Ciao!!! with my cultural jamming report

Thank you so much for reading my New Communication Technology study project blog. Before I say good-bye to everyone, I have to write this as I promised before.


I have done another project for Art and Cultural Work study, and this was similar to the culture jamming project we were expected to do on this blog. I could not finish my culture jamming group task as I mentioned before, so I will write about this project instead.

We made a human body stencil.

We cut out a human body shape, and drew on a university wall with white chalk, like you would see a dead body shape in a crime scene. We mixed corn flour and food colouring together and poured it into balloons,

and burst them to paint over the body shape.

Personal attack, cyber bully etc... when we are abused by someone, our self esteem goes down, and we sometimes feel like it is not worth living anymore. However, whatever happens to us, it is only a matter of how we perceive it. When you think your hurt, or hurt by someone or something, it only hurts if you perceive it that way. If you tell yourself it does not hurt or matter, then you can find a way to overcome it. "Nobody can hurt me without my permission (Mahatma Ghandi)".

We hope the tragedy of Tyler Clementi who was a freshman at Rutger University in US, who recently committed suicide by jumping off a bridge after his gay sexual encounter was transmitted over the Internet, that this never ever happens again, and also hope that people who suffer from depression, especially young people, find a way to build the strength to overcome.

 

 
This is all for the blog.
Thank you so much again, and I hope you all have great fun with a world full of new communication technologies.
 
 
Bye xxxx

Essay - mobile technologies and journalism

Essay Question) Increasingly mobile devices are an aid to the gathering and reporting of information, both by professional journalists and “citizen journalists”. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of this sort of news gathering. How might it impact on journalistic practices and news values and ethics?



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     In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in transmitting wireless signals over more than a mile (Steinbock 2005). This was the birth of radio, and wireless technologies including mobile communications. The first mobile phone service was launched in the 1980s, since then, mobile communication have been dramatically changing our lives (Steinbock 2005). The journalism industry has also been experiencing a dramatic change on the way they gather their news sources by way of the rapid improvement of mobile communication technologies. Any news stories are now able to be delivered to individual audiences without the worry of geographical distance, and no worries about the time neither. News industries are able to gather, edit and broadcast the story by utilising mobile communications and the audiences can read, watch and comment on the news by mobile device. Interactivity of web 2.0 also brought us another phase of journalism. Citizen journalism has started spreading all over the world, and the audience has now started posting the news stories as well as professional journalists. "Anyone can register for free and within seconds you can start posting articles or comments in real time (Typeboard website)."
     This change brought by mobile communication technologies has been affecting journalism on both the positive side and the negative side. This essay examines the advantages and the disadvantages of  news gathering by mobile technologies considering the impact on journalistic practices, news values and ethics.

(photo: http://abhk899.portfolios.cutlines.org/2010/03/29/time-to-stand-up-and-be-counted/)



     New mobile communication technology has been contributing to an expansion of abilities of the contemporary journalism industry. Especially, mobile phones take a large part of the change in journalism. People can report the news over the phone live as it unfolds. This is a huge advantage to report something very quickly, before the camera crew arrive at the incidents. Moreover, most mobile phones now allow users to take audio, video, and photographs. The quality of those mobile phone recordings are now good enough to broadcast or publish, and journalists do not have to miss the moment when something happens without the proper equipment. They can also record an interview with just a tiny device without scaring people with big lighting and camera equipment with many crew members (Wynja 2010) .
     New iPhone4 made another revolution to the journalism industry as well. While the mobile phone itself is getting a huge advantage to the journalism industry, iPhone4 leads the industry with many functions and applications useful to the journalists (Wynja 2010). With iPhone4, people can record HD videos, edit videos, and with a five mega pixel front facing camera which you can see what is recording when the person holds the camera takes him/herself, and LED light to allow shooting in the dark.
     Mobile journalism has also made the newsroom more cost effective as well. Frank Barnett, the vice president of CNN Newsbeam explains "With a Mac laptop and an Internet connection (DSL, broadband, BGAN, satellite, Wi-Fi, wireless card) we can go live and file reports from almost anywhere in the world. This capability has been especially beneficial internationally, as the equipment is extremely small, lightweight and can run off car, truck or camera batteries as well as AC. Also, since some IP transmissions can be done via the Internet there is little or no incremental cost. (Digital SNG: Technology Gains Make Journalists Even More Mobile 2008) "
     Technology devices like ‘Eye-Fi’ contribute to the portability of journalists as well. Eye-Fi is a built-in wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. It can use up to 32 networks where a Wi-Fi network is available, and photos or videos recorded by the digital camera can transfer images to the specified network directory without any other communication devices (Eye-Fi 2010). With this handy memory card, photographers can quickly send their photos via Internet without using even a laptop computer. This technology is getting popular among photo journalists, as during a competitive incident such as big sporting event like the Olympics, speed of news room update is crucial in competed with all other journalists from all over the world (Faulkner 2010). Therefore, this new technology gives journalists a huge advantage.

(photo: http://www.eye.fi/how-it-works/basics)

     These mobile communication technologies have made it easy for both professionals and citizen journalists to publish or broadcast their news stories, and has expand the way in how they deliver their content. This has invited many people to participate in the journalism industry, and therefore,  ethics and news value issues have become controversial. Many websites which allow anyone to contribute in writing news stories are very popular including CNN iReport and Wikinews. Oh Yoen Ho launched OhmyNews in 2000 in South Korea, with their slogan “Every citizen is a reporter”, and took a large part of challenging the existing newspapers and defeating the conservative government on their election (Bentley 2005). In Australia, there are ABC Open, The Razor in Melbourne and Typeboard using GeoMaps. These stories are submitted by unpaid volunteer citizen reporters. While many of both the audience and the journalists welcome this new movement, some traditionalists argue the issues of citizen journalism, such as The New York Times (Brown 2007).
     The tech columnist of Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg criticised as “It’s like citizen surgery … very similar” (Mossberg 2007).
     The first negative issue of the untrained citizen journalists are the objectivity, as the insider stories are often biased (McKnight 1997). The credibility without fact-checkers is another problem (Bentley 2005). When public interest is focused more, the entertainment value has often become more significant as well. For example, political reporting becomes like horse racing aspects rather than arguing their policies in depth. (McKnight 1997).
     However, professional journalists are also often criticised on their ethics. The Australian TV show ‘Media Watch’ recently pointed out that Australian Channel 9 reporter, Laura Turner cheated to make her look like she was deep in depth of flooding water by standing in a culvert (Media Watch 2010). The same show also pointed out that Channel 9 news keeps using the word ‘underbelly’ for describing ‘underworld’ to promote their own TV drama, and they even used a photo of Matthew Newton, an actor of Underbelly, to describe the real person who committed the crime called ‘Mr Asia’ (Media Watch 2010). In America, the poll found more than half of the people are not confident with news media in 2004, after CBS News reported wrongly about President George W. Bush’s Vietnam era (Gillespie 2004). However, the only way that professional journalism can compete with citizen journalism is by maintaining their credibility and authority (Brown 2007).

