Of Minds and Machines

"Computerworld - The National Science Foundation has awarded a $25 million grant to Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study how the brain creates intelligence and how that process can be replicated in machines."  Computerworld article

New technology has guided us into an Information Age; this is an age that is less divisive than ever in the past because the tools are so wide-spread that there is no excuse for ignorance. Now, you're either willfully ignorant of the advances around the world or you are being controlled. Technology is both a tool of freedom and a weapon of oppression.

Why spend millions of dollars on studying intelligence from inside a square? Capital now drives progress, and while the dollar is dying we are no longer driven by the urge to explore and discover--we are driven by monetary and limited gains. This hinders progress. I am hopeful, yet wary of the whole thing: I feel they have jumped the gun a bit. Why not first spend more time thinking about the reason and value of being a corporeal individual being vs. a machine or cog in the wheel of capitalistic values.

It excites and terrifies me how so much is invested in ideals that can, seriously, be simplified with a few numbers. People are looking such great things with such narrow lines drawn, and this keeps society away from addressing the problem of consumer technology and the issues of over-consumption, propaganda, and meaning itself. Life loses meaning when it's watered down to a few sensory outputs, which to me is not the point of progress or evolution.

You can't manufacture the future without understanding the present, and our digital footprint is quite immense and valuable-- in an artificial sense, our history has also become a re-run. Every day we are making the same mistakes, and the mistake is choosing to substitute nature for innate ideas, blanket generalizations, and ultimately stepping away from the real world; opposed to some virtual & incredibly value-less reality. From the roots to tops of trees. Our flaw is that we're substituting not only human value for a bunch of $$$$$, but putting it toward more "science and tech" and maybe with a little luck this new project's fund won't be put toward another WMD. (like giant flesh tearing, fear mongering machine soldiers or cyborgs.)

I won't argue with an educated student toying with his robotic theory, while homes are being foreclosed on and families are dying all around the world--because I don't want to waste my time with children who need to grow up and actually do something about the world we live in now and not invent a new one. Even if a self-driving car makes you feel superior, at the root of it all, you're going to eventually have to give up the notion of knowing how to drive in the first place. Embrace the comfortable safety of this isolated hope, that somehow you matter to a machine--because we are becoming the machines we've made in our image.

What do I think? I don't want my future to be run by machines because even if you can replicate the intelligence to some degree of a human being, you'll never replicate the human heart. That's the one small piece of the puzzle that can be easily dismissed--since we thought we understood where intelligence came from and failed to look inward.

NSA Leak Scandal

"Government and industry have betrayed the internet, and us. By subverting the internet at every level to make it a vast, multi-layered and robust surveillance platform, the NSA has undermined a fundamental social contract."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/government-betrayed-internet-nsa-spying

Surfing the internet is a lot like driving down the interstate; information is readily available and the speed at which we receive this data is high. Our government's policing of the information highway has gone far beyond arbitrary ticketing. We are facing a dilemma in our Capitalistic and consumer oriented world, where our U.S. government is becoming almost indistinguishable from a corporation.

In other words, they should be paying us for our information and should not be allowed to steal data from the common citizen. We have a responsibility as information and social media users to know how much of our personal information is available to outsiders, and just who is taking our information and collecting it. We need to know where our information is going and why. Socially conscious users are butting heads with government influenced consumers. Our current President claimed that the NSA was not gathering information on everyone, but without whistleblowers and leaks from individuals invested in Democracy, we wouldn't even know that this was a lie.

In summary, to have a true Democracy and continue to have a collective free society, we have to have laws in place that protect the people from abusers of our constitution and rights to the free flow of information. Without social media laws we will eventually be stripped of what makes us free as individuals, citizens, and we will no longer live without fear of gross manipulations of our right to privacy and safety of our personal data.

Knowing Your Field

Media studies (as an academic field) is essential for landing a job in the media industry. Potential employers will be looking for someone who is familiar with the tools of the trade and who will be dedicated to doing their work ethically. They want to hire someone who knows what their doing, but also who is familiar with the relevance of social media platforms as well as new trends and evolving dynamics. Being versatile in new environments is also key to making an impression on your employer. With knowledge of the different tools and an understanding of media studies, you will likely be on your way to a career. It will take a lot of dedication to get where you want to be.

Having the necessary technical skill and knowledge of media is not only relevant, but essential to working with others in this booming field. It's very important to understand your audience and stay informed of the trends which vary across different cultures. Being able to pin down a common denominator or a cross-cultural trend is essential in advertising and media production. There is also the importance of finding something that you can specialize in; through media studies, you can find what topic ( i.e. politics, sports, health ) suits you best. A solid grasp of the dynamics of mass media is needed for the marketplace and to reach the most potential buyers.

