Awareness Video Campaign

As part of our media project, my group decided to use the opportunities which new media technology presents us with to create an awareness campaign based around drinking and the effects that alcohol can have if mis-used.

 We have chosen to focus our attention specifically upon Binge Drinking, Alcohol Related Domestic Abuse, Drink Spiking, and The Relationship between Alcohol and Sex. We have chosen these topics as these are all common scenarios that the general public can relate to and are situations which could occur easily in any drinking environment.

 The campaign is not designed to stop anybody from drinking FULLSTOP (as this would be vastly hypocritical coming from myself as a university student) however we would like people to think, be responsible and know their limits to ensure that these situations are avoided.

SO MAKE SURE YOU THINK WHEN YOU DRINK!

 http://thinkwhenyoudrink.tumblr.com/ << This is the finished Project!

As we had a number of different topics that we wanted to tackle, we decided collectively that it would be best to do four seperate videos each focusing specifically upon a different area listed above. The process of making this video was incredibly fun however the editing side was incredibly tedious especially having picked four seperate scenes. I feel that the BINGE DRINKING video is by far the strongest as it looks far more professional and we had more footage to edit and include. The other videos do still fufill their purpose of raising awareness about alcohol. Here are some print screened views of all four videos on the Tumblr site;

 

As-well as raising awareness about our chosen topic we hope that our video campaign inspires people to use the technology which is constantly developing around them. We hope to raise awareness about the positive causes that media can aid, as the media is so often criticized for being a negative aspect of society.

 I think it is important for the public to realise the benefits that new media technology supplies us with. For example; first year media students can now produce awareness campaigns which identify with serious social problems to real people at no expense.

This was my favourite out of the three main projects that i was involved in during my first year of university as i got to be involved in both the creation, the acting, the filming and the editing. If i had the opportunity again i would love to participate in another video campaign; hopefully with more time to enroll more actors, experiment with different setting in order to capture a more proffessional looking video however, i am very pleased with the end result as i feel it exerts the message we intended.

Omegle :)

After hearing about the influx in chat roulette style websites, my flatmates and I decided to join in on the experience and see how chatrooms worked. Here is a print screened example of an omegle conversation that we had with a random person from India.

I was very surprised to discover that people from all around the world join these chat-rooms to engage in normal conversation. It is a new phenomenom. I think that it is perfectly normal to talk to people online aslong as you are sensible with it and dont give out any personal information etc etc. I much prefer a face to face conversation however it is an interesting way to meet new people and start friendships. It is all apart of online culture which interlinks with the subject of SOCIAL CAPITAL!

“Social capital is about the value of social networks, bonding similar people and bridging between diverse people, with norms of reciprocity.” (Dekker and Uslaner 2001; Uslaner 2001). Sander (2002, p. 213)

Everybody knows about the classic social networks like Facebook and Twitter, however most people are totally oblivious to the millions of social networks that are available online. Omegle is just one of the chatrooms that most people would be unfamiliar with.

The arguments surrounding social capital are whether or not social networks can be classified as having value. Some issues that have been raised in the study of social capital are;

Despite these inequalities I believe that social networks do have value. It is just another way of connecting people and an alternative way of gaining information. With twitter becoming a new form of journalism it acts instead of or alongside the newspaper, just because its not a tangable copy doesn't make it any less important and therefore it should not be under-valued.

- Social capital is not equally available to all. Geographic and social isolation limit access to this resource ie. Someone in Barbados won't necessarily have the same easy access as we have here in the UK due to economic status.

 -  Not all social capital is created equally.

The same as true friendships can be made from chatrooms such as Omegle and Chat-roulette, i know numerous people who have made longlasting friendships with people they have met online, all it takes it a similar interest to spiral off a decent conversation that is just as worthy as a face to face communication. We need both strong and weak ties within our lives. Strong ties referring to true friends who we have known for a long period of time and whom we have a strong and true connection to. Weak ties being new and distant friends, socialising networks can be useful in creating both of these factors and can act as a bridge for weak ties to become strong ties.

