Week 12 - Photojournalism

It is said that news must be as entertaining as it is truthful. Do you think both can coexist harmoniously in the world of photojournalism?

To my understanding, Photojournalism requires the photojournalists to be able to share stories of life to the people. Photojournalists also uses pictures and narrate the pictures with words. Photojournalists are able to create photos that can impress people by taking an images of reality. As stated by Busst (2012) that photojournalism is a way of life where photojournalists dedicate their lives to tell stories of other people and to document certain events, in which to create news. Every news follows a strong sense of ethics to prevent the harming the credibility of the field. As Wright (2004) stated that ethics is a part of philosophy that is concerned with right or wrong issues. On the entertainment news., there are no specific ethics to follow unless it is instructed by the corporations that own the producers of such news and its basic concept is to entertain.

A photojournalist must know the concept of ethics in photojournalism as to create entertaining and truthful news to prevent from controversies. Lester (1999) stated that the concept of ethics in photojournalism are used to make secure that there are no controversies by the story which is told by a photojournalist.

Apart from preventing controversies, Photojournalist will be more reliable following the ethics as they are not allowed to change the situation in anyway that they documented in the story. For the entertainment news side, in which is basically to entertain has different concept. Some of the ethical codes may be not be followed during the process of entertaining. Photojournalists might lose their credibility or their job at their each particular media organization or corporation if the attempts to break the ethical codes.

In conclusion, merging photojournalism and entertainment news might risks a photojournalist credibility due to breaking the ethical codes of photojournalism.

References:

Busst, N. V. (2012). Telling stories to a different beat: Photojournalism as a “Way of Life”. Unpublished thesis dissertation, Bond University, Australia.

Lester, P. M. (1991). Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.

Wright. T (2004) The Photography Handbook. (2nd ed) Routledge, London.

Week 11 - Information Graphics

Compare the two graphs below. What is the ethical problem here?

Initially, both of the graphs above look very effective in terms of visual perspective. Anyhow, if the reader continues to read the data at the values and variables, there are several complications can be seen on the two graphs. The information graphic is to present information and data with the objective to deliver knowledge to the reader in simple form. According to Lester (2006) stated that information graphic is utilized and illustrated to describe intricate information with possible clarity and it is widely employed to demonstrate an abundant amount of information.

The above graph title shows a quite subjective as it states the difference on softwares between both graphs. Both Microsoft and Linux softwares were not known to be as open sourced which the main problem is the initial title itself when comparing the two softwares. Therefore, both of the graph above are able to deliver the knowledge visually than verbally which this is the main objective for information graphic as Tidwell (2011) stated information graphic as "to communicate knowledge visually rather than verbally."

On the variables, the X and Y-axis are different in both graphs. Linux graph shows there are 10 variables while the Microsoft graph has 11 variables. Both graph don't have same variables and few variables are able to be compares as presented on both graph. However, comparison on X-axis cannot be made as both graphs have different variables. On the Linux graph shows the multiples of 5 for the variables value while Microsoft shows multiples of 10. Hence, the more concern of this if the Microsoft software is used.

According to Pettersson (1993, p. 173) stated, “Information graphics provide the reader with a rapid and easily grasped overall view of a message and are therefore highly suitable as an introduction to and summary of a subject.” Therefore, a graph shouldn't have complications views to the reader because information graphic must at it simplicity and help people to understand what is being represented quickly without prior background knowledge of it.

References:

Lester, P. M. (2006). Visual communication:Images with messages. USA: Cengage Learning.

Pettersson, R. (2002). Information Design. An Introduction. United States of America: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Tidwell, J. (2011). Designing Interfaces (2nd ed.). CA: O'Reilly Media Inc.

Week 10 - Games & Avatars

Do you agree that you are cyborgian in nature?

The answer for the tutorial question above is yes. The reason is we are we are constantly relying on machines such as handphones, car, laptop that we are addicted to it and makes us difficult to live without them. The more we rely on prosthetic, the less usage of our natural or real body parts. This is true as the advances of technology take place, we are nearly can be someone we wished to be with senseless of feeling on what we do or say. According to Clark (2003, p.10) stated that ‘what makes us distinctively human is our capacity to continually restructure and re-build our own mental circuitry, courtesy of an empowering web of culture, education, technology, and artifacts.’

In addition, we cannot live without the machine as they have been apart of our life. Levy (2001) also stated, "we cannot separate the material world- even less so its artificial component -from the ideas through which technological objects are conceived and used, or from the humans who invent, produced and used them."

Another reason for this agreement of the question above is the need of prosthetic is needed to restore information as a memory in other way to help the brain and the body to gain more information. For example is on prosthetic memory, which is the computer. According Landsberg (2004) defined prosthetic memories as "emerges at the interface between a person and a historical narrative about the past, at an experiential site such as movie theater or museum."

In conclusion, we are more depending on technologies as prosthetics and it is difficult for us to live without them as this technology as part of our lives. Therefore we are cyborgian in nature.

References:

Clark, A. (2003). Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Landsberg, A. (2004). Posthetic Memory: The Transformation of American rememberance in the age of new mass culture. NewYork: Columbia University Press.

Levy, P. (2001). Cyberculture. United State of America: University of Minnesota Press.

Week 9 - Cinema and Television

Name your favorite television and film. Explain how the film or television could shape a person's identity.

My most favorite television animation series is Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) and most favorite movie is Thor. This television series and movie have in common on the main character who has the motivation to be the best and respected by other, trying to be the best by went through a lot of obstacles or challenges. In other word, the film or television not only just to entertain audience but to deliver a messages to the audience, in which this messages are the knowledge and this knowledge is known as Cultural Literacy. Schirato and Yell (2000), stated that "cultural literacy can be defined as a knowledge of meaning systems and an ability to negotiate those systems within different cultural contexts. It is virtually impossible to describe and analyze what is happening in any communication context or practice without using the concept of cultural literacy."

Television Series

Movie

The film or television could shape person's identity by the cultural literacy and also the emotion audience (he/she) have towards the television series or movie. Currie (1997) stated, “By imagining ourselves in the situation of a character with destructive, immoral desires, and thereby coming to have, in imagination, the desires of the character…”.

Another way where film and/or television able to shapes a person identity is by the influence of the characters in the movie or television series. According to Fildes (2008), they are the constructed worlds that can fascinate us with alternatives to our own society. Therefore, people learned and influenced by watching television or movie which shapes their identity from just by watching them.

In conclusion, the film or television could shape a person's identity due to the audience have the cultural literacy to understand the television series or movie. It's also could shape a person's identity by the influence from the television and movie, where a person copy the behavior or identity of the characters and apply it to their life.

References:

Currie, G. (1997). Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fildes, A. (2008). I Watch, Therefore I Think: Teaching Philosophy Through Cinema and Television. Journal of Screen Education, (49), pp. 88-93.

Shirato, T. & Yell, S. (2000). Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction (2^nd edition.). Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Week 8 - Photography

Why do we consider photography as a form of cultural critique? Is every photograph able to do so?

Photograph is a picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused onto film or other light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment, or stored digitally as Wright (1999, p.1) states that "photography has been used to record all aspects of human life and activity.". Therefore, in a photograph can have more than one meanings embed.

Photograph is also a prosthetic memory. According Landsberg (2004) defined prosthetic memory as a form of memory that "emerges at the interface between a person and a historical narrative about the past, at an experiential site such as movie theater or museum."

Photography usually used the captured images as portraiture. Whether the images captured during the past and present, which to create nostalgia, in many ways shows more accurate representation of life than paintings. Apart from being able to document whatever happened, Photograph could be use to critique culture.

Photography is consider as a modern cultural product and it is one of the modernity revolutions. Due to this, photography can be critique culturally. Photography is also a simulacrum as another reason for being considered as a form of cultural critique. Simulacrum is defined as “a copy of a copy whose relation to the model has become so attenuated that it can no longer be properly said to be a copy." (Pronger, B, 2002). In other words, Photograph is a powerful tool to critique culture because it is a real truth which it is a form of cultural critique. For example of the picture below which document the people and certain landscapes of Africa. The picture shows the world wide that the African country suffer from financial and economy problem.

References:

Landsberg, A. (2004). Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.

Pronger, B. (2002). Body Fascism: Salvation in the technology of physical fitness. Canada: University of Toronto.

Wright, T. (1999). Photography Handbook. London: Routledge.

Week 7 - Visual Narrative & The Media

Why is Narrative important when shaping a visual image to the audience?

Narrative is a story-telling. It is a story which consist of experiences, series of events, actors, time and location whether true or fictitious. As stated by Altman (2008), Narrative is "the practice of story-telling". Therefore, a visual image will be just a picture and the meaning of the image will be unknown without narrative.

According to Aristotle, in his work which is focused on literary theory of “poetry”, he says “a tragedy has the following parts: Prologue, Episode, Exode, and a choral portion, distinguished into Parode and Stasimon (Howell, 1968). Basically, Aristotle asserted that a narrative has a beginning, middle and it is structured according to its intertextuality with the help of the Parode (character) and Stasimon (narrator). Therefore, Narrative has its own structures which are beginning part, middle part and final part. This 3 parts are called as Aristotle's Dramatic Structures.

According to Mieke Bal (1997) also stated that narrative has 3 structures but different from Aristotle's Dramatic Structure. He stated first part as Fabula which is telling us what is happened in the story and why it is happened. Second part is plot which made of Fabula or events to form a consistent and coherent whole. Last part is text which represent of information that produced by an agent. These 3 parts has its purposes. Beginning part is telling about how the story begin, middle part is known as climax part where the conflict is happened and final part is the conclusion of the story.

There are two natures of narratives which are Story and Discourse. Story is the chronology of events that is in a narrative. In other word what is told is the story, which means it is the narrative content. Genette (1988) stated, discourse is the “oral or wtitten, that narrates them” which means how the narrative is told. Discourse makes a story clear on how it is to be told. The visual image will produces a story to the audience in a form of picture due to the natures of the narrative. This natures of narrative helps to shape the visual image. Therefore, this will make the audience understand what is the meaning of the image. The picture below is an example.

The picture below show what is told, which is about the war. The first scene shows a group of soldiers were in battlefield. The second scene shows how the soldiers help each other do camouflage. The third scene shows the soldiers are hiding and sneaking the enemy and the last scene shows how one of the soldier help the other soldier who was shot. This is how it is told, which is by creating a picture of different scenes in one picture.

In conclusion, narrative is important when it comes to shaping the visual image because narrative is story-telling. It is also due to the two natures of narrative which is story and discourse which helps in shaping the visual image to the audience.

References:

Altman, R. (2008). A Theory of Narrative. New York: Columbia University Press.

Bal, Mieke. (1997). Narratology: Introduction to the theory of narrative. University of Toronto Press.

Genette, G. (1988). Narrative Discourse Revisited. New York: Cornell University Press.

Howell, W. (1968). Aristotle And Horace On Rhetoric And Poetics. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 54(4), 325.