New Technology and the Media: Friend or Foe?

Posted on February 5, 2012 by mbottaro

Throughout history there has always been worry with the connection between “new technology” and “the media”.  When something new goes public, media leaders must decide if this idea or object will be good or bad for them.  According to Pavlik, events such as this goes as far back as the 1800’s.  Pavlik tells the story of how Samuel F.B. Morse brought photography to American newspapers.  As you can see this connection benefited media and is still used today.  The problem with investing in new technologies, is the risk that they may not become very popular.  The reading states that “In 2006, not a single major U.S. media organization sponsored a pioneering MIT Media Lab.”  Today, we rely on many media leaders such as Google to help us with things like research.  You can type anything in the search bar and guaranteed something will come up.  Imagine if investors did not believe enough in the internet and did not invest their money.  You would not be able to read this blog right now.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pavlik, J (2008). Media in Digital Age.

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Guzman Kiara

Technology has made a big change in life. It is used all over the world by everyone and it has became an every day life basis use. I myself use technology all day long whether it’s my cellphone or using a computer and I am still speechless and fascinated due to how technology works. Technology has grown dramatically throughout the years. GPS’s have made life much easier for us people and travelers who are unfamiliar with certain areas and they are also now enabled in cell phones and not just gps devices. High speed wireless internet access (WiFi) has been a way for many of us to save money and have internet access everywhere we go. In my belief cellphones have been the biggest success in technology due to the fact that it’s used to make contact with people, use of internet just like if it were a computer, it can be used as a cĂĄmara and also media player. Cellphones have many things put in one. We have many advantages also with computers. Back then there weren’t and computers and people had access to information through books. But now life was made easier with computers and it has became very useful for school preferences. Now we can take online classes, who would’ve thought that classes could have been taken at home through a computer. It is very interesting how technology works and how it is used. As the years go by technology would only get more advanced and well never know what to expect.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What’s All the Hubbub Buddy?

Posted on February 5, 2012 by matty65

After doing the readings I noticed that both were published in 2008 and thus where somewhat outdated. The technology of the Net moves so fast that that they where probably outdated a year after they where written. For example; all of the suggestions that Pavlik made concerning the use of GPS and handheld communication devices are old news. I was particularly interested in the Harris and Meade report. Just what is the Arts Council England anyway?

“Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in England. Since 1994, Arts Council England has been responsible for distributing lottery funding. This investment has helped to transform the building stock of arts organisations and to create lots of additional high quality arts activity.” (Wikpedia)

The Arts Council England is what we would call a gatekeeper. Protector of the faith and defender of the written word, the mighty ACE stood watch over the realm, until the mighty horde cometh! The horde of course being the millions of users on the World Wide Web. I believe that the commission the this report arose out of fear and misunderstanding of the WWW and truly free information for all. The ACE needed to know just what was the WWW? Who uses it and why? and Just how the hell do they fit into all this? At the end of their report Harrington and Meade pose three questions:
Will ‘literary’ writing survive online?
Will e-readers play a significant role in our future?
Will digital publishing ever sell its products directly?
Since we have the advantage of hind sight we can say, at least for now, that the answers to all three would be yes. So what does this mean for gatekeepers such as the ACE? Are their days numbered and they’ll soon go the way of the spokeshave and the blacksmith? Will they attempt a coop and try to leash what the web has unleashed? Maybe they’ll integrate in an attempt to simply survive. HMMMMMMM?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Common Crafts Videos (Wikis in Plain English)

Posted on February 5, 2012 by cruzanthonymark

Watching the video made me realize that there is more to “Wiki” than just being a big ball of information, the video taught me a new way of communicating with friends as well as an alternate source to e-mail and instant messaging. But I truly disagree with how they simply point to as they described “old fashioned” texting/instant messaging and e-mail messaging to be unreliable, for one I think, but I may be right or wrong that all wiki pages can be seen by literally everybody, this means that there’s a chance someone can come in and just delete or mess up the information a close group of friends have put in for their own personal use.

Therefore I honestly think that there should be at least a way of organizing how information between close people should be disclosed and that personal trips (such as camping trips) with a few close friends should be a private discussion instead of a public one and even then public discussions for camping trips should be moderated so that no crazy or insane guy can just come in and ruin everybody’s hard work.

Posted in Assignments | Leave a comment

primary and secondary sources

Posted on February 5, 2012 by David R

Reading from our textbook, the section on primary and secondary source caught my attention. I was hoping that the author William Badke would elaborate further on how to distinguish a source of writing as a primary or a secondary. I feel that a lot of website know how to present themselves and do so but as a primary when really they aren’t. I feel websites know that if they present themselves as primary they have much more credibility. they also know that presentation is key and no one is really going to check the fine print on a regular basis to see if they are legit primary or secondary source. I would have liked Badke to devote a whole chapter or multiple sections in a chapter to distinguishing between the two more readily because unless you’re researching for a paper on a topic, no one really pays attention to sources. They just want the material and assume its reliable, not until they write bibliographies for their sources that they will analyze more closely the fine print and credits.