(Photos: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3010493.htm)



    Mobile communication technologies have changed news gathering and made it easier and faster. News industries are now able to gather, edit and broadcast the story by utilising mobile communications and the audiences can read, watch and comment on the news by mobile device. This invited citizen journalists to participate in delivering news stories, and it caused the ethics and the news values of journalism to become more controversial. The conservative, professional journalists criticised the citizen journalism while people started losing credibility in the existing media. Citizen journalism will become more mature in very near future, and it will become more and more popular, being supported by audiences who are already natural active participants in this digital world. Although citizen journalism would never wipe out the professional journalists, these journalists should aware now that they are standing on the edge. They are now required to report accurate, fair and reliable news stories more than ever to maintain their positions as a main stream of journalists.






References



Steinbock, Dan 2005, Mobile service Revolution – CNN Effect Goes Mobile, Scienece & Technology, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 6, Issue: 2, pp. 133-140, http://hy8fy9jj4b.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Mobile+Service+Revolution%3A+CNN+Effect+Goes+Mobile&rft.jtitle=Georgetown+Journal+of+International+Affairs&rft.au=Dan+Steinbock&rft.date=2005-09-30&rft.issn=1526-0054&rft.volume=6&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=133&rft.externalDBID=GJIA&rft.externalDocID=982974071)


About, Typeboard, viewed 22/10/10, http://www.typeboard.com/about/


Wynja, Nick 2010, What iPhone 4 means for Mobile Journalists, viewed 19/10/10, http://nickwynja.ca/post/674118427/what-iphone-4-means-for-mobile-journalists


Digital SNG: Technology Gains Make Journalists Even More Mobile 2005, Via Satellite, Potomac: Oct 2008, Vol. 13, Iss. 10, http://libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?did=1573810921&Fmt=7&clientId=13713&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Basics, Eye-Fi, viewed 20/10/10, http://www.eye.fi/how-it-works/basics)


Faulkner, Heather 2010, News photography1 lectures, Griffith University, Gold Coast.

Bentley, Clyde H 2005Reconnecting with the audience: what they say--not what we think--is what counts. Neman Reports 59.4 (Winter 2005), pp.26-29, http://find.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A141213641&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=griffith&version=1.0


Brown, Fred 2007, When the audience does the reporting: with media outlets clamouring for more ‘citizen journalism,’ who will be left as the voice of authority?, The Quill 95.2, pp.35, http://find.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A164105294&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=griffith&version=1.0


Mossberg, Walter 2007, Wall Street Journal, American Journalism Review 29.3: 14, http://find.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A165807319&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=griffith&version=1.0


McKnight, David 1997, Public Journalism- A response to the crisis in public life, Australian Press Council News, February 1997 vol 9, No1, viewed 20/10/10, http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/apcnews/feb97/public.html


In-depth flood coverage 2010, Media Watch, episode 32, viewed 20/10/10, http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3010493.htm


Mr Actor not Mr Asia 2010, Media Watch, episode 11, viewed 20/10/10, http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2876793.htm


Gillespie, Mark 2004, Media credibility reaches lowest point in three decades: CBS news incident latest in long history of media mistakes, The Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing, http://find.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A125782243&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=griffith&version=1.0





Bibliography


Scott, Ben 2005, A Contemporary History of Digital Journalism, Television & News Media Vol.6 No1, http://tvn.sagepub.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/content/6/1/89.full.pdf+html


Mosco, Vincent 2009, The future of journalism, Journalism 10, pp 350, http://jou.sagepub.com/content/10/3/350


Bahnisch, Mark 2008, Theme: The public right to know – 1.Political blogging in the 2007 Australian federal election: Beyond citizen journalism and towards civic creativity, Pacific Journalism review 14(2), pp.8


New Communication Technologies lectures and tutorials 2010, Griffith University, Gold Coast.

course overall

'New Communication Technology' is a course I have been studying and why I have been posting this blog, it is for my one of the compulsory subjects I am required to study to obtain a degree as a Bachelor of Communication. I am not really a computer geek and if I had a choice, I might not have chosen this subject. However, I found it was very interesting study thinking about the range of issues surrounding new communication technology and the Internet.

The Internet is a very new media and there is not many sources or opportunities in our everyday life to comprehend overall issues, histories and philosophies regarding the Internet, but everything there is very closely related to our everyday life already. I cannot imagine a life without the Internet, and I do not think I can live in a world without the Internet, although I can live without a TV set. It is a media which takes huge part of many people's lives these days. I really enjoyed attending the lectures every week (this is not only for trying to get a better mark, honestly!). Especially the story told last week by Adam who is one of the Doctor's in our lectures, he was truly really interesting. He mentioned there is a conspiracy theory that Facebook is owned by CIA! And he pointed out the various evidence surrounding how much the CIA is funding Facebook indirectry, and the connection between other CIA funded companies. He concluded he is not sure the conspiracy theory is true of false, however, we should think about our privacy and the personal data that Facebook and other websites are collecting. This made me think a lot about the Internet.

