Topic 3 - Alphaville

Lecture

So this week was all about Alphaville and French New Wave Cinema. Alphaville. I hardly know where to start. A French Film Noir with a futuristic storyline set on another planet. It was oddly intriguing and the thing that struck me was that I actually enjoyed it! The film tells of a world of dystopia, a world taken over by a computer that controls everything in the fictional world of Alphaville. No one may display emotion or have any idea of individualism or ask 'why?' The whole movie was in French which I found to be more effective than had it been in English, though I'm not sure how much of a conscious decision that was by the filmmakers seeing as French was their first language. The film is definitely not for everyone especially these days with so many action-packed blockbusters around. However, I found it intriguing and really enjoyed the old school method of story telling.

Readings

The readings this week focussed on different film terms and information that had relevance to Alphaville. It particularly highlighted how this movie was one of the first of it's kind and was quite the evocative piece, breaking free from all stereotypes of the era and presenting new ideas about technology. It also discusses the release of French New Wave Cinema and the new filming techniques that came with it. Alphaville made quite the impact on audiences and the film industry alike and it's interesting to see modern day cinema try to emanate that.

Tutorial

The main task is to write about my use of New Communication Technologies in communicating with friends and family. I use my mobile phone everyday to text and call my friends - it's been like an extension of my arm since I was 12. I use the computer everyday and am obsessed with Facebook. As much as it's a somewhat unhealthy obsession to be on the computer everyday, I couldn't possibly talk to my friends in Canada and in the UK as much as I do without it. Privacy is an issue, and I make sure that my profile is private and I only ever add people I know. I never put my personal details anywhere on the Internet and use it purely for social means. Without these technologies, my life would be very different and to be honest, I like having all these things available to me.

Topic 2 - Is email dead?

Lecture

This week's lecture was called Is Email Dead? We discussed certain disadvantages regarding email- like spam (junk email.) Most of the class had received some sort of email about penis enlargements, competition entries to win the new Apple iphone and the ever-popular Nigerian money scam where con artists take you for all you've got. We then looked at the results of the survey we took in class and discovered that 65.5% off people said email has it's place and that 0% of people never used email. We decided that email was indeed not dead and despite all the junk sent to us, email definitely has a huge impact on our lives. We also watched an excerpt from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show that discussed Internet bloggers and whether or not they were real journalists. While funny, it made a good point which also tied in with our readings for the week.

Readings

When people blog they can say whatever they like and can have an opinion on anything. They are there to inform the masses of people on the Internet yet they are not necessarily bound by the ethical journalistic laws that the people in the "real" media are. The readings questioned whether or not bloggers should be recognised for their work. In my opinion, I prefer it when people just say what they want, when they want, rather than have something manipulated by editors and government officials. You get the real news from the people on the street, experiencing the things they write about, rather than have someone on the sideline trying to give an objective viewpoint to please the powers that be. As long as no one is inciting hate or falsely accusing people, I say go for it.

Tutorial

After discussing all this, it seems only right that we would set up a blog of our own. We logged on to blogger.com and set up accounts. Each week I'll post a summary of my lectures and tutorials, for assessments purposes (I obviously don't want to fail!) but also it's just a really good way of organising your work (as well as feelings, ideas and opinions). It's quick, easy and painless and while the content of my blog may not be as riveting as those writing about politics or celebrity gossip, it serves it's purpose. I'm informing the masses of people on the Internet all about New Communication Technologies. :)

Topic 1 - Second Life

In the first lecture the concept virtual games was discussed. Something called Second Life, which is a virtual reality game, is seemingly in the process of taking over the world! It basically involves people logging onto a site and creating avatars and the best thing is, you can choose everything about your virtual personality. Choose your own traits, hair colour and for the very particular, you can even choose your own genitalia. People are using this game to live a pretend life through a computer screen. You can buy and trade land, build houses and go to events thrown by other residents. Scarily, this is something that users are doing every single day instead of experiencing actual reality. It is just another reminder of how much technology is taking over in the 21st century.