How People Consume Media Today

The internet has changed the way people consume media. Before the internet was developed, people were passive to consume media. They just watch, listen, and read what professional producers creates. For example, when fans love a science fiction film, they watch only the film over and over again. However, in the modern days, people created their own products through media. They become the active audiences who consume and produce in media. For example, a person who is a huge fan of a film, he or she not only watches the film for many times, but also create a video, song, or writing by themselves, and then spread the creations to other fans through internet. The difference between the present and past way to consume media is how active people are to consume media. Thanks to the internet, “there is no clear division between producers and consumers” (204).

The relationship between the fans and product owners are cohesive. Even though fans’ creations can be considered illegal because they may violate the copyright law, their creative products can also benefit the product owners. As user-generated contents spread through media, other fans can view their products and this circumstance can be a great marketing tool for product owners. In other words, product owners offer certain theme to fans and the fans can create their own products related to the themes. They interact and benefit from each other.

As mentioned above, fans culture has been changing. In the past, fans were passive and relied on products which were already created by professional product owners. However, thanks to internet, they have been active by creating their own products and contents and spread them to a wide array of fandom. Moreover, fandoms become huge more and more as fans interact, communicate and share their ideas each other through internet. For example, fans tend to create fan pages in social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so that they can communicate with other fans and extend fandom.

Post-Production

Our group have done with storyboarding and filming. At first, we had focused on comparing between a good interview and bad one. This is pretty off topic because we need to create a video to promote Rutgers Career Service. Thus, we began to make a new storyboard again focusing on how to introduce and promote ‘mock interviews’ tool which is one of the career services Rutgers provides. So, we made a script that a person successfully finishes a job interview after practicing the mock interview. We used Google Docs program to write a storyboard and script, so that every member can easily access to it as well as edit anytime. Also, we made a group chat through Groupme application for cellphones, so that we can communicate whenever we need to say to the group. This is a good way to negotiate and coordinate among the members. Then, with the iphones, we started to film based on the script. We took various camera angles shots and tried to dress appropriately. We took the video in one of the members’ houses, Livingston apartment which looks appropriate to the office background. We have two more things left we anticipate reaching soon; video editing and writing a paper. Fortunately, one of the group members is savvy about editing a video and wants to edit the video. We also need to use a screencast to introduce the details of mock interviews process. Lastly, we have a paper that shows how we created a final video for the group project. One of the members are more working on editing video, so the rest of the members decided to work more on the paper. The paper consists of the six parts and each of us take one or two parts. After writing each part, we are going to combine all of them and edit to make connected. This will be the last collaboration for our group.

Gathering Materials

The movie from Youtube:

The song from SoundCloud:

The image from flickr:

I chose a video from Youtube which shows the general idea of our group’s project. The video was created by the group who took the course of Strategic Presentation last year. The video introduces Rutgers career service and emphasize the mock interviews tool which we plan to work on for the final project. I believe that the video will be definitely helpful for our group project by giving us a general idea of our final presentation.

As for the song, I chose the acoustic version of Firework covered Jenny Lane. The reason why I choose this song is that it I think tend to encourage interviewees who are very nervous and confused, as well as lack of confidence. Especially, I like a part of the song lyric: “cause baby, you’re a firework. Come on show them what you are worth.” When interviewees listen to the song, they may feel confident and encouraged. Moreover, because this song is the acoustic version, it is comfortable to hear, so that viewers may not be bothered by hearing this song on our video. I want to recommend this song!

Lastly, what I emphasize on the image that I chose from flickr is the camera angle. I am pretty sure that we are going to film the scene in which an interviewee uses the mock interviews of Rutgers Career Service with his or her laptop. It is important to emphasize the useful and comfortable aspects of the tool: interviews can easily practice their interviews only with their computers or laptop before getting a real one. To show how to use the tool and how useful Rutgers Career Service is, we need to take a shot that a person is playing the computer to do the mock interview from the web site.  The camera angle of the image is really good way that we can emphasize the advantages of the tool.

For the last week assignment, what I focus on the Lessig reading was that “the problem is that the laws governing quoting in these new forms of expression are radically different from the norms that govern quoting from text. In this new form of expression that has swept through online communities that use digital technology, permission is expected first” (160). As I mentioned, the permission is really important when we use various outsource materials for out final project. When I chose these three media (a song, image and video), I used Creative Commons Search Engine with which people legally share their knowledge and creativity. By using this kind of programs, I can legally use the materials with the implicit permission.

 

 

After Storyboard

Each member of our group did the personal storyboard for the final project. Then, we planned to compare among our individual works and created an optimal video by embracing the good ideas of them. This personal storyboard process was really useful to share various and great opinions regarding the final project.

