MECO3602 2014 Week 1, Being Online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn9-80ObGA8

MECO3602 - Online MediaSemester 2, 2014

Jonathon [email protected]

@dhutchman

Introductions…

Jonathon HutchinsonRoom S220, Woolley Building

[email protected]@dhutchman

Edwina [email protected]

Jennifer [email protected]

What we have changed this semester in MECO3602…

• We focus on Wordpress only• We have new guest lectures planned• The assessment has been re-jigged to reflect

the concerns of the past students• The content has been streamlined to directly

reflect the assessment criteria• We welcome you to feedback at the end on

our performance

#Socmed this semester

Twitter:#MECO3602

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/meco3602

Blackboard

Course Blog:http://onlinemedia3602.wordpress.com/

Adhere to the rules of publishing as per your reader

This semester

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the theory and practices of online media production

• Analyse and discuss debates about copyright, censorship, privacy, mobility and network access

• Plan, research and produce an investigative web feature

• Apply principles of digital project management to the group production of a research blog/web feature.

Being critical

• Recognising power relations in media economy and practice

• Deconstructing ideologies• Challenging orthodoxies• Critique from the margins• Self-reflexive practice

The Internet's pace of adoption eclipses all other technologies that preceded it. Radio was in existence 38 years before 50 million people tuned in; TV took 13 years to reach that benchmark…the Internet crossed that line in four years.

U.S. State Department report, The Emerging Digital Economy, 1998.

I. Being Online

Online media are

digitalinternetworked

hypertextualmultimedial interactive

New media?

• At what point does it become old?• How do we contextualise ‘newness’?• To temporally approach new media is too

limited• It needs to be applied in a broader social and

cultural context

New media – digital media

• The digital formats distributed across networks based on broadband, satellites and microwave transmission

• Manipulable • Networkable • Dense • Compressible • Impartial

(Flew)

Convergence

CommunicationComputing

Content

thewildernessdowntown.com[Arcade Fire – We used to Wait]

Digital information networks

• Communicate with the globe• Publish immediately• Access powerful creative tools• Collaborate across distance and

time• Change social and political power

balance

Being Online: social experience

• Always on lives = more information to process and less time for reflection

• Less separation between home and work• Less separation between private and

public• More connections with ‘intimate strangers’• More surveillance

II. Hype

Don’t beilebe the hype

http://blog.deutschinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/justin-bieber-2013-background-hd-11.jpg

Being digital will be…

“decentralizing,

globalizing,

harmonizing

and empowering”

Nicholas Negroponte (1995)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-dD-QKYN4

So then…

How do we create media in these environments?

What this course covers:

THEORY

• Overview of the industry and the various professional roles.

• The key issues in online media studies: cultural, philosophical and political context

PRACTICE

• Develop and pitch web features

• Photoshop, blogging, social media, web and mobile media, apps and lots of media tools

• Online ethics and law

Stuff you need:

• Reader: chock full of useful goodness. ($30 at the printery). Essential for your weekly lectures.

• Course outline on the Blackboard site

Assessment tasks

1. Individual blog posts and group feature pitch, week 6 (25%)

2. Investigative web feature and group evaluation, week 12 (40%)

3. Online essay, week 13 (25%)4. Participation, throughout semester (10%)

Tutorials

• Start THIS WEEK. Wed 10-12, 1-3pm and 3-5pm; Thur 3-5pm and 5-7pm in LS120

• Forming production groups

• Setting up blog for the rest of the semester

• Tutor: Edwina Hart, Software demonstrator: Jennifer Lam

• Online Media Blackboad site - our forum for questions, answers, links & ideas

Past examples of Online Media

Always Greenerhttp://alwaysgreenersyd.wordpress.com/

“The project aims to spread knowledge and improve the ‘online literacy’ of internet users of

all levels. However, we are giving specific attention to anyone who might be carrying out more of their daily purchasing activities online.”

Contemporary example of Online Media

“no fibs”nofibs.com.au

“It embodies Webdairy’s vision of collaboration between journalist and reader, which I feel is the

only way journalism can survive”

Final Housekeeping

• Check your access to labs (LS 120, EDU 227)• If not see security• Ensure you have an 8GB thumb drive • BACK UP EVERYTHING!• Monitor your time – SRC commitments• Email me with any problems:

[email protected]