Blog Review and Design

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

My overall goal for my blog was for it to be a direct representation of myself through my writing as well as my design skills. My front page consists of my logo that I created myself as well as a short tagline about who I am with three images that are in my favourite colour and that resonate with me the most. I’m pretty familiar with creating blog designs since I’ve used the website Tumblr before, although WordPress was quite a challenge for me. I’ve made a WordPress blog in the past but I refrained from designing it and making it unique because I simply just used it as a submission platform for my assignments and was not bothered or didn’t have the time. After using WordPress for the past three semesters I grew a habit to designing and decorating my blog.

When you scroll down further on my front page you’re greeted with a little introductory message from myself and as well as a ‘taste’ of what to expect from my blogs that will be posted on here. I inserted a gif of Harley Quinn because 1. she is one of my favourite DC characters and 2. I relate to her on certain aspects. I also provided a live feed of my tweets from Twitter.

Moving onto each subheading that you can click on right below my logo, I have my about me page as well as my arts page. In my about me, I wrote a more detailed description about myself and with just reading through my about me; you’re able to get a sense of my style of writing as well as who I am as a person overall. I tried my best to make it brief yet informative, I didn’t want the viewers who potentially could view my blog to get bored on their visit to my page.

In my arts page I showcased the different artworks I’m personally proud of showing. I wanted the viewers to get a sense that I am a creative individual and not all my work is writing which means that I am flexible and can adapt to certain situations and/or jobs.

The subheadings that are after the about me and arts pages, are drop down menus. Each drop down menu has a mini drop down menu within it that provides different links to certain pages and posts. As you can see in the image here, when you hover above a subheading a list appears below it that show the different courses that I have written blogs about. Without clicking anything, once you hover again over each course; you are able to see the different individual posts of each course.

Once you click on the individual posts, you are taken to another page where you are able to read my blog on that specific topic. I also provided a blog feed for each course, to go to that; once you’re in the second mini drop down menu that showcases the course codes, you can just click the course code and it will take you to the blog feed of each course.

With each blog that I’ve written, I tried my best to be witty and/or funny right of the bat with the title of the blog just so if there is ever a case that an outsider decides to view my blog, they are able to choose something that catches their eyes. Overall I did find it tedious to design and decorate my overall look of my blog but nonetheless I had a lot of fun doing it. I didn’t have a reference to any other blogs, I just worked with what I envisioned in my head and put it down digitally.

WEEK 9 — What colour is that?

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

Image taken from insider.com

I saw this test a long time ago online and this was the first thing that came to my mind when we talked about multitasking and switch tasking. I tried doing the test again myself and since I already know what to expect from it since I’ve seen it in the past and know how it works — I did much better than I did before when I first discovered this test.

After researching, I found that this specific test actually has a name to it. It is called the Stroop Test, and when you attempt the test you get the Stroop Effect. To elaborate on this topic, we need to understand how us humans perceive and interact with the world (Farnsworth, 2019). Whenever we look at something; whether it is an object or a place we not only look at the physical appearance of it, but also the meaning behind it. This is where the test comes to play, you can see that each word has a different colour to it — however if you noticed or not — the colour of the word is not the right colour that corresponds to the word.

I decided to test this on my mum, I first showed her the photo then I asked her what she noticed about it. Her first response was to tell me that it’s just colours, so with that I asked her to read out the words and ignore the colours. She read it with ease and asked me what was the point of the test, I laughed and asked her if it was easy and she responded of course. Little did she know what I was about to ask her next, I then told her to read out each colour of the word whilst ignoring the actual text. This frustrated her as she made a few mistakes and pauses while reading it out, we both ended up laughing because she was close to giving up since it made her confused but I told her to proceed on.

Image taken from researchgate.net

I told her why exactly this happens and explained what I had researched prior doing the test on her, she found it really interesting and asked me if there were other tests that were similar and it got me thinking as well. I decided to try searching the internet and to my surprise there are different kinds of Stroop tests. When I found this test I thought to myself that this would be a lot more difficult because you would need a lot more cognitive thinking, I told my mum that I’ve never done this test before and we both decided to try it out together.

