Week 12

Monday 11-2

Today we continued our discussion on the spoken word. But instead of focusing on Story Corps and the notion of storytelling, we focused on pod casting and the art form we know as documentary. it was emphasized that in order to create a successful documentary one must extend themselves out of their comfort Zone; tap into the experiences and knowledge of their community.

Key points that were emphasized were the ability of the creator to show people doing what makes them newsworthy; and show the impact of their lives on their community.

The last point we stressed as a class was that we are inheriting the power to communicate through new media. Since I am a mass communication major, I have been immersed in the subject of communication my entire college career. And it is definitely true, we have been transformed by our new media. There are so many more expressive and diverse ways we can communicate than even 4 short years ago when I arrived here on campus.

Wednesday 11-4

Today we transformed our discussion from the spoken word to the photograph. As this was your area of specific expertise I was expecting to be shown moments in photography that i had never experienced before.

Although we eventually got to that point, I found the precluding lectures extremely dry and hard to focus on. For the most part we studied past historical advances in the technology behind photography. From camera obscura to camera lucida to the Daguerre Camera to the collodion process and the stereopticon, I struggled to maintain my interest in the subject.

But eventually we made it through the background information and we got to the point of what made photography as powerful as it could be. We talked about how photography was used as a maker of myths, and a righter of wrongs in terms of child labor.

in this way, the media of the time transformed how society functioned. It showed the world it's injustice and unbiased views of the world's corruption and problems.

Friday 11-6

Today was a direct continuation on our discussion about how photography transformed society. Subtopics covered in this discussion included realism, war photography and amateur photography.

Alfred Steiglitz showed the world how no one had even seen before in photographs. his photos focused on the honest and real approach to capturing history. Andre Kertesz continued this vision by not sugarcoating his view of the world. No matter how gruesome or horrible it may be, these photographers showed the world what they saw.

War photography soon had a huge impact on popular opinion. Journalists were allowed to capture the footage from the front lines of the offensive. Without these photographs, the people could only imagine what it was like. This technological advancement helped citizens understand what exactly was happening across the world.

The last topic we covered was amateur photography. Culture had never experienced this before and with the advancement and production of new technologies in the field of photography, it became a big issue in the world of professional photography.


Readings

"The Price of Free"- This is unfortunately true and proves to be the ugly truth that will only get less and less attractive as more and more people jump onto the streaming of entertainment rather than buying direct from production. this article is all about warning us that yes, it may be cheaper now, but in the long run, we will pay.

How will the excellent shows continue to run? Quite simply they won't. The well of money will eventually run dry if we continue to exponentially stop pouring money into it. It is true what they say, you pay for what you get. Right now we are cheating the system and not paying for our quality. Soon enough we will have no choice but to pay cheap for a cheap product. And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.


"Pay Day for Virtual Goods"- 100% margins.... That is all that needs to be said. It makes perfect sense. The product costs virtually nothing to produce, the profits are unmistakably growing each year.

I am skeptic however. I see this as more of a fad than a trend. There are not currently enough avenues that this market can be taken. They exist in social networks and games.... but where else. I do not see the magnitude of possible avenues that I would need to in order to completely endorse a product like this. It is extremely limited and will remain so and will eventually die out as consumers will see these limitations.

What they do have going for them though is that these are so cheap for the consumer to purchase that even during these tough financial times, this artwork should fall under a category that is not effected because the price range is so reasonably low.


"Envying the Multitasker"- I pride myself in being able to multitask. It saves me a lot of stress that I unfortunately see many other non MT'ers go through. I ask the same question that this article asks... Why isn't it taught? It is a skill just as is writing and reading. What we need to do is figure out how to tangibly teach and understand what goes into productive mulitasking. What are the deterrents to an effective multitasker?

The sooner we can accept this as a viable skill, the sooner we can take advantage of its various uses, and make the best of it we can.


"Swiss Sue"- "The service allows people to view street-level pictures over the Internet and already has been criticized in several European countries for allowing individuals to be identified without their knowledge or consent - potentially exposing embarrassing facts about their private lives to the world."

Really? Really? .... Private lives? They are in public streets aren't they? How can they expect full privacy? I don't understand that at all. What exactly is it that they are doing in the streets of a European City that they wouldn't want some random person from Madagascar to know about? I don't get it. Why do people care about privacy to this extent? Shouldn't you being conducting yourself responsibly enough in public that even if you were photographed, it wouldn't matter?

I say get over yourself and realize that no one really cares about your life. they don't know you, they don't care. they care about the business'. they care about the streets. They care about the cities. They care about the people as a mass... not as individuals.