Week 11 post:

In my interaction design, I am going to show the word “Itchy” to the child. There will be the senses of exploration and playfulness involve. To achieve the goal, I will create a cute panda as the main character and it will act the scratch action to indicate “Itchy”, and also a sound say “itchy” as well. I would enable the children to explore what kind of material will cause the panda feel itchy and scratch itself, and the six materials will be provided, they are furry balls, mosquito, woollen cloths, bamboo, flower and grass. On the left side of the screen, the six material will vertically placed, when the cursor click on the icon, the cursor will turn into that certain icon. And then when use the icon to approach the panda, the panda will react to show whether that material will cause itchy.  For the background, in order to make it more enjoyable for the children, there will be six different backgrounds with different colour and link to each icon.

by Ying, Xiao  z3283915

Blog 11: Debating Identity

Identity, basically, is the way that how we present and understand by the rest of the members of the society. In the chapter “Debating identity”, identity was defined as a complex concept that it define a who somebody is in terms of a trait, and the traits are includes a physical feature of the body, a belief or a culture preference. During pointed out that, individuals are not only have a single identity, but identities, and those identities is defined by the rest of the community but not individuals themselves (During, 2005, 146-147). Some of the identities are given without no particular reasons but they would have both positive and negative effect on individuals. For example, the white are generally have more advantage than the black in the European Society around 60s and 70s.

There is one point that I am not agree with During which is the identity is not only produced outside individuals themself and may have negative impact on individuals. Like the Y generation are regarded as less loyalty, disrespect to the authority and high tech savy, however, those are the comments from the adulthood. Even though they are generally belief by the society, they should not be the stamp of the Y generation. In fact, the Y generation themselves are trying proof them self in the positive impacts through the competitions and contribution they made in the society, and what they did was producing their identity and to be recognised by the society.

Moreover, in my opinion, there are multiple identity exist around the world, and one should not be less advantage than another. In the recent year, the images of terrorist cause the fear toward people whom with brown skin, black hair and beard. However, these are not the identities which should be discriminated. It is ideal that people with multiple identity live harmony together, but it really depends on the discourse. In this case, media will play an important role in guiding audience to have the harmony values in the social lives.

By Ying, Xiao  z3283915

Reference:

During, Simon. “Debating Identiry” In Cultural Studies: A Critical Introduction, Routledge: London, 2005, 145-152

Blog 9: signs and meaning

The reading “Sins and meaning” explored about the semiotics in the media culture and everyday life. There are three points which also important ones being summaries in the chapter. First one is signs are mutual related, they are adaptable and changeable. Words or signifiers have a history of meanings; they change in different period of times, and the meanings of the signifiers are active; they varied from the potential meanings and also depend on the context (Shirato, 2000, 26). Moreover, Shirato pointed that the signs are also relate to the issues of power; for example, the argument of “Australia invaded by Europeans”.

I would like to use the chatting symbols in the net work environment to explain my understanding on this semiotics subject. Chatting symbols are refers to the expressions which developed by the youth via internet chatting or texting. They are such as face symbols “lol”, “: )” and “: (or the abbreviation like “ASPS” and “cya”. Those language are developed from the symbols of texting and the day to day language, they are informal and most of them developed by youth. Basically, the punctuations are signs indicate the regular interruptions and division of sentences and phrases. However, when simply make a combination of the symbols, the meaning changes, like the smiley face “: )”. In other words, this proves the theory that the meanings of signs are arbitrary and depends on context. Furthermore, the symbols have their own functions and the meaning for a long period of time, but the face symbols adapted symbols into another meaning in the present days that shows that the symbols are changeable from time to time and the histories of the symbols development can be traced. Moreover, there’s another point I found in my daily life is the use of the symbols have limited audience. The meanings of symbols are not universal since it may developed in different language system and culture context. Like me, as an overseas student from China, I really confuse when I talk to my peer student who grown up in Australia since they use a lot of abbreviation and symbols like “lol”.

The political power of symbols are more embody in “media text”, so it may be talk more about on the next blog, which is about discourse.

 

By Ying, Xiao  z3283915

 

Reference:

Schirato, T. and Yell, S. “:Signs and meaning.” Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2000, 18-33

Week 8 Reading: Audience

Week 8 Reading: Audience

This week’s post will base on the reading “The Extended Audience”, written by Couldry, Nick. In the chapter, Couldry reviewed the issue on the contemporary researching on audience which indicated since the micro-electronic communication emerge in the recent days, the study of audience may shift the focus on central broadcast structure, and the audience is no longer only taking the passive role, but also participate in the process of production. Moreover, Couldry also explore on the argument “the technological challenge facing audience research is linked to a social / spatial challenge which base on idea of Abercrombie and Longhurst on three phases of the development of audience. Furthermore, Couldry provided case studies on “reality TV” in order to analyze the basic reaction on the media consume on the social dimension. And at last he explored the increasing mobility of media among the audience and webcasting at home.

