Friends and South Park

Since I've been told that South Park is a constant frame of reference in my life and it directly relates to one aspect of our course I thought I'd share this clip.

Technology Today!

A couple of weeks ago in tutorial we were discussing how easily news items and other videos have been edited to create new forms of pop culture in society today. Here is an example of this. It is very important you watch the videos in this order.



Then watch what it was turned into:



This shows two things. That catchy pop songs are ridiculously simple to produce. And that video/audio editing has become a very easy thing for the average person to do in their own home. The 'Bed Intruder' song has reached over 30 million views (over a variety of videos) as well as becoming a fully mixed song available for purchase on the iTunes store.

This is all very well in terms of people making the most of technology for fun and games. But it makes you wonder. News items, interviews and debates (unless live) can be interferred with and tampered with so much, and we might not even notice. These days, it is so easy to mess with relatively valuble information.

The film 'Zeigeist' is a good example of this. George Bush's speeches have been played around with to make him appear Anti-American, and support the film's idea of the 911 Conspiracy Theory. Alterations to what he says flow so smoothly that the average viewer wouldn't even notice the cuts and fades,but once you notice them you can see them appearing quite regularly.

It's important to realise that we live in an age of rapidly increasing technological developments that can be used for both entertainment and more serious political affairs. It's kinda scary stuff. Let's just hope we get more Bed Intruder type hits, because that stuff is amazing.

One Laptop per Child?

So it’s been a while that Nicholas Negroponte made a brilliant move towards a better world – providing children in the poorer countries with a laptop each, to give them new opportunities and experiences of the developed world.

Before we start admiring his great deeds, here’s an inspiring line worth considering.
‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.

What has Nocholas Negroponte accomplished? Yes, for sure, he provided the children with a new, revolutionary tool (as he calls them ‘the new pencil’). But who’s there to educate them? The teachers themselves do not understand how to run the system, and so the laptops have now just become a fancy toy that they like to PLAY with.

But it seems that he still hasn’t realized the problems of OLPC. He is now making tablets for children in the poorer countries.

Nick, I admire you for the good cause, but I think you should reconsider this project.

New Media = Suicide

Last week, on the 22nd of September, an 18-year-old American university student committed suicide after a hidden webcam taped the student engaging in homosexual acts and was posted on various chat and social networking websites. The student, unknowingly filmed by two of his roommates, consequently jumped off the George Washington Bridge due to the resulting humiliation of the sex tape. Gay rights protesters exclaimed their consideration of the student's death as a "hate crime", with the defendants now facing up to a possible five years in prison for "invasion of privacy". There are ongoing debates about what sentences the defendants should get.

This tragic story highlights the corruptible nature of new media and the potentially detrimental effects of it. There are many other accounts of the potentially harmful effects of new media, such as networkers and bloggers losing their day jobs as a result of posting their dissatisfaction with aspects of these current occupations. There are also several other cases where recently departed couples have posted private, naked photos as well as personal details of their previous partner on the internet for mere revenge.

The case of the university student is an extreme one, however, it does highlight the lack of privacy one faces as a result of new media. Social networking websites, complemented by advanced technology have become undercover agents for public humiliation. The webcam on the student's laptop, streaming live across the web was hidden from his conscious mind as webcams are such a commonly owned item, and with individuals' online and real lives becoming increasingly integrated the opportunity for humiliation is now significantly heightened.

Having read this blog, does it bring to the forefront of your mind that our private lives are now becoming increasingly exposed? Where will our private lives be in ten years time?

Will we miss it?

With the end of newspapers in print looming over media as much as the All Blacks failure to win a World Cup in over twenty years looms over New Zealand, the question must be asked, will it actually be missed? The World Cup is obviously missed as many Kiwis threaten to riot in the streets if the mighty AB’s can bring home the Webb Ellis trophy, but does the world feel the same about print newspapers? It seems not.

Circulation is down, profit is down, and free internet access is up. People around the world the world don’t see the point in paying for something they can get for free, and would rather not inconvenience themselves with a, sometimes, hard to grasp bunch of paper that will need to be discarded after twenty minutes. This then raises the issue of those that don’t properly recycle their papers and just throw them into the rubbish, causing even more harm to the environment. A lot of environmentalists around the world will be glad to see the print newspapers go.

I must admit though, I am one who will dearly miss the newspaper. Don’t get me wrong, I love the free and easy access the internet provides just as much as the next person, but there was something about waking up before school every morning and reading the paper with my old man that was really special to me. That was a long time ago though and, as they say, times change. With more and more people becoming reliant on technology at even younger ages, the news is becoming increasingly easier to access via mobile phones and other similar platforms. Nonetheless, it will be a sad day when print newspapers are a thing of the past and I for one will definitely miss those annoying bunches of paper.

Not-so-common wealth

Delhi, 2010. History in the making.

This years commonwealth games have caught a lot of media attention and publicity…and with good reason, too. The tremendous media and public uproar that occurred following the exposure of photographs depicting the living conditions of the games villages was humiliating for India, to say the least. Photographs that made media headlines showed leaky toilets, stained washbasins and dirty beds – all intended for visiting athletes. What followed was an embarrassing international condemnation of India and the Indian government, inevitably established by the refusal of several athletes to participate in this year’s commonwealth.

But there’s another side to every story. Truth is, India has come a long way. What really exists in the country’s capital today are stadiums, arenas and villages of international standard. First class and quality products created and hosted by a ‘third world’ nation. But nobody ever told us that.

Thank heavens for blogs, facebook and youtube. The past three weeks has seen a complete shift in media representations of the commonwealth games. Thousands of Indians, enraged by the negative publicity that India was garnering went on a rampage of pro-India propaganda, determined to show the world what else was really happening. They were citizen journalists empowered by new media. Bloggers going on frenzy and filmmakers with a new found passion. My Facebook news feed for the past half a month has been clogged with groups, videos, photographs and status updates all showcasing and rooting for the newer, cleaner, more developed India. Possibly for the first time in the Indian context has the indi-media and non-mainstream broadcasts engaged so many people and elicited such a response.

Today, (finally!) all the Indian mainstream media have hopped on the bandwagon and are on a pro-India rampage.

Thank you, new media. On behalf of all the Indians of the world, thank you.

Ticket Scalping

So after watching the events of last week’s amazing 3 minute sellout of rugby Sevens tickets and the almost instantaneous emergence of those very same tickets reappearing on Trade Me I realised that the internet has provided another platform from which people can rip off other people.

Does anyone remember the days where to get a high demand ticket you used to have to line up outside the store for night/nights just to get a ticket? You knew that the shop would have a certain stock and as long as you were reasonably placed you had a good chance of getting a ticket. Do you remember the party atmosphere as day turned to night and all those queuing around you got tired of sitting around? Pulling shifts with friends? I don’t know, I guess what I’m trying to get at is the fact that pre online ticket sales there was a sort of investment not only in money but in time for certain desirable tickets.

It seems that the detachment from the whole process leads to the ability to make a quick buck. Anonymity in selling and the simplicity of purchase are also factors, distancing themselves from the purchaser and the possible moral implications of illegitimate ticket sales. Though not all scalping is bad, sure there are those who legitimately have to sell their tickets for whatever reason, I just disagree with the few that but tickets solely for resale.