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So, what do you understand from the term "New" in New Media? And why did you decide to enroll in this course? What are your expectations from the course?

christiandiarios — 2024-05-08 17:29:04 UTC

When it comes to new media, "media convergence" is a common theme within every forms of entertainment. Everything is most likely owned by 5 big companies. The whole concept of "New Media" 100% correlates to the internet, and how effectively information can be accurately spread or public attention can be raised. New Media makes use of the internet and it's algorithms to make sure these news outlets can reach out to as many people as possible. I enrolled in this course because I was a fan of COMS 201, and I believe I can perform very well in this class! I expect to come out of this class with a whole new perspective on "New Media" and how I can effectively use this knowledge to my advantage. Whether it be through social media, or entertainment, I am hoping to use the knowledge I learned from this class in my every day life!

May 13th Post: To what extent is privacy a concern for you as a user of communications technology and new media? How has privacy as a concern changed over time?

christiandiarios — 2024-05-13 17:15:14 UTC

For me personally, my privacy changes from each form of communication app I use. For example, for social media apps such as Instagram, discord, snapchat, or Facebook, I use these apps to form connections and publicly post photos, story updates, and information I feel comfortable sharing with the public such as my name, and face. However, for media that I use for entertainment, such as youtube, or twitter (X), or gaming tags/account names, I like to remain anonymous, as I don't want people to know my face, name, or identity, and don't feel comfortable letting someone I played a game with online private message me or spam my social media page. I believe privacy has started to actually become less relevant, with apps such as Tik-Tok, making people famous by exploding videos with views for dances or reaction videos. During quarantine many Tik-tokers became famous overnight with their real name and face exposed, so I assume that many up and coming tik-tokers will follow suit and also post with their public identity being shown to the public. Many members of the youth are currently active on Tik-Tok, so as they grow up I'm sure the same youth will grow up to post their information publicly for social media as well. I believe as time starts to progress, privacy will become less and less relevant or preferred.

May 15th: What has been some of the hype about new media, in terms of the expectation that it s able to change everything, typically for the better? What has been some of the counter-hype?

christiandiarios — 2024-05-15 17:41:01 UTC

Although it was already mentioned a lot during class, I believe the new next thing everyone has their eyes on has to be A.I. Although there is an equal amount of hate and love for A.I, the truth is many companies are investing into the concept, slowly integrating it into their social media structures. For example, Instagram and Facebook is now including an A.I service (known as "Meta A.I") in their search bar engines. Now, if users were to use the search bar for whatever reason, they now automatically have A.I being used without having been asked. A.I has been seen as a crazy technological advancement for every sort of technological-company alike. It is said to make studying easier, opens doors for animation, all with the salespoint of "less work needing to be done" to reach high level product. Some examples of counter-hype are lots of artists/animators addressing their concerns of A.I stealing their jobs, and a large group of people not feeling comfortable with A,I potentially taking over our society and basic human interactions. I personally am not a fan of A.I, but can admit that if used properly as a tool rather than a "replacement" of our hard work, that it could be used effectively. However, if we were to make the wrong step, or use this tool unwisely, it could most likely take over our everyday lives, making our community less self efficient.

May 22nd: What are your thoughts on the debate about whether dependence on mobile devices (and other new media technologies) has resulted in an unhealthy relationship with these technologies? Give an example in support of your argument.

christiandiarios — 2024-05-22 17:26:58 UTC

I believe there is some truth to the argument and don't think many of the younger generation would last a single day without their phones. Especially with the TikTok video we watched today. I can't imagine any of those "influencers" having days off where they take a break from their phones. I even find myself struggling to go days without scrolling through social media or consuming entertainment content from Youtube or Twitch. I believe our current generation has been conditioned to spend hours of our time alone with our tech, especially due to COVID-19. The only young adults you could find that probably won't be attached to their phones are young adults who were raised by their parents to not use electronic devices, such as athletes, or musicians. I believe lots of this generation rely on convenient tools such as "google" to find the easy way out, and have lots of problem solving issues. Technology has definitely been over relied on, and I'm not too sure how to fix it! Only time can tell how much worse it could potentially get for our future generations from here. I do have hope that all of humanity won't be attached to these devices the same way my current generation is, but I believe there would need to be a big change.

May 27th: Aldridge and Colleagues (2002) Distinguish among three main types of social capital. Discuss these, identify examples of these in your own work and life, and consider the implications for you (and others).

christiandiarios — 2024-06-02 23:26:59 UTC

The three main types are "bonding", "bridging", and "linking". "Bonding" makes use of your already formed relationships and focuses on deepening the relationships you already have. I personally "bond" with my already close friends from my hometown. Even though they are thousands of kilometers away, I always make it an effort to get closer to them by intentionally making time to play online video games with them, hanging out with them online. "Bridging" stands for making new friendships apart from your current social circle. I can relate to this technique as I intentionally try to make 1-2 friends in every one of my classes so I can form helpful studious relationships. This makes it easier for me to adapt to my social surroundings and improve my social skills. "Linking" involves creating social relationships with leaders or governments to leverage their power and influence. For me personally, I always try to get close to my supervisors and managers at my part time job. Due to my personal connections at work I find myself just very slightly favored in niche situations. For example whenever hours need to be cut and shifts need to be sent home early for money efficiencies, they will usually ask me if I want to go home first. They also trust me with more tasks they wouldn't trust others with such as supervising the floor when they need to leave and for pricing items for them when they are away. I believe we all need to strive towards getting better at each factor of social capital in order to reach our best forms of communication.

