Sorry for that last little rant on Lecture 5, I'd just been watching Grumpy Old Men, and thought I'd channel it a bit. It doesn't, however, change my views on the topic. But back to the mainstream of this evenings symposium, Lecture 6. After faith lost from the Sound Lecture, I stayed home for this one. Really quite hypocritical of me. I've heard that reading the slides is just as good. Let me tell you - it isn't. There isn't a lot of information on it, so discerning opinions on it was quite hard. I think it was talking about the differences between now and then, which seems like a common theme in this course. A sign, perhaps that this monumental shifting won't be finished until long after our cohort hits the workforce.
I think that Commercial Media shouldn't have a place in our media spectrum, but it's hard to deny that they do their job damn well. Also, it could have a larger net of influence over what we see. TV Stations need viewers to sell their advertising to, and therefore they need shows to attract a large audience. Thus, they won't let on shows that would turn viewers away from their station, so they must have a large comb, stroking the hair of quality. This said, I highly doubt that's the case, when people would prefer to watch something like Neighbours over something with (arguably) more integrity and quality, like Antiques Roadshow for example.
I think Commercial Media delivering on the "Public Trust" front is like the healthy menu at Macdonalds. Yeah it looks like it's good, but underneath it's still the same old shit.
Overall they have their pro's and con's, but no matter what, I'm going to keep muting the ads and laying down my own voice-overs in between my favourite shows.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Sweet Swingin' Sounds of the Sixty Year Olds
Lecture 5. I'm just kidding, they might not be sixty but Richard Fidler and Carmel are surely boring as a conversation with a Wiggidy grub. I don't want to offend anyone, but I did think this "Lecture" was fairly tripe. Maybe because of the fact it didn't feel like a Lecture, I just sat in my room and didn't listen. I'm grateful I was saved the trip to go to a lecture theatre to not listen - but I might have preferred it. That's not to say I didn't listen to all of it, I grabbed a beer and bag of chips and lent them my ear for as long as possible. Every now and then, I like to learn things. This recording taught me one valuable gem of information: oh wait... no it didn't. It didn't teach me shit. I don't know what else I can say about this recording, but if I wanted to listen drivvel I would have recorded thirty minutes of an Ozzie Osbourne interview. Instead, here are a few things I'd rather listen to:
HEYYEYAAEYAAYE - Heman (Ten Hours)
One Direction :|
Ozzy Osbourne Interview
To sign off, I'd like to quote Ozzy:
"And they thin thar thar show wionman inasecing man, and then heinamson likyfrutster, you know?"
Talking Pictures will never amount to a thing.
Week 4 was a great lecture. Some things I didn't fully agree with, namely straight up - that pictures tell a thousand words, I could just never stomach that one. Words and pictures complement each other, but I can't even compare the two. It's like saying computer games made of films are similar to the films themselves. I think it's a totally different style of story telling. That said, I didn't let my preconceptions get in the way of my open mindedness when it came to this lecture. I'd really like to have a copy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, how very quaint! For some reason though, I think the price range could be a bit similar to this:
If you can't read those small numbers at the bottom, that is a four, followed by a three, following by five zeros. That would be one expensive childhood, aside from the fact that, in the day this would have set you back around ten cents. More? You want more?
This one is a cheapy, a good 70,000 dollars off. But who wants to read Batman anyway, am I right?
The photoshopping was pretty shocking, I mean we all know it happens, but it's never occured to me how drastic it is. It's times like these I'm glad to be male and thus immune to the need to change my appearance to match a magazine.
It reminded me of this photo of a ten year old French girl. I mean, I don't know what I was doing when I was ten, but I think there were more sandpits and less high heels and jewellery. I did have a couple of toy tigers though, so I suppose times haven't changed too much.
As soon as the Moving Pictures section came up on the big screen, I immediately thought of:
And was plagued with bouts of humming Singing in the Rain and reciting the words, so the rest of the lecture is a blur, but one thing I did remember that I love is a quote from Donald O'Connor in the film. "Talking Pictures will never amount to a thing" "Well that's what they said about the horseless carriage." Must be a 'had to have been there sort of thing.
Anyway till next time, Adiós!
If you can't read those small numbers at the bottom, that is a four, followed by a three, following by five zeros. That would be one expensive childhood, aside from the fact that, in the day this would have set you back around ten cents. More? You want more?
