This is a movie trailer called 'Gamer' which I have watched it very recently. This movie was actually being released in 2009 and it was one of the best movies I have ever watched. This movie is about a game where those who play the game actually control 'real' people to play the game. The people who are in the game are experiencing real life situations for example if the gamer makes he or she dies, then they really die.One of the games is 'The Slayer' and the characters are actually prisoners being forced to be in the game. These people have no idea what is going on except that they have to somewhat survive in a midst of war-like zone and having someone controlling their mind?

These prisoners are being controlled by those who played them. A microchip or somewhat like a biotechnological bacteria are being inserted in their brain and allows them to be able to be controlled by the gamers. Thus these prisoners are like puppets and their life depends on those who play them. However this might be possible because since technology and media have the full control of the world and especially the human minds, and now, our lives? I am not surprised if this is happening in reality. Wait, I am now confused? Is this reality? Or are we living in a virtual world? It seems that the word 'reality' and 'virtual' seems to interrelated now. Guess those who are living in the jungle cut away from technology whatsoever or those 'Amish' people are what you call living in 'reality'.

What is Photojournalism?

Photojournalism is the taking of photographs based on real life or true events. Basically those who do photojournalism has to take not just any photos but photos of real things that are happening in the world. If it is not photos which are not of real life, then that is not considered as photojournalism. Moreover, photojournalists not only just take photos but they also have to make the story based on the photos they have taken.
However there are certain ethics that must be met when taking photos for photojournalism. Since the photos are based on real life events, it is required that these photos are to remain to its originality meaning they should not be edited or change whatsoever. This is the same as trying to make a report or story for a newspaper. Should there be any edits or changes which alter the information of the story, it will cause a serious matter and the newspaper agency could be sued for misinformation. This is also the same as photojournalism thus the photos being taken should not be altered. However there have been many cases where some photojournalists are against the ethics of photojournalism. The most famous photojournalist who were famous for his photos of wars had been found manipulating and stealing photos which left him dead penniless at the later end.

 Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady was one of the most celebrated 19th century American photographers. He was famous for his portraits of celebrities and the documentation of the American Civil War. He has been known as the 'Father of Photography' . However researchers have found out that some of Brady's photos were actually being editted.

'Other unethical picture manipulations during the Civil War have been discovered by researchers. William Frassanito (1978) located two stereocard views attributed to Brady taken after the first battle of Bull Run in July 186 1. One view shows a group of standing, kneeling, and firing soldiers. The second picture titled, "Confederate Dead on Matthews Hill," shows the same group of soldiers lying on the ground, presumably killed. Frassanito disputed the authenticity of these scenes because Brady fled with the Union Army shortly after the battle and one man in the picture is dressed in a heavy overcoat, a strange wardrobe choice for July. "Someone apparently told the soldiers to pretend they were fighting in the one view," wrote Frassanito, "and then instructed them to pretend they were dead in the other" (pp. 31-32)'

So this shows that photo-editing and photo manipulations is considered as against photojournalism.

These are some of the pictures which are editted or manipulated.

As you can see that the pictures are manipulated and if you have never seen the original, you might not realize that they were being edited. Thus that is why photojournalism are against photo manipulation and photo editing because it might change the real meaning of the photo.

Before

After

These three photos are personally edited by me. The 'before' pictures I got them from random google search and the 'After' pictures are the ones I have edited. This is what I understand from photo manipulation and photo editing. However not everyone can edit and manipulate pictures, you have to have an artistic skills for excellent photo editing and manipulation that readers and audiences could not be able to detect its changes.

 References:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism
http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/chapter6.html
http://web.mit.edu/drb/Public/PhotoThesis/

This is our group work for our tutorial where we were asked to make a suitable chart for this particular business statistics. This is a bar chart and why I think this chart is suitable and easy to understand because it is very organised. Each bar represents different statistics and each has their own colour so that it is easy for the audiences to understand. There are also legends being given underneath the chart and also the numbers and figures written on the bars to give more accurate understanding of the chart.

What is Cyberculture?

Cyberculture is a culture where people have the advanced knowledge of computer information, the internet and basically just having the extra knowledge of the cyber world. 

'Cyberculture is, simply, the conjunction of several political, historical, and social structures that share the present locus in time occupied by dominant Western capitalist culture. It is marked by the condition that technology penetrates, to some degree, every aspect of our existence. While its origins may be traced back to the 1960s (Brand), much of the theoretical discussion surrounding technological advancements has grown exponentially since the early 1980s. In this period the evolution of cyberculture has coincided with various issues related to conceptions of postmodern theory and the interpenetration of technology into the body.'

