Exam+Review

Post exam review notes here!!! We can all share!

define terms, summaries, reading notes.. anything that can help with the preparation of the exam!!

Goodluck!!

Week 2 (from lecture notes Sept 17)

>
 * 4 Approaches to Media Analysis:**
 * **Form & Genre**
 * define, classify (ex. TV=form, sitcom=genre)
 * little consideration of consumer/producer impact
 * culture left out deliberately
 * **Media Effects Determinism**
 * pervasive causal force
 * X media consumption causes Y social effect = not necessarily correlated (hard to prove)
 * adaptation, 2 step model, cultivation theory
 * **Critical Political Economy**
 * capital & ownership structure determines media
 * Marxist based, libertarian/capitalist model
 * **Cultural Studies**
 * analysis of media in context of use
 * complexity of interactions
 * generalizable, transferable
 * Demassification:**
 * localized communities reemerge & gain importance
 * media= tools of creation & expression
 * NOT simply passive channels of reception
 * example: Second Life, WoW, online communities
 * problems: socializing with similar people, nothing new and interesting


 * Manovich - Language of New Media**
 * New Media as Cyberculture
 * New Media as Distribution
 * New Media as Software Control
 * Cultural Convention
 * Aesthetics of New Media
 * New Media as Efficient
 * New Media as Metamedia
 * New Media as Nexus of Art & Computing

Week 3 (from lecture notes Sept. 24)
 * MEDIA GENRES**


 * McLuhan's Tetrad** - 4 intersecting simultaneous influences
 * Enhancement - positive change, amplification
 * Retrieval - recovery of past forces
 * Reversal - new or resurgent jeopardizing new media
 * Obsolescence - erosion of older values/forces

EXAMPLE: Video Games
 * **Enhances** hand/eye coordination, problem solving, strategy, cathartic
 * **Retrieves** idea of narrative, plot, progression
 * **Reverses** violent behavior, addiction, anti-social behavior
 * Self-**Obsolescence**, constantly need to upgrade games & console system

Lecture Notes (from Agre reading)
 * Genre as Community
 * bringing people together (similar people working on similar topics in a similar way)
 * postmodern world = specific & localized genres
 * Breadth
 * Genre definitions = broadly/narrowly constructed
 * example: "all print material" vs. "Canadian political posters of the 19th century"
 * Focused genres have more analytic value
 * Comics
 * "all sequential art" (broad term, not useful)
 * sub-genres of comics - different literary, artistic and cultural spaces
 * Genre, Audience & Activity
 * specific media meets specific audience needs (diff. purpose, context, etc.)
 * example: pulp fiction ("airport escapism") vs. literature (reading for a purpose)
 * Comics, Audience & Activity
 * historical roots (hieroglyphics, temple art, stained glass)
 * modern history (entertainment, child oriented, kid-lit, superheroes)
 * new/emerging direction (underground, alternative, web comics, graphic novels, adult-oriented content)
 * Producer/Consumer Relationship
 * important in defining dynamics of genre
 * example: fan fiction, online reviews, forums, quantitative
 * immediacy & impact of feedback loop
 * one-to-many (mass) vs. decentralized & interactive (public)
 * Consuming Comics
 * comic producers create the world & characters
 * details filled in by reader lead to //engagement// (Gestalt principles, specifically //closure//)
 * Genre as Grouped Objects
 * must be multiple instances to be considered a genre (not one instance)
 * example: Family Guy = subgenre, not a genre in itself
 * Comic Genre
 * various subgenres with distinct idiomatic & structural forms
 * social expectations can frustrate new efforts
 * Genre-Bending
 * rules of genre are not absolute
 * interesting things happen when rules are broken
 * new sub-genres emerge
 * might be too interesting for audiences to accept
 * economic concerns - innovation vs. risk
 * comics: more serious works (Maus, Persepolis), new genres beyond superhero "men in tights"
 * Multiplicity of Genres
 * intuitively familiar with many genres
 * integrate genres to create new forms of expression
 * example: the Daily Show & the Colbert Report (late night talk show format with host + guests, mixed with political satire, news, entertainment & comedy)
 * Comics & Multiplicity
 * shared relation to similar media
 * example: movies made from comics/graphic novels (Spiderman, X-Men, Watchmen, Sin City) Manga/Anime
 * integration of non-visual information
 * figuratively in text-based
 * more potential for web comics
 * Genres are Historical
 * evolve over time
 * changes in craft, economics, regulation, other media
 * Comic History
 * emerge from "kid-lit" to more serious work
 * new media = digital creation (computer visualization, photoshop, Comic Life)
 * new forms of expression & opportunities for distribution (web comics, blogs, DIY)
 * Economics
 * cost involved in maintaining, sustaining
 * producer/consumer community (production vs. consumption)
 * Fixed Cost vs. Marginal Cost
 * Fixed = infrastructure, w/o which comics can't exist
 * Marginal = cost incurred as audience grows
 * *Economy of Scale*
 * web comics = cheap (no cost for printing, distributing, but costs for server space, bandwidth, etc.)