Blogs are also classified as a kind of social network, blogs act as journals meaning that they allow people to free-lance their thoughts and feelings without feeling pressurised. Facebook can also be thought as a journal as it allows you to write what your thoughts upon subject matters as well as creating a portfolio of yourself.

To conclude; social networks are vital!



Copyright Laws and Regulations!

For our final seminar upon Copyright Laws surrounding New Media, we were divided into two groups; one group supporting the current copyright laws and one against the Copyright laws. We were asked to come up with arguments for a number of different aspects such as education and creativity in preparation for the class debate.

 The debate was a good way of learning the effects in which copyright laws and infringements can have as we heard both positive and negative comments for each as well as taking into consideration the role of the consumer and the creator.

This is the current Copyright Law in which we were debating about:

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is the current copyright law within the UK. Since 1988 the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works have had the right to control the ways in which their own material can be used. This copyright act covers any work by an individual or company which can be classified as original and “exhibits a degree of labour, skill or judgment.” (www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary(2009)) Normally the individual or collective who authored the work will exclusively own the rights to cover any copying, adapting, renting, distorting or public broadcasting of their work and only the owner or his exclusive licensee can bring proceedings in the courts against an infringement. Currently titles, colors and short phrases are not considered substantial enough to be covered under the Copyright law nor can an idea behind a creation be pre-owned. For example, someone is allowed to write a book on the same topic but is not allowed to use the actual content from a book prior to their own work. It is evident therefore that the current Copyright Act is favoured more by the creator than the consumer.  

Everyone has the rights to;

FREEDOM

CREATIVITY

CULTURE

EDUCATION

The copyright law is deemed as a moral act however is depriving us from these four factors, MORAL?

As you may be able to tell I was part of the ‘against’ team and below is an example of how the counter arguments were presented in our debate:

REMIX CULTURE FOR CONSUMERS:

One concern for the consumers is the restrictions the current copyright laws have upon remix culture. The current laws restrict freedom of the individual and limits their abilities to be creative. Law Professor and copyright expert Larry Lessig states that “Our intellectual property laws are behind the times and do not reflect the needs of our remix culture.” (http://greatdance.com/thekineticinterface/2009/03/remix-copyright-dance/(2008))

 Digital technology has developed and now anybody who owns a computer can edit, build upon and mix any type of digital content: music, videos, images and text. Due to the expansion of easily accessible internet people can share their remixed work with the global internet community via sites such as Youtube.

  It is not difficult to understand the perspective of artists who wish to maintain control over their artistic work and vision, and prefer for audiences not to be given free rein to revise and modify the underlying work however if the amateur artist identifies the original artist and only claims the new remix as their own, surely it would be profitable for both artists. It intern creates more recommendation for the original artist who has inspired the new media and allows the opportunity to advertise other material that they have done previously.

PROFITS FOR CREATORS:

 If the Copyright reform occurs and the laws become more lenient to consumers using and downloading the work of others, a serious concern is that there will be a decline in media industries as their work will be less profitable. With people having consent to legally download material from online sources, album sales, DVD sales will inevitably decline as well as a smaller income for cinemas and businesses alike.

  

 The counter to this argument is that despite the rise in illegally downloaded music and pirate copied films there is still a high gross profit for both industries. In 2009, Avatar was released and the film broke several box office records. It became the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, surpassing Titanic. Avatar was the first film to gross more than $2 billion, $77million being produced in the opening weekend. Similarly, 2009 was an extremely profitable year for a variety of music artists and holds the title for the most UK single sales, “2009 surpassed the previous all-time record of 115.1m, set in 2008. After ten weeks trading £117m worth of singles had been sold.” (http://www.bpi.co.uk/press-area/news-amp3b-press-release/article/2009-is-record-year-for-uk-singles-sales.aspx(2009)) Can this be classified as a struggling industry?

