Citizen Journalism - Good or Bad?
This video gives a short definition of Citizen Journalism
Citizen Journalism has the potential to be both great and detrimental. One of the first citizen journalists was Ben Franklin. Without any formal instruction or training, Franklin fast became renowned as a leading mind in America, and as a respected journalist (http://bfranklinjournalism.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/citizen-journalism-101-what-is-journalism/). The problem with citizen journalism is authenticity. With studying journalism comes the learning of certain principles, methods and codes of ethics. These ensure that not only is the journalist ethical in their writing and reporting of a story, but that the story is in fact truthful. With citizen journalism, none of these traits are inherent. A citizen journalist, in the majority of cases, will have little or no idea how to write in a balanced, informative and ethical manner.
Another problem is the fact that most, not all, but most citizens would not have the ability to write in a journalistic style. The writing of news is done following specific rules and using specific methods that ensure that the most important information is readily available, with the less important and less relevant following.
"As a bit of a reality check, when was the last time you encountered a "citizen doctor", valued a report by a "citizen researcher", took off in a plane flown by a "citizen pilot" or saw justice meted out by "citizen policeman"?"
(http://blogs.theage.com.au/media/archives/2006/10/citizen_journal.html)
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Week 9 - Tutorial Task
Questions:
1. Sign an E-petition. I signed an e-petition on this site. http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petition?PetNum=1760
2. Respond to a professional Blogger. http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/a-basic-pr-blunder-that-most-pr-professionals-make-constantly/index.php?success=1#comment-26748 (innovative comment I know)
4. What are the Australian Governments plans to censor the internet?
5. I think censorship does have a place in democracy. However, if in place, the censorship of certain extreme materials must be monitored strictly by a third party organisation completely without ties to the government and one that is governed by the people.
1. Sign an E-petition. I signed an e-petition on this site. http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petition?PetNum=1760
2. Respond to a professional Blogger. http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/a-basic-pr-blunder-that-most-pr-professionals-make-constantly/index.php?success=1#comment-26748 (innovative comment I know)
4. What are the Australian Governments plans to censor the internet?
The Australian Federal Government has announced that it will introduce "mandatory ISP-level filtering of Refused Classification (RC) rated content." What this means is that Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will now have to filter the Internet to block access to websites that would be "Refused Classification" under Australia's classification laws.
The filter will be based on blocking a list of between 1,000 and 10,000 web page addresses (“URLs”). That list is called a ‘blacklist’.
This list of URLs will be maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, and will be added to by lists from overseas groups that make their own lists (such as the Internet Watch Foundation).
RC computer games will be left out from mandatory filtering until the end of a review on how computer games are classified.
The government has plans to give money to ISPs that want to volunteer to filter even more.
6. The NBN will really not have any benefit for my family that I can see. We already have Cable internet with Telstra, one of the fastest in Australia. We have no problems with our internet and no need to switch to the NBN.
The NBN is scheduled to reach my area in the second release phase. http://www.nbnco.com.au/our-network/
Week 8 - Tutorial Task
This week we are in the last stage of filming for our video. We have uploaded the footage from last week onto my laptop and we are in the process of editing it as well. There remained just a few short scenes to film this week, mainly that of the two guys chatting at their computer, as well as some footage of hands typing.
In uploading this film we will have to be careful. Because of the inclusion of two pictures from Google images, we cannot upload the video normally to Youtube, unless we appreciate being sued. The song we sourced from creative commons, so as long as we credit them in the specified method, that should not be a problem.
No we do not own this production due to the pictures.
Hopefully we will finish editing next week and are able to upload the video.
Week 7 - Tutorial Task
Blog post 1: (didn't we discuss these in class?)
Blog post 2:
At this stage, we have started filming some of the footage for our short film. After much discussion on how the final idea for the film would appear, we finally decided on a script. This week we filmed the majority of the footage. This involved creative camera handling due to lack of a tripod as well as figuring out interesting and diverse angles for the footage in order to stave off viewer boredom. As a group the four of us sat down wrote the script for the chat scenes, which quickly descended into lots of laughs at the ridiculous dialogue we were creating.
This week also provided us with a few methods of showing time passing in the film. In the chat scenes, we elude that the conversation has been progressing for quite a while, but did not want to get bogged down showing all the chat, so we came up with the idea of having footage of a sandwich and drink that slowly disappear throughout the film. Also we filmed myself winding my watch fast to create the illusion of fast moving time.
Blog post 2:
At this stage, we have started filming some of the footage for our short film. After much discussion on how the final idea for the film would appear, we finally decided on a script. This week we filmed the majority of the footage. This involved creative camera handling due to lack of a tripod as well as figuring out interesting and diverse angles for the footage in order to stave off viewer boredom. As a group the four of us sat down wrote the script for the chat scenes, which quickly descended into lots of laughs at the ridiculous dialogue we were creating.
This week also provided us with a few methods of showing time passing in the film. In the chat scenes, we elude that the conversation has been progressing for quite a while, but did not want to get bogged down showing all the chat, so we came up with the idea of having footage of a sandwich and drink that slowly disappear throughout the film. Also we filmed myself winding my watch fast to create the illusion of fast moving time.
Week 6 - Tutorial Task
For our project we decided to do a short film parodying the dangers of Facebook.
The actual creation of the video will be done in Sony Vegas 9. I suggested this because I am fairly familiar with this program and already have a copy on my laptop. Vegas is professional level video editing software which allows for major manipulation of video.