Of course, I prefer a peaceful world. I hope the Internet is not harming us at all. However, we have to protect ourselves, and we should consider there are many risks to harm us on the Internet. It is exactly the same as we should not walk alone in the dark to go home after the work. I know that criminal people should be punished, but we have to protect ourselves as well, and we should not be silly to invite the criminals. It is sad, but that is the world we live in. I do not agree that people's private data should be controlled by commercialism, but it is the time that people should know more about how we can protect ourselves from the risks of the Internet. Journalists are very responsible and can educate people more and bring these issues out and help us all focus more. The government is also responsible to ensure young children are educated at school as well.


Anyway, this is the last post to write everything frankly, and the next post will be an academic essay to finish this blog. Thank you so much for reading my blog, and I hope we all have a great future with the new communication technologies!

Cheers.

cultural jamming group project - continued from week 5 task

We were given a task to conduct a cultural jamming project with a group of our classmates (see this my previous post - cultural jamming ideas - week 5 task). However, the project fell apart........ I have not seen some members of the group for a while in the tutorials, so we decided to do the project by ourselves, individually. Originally, we were going to spread a rumor that someone found a gold nugget at the construction site across the road of our university, and create a discussion using a facebook groups, who should own the gold. It is very unfortunate, but I guess the life is tough!


So I have decided to report my project for another course as a part of my cultural jamming assignment. I am studying 'Art and Cultural Practices' as well, and we are going to have a stencil project on 9/10/10. I know it is a little bit too late for the due date of the marking of this blog posting assignment, but I thought it is better than nothing to provide for this cultural jamming project.


I am going to place dead body stencils, like we see body shapes on the ground drawn by a chalk in a cop shows. My partner (of this project ) and I are thinking to draw on the pedestrian crossings, beaches, cliffs etc. We are also going to use many different materials such as human hair, blood like red fluid and slime.

This is to send messages about risks, dangers, deaths and lives of our society.

I will report this project as soon as possible!



Meanwhile, I conducted research related to our original project instead, to avoid getting a late submission penalty for the cultural jamming project.


In Australia, people have a right to own the surface of the land, but we cannot own under the ground. If we find gold, hot springs, oil or any valuable mineral resources, the local state government have rights to own them. The owner of the land have absolutely no rights to own anything underneath the ground. Not only that, the government normally try to pressure you to move out the property if access to those resources is required. They say the arrangement and compensation must be agreed by both parties, however, if they cannot reach to the agreement, they simply take it to the court (Land holders rights, access arrangements and compensation under the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991, viewed 7/10/10, http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/minerals/titles/landholders-rights/petroleum_onshore_act_1991). So you might be able to get a better arrangement at the court, but it does not sound like you cannot insist to stay there.

Is that really fair????  Are we living in a communism country to share all the assets among the all nation? Why does the owner have to be forced to move away for the benefit of the country? Is the right of the human really lighter than the assetts of the nation?
On the other hand, in a few other countries including USA, you can own the land and the mineral rights (Mineral Rights, geology.com, viewed 7/10/10, http://geology.com/articles/mineral-rights.shtml). I loooove a US TV drama called 'Brothers and Sisters', and the last episode of the season 4 which broadcast in June 2010 here in Australia was about finding water resources on their land after the family business had gone broke (episode recap from abc.com: http://abc.go.com/shows/brothers-and-sisters/episode-guide/on-the-road-again/439852?page=2). They can do it there. If they found that the land had water beneath it, they own the right of the water as well. Same as Japan. People often find a hot spring under their personal property in Japan and they can make a fortune. However, their right is sometimes limited in the metropolitan area, and they can only own up to forty metre deep, so that underground public facilities like subways can be built (土地所有権は地球の裏側まであるか?, viewed 7/10/10, http://www.tyu1.com/korya13.htm).

What is fair to the nation? What is fair to people? What is the best way to set the mineral rights?


It is a very interesting argument. What do you think?

essay topic - week 9 task

Now we have to write an essay by week 12, October 22nd. We have to choose one from these six essay topics:

1. Discuss the impact of TWO of the following figures on the development of digital technologies and digital culture: Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, William Gibson, Kevin Mitnick, Alan Turing, Ray Kurzweil, J.C.R. Licklider, Douglas Engelbart.
2. Explain what Creative Commons is and, using examples, show how it is different to other forms of copyright.
   
   
3. Why is privacy such a contentious issue for internet users? Discuss with reference to at least ONE social network service (or other web2.0 service).
4. Is the “virtual community” (Rheingold, 1993) a useful way of understanding contemporary online life? Discuss using one example of an online community OR a video game world (Virtual community is not to be confused with a “social network” site).
5. How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?
6. Increasingly mobile devices are an aid to the gathering and reporting of information, both by professional journalists and “citizen journalists”. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of this sort of news gathering. How might it impact on journalistic practices and news values and ethics?

No 2 and 6 are both very interesting to me, but I think I am going to choose number six question about the mobile journalism. As a photojournalism and media study student, it is a very interesting discussion. The photographer does not even require a laptop computer to send their high quality images to editors these days, as there are mobile devices which allow their images to send from their cameras directly to the Internet. I heard the media rooms of the big sporting events are getting smaller and smaller as editors do not have to be on the actual sites anymore. These mobile tools of the journalists are changing the world in many different dimensions.

Mobile communication tools, such as mobile phones and laptop computers have been making the journalism world totally different. Many news channels on the TV are now showing the footage captured by these mobile devices. Do you remember this video when we had a Tusnami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka on the Boxing day( December 26th) in  2004?





The people who were enjoying their Christmas holiday at the resort took this footage with her personal video camera, and this video was broadcast all over the world. I remember I saw it so many times on our local TV stations. This kind of footage, being right there on the natural disaster, is almost impossible to capture by the professional journalists. There is a huge advantage on citizen journalism when something like this happens.

Because of web2.0 and interactive Internet abilities, citizen journalism which is the news stories posted by everyday people have been getting very popular.

I have to do research about a few famous websites of citizen journalism such as CNN iReport (http://ireport.cnn.com/) to start with. Then I have to find a few academic journals arguing citizen journalism, and find out the pros and cons about news from non professional people.

