Media Portfolio

[poliofolio]

Navigation

Entry 1 [Mediated Life]

Entry 2 [Assessing McLuhan]

Entry 3 [Analyzing Media Representation]

Entry 4 [Internet Regulation]

Entry 5 [Digital Media as a Force for Good?]

Entry 6 [Exploring Genre]

Entry 7 [What Do You Meme?]

Entry 8 [Working in New Media]

[poliofolio]

What Do You Meme?

Since its beginning in the 1940s, the cartoon show Tom and Jerry have been plaguing pop culture and mass media. It is not unusual for a show of its stature to be popular now. However, in the age of new media, the popularity of old shows are the result of mass spread memes. Take Spongebob Squarepants, Shaggy from Scooby Doo, and Pikachu memes as examples. While I would love to dive into deconstructing those examples, I am here to look at the Unsettled Tom memes.

The meme usually starts with a mundane action and it is reinterpreted in a different setting. 

As seen in the example below, the meme can be deconstructed in the analytical concept of representation. Though searching for food in the fridge is a normal activity, the meme challenges hegemonic values about it. While people usually search for food in their fridge, it is unusual to go to a morgue for the same thing.

Along with the text, the meme is accompanied by the image of Unsettled Tom. His worried face is the base of the meme. It formulates indescribable emotions that most people can relate to when looking at circumstances as such. 

Following McLuhan’s aphorism, the image represents “the tribal emotions of a culture that preceded the invention of writing and printing—that is, an oral culture”. Looking back at the meme, even though it starts with a text introduction, there is no response. Instead, there is a reaction. In the digital world, words are hard to convey because there is a lack of tone. With images, the tone is adequately conveyed. For Unsettled Tom, his spot in pop culture is the basis of his role in that meme. As many people know him, they will also understand his facial expression without fully understanding the context. Meme culture is one that lacks basic context as it assumes that the audience is immersed in pop culture and the phenomenons within it.

This example may provide insight into what type of audience the meme is for. Without basic video game knowledge, this would confuse the audience.

Now, I must confess that before this entry I did not know the name of the meme. I only recognize it via the image. Even so, if a picture is a thousand words, the meme can speak for itself even if it is based on a morbid lack of context.

[poliofolio]

Working in New Media

Personally, I use Tumblr quite a lot so I am acquainted with the site. Due to this, I find it much easier to complete my assignments on Tumblr. 

Instead of using paper and ink or handing it in through Turnitin, using Tumblr have relieved me from the stress of due dates in a way. For in-class assignments, I usually struggle. I cannot properly formulate my thoughts and write it out by hand in a single period. However, I am very good at managing my time in a large time span. With this assignment, I was able to keep up with the entries. When some of the entries stumped me, I skip to the next one to make full use of my time in class.

Along with the time management skills, I also feel like I could be relaxed with my writing. Through informal writing, I express myself truly without censoring my words. Moreover, Tumblr also has features that allow me to insert videos, photos, and gifs into my writing. I find that this feature aids me in my writing as I do not feel the need to explicitly describe everything.

The advantages and disadvantages of using this media format can depend on the user’s knowledge to the site. 

For me, I find that the site is suitable as a portfolio. It properly divides my post and I can make a navigation page so I can easily access specific entries. With my site layout, I have a notification bar on the side so I can keep track of the progress of each entry. It further aids my time management skills.

On the other hand, there are people who are not used to Tumblr. For them, this media form is unorthodox. Though they had most of the entries written out beforehand, they find it hard to get used to the site and fully use it to its full potential. Aside from that, there is also the disadvantage of content. With media formats such as Tumblr, it is mostly about aesthetics. It is about the look of the post rather than its contents. I fear that by leaning into the features of videos, photos, and gifs, I am taking away from the quality of my work. 

There is a fine line between using those features to further convey my existing thoughts and using those features to convey my thoughts for me. I feel like I am barely balancing on it.

[poliofolio]

Digital Media as a Force for Good?

Goals:

The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness and prevent further escalation of climate change. The campaign is going to mainly revolve around agriculture interconnected relationship with ecosystem destruction. 

The issue of ecosystem destruction is important because it creates a lack of biodiversity. Animals that have existed long before humans are driven out of their homes by deforestation for agriculture land. Without their usual shelter and food, these animals are driven to extinction. Not to mention that methods of deforestation such as the burn and clear method release significant amounts of CO2.

