Response 1 – StellaL

Response 1B

I. What is New Media?

New Media are communications allowed by technology that allow for access to information by all. It does so via vehicles of New Media such as the internet allowing for vast communications. These communications are not only vast, but they propose a new source. We aren’t receiving content from just a leader of the tribe, publication, or corporation anymore; we are receiving content from the many, any person. This allows for the “many to many” exchange of information and the increased interaction with information from all.

I believe that this changes who has the power to “define reality” in every day media to everyone. It allows us to control and choose what we see on a daily basis and develop biases and opinions. This is evident in vehicles of New Media such as Facebook and Instagram. Regarding Facebook, one’s feed is based off of the interests of the person who’s owns the account. This leads to the issue of biased media whether the media be in the right or wrong, ethically speaking, and a lack of awareness of things outside what news or other stories that may be present on someone’s feed. With Instagram a feed based on accounts or topics that you display most interest in is also problematic as you miss out on many photos or videos that you may have wanted to see, but wouldn’t otherwise be recognized by the algorithm that controls one’s feed.

Overall, however, I think the continual and wide exchange of information allows us to search out information we may not have otherwise had access to without the free flow of information that the New Medium provides. This allows one access to information about their neighborhood through apps like Nextdoor. It also allows for the wide spread exposure of corruption within systems and even people.

II. New Media Strategies

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.

I believe that this embodies the “many to many” principle because it allows the many people of the Passamaquoddy community to interact with the people inside and outside of their community and share their language with the world. This allows for the connection between language and culture and disallows for a sterile way to learn a language with interaction.

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.

This solution embodies the “many to many” principle because it allows for the interaction between several people and their photos and future explorers. It allows for uncontrolled content as in not controlled by one person and allows individuals to interact with their environment and share their experiences.

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 B  Create an iPad application that documents each stage of the animation process, using stills from the archeologist film as illustrations. Explain techniques such as ray tracing, motion capture, and morphing. Include links to companies that create animation software such as Autodesk.

This solution provides a more effective approach satisfying the “many to many” principle because as opposed to simply a touch screen interface, an app allows for the interaction with the material to be with that of many people as opposed to one person at a time. This would also allow for people to further their education and practice, facilitating interaction with a variety of animation software.

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.

This solution exemplifies the “many to many” principle because of the implementation of dining hall staff suggestions regarding what they might want to serve in meals and utilizing those suggestions to feed the masses while incorporating a campus club. This essentially allows for the many of the dining hall staff and agriculture club to influence the many of the patrons that dine there and students who pick the remaining garden fare.

YOU NEVER HAVE A CAMERA WHEN YOU NEED IT

How can you make photography more accessible for everyday moments like hiking or driving a car?

To embody the “many to many” principle, from what I’ve gathered, one must take input from several individuals or creating the solution must be a collaborative effort. Thus, my solution for this problem would be to survey as many individuals as possible to see how and by what means they would like photography to be more accessible.

After surveying individuals I think it would be most effective to combine several individual’s needs within the problem at hand and come up with effective and easily accessible ways to take a photograph by way of things like body cameras, glasses, hats, or other solutions people may provide. One could also develop a camera that could be accessible in a way that allows for many formats of said camera such that they can have the camera on their glasses, hats, clothes, skin, wherever, and have the camera options and settings to suit different individual’s needs while utilizing said camera.

III. Theatre of the Oppressed

In this article media oppresses the people in the article by the exertion of power from the upper class and bosses alike. Boal tries to give power back to people and adding humor to the situation by taking them through scenarios via theater and allowing spectators to come up with various solutions. Through these solutions, as a collective, a solution is approved and the problem is solved in such a way that it allows the problem barer to solve the problem at hand or solve future, similar problems.

An example that illustrates Boal’s capabilities of bringing power back to the people, in this case typically lower class patrons, is invisible theater which brings real problems such as wage to light without people realizing that it is theater. The patrons are unaware of the actors and the situations brought forth are thus real and bringing light to real issues. It is forms of interactive theater like such that allows for people to become aware of issues and forms of theater such as breaking of repression that allow patrons to not be accepting of repression in future scenarios.

New Media can accomplish similar goals and often does by allowing various solutions to various problems to be explained whether it be an issue of programming or even a makeup tutorial. With the principle of “many to many” and the fairly open access to New Media vehicles it isn’t difficult to find solutions to issues that one may need to solve through forums, sites like WikiHow, YouTube videos, and so on.

Another way that New Media accomplishes similar goals is by giving a voice to those who are struggling or are oppressed by the systems in place. This can be done through vehicles like social media platforms.