Week 4 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams theories and arguments about technologies and how it’s made by, and effects society has stricken me quite interesting as how it has
The ideas of hot and cold media
Part 2: 300-400 words
What are hot and cold media?
Hot media are ‘high definition’ which means they are rich in sensory data therefore requiring less participation from the consumer e.g. (films, radio, shows, photos). Whilst cold media are ‘low definition’ meaning they require a completion of certain data and requires more participation, e.g. (telephones, social media)
In your own words, what does ‘technological determinism’ means?
Technological determinism is the idea that technology has significant impact on our lives, as for example how the internet has revolutionised society and the economy drastically, such as social movements having a louder voice and can reach across the globe in almost an instant which has drastically changed the way we communicate with each other as a society as it’s making us more of global citizens.
Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams famously disagreed about the power of media technology to shape society.
What was their positions?
McLuhan argued that the ‘medium is the message’, according to his theories on technological determinism, he argues that technology has impacted and changes society the more its develops and advances. Whilst Williams argues the impacts of communication technologies are culturally and socially constructed based on how they are used (jones, 1998). Social constructivism holds that society shapes technology by determining usefulness or uselessness.
Who do you agree with more?
I agree with Raymond Williams more as how society helps change and moves forward with technology together, they shape each other and its more of a symbiotic relationship, a certain tool gets deemed as either useful or useless and its further advancements, is fully reliant on that. Although I do also agree with McLuhan that technologies have significant impacts on society, technology has changed how we perceive the world and societies quite drastically.
Week 5 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 100-150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
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Part 2: 150-250 words
In your own words explain:
The difference between open and closed texts
The three types of decoding hall proposed.
Dominant/hegemonic position, it means that the code is one where the consumer takes the actual meaning directly and decodes it exactly the way it was encoded. One of the biggest examples of dominant positions is propaganda media, it usually sends a specific underlying message in its text for the consumer to decode.
Negotiated position, it’s a mixture of both accepting and rejecting the elements of the dominant message in a media text, where the consumer would understand and acknowledges the dominant message but is not willing to fully accept it.
Oppositional position
Briefly describe a media text you engaged with recently and reflect on your reading position in relation to it (using terms/concepts from the lectures and readings in the unit so far)
Breaking bad
Week 6 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 100-150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
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Part 2: 200-250 words
Why is it important for mainstream media to represent diverse humans?
Its very important for mainstream media to always represent a diverse group of humans, as it is a main point of representation to a lot of minority groups. As well as helps avoid having a hegemonic structure that privileges and favours a certain group of people more than others, as its important to show that all humans are equal and that not one certain group should have the dominant representation.
To what extent do mainstream media have an obligation to present diversity?
mainstream media should have the obligation to always represent diversity, as in its name its mainstream and it tends to be viewed and be perceived by many people, so it’s very important to have diversity in the text so that it represents more people and cultures to not just educate people, but to also have a sense of relatability by more people than just one hegemonic group of people.
Does there need to be certain types of representation in mainstream media? Why so?
Yes, there needs to be certain types of representation in mainstream media. As there are different media texts all with different messages, there needs to be the appropriate type of representation in each of those texts, as otherwise the diversity could be more seen as forced by the creators to show they are diverse without knowing how to properly convey proper representation of certain minority groups.
Illustrate your points with specific examples of media texts.
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Week 7 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 100-150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
Part 2: 250-350 words
what impacts do celebrities have on how you understand yourself and society?
Celebrities nowadays have a much bigger platform than ever before than can reach people from across the globe and have a significant impact on how people and society get shaped. Celebrities have had a significant impact on how I understand myself and society around me, as they’ve been around since the day I was born, constantly having to latch to a certain celebrity to match my ideologies to, to become more like them in hopes that one day I might become them. A lot of celebrities, thanks to social media have had a much easier, more direct access to their fanbase and followers, and giving them more access to share their thoughts and opinions about their world views and activism. But alas not every celebrity uses their voice for sharing important information about the world and tend to just focus on themselves, and try to keep the traditional way of being a celebrity, I’ve found that to be a very disconnected way of living, as if they were like living in this unattainable utopia, that changed how I understand myself, specifically in the sense that, that type of living isn’t attainable and isn’t how I want to be or be viewed. I think it’s very important that when celebrities have a loud voice, they should use that for the benefit of society to impact it in better ways, rather than for capitalistic, fame way.
