Algorithmic control II: Privacy, Surveillance and the price of content
As previously mentioned in older blogs of mine the internet can be a scary place especially when it comes to privacy and surveillance as in order to really be invisible and not tracked on the internet takes a lot of effort. Everything you do and look at on the internet is tracked by someone, weather it be your internet service provider or even your government (depending what you look at). Privacy is something that is quickly disappearing in particular, China. With the rise of facial recognition for things such as taking money out of an atm to checking in at an airport, the question has to be asked is there an ulterior motive in place for these facial recognition software? How do the people know that this software isn’t being used to spy on their everyday lives, keep track of spending and who knows if that information isn’t being passed on to businesses who can use targeted advertising? How long till it reaches the rest of the world?
Algorithmic control II: Hardware Platforms, Access Permissions and Ideologies of Control
Digital media is an ever growing platform, where people can speak their mind and access information but at what point does it become a place where people can only access particular information. There are two types of platforms, open and closed. Open meaning people can view and access what they want and closed where people are limited to information that can be seen and they both have positives and negatives. One positive of a closed platform is that majority of the information that can be accessed is safe for viewing in most cases while in an open platform their can be some information and material that might not be. It all comes down to personal preference, me I like open platforms as I can view information that does not have biases however someone else my have a different opinion. Feel free to share you opinion in the comments
Algorithmic control I: Intellectual Property and the Content Control Industry
Who owns content on the internet? Is the uploader of the content? The person who views the content first? The owner of the social media platform the content was posted on? Back in the day it was pretty cut and clear who owned what but in this day in age ownership of content is tough to differentiate as next to zero content created on the internet is original. People copyright claim full YouTube videos while only having roughly 4% of that content being theirs. It’s a difficult call to make with nearly nothing being original, and everything being controlled by big companies on platforms they either created or at the very least own a large portion of the platforms which means they decide who gets to own what content with copyright strikes and no investigation
Internet paradigm IV: Hyperreality, Simulation, Spectacle
Hyperreality, simulation, spectacle. Now what do these mean? Well id like to focus on simulation with a focus on Plato’s cave allegory and how it applies to our everyday life. Now what is Plato’s cave well it’s a story of sorts, one that makes you think about your own reality as many can think of how it applies to them. Imagine you are chained in a cave with a light source behind you and this light source casts shadows of the outside world onto the wall in front of you, imagine this is your life stuck seeing everything in 2D shadows on a wall. Now imagine you are let out of this cave and you finally see the real world, would you be able to understand it? Comprehend it? Now imagine the cave is your phone that im pretty sure everyone reading this has. Looking at the world through your phone, why not look at the real world every now and then.
Internet paradigm III: Framing and the Construction of Perception
Framing is everything and the perception that comes from framing is important to each individual. (totally not confusing) now what people seem to not understand is how big businesses can change the way you view a product by changing the framing of their product thus changing your perception of said product. I assume people still wonder why Nigerian email scams and fake tech supports still happen, its because not every individual has the same perception resulting in the scams still working if only more people would watch James Veitch, who I recently discovered changed my perception on these scams in a fun and entertaining way by acting dumb and annoying the crap out of the scamers so much so that they ask you to stop responding.
Internet paradigm 2 – Distributed media and Meme Warfare
“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones” – Albert Einstein. What a genius, now im sure we all understand that he was referring to nuclear weapons leaving us back in the stone age, but he clearly underestimated the power of the internet and the ever increasing battle that is known as meme warfare. Now some might say WW3 has already begun with social media platforms all taking pot shots at each other with the deadliest weapons known to man… memes. This meme warfare has gone on too long with many injured egos (Shia LeBeouf and his HWNDU flag), but the end of this battle is no where near finished… unless Kim Jon Un does decide to start the real WW3 that will end everything.
Internet paradigm 1 – network participation and collective intelligence
The internet can be a scary place especially to new people just popping in and having a look or celebrities. What boggles my mind about the internet is the collective of people (im assuming their people) who wok together to find information no one person could ever dream of finding, in particular the now infamous Shia LeBeouf. Bummed about trump becoming the president in America Shia LeBeouf began a campaign of sorts with a flag stating “He Will Not Divide us”, now some would say this is a message of hope for the people of America but the people of the internet saw this as a challenge and the efforts the people of the internet to shocked me. It is incredible looking at the participation on the internet and the collective intelligence that can be found on the internet working to strike things down just for the kicks.
Medium Is The Message Part 2
After some more refection on medium is the message, I agree that the medium IS the message, but I feel that it should be cut down to be made simpler. Getting a photo of a person can have a message whether it be an advertisement for makeup or an Instagram post from a BCM student showing off that hot bod it has an underlying message to it. Placing a filter of some kind on that will ultimately change that message but in saying medium is the message is convoluting, it is much simpler to just say here is the message especially in the current media where consumers of digital content don’t care if you say medium is the message.
Medium Is The Message Part 1
The medium is the message…. The medium is the message…. Why not just cut out the medium in the phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan. Just the message is the message, adding the medium to the phrase just confuses everyone myself included. Yes, changing the music behind a video will change the overall message of the video but why confuse people more by stating “medium is the message” just leave it with “the message” part. This is the message! Oh, look I changed the song to a video THIS is the message now. Now this is my opinion on medium is the message and I implore you to leave a comment, let me know what you think, if you disagree let me know!
DA Pitch
Doesn’t it suck wasting money on a movie you thought would be great but turned out to be the suicide squad of movies, don’t you wish you had decided to sit though that 20-minute-long movie review? Well do I have the thing for you. For my Digital Artefact I have decided to go with a podcast series reviewing movies for those who want that short but sweet review. Since I was a little kid, I have been watching a variety of movies from the good to the bad and I feel this has left me with a greater understanding of what makes a movie worth seeing. For my reviews I plan on leaving each review with a see it in cinemas, wait for DVD/ streaming or never touch rating. This would result in the average movie viewer able to make a clear decision on whether they should see a particular movie.
DA Beta
Using feedback to iterate a product you have created is one of if not the most important aspect of creating a product especially when creating YouTube videos or in my case a podcast. Using feedback from my audience I have had to iterate my podcast in a major way, changing from creating a scripted podcast (yes I know its sounds weird) to just a natural talking as thoughts come up has really made the prosses of creating my podcast easier in one way but harder in another. Writing scripts isn’t always easy especially when it comes to opinions. so not having to create one has made the process easier however trying to keep an audience engaged enough to stay and listen without pausing and constantly using ums and ahhs is another challenge and one I will have to keep working at as I continue to create podcasts down the line. Furthermore, I made the decision to change the name of my podcast from cut the shit reviews to a quick review as I realised the previous name my not sit well with a large number of people. I am hoping the change in name will encourage a larger number of people to find and listen to my podcast resulting in my audience growing.
Dechlans Blog 