Basically it is a culture where technology is the reason to the growth of such culture. It means that our lives revolve around the use of technology and technology has become part of our lives...literally. 

GaMeS

I have to admit I am a game freak myself! Computer games, xbox, playstation 2 and 3 I play them all! They are part of my entertainments. Games are somewhat like a simulation where you can do things that you can never do in reality. Games are a guilty pleasure I would say? Because it is partly a waste of time but a good way to entertain yourself after a hard days of work and assignments. 

These are the games that I have played recently and still playing! :)

These are the games that I have been playing recently and they are awesome! I love to play games that involve actions, adventure and some thrill to it. The Sims however is somewhat like a virtual doll house where you can control the characters and give them life to live like real humans. It might sounded very scary because it is as if we are Gods controlling these characters and we decide on how they should live their lives. 

Thus games somewhat take you to a different world which is the virtual world where you can do things that you cannot in reality. For example in the game called 'Red Dead Redemption' it is a game where I play as this ruddy bounty hunter and complete my mission. In this game I get to ride horses, kill and save people and also be able to learn skills that I could not learn in reality. This is the reason that games usually gives you that pleasure of being someone else and get to do things that I could never be able to do in real life. I could play this game hours and hours until I get this feeling of nauseous for being in the game for too long and then as soon as you switch it off, you are back in reality and it 'sucks' sometimes. 

AVATARS

Avatar is defined as a second personality that we have or used in order for us to communicate with people via online such as through Facebook, MSN online, twitter, games etc. We create our own virtual images, bodies, faces of ourselves and featured it online for other avatars to see. The avatars represent us but not our personality most of the time. Some people tend to be different in their avatars from their real life. Their avatars might show that they are successful and popular in their career but in real life they were just jobless people who sit in front of the computers doing nothing other than enjoying most of their time living the second life.

They would gradually neglect the things around them as soon as they become addicted to it. Other than communicating or chatting with people, they also play virtual games such as Second Life and The Sims. These games are the games who give these people a second life. They do not just play the game but 'live' in the game.

references:

http://macek.czechian.net/defining_cyberculture.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberculture
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberculture.html
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/introducing_cyberculture.html
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/virtual_culture.html
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberculture_defined.html

Cinema and television have existed as long as we can remember and they are one of the things that are important in our daily lives. They are our sources of entertainment and information. Cinema and television however are two different mediums which one might have some limitations compared to one.

Television

So television as we all know that it has played an important role in our lives. It is one of our sources of entertainment, information and ideas. I would say that it seems that television seems to grow with us because ever since we were a child, we have been exposed to the likes of television until now and it has become our ways of developing our minds besides our body. This might have a different affect to those who are never exposed to television but I am quiet sure there are only few who did not grow with television. In media, television is a vital part for them to work. Without television, their work would be very limited.

Nowadays people have been using television for spreading information such as news, documentaries, education and etc. Most of the time, television is being used for entertainment. Various kinds of entertainment are broadcast everyday for everyone to be entertained.

Cinema

 Compare to television, cinema have existed from the 1880s and have been popular ever since even before television exists. They are being used for 'viewing motion pictures' which is watching movies basically. However nowadays people tend to use the cinema for various activities such as lectures, documentaries and even stage play.

A frame from Roundhay Garden Scene, the world's earliest film produced using a motion picture camera, by Louis Le Prince, 1888

However cinemas have been popular when it comes to huge public viewing compare to television where the viewers are limited. Cinemas are popular also because the screens are bigger than television and the pleasure of watching is much more enjoyable than watching television. 

So you can tell the difference if you ever watched television or go to the cinema.

Cultural Literacy

This is a cartoon show called 'The Simpson'. I am sure that many who watch this are familiar with the cartoon because they have the cultural literacy of this cartoon meaning that they have seen or watched thus are familiar with this cartoon. Moreover there are some intertextual knowledge that you should be able to acknowledge such as the voting for Obama and McCain as the next American presidents. This cartoon involves politics which you should be able to recognize it if you have seen or watched the news on TV or anywhere else. Therefore, those who have the cultural literacy would find this rather amusing and funny but those who do not have might not understand what this cartoon is trying to show. 

So what is cultural literacy?

        Can be defined as both a knowledge of meaning systems and an ability to negotiate those systems within different cultural contexts. It is virtually impossible to describe and analyse what is happening in any communication context or practice without using the concept of cultural literacy (Shirato and Yell, 2000, p. 1).