People can do some things such as shop for locally sourced foods, garden at home or with a community centre, and eat more vegetables rather than meat. By shopping for locally sourced food at farmers’ markets, you are able to reduce your carbon footprint. Apples from farms in Ontario only travel about 100 km to the market. Compare that to apples from Mexico, which travels around 3000 km to your local grocery store. It also helps if you are gardening your own food in the summertime as it saves money in the process. Reducing meat intake, in a way, lowers the demand for meat. If enough people do it then less land will be dedicated to animal agriculture. This reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as an average cow emit 70 - 120 kg of methane per year. Methane traps 84 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

Target Audience:

The target audience should be people in the early 20s to older people. This is because everyone should be aware of their effects on global warming. They should learn how they can prevent it if they are in a place to do so. With people under 18, it is hard to change their diet because they heavily rely on their families for their diet decisions.

Digital Platforms:

Digital platforms that I can use to my advantage is Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. These platforms can help me reach my intended audience faster.

Steps:

For YouTube, I can create videos that visualize the issue through video. To encourage people to be vegetarian or vegan, I can use YouTube to provide cooking videos that focus on vegan meals. This will encourage people to reduce their meat intake.

With the structure of the platform, FaceBook can follow the same steps as YouTube. It can be used to spread online recipes that encourage people to be vegetarian or vegan.

Since Instagram has IGTV, it can follow the same process as FaceBook and YouTube. However, it has its own unique feature of sharing photos. The platform can be used to connect people to realize the reality of ecosystem destruction. The audience can share those pictures to raise awareness on the issue and how to prevent it.

Advantages and Limitations:

The advantage of having the campaign online is that it can reach a larger audience. This is especially important if we want to create noticeable change. However, the disadvantage of having an online campaign is that you won’t know if the audience listened. Sure, it is easy to share a post to raise awareness, but action is needed to bring change.

[poliofolio]

Exploring Genre

In his music video “Earth”, Lil Dicky is able to convey his message of climate change through the visual genre he uses. Shifting from live action to animation, the visual genre is one that is geared towards children and families.

This is shown through its iconography. With the entrance song introducing the scene like an adventure movie, I cannot help but feel nostalgic. It returned me back to my childhood of watching PG-rated family movies such as the Goonies and the Disney Channel original movies. Alongside the background music is also the visual of a magical book which was discovered by a little boy. A big visual indicator that this video follows the genre of Children and Family media is the animation style. Through the influx of cartoon animals, one would almost think that it is a promotion video for the next Madagascar movie.

It is also shown through the structure of the song and video. As the animals are introduced in the song, the lyrics plainly describes the animals’ characteristics. Some obvious examples can be seen during 2:14 - 2:38. The one-dimensional descriptions follow the structure of children TV shows such as Dora the Explorer and Peppa Pig.

Though the video demonstrates a variety of iconographies and structures of the Children and Family genre, it only portrays a few main themes. The most prominent one is the theme of unity. Through the video’s representation of the world’s nations, Lil Dicky conveys the genre’s message of unity. We are all one regardless of where we are from. It also conveys messages about the environment and global warming. Though that representation of that issue in children media is relatively new, it can be seen the children's shows such as Ben 10 and Winx Club.

The music video follows multiple conventions of the Children and Family genre. However, it also subverts those conventions. Through sexual innuendos and profane language, it is clear that the video is not for children. Not to mention that the video might still be blocked from the TDSB G-Suite restriction mode.

It is important to understand that Lil Dicky’s music is considered Hip Hop. More specifically its sub-genre of comedy hip hop with his usage of satire. In the form of a children's medium, Lil Dicky insinuates that his audience’s idea of the Earth and climate change is juvenile. He implies that not enough people are taking action against climate change so he must convince us like we are children.

[poliofolio]

Internet Regulation

Nowadays, there are regulations on the internet to some extent. However, those regulations are not rooted in morally just reasons or federal laws but rather capitalism. Big corporations such as Facebook are able to host communities of people that promote terrorism, incite violence, support self-harm, and so on and so forth. By being a space for those communities, FaceBook is known as the largest media platform on the internet.

However, those media corporations cannot turn a blind eye to the promotion of terrorism, misinformation, bullying, self-harm, and pornography on its sites. This is because those companies do not gain money directly from its users but rather from their sponsors and advertisers. Those advertisers are the prime reason why media corporations are encouraged to regulate their sites.

