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Lab 2:

Why is the definition of genre controversial and not so applicable to the formation of digital genres? You may use the iPhone as a case.

Shiels, M 2008, 'Obama uses iPhone to win support', BBC News, 3 October, viewed 16 June 2009.URL: []

A genre is used to classify different ideas and works that people have; for example, comedy, science fiction and horror are different types of film genres. Even though it has been used for thousands of years, it is not so applicable to the formation of digital genres because of digital convergence. Digital convergence means to combine several types of digital technology such as voice, video, pictures, texts, broadcasts, etc into one. Genres are not applicable because nowadays since everything is combined into one, the genres that they come from are unclear.

The iPhone is a good example of this because it combines pictures, videos, phone, music, television, and a lot more things on one device. There are over 200 000 applications that provide iPhone holders with different features that they can use. However, since there are so many applications, the genre of the different application is vague. For example, there is a photography application that allows you to add effects to your pictures; this application may be seen under the category of ‘entertainment’ or for some people may be seen as ‘photography’ in its own genre.

Obama used the iPhone to create an application in less then three weeks that allows people to keep up to date with the campaign information and there are videos, pictures, and reasons to vote for him. This application does not have a specific genre because it does not fall under only one thing. This is why digital genres are not applicable in the definition of a “genre”.

Lab 3:

Do you agree or disagree with McLuhan when he defines comics as an extension of photographic media? In Marshall McLuhan’s article, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, he talks about ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ media. Hot media, such as television, does not require a lot of thought because when viewers are watching it, the programs are designed in a way that is easily understandable. However, cool media, such as photographs and comics, require a lot of thought and effort in order to understand the message that is being conveyed. Also, in cool media, different people can interpret things in different ways. Whereas with movies and television shows, though people can still interpret things in different ways sometimes, it is not likely. I do not agree with McLuhan when he defines comics as an extension of photographic media. This is because the way pictures are interpreted is much different than the way comics are. A comic is accompanied by text and is often a series of pictures that tell a story. Whereas photographic media is one picture that captures a moment and may have text in it, but doesn’t have to. Also, pictures and paintings usually have a lot of attention to detail because it is a single picture. However, detail is not an important aspect of comics because the main point of it is explaining a plot or understanding the text. Though both photographic media and comics are ‘cool’ media and require a lot of thought in order to interpret it, they are completely different types of media and are not an extension of each other.

Lab 4: An Internet meme is ‘a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke’. An example of this includes Lolcats. Lolcats are pictures of cats with funny captions underneath them. This memes became popular recently and are commonly found on a lot of different websites.

== In the article, ‘Tweety profs offer political smear-meme 'truthiness' ratings’ by Lewis Page, he discusses his Internet project in which he uses the twitter application in order to measure Internet memes. This project is being done because it is believed by Page and his colleagues that internet memes are viewed by a lot of people because they show up in search engines very often and are brainwashing them into false beliefs about politicians and other things. The website that is going to measure the ‘truthiness’ of these memes is truthy.indiana.edu. ==

== I believe that this is a good idea and internet memes do brainwash people and manipulate them into thinking false things. However, I think that the method being used is not going to be so effective. The only memes that can be identified by this project is about politics. Also, the only way they determine if it is truthy or not is by the amount of visits it receives and how many people click the ‘truthy’ button. In the world of fast pace technology, I don’t think this website will be able to stop all internet memes, because that is impossible to do so. However, it may help in the November congressional elections, because memes that affect politics might be reduced. ==

==== So even though people use these methods of grading their networks, and might seem whimsical to just fill ones ego. These methods have great importance in helping determine the value of objects, that normally would be intangible, in a world that's fastly becoming digital. ====

Lab 7:

In Rick Spence’s article, ‘Put social media to work for you’, he discusses what social media is and uses Naheed Nenshi’s successful campaigning story as an example of its effectiveness. Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, wiki, Facebook, Youtube, or Twitter.

Nenshi has addressed almost every kind of audience by campaigning on different types of sites that people visit which was very effective. He not only created a website in which people could see information and be updated, but he also was very active on Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. He also created his own Iphone application. By addressing so many different things, he reached a lot of people which ultimatly created awareness of his campaign and led him to winning.

This article shows that social media is very effective and necessary in order to inform or educate people because it is the most popular form of media. Even if people do not read the newspaper every morning, they definitely will go on their Facebook and check popular new groups and updates.

At the end of the article, Spence adds a question that asks about peoples businesses. I think this article is trying to encourage businesses to start using social media more in order to become successful because it is becoming almost necessary to do so in order to be known since it is now used by everyone.

Lab 8:

I have long been a fan of Banksy’s work, which for the most part is slightly anarchist. He has done many pieces that show the negative control of the media and the corporations, and how they subdue the human spirit. When I saw the simpsons opening sequence I was very shocked to see that Banksy was involved, because TV is not his usual medium for his work. I was also shocked to see the actual scene its self, and the message it portrays. That is not to say that Simpsons and Banksy are not a perfect fit for each other. Simpsons has long been seen as a satire of the “american dream” life, and its iconic imagery has become synonymous with the American culture. It is also from this imagery, that simpsons finds most of its humor, they use this imagery to show whats wrong with the american way of life and applies a satirical filter to it. Obviously the opinion scene in simpsons is not realistic, there are no dolphin tape rolls, or unicorn hole punchers, and hopefully kids are not actually wiped to do work. But that is not to say that there isn't child labour, and a general disregard for the environment and the other creatures that live on this planet. Most of the times these elements are not exposed fully since the western society is so dependent on the labour provided by the developing countries to survive. Also due to the overly sensationalized society we live in, Banksy had to add more shocking imagery to get his point across. In the end quite a lot of products are produced in facilities that we may consider unethical, and this has become necessary in order to fulfill the american consumption. Take for example Foxconn, a factory in China that has over 300,000 employees. Last year alone the company had 13 suicides on their factory property, the living arrangements for this workers is beyond pitiful, and their pay is minimal. One of the biggest client of Foxconn is Apple, a company that made more than a billion in profit from the sales of products produced in that very facility. Banksy chose the right medium to get his point across, which he also did very well. Yes the sequence was not very tasteful, but when you are talking about child labour and violation of animal rights, you can not be all nice about it. Also if this bit had been on an edgier show such as Family Guy or south park, the shock effect might have been wasted because it would not stand out compared to the other usual shocking content, nor would it reach the target audience Banksy intended this short for, the general American people.

Lab 9:

Write a response/opinion on the following article:

 []  The article, ‘Truthiness’ by Ben Zimmer, talks about Stephen Colberts introduction to the word ‘truthiness’. According to dictionary.com, truthiness is the quality of being considered to be true because of what the believer wishes or feels, regardless of the facts. He introduced this word in 2005 on his show, ‘The Colbert Report’. This word soon became viral and won the ‘Word of the Year’ award in 2005.It was also entered into the New Oxford American Dictionary in early 2010. This article is interesting because it relates to the meme group work we have been doing in class and it made me realize how difficult memes are to go viral. Colberts new word was initially criticized, even though it is not even entirely new. Also, the main source for anyone to refer to for if a word is ‘real’ or not is through dictionaries. However, language is constantly evolving and is different to everyone, so dictionaries should not be the only source for people to look at. Words should continue evolving and people should be open to the idea of adding new words.