Week 9, What difference to all this might the 'digital divide' make?

The digital divide does play a major part with everyday subjects whether it be in the workplace or on a global scale but i dont see that it needs to necessarily cause much of a problem.

a) To socioeconomically related access issues within a society?

It is evident that people who are more computer literate are going to look the best on paper when it comes to applying for jobs. But does this mean they will be any good at the job as a whole? I know that when my dad started work at 18 all he had were his O-levels and at that time computers werent even an issue therefore he had no hands on experience. Whereas now he is able to complete spreadsheets, emails and do graphic desgins online everyday with his job. Many companies argue that it costs to much time and money to train people these days which people say they dont have much of. But if we are to try and close this digital divide, how will it be possible without the backing of companies which play the most important roles in the divide?

b) To global access issues across countries and regions?

Britain is one of the wealthiest countries along with America and Japan and therefore these countries can afford technology such as computers and mobile phones. Overall it makes relations between these countries better as it is easier to communicate with the technology we posess. But in parts of, for example, Africa dont even have enough money to feed and clothe themselves nevermind buy the latest mobile phone. Also with the language barrier I think this is possibly where the greatest digital divide comes into play. Hopefully in the future with funding places like this can get the technology they need to increase communication and put them on the map. I dont mean this in terms of geography but the fact that they could then get involved in world projects which would be the best thing for their economy. Can the internet really be called global when so many parts of the world don't have access to it??

Week 9, Should education 'stretch a person do you think?

I think Digital Immigrants are stretched the most when it comes down to education because they are the ones who have alot of catching up to do in terms of learning at a fast pace what the digital natives already know.
Prensky argues....
“like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot in the past. The “digital immigrant accent” can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it.”

To educate a digital immigrant I think a person should not be stretched educationally because if you are not familiar with the internet things need to stay simple. Then again, if people are expected to get to grips with computer games, podcasts and the like, why shouldn't they be expected to get to grips with 2hr lectures and 500page text books?

Week 9, 1 How might Wenger's notions on practice communities relate to Prensky's on education?

Wenger focuses mainly on how cofp are beneficial to the individual whether it is online or irl. Cofp is a shared learning amongst participants, as well as a shared development & this is how I think it relates particularly well with Prenskys theory’s on education aided with technology.

Wenger talks about hierarchy amongst group members but ultimately there is an equal element of give & take, he expresses the need to educate together and he is describing a learning process in which the community take part.

Prensky speaks about how we as individuals interact with technologies & how these may aid or hinder our education. To a native anything is possible on the internet but to an immigrant getting to grips & the pace of looking up information for our on means maybe a little more difficult.

Ultimately, the internet is a tool which we can use to educate ourselves, whether that is taking advantage of methods such as search engines which is perhaps Prensky's idea or whether we join a forum or communicate with eachother in general to find what we want we need to know which is Wengers cofp side.

In my opinion, interaction seems to be a key part in any education environment whether it be in a classroom or online. Do we learn better by interacting with technology (Prenskys theory) or by using technology to interact with others (Wengers theory)

Week 9, How does semantic web differ from web 3.0?

To take the Web to the next level -- to move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 -- the information in online documents will have to be turned into data that a machine can read and evaluate on its own. Computers will then be able to take over tasks we now do by hand such as look up maps, book flights, and buy CDs.

I can be thought of as the difference between two dimensions and three dimensions. "People will see the Web start to become smarter," Spivack says. "Eventually it will have some reasoning capabilities built into it."

The writers of “The Semantic Web” explained that, when much of the information on the Web is encoded in such a way that it can be processed automatically, software agents will be able to perform complicated tasks on behalf of users, like booking a doctor’s appointment that fits a person’s schedule and health plan.

Spivack, N Business 2.0 Magazine, Michael V. Copeland, 2007

http://www.straight.com/article-209322/webs-future-matter-semantics

Week 9, Semantic Web

What is the 'semantic web'?

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web defines the semantic web as “a web of data that can be processed directly and indirectly by machines.” (Altova.) In his view, all the data available now on the World Wide Web will be 'read' by machines, which will be in a 'language' only the world wide web can read and process. This makes the data accessible to machines, which in turn will make the World Wide Web easier to use for humans.



