October 8

Lecture notes and comments

Week #6

Date: October 8

Outline: For this lecture, we had our T.A. Rylan Shook come in and speak about his career in new media. Here are my notes for the lecture today. Notes for October 8.

Rylan came in today to show us what he had done during his career. He started off his career at the University of Maine as a philosophy undergrad major, as well as taking part in the Honors college experience. During his time as an undergrad, he took a film class in which he wrote his own script, designed the set, and basically ran every aspect of a short production he called “Mailroom.” This is what got him interested in film, and inspired him to enter into the graduate program here at the university called inter media.

Comments: I’ve had very little experience with the medium of film, so I found Rylan’s videos really inspiring. It was great to be able to see some of the artistic ideas he was able to go with and create something pretty incredible with just an idea and a video camera. It was helpful to see the kind of projects he had to work on in the graduate program, which is something I’ve considered doing once I get my bachelors degree. He had a great example of what a good portfolio looks like as well. Even though film probably won’t be my focus, it was helpful to see.

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Search Engine New Media International Communications Company

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Week #7

Title: In this post, I’ll be commenting on the article found on http://www.nytimes.com called “New China Search Engine Will be State-Controlled” by David Barboza.

Comments: This article is a little scary. The thought of one group controlling what information comes through the search engines is terrifying, especially if that one group is the governing body of the country. In the case of China, the government can then control all of the information their citizens are allowed to see because of monitoring from the Search Engine New Media International Communications Company. This is dangerous, though not likely to spread to the U.S. It will however hinder the people of China, which is a huge chunk of the world’s population. This is one example of how new media can still be dangerous in the wrong hands, and is something that should be watched out for in the future.

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Viral Videos

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Week #7

Title: This post will be commenting on the article found on http://www.adage.com called “The Top Ten Viral Ads of All Time” by Micheal Learmonth

Comments: All the people I know who have access to the internet have seen some sort of viral video in their lifetime. It’s hard to miss them; they’re everywhere! Therefore I’m not surprised that advertisers were quick to hop onto that bandwagon and take advantage of the distribution power that the internet provides. It’s free advertising (not considering how much it took to film the video,) and in some cases have become a huge success. My favorite part of the article was when you got to see each of the ten videos that were the best in the world for advertising. This technique will certainly continue throughout my career as a new media student, and is an excellent business strategy that far too many people disregard as unprofessional and non-effective. This means more research will have to be done to really pound home the effectiveness of this catchy advertising technique, and this article is a great start.

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Retargeting

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Week #7

Title: This post will be commenting on the article found on http://www.nytimes.com called “Rerargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites” by Miguel Helft and Tanzina Vega.

Comments: I’ve always found new advertising strategies to be very interesting, and this one is particularly clever, so it caught my attention right away. As I was reading this, I noticed that it seemed to me to be a little outdated. I’ve seen this kind of ad, especially Google and youtube ads, all over the place, and seems to me to be more prevalent than the article makes it sound. It’s such a smart move on the marketers end that I find it hard to feel anything other than impressed. It’s so clever because it personalizes the ad experience online, which is something advertisers have been trying to do for decades. We are continually moving closer and closer towards total personalization of our whole media experience, so to me this seems to be a natural step in the direction we’ve been headed for a long time. A fascinating article, and a technology to keep an eye on throughout my new media career.

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A.I. or Not to A.I., That is the Question

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Week #7

Title: This article can be found on http://www.nytimes.com called “The First Church of Robotics” by Jaron Lanier.

Comments: This article brought up some serious questions, such as “How do we perceive technology? How about robots? A.I.? And how do our thoughts on all these things affect us and how we think?” While I don’t agree with everything Lanier stated in the article, those questions are very relevant and very important in the field of new media. We as a society need to decide how we should look at A.I., and if there are any other applications of the technology that has simply been labeled with the broad term of “artificial intelligence.” I like how she brought up the point that since we attribute so much achievement to machines that mimic human interaction, this is obviously an aspect of being human that we value. The way Lanier progressed through that idea was very logical and sound. An excellent article.

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The Quest Continues for the Fountain of Youth

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Week #3

Title: In this post I’ll be commenting on the article found on http://www.nytimes.com called “Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday” by Ashlee Vance.

Comments: I find this topic very interesting. Human beings have been searching for the “Holy Grail”, or the “Fountain of Youth” as long as we have records of human civilization. There is something so appealing in the notion of living forever that this quest has continued with us, even to this day. Some people look to religion for the answer, but from this article we can see that perhaps these scientists have turned towards something a little more familiar to them; science and reason. I found this idea of the “singularity” a little idealistic, especially with the technology we have now, but I could see it in the future (if we survive for that long as a species.)

What would this have to do with new media, then? I would argue that since this is obviously something people feel very passionate about, either for or against, it is something that should be well considered today and in the future. The quest towards this goal of eternal life opens up a multitude of options for careers to be created and discoveries in technology and about human society are just waiting to be made. Definitely something to keep an eye on as the research continues.

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What Effect is Mass Media Having On Us?

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Week #3

Title: I will be commenting on an article that can be found at http://www.nytimes.com called “Mind Over Mass Media” by Stephen Pinker.

Comments: What Pinker discusses in this article are things that I’ve been told to watch out for my whole life. My parents and my teachers throughout grade school would warn us about the dangers of relying too heavily on search engines such as Google, and give us incentive to do projects that did not use power point. To them this new media was scary and unreliable, which Pinker goes into more depth in his article. Because of this ignorance of the new media, they try to keep the newer generations away from it, instead of encouraging us to accept the new technologies that inevitably come with time. I really like what Pinker had to say on this one, and I appreciate his encouraging message to those who still might doubt there is a positive aspect to this new media. There’s good and bad with everything, but if you won’t even try and experience new technology, there isn’t a point in preventing others.

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The “Gutenburg Galaxy”

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Week #3

Title: This post comments on a article called “The Hidden Center of the “Gutenburg Galaxy”" by Steve Mizrach.

Comments: There were some fascinating ideas in this article. For instance, Plato believed that writing harmed our Art of Memory, or the ability to recall large amounts of information. He argued that writing makes us dependent upon the medium for information, instead of being able to rely on our own intelligence to provide the information we want and need. He also saw the benefits of writing, such as the ease of passing information safely over time, and between cultures without losing the details or other bits of information from the whole due to interpretation that occurs from oral history. He saw both sides of the issue.

The text goes on to describe the “Gutenburg Galaxy” in which technology is created by individuals for a distinct purpose within society. This is a kind of willful manipulation of technology to get the shift in culture which you might desire. This is an interesting theory, and one that I agree with.

When you look at how this applies to new media today, you see that the same concerns over writing during Plato’s time can be found now about electronic documents. People argue that something is lost in the transition between mediums, that they become depersonalized. I see this as a valid point, and one to watch out for as we improve upon our technology, but I still think the benefits of instant communication and sharing of information outweigh the negatives of electronic media.

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Privacy

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Week #3

Title: This post will be commenting on the article on http://www.arstechnica.com called “School settles laptop spying case to “protect taxpayers”" by Jacqui Cheng.

Comments: This is a scary case. I believe it to be a huge invasion of the personal privacy that everyone is entitled to. The real issue with the whole case is that the laptops were the school’s property, so they believed that they had the right to use spying technology to make sure the laptops were being used for school work. Do they have this right? I would argue NO, they most certainly do not.

However, my opinion is just one amongst many. This is an issue that is sure to come up again because of the rapid expansion and evolution of technology, and therefore an issue that should be considered carefully. It may have been settled out of court this time, but the next time we might not be so lucky. There could be quite a ruckus, and being a new media student, I plan to keep my eyes open towards delicate issues such as these.

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What is Technology’s Effect on How We Learn?

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Week #4

Title: This post comments on an article found on http://www.nytimes.com called “Does the Digital Classroom Enfeeble the Mind?” by Jaron Lanier

Comments: This article, while sounding very whiny at times, does bring up some very good points as to how we use technology can effect our ability to properly think in both a technical and non-technical setting. While this seems pretty obvious, it is a very valid point. If we as humans rely too heavily on the technology we create to do the thinking for us, we’ve lost an aspect that makes us different from the machines themselves. I find this scary, and agree that we should be careful with how we use the technology we create.

I don’t agree though with the severity that the author gives this topic though. He makes it sound like we’ve already lost some cosmic battle with the machine, which I do not agree with. I agree that we are leaning towards that conclusion, but I still think we’re a long way from total mental disintegration as a species.

This is an issue that should be kept in mind as we continue our study of new media. It may not be the end of the world quite yet, but there are indicators that we’re headed in that direction. We should make the changes now while it’s still relatively easy to do, and before we can’t tell the difference any longer between man and machine.

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