Week 4 (lecture notes from October 1)
 * COMICS AS GENRE**
 * **Comics as Art Form**
 * idea
 * form
 * idiom
 * structure
 * craft
 * surface
 * __Representation in Comics__**
 * __Moment__
 * represents transition over time visually
 * guides the readers sense of closure
 * saturation vs. interpretation
 * moment to moment (small shifts, changes)
 * action to action (cause-action shift)
 * subject to subject (change plot, shift, more closure needed)
 * scene to scene (time/space shift)
 * aspect to aspect (diff aspects/perspectives in a scene)
 * non-sequitur (no apparent relation)
 * __Frame__
 * focuses readers attention on particular elements creating a sense of place, position, focus
 * designed, not accidental
 * drawing is a deliberate act
 * "camera" angle
 * lighting (or lack of)
 * close up/wide shot
 * distance & perspective
 * symmetry/centering
 * "gutter" presence/absence, shape, colour
 * __Image__
 * iconic, symbolic medium
 * deliberately vague to encourage closure
 * level of detail
 * background/foreground
 * expression & body language
 * colour as symbol & accent
 * __Word__
 * mix of visual & literary
 * words as sound effects- representation of aural channel in literary form
 * words can contextualize images
 * word-specific
 * image-specific
 * duo specific (equally important)
 * additive/intersecting
 * interdependent (mutually reinforce, co-dependent)
 * parallel
 * montage (words= part of image)
 * __Flow__
 * sequence of images important in representation of time
 * moment, frame, image and word choices work together to create (or sabotage) flow
 * concerns:
 * cultural norms (North America: left to right, other cultures differ)
 * pace of transitions
 * breaking norms (experimental)
 * extent to which creator guides flow

Week 5 (from lecture notes on Oct. 8)
 * PERSUASION & CULTURE JAMMING**


 * Culture Jamming
 * exploiting elements of media form & genre to express ideas & perspectives otherwise underrepresented
 * "tactical media" - DIY projects
 * usually ironic/humorous twist
 * when effective, can be damning

>
 * Issues:
 * ironic commentary* & sarcasm can be lost (esp, if done subtly)
 * in being successful, does it become what it fights?
 * is irony dead?
 * might increase awareness, but does it spur action?
 * does laughing at own jokes make you look better? (Letterman)
 * *ironic commentary is only one means of advancing a point
 * Central Persuasion
 * requires focus and attention
 * Peripheral Persuasion
 * subconscious, subliminal
 * rarely centrally process them
 * example: product placement (Coke brand awareness)
 * Some media and messages are better suited to central then peripheral (& vice versa)


 * Heuristics
 * try to make connections and categories of everything (but we cheat- how?)
 * negatively, this is the root of stereotyping and bias
 * can/should be malleable, but slow process
 * leveraging existing heuristics can be a quick way to get a message across
 * Acceptance & Rejection
 * we expect messages to be within a range of acceptable options
 * messages that are not may backfire
 * appeal to very particular subgroup and alienate others
 * moving latitudes (esp. extremes) is hard, but doable
 * Source Characteristics
 * Who is the source of a message
 * credibility? (National Enquirer vs. New York Times)
 * perceived & actual sources (news sponsored by corporations)
 * authority, influence, affiliation, title, money
 * Receiver Characteristics
 * who is the audience?
 * "everyone" is rarely an audience
 * esp. in post-modern times, demassified communication
 * there are many demographic slices
 * what audiences are valued? ignored? why?
 * valued= rich people, with disposable income
 * ignored= poor people, have little $ or influence
 * Are some audiences more susceptible to influence than others?

Week 6 (lecture notes from October 15) ** ECONOMIC MODELS & THEIR EFFECTS **


 * **Horizontal Integration**
 * ownership of all/most players in media field
 * mergers (ex. Time Warner/AOL)
 * cost savings, cost control
 * example: GAP (also owns Banana Republic, Old Navy) controls large segment of retail clothing industry, each brand is marketed towards different groups (from [|economic expert] ) but all sell the same thing- Clothes!
 * **Vertical Integration**
 * ownership of all nodes within supply/distribution chain
 * "sum is greater than the parts"
 * control & profit potential at every step
 * good for branding, cross promotion
 * example: American Apparel (" The brand is based in downtown [|Los Angeles], where from a single building they control the dyeing, finishing, designing, sewing, cutting, marketing and distribution of the company's product" -[|Wikipedia] )
 * example: oil companies (acquire crude oil, drill/extract, refine it, transport it, distribute it, and sell it)
 * **Alliances**
 * cross branding, not outright ownership
 * connected by common interest
 * example: McDonalds & movie-related toys/products (Olympics)
 * example: movie theatre with different food choices (Burger King, etc.)
 * **Limits to Integration**
 * synergy helps, some merges don't make sense
 * not absolute control
 * size & power not absolute