Altova (2005 - 2009) 'What is the Semantic Web?' Altova Library, http://www.altova.com/semantic_web.html [Accessed 19/03/09]

Online Brainstorming

Claire, Cara, Kerry, Hannah B, Hannah T and I all agreed to go on msn and brainstorm all of our ideas online. We used a group conversation which allowed all of us to talk to everyone online. This meant that we were all able to stay at home and discuss our ideas without having to meet somewhere such as the library as some of us were very busy and other's were at home-meaning it was almost impossible to arrange a meeting in 'meat-space'

Although online brainstorming was convenient for all of us, there were some limitations of it. Because it was online you had to take turns to say something, and often the flow of conversation was out of sync. This sometimes made conversations confusing. We each used different fonts meaning it was easier to tell who was saying what, but it was still confusing.

When discussing ideas in 'meat space' you would be able to use a different tone of voice, or way of putting across your ideas so that people understood them in the way you intended. Discussing online made this difficult as things such as tone of voice weren't available. This made it more difficult to discuss ideas than it would be in 'meat-space'

Week 9, 'Neo-luddites'

A Neo-Luddite is someone who believes that the use of technology has serious ethical, moral, and social ramifications. Because of this, Neo-Luddites are cautious to adopt technology, which could be a set-back in today's society. Daily frustrations of most university students would involve having to e-mail tutors as well as typing essays using a computer. Adding to this, students have to look for specific online journals, or information online which they may find hard to do. For an online unit such as this one, a Neo-Luddite would struggle as a basic knowledge and understanding of the interent is essential.

Another thing that might make a Neo-Luddites university life difficult is communicating with other students. Most students use mobile phones and social-networking sites such as facebook to keep in touch with and communicate with peers. Again something which a neo-luddite would find difficult.

Personally, without technology, I don't think I would survive at university. Not only with the course itself, typing up essays, using the internet for information, and blogging for online units such as this but I e-mail tutors or family and friends on a daily basis, as well as using Facebook to keep in touch with people. For me I think it would be impossible to be at university without the use of technology.

Person You Know Who Threatens the Notion of Immigrants and Natives

Although Prensky defines digital immigrants and natives clearly, categorising people into these definitions is not so easy. Prensky does not take any other factors into consideration i.e what about 'digital immigrants' who work in the technology or computer industry, and therefore may have more digital knowledge than a digital native might have.
Personally, the person I know who most threatens Prensky's notion of 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives' is my Grandma. She easily and happily uses text messages, uploads holiday photos to a computer, and can e-mail. She taught herself most of this, by reading the manual and using previous knowledge.
She often text messages telling me what she's upto and asking how I am, yet she will still write letters and postcards.

The Youngest Digital Immigrant I Know

The youngest digital immigrant I know is probably my father. He has to use a computer and email for work, yet I doubt he would use it if he didn't have to. He often prints out e-mails for reading or for having a hard-copy. He is competant at using the internet for researching and purchasing things off websites but doesn't use it for much else. Although he doesn't use things like social-networking sites and instant messaging, he knows what it is.

He can manage to text, but it is often just to reply saying things like 'ok' or 'yes' and it takes him a while to type it.

The Oldest Digital Native I Know

The oldest digital native I know is my mum. She uses facebook, hotmail and orders shopping online. She also does online courses, which means she can write essays and edit on the screen as well as make presentations using applications such as Powerpoint.
I often communicate with her via social networking sites and text, as opposed to by letter, or by phone, making her the oldest digital native I know.

Week 8, Task 2 and 3, Website 5

This site was written in 2007 therefore it is fairly up - to - date site. This could explain why it points out that 'Students increasingly want to contact us via email, text messaging, and instant messaging rather than meet with us in our offices.' This shows how technology is integrated in everyday life, yet i don't necessarily think that this is a good thing, as personally, through my own experience, I find face to face discussions more productive. In addition to this, it feels like the sense of authority is not so clear. To me, the idea of texting, or to some extent even emailing, is too informal. I don't think this article has much to base it's ideas on.