Week 8 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 100-150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
Part 2: 150-250 words
What is your current favourite tv show?
My current favourite tv show is ‘Pose’.
What is it about it that makes it ‘good’?
Everything from the acting, the writing, directing, cinematography, story telling and powerful messages it sends across.
Why do you like it?
I personally enjoy this show a lot, as I am a trans woman myself, I found this show very welcoming and it highlighted to me that even with the face of so many adversities that trans woman have and can face, they always stay striving. The show empowered me as a person and has opened my eyes a lot to how older queers have lived their lives during the aids epidemic and how horrifying its effects were.
Is there a context where it would be considered ‘good taste’ and another where it would be considered ‘bad taste’ give specific examples.
The good taste, is because it highlights what it was like to be a queer person in the 80s and 90s, and it highlights how their lives were significantly impacted by the aids epidemic and how their day to day life and struggles that they faced then, queer people still face to this day, the show having and showing such a great amount of representation and diversity and powerful messages shows that this show comes with a ‘good taste’. It would be considered bad taste with certain storylines with certain characters as they don’t show the best things of some people and may have a negative connotation that some people may not like or enjoy, considering it ‘bad taste’.
Week 9 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 100-150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
Part 2: 300-400 words
Do we want media to ‘disappear’? why/why not?
When is realism not the goal of particular media texts (give examples).
As Janet Murray has said when the virtual world takes on increasing expressiveness, the medium itself melts away into transparency, where the consumer would start to look over the unrealistic representations and focus more on the story (1998). There are many examples on how this is implemented in many forms of media texts, specifically with the sci-fi genre, their entre point is to surpass realism and play into unrealism, showing off all types of possibilities of what could be or might’ve been. Such examples of that are like, ‘The Matrix’ (1999), ‘Avengers’ (2012), ‘Lovecraft Country’ (2020).
In your own words, describe what is meant by media convergence.
Media convergence is the phenomenon involving the interconnection of information and communication technologies, it brings together communication content and computing.
What are some specific examples of converged media that you have engaged with lately? Be sure to note how they demonstrate convergence (i.e., what media forms/technologies do they merge?).
The biggest example of a converged media that ive interacted with lately, is my smartphone as it’s the basis of the meaning of media convergence, it provides the three C’s from communication, content and computing. With the smart phone social media is another type of media convergence, using the computing on the phone to help process and load the application, it helps provide with communication with people, and content whether it is to be to create it or to consume it.
Week 10 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 200 words
What is an ‘authentic’ / original piece of art you have seen?
‘A Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh.
Did it have an ‘aura. As Benjamin claims? How so/why not?
The piece exuded an ‘aura’ that induced a feeling of being transported back to the time of its completion, specifically as viewed through the eyes of its creator Vincent van Gogh.
Can contemporary media creations have an aura? Why/why not?
Although contemporary media can have an Aura it is ultimately different to the Aura defined in Walter Benjimin’s article by nature of its medium, although it doesn’t have the same connectedness as an original physical art piece, it still emits a certain aura that makes you connected and feel the artists intention with the work and it can still teleport you to that different space and time regardless of being near the original work.
Part 2: 200 words
In your own words, define ‘modernism’.
Modernism is a mode of thinking, that tend to be self-conscious and or self-reference.
What did people think were the problems with modernism?
One of the main issues with modernity is that its very individualistic, and it draws away people from the same connectedness that they would’ve felt with different types of media, and it leads to a utilitarian thinking and corrupts the idea of an individual.
How is modernism still with us today?
Modernism is still with us today in many forms, such as abstract art, montage cinema, divisionist paintings and modern architecture as we know it.
Week 11 Tutorial Response:
Part 1: 100-150 words
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and/or interesting? and why so?
Part 1: 200-250 words
Choose one of your favourite postmodern media texts and explain the ways in which it is postmodern.
Fight club is an example of postmodern media text. It employs postmodern rhetorical strategies and aesthetic practices, especially with its comments on the materialistic world and late-stage capitalism. It also accomplishes a critical subversion of hegemony.
What are the reasons you like this text?
One of the main reason I’m a fan of this text is it shows what its like to live in late stage capitalistic society, where life is very individualistic and the strive for any certain community that you can get where u can relate to someone even such little as common is something that was very enjoyable about the text, aside from the storytelling and underlying queer tones that are also in this movie.