I might have to define journalism and professionalism as well.


Well, I will post my essay on this blog before the due day, so see you soon in a couple weeks!!

virtual communities - reflecting the week 8 lecture

The week 8 lecture was about the philosophy. What is considered by real in the history? What is virtual reality?

In the lecture, we saw a part of movie of Matrix. Have you seen the movie? I have, and I remember it was so deep and I did not understand it very well, but I was so shocked from many things. It is definitely a Hollywood entertainment movie, but the messages there are quite deep.

Cyberspace is not only a world in the movies and Sci-Fi novels anymore, and it exists as a part of our life now. Even during the web 1.0 era, there was a popular virtual town called Geocities. People were able to create their personal websites inside Geocities, and those contents were placed on the streets in a map of the virtual world.

Now we have thousands virtual worlds including online games and chat websites, and most people accept the fact that virtual reality is a part of our real world.

Here is a list of popular virtual worlds:



Disney's Toontown
Mokitown
Virtual Magic Kingdom
Whyville
Coke Studios
Dubit
Habbo Hotel
The Manor
The Palace
Playdo
The Sims Online
There
TowerChat
whyrobbierocks.com
Active Worlds
Cybertown
Dreamville
Moove
Muse
The Palace
Second Life
Sora City
Virtual Ibiza
Voodoo Chat
VP Chat
VZones
Moove
Traveler
Worlds.com
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates

(Virtual Worlds List By Category, Virtual World Review, viewed 3/10/10, http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/categories.shtml)


What a world we have created. There could be a time very soon when we can actually eat and sleep and physically get satisfied in a virtual world!

cyberpunk - week 8 task and Tutespark

This week, we learned about the philosophy of the cyberspace. What is real and what is not - are the things created by the brain real? - is virtual reality real or not???? How about the languages. The created meaning by our brain like language, is that real?
It was a quite difficult lecture as I was not familiar with Plato or any other philosophy that much. However I think, the point of the lecture was, the virtual world is not the things you can describe as real or not. You cannot put things on hierarchy like people used to do in old days like Plato. The virtual world and the real world is laid there, side by side.

And the task of the week is:

....students should select one of these themes (Negative Impact of technology on humanity, Fusion of man and machine, Corporate control over society, Uprising of the underground, Ubiquitous Access to information) & complete some basic research on it (ideally finding a short fiction online that deals with the topic (there’s heaps of online cyberpunk fiction, so this shouldn’t be a problem). Once students have a basic understanding they should try and identify a current news story that reflects their chosen topic.

Once they have found a story they should attempt to re-write the news story as a persuasive piece about how their piece of cyberpunk fiction has forecast the particular story/event & how it will inevitably lead to the world becoming a post-industrial dystopia (like every cyberpunk story does/is).  (The_TuteSpark_Repository, viewed 17/09/10, http://tutespark.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-8.html)

So I chose the 'Negative Impact of technology on humanity' theme.

"Negative Impact of technology on humanity: In a cyberpunked near-future, technology runs rampant, and usually manipulates most societal interactions. Dystopian near futures are very common, but so are futures where the impacts of specific technologies are played out in a world only slightly different from the present. Sacred societal boundaries are often crossed with regularity. Often the earth is severely damaged. Crime and drug use are often key supporting themes." (The_TuteSpark_Repository, viewed 17/09/10, http://tutespark.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-8.html)

'Pixels', the movie I uploaded for week 4 belongs to this category. The pixel characters of the virtual world started attacking the real world, and the earth became one pixel at the end. Probably, many people think 'oh no, it's just a story' after they see that video, as everything was described in cute way and not really serious. However, think about the images you see everyday in your life. Many TVs are now digital, and you are watching the whole images created by tiny pixels. Most people take photos by digital camera these days, and enjoy them by watching a creation of pixels. News paper and most magazines are printed by tiny dots - pixels as well. Many street signs and packages of almost all products are also printed by dots - pixels. Computer and the Internet is all made by pixels, of course. Pixels are really taking over our real world.



Now, the health risk of the mobile phone is still not confirmed, but many people have an uncertain worry that it may cause headache, nausea or even brain tumors and cancer. I found this funny news as well: Lady Gaga 'Scared To Use Mobile Phone Due To Health Risks' (Gregory, J. 2010, News, GIGWISE, viewed 17/09/10, http://www.gigwise.com/news/58150/Lady-Gaga-Scared-To-Use-Mobile-Phone-Due-To-Health-Risks). According to this story, Lady Gaga hires an assistant to hold a phone for her to avoid the mobile getting too close to her head while she uses the loudspeaker!

(photo:  GIGWISE, http://www.gigwise.com/news/58150/Lady-Gaga-Scared-To-Use-Mobile-Phone-Due-To-Health-Risks)

And then here comes this video. Have you seen the video which the mobile phones make popcorn? I remember this hilarious video became viral through email.

 

Have you seen this? I was so shocked when I saw this first. Wow, no wonder there are so many rumor about the health risk with mobile phone, look at this, the mobile phone signal can even make popcorn!!! The radio frequency radiation kills us!!!

I never had a doubt it was not real, but I found out it was just well plotted fiction. This was originally made as an ad for Cardo Bluetooth headsets. It is suggested that there is a hot plate hidden under the table and the heat makes the corn pop. (Hoax-Slayer, Making Popcorn With Cell Phones, viewed 17/09/10, http://www.hoax-slayer.com/cell-phone-popcorn.shtml). To tell the truth, I was very disappointed to see the truth here somehow. Damn, they really tricked me.

However, it is true that there are some studies from reliable organisations that confirm an increase of health risks by using mobile phones. For example, the WHO released a study regarding a connection between mobile phone and cancer rates. People who uses their mobile phones, wireless home phones and WIFI connected more than thirty minutes a day have more risk of brain tumor. (Gifford-Jones 2010, Protect yourself from cellphone radiation, Tront Sun, viewed 17/09/10,  http://www.torontosun.com/life/healthandfitness/2010/09/08/15284781.html)






So I  made a news story like this. ARGUS is the name of a web magazine created by the photo journalism students of Griffith University Gold Coast Campus.



