitative differences between the regular IM program and a 3D environment?

What is different about the kinds of socialising that happens in these spaces? Does the 3D aspect make much difference?

The 2 programmes have the same basis, which is to keep in touch with your contacts and socialise. It can be said they are as similar as they are different.

Regular (2-d) messaging programmes are different to 3D programmes. 2-d programmes allow their user to talk directly with people you know and only people you know instantly rather than having to find someone and getting to know them by engaging conversation. This gives the user an immediate connection to the conversation and allows a swift response. An IM programme also gives the user a private location in which to talk privately, i.e without everyone else in the room being able to read your conversation and answer back.

3D programs also have many superior aspects to Instant messaging programmes. They are more visual and user-friendly in terms that the platform they utilise. It is WYSIWYG. IM programmes allow the user to, in a way, view who they are talking to through the other persons 3D character. This gives the user an impression of the person they are talking to before they even begin talking to them. 3D programs also allow the user to be in many conversations with as many people as can fit in the room.

IM programs:

• Instant message and instant response from apposing user.
• Safe forum, usually friends before use.
• Can show pictures, and ‘What I am listening to’.
• Can change name whenever to show your mood, something you thought was funny, song lyrics or just your name.
• Know who is and who isn’t online from your friend list.
  Able to add new people and broaden friend list.

3D Programs:

• Able to potentially talk to everyone in the room at once.
• Open forum to meet new people.
• Can see other users' character which may indicate their personality, tastes or self-esteem
  
• Ability to do actions as well including dancing, yelling, waving etc.

Both:

• Provide a common playground for people to chat to each other, or let's say it, for paedophiles to lure children
  
• Can talk to many people in one conversation.

Both programs are quite post-modern. Not my cup of tea though, I'd much rather get to know people in person.

week 7

no tutorial tasks for this week. catch-up week.

week 5

Friends

... at a party you can't remember: that's how you know it was a good party. Actually, this could very well count for the 'celebrity' photo, although it hasn't been photoshopped. The dude next to me, Nick Stewart, is a founding member of ARIA winning band george. The girl with a beer and a cigarette is an up-and-coming thespian, one of the most talented actors I know. Remember her name: Sarah McLeod. They are both freakishly talented and very good friends of mine.












High Tech
quadbikes.... they're bikes on 4 wheels. What would we do without them?













News

Indy on the pastiche GC. Newsworthy enough for this post-modern city, or is it still a cowboy town?











Summer

lazy summer afternoon in the beautiful African tropics.












Unconventional

having Clark Kent as your personal trainer has its benefits!











University life

2 actors sitting on soapboxes outside the uni gym.












NB: All of these pictures are from my personal collection and were shot using the Canon Digital Ixus 60 camera.

week 4 (2b)

What is a search engine?

Internet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. Similar services are provided by "directories," which maintain ordered lists of websites, eg Yahoo!, Lycos etc

How do search engines rate the stuff they find on the internet?

I don't know, tried to look for it on howstuffworks.com - couldn't find a thing. But I did find someone else's answer to the same question:
"Search engines are regularly updated by web crawlers or spiders, an automated browser that continuously scans the web for new web pages and extracting information from them. This information can be a word, a phrase or an entire section of the page. This information is then indexed into a database according to the words extracted from it, titles and other headers are often given special treatment. When a user types in a word the search engine scans this database or cache and finds a list of the web pages that best fit the word or words that were input by the user. Results are also graded on how many links to other sources relating to the topic it contains on its site."


(http://potterblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/week-4-blog-questions.html)

Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

I'll take a wild guess: a web master/ administrator and interpretation.


what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

Google because it comes all languages and it translates. Lycos because that's the first search engine I've ever used.


Can you find some current news stories about search engines? (for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately).

I found an article about an Indian equivalent of google.