Both of us had a hard time and kept laughing because just like the first test with the colours, we kept making mistakes on this one. Especially because some of the animals that are labelled on top of the images of the animals were complete opposites; for example the image of the bear has the word bird on top of it which contradicts one another since a bear is much larger than a bird.

References

1. Farnsworth, B. (2019). The Stroop Effect – How it Works and Why – iMotions. Retrieved 3 July 2020, from https://imotions.com/blog/the-stroop-effect/

WEEK 7/8 — Research Proposal

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

Image taken from jimcrookeillustration.tumblr.com

Introduction

For my research project I will be researching about video game streamers and exploring the different experiences from two key perspectives: a gamer/streamer’s perspective VS. a fan’s perspective.

Background

When we were younger our parents always told us not to sit too close to the TV while playing video games and not to play them all day, but what if I told you that up until now; there are people who do play video games for a living. In other words it is called live streaming, typically those who stream use one of the two most commonly used platforms when streaming — Facebook or Twitch (the use of both as well is possible). Most streamers’ origins are typically the following: they enjoy gaming, they want to share their experience and/or skills to others and/or they want to make a living from something they enjoy doing (Minor, 2017). Whether it is popular FPS (first-person-shooter) games or even small indie games, streamers either follow an algorithm with what the biggest games are at the moment or they choose the most unique and different ones in an attempt to ‘stand out’ from the sea of gamers and streamers.

With this research project, I want to explore two different perspectives in the gaming community. I want to determine the differences and similarities of the streamer and the fan. With becoming a streamer, they will always start with just a few ‘fans,’ sometimes it is just their close friends that will be supporting them at first — but once word gets out to friends of friends about the streamer, that’s typically where the start of their career blossoms.

Methodology

I will look into the lives of streamers and what it takes for them to start their career in gaming. Furthermore, I will also look into what it takes to become a streamer and what differentiates them from one another since there are multiple kinds of streamers that stream the same content but with their own ‘style’. I will then look into the eyes of the fans of streamers, I will try and see what exactly is different about their lifestyle before becoming a fan and after.

I have a friend who is currently a streamer on Facebook so I will be interviewing him. I will be asking questions about how he started and what motivated or got him to even wake up one day and think I’m going to start streaming. I will also ask about the difficulties he faced and if there were ever any instances where he felt that this ‘streaming’ thing won’t work out. I will then ask a fan of his alongside with some of my experience since I saw my friend start off his streaming career from when he only had a few fans following him.

Stakeholders

My main stakeholders are one or two streamers, one that I personally know and one that has years of experience which I will find through secondary research. My other stakeholder are the fans, I will find one from my friend’s fans and one from secondary research.

Execution

I plan to make a video project where you can see the interviewees as well as myself as the interviewer, I will also provide photographic sources and overlay music that is both relatable to my research project and engaging.

References

1. Minor, J. (2017). Twitch and Beyond: The Best Video Game Live Streaming Services. Retrieved 3 July 2020, from https://www.pcmag.com/news/twitch-and-beyond-the-best-video-game-live-streaming-services

WEEK 6 — A Journey

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

Photo taken by me.

We started our journey off from school and walked towards the shuttle bus stops which we followed through numerous digital signs and physical signs that displayed the direction of which way to go to. While walking towards the area where the bus stops were, there were multiple people standing in line waiting for buses to arrive. Almost half of them are using their phones while waiting, while the others were either talking to people they were with or just standing and waiting in line. This actually shows authority constraints since everyone was following the queue even after the barrier that determines the line ended since the line extended more and off from the pavement.

Photo taken by me.

We waited for around 5 minutes and the bus finally arrived, while we were boarding we noticed that some people in line were still using their phones while mindlessly walking forward towards the bus. My friends and I sat near the back of the bus where we were separated between two rows since one row of seats only has two seats. While on the bus we observed that it was quiet and again, most people’s heads were down; glued to their mobile devices — this caused us to conform and do the same because we felt if we were talking or making just the slightest amount of noise, then the others would feel a sense of annoyance.