The word in the title, “extended” is developed from the notion of Abercrombie and Longhurst on “diffused audience”. It is said that the “diffused of audience captures our sense that media, not just audiences, are everywhere” ( Couldry, 2005, 188). This statement indicates the features in contemporary society which are audience ship diverse in culture and everyday life culture. And Couldry took a further step in the diffused audience study by apply the term “extended audience” which more focus on the understanding on the relationship between media and media audiences as part of understanding of contemporary media culture (Couldry, 2005, 196). In other word, in his study of audience will focus on how audiences participate in the media performance and the relation to their everyday lives.

In my opinion, the perspective of this audience research which focus on audience behavior may give a clear idea on general audience integration with the electronic based media. It is because the electronic media is no longer have the central structure based on the local culture. It is more diverse and the audience can participate in the self-conduct promotion. The content of media is not necessary to be the most crucial criteria to address, but concern on the culture preference instead. For example, there are large amount of clips on You Tube to meet large amount of needs in different culture context, some of the video may be the Japanese animation clips, or an entertainment programs from Korea, but the amount of hits will depends on the preference of audience. Therefore, if just only focus on the how contends make the audience concern, it will be difficult to distinguish the multiple identities of the audience.

 

By Ying, Xiao z3283915

 

Reference: Couldry, Nick,. “The Extended Audience: Scanning the Horizon.” In Gillepie, Marie. Ed. Media Audiences. BerKshire: Open University press, 2005, 184-196 & 210-220

Week 7 reading: Network

The post of this week will base on the reading “Informationalism, networks, and the net work society: a theoretical blueprint”, which is written by Manuel Castells. In this reading, Castells explain the concept of net work society, which is “a society whose social structure is made of networks powered by microelectronics-based information and communication technologies”(Castells, 2007, 3). He also pointed out that, such flexible, scalable and survivable information and communication technologies enable more interaction between the social members, since there is “information flows processed between various sites”(Castells, 2007, 37). Castells suggested that the space in and time in the network society is “space of flows and timeless time”. I agree on this statement because in the present age, the information flows are not just within the local context, it expanded globally and updated in a high paces, and also the times in such high paste are no longer significant since the information can be access anytime which break the structure of time like the broadcast media and print media did.

Not like the old types media such as broadcast media and press, the electronic media is less centralize thereby the audience could also be the author of the information. It can also be considered that the network is enacting by the audience activities on internet (Catells, 2007, 37). The Face Book for example, is an audience generated networking. Through the blogging, chatting tool and also participation of the online activities, the Face Book network became dynamic. In my opinion however, the participator in the network society is depends on the peer groups culture. Like me, an overseas student from China, I don’t use Face Book very often because most of my friends in China are not using the Face Book. But most of my classmate in Australia have a Face Book, and when I doing group project with them, they would prefer to use Face Book as a communicate tool, that force me to register a Face Book.

As I start to use the face book and found another feature that Castells also mentioned which is the diverse culture on the net work. There is a language setting section on face book which contain languages from other countries. In this case, it allows more users from different culture context and at the same time it expanded the space from North America to the global as well. However, as I mentioned, the use of Face Book is depends peer culture. As far as I know, the Face Book in China is not very popular, but some of the Chinese students would register a Face Book for making foreign friends and practice English. I agree on Castells opinion that even though we sharing the world via net work society, the fear of each other is increased rather than sharing the same values (Castells, 2007, 40). It may because of the difference of knowledge and also the interpretation of meaning in different languages; It could also be the governance powers on the information control may given different perspectives of view toward same thing. Notice that the government power of surveillance on net work society still playing an important role in information control. However, to the standard on information control may still hard to define within a global context.

By Ying, Xiao   z3283915

Castells, M. Excerpts from “Informationalism, Networks, and the Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint” From The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar, pgs. 3-7 & 36-45

week7 post: Elegant

week 6: Convergence

In the days of 21st century, we are experiencing the convergence of media in our everyday life. For example: we may use our mobile phones to connect to internet in the public places to get the most updated news; when arrived home, we sit in front of the computer to have a bigger screen view of videos or games; during the dinner time, the television may just being turned on and the contents may not really being concerned since it may have already be viewed during the daytime. However, the media uses in the past are less flexible but more centralized and structuralized. So, the word “convergence” is being applied to describe such change (Nightengale, 2007, 20). In this week reading Nightengale introduce about the concept of convergence and the role they play in the society. She also explore on the relationship between traditional media and digital media by apply two concepts which are disintermediation and reintermediation.
There are three types of media convergence: technological convergence，industrial convergence and textual convergence. The technological convergence directly leads to the radical change of media use which is considered as the breakdown of traditional media structure. Like the internet, it allows anytime and any locations for media access and break the boundaries of geographic because it brought the worlds in one screen. As the audience ship of media expanded, the products producer realized the possibility of ecommerce which would attract more potential consumers, thereby more and more industries get involves in the online marketing, for example, occupied a small little section of advertisement in the famous website such as Google. Such kind of phenomenon is known as industrial convergence. The textual convergence will take the perspectives of how the daily concerned structural involves the multimedia platform. It is very common in the present days that the television programs would have their own website to report on the news of the program such as the annual Dancing with the Stars. It is quite an efficient ways to have more interaction with the audience and promoting the program to appeal more audience.
Nevertheless, there are challenges of convergence. In my opinion, the most challengeable factor is the richness of the information (Nightengale, 2007, 22). Nightengale pointed that there are six aspects for the concern of information richness, there are: bandwidth, the degree to which the information can be customized, interactivity, reliability, security and currency (2007, 22). Apart from the assessment of richness, the internet itself remains problems in the innovation process. For example the computer virus can travel via file sharing and online downloads which challenge the security issue. Furthermore, the information could either produce by some of the authorities groups or individuals which only represent personal opinion. Even though the internet provides a database of information and allow more interactivity and excellent in transition speed, it is more preferable to have the combination use on new media (internet, mobile phone) and traditional media (broadcast media, press).
To summaries, the convergence of media is an inevitable result of communication technologies. Both digital media and traditional media are still coexisting in our daily life rather than one instead of the other in the present stage. In the future, it is hard to predict what will be like in the future, but it will develop in the ways to pluralize and extend the spaces, be more interactive and generate the information updating pace.

By Ying, Xiao. z3283915
Reference:
Nightengale Virginia. “New Media World? Challenges for Convergence.” In Nightengale, Virginia and Tim Dwyer, Eds. New Media Worlds: Chllenges for Convergence. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press, 2007, 19-36

Week 5 Reading: Mobile uses among the youth in Japan

This week’s post will base on the reading “Mobile Phone, Japanese Youth and the Re-placement of Social contact” which is written by Mizuko, Ito. Throughout the essay, Ito explored the issue that the high pace of mobile phone usage was among the adolescent, and the adolescent was defined as the high school and the college student who are financially independent. It is surprising to find that the use of the business-oriented mobile phone was developed by the youth people in Japan even though the mobile phone is the adult-controlled technology.
Since the mobile phone creates a personal space of communication, it allows the user to have a multiple identity. The Japanese youth for example, have multiple identities in different space. In the school, they are the students sit still a concentrate on class, but as soon as the teachers turn to the blackboard, they are the larrikin who sending text message to joke around during the class (Ito, 2005, 125); even though they are back home on time as a good child, they shut themselves in the room and chat to friends. Whenever their parent ask them what they discuss on the phone, only a vague answer as the reply (Ito, 2005, 124).
From the two examples above, it can be the use of mobile phone would lead to the negative impact on study and the relationship between parents and the children. However, Ito also gave the positive example that the mobile phone can be use as sharing class information to the missing classmate and also a tool of parent to keep track to their children. In my opinion, I am more support the idea that the overuse of mobile phone will have a negative impact on study and family relationship.
This is my own experience that I have a lot of friends who currently using the mobile media and I found a lot of them and also include myself, have some depth addicted to checking news and the news of the peers via mobile blogging. It is so panic that if the net works knot down and I lost contact to my peers, I would felt I am blocking out from the world. It is also interesting to see the older generation have less intense in using the mobile net work. In this case, the generation gap is widen since the parents are not in “on-line”
Finally, I would like to query that as the mobile phone is being domesticated among the use, could it be possible that because of such technologies force, the older generation will also more engage in communication technologies. And then, how will people connected to each other in the future? What the world should be like?

By Ying, Xiao z3283915

Reference: Ito, Mizuko. “Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Replacement of Social Contact.” In Ling, Rich and Pedesen, Per, Eds. Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere. London: Springer-Verlag, 2005, 131-148

Week 4 reading: doubling pluralize of space

Week 4 reading: doubling pluralize of space
In this week’s reading, Shaun Moores, the writer, introduced the concept of the time-space arrangement of electronic media by developed and further research the idea “doubling of place”. This idea was extract from Paddy Scannell’s 1996 analysis which based on the study of broadcasting and the daily concerns of media. It is said that the sense of ‘farness’ among the audiences whom are of multiple, dispread local settings are removed by the daily basis media, experiencing the practice of ‘two space at once.’. Moores argued that even though the distance of space is being shorten, it is not necessary that the sense of place are being lost in the late modern life. He then gave three accounts of media uses to illustrate how electronic media pluralized the spaces.

The first account of media use is the broadcast media. Moorse gave tow examples to interpret the eventfulness of media, one is the funeral of Princess Diana and the events the collapse of world trade centre (the 9.11). Those two share a common feature that they interrupted the daily routine of the social members and have a large scale of effect even throughout the global world. It is mentioned that even a audience never seen Princess Diana in person, the feeling of not right to go out on such day is still very strong because the events happening broadcasting media bring them the view of real life situation and therefore even the audience from far away suburban area is feeling the emotion of the events of television. In other world, the broadcasting shifting is shifting space of real life events and the audience location.

The second account is the Internet Media. Compared to the broadcasting media, the changes of internet is far more eventful. It is very common that the social members are more connected via internet chatting and commenting on a particular piece of news that sharing the public views. Internet is a far more flexible and high pace space of communication since it allow all kind of roles and no matter any times or anywhere to share the information. A more innovated feature of internet media is that it is not just represent a particular group’s point of view, but the rest of the world.

The third account is the mobile media. If the internet media is a way to keep in touch with the rest of the world, the mobile media, as well as the telephone and telegraph, are for ‘kinkeeping’ purpose. Despite the example given by Moores, mobile media are having more mobility in present modern world. It can not only dial to the family or friends, but also connect to the internet. Some of the mobile company also providing the a set of program for the user to subscribe the news, weather, or some other mobile entertainment. It makes the location more flexible and also easy-to-carry.

To summaries, the electronic media which include broadcasting media, internet and mobile media are changing our sense of space and make us more connected to the rest of the world. It is positive that without travelling, we can have sensational views to the world. But it is necessaries to think about the liability of information which being spread since some of the information only represent the personal idea, not the public agreement.
By Ying, Xiao z3283915
Reference:
Moores, Shaun. “ The Doubling of Place: Electronic Media, Time-Space Arrangement and Social Relationships.” In Couldry, Nick. and MaCarthey, Anna., Eds. MediaSpace: Place , Scale and culture in a Media Age. London: Routledge, 2004, 21-37

Week3 reading: Dailiness

This week’s reading, “Deadliness”, written by Scannell, discussed about the concepts of  care and the care structure of media and how it build up the resonance with the society. Throughout the reading, time is the most important element to address with since the experience of time is the cornerstone of researching how media engrave in the social daily lives. Furthermore, the discussion of media time and its care structure in this reading was base on the experiences of broadcasting in the past decades whereas the new types of communication technologies such as internet and mobile phone were not in account. In this case, I would like to make a attempt to discuss about this issue in the end of this blog.

The Media time is abstract. The schedule of media is the practice of the households and the producer since the broadcasting were domesticated to the society. It is linear and irreversible plot in the day by day stories, but structure of everyday program could be the same. For example, the television structure, everyday from 6 to 7 in the evening will be the news time; after that there will be the soap drama or and sometimes the entertainment program. The various temporality of the broadcast program would inform the sense of time. For me, the program “dancing with the star” which start around the end of September and before the Christmas in every year make me feel that the times has been up to this time of the year and another information that it is about to summer. In other word, the schedules of media become a guideline to the individual to engage with the social lives.

The contends of media or say the care of media is also another key element to understand how media engage with the fabric social lives. Scannell pointed out the concept “concern”. The concern of media is how the quality of media raises up the basic concern of people to the world they lived. Through the press and the broadcast, we gain the sense of link between the outside world and our intrapersonal world. The fields of our concerns depend on how we learn to understand the world in our formative ages. In this case, the concerns of media will be very diverse and it need a proper structure of concern to make the information sharable, accessible, and available in the public world. To do so, the media producer will structuralize those concerns by placing the proper sequence of the program to meet the diverse need in the daily lives. Consequently, a particular routine will be recognized by the public and rhythm the social life, such as the alarm radio or the daily news time.

Moreover, I feel a little bit strange that the internet and mobile phone is not being count in this essay. As the information technologies being more develop in the present day, the functions of old types of media will are gradually replaced by the internet and mobile media since such types of technologies could provide us with far more up to date news and also the mobility. With a mobile phone in these days, individuals not only can contact with the others in time, but also can emailing, and reading news, and even mobile blogging. However, these technologies may not have a clear idea that how it structuralized the everyday lives, and also the particular routine in the social venues, they left out the discussion of dailiness and time.

 

By Ying, Xiao     z3283915

Reference:

Scannell, P. “Dailiness” In Radio, Television and Modern Life. Blackwell, London, 1996 144-178