Digital Native or Digital Immigrant, Which Language Do You Speak? ' by Brad Cunningham http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Digital-Natives.htm

Week 8, Task 2 and 3, Website 4

This article is fairly up to date meaning it is relevant to today. The website could be useful because it highlights the idea of ‘How digital natives think differently’; there is a lot of information and reasons for why natives think differently to immigrants, yet there is no strong evidentiary support for this. The style of this article is a lot less academic and more colloquial. This therefore takes away some of the credibility and reliability of the article. Again, as with many of the other articles, this one lacks evidence and therefore doesn't appear to 'practice what it preaches.'

http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm

Week 8, Task 2 and 3, Website 3

Identify five different websites/five-pages-on-different sites dealing with digital immigration and its counterpart. In your blog criticise each website in terms of up-to-dateness, usability and practicing what it preaches.

The third website I am going to look at is one from the University of North Carolina. Being a university website, it is a fairly reliable source, yet this site was created in 2003 which may mean it lacks relevance to today. The website refers to Marc Prensky and Timothy VanSlyke who seem to be major thinkers in terms of digital immigrants and natives. The website has argues Prensky's view and then uses a counterargument to present both sides of the topic.

http://technologysource.org/article/digital_natives_digital_immigrants/

Week 8, Task 2 and 3, Website 2

Identify five different websites/five-pages-on-different sites dealing with digital immigration and its counterpart. In your blog criticise each website in terms of up-to-dateness, usability and practicing what it preaches.

This website is a wikipedia website which is updated often, meaning it's nearly always up to date. Although this is an advantage of a wikipedia website, the content is not always reliable which is a limitation of the website. The website is easy to use, with lots of links to other information on the subject of digital natives and immigrants, yet it lacks evidence and examples which could perhaps make it even less reliable.

http://www.digitalnative.org/wiki/Main_Page

Week 8, Task 2 and 3, Website 1

Identify five different websites/five-pages-on-different sites dealing with digital immigration and its counterpart. In your blog criticise each website in terms of up-to-dateness, usability and practicing what it preaches.

The first website I am going to analyse is written by Marc Prensky who sees a digital native as someone who has grown up, matured and been educated through technology in a digital age. The article was written 8 years ago, and therefore it's relevance to today may be limited. The website is easy to use and is phrased in a way that most people can understand. Although this website has some strong points, there is not a lot to back up the arguments in terms of evidentiary support.




http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Week 8, Task 1,

Find out about 'Digital Immigration'.What Is it? Who cares about it? What sort of general attitudes have been based upon it?

Someone born before the 'digital revolution' can be called a 'digital immigrant', as they have had to adapt to new technology as it developed. This term is the opposite to Digital Natives, who are defined as someone born into a society where the technology already existed and they are "native speakers of the digital language". It can be argued that digital immigrants retain some form of 'accent'. In this instance an 'immigrant accent' could be something such as printing out information from a webpage to read on paper as opposed to the screen.(Prensky, 2001).

Digital Immigrants don't believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they themselves can't. Digital Immigrants, according to Prensky, think learning can't and shouldn't be fun.

Prensky, M. (2001) 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants', On the Horizon, Vol. 9. Issue 5., MCB University Press.

Online Learning Website

The website I chose to look at was Learn Direct. Students can do many of the courses at a local centre or from home or work if they have access to the Internet. This means students can learn whenever and wherever they want. Students can also study for certified courses, ranging from GCSEs to university degrees. On the website there are interviews with people that have studied with Learn Direct, saying how their lives have changed since they got their qualification.

An advantage of Learn Direct is that students can also go to centres where they can talk to a 'real' person rather than just a computer, or sent material in the post. I think this is a bonus when distance learning as it feels like you're not learning entirely on your own. Another advantage is that many of the courses are available for free to many students, as funding is often available. This is helpful for people who do not have the financial means to pay for the courses, and therefore makes the courses available to everyone with access to a computer.