Photo taken by me.

The mall we went to was around a 5-8 minute journey, once we got off the bus we walked straight into the mall. Just looking around near the entrance of the mall, already we see many digital medias and advertisements that showcased the different products that are being sold in the mall as well as how to locate the shop itself. There were even individual screens that showed these advertisements while you ride the escalators either ascending or descending, this way you’re able to see what shops to expect on certain floors.

Photo taken by me.

The biggest thing we noticed was that there were barely any people but this was because it was only around 11AM; most shops and restaurants are just starting to open up. People are still at work at this hour as well so the only people we saw were either workers opening up their shops and/or restaurants or janitors and cleaners roaming around the mall.

Photo taken by me.

Photo taken by me.

We decided to explore the mall to see what other types of media we could spot. We noticed that on each floor that we went to, there was a TV in between the elevators, they all were broadcasting past, present or future events from the mall that we were at — in this case it was exhibitions, concerts or conferences/talks. It also showed some more advertisements of some of the shops that can be found in the mall.

Another thing we all found interesting was a particular type of device that we stumbled upon on one of the floors that we were on. With most malls, comes a concierge or a reception where usually you’re able to ask any questions about the mall directly with the help of customer service. This device did just that except it was interactive and “self-service,” which then eliminates the concept of face-to-face communication — people who use it can tap on certain tabs on the screen that are organised in a categorical way i.e. food, fashion and lifestyle.

Photo taken by me.

Photo taken by me.

After visiting this mall we all realised that there were a lot of ambient television(s), there’s a lot of media around us that we don’t really pay attention to but are always there in the background and when we only really need something or are looking for something we notice these ambient television(s). The way in which each media was placed in the mall are all taken to account since they are placed in such a way that people who walk by can glance quickly at it or are able to see it in their peripherals.

Photo taken by me.

Photo taken by me.

Blog 3 — The Robot

▶ BCM310 Emerging Issues in Media & Communication

Image taken from blog.prototypr.io

There are many instances where robots and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) have come into spotlight in the recent news headlines. Now that it is the start of a new decade, you would think that by now the world would be relying on the use of AI and/or robotic technology but this is not the case as there are still some malfunctions and cons about the use of this kind of technology.

Image taken from tesla.com

Over the years, many different engineers have produced and built different products and things that either are fully functioning as a “robot” or has “robotic” features. The Tesla car is a prime example of a fully functioning device that has robotic features, there is a function in the car that allows users to switch on a fully automated mode where the car moves by itself — autopilot mode. The only thing the user has to do is to sit and relax while the car does all the work, this mode allows the car to control the engine, brakes as well as steer in any direction the user gives to the car (Hogan, 2017).

As convenient and useful as that sounds, it generated a lot of problems. There has been a number of accidents from the Tesla car’s autopilot mode, some even were deaths. Walter Huang — a 38 year old Apple software engineer and game developer — has fallen a victim to these tragic accidents as he unfortunately passed away as well, he was in his Tesla Model X travelling on autopilot mode at 70 miles per hour when it later crashed into a safety barrier and struck into two other vehicles afterwards (Rushe, 2020). He later passed away in the hospital from the severity of his injuries. When this accident happened in 2018, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials commented that this accident is similar to other accidents that have happened in the past — especially the one that occurred in 2016 in Florida.

Image taken from youtube.com

Joshua Brown — owner of a Tesla Model S — decided to put his car on autopilot mode while he was on a highway, then leading to the car’s sensors unable to detect an 18-wheeler truck that was crossing the highway thus leading to this man’s death because the car had attempted to drive full speed under the truck (Yadron & Tynan, 2016).

You would think that as the years go by, we would fear robots that are out to kill us and control humanity (Knight & Hao, 2019), but who would have thought that things that already exist and are just modified by us humans are out killing us instead?