EDUCATION:

One aspect which is often disregarded is the impact in which copyright laws have upon education. The A2K (Access to Knowledge Campaign) has carried out multiple research investigations based around the disruption of education due to copyright laws. As more constricting copyright laws are being introduced, the impacts upon education are evidently clear. Copyright law leads to excessive pricing, limited adaptability and unavailability of suitable learning materials. Increasingly governments will not be able to afford to put books in to schools. If the costs are therefore passed onto parents, parents will be unable to pay for their child’s education, forcing children out of the system. “More and more children are being forced to endure a second rate education in which they only ever capture momentary glimpses of text books or other primary sources.” (http://www.actionaid.org/main.aspx?PageID=134(2008)) Education is vital in order to progress. We have to use other people’s theories in order to develop our own unique theories. Children cannot instantly have original ideas about a topic they have never heard about, they need to research and learn using other people’s works. “Replication feeds a culture of creativity and might even be programmed into our DNA; it should be encouraged, not criminalized.”(http://www.utne.com/Media/Cory-Doctorow-Copyright-Activist-Reform-BoingBoing.aspx(2006)) Everything is developing due to the expansion of theories and the involvement of others knowledge, whether it is music, education, technology or even our own self-identity. Copyright is blocking children’s access to knowledge. Copyright laws are created in order to establish morality and justice, how can the restriction of our education be classified as a moral act?

COUNTER:

 Governments have responded to this and movements have occurred in the copyright laws in the form of The Berne Appendix, the IIPA (The International Intellectual Property Alliance) and WTO (World Trade Organization.) These associations allowed the competent authorities of a country to grant a compulsory license, authorizing companies or individuals to reproduce and publish works without the copyright owner's consent. This was introduced purely for the purposes of education and can still be classified as a copyright infringement if used for personal book piracy.

My overall view is that the UKs copyright law does need to be updated. When updated I do believe it is beneficial to both the consumer and even to some extents the creator to be more lenient with the infringements. As noted above both the music and film and other media industries are still extremely profitable despite the increasing amount of consumers buying illegally. Consumers will continue to buy illegally whilst the copyright laws remain so strict. I’m all about the NEW COPYRIGHT LAW!

This is the Future:

Jaguar Skills is forecasting new and innovative skills by using other peoples works (songs), adding creative new beats, remixing his own work to create what I classify as a totally unique sound.

Cory Doctorow is a copyright Activist who strongly believes that we need to fight against the current copyright laws. Doctorow claims, "There's a word for all the stuff we do with creative works — all the conversing, retelling, singing, acting out, drawing, and thinking: we call it culture." Doctorow goes on to explain that without culture the media industries wouldnt survive therefore the only reason we have copyright laws today is because of our rights to be creative and orginal individuals. We should have freedom. 

I follow everything that Doctorow states, i believe we do deserve to have freedom to create new ideas, in turn the artists involved in this process have increased promotion and recieve extra profits.

Doctorow believes that, "If culture loses the copyright wars, the reason for copyright dies with it." I agree!

*Reference - http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/11/cory-doctorow-why-i-copyfight.html (01/04/2011)

Psyho-Geography Project :)

Our interpretation of a psycho-geography project aims to develop our understanding of the world around us. In this particular case Leicester. We have collectively taken two pictures of each area in aid of showcasing the binary opposites. Every image can be perceived differently. One person see’s yellow and interprets it as happy, mellow and warm. Another person interprets yellow as dull and boring. We have attempted to introduce a new vision to the sites of Leicester to encourage everybody to look at the sites around them a little differently.

 We have used Tumblr to create two different sites one called Utopia and one called Distopia. Utopia meaning; An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspect., evidently represents pictures representing a more positive side to Leicester and highlights features which would normally be overlooked such as trees in a park. Distopia meaning; An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.  represents the slightly more negative pictures otherwise known as reality through a non-psycho-geographer. Hopefully by focusing upon different angles more of the general public will take notice to the small yet beautiful things around them.

The original idea which I presented to the group was focused more specifically upon the ignorance of the public. Through looking into other Psycho-geography projects I discovered just how oblivious people actually are (including myself) to the world around them. Therefore I wanted to photograph small things such as leaves, litter and graffiti. Similar to the our actual project, I wanted one picture through the life of a normal person and one photo through the eyes of the psycho-geographer. The psycho-geographer noticing the beauty and the potential of the items. Some pictures that inspired this are here;

Here we see litter, rocks and leaves being presented as colourful, beautiful and inspirational. I think this alone highlights the power of technology as it can make something that is generally seen as irrelevant actually beautiful!