May 29th: How do you think the advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform the creative industries and what are the potential benefits and challenges of integrating AI into fields such as Art, Music, Film, and Design?

christiandiarios — 2024-06-03 00:23:32 UTC

Potentially, AI could positively make a change in the creative industries by making harder tasks easier, such as offering support for animation studios. However, I believe if managed poorly it could lead to the entertainment industry becoming very lazy and over reliant on AI generated tools. For example, artists could be out of work, if companies just decided to generate their artistic needs through an AI program rather than hiring an artist to edit and take their personal creative efforts into a project. This could lead to many companies producing similar visual content through advertisements, posters, edited photos, etc. A drought of creativity will occur to the public eye, as many will just be exposed to the same thing multiple times. It will also discourage artists from wanting to pursue a artistic career, as they may find themselves to be hopeless as they aren't competing with each other anymore but now competing against an ever growing digital enemy that no artist has ever had to face with. I believe AI should be enforced as a tool, never to be a replacement to the creativity that a human mind can produce. I believe this because although AI could write an interesting concept, or create a nice looking picture, I don't see it creating these projects with the same heart and passion that a human has. We are able to appreciate artwork and movies through the passion and emotion the directors/artists put into each stroke/scene. These humane feelings will be too distinct for an AI to handle, ruining any chance of humans being emotionally impacted by these forms of entertainment, which will ultimately prevent audience members from wanting to to go to movies or attend museums. I believe all forms of entertainment should keep their sense of a human heart.

June 3rd: 3 things I took away from the video presented in class.

christiandiarios — 2024-06-05 16:55:47 UTC

It was really interesting to hear that Propaganda was a necessary technique used to overcome the "danger of democracy". Looking back, it makes sense that the only way a collective community were to combat any unwanted "Democracy" throughout the use of any digital social media, would be to spread lies and false news to try to prevent any further developments from being concluded. Lies were probably more believable back then due to the lack of resources to fact check them. This probably made all forms of information received through news articles very skeptical or "hard to believe".

It's also interesting to hear that the press is intentionally censoring information due to a wealthy power not wanting to give out any or all pieces of information that could potentially harm them and their image. It raises the question and forces us to ask if anything we read online is truly authentic? Or are news reports filled with 80% lies with only a 20% of the information being true?

I found it interesting when he mentioned how there's a "filtering system" that starts in grade 2, which selects obedience. People with behavior problems won't be able to make it the initial selection, and will eventually fall down the social hole. They'd be labelled as students with "behavioral problems", and be known for that on their resumes and job applications, to prevent work places from accepting these types of delinquents. This raises a bad image for an individual and can make it hard for that person to land a job in society, which could potentially lead them to raising even more propaganda against society, only continuing the never ending cycle of "propaganda".

June 5th: Try to discover the country of origin of the product you are using right now, such as your laptop, clothing, backpack, apps in your phone ETC. Try to account for Raw Materials and Multiple Points of Origin for complex items with embedded components, as discussed in Naomi Kleins video. Identify how much - of anything - is "made in Canada." What do your conclusions suggest about Canada's role in the knowledge economy.

christiandiarios — 2024-06-05 17:10:09 UTC

Looking at my iPhone, I can find most of the pieces for the phone being manufactured and created from China. With that being said, Canada doesn't directly contribute to the reproduction of Apple and their products, but contribute their products by endorsing them through Canadian phone plan services such as Bell, or Rogers. Apple would normally strike deals or straight up sell their products to Rogers or Bell so these Canadian companies can take care of the marketing or publicity sharing for their products. Canada is usually just in charge of advertising Apple's products and doesn't contribute in the production process. This is still a healthy business relationship as Apple knows they can trust Canada to distribute their products consistently and effectively, which in turn maintains the increasing sales of Apple products in Canada. This provides Canadian phone services with a consistent flow chart of which time of the year they would be receiving the apple products (mostly September, where they strike student plans) and prepare their advertisements beforehand. Overall this is healthy for Canada to receive new products to keep their phone services satisfied, and great for Apple who wants to spread the reputation of their company to every corner of the world.

June 10th: Take a look at the CRTC Website, noting the most recent decision relating to New Media. Pick a recent decision that has general applicability (e.g, net neutrality or isps as carriers versus broadcasters) and consider how it fits with the concepts and analyses in this chapter. Does the approach of the commission or the tone of the decisions match with the views of this text? Does it match your own views?

christiandiarios — 2024-06-17 03:39:04 UTC

A recent article published on June 4th this year, stated that starting in the years 2024-2025, streaming services will now start to contribute 5% of their Canadian earnings to support the Canadian broadcasting system. This relates to slide 8 on the power point, where they mention that internet infrastructure remains a strong mix of private and public investment. Canada is investing into these public services, so that they can receive the same investment back in private. 5% seems like a small percentage of money, but coming from multiple services that makes hundreds of thousands of dollars, each portion will be contributing considerably for Canada and their broadcasting system. Another concept I found relating to the slides, was the second set of complicating factors, which would be "internet users may be able to evade national laws by accessing content or making transactions through other territorial domains". The CRTC took account of this, by charging the services directly, rather than the content creators. By charging the actual streaming service, it makes the company more liable, and gives the CRTC an easier time identifying which companies paid the bill, or attempt tax evasion. I believe that this new law definitely matches the tone of the text as it's a modern rule that is keeping up with today's current new media needs. In the beginning of the slides, it's stated that the internet law, rules and governance are more intangible, fluid, and changing its form regularly, in contrast to the requirements of the real worlds legal system. This new law wouldn't be that applicable or relevant 10 years ago, but is totally relevant now, with the relevancy of streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, over cable television that used to take the world by storm. I believe that this law definitely matches the tone of the text. I also agree with this new law, and believe it's a very relevant one. I believe the official Canadian radio services are under utilized, despite the service being essential to our country. The fund promises to invest directly in the Radio, News Channels, French-Canadian content, and Indigenous content as well, and predicts to generate $200 million per year in new funding. I personally find this great, as this will greatly impact the overall diversity of each Canadian rooted culture, while also being extremely cheap to maintain. 5% isn't a big cut off from major companies such as Netflix, so seeing that money go in places that will directly impact our country's culture is something I think is totally worth investing into.

June 12th: In today's video we saw "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a single story". Where have you seen examples of this in the media? Additionally, have you experienced a situation in your own life where a dominant narrative has overshadowed your identity or personal story? How did it affect you, and what can be done to ensure more balanced storytelling in media?

christiandiarios — 2024-06-17 03:42:05 UTC

Chimamanda's "Danger of a single story" was a very powerful video that has remained relevant throughout our current time, despite the initial video being uploaded 14 years ago. One dominant storyline I have seen throughout media is the reputation of Police officers. Before, police officers were revered and feared with pride, justice, and completely reliable services that benefitted the people. Nowadays, we see movements like "#abolishthepolice", and many songs disrespecting the police, with even new slang referencing the police by using the word "ops", as the phrase stands for someone who will betray you or "snitch on me to a higher authority". Police officers are heavily disrespected and seen as "individuals fueled with power", when in reality their roles still play the exact same. They are to enforce the law, without any exception, and through any means necessary. In a modern society where emotions are a new priority, it's hard to side with any police officer when there are many videos intentionally edited to make a cop look bad. In my personal life, being a full blood Filipino, a lot of other Filipino's judge me and make fun of me for being more Canadian cultured, compared to my Filipino side. For example, I don't know or understand any Filipino dialect, or am naturally good with my hands, compared to the average Filipino male. I speak more Canadian, and have more emotional strengths compared to my physical relevancy. Many new Filipino's I meet judge me when I can't do many Filipino things, where I personally see myself as "Canadian first, Filipino second". I believe we can incorporate more "balanced story telling" not through the media, but through our own personal ambitions. We should make it a goal to try and see everyone we meet in their own, unbiased light. When it comes to false information being spread online, we could also try to make an effort to do the same amount of studying for both sides of a story, before making our own judgement.

June 17th: How does this documentary tie into any of the concepts you have learned this term in COMS 203?

christiandiarios — 2024-06-17 18:24:50 UTC

The Tiktok section near the beginning of the video reminds me of the Tiktok house video we saw in class. Tiktok is transforming our youth in a negative way, and is doing so through interactivity. Snapchat does the same as well, but the youth are attracted to likes, and are deceived by the false projections people like to post on both of these apps. Modern youth base their identity off of these apps, and are unintentionally taking part in participatory culture. They are all interacting with the creators of these apps by reposting, sharing, liking, and creating on these apps. Their interactivity is what's keeping these social media apps alive, while also negatively impacting their mental health and the way they view themselves and this world. It's very interesting to see that these social media apps are mostly taken advantage of by the mobile phone. It makes me think about the origins of the cellular phone, and how it was created to simply just be a tool of communication for convenience, but has now evolved into a device that could be used to harm others. Due to the overall relevance and reliance of cell phone technology, it's unfortunately more than likely that everyone will have to interact with social media, and have to figure out the dangers of social media through their own experiences. The documentary makes it very clear that our social media should be monitored responsibly if we want to use the same apps effectively and safely. In conclusion, the video reminded me a lot of our earlier lectures on interactivity, and re-emphasized how much our world has changed since the development of the cell phone.