This one is a cheapy, a good 70,000 dollars off. But who wants to read Batman anyway, am I right?
The photoshopping was pretty shocking, I mean we all know it happens, but it's never occured to me how drastic it is. It's times like these I'm glad to be male and thus immune to the need to change my appearance to match a magazine.
It reminded me of this photo of a ten year old French girl. I mean, I don't know what I was doing when I was ten, but I think there were more sandpits and less high heels and jewellery. I did have a couple of toy tigers though, so I suppose times haven't changed too much.
As soon as the Moving Pictures section came up on the big screen, I immediately thought of:
And was plagued with bouts of humming Singing in the Rain and reciting the words, so the rest of the lecture is a blur, but one thing I did remember that I love is a quote from Donald O'Connor in the film. "Talking Pictures will never amount to a thing" "Well that's what they said about the horseless carriage." Must be a 'had to have been there sort of thing.
Anyway till next time, Adiós!
Once Bitten, Thrice Lectured.
Ah Week 3. The Week I wished I stayed home.
This lecture for me seemed to waste a lot of time. What there was was good, but the computer game? Really? Perhaps telling us about the game would have sufficed, a quick explanation. Maybe there was truly nothing left to discuss about text, but that seems like a highly illegitimate excuse. I didn't get anything worthwhile from this lecture... maybe something about metadata and keywords but even that seemed a tad obvious. I'll leave this a short one. Word to your mother.
This lecture for me seemed to waste a lot of time. What there was was good, but the computer game? Really? Perhaps telling us about the game would have sufficed, a quick explanation. Maybe there was truly nothing left to discuss about text, but that seems like a highly illegitimate excuse. I didn't get anything worthwhile from this lecture... maybe something about metadata and keywords but even that seemed a tad obvious. I'll leave this a short one. Word to your mother.
Too Weak to Week Two.
New News. Apart from being absolutely delightful to say, was inexhaustibly interesting. The lecture formed within me, an ultimatum that I can't seem to solve. First: I like to use the internet and I know how useful it is to be able to get my news online but Second: I love the newspaper. I think it's something, like the dinosaurs, that we shouldn't let die out. Newspapers are such a versatile item, for consuming media and news, but also for wrapping fish and chips. Not only that but I would hate to sit down for breakfast and sip on my coffee with an iPad, or at a computer - it's just not gentlemanly. On a digressional note, I found the most wonderful newspaper from 1956 in my school's costume cupboard for the drama department. The articles were so amazingly sincere and cute, it was difficult to read without swelling from nostalgia of a time gone that I never even had a part of. Even the advertising was so innocent. I just don't think we'll get that from the internet.
"Hey do you remember that time, when there was that meme on the internet, and everyone thought it was funny?" - The Future
Nah... it just doesn't seem plausible. Even with these shifts in "Web Iterations". I found the idea of Web 3.0 intriguing, but quite scary at the same time. I want to see the whole range of news items, and pick the ones I want - not have the ones I want to see shoved down my throat and forget the rest. Especially not when it's chosen by a computer that bases it's exclusion because of my internet history. I like to mix things up.
Now the other big point of this lecture: Jelly Beans. Yes, just... yes. Love it. Apparent from being a wonderfully tasty exercise, this too was an efficient way of getting across the point. I'm not even a huge fan of the sweet palette, but when those Jelly beans were taken away I felt a sense of loss. My rights as a JOUR!111 student have been flouted! I needed them back badly. When the sugar craving section of my brain settled down, it was quite startling that this is actually happening to our news. On one hand, I see why the paywall is necessary, but I always have and always will think of the internet as "The Land of the Free (Stuff)". Another reason, I think newspapers should stick around. If not for us, for our children, and our children's pet dogs. If not the postman, who will man's best friend turn to, to chase? Kony?
Like a poor chef, I'm way out of thyme - so word to your mother.
"Hey do you remember that time, when there was that meme on the internet, and everyone thought it was funny?" - The Future
Nah... it just doesn't seem plausible. Even with these shifts in "Web Iterations". I found the idea of Web 3.0 intriguing, but quite scary at the same time. I want to see the whole range of news items, and pick the ones I want - not have the ones I want to see shoved down my throat and forget the rest. Especially not when it's chosen by a computer that bases it's exclusion because of my internet history. I like to mix things up.
Now the other big point of this lecture: Jelly Beans. Yes, just... yes. Love it. Apparent from being a wonderfully tasty exercise, this too was an efficient way of getting across the point. I'm not even a huge fan of the sweet palette, but when those Jelly beans were taken away I felt a sense of loss. My rights as a JOUR!111 student have been flouted! I needed them back badly. When the sugar craving section of my brain settled down, it was quite startling that this is actually happening to our news. On one hand, I see why the paywall is necessary, but I always have and always will think of the internet as "The Land of the Free (Stuff)". Another reason, I think newspapers should stick around. If not for us, for our children, and our children's pet dogs. If not the postman, who will man's best friend turn to, to chase? Kony?
Like a poor chef, I'm way out of thyme - so word to your mother.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Mix Master 2000
Like a shitty DJ, I thought I'd take something perfectly fine and mix it up a little bit. I spent a bit of time changing up my background, embedding some pictures. Making my blog the for real deal.
To keep with the theme of mixing it up, today I'd like to share une petite chose that occured to me the other day.
As much as I love telling tales of the happenings inside the wonderfully colourful world of the JOUR11!1 cohort - I thought I would bring to you a much more valid and current issue (Journalism is about bring the most import issues to the readers, right?). The proverbial wool, ladies and gentlemen (cotton/polyester blend if you're allergic) is being at this very moment (including others) being proverbial pulled over our eyes, making them quite itchy and impeding our vision.
False advertising is something, like bench-seats, that I neither stand on nor stand for. This scam has been going on for a long time and it is about time we rooted this evil from our backyard, because soon we will not be able to make it to our own Hill's Hoist for the abundance of this prolific weed. I'm talking about advertising for gambling, or more accurately - FALSE advertising. Let me recount a little tale:
It was a late Saturday night, the 412 line was packed with boozy men whose pale faces and red noses gave away their full stomachs, sloshing around with each lurch of the unpredictable bus. I try to block out the lady in the candy pink high heels and the "sloppy make-out induced" smudgings of bubblegum lipstick, whose voice rings and resonates and bounces from every metal surface, by looking out the window. I won't bore you with the details of a dark and for the most part an un-seeable scenery, but needless to say, after a brief and predictable chat with a man who wanted some smokes, I got off at the last stop in the city. I looked around, tilted my head back and smelt the night air, the Channel 7 wheel turned hypnotically in the distance and I set off towards Pane e Vino, a quaint little Italian restaurant with poor service but good food and cheap beer. As I walk along George St, I come to the Treasury Casino and see a sign advertising the Casino that looked a little like this:
Now this may innocent enough, but as I got walking, I got thinking and I came to the conclusion that most Casinos advertise themselves such. Upon reflection I became quite outraged, because all these signs show a person winning, and having fun. But you know, that's what happens the least. It's like going into MacDonald's and seeing a man choking on a burger on the sign. It should be a sign more like this:
"Welcome to the Treasury: this is the most likely out come for you."
So I thought I'd get that off my mind just quickly, just to break up the monotony of writing about all these lectures. I'll try not to stray so far, if I do this again.
To keep with the theme of mixing it up, today I'd like to share une petite chose that occured to me the other day.
As much as I love telling tales of the happenings inside the wonderfully colourful world of the JOUR11!1 cohort - I thought I would bring to you a much more valid and current issue (Journalism is about bring the most import issues to the readers, right?). The proverbial wool, ladies and gentlemen (cotton/polyester blend if you're allergic) is being at this very moment (including others) being proverbial pulled over our eyes, making them quite itchy and impeding our vision.