Meaning that cultural literacy is somewhat the ability for you to be able to be familiar with other culture besides our own which includes our knowledge of everything in our lives but that depends on our own interpretations because each of us have our own way of seeing the world. 

This is a video of a movie called 'Bujang Lapok'. It is an old Malay Movie very popular in Asia before and now has become a nostalgia to many Malay culture or perhaps others who have watched this and enjoyed this. Some people might not know this film or the culture of this film. Some Malay people who might have watched this would also find this movie very funny and understand most of their languages and basically the Malay Culture. Those who are not Malay might find this hard to understand because they do not have that knowledge of the culture. Thus that is what cultural literacy is all about, understanding a culture. The more we know and learn other cultures, the more we have that cultural literacy. 

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film#History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_theater

Lecture 9 slideshows

One thing that I have to agree... that photography is brilliant! Photography is another way for us to remember the things of the past. We, humans, as we began to grow of age, we tend to forget the things that we do in our past. But that might not be true because some old people tend to still remember their past so vividly. However photography helps you preserve such small details in our past. We might take random pictures of anything that might not be remembered by us since it is just in such short time. Sometimes we could not remember the little things that had happened in our past. Some might be vague. Photography is somewhat like our memory joggers, a stimulation for our memories. It means whenever we look at a photograph of our past, our mind suddenly flashes a series of motion graphics that relates to the photograph.

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This is a music video called Photograph by Nickelback. Such a beautiful concept for week 8 photograph. This music video is about his memories of his past life such as his teenage life and college life perhaps. He showed how he misses his old life when he was younger back then. The video shows that he came back to his hometown and looked at the places that he have visited . Please Enjoy!

Sing along if you must!

"Photograph"

Look at this photograph
Everytime I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red
And what the hell is on Joey's head

And this is where I grew up
I think the present owner fixed it up
I never knew we'd ever went without
The second floor is hard for sneaking out

And this is where I went to school
Most of the time had better things to do
Criminal record says I broke in twice
I must have done it half a dozen times

I wonder if it's too late
Should i go back and try to graduate
Life's better now than it was back then
If I was them I wouldn't let me in

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, god, I

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.

Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hangin' out
They say somebody went and burned it down

We used to listen to the radio
And sing along with every song we know
We said someday we'd find out how it feels
To sing to more than just the steering wheel

Kim's the first girl I kissed
I was so nervous that I nearly missed
She's had a couple of kids since then
I haven't seen her since god knows when

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, god, I

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.

I miss that town
I miss the faces
You can't erase
You can't replace it
I miss it now
I can't believe it
So hard to stay
Too hard to leave it

If I could I relive those days
I know the one thing that would never change

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.

Look at this photograph
Everytime I do it makes me laugh
Everytime I do it makes me...

Please don't copy our posts... we work hard for them... Thank You :)

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ENJOY!

 

 Brunei, the Green Heart of Borneo

 

Brunei Darussalam, a Heritage

These two tourist commercials are promoting Brunei Tourism for the whole world to see. Each of these tourism commercials are different from each other but some of the elements are similar to each other. As you can see from their titles, they are both very contrasting videos. 'The Green Heart of Borneo' video shows more of Brunei's greener side and the 'Brunei Darussalam, a Heritage' shows more of Brunei's regalia, the country's heirlooms and Brunei history.  

The difference between the narratives of the videos is more to its visual aspects (pictorial). If you watch the videos, The Green Heart of Borneo shows more of Brunei's culture such as the people, the villages, the Kampung Ayer and also Brunei's flora and fauna whereas 'Brunei Darussalam, a heritage' shows more of its royal regalia and basically Brunei's wealth. If you compare the time duration of the videos, the first video which is the 'Heart of Borneo' is much longer than the second video which is the 'Brunei Darussalam, a heritage'. This proves that the first video shows more of Brunei than the second video. The second video has shorter time duration because it only wants the viewers to see part of its tourist attractions which is the Brunei heritage. The first video, on the other hand, shows most part of Brunei such as the people (culture) and the flora and fauna.

Moreover, the visual narrative is being assisted by the written narrative to somehow emphasized the attraction and to allow the audience to soak up the words in their minds and 'hink  It is not unusual for tourist commercial to use flowery words in order to attract people thus these videos have used several soothing and attractive words which mostly trying to suit the pictures such as 'golden' and 'glittery' which matches with Brunei's mosque, the golden pots and pans and the golden threads of the 'songkets' or 'jongsarat'. They also use words like 'local, faith, ceremony, treasures' these are words that shows what Brunei have such as the Islamic religion, the people and the ceremonies such as weddings. Overall, these words are carefully chosen in order to make viewers to 'feel' and ' think' that Brunei is what the video is trying to make them think which is beautiful, unique and filled with wonders. 