References:

1. Elder, A. (2017). Friendship, robots, and social media: False friends and second selves (pp. 90-102). Oxfordshire: Taylor and Francis.
2. Hogan, M. (2017). These are the 11 coolest features of the Tesla Model S. Retrieved 13 June 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/17/tesla-model-s-best-features.html
3. Knight, W., & Hao, K. (2019). Never mind killer robots—here are six real AI dangers to watch out for in 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2020, from https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/07/137929/never-mind-killer-robotshere-are-six-real-ai-dangers-to-watch-out-for-in-2019/
4. Rushe, D. (2020). Tesla driver who died in ‘autopilot’ crash was playing on phone, inquiry finds. Retrieved 13 June 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/25/tesla-driver-autopilot-crash
5. Yadron, D., & Tynan, D. (2016). Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode. Retrieved 13 June 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/30/tesla-autopilot-death-self-driving-car-elon-musk

Female Streamers — Case Study Part II

▶ BCM332 Global Media Interventions

Chelsea Sandy is one of the top Call of Duty players in Australia. She has competed in many kind of gaming events professionally like EB Expo, Gamescom and the Call of Duty World Championships (Streamerpedia, 2018). In 2015, she decided to quit her full time job as a pharmacy technician to pursue a full time job as a video game streamer and follow her dreams in playing video games for a living. Chelsea is one of the growing number of Australian women who make a living from twitch.tv (a popular streaming site). She goes by the username xMinks on all her social media as well as her main ‘gamer’ tag, and every night at around 10pm she streams to her 330,000 followers – chatting with them while playing her favourite game(s).

Image taken from theguardian.com

Despite already being a professional at what she is doing, she still receives abuse and harassment. This is because the gaming industry mainly caters to the men or the ‘boys’ rather than it being a “girl thing,” so whenever any woman enters the scene of gaming — instantly they get judged and attacked right away just from being the gender that they are.

Like what I mentioned in my previous case study, appearance is the biggest aspect when it comes to women who play video games. Chelsea falls a victim to this abuse, she mentioned in an interview that unlike women, men’s physical appearance does not matter if their gameplay is amazing (Convery, 2017). That being said, if you were to change this scenario and turn it into a woman being good at playing video games and has amazing gameplay; her appearance will be the number one thing that — unfortunately to say — men will critique first, and despite having good skills in playing video games, men will still find a way to belittle women that are just enjoying what they are doing.

Image taken from medium.com

Although there is still a positive future ahead in the female gaming community. After becoming a full time streamer/gamer, Chelsea says that certain things have improved over the years of her being in the industry — putting aside the negative comments. According to Bullen (2015), this is due to the increased spotlight of women in the gaming community — more and more “girl gamers” are surfacing on streaming sites like YouTube and Twitch, producing content and being active just like the men in the community. Women are playing video games just like how men do, some are just as professional and/or skillful and some are just as competitive just like how men are.

If women in the gaming industry were to keep up their pace and stay active and loyal to their followers and subscribers, I can guarantee that one day when you decide to open up YouTube or Twitch to watch your favourite video game being streamed — the top video or livestream available to watch may or may not be a woman instead of a man. I’m not trying to put down the men in the gaming community but if ever this situation were to happen – being a gamer myself and a girl — I’d be more than content.

References:

1. Admin. (2016, June 16). MINKS INTERVIEW (Chelsea Sandy). Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://www.impulsegamer.com/minks-interview-chelsea-sandy/
2. Bullen, J. (2015, July 22). Bad shooters, sore losers: Men take aim at top female gamer. Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://www.smh.com.au/technology/bad-shooters-sore-losers-men-take-aim-at-top-female-gamer-20150717-giezl1.html
3. Convery, S. (2017, January 03). The women who make a living gaming on Twitch. Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/03/women-make-living-gaming-twitch
4. SCUFGaming. (n.d.). SCUF Affiliate of the Week: Chelsea. Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://scufgaming.com/int/gaming/scuf-affiliate-week-chelsea-minks-sandy
5. Streamerpedia. (2018, October 12). XMinks. Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://streamers.gamepedia.com/XMinks

WEEK 5 — A Cinematic Experience

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

Image taken from giphy.com

It was October the 3^rd, the day of my boyfriend and I’s 1 year anniversary. The release of the new Joker movie in 2019.