Week 7 (from lecture Oct. 22) ECONOMIC FACTORS

Rise and Fall of the "hit"


 * **The Long Tail**
 * new media - digital distribution
 * potential equal access to sorts of media
 * "shelf space" not limited in digital stores
 * example: Amazon.com
 * niche and word of mouth drive content sales
 * result= potential niche success stories but less "hits"


 * McCloud "Re-Inventing Comics"**
 * Comics as Art
 * comics can be both art and literature if done properly
 * creators rights
 * Industry & Audience
 * innovation
 * steps in traditional publishing
 * creation & distribution
 * public perception
 * comics & sensorship
 * Creator/Audience Diversity
 * gender balance (traditionally male)
 * minority comics (stereotypes, alternative)
 * diversity of genre (superhero vs. non-traditional
 * Effects of Digitalization
 * production of comics digitally
 * delivery - removes steps in production process
 * micropayments

Digital Comics - immersive, interactive environments - not bound to page requirements - may even include games - can be traditionally framed comics simply distributed via the web - diversity of genre, explosion of options - alternative financing strategies - free content supported by merchandise - niche media may not work in mass culture

Flash-based animation - comical in nature - reduced colours, vector based, solid, simple shapes

Week 8 (from lecture Oct. 29)
 * DIGITAL MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY**


 * **Role of Traditional Media**
 * early press - locally owned, partisan
 * press conglomeration, economy of scale
 * press as common, objective social ground
 * shift towards objectivity as driving force in new creation (newspapers & TV)
 * **Why Objective?**
 * response to corporate & gov. censorship
 * democratization of "fair access" efforts
 * economic incentive - just the facts offends people
 * increase perceived truth
 * **Problems?**
 * neutral vs. investigative / fair vs. pointed (hard balance)
 * excuse for lazy reporting
 * if one side more powerful (government, corporations) can hide or obfuscate facts
 * **Alternatives:**
 * __Investigative Reporting__
 * transparent subjectivity - known bias
 * encourages not just factual regurgitation but analysis, argument, expertise
 * can be popular but also expensive (time + resources)
 * example: the Daily Show, Colbert Report
 * __Stick with Objectivity__
 * example: Al-Jazeera (satellite TV based on Qatar)
 * broke through traditional Arab language TV
 * caused considerable change & innovation
 * managed to alienate Middle Wast & American power bases, but popular on the ground
 * expanded reach in audience & reporting
 * __Opinion Journals__
 * move to news with particular point of view
 * example: Lou Dobbs on CNN, Glenn Beck on FOX
 * bias is clear and unfiltered, potentially dangerous
 * __News as Entertainment__
 * driving economic force
 * news must be compelling, hold interest, entertaining
 * effect on set design (CBC re-design)
 * effect on news quality & choice
 * example: Network (movie, 1976) film predicts take over of "hard news"

W. 10 Critiques of Social Media - Net Neutrality - Tiered Access - who controls ? - 4 MYTHS - Identity + Privacy
 * people are lacking information
 * information is knowledge
 * knowledge is power
 * information access = equitable and democratic and social power
 * anonymity
 * surveillance
 * face recognition analysis
 * identity construction
 * Carr - Designing for Sustainable Conversations (2007)
 * personal branding

W. 11 - Information Economy

Information (diff. from wisdom, data, knowledge) - has semantic value, meaning, no application yet

- Left Brain - sequential, analytic, logic, function - Right Brain - emotional, context, associations, aesthetics - we use both sides of brain all the time, but can be further developed & exercised - Creativity thrives in creative centers.... aka people descend on major areas where creativity is occurring - Information Age vs. Conceptual Age - Gen Y


 * 3 Trends:
 * Abundance
 * developed world has basic needs sorted out already
 * don't need any more stuff
 * new products created to fill not NEED but WANTS
 * living in an economy of WANT
 * Automation
 * products produced by machines
 * reduces cost/error/labour/etc
 * automated out of existence (jobs)
 * Asia (Globalization)
 * BRIC - Brazil, Russia, India, China (high populations)
 * global work transfer (cheaper
 * qualified scientists, doc. available for cheap