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Police arrest eleven men in connection with possible terrorist attack
September 17, 2012 by C. Fridge / ARGUS



Prime minister Julia Gillard announced that is is confirmed a group of four people were arrested on a suspected terrorist plot in Sydney.

Eleven men, including two former Telstra employees and three university science researchers, were being questioned yesterday afternoon in north Sydney on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack. They started a business called ''Phone Geek" and planned to open 8 shops this month. It is suspected that they were intending to attach a nano-scale device inside 20,000 mobile phones including Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, and they were about to sell those modified mobile phones through their shops around north Sydney area. The size of the device is almost invisible by the human eye.

Yet the health risk of a mobile phones radio frequency radiation is still controversial, the group of suspects have conducted research for five years now and found that two times enhanced radio frequency radiation for twenty minutes or more daily can cause multiple tumors to 80 percent of people in six months. It is suspected that they created a nano-scale device to enhance the radio frequency over five times with the aim of harming anonymous people. It is believed that they have a strong connection to the known terrorist group Al Qaeda.

New mobile phones are normally sold with opened packages as the shops have to insert a SIM card and copy the contacts over as a courtesy before they hand them to consumers. "People would never realise if the mobile phone is already modified before they purchased" says Peter Tompson, a sales person of Crazy Johns Mobile Phones. "It is very scary to imagine what they were planning to do".

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a 10-year study into mobile phone use and cancer rates in 2010. The WHO recognized a significant correlation between malignant brain tumours and people who used their cellphones, wireless home phones or WIFI connected for more than 30 minutes combined daily.




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Well, this is all for the week. Have a lovely mobile free weekend!

creative commons - week 7 task

This week's task is:

Research and provide short answers to the following questions. Provide references where applicable.

1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?

2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.

3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link to and a summary of the article.

4. Have a look at Portable Apps (a pc based application) – provide a brief description of what it is and how you think this is useful.

Answers:

1) Creative Commons

"Creative Commons is an international non-profit that provides free licenses and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally (about, Creative Commons Australia, viewed 10/09/10, http://creativecommons.org.au/about)."

Our culture is always build upon the creations already exist. There is no true original creations in the world, as we are all influenced by others. Copyright is first appeared in Britain in the fifteenth century when Gutenberg invented the technology of printing press (The Law - Where did copyright come from?, Website Copyright, viewed 10/09/10,  http://www.benedict.com/Info/Law/History.aspx). However, the copyright started creating the very restrict permission culture in this fifty years. Lawrence Lessig started Creative Commons in 2003 to promote reasonable copyright, such as 'some rights reserved', rather than 'all rights reserved' (Muir, A., 2010, week 7 lecture, Griffith University, Gold Coast).

I am studying some art related subject, and I had to do some appropriating exercises.  Appropriating art works requires very creative process, as it highlights the difference and the similarity and make the messages stronger. You cannot just copy the original art work, and you really have to try to capture the essence of original message and transform it into something different form.

I agree that we need the copyright, and I would hate to see that someone else uses my photograph I took sells and makes a lot of money. However, we need to have reasonable copyright, instead of smother all the creative world. If we are not allowed to appropriate any existing art work because of the copyright restriction, it is really killing some new creations.

Creative Commons is established to solve this problem. It is great idea to share some cultural creations reasonably. I can utilise this license uploading my photos I take for photojournalism subjects, and I can also mash up someone else's images for art related subjects.






2) 3 works created by Creative Commons License

As a student of Photojournalism, I  am always interested in photo related art works. I found these three as Creative Commons examples.


Gold Coast Photos, Gold Coast Info
   (viewed 10/9/10, http://www.goldcoastinfo.net/photos/main.php)

When I am making a website or blog, I often wish I had a good scenery photo of the Gold Coast as information where we are from. I used to be able to use the photos from Tourism Queensland website as my business I used to run paid a membership for a while, but I was always looking for copyright free good quality Gold Coast photos. Now I found this good website, Gold Cost Photos from Gold Coast Info.

This Gold Coast Photos have 504 beautiful photos under Creative Commons license. All you have to do is attribute their name with the photos. Isn' that great?!

(photos: Gold Coast Photos, Gold Coast Info, http://www.goldcoastinfo.net/photos/main.php)

Music Video Using Flickr Images - I'll Be Back This Summer

This music video is created by using all photos from Flickr under Creative Commons licenses. They are beautiful photos, and nice catchy music. We can definitely enjoy those photos in different way from what they are originally. It is a simple good example how artists can take an advantage of Creative Commons.

Urban Dirty - Free texture photos for your artwork, designs & desktops
(viewed 10/9/10, http://urbandirty.com/)

This is a website that provides free photos and images for your desktops etc. He has 771 photos in his gallery. I always like the texture photos as they are so handy. I can use them as background of blogs, websites and my artworks. These photos are all licensed under Creative Commons.

(photos: Urban Dirty, http://urbandirty.com/)

4) Academic Article

For the common good?

This article argues both positive and negative impact regarding Creative Commons. An innovative movement of copyright licensing started by Creative Commons is spreading globally. Wired magazine created a CD in 2004 using Creative Commons license with sixteen professional musicians such as David Byrne, Beastie Boys and Chck D. However, some industry leaders say there is a concern that it can "erode copyright protection or harm unwitting artists (Butler, S. 2005)". Creative Commons supporter Tina O'Reilly points out that a very small percentage of high value works smother all other art works with current restricted copyright law. Abelson from MIT says that it is scary to lock up all science with copyright. However, young artists can easily make a wrong choice by giving away his copyright while the first work is often the best of their work, and he may never repeat that quality. Although it is great to provide a legal copyright tool to everyday people as they do not have to get expensive legal advice, giving this legal tools upfront can result no recourse if something goes wrong.