False advertising is something, like bench-seats, that I neither stand on nor stand for. This scam has been going on for a long time and it is about time we rooted this evil from our backyard, because soon we will not be able to make it to our own Hill's Hoist for the abundance of this prolific weed. I'm talking about advertising for gambling, or more accurately - FALSE advertising. Let me recount a little tale:
It was a late Saturday night, the 412 line was packed with boozy men whose pale faces and red noses gave away their full stomachs, sloshing around with each lurch of the unpredictable bus. I try to block out the lady in the candy pink high heels and the "sloppy make-out induced" smudgings of bubblegum lipstick, whose voice rings and resonates and bounces from every metal surface, by looking out the window. I won't bore you with the details of a dark and for the most part an un-seeable scenery, but needless to say, after a brief and predictable chat with a man who wanted some smokes, I got off at the last stop in the city. I looked around, tilted my head back and smelt the night air, the Channel 7 wheel turned hypnotically in the distance and I set off towards Pane e Vino, a quaint little Italian restaurant with poor service but good food and cheap beer. As I walk along George St, I come to the Treasury Casino and see a sign advertising the Casino that looked a little like this:
 |
"Welcome to the Treasury: this is the most likely out come for you."
So I thought I'd get that off my mind just quickly, just to break up the monotony of writing about all these lectures. I'll try not to stray so far, if I do this again.
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
These are the Lectures that were.
Journalism One One One One, Lecture One.
Choose your hours, they said. It's so much easier than school, they said. Bring your own burritos, they said! University, like a malformed egg - ain't what it's cracked up to be. In fact, like a under nourished duck it ain't what it's quacked up to be. In honesty, like an Apple product it ain't what it's mac'd up to be. Hopefully I can tell you why in the ensuing document.
Lecture One, Day One, Year One, Formula One, Vote One. This is it. I roll over and subconsciously brush the vomit away from my mouth with a red-raw hand, the stench of cheap beer from the Royal Exchange wafts up my nostrils and tickles the hairs hiding there. Neuro-electric signals are fired off in all directions, causing my body to spasm into life. All limbs immediately explode, all boilers burst. The dam-busters just dropped the bomb, the Thunderbirds sent Thunderbirds 1,2,3 and 4 into blast off position all at once. Two miniature deep Arctic explorer abseil down from my brow, they reach the corner of my eyes and swing their ice-axes high above their heads and heave down to crack the brittle layer of vomit that has held my pupils hostage for the few short hours I had managed to lay unconscious in what appears to be my bed. The light thrusting through the windows hits my eyes and the world whites out like a shitty "indie" photo from instagram and...
Welcome back to tonight's episode of Actual Reality. The dream of O-Week at St. John's college is over. It's Uni time. I throw on the clothes closest to me and trundle off to wide open spaces of the University of Queensland. I walk around, pretending I know where I'm going for about 10 minutes. After swaggering around the campus for a while longer, by an act of something divine I come across I sign with shapes, numbers, letters, numbers and letters, Letters and Numbers but most importantly: the wanderer's worst nightmare, the disciple's best friend - a big, fat, red, juicy arrow that merely says "You are here". I devise a system for narrowing down the choices of building I'm meant to be in, "if I walk around in a spiral shape I might have a chance."
I took the spiral shape approach and excelled in it's use. As I became more and more dizzy, I keep checking my watch - hoping I wouldn't be late. We all know what happens when you're late right? School has drilled into me an innate sense of impending doom should I ever dare to flout the bell. The circumference of my journey became smaller and smaller. I could see the last building left on my whirlpool of walking. Just my luck it was the biggest, most central, most obvious building it could ever be in. Building 1. I could smell the Journalism already. Or was that pretentiousness and black coffee from the coffee shop? I couldn't tell, my mind lurched, I was jumping into a void of darkness. I was watching myself walk through corridors from security cameras in the hallway. The avatar dressed as me was heading down, led (seemingly) by an innate knowledge of the location of the lecture like a turtle heading to its birthplace. The figure came to an open door, and was ferried inside by a horde of students, eager to get inside. Everything blacked out. When I woke up I was inside the lecture theatre, my vision blurry and deceiving I looked up at the the projected screen and reached for my pen and notebook (freshly purchased to signify the start of my New Years resolution to be organised). I'd been prepped for this moment since January. Organistion: new books, binder folder, new pens lined in colour code according to frequency of light waves emitted from purple to red. This was it, I reach in to my bag and... shit. Nothing. Probably should have put something in there if I wanted to pull it out at Uni. Oh well, I'll borrow pen and paper from the girl next to me. Damn, she is pretty fine, but focus on the slides. Telling Factual Stories. I like white on her. "Introduction to Journalism and Communication. What is Journalism/Communication? Who are we? Best legs I've ever seen? Legtures and Tutorials. Assessment. Assassment. Harassment? Whoops, this is probably harassment... I'd better stop. Back to the task at hand: the lectures.