For instance, Tumblr used to host a variety of pornographic material that can easily be accessed by children. However, once a larger company like Google deleted the platform from its play store, Tumblr was forced to regulate its own site. Pornographic materials were quickly purged from the site in order for Tumblr to maintain its relationship with its advertisers.

It should not be up to corporations motivated by capitalism to determine what is ethically correct. Such self-regulation is the prime reasons why the Canadian government should place federal laws to regulate the internet.

Furthermore, it should not be up to the individuals to determine what is morally correct. For the longest time dating back to 2000, Google’s code of conduct included the vague phrase “Don’t be evil.” This unclear regulation places the responsibility on the individuals. On Instagram, the platform follows an If You See Something Say Something system. At the lowest level, it is up to the user to report an inappropriate post before it is taken down by employees of the company. If the harmful post is within a community that supports that stance, then it is less likely to be taken down. Technology and new media are used as a tool to promote free speech but at the same time, those speeches might infringe on the rights of others. Through vague regulations that depend on individuals, terrorism, child pornography, bullying, and misinformation are still spread. That is why it should be the Canadian Government’s duty to clearly define what those moral boundaries are.

On the other hand, the action of defining these boundaries in itself is ethical misconduct on the Canadian Government’s part. Who is to say what is right or wrong? Moral ideas that one political party favours might clash with others and this fight can lead to censorship of free speech.

While I do agree that regulations should be put in place by the government, I also believe that we as the public should be aware of our current advantages. We should use our voices on the internet to shape future internet regulations. The laws should not be temporary but should remain as a basis that represents Canada as a country. It should resemble the Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Once the rules are defined, it would be feasible to regulate the internet because big media companies already have the technology to do so. We just need to hold them accountable.

[poliofolio]

Analyzing Media Representations

Bisexuality is often represented in new media. It is portrayed wrongly and those assumed values are what reflects on other community’s interpretation of that group. Even as a bisexual person, I am not immune to the mainstream ideology that is spread about bisexuality.

Often in most new media, bisexuality is portrayed as a temporary experimental phase. Katy Perry’s 2008 hit song “I Kissed a Girl” is the epitome of this representation. Though it is wrong to dismiss that Perry may identify as bisexual, it is clear through the lyrics that she sees the sexuality as a solution for her curiosity: “I kissed a girl just to try it, I hope my boyfriend don't mind it. It felt so wrong. It felt so right. Don't mean I'm in love tonight”. She portrays that her being together with a woman is an experiment in which she could return to her boyfriend after. The song also proposes bisexuality as a way to escape a traditional monogamous relationship. This solidifies the image that bisexuality is a temporary experience while also trivializing the validity of it. The song is not only a result of but a direct contribution to hegemonic views of bisexuality in new media.

The portrayal is one of the reasonings for the heterosexual and homosexual community to stigmatize bisexuality. Representation in new media translates to ideas in the real world which are reflected back under the new media hegemony.

In the age of new media, one would think that members LGBTQ+ community would be overshadowed by heterosexual hegemony just like the real world. However, on sites such as Twitter and Tumblr, the LGBTQ+ community thrives. In specific, the gay and lesbian communities tend to dominate. Under new media hegemony, the broad spectrum of bisexuality does not fit into hegemonic binaries.

Though it is true that most bisexual identifying people end up in opposite-sex relationships, it is mostly due to the large heterosexual dating pool. However, once that happens, media hegemony dismisses the blended spectrum of bisexuality to identify a person as something that fits into the binaries of society.

This tweet exemplifies the hegemony of new media that identifies people via binaries. This a response to Ariana Grande’s videos “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” and “MONOPOLY”. Regardless of whether Grande is bisexual or not, it is clear what the LGBTQ+ community of twitter sees. While the community advertise itself as an open environment, it is not immune to false mainstream ideas. The moment an individual comes out as bisexual, it is seen as queerbaiting. Bisexual individuals consistently have to affirm their sexuality to be valid in response to hegemony.