Favorite Ad Campaign: Comm 406:01

My favorite ad campaign is the coca cola small world machine campaign. To me, this is one of the most brilliant advertising ideas ever. It is an interactive coke machine which allows people from Pakistan and India to interact through the machine while getting their coca cola. The interactive 3D camera technology has people trace hearts, smiley faces, and shake hands across the digital platform of the machines. As lofty as it sounds, something like this could definitely provide a new way of advertising.

The machines were installed temporarily (3 days) for the ad campaign, but hopefully they will install similar machines in the future permanently and it proves the power of social communication when it comes to advertising. The reason I chose this as my favorite ad campaign was because they tried something different, and although it won't solve problems immediately, if more companies reach out to their consumers in a completely honest way it could revolutionize the way products are advertised.

Instead of commercials being forced into music and videos, why not have people choose what they want to hear and how they would like to consume products? Interactivity in this new realm of technology has its risks, as society becomes more based on consumerism than culture, but bridging the gap between culture and consumerism may be the new way to reach out to consumers. Connecting people is a strategy that should be focused on in media and advertising.

Blog #1 Comm 352:01

"For the first blog of the semester, I want you to introduce yourself in a more extended way than we did in class. Talk about what you want to do in life, any goal you might have for your collegiate career, memories or anything you feel would be interesting to talk about."

I'm currently enrolled at Shepherd as a media/communications student. Some of my hobbies include writing poetry and stories, watching movies, painting and music. My goal for a career is to be able to freelance and work for companies on projects in film and media. My dream is to produce a major film and enter it into film contests or have it entered into festivals. I've had many opportunities to increase my understanding of media through the courses taken at Shepherd University. My favorite classes are ones that are hands on, and that involve movie or TV production. I hope to get an internship and work in the city in the future, and for now I'm enjoying that I'm learning new things.

Media Trends 2-4 Journal

Week Two
Pre-releasing Advertisements

With the advertisement that went viral last year, now any advertisement agency that is worth it will have to compete for popularity amongst viewers. Advertising agencies are competing by pre-releasing their advertisements. The Volkswagon ad, "The Bark Side" reached an estimated 4 million views in just under 48 hours. This year the KIA and Lexus will also be competing to make their advertisement a success.

"It's totally de rigueur now," Hunter says. "You have to pre-release your spot. You'd be mad not to. And our thinking was, well, you know, we need to remain one step ahead of the game here."
The goal of this is of course to draw attention to people to buy what they're selling. In today's fast paced world, staying ahead of the game is a difficult thing to do. That's why having PR specialists, campaigns, and being educated about the market is so important. In management you have to stay current with trends in people's interests. You have to be able to know your audience.

"The Big Game might be more than two weeks away, but marketers already are shifting their Super Bowl ad campaigns into overdrive."

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/21/business/fi-ct-superbowl-ad-previews-20120121

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/22/145577302/the-bark-side-tells-of-super-bowl-ads-to-come
 

Week Three

The Media Pipeline & How Media Censorship is Shaping Our Government
http://mediamatters.org/research/201201260005

This is a chart showing just how much funding they get::
cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/chart-20120125-keystonexl-3.png

The following is one comparison of media outlets with how they respond to viewers/consumers.

• BROADCAST: Among the broadcast networks, 79% of those quoted or interviewed were in favor of the pipeline. NBC and ABC did not quote anyone opposed.

• CABLE: On Fox News, 66% of those quoted or hosted were in favor and 13% were opposed. CNN featured 54% in favor and only 14% opposed. MSNBC was the most balanced, with 38% in favor and 31% opposed.

• PRINT: Of those quoted by the major newspapers, 45% were in favor of the pipeline and 31% were opposed. The New York Times was the most balanced, quoting 35% in favor and 27% opposed. The Wall Street Journal was the least balanced, with 52% in favor and 21% opposed.

In this research article on Media Matters, the author compares the coverage in all three areas. As it just so happens, print media had the most amount of coverage while the funding and support is next to nothing compared to broadcast and cable television.

The fore-cast is that in the future media will be even more propaganda than now, if the internet gets censored or shut down. With the revenue of sites that are specialized and propaganda news being most funded, we're going to have to fight really hard to have real and genuine media in North America and abroad. Criticisms from the audience are rarely measured by the big media corporations. So it's all talk, no listening, and no real news. What is news media becoming? Is independent media on its way out the door?