As a group we decided that this idea was too complex and far too time consuming for the time that we had for the project however in future I would like to carry out this project as I feel it would deliver a stronger and more unique message.

Below are the Links to the final outcome of our Psycho-Georgaphy project which we then presented on Tumblr;

www.modernutopia.tumblr.co.uk

www.moderndistopia.tumblr.com 

Influences!

Henry James’s points about EVERYDAY uses of media creating ignorance to the younger generation about the luxurious opportunities we have been fortunate enough to receive through media; encouraged me to log both mine and my flat mates media usage throughout the month. I kept record of how often I logged into Facebook, how often I updated a status, how many hours I spent on the internet, reading books, newspapers, how much time I spent on my mobile whether it be texting or calling.

Here is what the statistics look like:

DANIELLE                                                                     CLAIRE

Total Call Duration In one month:

8 hours 6 minutes                                                           2 hours 35 mins

Amount of Calls dialled:

3 hours                                                                            1 hour 15 mins

Amount of Calls Received:

5 hours 6 mins                                                                1 hour 20 mins

Total Amount Of Texts In One Month:

10,195                                                                             2,049

Sent Texts:

4556                                                                                1001

Received Texts:

5639                                                                                1048

Amount Of Newspapers Read In One Month:

4                                                                                     1

Amount Of Books Read In One Month:

4                                                                                     1

Amount Of Hours Spent Listening To The Radio In One Month:

30 Hours                                                                        20 Hours

Amount Of Time On Videogames In One Month:

12 Hours                                                                        8 Hours

Amount Of Time Spent On The Laptop In A Month:

200 Hours                                                                  250 Hours

Amount Of Time Spent On Facebook In One Month:

110 Hours                                                                  150 Hours

Amount of Status Updates In One Month:

4                                                                                 7

Amount Of Pictures Taken On A Digital Camera In One Month:

200 pictures                                                               100 Pictures

Amount Of Visits To The Cinema In One Month:

2-3                                                                             2

I think that it is evident why I chose media, as I engage with media a lot more than I would suspect the average person to. I was generally shocked and actually appalled at how much of my life is dedicated to things like texting and Facebook, especially considering majority of my time on Facebook is not spent socialising but merely stalking other people.

 One cancellation however is that when I am at home my time upon Facebook, the amount of calls I receive and make and the amounts of texts I send are very much lower as I do rely heavily upon these devices to stay in contact with my close friends and family back home.

Since viewing these stats I have made an effort to reduce some of these times as I believe I do fit into Henry James’s category of being an ‘ignorant user.’

The Long Tail

As promised here is the finished presentation that we created about The Long Tail. I hope you enjoy!

THE LONG TAIL.

Below is the first full draft of our presentation upon The media long tail. I shall post the edited edition once we have written and performed the piece.

Hey everybody, in this presentation we are going to be discussing the benefits, the development and future prospects of the long tail.  In a nutshell the long tail is an idea based around expanding profits and reaching out to wider audiences and niche markets, which were not originally accessed due to limitations in storage space and

 businesses aiming to make maximum or sufficient profits. In order for businesses to do this, they had no choice but to aim purely at the mass market. 

2)However now with internet being more accessible, companies have been able to store a more diverse range of goods in free space.

This was pointed out to consumers by Chris Anderson who stated in Wired magazine that long tail can increase business opportunities and raise profits easily by reaching out to wider markets. By storing in warehouses as oppose to small shops, goods can be supplied more efficiently. For example, A typical bookstore can only store a book which is estimated

3) to sell at least 6 copies a year, otherwise the book will not make sufficient profit.

As the diagram demonstrates in every form of entertainment there are more popular mainstream products which ultimately sell well.  The long tail constitutes to the more obscure part of the market. You can find anything in the long tail, it is the back catalogue of entertainment ie. Old albums still fondly remembered by longtime fans, live tracks from concerts, foreign bands, foreign films etc etc.

