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