Technology and the Culture it Influences

It’s typical for a new technology to be adapted within a culture and used to support existing patterns of behaviour.

I think one of best examples for culture influences through technology that I can see from today’s world is cell phone culture.

Cell phone is an amazing tool that do make our life better as it can be use to call for help, contact anyone around the world, keep track of time, keep it user entertained (Games, Music and Video) and can used as a flash light. The latest advance cell phones even have 3G and GPS function. 3G functions allow the caller to see the receiver face to face and GPS function provide the user way to nearest town or road.

The cell phone culture is a global phenomenon and indeed had influenced our culture from all around the world in today.No matter you are children, teenager, adult or old folk, most of them already have their own cell phone.

As a conclusion, the cell phone had shaped our culture as we are now calling or messaging each other more often using a cell phone and these has resulted in less face to face interaction. Besides, the cheap rates of instant messaging have degraded the use of proper language in youths today. As you can see, the cell phone culture has changed our society into one that demands speed and efficiency in telecommunications.

Class week/10

We watched

The Power of Nightmares (Part 3-Shadow in the Cave)

for this week's class.It was an interesting documentary and worth watching.Personally I do love watching this kind of videos rather than boring slides.

Media Imperialism

Media imperialism is a theory stating that smaller countries are losing their identity due to the force-feeding of media from larger nations. It can be equated to small community shops closing down due to large superstores moving in, taking over and having a monopoly.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-media-imperialism.htm

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES by Adam Curtis

'The Power of Nightmares' by Adam Curtis is powerfully illuminating and well worth watching for it's historical perspective on the use of fear for political purposes.

It exposes and reveal the truth and secrets that was used to brainwash the smaller countries and smaller community as well in giving out the idea of terrorism. United States of America used 'Media Imperialism' theory by using the media such as the television to portray "terrorism". With this documentary, Adam Curtis revealed the truth of the "lies" that was set up by the United States in order to get people on their side.

With the power of the Media, the politician can create a propaganda just by using any media tool they want. The United States of America did a good job in fabricating those lies and create a new propaganda and idea of 'terrorism'. They brainwash the people with images of Muslim people in robes and weapons in their hands.

Like in advertising, all products are advertised as perfect regardless of its real ability, and any bad feedback will be covered up during the advertising. And that is the reason why we never see any advertisement saying a product is not good. In the end, the public is the one who become victim and been tricked.

I've realized that we are actually living in the world of fantasy and deception. We cant really differentiate the truth and lies.

That is the reality of this society :/

Class/week9

Media culture class for this week was

GOOD

It was ALLLLLL about Mcluhan's and yeah,I've liked it :))
Kudos to Mr.Radzibedu for giving such a perfect explaination to ALL OF US!


looking forward for the next class.YEAHHHHHHH :)

Blogs in Plain English

Very quick learning about BLOG with creative and simple animations

Tetrad of Media.

McLuhan's 'Tetrad of Media'

Tetrad of Media shows how media effects us and give us the sight to improve or renew our culture by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously.

McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:

I've choosed

INTERNET BLOGGING
as my medium/media application to explain it's impact according to the Tetrad's Law.

Blogging enhances “many to many” communication. As a medium, blogging allows me to get my message out to many without the need of access to television or radio. Blogging also allows me to receive messages from many sources.


Blogging retrieves the habits of diarists. Though this varies widely, at the minimum blogging requires that we capture and express our thoughts via keyboard. Some bloggers go much further than that.


When pushed to an extreme, blogging reverses into total narcissism. I write only to myself, for myself. I put myself into the blogosphere, and seeing my own image, become entranced.

I’m sure there are many other ways McLuhan would have analyzed blogging using his tetrad tool

Class/week8

We didnt have our usual lecture session for this week.

Instead, we have been assigned for our second assignment by Mr.Radzi Bedu.

It's about

ROLE OF MEDIA IN SOCIALIZING

Wonder how is it going to be like :/

Obscenity,Pornography and Indecency

All these terms are referred to be the 'ugly' materials in media, however there are some differences between them. I've browsed through the net and here's what I've got from the online dictionary,

Dictionary.com

Obscenity

1.the character or quality of being obscene; indecency; lewdness.
2.something obscene, as a picture or story.
3.an obscene word or expression, esp. when used as an invective

Pornography

1.obscene writings.