(Butler, S. 2005, For the Common Good?, Billboard, New York: May 28, 2005. Vol. 117, Iss. 22; pg. 24, http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?index=111&did=847235311&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1285053589&clientId=13713)

5) Portable Apps

To tell the truth, I didn't know anything about portable applications until now. I googled this word, and was amazed how handy it is. The software you can use from your portable device such as USB driver or iPod, and you don't have to bother downloading the software to all different computers you use, anytime, anywhere. What a great idea! However, I tried to find any apps that I want to use and I looked through probably 10 pages or more, but still I could not find the one I really wanted to download. I always feel inconvenient that I cannot use Photoshops and Adobe Bridge on computers at uni (except for a digital dark room only limited students can use), so I would love to have portable apps of those two programs. I found Gimp and Picassa apps, but no Adobe software. They must be too protective about their software as they are the cash cows. Gimp and Picassa are good programs, but not good enough for photojournalism courses.

I found one program after looking through almost all search results on the first page of Google search. This program is called Date Reminder. It is a very simple software which gives us a reminder of birthday, bill payment or any recurring/non recurring events. (Horst Schaeffer's Windows Pages, viewed

10/9/10, http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/wrem.htm)

It is a great idea if I can get a reminder on any pc I use. I often forget the due date of credit card payment, and I am terrible to remember friend's birthdays as well. I was wondering if I should use the reminder service which I can receive by email, but this Date Reminder software is much better. The email reminder is good, but you never know until you open the mail browser. I often feel like I don't want to see any email, and I want to feel free from the crazy communication addictive world, and then I must miss the reminder. If I can get the reminder while whatever I am doing on a computer at university or home, it's great! However, the design of this program is a little bit too simple, and it looks boring. If this is presented with cool design and colours, it must become a very very popular software.

(photo: http://media02.hongkiat.com/portable-applications/date_reminder.jpg)

This is all for today. Cheers!

open source software - Tutespark week 7

A task for this week is:

Try some free software - good examples which are free and easy to download are: Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Gimp, Audacity, amsn, pidgin, etc.
Try to use it exclusively for a few days - then decide whether you like it or not! Say why/why not.

I have been using Firefox. It is such a great free software. It is much better than Internet Explolar as Firefox has a great advantage being an open source software. There are so many different looks you can choose from  (so many cool designs are there!), and so many plug-ins are available, as many users can modify, upload and share them.


OK, now I will try to use a new software for the task.



I am studying another subject called 'Art and Cultural Work', and the next assignment is required to use Audacity. I have never used this program before, but I have started using this already for a couple weeks. It is a great software. I can record a sound straight on this program using the microphone on the laptop, and edit it quite easily. I can slice the sound, multiply, add some effects and so on. I don't think I would get rid of this program after I finish my assignment of Art and Cultural Work, as it is really worth to have it. It is a shame that I found out I cannot pan the individual sound from left to right or something, but still it is a great software to record things and edit them easily. I used to record some sounds and used them for my PC instead of using those boring sounds that windows created, such as starting windows, clicks, warnings etc. I can use this program to record the lecture or inportant meetings as well.

(photo: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/images/audacity-macosx.png)

web 3.0 - reflecting the week 6 lecture

We have learnt about the Internet before web2.0 in 1990's and after web2.0. Web 2.0 is a commonly described as 'user generated contents' such as Facebook, blogs, Wikipedia and Youtube. During the research about web2.0, I found a word 'web3.0' and I have never heard about it, so I started a little research.

Web 1.0 - read only contents (Geocities, hotmail etc)
Web 2.0 - user generated contents (Flickr, YouTube blogs etc)
Web 3.0 - portable personal web (iGoogle etc)

Portable personal web is including semantic web (data), personalisation, intelligent search and behavioral ads among the contents.

(Web 3.0 concepts explained in Plain English, digital inspiration, viewed 10/9/10, http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-3-concepts-explained/8908/)


And here is a video explaining about web 3.0 by Eric Schmidt who is a CEO of Google.




Interesting? Well, let's see how the Internet world goes in the near future.

who owns the contents you upload? - Tutespark week 6

People post blogs, photos, videos etc on various Internet websites. Well, who owns the photo you uploaded? What about the text? Videos? Have you ever thought about it?

The week 6 lecture was about Media, Web2.0 and copyright on the Internet.

Media is a plural word for Medium. The technology and knowledge used by social communities become media of communication. During the early Internet era, the main area of academic study about the Internet was the virtual community and the individual community. People used virtual identity and shared interests in a group, and met new people in the virtual community (Muir, A. 2010, New Communication Technology week 6 lecture, Griffith University, Gold Coast).

From 2000, Web 2.0 was spread by Tim O'Reilly, and the Internet became more interactive. Users started to organise knowledge by tags like Wikipedia (it is called folksonomy), users generating contents like blogs, Facebooks and Youtube became popular, and sharing data with open API such as Google Maps and Amazon (Muir, A. 2010, New Communication Technology week 6 lecture, Griffith University, Gold Coast).


Now, let's examine the copyright issues on the Internet, one by one.



1) Wikipedia

This is the quote from their web page:

"Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the not-for-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which has created a family of free-content projects which are built by user contributions.

Most of Wikipedia's text and many of its images are dual-licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Some text has been imported only under CC-BY-SA and CC-BY-SA-compatible license and cannot be reused under GFDL; such text will be identified either on the page footer, in the page history or the discussion page of the article that utilizes the text. Every image has a description page which indicates the license under which it is released or, if it is non-free, the rationale under which it is used.

Contributions remain the property of their creators, while the CC-BY-SA and GFDL licenses ensure the content is freely distributable and reproducible. (See the copyright notice and the content disclaimer for more information.)" (Trademarks and Copywright, Wikipedia:About, Wikipedia, viewed 8/9/10, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About)

So, this means the text or images in Wikipedia, whether you uploaded it or someone else did it,  is owned by Wikipedia. But we can reasonably re-use them under Creative Commons and GNU Free Documentation License.




2) blogs

Let's see the case of this website I use, Blogspot by Google.

"Google's Intellectual Property Rights. You acknowledge that Google owns all right, title and interest in and to the Service, including all intellectual property rights (the "Google Rights"). Google Rights are protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. Accordingly, you agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, or create derivative works from the Service. You also agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Service. As described immediately below, Google Rights do not include third-party content used as part of the Service, including the content of communications appearing on the Service.