We got off at Causeway Bay MTR station and stepped out of exit E, just to be greeted with a sea of people; it was around 6PM so I could understand why there was a lot of people around — it was rush hour — but also Causeway Bay is pretty known for having herds of crowds either way. The cinema we went to was next to a couple of jewelry shops and was right in front of H&M too. There were two escalators that we had to go up before we could actually get to the different houses showcasing the different movies, the first escalator brings you up to the level of where you can purchase your tickets. The cool thing about this place was that it wasn’t purely a cinema — it was a sort of mini shopping center but instead of shops, it was lanes of restaurants.

We went ahead and bought the tickets from the ticket counter, fortunately for the both of us — we had student discount. By this time it was already 10 minutes before the movie was going to start, so we walked over to the second escalator that brought us to the entrance of all the houses as well as the food counter. We decided to get some food for the movie, so as soon as we got off the escalator; we went straight for the food. While in line, I was telling my boyfriend how excited I was for this movie to come out — I’m a big comics fan and one of my favourite villains in the comic book world is the Joker. I’m also the type of person who doesn’t watch trailers, I want to be able to enjoy the movie to its’ full potential with no idea or concept in mind of how the movie would go or play out. Eventually we got our food: a large popcorn and a large drink to share.

Image taken from pinterest.com

We proceeded to the ticketing guy before we entered the house in which the film was showing and since we got student discounted tickets, we also had to show our student IDs. Once that was over, we finally made our way through the hall that leads to different houses, we passed by several movie posters that are of movies that are coming soon before entering the theatre.

Inside the cinema theatre the lights were all still on for people to get into their seats since the movie wasn’t going to start in the next 5 minutes, the seats we took are near the back middle — we both usually like sitting in that spot because it’s basically the perfect angle where your neck won’t strain from sitting and watching for an hour or more.

After 2 hours the movie was finished. Overall it was an amazing and invigorating film, typically in comic-related movies there is a chance that there is a post-credit scene; a couple of people stayed behind — us included.

Once we left the theatre and went down the escalator; most of the lights were off, it visibly was darker since it was late at night already and we could see more of the street now since people have already gone home. I always found watching movies in a cinema late at night quite surreal, it’s just something about exiting a large, dark theatre after sitting in it for 2 hours glued to a 45-foot screen that feels… weird.

Blog 2 — The Animal

▶ BCM310 Emerging Issues in Media & Communication

Image taken from qz.com

I’m sure as kids we all have had pets before, whether it was a dog, a hamster or even just a family aquarium and while growing up with them I’m certain you’ve tried to ‘communicate’ with your pets before — sometimes you even felt like they could understand you and ‘talk’ back to you. Well animals ‘communicating’ like humans isn’t as uncommon as you would think, a lot of movies were created to depict anthropomorphism in animals as well as create a sort of unrealistic adaptation to how animals act in front of the human species.

Movies like Madagascar, Happy Feet and Over the Hedge portray an alternate reality in the eyes of the animals. An example would be in Happy Feet where the main character that is the penguin ‘Mumble,’ is shown in a enclosure with multiple other penguins that don’t ‘speak’ like a human while Mumble does; and when he does in front of humans — in the human’s eyes or in this case what they hear, is just a penguin making noises at them — when in reality Mumble is speaking as a normal human being would (Leane, E., & Pfeenningwerth, S., 2013). That makes you really think whether animals really are speaking out to us, is that dog just barking at you or are they trying to tell you something?

Image taken from pinterest.com

In other cases we as humans can or have the ability to domesticate animals, training them to understand certain commands through certain gestures, words or sounds — sometimes even rewarding them with a special treat or gift after they accomplish the ability to understand what we are trying to teach them.