A disadvantage of using Learn Direct as a distance learning programme is that you need to have a Learn Direct centre near you. When I entered my home postcode to see how far a centre would be from me, it was 4 and a half miles away. This means transport would be needed for a lot of people to study, making it a limitation of studying with the Learn Direct programme.

http://www.learndirect.co.uk/

Week 7, Distance Learning in Africa

E-learning is used a lot in Africa to educate students. It breaks down the boundaries in Africa’s education system, which isn't the most efficient. With this system, people in rural areas are still able to learn. This emphasises the idea of techno-determinism and the way that technology has advanced in order to shape people’s needs. In this case, the women and children needed a way of learning and so E-learning was created in order to fulfill this need.

Although E-learning helps a lot of people, questions about the quality of the education that the students are receiving could be asked. The internet throughout this course means the produser is able to build on the subjects as they wish. The idea of E- learning criticises this because the mass media are just being sent messages to do with education and are expected to learn them in order to pass a qualification. There is then the problem of whether the user questions the information or just learns it as it is written.
Another issue with E-learning is what if someone doesn't understand. How much help is available to them?
Despite these criticisms E-Learning for a country like Africa is allowing some people to have a quality learning which may not have been possible before. People in rural areas are now able to connect to the internet and learn, whereas before they had been over looked by the education system. I personally think that even though there are some criticisms and limitations of the system, it is still educating people who previously didn't have access to a decent education, making E-learning a successful scheme.

Week 7, Distance Learning in China

We seem to think of distance learning as something new and radical, but China has been using television and telephones to educate people for years. During the period from 1960 to 1966, more than 8,000 students graduated from the Beijing Television University.
According to the article there are four kinds of television classes: classes run by local government bureaux, classes run by factories and mines, classes run jointly by medium-sized or small work units and classes run by local TVUs at various levels to cater for fresh secondary-school graduates waiting to be assigned jobs.

It is imperitive that TVUs adopt textbooks used in conventional universities and to choose academics with a university teaching background as presenters, so that a high standard of tuition can be guaranteed. These two measures have proved to be effective.

There is a question of how much TVU's cost, and are they effective. The amount of budget varies from place to place because of the unbalanced economic development in different parts of the country. It is also important to note that in general, TVU students are free from tuition fees except free viewers and listeners who have to pay for registration and examinations. This encourages more people to use TVU's as it is so much cheaper than studying at a college or university.

Week 7, Lecture Notes

Virtual Education is thought of as 'radical' yet it has been going on for years in other countries such as Australia, because of the distance some children had to travel to school.

With things like Open University courses, you can study at your own pace in your own time, and contact your tutor if you are struggling. Although I see this is a good idea and is often successful, I'm not sure this type of learning would work well for everyone. In my personal opinion, having seminars and discussing work with other students is just as important as learning the work itself. You see other people's opinions and view things from other angles you may not have considered.

Even though learning online creates a new online community, I, personally, prefer learning in more traditional ways, as you not only learn the set work, but with things like group work you learn social skills and how to communicate and work with eachother. Looking at what Evans said about reading other comments helps to 'confirm your understanding or modify it in the light of new information,' he seems to think that this is a successful way of discussing ideas. Personally, I think face to face discussion is a lot more successful but I can see this is a decent alternative when studying online.

Website Analysis

The site that i have chosen to analyse is the Aston Villa homepage website. (http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Home)

The site states the name of the football club in large font at the top of the webpage and has main news headlines in the centre of the page, with a relevent picture. There is also a link to a video piece with a report from a player about a recent match or recent news. This shows a 'multi-linear' experience. With not just text but video as well.

The links to these other pages have links have links themseleves to other sites, which Lister would describe as being 'Hypertext'. 'We may define a hypertext as a work which is made up from discrete units of material in which each one carries a number of pathways to other units' (Lister pg 24)
There is also a countdown in the top corner of the page which counts down til the next match. The colour scheme of the page is relevent as it is all in Aston Villa colours, claret and blue.

On a cultural level, the site functions as a place where fans and people interested in the club can find out about it. This in a way, creates a sense of community, with fans knowing the news and discussing the club with friends and other fans. However, expanding on what Turkle's said about computers - 'computers are not just changing our lives but changing our selves.' Instead of picking up a newspaper to find things out we can just type in a URL and get an immediate update of news. You can also watch video clips, and find links to other pages that interest you. This site is useful for me as I can find out information and results quickly and easily. If a game is being played at the time, the site automatically updates throughout, showing the score in real-time. Fans can make comments as the game plays on how they think it's going etc, which also links with Bruns' point that produsage is collaborative (2006), as it is like a forum which allow users to post under one another, or even quote someone else to build upon what has been said.