Your Intellectual Property Rights. Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through Google services and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish and distribute such Content on Google services for the purpose of displaying and distributing Google services. Google furthermore reserves the right to refuse to accept, post, display or transmit any Content in its sole discretion.

You represent and warrant that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the rights granted herein to any Content submitted.

You may choose to submit, post, and display any materials on or through the Blogger service or Blogspot.com under a public license (e.g. a Creative Commons license), whether by manually marking your materials as such or using Blogger service tools to do so. For avoidance of doubt, Google is not a party to any such public license between you and any third party. Also, for avoidance of doubt, Google may choose to exercise the rights granted under (a) the public license or licenses, if any, you apply to your materials or (b) this Agreement." (Blogger: Terms of Service, Blogger, viewed 8/9/10, http://www.blogger.com/terms.g)

So..... even if I insist the photos I have taken belong to only me, once I upload those photos to the blog, Google can use them for any purpose without any permission, as THEY own them. Gosh!
 



3) Facebook

"Sharing Your Content and Information:
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

1.For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

2.When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

3.When you use an application, your content and information is shared with the application. We require applications to respect your privacy, and your agreement with that application will control how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information. (To learn more about Platform, read our Privacy Policy and About Platform page.)

4.When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).

5.We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about Facebook, but you understand that we may use them without any obligation to compensate you for them (just as you have no obligation to offer them)." (Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook, viewed 8/9/10, http://www.facebook.com/terms.php)

So everything you post, text, images, photos or videos, they are all owened by Facebook. They can use them anytime for any porpose without any permission nor compensation, even if you deleted the contents as they are still in the back up copies!




This means, if I become really really famous in the future, become a politician or very famous artist or whatever,  blog company or Facebook can publish a book about me using all the contents I uploaded like photos, texts etc, and they are legally allowed to make a fortune without my permission from what I created . In the worst case, they can be nasty picking up everything they can find something negative about me, such as bad photos or unthoughtful opinions, and publish them to attack me or threaten me as well.

Is it the way we have to accept to live in this digital age? I don't think so. I understand the company's point of view to protect their own right, but all those copyright threats are not well balanced and developed to protect both users and businesses. I guess this is still the early age of Internet , same as the old time when people were suffering by the terrible labouring conditions and pollutions during the industrial revolution. The Internet society have to find some solution to be fair to everyone in the community, so that the real rich Internet culture can flourish.

culture jamming ideas - week5 task

We had a public holiday on Friday 27th of August, on which date the Gold Coast Show is always held at Parklands Showgrounds, so there was no tutorial on that week. So we are one week behind now.

On week 6 tutorial, we formed a group for a culture jam task. Our group discussed some ideas like this:

 - Find a UFO on campus (!)
 - Koala and rabies
 - Energy drinks cause serious sickness
etc...


But the best idea of all was:


 A construction worker found gold at the Gold Coast University Hospital construction site, across the road from our Uni!


we decided to spread a rumor that someone found gold there.

1) we made a new face book account for 'Josh Finn'. He has a friend who found some gold at the construction site, and now he has so many friends on facebook (good  work, Ruby!). He is going to spread the rumor very soon.

2) future plan:
     a) spread a rumor by - twitter, youtube, email etc
     b) post a news article at any citizen journalism site. So we have to
          - make a news video including some mobile phone video footage
              of the person who found gold.
          - make a news article


We are going to discuss more ideas, and start this culture jamming on the next tutorial.

Cheers!

Cultural jamming - week 5 tutespark

This week, we learnt how consumers of the digital age have become producers with active consumption, after the internet and computers became part of our everyday lives. In other words, people do not just receive information anymore, but we also contribute via post blogs, news, videos etc on the Internet.

Now, the task of this week is:

Q) In line with the lecture content that the lecture covered this week, we want you engage with the term "Culture Jamming". Look it up, see if you can find what is considered to be the first Culture Jam, find the most influential Jam, the most damaging. These 3 examples should be posted in your blog with an explanation of where and why they were found and used. You can show what impact they had or are having too.


So I did some research about Culture Jamming. I read several websites that explain it, but this one was the most simple and I thought identified clearly what Culture Jamming is:

"Culture jamming, is the act of using existing media such as billboards, bus-ads, posters, and other ads to comment on those very media themselves or on society in general, using the original medium's communication method. It is based on the idea that advertising is little more than propaganda for established interests, and that there is little escape from this propaganda in industrialized nations." (cultural jam, Urban Dictionary, viewed 24/08/10, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=culture+jam)

It is similar to appropriating arts, but it is different as Culture Jamming aims more destruction of the commercialism.



The first Culture Jam:
There was a similar art movement of Dada in 1920s, but first noticeable Culture Jam was appeared in 1977 at San Fransisco bay area. A team of guerrilla artists called Billboard Liberation Front begun changing ("improving") billboard signs on the street and started taking credit. (Segal, P., History and Timeline, Billboard Liberation Front Creative Group, viewed 24/08/10, http://www.billboardliberation.com/history.html)

The most influential Jam:

I think it was the Google bombing. I remember a viral email that spread all over which was telling when you type in google 'miserable failure' and click 'I'm feeling lucky', it would then give you links to the bibliography page of the White House regarding George W. Bush. The impact was huge. Everyone was amazed how it happened and they had a cynical smile about President Bush and an apparant hacked Google system. Google soon appeared to adjust the search results.

The most damaging Jam:

When I searched information about culture jam, the name of company which most appeared as a target was Nike. Especially, the email between MIT graduate Jonah Peretti  and Nike was quoted on so many websites. This must be the most damaging propaganda for a company like Nike, as it helped to spread the image that Nike is employing people under unhealthy conditions in Asia, and moreover, they did not handle an activist like Peretti very well.

details about Nike 'Personalized Shoes' Email at About.com: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blnike.htm

online videos - week 4 task

We have one more task this week!


Q1.Where and when did usable online video start? (provide some refs. and an example if possible)

A) The first version of QuickTime was released in 1991 (the apple museum, Timeline of Apple Quick Time, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=41), but it was not really usable online as the CPU of the computer was very small and the internet bandwidth was still limited. In 1995, Xing Technology Corporation developed Stream Works, and it was the first on-demand audio/video delivery system over the internet (Streaming Media, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/imperium/timeline.html). But the real online video era started with the birth of YouTube. The first YouTube video was posted on April 23, 2005, featured Jawad Karim, co-founder of the YouTube, standing at a zoo. (Alleyne, R. 2008, YouTube: Overnight success has sparked a backlash, Daily Telegraph, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2480280/YouTube-Overnight-success-has-sparked-a-backlash.html)

Q2.In the lecture we heard about technological innovations that were used by the studios to lure audiences. (mostly to combat the popularity of TV)
What recent innovations are being used to lure us in the movies?
What are they luring us from?

A) When people see something very funny on the internet, they start sending it on to friends and family. This is sometimes called "viral" as it is very easy to attach it to an Email. Many studios started taking advantage of this phenomenon, and start creating funny introductory videos about their products/shows/movies. They are luring us from mass audience or even just our daily routines.

Q3.Are short films still being made? Why? Who pays for them to be made?

A) Short films are cheaper and easier to make, so they are still very popular for many independent film makers and amateurs. But the big studios are also creating short films, such as Pixar. There are many awards for short films including the Academy Awards, Berlin International Film Festival, and Cannes Festival (Short Films Awards Festivals List, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/rules/shortsfestivals.html). Since YouTube made watching videos online easier and very popular, the demand of the short films are growing bigger. Not many people are interested watching short films at film festivals, but people do not mind watching them online, as it is so easy and convenient. It is still hard to find someone who is willing to pay for infamous film makers, but the opportunity is huge now, and once they become popular online, it is not impossible to find a sponsor.

Q4.The term viral is thrown about adhoc but what does it mean in film/movie arena? Give some examples.

A) I remember when The Blair Witch Project became so popular throughout the internet in 1999. The producers of the movie created a website to give an impression to the audience that this is a real documentary film, and people started passing the link through MySpace and Email. It was the one of most sucessful viral marketing ploys of the movie industry.

Q5. Online video distribution isn't limited to the short film format. We are now starting to see television styled shows made solely for internet release (webisodes). Find an example of this style of content and discuss how viewing television content in this way can positively and negatively affect the viewer's experience.  

A) I found some perfect examples! The webisodes from my favourite show, Grey's Anatomy. ABC.com released 6 part short webisode series ' Seattle Grace: On Call' in 2009. (Seattle Grace: On Call, Part 1, abc.com, viewed 20/08/10, http://abc.go.com/watch/clip/greys-anatomy/SH007322830000/PL5520972/VD5528359/seattle-grace-on-call-part-1/interns,webisodes)

It is a great idea to give more opportunities to show more content to the Grey's Anatomy fans. There are some people that love watching all the special contents of the DVD movies/TV shows after watching the main story (like me!), so this type of special episode will definately satisfy the fans. On the other hand, these webisodes are still not in great shape, I feel like. For example, this Grey's Anatomy webisodes are not showing the main characters of the show, and this obviously made it cheaper. It is OK quality, but not as good as the TV shows. This disapoints the audience, and might affect it negatively.

\

This is all for the week. Have a lovely weekend!
Cheers!

3 short films - Tutespark week 4

This week's taks is....

Q) find some short films (3 please) that were made for Internet distribution/viewing



So I googled 'short films' and found these three good ones!


1) Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)
official website: http://www.drhorrible.com/

This is an award winning musical tragicomedy short film. This film won seven awards including Creative Arts Emmy Award in 2009. The movie was made by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy. It was written during the Hollywood writer's strike in 2008, and he filmed this in only 6 days. (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Squidoo, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.squidoo.com/Dr-Horrible)




I love Patrick Harris! He was great on Malcolm in the middle, too.
It is great to see a low budget but professional quality movie like this. It is a fun movie which is completely different from the blockbuster distributions. No one would go to see this if it was released at the movie theatre, but people love this because this movie is so suitable for Internet. People use the Internet for many different reasons, but they always love to see something short, easy and fun.




2) The Hire series by BMW (2001-2005)

BMW created the very high quality Internet short films using various popular actors and directors.  Key producers of the series were included David Fincher, Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, and the directors were including John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie and John Woo! This series of 8 movies won many awards, and the third one, 'The Follow', was shown at Cannes Film Festival in 2001 (TV & New Media : BMW Films : Press release, BMW North America, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Uniquely/TVAndNewMedia/BMWFilmPressRelease.aspx).





Oh my gosh, Clive Owen is just gorgeous!
I like this "the Follow" best in the series, as every scene is so beautifully shot. It is almost like you can stop the movie anytime and just enjoy watching the picture. Another movie of the series, John Woo's 'Ambush' is pretty good, too. It is a typical John Woo action movie and so cooooool.
Every movie shows the beauty and the great ability of BMW cars quite effectively, and this makes the viewer really want a BMW. What a great promotion. BMW definitely showed the company and it's products go ahead of the appearance in a new media as well.




3) Pixels (2010)

There must be so many people have already seen this short film, as it is so viral on the web lately. It is made by Patrick Jean of One More Production. It was shot entirely with Canon 5D DSLR camera and shot in two days in NY! (Mottle, J. 2010, Interview with One More Production (Creator of Pixels), CGarchitect.com, viewed 20/08/10, http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=4889)



Wow. What a great short film! This reminds me the Mazda ads which use Lego blocks to create the fun pixel objects around the car, but this movie is heaps better. The pixel objects are so pop and well designed in this movie, and the contrast between the cute pixel objects and the horrible story such as the end of the world really makes this movie interesting. I like how it ends, too. The earth becomes one cool pixel. And the credits!  I loved the way they showed all the credits like the old computer display.

It is also appropriating many cultural icons of pixel images from old video games such as Tetris, Packman, DonkeyKong and Invaders, so this relates to the next week's 'cultural jamming' issues as well.