We had some common ideas as well as different one. Generally, we had a same idea about the angle including wide shot and balanced shot. Moreover, we had a common opinion on how to dress during the interview. We focus not only on how to answer the questions, but also on how to dress well to give a good impression to interviewers. Now, we realize that we need two different costume for the project.

Additionally, we need to keep in mind how our group legally find outside sources to supplement our final project. There are tons of outside materials including images, sounds, words and videos that we can use for the project. Digital technologies have transformed the distinction between the public and private. Via the technologies, users can easily release their opinions, and others can easily look over, share as well as possess them. But, according to Lessig, “The problem is that the laws governing quoting in these new forms of expression are radically different from the norms that govern quoting from text. In this new form of expression that has swept through online communities that use digital technology, permission is expected first” (160). When we want to use outside materials to complement our project, we need to get a permission from the owners of the sources.

Before Storyboarding

For the final project, our group is going to create a video that shows how people do successful interview. We will film two different examples of interviews: one is a bad mock interview and other is a good one. The video will deal with the comparison between two examples to help viewers realize what is a good interview process. The reason why we chose this topic is that we want to give people, who look for jobs through Rutgers career services, useful information about the appropriate way to dress and answer the questions during interviews. In my personal story board, I want to show the differences between the good and bad interview well. So, I think we need at least two cameras for reverse shot to more emphasize the differences. I will start with the wide shot to compare generally for the first scene, and then use close up or extra close up shots for details of each. I also think that the different lighting will be useful. For the good example, high key lighting will be suitable to give a positive image to viewers, while little low key lighting will give a negative image of the bad example to audience. I am already excited to do the project. I really appreciate my group members who help me a lot. Thanks!

Midterm Reflection

Midterm project reflection:

I have never been interested in creating my own blog. I am a person who enjoys visiting other blogs and getting interesting information from the blogs. However, thanks to this course, I had a great opportunity to create my own blog.

I created my own blog called “Minji’s Beauty Blog” dealt with information about cosmetics. When I made the blogs, I hoped that visitors can obtain various information regarding cosmetics and beauty tips through my blog.

My target audience is the female visitors who are interested in cosmetics and looking for a wide array of knowledge about makeup. Thus, I tried to make my blog that draw their attention.  This is why I make great effort that my blog looks impressive, feminine and sophisticated to engage the female audience’s attention. The entire background is filled with pink color favorable to the female audience. I edited the blog’s header image including the various kinds of cosmetic products such as lipsticks, eye shadow and foundation cushion, so that the female audience can be aware of my blog’s theme at a glance.

What I want to emphasize the most from my blog is a video that I made by myself. I created the video to publicize my blog and welcome new visitors. The video includes the various images of the female models whose faces are put on unique, cute, gorgeous, and beautiful makeups. These images is to make audiences realize that they can get various information about the makeups.  Moreover, the rhythmical background music can attract visitors to my blog. The video also contains a screencast which shows a general appearance of my blog and my voice recording that send my welcome message to visitors. The recording helps my audience to easily approach the blog.

In conclusion, I am gratified with my blog as the beginning part, but I need more posts to obtain many visitors. I never forget the purpose of my blog which is to invite audiences to my blog by providing various information related to beauty.

 

Top Five Midterm Blogs for me:

–Kaylee Stroup

She created a blog to try to eliminate the stereotypical view of sorority girls. First of all, the general design of her blog is very impressive. The entire background of her blog is filled out with pink color which has a symbolic representation of women, so that audiences can easily realize that this blog is about the female sorority groups. Moreover, the video she created includes her voice recording as well as some girls’ interviews, so that the video looks very impressive and intimate. She also added a social media site of Rutgers Sigma Kappa, so audiences can easily connect to the blog and gain various information about the group they have not known before.

–JK Media

This blog is to introduce various media platforms. Her first blog is about LinkedIn, one of the popular social media sites through which employees impress employers. I have not known about LinkedIn site well before, but this blog gives useful details about it. The blog is very well-organized and looks professional. Moreover, by adding various tags for each post, the blog is well connected with other blogs and give a great opportunity to audiences to visit this blog. Lastly, she created a video which introduce the functions of LinkedIn. By using a screencast and voice recording, the video provides well-organized information and the viewers will be able to understand the site.

–The Climb by Lily

This blog is one of the most professional-looking blogs.  It has absolutely visual impression and give various information regarding climb. This blog is definitely helpful and useful to the audiences who are interested in climbing. Especially, “share your journey” section give visitors a great opportunity to interact and share the climbing experiences with each other. The section will give a good space to communicate and interact for people who have a same hobby. Moreover, the blog offers useful links regarding climbing such as weather site an National Geographic site which introduce great spots for climbing. This blog is very informative!

