Assignment 2 - Remeditation!!

So I finished my remediation project. I chose to turn a film clip into a web comic. My song of choice is Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love. Check out the film clip below:

Now check out the remediated form:

 

See the whole set at MY FLICKR .

3.1 Inform me! news media.

So far in the course of this unit, we have looked at the production and distribution of media, as well as the role digital gaming plays in media. Were now up to Module 3 and we are taking a more in depth look at online jounralism. 

Its argued that the profession of journalism is changing for the worse as there is minimal structure in online journalism. In newspaper or television journalism, you have educated journalists writing their stories, and a senior person acting as the editor to oversee all the final decisions and to assist with any discrepancies. The internet cuts it all out. You don't need a degree to contribute to certain sites, and you certainly don't need an editor. The freedom on the internet means that basically anybody can report the news and not necessarily report it correctly. This is not to say that there are not still reputable journalists writing for online publications. Most major credible newspapers also have online counterparts - and I think also that the internet means you can get world breaking, history changing, law making news updates at anytime, any place. I personally enjoy and prefer to read the news online, you just need to know where to read and what to take seriously. Harper (2003) argues that the media, once able to set trends by acting as a "gatekeeper" to news topics, have now lost this control. This may be true to a certain extent, but the media doesn't just control the news. They also control advertising and entertainment which has the ability to set trends just as well as the stories they chose to use for the news. I, for one, don't want to be dictated to as to what the trend in the news is. News is news and I want to know the truth and more importantly, I want to know whats important. What affects my present and future so I can make informed decisions on what choices to make in my life. If I have to trawl the internet to find it, I am ok with that - it means I can weed out the tabloid stories which bear no relevance on my existence (most of the time...)


As I live in the UK, I tend to read and watch the Sky news online. I can watch the headlines and pick and chose which stories I am interested in reading and researching further. I also like to keep in touch with the Australian news but struggle to find a news site as good as the Sky news. The Herald Sun website is good for reading important headlines, but it still lacks the visual experience I get from the Sky news in the UK. 

Harper, C (2003)  Journalism in a digital age. In H. Jenkins  & D. Thorburn (Eds), Democracy and New Media (pp. 271-280). Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

2.5 All the world’s a game: virtual worlds, interactivity, convergence

This week we are looking at virtual worlds and the way people participate in these worlds. Ornebring's (2007) article on ARG's (Alternate reality games) discusses he way in which people get involved in ARG's through their fandom of the original text. The example used in the article is the television show Alias and the many ARG's set up to market it by the broadcasting companies - plus the fan created ones. The article looks at what ARG's are and what it means to be apart of one. I believe ARG's are an experience rather than a persons inability to detach from a virtual world. These worlds are created by the media and are extended by internet and I don't feel as though they pose a threat to the mental health of individuals using these worlds. A good point made was that ARG's and other fan fiction fill gaps left in storylines and plots by the original texts which helps people who have become huge fans to find a form of closure. 

The second reading for the week looks at the sharing of digital commons. The debate in general is wether or not corporations lose property rights when there is voluntary and outsider input into these commons, which generally generates a more creative and exciting experience for the users. I did stuggle slightly understanding the internet in terms of being a common ground, as the internet is not as tangible as land for example, so I did some more research and found this great vid explaining commons, the way they are run (and should be)  - but more importantly, it helps understand how the internet can be utilised as a common:

I think its important that corporations producing software have rights when it comes to the use and accessibility of their works - but at the same time I feel like we are guided by intense copyrighting laws that there shouldn't be too much of a debate on that. Creative commons licensing is great because it helps these big corporations realise that the outsider input can sometimes assist is the promotion and quality of their products and it gives us the right to do so.

My remediation is almost done. I have used the screen capture function in Windows to capture images from the film clip, now I am working on them in Photoshop - playing around with filters. I have pretty much just used Photoshop for it at this point and am playing around with the tools available on Flickr for the upload. It looks like uploading the images as a set is my best option at this stage.

Coleman, S. & Dyer-Witheford, N (2007) Playing on the digital commons: collectiveities, capital and contestation in videogame culture. Media Culture Society 29: 934

Örnebring, H (2007) Alternate reality gaming and convergence culture: The case of alias. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 10(4): 445-462

2.4 Play with me!: Having fun with media

Its topic 2.4 and we are looking at online games and the impact they have on new media and society. First yp in an article on adult gaming and the definition of a game. According to Thornham (2009) there are many things adults do to legitimise their gaming habits. As discussed on the blackboard, it is common for a child to "play a game"  and not specifically computer games. Therefore when an adult indulges in a bit of game play, they struggle to justify why they do so. As a gamer, I found it entertaining the way in which Thornham (2009) discussed the various excuses adults come up with as to why they own a gaming console - particularly because I recently found myself justifying the same thing by saying that I was happy to get a PS3 because you can watch movie and surf the internet on them too. Really, I just want to play some rad games and those added benefits are just  bonus! I personally think that gaming has a certain stigma to it due to the social history of gaming making gamers out to be work-shy and "nerdy". The matter of fact is, that in this day and age, gaming is so entertaining, interactive and popular it shouldn't just be restricted to kids and teenagers and adult gamers should be able to do so passionately and freely.
 

 I love all types of games - sporting, role playing games and first person shooter games. I find its a great outlet when you need to focus your attention onto something and while not everybody views gaming as something positive, I feel gaming enables me to tweak my problem solving skills and helps keep up with co-ordination. Your not going to get any physical exercise from it (Wii not included) but you will get to exercise your brain and that suits me. I chose to play Plant vs Zombies from the suggested games from the tutor, but I only allowed about 20 minutes in my schedule to try it out. I must play it more, and more, and more...I do like stumbling across a good online game, one of which I found during Net102 in the last study period called Sissy's Magical Ponycorns, which was created by a 5 year old...pretty cool stuff and it just highlight where gaming is going. If a 5 year old can do it, surely so can you?



Remediation is due soon, I have stuck with my idea of turning a music video into a web comic and pretty much completed it. I do wish I had have had more time to possibly do a game but I guess it would have been a very difficult feat if I had chosen that.

Thornham, H (2009) Claiming a Stake in the Videogame. Convergence: The international Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 15(2), 141-159