1. Both the video and audio for the film will be captured with a video camera. We will add in pictures and a song to give the scenes some variety.
2. As we will be using several pictures that we did not create, we will most likely run into some copyright issues. We have a song we obtained from creative commons so as long as we credit that properly, that will not be an issue. Because of the pictures, we will most likely upload the video to youtube in unlisted format and send Lauren a link.
3. Defamation of Facebook could be a problem with this film. In our plans we are painting Facebook in a somewhat unsavory light which could be an issue. By uploading this video as unlisted hopefully we can avoid any problems.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Week 4 - Response to Content
The electronic gaming industry generates enormous revenue world wide each year. In 2007, a profit of 18.8 billion dollars was recorded (Seeking Alpha, 2008). The first successful gaming console, the Atari 2600, was released in 1977. The console used plug-in cartridge games such as Space Invaders. The first computer games were also starting to emerge at this time.
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game's (MMORPG) are becoming increasingly popular. World of Warcraft (WoW), arguably the most popular MMORPG, boasts a player base of over 12 million. While WoW is not a very violent game, there is evidence of real life danger involved in its being played. Gaming addiction has become a real problem with MMORPG's, as evidenced by the death of several players. The most publicised case was the 2005 death of the user 'Snowly'. The player reportedly played WoW for several days straight, neglecting his health. The increased number of deaths being linked to video gaming addiction sparked the act of adding an 'anti-obsession' system on several games (Softpedia, 2005).
Violence in gaming has also had ties to tragedy. The Columbine High School Massacre involved the killing of 12 students and 1 teacher in 1999. Evidence has arisen that the adverse effects of superfluous violence in the video game Doom somewhat encouraged the killers to conduct the massacre.
Reference List:
1. Ivanov 2005, Softpedia, accessed 26 Aug 2011, <http://news.softpedia.com/news/Two-Fanatic-World-of-Warctaft-Gamers-Have-Died-Becouse-Of-WoW-11821.shtml>.
2. Investment U 2008, Seeking Alpha, accessed 26 Aug 2001, <http://seekingalpha.com/article/89124-the-video-game-industry-an-18-billion-entertainment-juggernaut>.
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game's (MMORPG) are becoming increasingly popular. World of Warcraft (WoW), arguably the most popular MMORPG, boasts a player base of over 12 million. While WoW is not a very violent game, there is evidence of real life danger involved in its being played. Gaming addiction has become a real problem with MMORPG's, as evidenced by the death of several players. The most publicised case was the 2005 death of the user 'Snowly'. The player reportedly played WoW for several days straight, neglecting his health. The increased number of deaths being linked to video gaming addiction sparked the act of adding an 'anti-obsession' system on several games (Softpedia, 2005).
Violence in gaming has also had ties to tragedy. The Columbine High School Massacre involved the killing of 12 students and 1 teacher in 1999. Evidence has arisen that the adverse effects of superfluous violence in the video game Doom somewhat encouraged the killers to conduct the massacre.
Reference List:
1. Ivanov 2005, Softpedia, accessed 26 Aug 2011, <http://news.softpedia.com/news/Two-Fanatic-World-of-Warctaft-Gamers-Have-Died-Becouse-Of-WoW-11821.shtml>.
2. Investment U 2008, Seeking Alpha, accessed 26 Aug 2001, <http://seekingalpha.com/article/89124-the-video-game-industry-an-18-billion-entertainment-juggernaut>.
Week 4 - Tutorial Task
The social network I have chosen is Facebook.
One of the more interesting clauses in Facebook's Terms of Use is as follows:
Access Device and Browser Information. When you access Facebook from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.
Simply put, if you have not completely erased your history, cookies and saved data, the Facebook system is able to not only access data about websites you have visited, on what browser, but also to retain this information. As somebody who frequents websites such as thepiratebay.org, I find this particular clause quite worry-some.
Another interesting clause:
For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
Essentially this clause means that upon agreeing to the terms and conditions, the user legally signs over their right to any content that is uploaded from their profile to Facebook. Furthermore, Facebook also has the right to sell on this intellectual property, at no gain to the user. At the end of the clause a 'failsafe' sentence is added to make the user feel better. However, this is almost completely null and voided by the fact that if the intellectual property in question is shared with others, and the user tries to delete it, the property is not in fact
deleted as it is still being stored on the shared users account.
As of now, the 'Payment Terms' website is actually not available, which in itself is interesting.
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
One of the more interesting clauses in Facebook's Terms of Use is as follows:
Access Device and Browser Information. When you access Facebook from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.
Simply put, if you have not completely erased your history, cookies and saved data, the Facebook system is able to not only access data about websites you have visited, on what browser, but also to retain this information. As somebody who frequents websites such as thepiratebay.org, I find this particular clause quite worry-some.
Another interesting clause:
For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
Essentially this clause means that upon agreeing to the terms and conditions, the user legally signs over their right to any content that is uploaded from their profile to Facebook. Furthermore, Facebook also has the right to sell on this intellectual property, at no gain to the user. At the end of the clause a 'failsafe' sentence is added to make the user feel better. However, this is almost completely null and voided by the fact that if the intellectual property in question is shared with others, and the user tries to delete it, the property is not in fact
deleted as it is still being stored on the shared users account.
As of now, the 'Payment Terms' website is actually not available, which in itself is interesting.
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
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