Furthermore, the background music also adds up to the attractions which emphasizes its uniqueness because the music is being played by a particular instrument such as 'gulingtangan' which can only be found in certain parts of Asia including Brunei. This makes other people who are not familiar with the instrument to be fascinated to such unique sound. 

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What is more interesting to narrate about other than a little girl's bedroom?

I have found this amazing bedrooms just by googling 'the little girl's bedroom' and all these expensive, magical fairytale-like bedrooms pop on my screen and I literally gasped and screamed thinking 'how I wish I can be this spoilt sometimes when I was younger'.

Imagine that you walk your way to your niece or your friend or your sister's daughter's bedroom and when you open the door and suddenly you are in Disney's Cinderella's world? It is amazing how these designers could actually make the phrase 'fairytales do exist' come true. This was made by Mark Wilkinson Furniture in London for a soccer star. Mr Wilkinson refused to give the names of his clients but he only tells the reporter that his client is a soccer player. Perhaps a very wealthy soccer player because this bedroom costs a whopping $99,000 US dollars! 

Thus we can see that a bedroom can tell us a story. For example these bedrooms tell us one of the fairytale stories we know of such as Cinderella, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty which all come from the Disney Fairytale movies. Anyone who have watched some of the fairytale movies would recognize the designs in the bedrooms such as the round horse carriage which we have seen in Disney's Cinderella movie.

 

A short 'trailer' of the Disney's classic Cinderella movie will play in our mind as soon as we see the horse carriage, the castle and the little crown shapes. It also tells us a story of how the little girl herself loves the movie so much that she would have persuaded her parents to design a Cinderella theme for her room. This also tells us a story about the little girl's personality. We know that not all children have the same personalities so this bedroom could tell us that the little girl love to watch fairytale movies and also to want to have a life like the princesses she have watched.

This does not always occur to children but adults too. Our own personal spaces could tell our personality and this have proven by some researchers. Bedrooms, offices, bathrooms which are very personal to us could tell whether we are an extrovert or introvert, or that we are the 'messy' type or a perfectionist. Just by looking how we organize our bed, computer and even our wardrobes tell a lot about who we are. 

From each of these rooms we can tell what kind of person that owner is. He or she could be a clean or a messy person. We could also tell if that person is an organized person or not just by looking how he or she decorate her place or how she organize her toiletries, books and even how he or she folds their bedsheets. Thus personal spaces could tell us a story of an individual or even perhaps tell us the life of that individual because all those designs come from our own preferences meaning our ideal way on having such a space that suits our comfort which somehow preserves that personality of ours.


References:

http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/bedroom-decorating-style-show-your-personality-768296.html
http://www.decoratingstudio.com/articles_consumer_info/color_personality.html
http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2002/spaces.html
http://www.bornrich.org/entry/soccer-offsprings-sleep-in-a-99000-enchanted-world/

Topic Question: You are asked to provide a presentation to a group of children between the ages of 8-10 years old. Your topic is about fire safety and how to prevent fire accidents in the home. The context of this presentation is in Primary school.

If I were to teach children about fire safety, I would show them a real fire!

I would take out a lighter and light it. Some people would show them a cartoon or animated fire with mean faces usually because in order not to scare them or they think that the children would remember easily if it were a cute animated fire but I do not think so. In my opinion, it is better to show them the real thing so they know how the fire really look like. Real fire do not have mean faces and iconic in reall life right? What I am saying is that, be realistic. I am sure that they already have this image in their schema for fire. Children are very curious at their age and I assume that they acknowledge fire even before they enroll in a school, perhaps from the stove where their mother cook their breakfast or the bonfires their father made during their camping trip or in their PSP, PS3 or any visual games that they play. Some might say that I could just show them a picture of a real fire but I prefer showing them live because children are more attentive and fascinated to interactive things.

After showing them the first schema, I would go on with my explanation of what a fire is and what it is capable of. Then I will show them the next schema:-

I know this might look slightly gory for primary students but I think it is the best way. Besides, they are primary children and they are old enough to see such image. If I were a parent myself, I would show them this because at least they know that this is a serious matter that they need to be aware of. Moreover, this image would heighten that negative effect of playing with fire at home.

The top level of the schema is that the fire is always hot and burning and the lower level of the schema would be the fact that it can cause serious problems which might be dangerous for them if they do not handle it with care. Both of the schemas are congruent because both of them are things that we see in our everyday life.

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