Blackfish is the perfect example for how humans domesticate animals but for the pleasure for other humans. To put it shortly, it’s the story of an orca called Tilikum (Tilly) who ‘lashed’ out and ultimately killed his trainer. Theories go as far as ‘he is just an animal, and that’s what animals do,’ while some who are defending Tilly — more or less animal rights activists — say that he did it in spite because of the way he was treated.

SeaWorld is the infamous place where a lot of animals are ‘heavily’ domesticated, but also the place where a lot of cases animal abuse occurs. Though the trainers of these animals treat their partners (their animal counterpart) quite well, there is always a darker and hidden part to the story. Majority of the animals from SeaWorld are all taken from their homes out in the big blue, and most of them are young and/or babies taken away from their mothers — you can basically say that they were ‘kidnapped’. But they’re animals, they don’t speak the language that we speak; how would we know… right?

A scene in the Blackfish documentary showed a baby orca being carried away in a net while it was making noises at their mother that was right below them, with their mother making the same noises back. If you saw that same scenario happening but to human child and their mother; would that change something?

References:

1. Leane, E., & Pfeenningwerth, S. (2013). Marching on Thin Ice: The Politics of Penguin Films. Retrieved from https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2197044/mod_resource/content/2/marchingonthinice.pdf
2. Zimmermann, T. (2016, August 25). First Person: How Far Will the Blackfish Effect Go? Retrieved May 31, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140113-blackfish-seaworld-killer-whale-orcas/

WEEK 4 — World Wide Web

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

The internet changed very drastically throughout the years, the way that we obtain an internet connection went from having to connect the modem with an Ethernet cable to your home’s desktop computer but now? All we have to do is have a sim card on our phones that provide a cellular data which gives us access to WiFi everywhere and anywhere, and if you want to connect your laptop or any device to the internet then all you need is a Bluetooth connection.

Image taken from hellotech.com

Speed was definitely a key aspect that played with connecting to the internet, in the earlier years; you would probably have to wait at least 5 minutes for a YouTube video to load — fast forward to today, it takes less than 5 seconds for a video on YouTube to load up from the moment you click on it.

I remember my personal experience with the internet back when I was younger was such a different scenario compared to my experience now. I played a lot of video games as a kid and back then the platforms that I would play on were websites like y8.com and miniclip.com to name a few — multiplayer games also existed when I was younger and I’ve had my fair share of meeting new people and friends through the internet.

Image taken from techadvisor.co.uk

I still remember when Skype was popular amongst my generation and that was the main way of communication to our friends that were abroad, but for 90% of the call all you heard was “Yes? Hello? Can you hear me now?” and it was a pain because we just wanted an easier way to communicate whilst playing online instead of typing out our conversations but the internet was just not that developed yet.

WEEK 3 — Collaborative Media Ethnography

▶ BCM240 Media, Audience, Place

Image taken from medium.com

Ethnography is the study of people and their cultures, as well as their habits and customs. Collaborative Media Ethnography however is the idea of people from different cultures gathering together through media to understand each others’ habits and customs from their own culture. Just like the concept of changing ‘reading over the shoulders of natives’ to ‘reading alongside natives’ (Lassiter, 2005).

With ‘reading alongside natives,’ there can still be some potential problems that can arise. Stereotypes play a big part of why problems can potentially arise, let’s take for example the United States. There are people of colour (African American, Mexican, Asians) and then there are the ‘whites,’ usually you hear about ‘White privilege’ in America and that basically means that the people that have white skin in the US have the upper hand in almost everything even as simple as getting an education or a job.

There are still some people that are not open-minded enough of equality amongst all skin colours and all cultures, even when people of different cultures try their hardest to understand those outside of their culture — there will always be instances of misunderstanding or people refusing to accept certain habits of a culture.

References

1. Greenberg, J. (2017, July 24). 10 Examples That Prove White Privilege Exists in Every Aspect Imaginable. Retrieved May 29, 2020, from https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2017/07/24/10-examples-that-prove-white-privilege-exists-in-every-aspect-imaginable/
2. Lassiter, L. E. (2005). The Chicago guide to collaborative ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.