–How Does Your Garden Grow by Christy

This is a blog that explain the way to grow gardens successfully. It provides the various kinds of plants as well as the way to grow those plants. In my opinion, this blog’s design is the best because it includes many images of various plants. The images and green background absolutely relieve audiences’ mind. I also feel very calm when I looked through the blog. The blog chose the appropriate color; Green color, which represent a symbol of plants. Thus, the plant images and green color reveal what this blog is about and audiences can recognize the theme of the blog at a glance.

–Verse One by Tenzin

This blog is to promote Verse One which is the first and only non-audition dance team at Rutgers University. By adding a brief description of the team in one sentence, visitors can recognize what the blog is about and what Verse One is. Also, the blog uses black and white colors, so it looks very simple and well-organized. The blog includes a wide array of images and videos regarding Verse One dance team, so those help audiences better understand the team. Lastly, this blog includes various tags, so that it binds  visitors and the blog together. This blog is very impressive!

Here’s my opinion on doing a group project:

Digital technologies enable individuals to work together even though they do not have meetings in person. For example, people can create a document together through Google docs without the actual meetings. They communicate and share opinions as well as edit the document whenever they want through Google docs. Thanks to the convenience of digital technologies, people can collaborate and work in group more easily without the spatial and temporal limitation. However, there is a problem when people collaborate group works through the technology: they think they collaborate because they share and negotiate various ideas of every member in a group. In “What Is Collaboration Anyway?” the authors say, “relationships between individuals in groups are rich and varied. We cannot assume a completely shared identity and equal characteristics for every group member just by grouping them together” (59). People are deluded into thinking all members of a group have same opinions on the specific topic they are working on because they are in a same group. However, as the authors mention, they are all different human beings. Thus, they can have different ideas on a same topic even though they are in a group. Since people tend to do the group work easily and want to finish it quickly with the convenient digital technologies, they may not have enough time to communicate each other, share various ideas, and negotiate them to draw an optimal outcome. What they have done looks like collaboration, but it may not be a true collaboration. Therefore, when I work with a group, I will try my best to share various ideas and create a good outcome reflect every member’s great opinions.

 

Video Editing

Video editing assignment was so much enjoyable because it gave me an opportunity to experience iMovie program. I have had the program since I bought the laptop, but I have never used it before. The program is really convenient, useful, and enjoyable. Also, it was the first time to know and learn the program, “Screencast-O-Matic.” I have never imagine to try to record the moving screen and I just have captured the screen. So, the program is so much cool for me. The one thing that I had a difficult was managing the time. The professor asked us to make the video in 2 minutes, but it was difficult to limit the video duration, so you can realize that I talk more faster  at the end. Generally, it was the useful and enjoyable work.

 

Today, people live in a new kind of world called virtual world. They can communicate with others regardless of difference in time and distance through social media. They can share various ideas with others through Internet. Moreover, they can experience new things that they have never experienced before through “games.”

There are many kinds of games that provide the users with various experiences. In “Playing Politics: Videogames for Politics, Activism, and Advocacy,” Ian Bogost states, “Playing such games can have a political impact because they allow players to embody political positions and engage in political actions many will never have previously experienced, and because they make it possible for players to deepen their understanding of the multiple causal forces that affect any given, always unique, set of historical circumstances.” By playing games, people are indirectly able to participate in social and political issues, and raise their ability to interpret and understanding the values regarding the issues. For example, Balance of the Planet released on Earth Day 1990 deals with environmental issues of the world. In the game, the players are assigned the various environmental issues and have their own choices regarding the issues such as lake acidity, radiation and oil spills. Through the game, players have a good opportunity to experience indirectly the situations, understand the environmental problems in the real world and consider how the problems can be solved. Another example is 9-11 Survivor game through which the players indirectly experienced the vivid situation of 9-11 terrorist attack. Some people criticize the game because the game deals with the most harmful disaster of the United States. However, the game enables the players to indirectly understand the situation, realize how terrible the attack was at the time, and empathize with the victims and their families.

            In conclusion, games provide people not only with fun and hobby, but also with great opportunity to understand social and political issues of the real world. It is difficult for people to directly experience every issues occurred all over the world in reality. So, game is a good tool for them to experience and understand various issues of the real world.

Audio Editing for Classwork

This is the first time that I created my own podcast through audacity program. As I mentioned before, I enjoy listening to music and I want to create my own musical works as hobby by mixing several songs. Fortunately, I had a great opportunity to learn how to mix the songs and connect them smoothly in the last class.

Even though producing my own podcast was the classwork, I really enjoyed it. Especially, “fade out” and “fade in” tools under “effect” are impressive to me. When I listen to music, sometime the music ends smoothly as the volume of songs is turning down more and more. I like this kind of songs and always wonder how to edit the volume. Now, I know how to do it and created my own musical work using the tools.During doing my assignment, I definitely felt the improvement as my audio editing’s quality become higher through a bunch of challenge and mistakes. When I finally listen to my audio edited, I really love that two songs’ cross fade are so smooth!  I want to learn more about audio editing and get used to use the program.

Minji’s Audio Editing

Here is my audio editing.

Enjoy it!

<https://www.dropbox.com/s/kppewlzgb536sat/audio%20editing%20final.mp3?dl=0&gt;

In Red Letter Media, I watched a video, “Ben-Hurt” which is about Ben Hur rebooting.  Generally, the video take four different places; the PC room where Mark is playing a computer, the stairs where Mark run toward Rich, the room where Rich is playing a video game, and the space where Rich and Mark try to have a conversation with Jay. Thus, the filming might take four big clips and edit them together. Also, two camera angles are used because  each camera angle marks one specific location where a character is placed. For example, when Rich and Mark have a conversation, one camera angle takes only Rich, while other angle takes only Mark. In scene that Rich and Mark try to notify Ben-Hur rebooting to Jay,  the video camera takes Rich and Mark together in one angle, and Jay has his own camera angle. One of the interesting part is when Jay throws his popcorn dish and break it. The camera take two scene separately and combined them together by editing. One scene is  that Jay throws the dish and Two separate scenes. other scene is focusing on the broken dish. Lastly, when Mark and Rich have a conversation, the video cameraman is slightly shaking back and forth to express the urgent situation vividly.

Ben Hurt

Audio Editing

My personal experience regarding audio is only recoding. When I attended ESL program to learn how to speak in English, I sometimes used an audio recording program to record my English speaking for the assignments. Thus, I am nervous to experience audio editing in the class because I have not had any experiences of it and am not really professional.

However, after I listened to the audacity tutorial, I found many interesting tools that I really want to learn and use. Firstly, I can get rid of the breath between the words. The tutorial shows how to remove the breath in the middle of the speaking. I select a section of breathing by dragging, and then click the button, “silence.” After that, the breath must be gone. Secondly, I can also remove the noise. When you record outside, any noise can disrupt a soft and smooth sound. So, there is a “noise removal” tool under effect section, which get rid of any noise around the recording. Lastly, you can normalize the recording sounds. Normalization in audio editing means applying a constant amount of gain to bring up the peak to a target level so that the sounds can be more soft by balancing each other. To normalize the record, you select the whole clip, go to “normalize” tool under “effect” section. Then you need to set the maximum amplitude between -1.0 to -2.0. If you want to make the sound louder, you need to set -1.0.

Tutorial of audacity program was really interesting and useful to me who have never experienced audio editing before. I realize that a program enables the normal people like me to create a high qualitative recording. Now, the audio editing programs are really helpful for not only professionals, but also everyone.  I will try to use the program to get used to it, so that I will enjoy audio editing as my hobby!

This image is from AudioDirector

Image Editing

Today, people are able to communicate and socialize in the virtual world such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With the digital technological devices such as cellphones and laptops, they autonomously post their various texts and pictures and most of them see others’ pictures and read the articles regardless of the difference in time and distance. Now, it is very easy to communicate globally.

However, people  unintentionally break the rule of Internet because they are not familiar with the rule in the virtual world, or  because sometimes it is somewhat annoying work to reveal the sources for every post. In “Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls: the Politics of Transgression and Spectacle,” Gabriella Coleman states, “a host of new social media technologies…were being built and used by geeks and nongeeks to post messages, to share pictures…into the virtual wind and to post videos and other related Internet memes. Internet memes are viral images, videos, and catchphrases under constant modification by users and with a propensity to travel as fast as the Internet can move them”(8). When a usual Internet user shares a video and picture from other sources, they may not be aware of whether the sources are credible or viral. Because Internet enable people to share other sources easily and quickly by clicking one button, they do not even care about the credibility and just share anything they want.

After I read this article, I myself am also an usual Internet user who share other sources easily without verifying them. I used to share many pictures from other websites. However, I realize that I need to follow the rules of the virtual world. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” A new world called Online or virtual world is created, so people, of course including me, need to follow the rules.

I do not have a professional experience regarding image editing, but I usually edit the images when I post the pictures to my Instagram account. Instagram itself has a image editing program, so before I post something, I can edit my images. I usually use filter section to change the entire color of images. When I want to change the details of images, I sometimes use brightness, contrast, structure, and adjust. Now various image editing programs, especially for cellphone users, are easy to use. Even though they do not have experiences at all, they can use the programs because they are so simple and easy.

Here are the images taken and edited by myself. I used an Instagram application to edit these images. I applied Brightness, Contrast, Temperature, Hue, and Saturation to each image.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After