Week 4 Update

This week tute raised many issues that need to be covered in a small amount of time; a very,very small amount of time. so small in fact it is almost not possible. but here goes . . .

First off, I was amazed to find out Stephen Stockwell is the keyboard player for the black assassins. the anti-conservative punk movement in oz produced some awesome music ( the black assassins, the saints, radio birdman) and some colourful characters, and i think it's damn cool our lecturer is just such a man.

That said, i had problems finding any academic articles on the library database that would support my chosen essay topic. I did, however, find three texts by an author in the US, Robert McChesney ( mentioned several times in the early chapters of the textbok) in the library catalogue that would support the issue i plan to address. That issue being how new technologies that are constantly being developed are making it easier and easier for muti-national media moguls eg newscorp to deliver news stories that often completely lack objectivity to the everyday world citizen. As new tech is developed, it is inevitably controlled by one of several companies with monopolistic agendas and that compromises the responsibility these companies have to offer unbiased info to the public. it gets under my skin.

Here is the answers to those 10 questions
1)worlds biggest pumpkin - 1061 pounds www.pathtoenglish.com/astonishing/The_Biggest_Pumpkin
2) email him because its instantaneous
www.ask.com
3) a giraffe's tongue is 18-20 inches
www.ask.com
4) ontology is a specification of a conceptualisation
www.ask.com
5) 'Shivers' in 1975
www.ask.com
6) 1986
www.ask.com
7) they start with 555 to prevent viewers of the film ringing the numbers on the screen and contacting real ppl or businesses.
www.ask.com
8) ferry
www.athensguide.com/ferry.html
9) 03/20/65 I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE PARTY BEATLES 39 1 03/20/65 I MUST BE SEEING THINGS GENE PITNEY 31 4 03/20/65 IF I RULED THE WORLD TONY BENNETT 34 4 03/20/65 LONG LONELY NIGHTS BOBBY VINTON 17 5 03/20/65 THE RACE IS ON JACK JONES 15 7 \
www.gramble.com/music/60sbydate2.html
10) the black assassins
www.ask.com

On a final note, I really quite intensely disliked this weeks lecture. I for one have had no problem with Stephen's lectures, he does a pretty good job in my opinion considering the content he is at times delivering. The same cant be said for the two guest lecturers. It was amusing listening to two obviously biased individuals put a positive spin on the selfish, profit driven world of PR. I learned very little from the hour in which they spoke and regret arriving on time. On the upside the second half of Alphaville was worth sticking around for.

Week 2 - New Comm Tech - 15/3/07

The topics covered in this weeks lecture blew apart my fledgling confidence level. I suppose it was the lecture where we made the cross-over from easy 'introductory style' lectures to lectures which involve a sudden barrage of new concepts and terminology that left me momentarily dazed and confused. The short introduction to semiotics brought a smile to my face as we had already covered some of these issues in another course and it was pleasing to see that even at this early stage knowledge from one course could be successfully applied to another. So that is what i'll talk about this week. I hadn't really considered it up untill now but its looking like the ideas we are being introduced to in Stephen's lectures are like the missing link between the rest of my subjects which are dealing with theory ( in my first cultural perspectives tute Caron actually said 'We are going to change the way you think about thinking') and the Bachelor of journaliam as a whole. Teachings about media concepts and developments over the 20th century are the first ideas ive been introduced to that I feel will really help me in a career in journalism. So I guess I might have been unnessecarily dramatic when I said my confidence was 'blown apart', its not really, its just that this is the only one of my subjects where the word journalism has even been mentioned. So while im off studying more philosophically based, 'arty' subjects New Comm Tech so far has reminded me I am in fact studying journalsim and is giving me a base to return to with the ideas I encounter in other classes. Well thats gotta be around 300 words cya next week!!

Week 1 - New Comm Tech - 8/3/07

To be perfectly honest, this is the course I predict I find will find most challenging. Coming from a technologically repressed childhood ( my mother was, despite being a teacher, not in favour of filling our house with new tech) it is only in the past few years that I have begun to interect with new technology ( computers, microwaves, telelvision etc.) on a regular basis. As a perfect example of my computer illiteracy, Simone sitting next to me just complained that this program doesnt automatically correct grammer at the beginning of a new sentence. She received from me a vacant stare and a sheepish admission I had no idea any programs, ever, in the history of computers, could do that for me (inset laughter here). 'Blogging' is a term I had never heard before the start of the first lecture. When Steven went on to say that Blogging would establish itself as a core component of this course I thought 'wow thats fantastic! 30% of our mark for this semester revolves around a topic I have absolutely no familiarity with'. That said, in the past 15min I have gone from knowing nothing about blogging to being a cautiously optimistic blogger.
I have read bits and pieces of the first 4 chapters of the New Comm text book and have happily found that the authors early analysis of Australian media reinforces some of my own views about the subject, which is making the reading easier and more enjoyable. All in all, the first week of New Comm has evolved through several stages - Apprehension, optimism, blind mind numbing panic, relief and now optimism for the second time. This course will have alot to teach and I look fowared to the following weeks.