An alternative to this representation is in the CW show, The 100. On the show, it is confirmed that the main protagonist, Clarke Griffin, is bisexual. Though the show initially received backlash due to the death of Griffin’s female love interest, over time the audience’s perception of bisexuality morphed. It deterred from a perception that denies Clarke’s bisexuality when she was in a same-sex relationship. As the show progresses, the audience is able to see that her sexuality is not a phase. The producers achieve this even as she is pushed towards an opposite-sex relationship. As she goes through this, her character develops from her previous lovers regardless of their gender, just as heterosexual or homosexual relationships are. It is not seen as a phase or experiment even though she does end up in prolonged monogamous relationships with one gender. This gives validity to her sexuality. All in all, it is effective as an alternative to mainstream ideology as seen in the change in the audience’s attitude towards the character’s sexuality.

Though this text effectively provides an alternative to mainstream ideology, it will have little to no effect on hegemony in the years to come. Even in 2019, false and hegemonic perceptions of bisexuality are still spread.

[poliofolio]

Assessing McLuhan

“We shape our tools and afterwards, our tools shape us.”

While I do agree with the first part of the statement, I don’t agree with its successor. This is because I believe that at the end of the day, it is people. It is people who add to the media and people who shape people. Like a hammer, when left alone, new media is only a mere object. It takes people to use it before it can shape anything. If anything, it is people who are consciously aware of the effects of new media and uses the tools to shape others. There is a hidden part of human nature who crave attention or validity from others and uses different forms of new media to gain that. In brief, I disagree with the wording of the phrase because it blames the middle man for the front man’s actions.

However, if I ignore the wording and interpret it as the usage of the tools, then I fully agree with the statement. As stated before, people use new media to shape others. In the process, they also shape themselves. Returning to the hammer analogy, most people nowadays immediately reach for the hammer rather than bang a rock on a loose nail. The same can be said for the medium of Google. In the past, curiosity was solved by a long trip to the library that ended in hours of scouring through the aisles to find a specific piece of information. In the age of the internet and Google, a person would appease their curiosity with a quick search on google. This is an example of a small change in our behaviour as a result of new media. It suggests that there could be changes to our behaviours on a much larger scale.

Not only does new media change our behaviours but our morals and on some scale, our political ideology as well. This is why hacking during elections are heavily investigated during this day and age. New media can be used as a tool to change morals by pressuring the masses to conform to the majority. Though conformity can occur outside the effects of new media, its effects within new media extend outside of our own reality. Within social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, the scale is so large that it extends outside of what can happen in our reality. In the real world, only your right-wing neighbour convinces you about voting for a specific political candidate. Once you log onto Facebook, you are bombarded with the opinions of strangers as well. Returning to the idea of people needing validation from others, though those people are strangers, they are still people that we feel the need to impress. It is even worse in the case of hacking when the general public is unaware that the strangers are mere robots.

Other than morals, new media also act as a tool that can physically shape us. It is the driving tool of the makeup industry and the cosmetic surgery industry. Through media such as Instagram and Snapchat, our perceptions of ourselves are forced to conform to the popular definition of beauty. For Instagram, it was created as a way to share photos. However, the contents are heavily saturated with modified images and those images modify the definition of modern beauty. As a result, it physically shape us by promoting the idea of a photoshopped body and tuned face through plastic surgery or alternative shady practices. This explains why Kylie Jenner’s plastic surgeon Dr Simon Ourian has 3.6 million followers on Instagram even though he no longer has his medical license. For Snapchat, it changes our perception of ourselves through fun filters. Not only does it slim our faces but it also whitens our faces to fit the manufactured image of beauty. It shifts society’s image of beauty towards one that promotes colourism.

[poliofolio]

Mediated Life

https://create.piktochart.com/output/37813911-untitled-infographic

With 55 hours out of 168 hours spent on new media in a week, I would say that I use new media more in comparison to my peers. I cannot remember a moment in my daily life where I am not using any form of new media in the face of boredom. The times where I am not watching something on my top 5 new media are when I’m sleeping and studying in class. This is definitely a result of how I was raised up. I believe that children with overprotective parents heavily depend on new media as an escape. With restrictions placed on the outside world, these children depend on the internet to comprehend the world outside of their parents’ creation. Ironically, when I am studying on my own, I use Spotify to help me dissociate from the outside world and connect myself to an algorithmic world that understands me. Ten years from now, I see myself using new media less than I do now. I will not be faced with the same boredom that encourages me to use it now. Compared to two years ago, I can already tell that my new media usage is reducing. As I move on with my life outside of my parent’s jurisdiction, I am free to explore the world by myself instead of through a screen.