As you may or may not have clued on to, I'm not too sure what to write about. Do I just summarise the content? Do I give you my opinions? Do I tell you my highscore on Plants Vs Zombies? Nope, I just checked it - it's what I learnt from the discussions. Well straight off the bat I'll throw a curve ball with my instant reaction: I dislike Twitter, I'm not comfortable with having two Gmail accounts and I don't like Blogger.
I took the spiral shape approach and excelled in it's use. As I became more and more dizzy, I keep checking my watch - hoping I wouldn't be late. We all know what happens when you're late right? School has drilled into me an innate sense of impending doom should I ever dare to flout the bell. The circumference of my journey became smaller and smaller. I could see the last building left on my whirlpool of walking. Just my luck it was the biggest, most central, most obvious building it could ever be in. Building 1. I could smell the Journalism already. Or was that pretentiousness and black coffee from the coffee shop? I couldn't tell, my mind lurched, I was jumping into a void of darkness. I was watching myself walk through corridors from security cameras in the hallway. The avatar dressed as me was heading down, led (seemingly) by an innate knowledge of the location of the lecture like a turtle heading to its birthplace. The figure came to an open door, and was ferried inside by a horde of students, eager to get inside. Everything blacked out. When I woke up I was inside the lecture theatre, my vision blurry and deceiving I looked up at the the projected screen and reached for my pen and notebook (freshly purchased to signify the start of my New Years resolution to be organised). I'd been prepped for this moment since January. Organistion: new books, binder folder, new pens lined in colour code according to frequency of light waves emitted from purple to red. This was it, I reach in to my bag and... shit. Nothing. Probably should have put something in there if I wanted to pull it out at Uni. Oh well, I'll borrow pen and paper from the girl next to me. Damn, she is pretty fine, but focus on the slides. Telling Factual Stories. I like white on her. "Introduction to Journalism and Communication. What is Journalism/Communication? Who are we? Best legs I've ever seen? Legtures and Tutorials. Assessment. Assassment. Harassment? Whoops, this is probably harassment... I'd better stop. Back to the task at hand: the lectures.
As you may or may not have clued on to, I'm not too sure what to write about. Do I just summarise the content? Do I give you my opinions? Do I tell you my highscore on Plants Vs Zombies? Nope, I just checked it - it's what I learnt from the discussions. Well straight off the bat I'll throw a curve ball with my instant reaction: I dislike Twitter, I'm not comfortable with having two Gmail accounts and I don't like Blogger.
To something that is a little more substantial though, here's my thoughts on the first lecture. After an extensive search through the vast expanse that is my room, my notes and the borrowed piece of paper seem to be both missing, all that's left is a summary in my notebook from after the lecture, and from it I shalt recite, for it spake thusly:
"JOUR1111 Lecture: I didn't realise that Journalism was being rocked so hard by the internet and online newspapers. Personally I'd rather read the paper. Out of all the quotes given today, only two struck me as being worth my while: People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true. - Lewis H. Lapham and Journalism is little more than scribbling on the back of advertisements. - Anonymous. Love it. A lot of people in the lecture keep very closely up to date with the news... I probably should start that - I haven't read any form of news since I got to college. I'll catch up on that for next time. Check blackboard for assessment, tutor and timetable details."
And there you have it, my thoughts on the first lecture. I'm sorry for the lack of insight and thoughtful discussion on hard hitting topics, but it seems all I could muster was a vague description of events.
"JOUR1111 Lecture: I didn't realise that Journalism was being rocked so hard by the internet and online newspapers. Personally I'd rather read the paper. Out of all the quotes given today, only two struck me as being worth my while: People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true. - Lewis H. Lapham and Journalism is little more than scribbling on the back of advertisements. - Anonymous. Love it. A lot of people in the lecture keep very closely up to date with the news... I probably should start that - I haven't read any form of news since I got to college. I'll catch up on that for next time. Check blackboard for assessment, tutor and timetable details."
And there you have it, my thoughts on the first lecture. I'm sorry for the lack of insight and thoughtful discussion on hard hitting topics, but it seems all I could muster was a vague description of events.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)