 * LANGUAGE OF NEW MEDIA **


 * 1) **New Media vs Cyberculture-** Cyberculture: social and on networking; New media: cultural and computing.
 * 2) __Cyberculture__- Study of various phenomena associated with the Internet and other  new forms of network communication.
 * Online communities, online multi-player gaming, the issue of online identity, and the ethnography of email usage, cell phone usage in various communities; issues of gender and ethnicity in the Internet etc.
 * 1) __New Media-__ new cultural objects enabled by network communication technologies and computing.
 * 2) **New Media as Distribution**
 * New Media  as new cultural objects which use __digital computer technology__ for distribution and exhibition.
 * Internet, Websites, computer multimedia, Virtual Reality, CD-roms and DVD, computer generated special effects etc.
 * **Three Problems:**
 * It has to be revised every year as another part of culture comes to rely on computer technology distribution (ex. extra mini blogging).
 * Possibility that in the future, most forms of culture will use computer distribution.
 * It doesn't tell us about the possible effects of computer-based distribution on the aesthetics of what is being distributed. (e.g. Do all new media have something in common because they are delivered to the user via a computer??)
 * 1) **New Media as Digital Data controlled by Software**
 * Reflects on the fact how new media cultural object can be customized/ exist in potentially infinite different states.
 * New media is r educed to digital data that can be manipulated by software as any other data.
 * e.g. Customized Websites, Edited photographs.
 * 1) **New Media as the** **Mix** **between** **Existing Cultural Conventions a** **nd the** **Conventions of Software.**
 * Computer is kept out of the key "creative" decisions and is delegated to the position of a technician. (ex. People actors, directors etc,; Computer animation).
 * The language of contemporary media as the mix between two different sets of cultural forces or cultural conventions: conventions of already mature cultural forms (page, rectangle frame etc) and conventions of computer software.
 * **Summary:** "New media of today can be understood as the mix between __older cultural conventions__ for data representation, access and manipulation and __newer conventions__ of data representation, access and manipulation.
 * **New data-** numerical data
 * **Old data**- representations of visual reality and human experiences.
 * 1) **New Media as the Aesthetics that Accompanies the Early Stage of Every Modern Media and Communication Technology.**
 * At some point photography, telephone, cinema, television each were "new media".
 * At every point/every new media: closer to reality, destroy natural relationship between humans and the world, by eliminating the distance between the observer and the observed.
 * 1) **New Media as faster execution of Algorithms Previously Executed Manually or Through Other Technologies / New Media as Efficient**
 * S ame computer can execute different algorithms.
 * E.g. 3Danimation, composite photography.
 * Efficiency opens up new Possibilities that were not present before.
 * 1) **New Media as Metamedia**
 * Repurposes old media, combines existing media sources.
 * Meta-media: the culture became more concerned with reworking already existing content, idioms and style rather than creating genially new ones. = due to the fact that more media assets are easy to accumulate and the arrival of new electronic and digital tools made it very easy to re-work these assets.
 * 1) **New Media as Nexus of Art and Computing.**
 * Computing becomes a <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">more right-brain, c reative process- a tool to represent and create new realities.

AGRE
 * 1) **Genre as Community:**
 * **Communities**- <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">set of people who occupy a given structural location in an institution or society. Communities engage in some degree of **collective cognition** -- t <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">he interactions through which they learn from one another's __experiences__, set common __strategies__, develop a shared __vocabulary__, and evolve a distinctiv__e way of thinking.__ <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;">
 * Similar people working on similar topics in a similar way.
 * **Genres**- a relatively <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">stable, expectable form of communication . <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"> Genres are addressed to particular communities and fit into particular activities in the lives of that community's members.
 * Can be become quite specific and localized.
 * Genre definitions can be narrowly or broadly construed. Focused genres have more analytical value.
 * Genres continue to develop/ the product of ongoing process of <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">coevolution between its producers and consumers.
 * A novel might not change its words in the transition from paper to CD-ROM, but nobody really knows whether anyone has any use for a novel on a CD-ROM, or whether CD-ROM's need new genres that can participate in the activities for which the CD-ROM medium can actually be useful to the members of a particular community
 * 1) **Genre as Grouped Objects**
 * There should be multiple incidents for a category to have semantic value.
 * <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Norms and routine s formed.
 * 1) Some instances fall into **multiple genre categories (** Daily Show/Colbert Report winds Emmys in established but can be seen as polical/new satire/serious public affairs programming). We can integrate genres to create new forms of expression.
 * Incidence: can be identified as comics/manga/graphic novels of historical events
 * 1) **Genres are historical-** change in form <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: yellow; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"> evolves over time. (e.g. Paper comics->interactive online comics).
 * Influences from inside craft (e.g. Changes in craft, form idiom-- animations) and outside (e.g., economics, regulation and other media-- Internet).

= = **High Concept and High Touch= CONCEPTUAL AGE**


 * High concept** involves the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to come up with inventions the world didn't know it was missing.


 * High touch** involves the capacity to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one's self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning.