Response 1- PeterB

1. WHAT IS NEW MEDIA?

Describe the hallmark characteristics of New Media.  How do you think this changes who has the power to “define reality” via the media?  Give an example of where this might be the case. (2-3 paragraphs)

New Media is definitely a tough thing to try and define, at least it was for me when people ask me what new media even is. I think there is a common misunderstanding about new media which is even talked about in the article. Typically, I think people tend to think of new media just as just your simple newspaper, magazine, and television. These are some factors of what makes new media, new media but as today there is also the internet which helps us get information and contact with whoever we want whenever we want. There is nothing physical holding us back or any information that people want to see. Technology is the biggest thing making this happen and new ways to communicate never stop happening. The article states that all these forms of media are actually not mediums, but instead, “vehicles”. These are the things that distribute information within a medium. Now a day’s information can be shared and delivered to an infinite amount of people.

I think that when it comes to who has the power to “define reality” via the media tends to be the people receiving the media. Social media has played a huge role in this and I think will continue to keep controlling this. Each and every person has the power and control to see what they want to hear and see on the internet, especially with social media, we follow only what we want to see and know about, therefore I think that is controlling what we see as reality in our own eyes. Somewhere I think this can be the case is that someone makes a page on Facebook to support something or someone, and people if interested, can follow the page and also contribute to the page where they can offer different ways to make it better or a better way to go about such a thing.

II. NEW MEDIA STRATEGIES

After reading the article, answer the following questions (you should cut/paste the questions from exercise 1 into your post, then your answer of solution B or B copying the full answer, then  your explanation for why this is the correct answer; for exercise 2, just post the single problem you are choosing and follow with your brainstorm/solutions)

EXERCISE 1: WHICH IS THE NEW MEDIA SOLUTION?

For each of the following past capstone ideas, identify which solution embodies the “many-to-many” principle and which one doesn’t and explain why in 1-2 paragraphs.

PROBLEM: A DISAPPEARING LANGUAGE

Ian Larson wanted to help preserve the Passamaquoddy language from extinction.

• Solution B  Distribute laptops with video cameras to schoolkids in the Passamaquoddy community, and ask them to record their grandparents telling stories in Passamaquoddy. Upload these to a Web site along with the grandparents’ definitions of particular words used in the story, and make these words searchable via a tag cloud.

Solution B seems to be the best way to deal with the problem because it is a “many-to-many” solution because it is allowing people to upload their own information which will be stored and be accessed by whoever tends the need to view it. This allows the Passamaquoddy language from going extinct and can be viewed and learned about from people who actually experienced it.

PROBLEM: NEGLECTED RUINS

Evan Habeeb wanted to make people aware of the beauty of abandoned buildings.

• Solution B  Build a Web site that allows adventurers to print stickers they can leave behind in abandoned buildings they explore. Create the stickers so they can be scanned by a mobile phone to reveal a Web site built to feature photographs taken by those explorers.

Solution B seems to be another “many-to-many” solution because anyone would be able to explore the abandoned buildings and then interact with everyone that has also been there by scanning the sticker and viewing the photographs that other people who went to the same place took. This is also helping people who do not have the time or cannot actually go visit the abandoned buildings in person, so they can see what it looks like and learn about it right on the website.

PROBLEM: MISUNDERSTANDING COMPUTER ANIMATION

Ryan Schaller and Jason Walker wanted to help people understand the many layers required to create a computer-animated film, including wireframe, textures, and light effects. As a case study, they created an animation depicting a cartoon archeologist digging for ancient artifacts.

• Solution A Design and build a touch-screen interface that allows viewers to “rub” away layers of the film with their hands to reveal previous stages of the animation as it plays.

Solution A seems to be the better of the two solutions because this is actually allowing the viewer to have complete control over what they want to see. With the app, it would reach a lot of people but the people using the app would only see stills of the process, which is not allowing them to control what they want to see. With the touch-screen interface, the people interacting with it get to choose what to “rub” away and view it as they want to.

PROBLEM: A BROKEN FOUNTAIN

Danielle Gagner wanted to renovate the waterfall fountain under the skylight in the middle of the University Union, which had fallen into disrepair.

• Solution A  Repurpose the existing plumbing to irrigate a garden planted in the former fountain. Research the types of plants that would grow well together at different levels of the fountain, and meet with dining hall staff to find out what herbs or vegetables they might add to salads and other offerings. Then plant these in collaboration with the sustainable agriculture club on campus, and invite students to pick the resulting parsley, strawberries, and other fare from the garden for their lunch.

I think that Solution B would be a cool idea, however, I think that Solution A would be a better fit and also allows others to actually interact with the final outcome. The dining hall workers are being asked for their input and thoughts about what they would like. With doing this then the campus would get involved together and pick the things that they would like for their lunch.

EXERCISE 2: INVENT YOUR OWN MANY-TO-MANY SOLUTIONS

Pick one of the following problems and brainstorm a solution that embodies a many-to-many approach. Describe your solution in two or more paragraphs.

EDUCATIONAL BOOKS ARE BORING

How can you help educational writers make use of appealing formats like comic books?

Example: Chloe Lapointe, Tales Studio Press

The way that I would personally solve this problem is to build and app that no longer requires students to carry around books and read them the old conventional way, but instead on an app that requires the reader to interact with each page. With saying this I do not mean just buy swiping a finger to turn the page but actually have to click on things and pass quizzes and certain questions in order to continue to the next page.

I think the biggest problem with a normal textbook and makes them so boring is that students can just sit there and pretend to read them or even skim them, which does not help them in the end. However, if students started using the app, each page could have a certain amount of things that are required to click on or have a short quiz in order to proceed to the next page, forcing people to actually read and engage with the information. This could even be brought further to an extent where you do it as a whole class and the only way to proceed to the next page is if everyone in the class answers the question correctly.

III. THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED

How does media oppress people in this article, and how does Boal try to give that power back to people? How does he use humor to do this? (2-3 paragraphs)

How can New Media accomplish similar goal?  give a few examples. You can add projects we review in class, but you might want to start by trying to think of some yourself. (2 paragraphs)

The Theater of the Oppressed was created by a society that a man by the name of Augusto Boal, in South Africa where he worked with some of the most oppressed people. Theatre of the Oppressed was originally based in Brazil, until the government got involved. Boal’s colleagues were murdered while he was jailed and tortured for about three months and was told that he was in no position to be safe after his release from jail. He fled to different countries including Argentina, and Chile until he was finally exiled to Europe. In Europe he could finally practice and administer his new types of oppression.

During this time there was no free will to speak out and express yourself how you wanted to. There was no freedom to do anything including expressing your feelings, which is just a terrible thing to think about. Boal works with a very “interactive performance” which revolves around the problems of your everyday person. Boal created a new type of oppression which finally gave the people the power to say how they felt and gave them a voice to freely do and say what they wanted. Boal wanted to make this an interactive thing for everyone involved by adding humor, making people more comfortable with what they are doing so they can finally understand that they should not feel as if someone is above them or better than them, which is shown with invisible theatre with giving people the power that they deserve.

New Media can accomplish the same exact thing with the technology and knowledge that we have to face everyday problems in ways that we think will best suit them. The media that we have today can be presented in pretty much any form we seem fit, in any way we really want it to. We have the tools at our finger tips to speak our minds and express things in ways never really imagined, it can be customized to our liking or even shown in a way that favors a certain group of people.

The many to many factor can be seen here because expressing ourselves became easier and we can really do just that in any form we really want. With the technology that we have today we can connect with pretty much anyone that we want and get our message to anyone we need to. Someone is always going to see it. There is nothing holding us back at this point, and with the simple click of a few button you can quickly find someone with the same interests and express yourself that way. We have all these amazing sites at our disposal to really solve anything we need help with, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc. All of these things help us express ourselves and learn the things that we want to learn.

Response 1B

Team members: Matt Carlson, Cam Bilodeau

Explore past student projects in New Media Strategies, projects discussed in videos or in class and tactics or case studies in  Beautiful Trouble with a team of 3 students; pick some issues and strategies that you could use in a prototype project of your own concerning some aspect of culture you think would benefit from a hacking intervention. Your goal is to be creative and to challenge some aspect of power you feel is unjust or unhealthy. Discuss with your team but post individually.

1-List your topic/issue and your proposed intervention  (Eg UMaine requires immunization for students matriculating, but Maine has a law that allows citizens to refuse immunization. UMaine should explain the pros and cons of each choice, educating students, and give students this option)

• Music streaming has been around since the early 2000’s, and while being great for the consumer, it takes away from the artist by lowering the total revenue they are actually receiving making artist want to opt out of music streaming.

2-List your top strategies , how they work, and why you would use them.

• To create a new music streaming app service that uses cryptocurrencies and goes directly to the artist.

3- Describe how you will reach your target audience:  Consider effectiveness, as well as aesthetics, fun, surprise, or any other aspects that make the strategy appealing. What does this say about the conventional line between serious & playful? What is that line doing there? Who does it benefit?

• I think that once artists saw that they would be making more money by switching to the new service it would make them want to opt out of putting their music on Apple Music, or Spotify, then leading their fans to also join the app. This will benefit the artist so they are actually making a greater revenue.