Week 6, 6.1, Community of Practice

A community of practice is something more than a club of friends or a network of connections between people’ (Lave, Wenger) An example of a community of practice could therefore be dancing. Everybody who goes to the dance class simply goes to learn how to dance. At the class you get to know people and build relationships, ‘They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other’ (Lave, Wenger) It is thought it is easier and more effective to learn something with other people than teaching yourself as you can learn from others. The group understand eachother as they are learning the same routines and also have a shared interest in dancing.

Wenger claims that community of practice 'emphasizes the learning that people have done together rather than the unit they report to, the project they are working on, or the people they know.’ In terms of dancing, everyone is learning the same routines, and there is no hierarchy other than the dance teacher. This means that they can relate to one another and learn from eachother.

Week 5, Task 1 - Bruns part a).

What do you understand by the words ‘produser’, ‘produsage’, and ‘intercreativity’? Are they useful in understanding collaborative creation of content online?

Online gaming communities and sites such as Wikipedia can be categorised as 'produsage.' In Bruns' terms 'produsage' is "the collaborative, iterative, and user-led production of content by participants in a hybrid user-producer, or 'produser' role." (2006: 1)

A 'produser' is someone who is between production and consumption of the website or program. A 'produser' has a say in the content and can also contribute to it. Again, a good example of this would be Wikipedia.

The way 'produsers' work together is called 'Intercreativity.' The content is created by more than one person, and is done so online.Because it is done online it is interactive, and therefore this process is called intercreativity.


Bruns, A. (2006) Towards Produsage: Futures for User-Led Content Production, http://snurb.info/files/12132812018_towards_produsage_0.pdf

Week 5, Meikle a) and b)

The benefit to having online news is that it can be updated immediately, so the news is always up to date, whereas for example, newspapers are only updated with new news daily. As well as this, specific news concerning something you may have a personal interest in, can be easily accessed. Online news is meant to be informative to people all over the world, but are news stories that are covered in England relevant to somebody in, for example, China? To some extent yes, they are, but often they are not. There is also the question of who is writing the stories. A British writer may have a completely different opinion or outlook about something than for example, a French journalist. This goes against Meikle's ideas about news reports needing to be unconstrained by geography.
Because of news being accessible on the internet, and anyone being able to publish things on the internet, it reverses the previous power structure of news. The passive audience can now contribute to the news itself, and involve themselves in producing news articles. Ordinary people with no journalism experience can now publish articles and write their own opinions about the news . But will this ever catch on? Personally, if I want to access the news online, I will visit site such as BBC or MSN to ensure that I read reports by credible journalists, so does the online news community really change what we read?

Week 4, File Sharing Online

File sharing downloading music both legally and illegally has completely changed the way in which music is consumed. According to the LLC, around one billion songs a month are being traded on illegal file-sharing networks. There are many applications which you can use to download music illegally, instantly and for free.

Music is being bought online more and more, and now, with bands being able to make and broadcast their own music online, the accessibility to new music is growing. With artists such as Lily Allen and Kate Nash becoming famous through networking sites such as Myspace, are these huge record companies still needed?

Analysing A Web Forum

I looked at the web forum discussing the reality TV show 'The Hills'

http://community.realitytvworld.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/rtvw2/community/dcboard.cgi?az=list&forum=DCForumID100


The forum showed the titles of the posts, the most recent one first, and the first line of each post. Under each title there was the number of message responses which each post had received. One user starts a thread, perhaps with a question, and others' messages appear to the side. The user who wrote the comment in the first place can then reply to these messages and so continue the discussion.


All members have a name. Some are perhaps real names, others obviously aren't, for example 'goldie100.' The majority of users have an avatar next to their name; usually some sort of picture but never of themselves. Although this is, to some extent, witholding their identity, it is important to consider that these people are talking to others who they don't know, and so, perhaps to some extent, have the right to withold their identity.