(http://www.domain-b.com/infotech/itnews/2007/20070524_stump.html)

week 4 (1)

OK I fess up: essays have already been submitted 3 weeks ago, and this blog should've been penned up ages ago. Hope I don't get into too much trouble. Anyway, back to the tutorial task:

I didn't the library's full-text database search for my essay, I used google scholar. From then on, I had a starting point, and then searched the library collection for the books that were referenced in the articles I've found using google scholar. In my opinion, our library isn't the best there is. Not saying it's bad, but try finding something really "niche" in there, like ninjutsu, and you'll find nothing.

My essay was about the ipod and the key points I've found online were:- (I'm using past tense but that's because I've got hindsight on my side :p)

• ipods aren't exactly that new
• they are as cultural an item as they are materialistic
• you could most probably ricochet them
• ipods can be educational and/or as dangerous as communism
  

week 3

I had a Norwegian pen-friend in high school. We used to regularly meet online and chat or email each other. We've developed quite a friendship but we've actually never met in person. Mainly because we're worlds apart, still I became quite fond of this kind of socialising. You don't really get to know how the other person's voice sounds like, or how they smell (not in a bad way - everyone's got a smell), but still, you get to know their thoughts, their ideas. You can "talk" to them in your underwear, while you're shopping for underwear.

Been using the internet for about 11 years now. At first I was only surfing on the sports websites (nba.com & soccernet.com) because I had seen their ads on tv. Then I discovered how to email and chat. When you come from a big family spread all over the world, it helps keeping in touch. I think IRC and ICQ were the first ones I used, then MSN came along.

I'm not advocating anything, but it is really a different kind of "human" interaction online. I know married couples who've met online.

However, what really influenced me to use the internet more: Napster.

R.I.P Napster.

Week 2

Hi folks,

I'm Jerome. I come from Mauritius; a tiny island off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. This is my first blog and so far it doesn't seem too foreign to me. Don't really know what blogging is but I hope this course will clarify that in the coming weeks.

This is a new form of communication to me. Will try to avoid spelling mistakes, hate spelling mistakes, that's why I don't buy the GC Bulletin. Precision is the essence of communication.

Peace.

week 6

Friends.

This picture was taken at Dreamworld. 4 friends in a world of simulacra.

I've only played around with the color balance, increasing the tones of cyan, green, and blue.








Popular.

In this picture, I've adjusted the layer levels, both input and output. This is my friend David Eastgate performing at Universal Studios in Japan. This context implies popular for the population.


source: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=86573568&albumID=0&imageID=2007759)





Games.

This inverted picture gives it a "film" texture. 2 actors playing theatre games.










source: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=115001563&albumID=0&imageID=1816408





Australian.

A group of mates wearing wife beaters, discussing big ideas. This picture has an ink outline brushstroke.


source: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=115001563&amp;amp;albumID=0&imageID=1816391

week 4 (2a) scavenger hunt

1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?

1502lbs. (Lycos search - www.bigpumpkins.com)

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?

No idea. He's not listed in the white pages. I'd call his club, Miami Dolphins, but the question says Hackett.

3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?

Up to 20 inches. (yahoo! search - http://www.enewsbuilder.net/tusker/e_article000662301.cfm?x=b11,0,w)

4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?

Indexed knowledge of a group of objects related by the nature of their existence (yahoo! search -

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ontology).

5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?

"Transfer" (1966). (http://imdb.com/name/nm0000343/)

6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?

January 8, 1986. (excite search -

http://msxml.excite.com/info.xcite/search/web/hacker%2527s%2Bmanifesto)

7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

In the old exchange-name telephone number system (think Pennsylvania 6-5000), no English place names contained the combination of the letters J, K, and L -- all assigned to the digit "5" on the phone. So the prefix 555 went largely unused, and Hollywood was encouraged to use it to discourage those darn crank-calling kids. These days, 555 phone numbers are actually being assigned to legitimate businesses, and Hollywood has been restricted to numbers in the 555-0100 to 555-0199 range.

(ask.com search - http://s472216.tblog.com/post/439925 which is an old 1501art student's search)

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?

Ferry

(cretetravel.com)

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?

"I'll never find another you" by The Seekers

(www.onmc.net.au/topspot/1965.htm)

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

Black Assasins

(live-wirez.gu.edu.au/Staff/Stephen/Default.html)