How do we manage to overcome this bureaucracy and use independent media to fuel progress in America? The task is becoming harder. while on one hand we have the manpower and technology to have better media in America, we lack the financial resources/funding/ and support.

Media Uncritically Repeated Industry Job Estimates 76 Times. Every news outlet included in our analysis uncritically repeated TransCanada's jobs numbers at least once. The major print outlets did so 34 times - in 29% of the Keystone XL articles mentioning jobs -- with the Associated Press accounting for almost half of those instances. The broadcast networks repeated these figures 4 times -- one third of the times jobs were mentioned. And the cable networks did so 38 times -- 45% of the coverage mentioning jobs. Fox News uncritically repeated these numbers more than all the other television networks combined.
News Corp. Turned A Blind Eye To Pipeline Protests. A string of largedemonstrations against the Keystone XL pipeline took place throughout the fall. These protests were mentioned in 29% of print coverage, 22% of broadcast coverage, and 21% of cable coverage. The Wall Street Journal and Fox News -- both owned by News Corporation -- covered the protests the least, in only 15% of their coverage.

Week Four

Is Angry Birds Keeping Your Brain Healthy?

With the I-pad apps as well as android apps there are more people online playing games than ever before. I read one article on Mashable, where the author talked about one example of an "Angry Birds" game that is helping a person with Alzheimer's stay sharp. These new apps are a great way for companies to develop and innovate the way we connect. For example, with the Microsoft kinnect, there could be innovations with game systems to help people with physical impairments to truly take advantage of this beyond gaming. Nero-plasticity is the study of the brain's ability to heal itself over time due to stimuli.

"Traditional brain games are scientifically designed to boost cognitive activity and enhance memory. A new study from the Archives of Neurology says playing brain stimulating games can improve your memory and delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease."


http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/brain-games/

New Media Trends

New Media Production & Industry Trends

Class Blog 2012

Internationally renowned New Media producer, Tiffany Shlain, had her first feature film, “Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death, and Technology,” shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. She is the founder of the Webby Awards and a proponent of social media as it progresses in the 21^st century. Shlain’s film addresses media in the broadest sense by looking at the way media affects us on multiple levels.  She asks the hard questions: “How do we stay connected? Is the internet making us smarter? What is the future of this technology?” Shlain doesn’t hold back and knows how important this freedom of expression will be in the long run.

If there are close to 2 billion people online, then we’re all connected and also simultaneously affecting each other. Shlain talks about how interdependence on each other affects everyday life. She addresses the cause and effect of each action. Chain reactions through media on the internet and texts on a cellphone are a big deal according to her. Reading about Shlain and her success in the industry has helped me to view the future of social media with a fresher perspective. She has an audience to appeal to—anyone who is invested in this technology and its advancements would make a target fan.

In part of the class discussion, we talked about how technology has changed over time. The internet has made networking more accessible to people like you and me. When in television there are four main networks, on the internet there is more freedom for a person to advance as a producer by networking on social sites i.e. twitter and Facebook.

To become a successful producer, director, and film-maker you will need the skills to meet the needs of your market. This means that producers in the industry need to stay current with trends in media and develop a broad outreach to fans and subscribers. In media production such as television, one of the key factors would be to consistently appeal to your audience. You want to make them think outside the box or intrigue them enough so that they become a fan of your product. The same idea goes for the internet.

Media can be a variety of things. News is information media and sells because people need to know what happens in the world. Although film could be thought of as a vacation from reality, it can also inform, inspire, and educate us on issues impacting the world. I found Tiffany Shlain to be a savvy and inspirational key figure in media evolution. Her Film “Connection” is a great example of a film-makers success and would be helpful to watch. She knows how to reach her audience, she knows the trends. With a link to her Facebook page on her website, a Twitter, magazine links, etc. it’s obvious that she also knows how to network.

The first magazine article I found is on MovieMaker.com

http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/tiffany_shlain_connected_20111012/

I also found more information on the Tiffany Shlain’s movie at the Cinesource Magazine website.

http://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.php?/site/comments/tiffany_shlain_saves_the_world/

“Shlain's films aim to influence social change by tackling big topics with animation, archival film clips, whimsical graphics and humor. Her latest is a breezy take on nothing less than the history of the universe, the evolution of humankind and the future of technology. Woven throughout is a sober and touching tribute to her father, Dr. Leonard Shlain, who died of brain cancer while she was making the movie.” http://pacificsun.com/news/show_story.php?id=3521

http://connectedthefilm.com/