Using an informal language the users chat and ask eachother questions about the show. The users talk about the characters in the show as if they know them, which I found strange. The friendly tone aids the forum to appear a place of fun discussion for people with similar interests. Only a minority of users give much away about themselves or their personal lives other than their interest in the show, however it is possible to tell who is perhaps male or female due to their name, or what they are discussing.

Week4, Topic1

In Lister's view, the Internet can provide a public sphere in terms of finding people with the same interests as yourself and being part of an online community with them. Although this is true, Lister questions how far public communication can be determined by 'electronic mediated texts.' By definition, a public sphere must be characterised by maximum access. This is true, however with only around 10% of the world's population having access to the Internet, can this form of communication really be defined as 'worldwide'? And, considering this, can online communication be defined as a public sphere?

Blanchard and Horan (2000) showed that social capital increases when opportunities for engagement are facilitated by virtual communities. This shows that This does not mean that online communities and communication can, or ever will, replace face to face communication, or be as rewarding as a face to face relationship.

Week 3,Topic 1 - b) and c)

The ability of being whoever you want to be appeals to many people as it allows them to experiment with their own personalities, in a way that they would not do so in 'real-life'. 'Second-Life,' with 800,000 registered users, is growing at the extraordinary rate of 20% a month.(Jefferies, S, www.guardian.co.uk) This shows that the idea of being whoever you want to be appeals to many people. I think it can give people confidence to say things they wouldn’t say, and generally express themselves in a way they don’t feel they can do in real life. Personally, I can see this as a positive thing, until people online lie, or deceive people about their identities. It does allow people to disconnect and experience new identities, as described in the lecture, it can create a “better self.” However, I agree with the post-modern views - “technological embodiment of a post structualist theory” (Lister page 167) when the element of escapism is confused with real-life. This is evident within the case study in Lister page 168, the “Cross Dressing Psychiatrist.” Although an experiment, it is clear that these events happen so often online and I think this makes these sites, where identities can be hidden, a problem.

Week 3, Task 2, Part a)

Is withholding one’s identity ethically wrong?

In my personal opinion this depends on the extent of your identity you withhold, and in what circumstances. If you are witholding your identity simply to deceive people I think it is ethically and morally wrong. For example, if you're a white, middle-aged male, pretending to be an young, black woman, you are deceiving the person you are talking to, and also may be stereotyping which could lead to offence. In my personal opinion this is ethically wrong. However, if you don't give out your full personal details on a forum or internet chatroom then I don't see that as wrong.

Sherry Turkle argues that we now have several selves, thus it could be considered that the idea of 'self' is the same as the idea of identity. These multiple identities are changable, and 'new media', especially webforums fuel these 'selves' or 'avatars'. This means, in terms of Turkle, we can have more than one identity. Is this really so different to 'real-life?' It could be argued that on a day to day basis we adopt different identities. We act differently in front of friends than we would in front of strangers or people of authority. Is the idea of multiple identities really such a new thing?

Lecture Week3. Selves and Others Online

It is evident that more and more people use the Internet to keep in touch with friends and family, but also to meet new people. This leads to questions about the type of relationships people have over the Internet. Are these relationships as fulfilling as 'real-life' relationships? Can you really get to know somebody over the Internet? There are stories about couples meeting in Internet chatrooms and getting married, so perhaps to some extent these relationships can develop but there are also stories about people meeting others they have met online and finding out they are not who they think they are.

There is then the question of who we are when we are online. Are we always ourselves, or do we adopt a completely different persona? In a study of an online community, Jennifer Mnookin concluded that users 'need not in any way correspond to a person's real life identity; people can make and remake themselves, choosing their gender and the details of their online presentation' (1996) This shows that people can be whoever they want to be online, and not have to face the consequences of what would happen if they were like that in reality. This is underpinned by the names of some of the sites such as Myspace and Youtube, reinforcing the idea of being there for you to be who you want to be, whether that really is yourself, or someone entirely different.

Lecture Week2. Interactivity.