4) but for a considerable amount of time these were not available to consumers.

If we travel back in time before the long tail was invented, it is evident that there are several limitations to our entertainment choices. Many of our assumptions about popular tastes are simply artifacts of poor supply and demand. We have to like what everybody else likes as nothing else is available. This is due to two very restricting limitations that businesses face.

5) First, is the need to find local audiences. An average cinema will not show a film unless it can attract 1,500 people over a two week run; as this amount merely covers the rent of the screen without any profit. Retailers will only carry content that can generate sufficient demand to earn its keep. The second constraint is physics. The radio spectrum can carry only so many stations.  A cable can only supply so many TV channels etc.

6) The question raised is how does the long tail work and how has it impacted on society?  The long tail constitutes of three different rules. The first being; MAKE EVERYTHING AVAILABLE. So many attractive genres are neglected by the traditional entertainment stores such as BLOCKBUSTERS. For example; if you like historical documentaries then video stores are not for you because they sell too poorly to justify stocking more than a few dozen of them on retail shelves, this is why we as customers have to convert to online DVD rental such as, LOVEFILM.COM. Having unlimited selections is revealing truths about what customers want.

7) The second rule is HALF THE PRICE THEN LOWER IT. Due to online suppliers supplying a diverse range of stock they are attracting more custom therefore they are able to sell goods for less than half price, while still making vast profit. Often people forget that the long tail includes the popular choices as well as the more obscure buy. In order for online stores to attract customers who purely want popular items they must beat the competitor’s price. By succeeding in this they are fully dominating the retail market.

8) Thirdly, HELP THEM FIND IT. The factor that is generally classed as the biggest advantage to shopping online is the assistance that the online supplier offers. Amazon.com is a great example. By keeping a database of what people purchase, it is easy to distinguish patterns between goods. Therefore when a customer purchases a certain item, Amazon can recommend similar goods that relate.

9) This is beneficial to the customer as they can find things easily and efficiently and intern beneficial to the business as they can add on sales. This again links back to the niche market as it helps to sell more unpopular items.  Recommendations are repeated throughout the website to constantly help the customer. These rules are the factors which have shaped the industry and therefore are the reasoning behind many companies such as Last.fm, I-tunes and Ebay, applying and copying these codes and conventions.

10) And it’s by using this technique that these companies have become successful players in the web 2.0. This third rule could certainly be argued to be the most useful in enhancing a company’s revenue, as by enabling every customer to have a stress-free shopping experience you are meeting customer satisfaction and in turn creating bounce back customers.

11) It is obvious that the long tail has introduced an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industry, one that is gradually becoming more and more powerful.  The long tail offers more advantages to retailers as it means they can supply and demand for every individual and thus makes vast profits, in turn this will also prove successful in gaining customer satisfaction.

12)  Creators of media are also introduced to the opportunity to be more creative and unique. The long tail also gives them more incentive to try and appeal to wider and more niche audiences. This means that the long tail theory is creating more demand for products, which provides more opportunities for small businesses to expand via creating products for the niche market. Gradually these small businesses will become superior. This explains why it is vital for companies to appeal and supply for all markets as otherwise they will be made inferior.
13)

14 + 15) So what does the future hold for the long tail theory, how will it be applied and what will this mean for retail shops? In the future, the long tail will be a necessity to all businesses globally; it will need to be applied to everything. This has already started to happen. Day by day more companies are taking this approach and are trying to supply as broad a range of products as possible however this will eventually leave retailers struggling as online retailers are gradually capturing a much larger proportion of the market. As the future of this theory continues, audiences will expect more and more from the online retailers, expecting them to constantly supply a wider range of goods putting constant demand on the businesses. For every business more demand means more money. More money leads to a wider expansion on goods, which means more customers which leads to greater profit.
Thank You and Good Night (:
You will note that the presentation is laid out in an unusual way, this is due to the constrictions of a PechaKucha format. In order to stick with the regulations of a typical PechaKucha presentation our presentation had to consist of 15 slides. Each slide had to last 20 seconds therefore each paragraph above lasts for 20 seconds. TRICKY, TRICKY, TRICKY :)