2.drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit.

Indecency

1.the quality or condition of being indecent.
2.impropriety or immodesty.
3.obscenity or indelicacy.
4.an indecent act, remark, etc

PORNOGRAPHY it only refers to depictions or descriptions of sexual act, not the act itself.The definition of INDECENCY and OBSCENITY are quite similar. Both of them refer to the lewdness of behavior. However, INDECENCY only refers to the acts, gestures and expressions. In contrast, OBSCENITY refers to all the words, thoughts, books, pictures, etc. which are obscene. In addition, the word OBSCENITY is most often used in legal context.

Media Literacy .

What is Media Literacy and why is it important for you as FCM students to have it?

Media literacy refers to the ability to question, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and create media messages. In essence, it is the application of critical thinking to both electronic and print media. Media literacy skills include: detecting bias, comparing and contrasting ideas, recognizing both fact and opinion, and "deconstructing" images.

It is very important for FCM student to understand and practice the elements in media literacy. Students can learn to be discerning and critical observers and responsibly involved citizens in our media-saturated culture.

Being a media literate,we can easily recognize metaphor and other uses of symbols in entertainment, advertising, and political commentary.By knowing all this, we definitely will improve our thinking skills which can lead us to produce a good media.

This Media Literacy Curriculum Model below is from the critical framework developed by Eddie Dick of the Scottish Film Council.

Media Stereotype

Stereotype

Another word which is maybe worth a dictionary definition:

standardised, often simplified, mental picture or attitude that is held in common by members of a group.


In addition, stereotypes are usually negative representations . They also usually represent an entire social group in a single character – such as the naive secretary, the spoilt child or the strict teacher.

The four parts of the Media Stereotype that I've seen and analyze from movies :

Appearance

this can include, physical appearance and clothing as well as the sound of the voice

(remember Darth Vader from Star Wars?)

Behaviour

typical things that people in this group might do

(children loves watching cartoons)

The stereotype is constructed in ways that fit the medium

(a movie of a serial killer will have a different portrayal of the killer than the news)

comparison
(whether real or imaginary with ‘normal’ behaviour)

Can information from the internet be relied?

Do you often take what is on the Internet as truth without thinking much about it?

That's a hard question to answer.

In the days before the web, when you needed to research a topic, you went to a library and looked through the reference section of the topic you were researching. If you were lucky enough to have a set of encyclopedias, then your task may have been a bit easier.

My advise to anyone who is researching ANY topic, looking for answers, or information is ...

research more than one or two sources on the web. If possible, also research an encyclopedia or library resource as well to verify the facts.

Be aware of the site you are reading, and the person or persons responsible for posting that information.

The bottom line is 'I DO NOT' believe everything I see and read on the Internet." I'll use my common sense.

How Does Social Media Affect your life and the lives around you?

First, we have to agree on something. Maybe some of you all can choose to disagree, and I welcome that, but my stance is this:

the web is inherently social.

Not for everyone, particularly not for older generations, but from me back to the babies it is inherently, indiscriminately, and unavoidably social.

Social media isn’t anything special, it is just the Internet in its current form. It is a period that will forever be known as a time where it became as easy to create content as it was to consume it. THAT is the important part of what is going on.

Not new media, not digital media, not post-media and certainly not social media. If all media is social, media must be inherently social and if we agree the web is inherently social then the Internet is, my friends, just a collection of media.Watching video online is no different, and soon we won’t treat it like it is.

social media thoughts(taken from google image)

Now with the Myspace & Facebook evolution, everyone has a crooked picture (the angles) and they are promoting a blog that they are trying to sell ads on.Well as we all know,Facebook and Myspace are a networking web we keep in touch with our peers and catch up things that we've missed.That's another way for us to interact and communicate via internet.Besides that, friends,did you ever noticed the adds that's been always displayed on every corner of those networking page?That would be a way for marketers to promote their stuffs via the net.They use both social and industrial media frameworks.

Hence,I would like to conclude that social media is not only about entertainment.It's also another way to earn money through industrial media frameworks.

Video Intro to Social Media

A simple story that illustrates the forces shaping social media