As media interactivity increases, the question is raised of how the audience will react to interactive websites. In my personal opinion, I prefer to read printed information than to read things online or on a screen, although the content is no different. The ‘produser’ is still reading the same information, with the same message and then having an opinion on it, yet if read online, is making their comments in a forum rather than speaking their opinions. The audience can take on active roles and ‘blur the boundaries of production and consumption’, by replying on discussion boards and commenting on newspaper articles etc. This makes it easier to voice your own opinions on an article or information and explore other views or information on a similar subject.
Although there is a great difference between reading a magazine article interactively and reading a normal magazine, the idea of non-linear order, and choosing what part of an article to read, is no different to skimming over pages which you have no interest on. The ‘produser’ has the ability to choose what they read, rather than reading what the mass media present to them. I understand that media interactivity helps the 'produser' to find out information quickly and easily, yet I still prefer not to read information on-screen.

.

Week 2, Topic 1, A

'Upgrade culture' is the concept that media as a whole is constantly changing, improving and becoming more developed. The latest software is constantly adjusting and new media becomes old in a matter of weeks. It reinforces the ideology that the newer and more developed something is, the better it is. It can also be said that because these developments move so fast, the old versions of these things rapidly become obsolete. It can therefore be argued that the sheer speed of companies upgrading their software is solely to make consumers spend more money; with the idea that older technology may not be compatible with newly developed software and therefore is a necessity. Does this upgrading and updating always make the programmes better?However, this may be a pessimistic view developing from consumer culture – it may be more optimistic to adopt the view that companies are only developing the new programmes and software in the interests of the users, which is why they are constantly updating and upgrading their products.

Week 2, Topic 1, D

As opposed to analogue data, digital data is in many cases easier to manipulate, and the end result can be reproduced indefinitely without any loss of quality. Bolter and Grusin calls the process of divorcing digital media from earlier media as "remediation," and they note that earlier media have also refashioned one another: photography remediated painting, film remediated stage production and photography, and television remediated film, vaudeville, and radio. In their opinion there is not a clean break between digital and analogue media but they are trying to separate themselves from eachother. There is obviously some relationship between the two, it can be said that digital is just upgrading of analogue. For example email is the same concept as sending a letter yet it is quicker, cheaper and more convenient for both the sender and receiver. Another point to consider is transferring media from analogue to digital and vice versa. This can be seen, for example, in printing digital photographs, turning digital media into analogue, or copying music from a cassette to a CD. It is evident that analogue and digital media will never be completely separate, as Boltin and Grusin claim, especially when it is clear that digital would not exist without it developing almost exclusively from analogue media.

Goebbel's Radio Speech

At the time when Goebbels was writing this, the radio was the most effective and convenient way of reaching the masses. The Nazis believed in the power of the spoken word, and therefore, in their eyes, it is a very effective and influential form of communication. Goebbels claims, “It is no exaggeration to say that the German revolution, at least in the form it took, would have been impossible without the airplane and the radio” I also think this is true, the more significant something is in influencing the masses, the more responsibility it has to the future of the nation. This is not so applicable to society today. His idea about letting the government control what is put across the radio, and using it as a form of propaganda is not as relevant today as it was in the 1930’s as there are more radio channels so people can choose what they listen to, and forms of communication such as the Internet enable people to access more information than they used to.

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb56.htm

Forms of Communication on the Internet

The Internet is an easy, convenient and fast way to not only communicate with new people but to also keep in touch and find old friends. It is a way of finding people with the same interests as you across the world and discuss things you're interested in. This is not only entertaining and enjoyable for people using chat rooms and social networking sites such as face book, but also educational about people from different countries and backgrounds. Most of the information is accessible to anyone in the world providing, of course, they have Internet access. Emails, documents, videos and pictures can be sent across thousands of miles in a matter of seconds, making it easy and efficient to communicate.

Personally, I use email and social networking sites to communicate with my friends, and I use email to contact tutors. I use social networking sites as they are a quick and easy way to contact people informally. I use emails to contact tutors because documents can be attached and again, they are quick and convenient to use. Both of these communication forms allow the audience to be in simple and continual contact with people. I also use websites to find out information for educational purposes and also for entertainment purposes in my free time. I use websites as they are a simple and fast way of finding out information, and are usually more up-to-date than books.

I hate January.

Hello EVERYONE.

I Hate January.

Look how the blog handles paragraphs!