Posted in Assignments, Readings | Leave a comment

Pavlik,J Media in the digital age

Posted on February 5, 2012 by cj

Technology is used all over the world as we know, and we are all fascinated by it. I love going on the internet to search on the internet, check my email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Technology is everywhere even on cell phones.We can search the web using WiFi and having faster internet service using high speed internet for our computers and phones,we now even have GPS on our cell phones and even cab drivers have GPS installed in there cars so they can find their way to an unfamiliar location more easily and quickly. Back then in the 1990’s we didn’t have cell phones like the ones we have now like the iPhone and Android phones, back then people would use beepers and there home phones to communicate with others. And to listen to music we had CD players and walk-man’s.Now we have iPods and can even listen to music on our cell phones. Computers are even more advance now especially with the Mac computers which was designed by Apple,i strongly believe they are replacing Dell and other computer companies.

I am so fascinated with the technology that we have now because i feel that we all should know a lot about it and learn how to use it for our advantages. Even 3D is being popular now and they already have 3d televisions, its very interesting. Even HD TV’s, Blue ray disc,the list goes on and on. But as we all know technology to me was really inspired by Movies because back then in the 80’s technology was being used in so many movies all the way up till now in the year of 2012. In the article it says “Nevertheless, citizens of all ages and status are in unique position to shape, innovate, and enjoy media in the digital age.” I believe they are trying to say that we all should be able to take advantage of this opportunity regardless of our age because it is for all of us. But the most important thing is can we use technology for in a good way and not a bad way? Because regardless if we like it or not technology will always be with us for now and in the near future.

Posted in Assignments, Readings | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wiki’s are a two way street

Posted on February 5, 2012 by ajimenez630

As an avid user of wiki’s I didn’t really think I would learn anything new from the video. Unfortunately my suspicions were confirmed but the video only briefly touches on the usefulness of wiki’s.Wiki’s  can express topics upon many things–your favorite show,a baseball team, and even the history of mankind , if it exists there is likely a wiki for it that anyone can contribute to.This is also a double edged sword because there are always misinformed people willing to post in the wiki. Whether it be on purpose or completely accidental wikis can house wrong information.There are moderators of course but if the wiki is massive in articles(like Wikipedia) it is not humanly possible to catch every single mistaken, error ,and or biased contribution.In conclusion Wiki’s can be a great tool for knowledge but also the down fall of correct knowledge if not monitored carefully.Then again seeing how every one is being replaced by machines these days I would not be surprised if human moderators were phased out and replaced by Artificial intelligence, which honestly terrifies me.

Posted in Assignments, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Blogs In English

Posted on February 4, 2012 by mikeferrara

After watching this video my view of blogs has become more broad.  I use blogs all the time, to find obscure information, look up reviews on products, and especially to find how to fix my computer.  After watching  the video I now know that I myself am a blogger  by having and writing on facebook. I also never thought of all blogs being a form of news, actually,  I thought many of them were just a collection of useless information that someone would have to be crazy to sit and read. As the video says “These blogs appeal to a high number of small audiences.”  This is something that can also be harmful. If you constantly read a blog and consider the writer of the blog to be a trusted source of information, who is there to stop you from believing something the writer puts up that is completely off the truth. I am not saying that the big news companies are always telling the truth, I just think we need to be careful.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Chapters 1 & 8

Posted on February 3, 2012 by itohanedoloyi

I enjoyed reading the Preface. I found it interesting that William Badke described researching as something that in turn, someone can come to enjoy. It’s almost as if researching about a topic you may know or not, can be intriguing, seeing that you yourself can be entertained simply by searching in the nearest library. In chapter one, I liked how Badke motivates the reader to go out there and come back with a stellar research paper. It’s funny that is when Badke describes something, it’s almost as if he’s putting himself in our shoes, and thinking how we would about researching a topic with no relevance to our lives. As I was reading this, I came up with questions that within seconds of continuous reading, was shortly answered. It’s ironic that the same strategy (5 W’s) we used as a child when writing a summary, can also be helpful when doing a research paper.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Wiki’s in Plain English”

Posted on February 3, 2012 by egonzalez

 

I found Common Crafts video “Wiki’s in Plain English” to be extremely informative. Prior to watching it I had no idea what a “Wiki” was. I had just assumed it was an abbreviation for the Wikipedia site, when actually it is a way of simplifying communications amongst a group of people.”Wiki’s” are documents that can be added to or altered and then saved so that everyone can view them. It eliminates excessive emails being sent back and forth amongst.

I feel confident in saying i’m capable of starting or editing a Wiki, on my own.

That being said, creating or contributing to a “Wiki” as a means of organizing with a group of people won’t be my first option.  Call me old fashioned but I much rather pick with the phone or meet for lunch to discuss plans.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment