Vietnam War Covergae

At the moment I am exploring the different periods of war coverage and examine the media and government’s relation during warfare.
The war that has intrigued most has been the Vietnam War and Tet offensive of 1968. It can be suggested that the Vietnam War has been an introduction to imposed censorship on media coverage and new political tactics in order to tackle media negativity tone during unprecedented situations. It is claimed by many political leaders that this was lost because of the unrestricted access of media. But many have discredited these notions and simply believe it was the government who lost the war. The false policies and false promises could be suggested as the main factor of loosing this war. The main issue is that the American public had no clear understanding of why their country was at war, the nations wide patriotism was not present at Vietnam War. The media had made the public to realise that they have been victims of deception, and it was just hippies or antiwar protestors who had disintegrated from supporting this war. Simply the nation had realised they have been too naïve in term accepting their government’s policy.

One could argue that the media did act “mindlessly” in reporting uncensored news but one cannot blame the media for loosing the war.

Herman and Chomsky argue that “Media coverage of the Tet Offensive has been the centerpiece of the critique of the media for ‘losing the war’ by their incompetent reporting and anti-government bias reflecting their passion for confronting authority.”

The media’s responsibility is to question a government and inform the public of any abused power but the governments departments such as the military do like to conduct their business privately, and their business is the professional management of violence. However war is a political act and the public should be educated about their government’s foreign polices and what they are trying to achieve. A war is a far away image from the usual heroic scenes of Hollywood films; war is not a pretty picture.

more on the dissertation

Since I have had the time to concentrate on my dissertation I have had the opportunity to take some notes on how to write a good dissertation, which I believe it will help me to gain a better result.
I must admit that writing essays is not one of my strongest skills as I have always had the problem to make my argument fellow in a structured way.
But I guess writing a dissertation is just providing a structured research. There was a quote by Richard burger that summed up the whole point of dissertation and the quote was “ by the end of reading your dissertation I want to learn something that I did not know before”.
From this quote I have learn that I need to provide unique and interesting argue and points. There is no need for me to say that on Internet the public can find unedited news source, that’s because most people who use Internet know that they are more reliable sources than TV or radio. I should concentrate on facts and case studies that would support any argue that I will state in this piece of writing. For example the footage of Berlin wall that took place in the early house of Sunday, 1961 was not aired in America until Tuesday night.

I have decided to split this dissertation into few main chapters and treat each chapter as a separate essay. Once the chapters are finished I will review and enhance the construction of this dissertation.
The last but the first part of this dissertation will be my introduction. My introduction will be a summary of topics that I will cover in this piece of writing.
I am also taking notes of all terminologies and interesting words that I come across during my dissertation, as they could be useful during the writing of my dissertation.

Lets get started

So I back at home now but I been working at GRG for a week. My plans did not go ahead as I wanted to spend few hours every night on my dissertation but no excuses now I need to get started!! The whole working hours has got me in a good routine again, so I try to do a 9-5 on my dissertation every day of the coming week.

I also got myself a new book, it is called “how the news media cover a world shaped by war”, I red some reviews about it on Internet and I think it is exactly what I am looking for.
I even managed to get a second hand copy, which saved me £8, and I tell you what, it’s good as new! Buying second hand copies is the FUTURE!

WIMAX is the future!

I was reading an article the other day and I came across the term “wimax”. As the name suggest wireless Internet max. I have had heard about Internets that are broadcasted through hubs but I never really red about them until now.
This type of wireless technology sounds great as it can reach remote locations in countryside.
So I wonder if this is going to be the future of Internet! Would there be a time that everyone in one city would subscribe to one company and receive Internet connection through one massive wireless Internet hub! Well the answer is yes Milton Keynes council has put this into test already and believe it or not it is the first city in UK to benefit from long rage wireless connections.

dont belive it

I am so annoyed that I found this site, when I was thinking of ideas for my final year project I came up with an idea of just having new headlines in one massive page or just have thumbnails of images related to particular news but I was told these is no niche and I got put off from doing it but hey look someone did it and it looks awesome! This site is quite impressive, it’s even more interesting if you have a big monitor or dual screen as you can see more news in one page. It is also a based flash site, so it has the whole interactivity and stylishness of a modern site.  So what are the features? 

• Headlines are categorized in different colours.
• You can see what interest the audience of a country, for example apparently the  Italians don’t really care much about the word news or the news about Amy wineshouse is the most clicked on topic in new Zealand, Australia and UK.
• Last but far most important thing is that updates itself through RSS feed every few minutes.

BBC beta

BBC has just launched a new home page for its users to mark the 10th year anniversary of BBC.co.uk, its an interesting topic as its focuses on user experience and customisation… i am studying this new service and i will post a full report of my experience.

The Trust in public media.

This morning I found out that there was guest lecturer who previously worked at BBC so I thought he might be an interesting case for my dissertation.
We managed to get hold of some tickets and also Google his name before it started.
Will Wyatt was senior executive at BBC who has been responsible for some famous documentaries such as they’ve shot Kennedy, good night and good luck.
His discussion in this lecture was mainly based on the “public audiences trust in television”.
His discussion on this topic was followed by a recent report that he had written on a year with queen, which apparently shows the Queen storming out of photo shoot session with American photographer Annie Leibovitz. The alleged scenario was that the Queen had been asked to remove her crown by the photographer, by this she got offended and decided to leave the room.

The next day this was published on all major tabloids and other well-known newspapers with headlines representing the Queen as an old grumpy and arrogant woman.
Later the truth was revealed and new allegations suggested that the whole footage was fake and edited.
During this lecture Will explained how the whole footage was edited and the whole in discussion on this video clip was so engaging and interesting as it became clear that how the construct a edited video clip that had totally changed the original narrative.
The two sequences told a different story and this was a captivating moment as it implied that the media we receive in today’s society are nothing but a manufactured broadcasting.
By presenting the above discussion I would suggest that television news has drifted away as an informative source and somehow it has become entertaining.

These types of scandal create advertising revenue for other media platforms, e.g newspapers.

1- The clip gets uploaded on a public site such as you tube.
2- People see it and become a target for new channels.
3- Newspapers take advantage of it as it’s an important topic on an important person, so the front page is an advertising force for consumers to buy it.
4- Few days after it all becomes clear that it was all a big “cock-up” so that news occupies another part of the front page.
5- The main keys taken to court and other speculations on this story.

The above example is just a brief description of the whole revenue process for different type of media platforms.

But all these cock-ups happen all the time, so does this mean the public are just too kind and forgot all these lies or does this destroy the trust of audiences in public media?

Citizen Journalism

Now I have got some time to concentrate back on my dissertation I like to discuss the impact of Internet on news services!

Today Internet has revolutionized computers and technology like never before. The emergence of radio, TV and computer made integration capabilities a mechanism of information and a medium of collaboration and interaction between individuals regardless to their geographic location.

Citizen journalism

This type of journalism is also known as “participatory journalism” where citizens of a society play an active role in the process of observing, reporting and analysing of disseminating news and information that are broadcasted by mainstream and other type of manufactured media.
The main intention of citizen journalism is to provide an alternative information source where the materials are accurate, reliable and relevant.

Today with the improvement of technology citizens have the benefit of observing and reporting news more immediately than the traditional mass media.
With the growing level of online blogging and countless indymedia websites, today armature journalists are able to add their voice and point out errors in mainstream media.
Because of loosing trust in mainstream media public are turning to alternative media for uncut materials.

Because of the popularity of online media traditional news outlets are reacting with fear and uncertainty while some major news sources are adopting themselves to these social changes.
Mainstream medias such as BBC or guardian have added blogs and readers comment as part of their online content.
As public are turning to alternative and participatory form of online journalism, mainstream outlets are adopting these new interactive features to their websites.
The media audience is moving away from broadcast materials where few communicate to many, they are moving towards an inclusive online content where public and audiences also have a voice.

Ref

http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/digitalMedia/newsimpact.html
http://theory.isthereason.com/?page_id=297

2 days to go and I will be done for this term!

Well the presentations started from today and I have two more days to prepare my presentation. I’m quite confident but I need to narrow it all down and say what they want to hear.
I spoke to two people who had their presentation today but I don’t know if they were too happy with it, which worried me to a certain level, but generally I am very confident on delivering a pitch.

I have to say what ever I want to say plus showing them my prototype in just 10 minutes. They only thing that worries me is that they might say your idea has already been done and I know that as there many online portfolio services but I only know few “professional networking” on internet plus my target is a specific organisations so I should be capable of supporting my ideas.

The brief of AIB:Connect and benefits of online networking.

Research focused on using online portfolio and benefits of a design network.

Brief: my aim is design a website that would showcase selected works from every single students within the Bournemouth Arts Institute. This website would cover various creative courses such as fashion, photography, graphics design, illustration and fine art. The main page of this site will be basically one big visual wall where u can scroll to see works from different designer from different courses. By clicking on a selected thumbnail the user will have the option to visit that particular artist’s works.
This site would also provide a link with local business, as companies would search for talented individuals to work with.

Why having online portfolios under one community?

So there are thousands of website where you can display your work or even have your website but why would you want to use BAI:connect?

Here are some of the reasons?
• Do you necessary know about your friends website?
• How would you advertise your website?
• Have to spend time and skills in order to create a website to display your work but are you a web designer?
• You might see an artist work on Internet but does it necessary motivates you to do better?
So the solutions:

• When you are under one community its easier for you to search for other students and see their works. Even by going through galleries you might find a particular style of work interesting and might encourages you to study that artist or their style.
• As this website will be aimed for BAI students, there will be always a competition between students and it will motivate them to work harder as you want to be better than rest in your class.
• BAI spend a lot of money every year to promote and advertise the institution so by having a link on the BAI site your works are more likely to be seen by outsiders.
• Local businesses are more likely to be looking for a talent within a community that conjunct with an organisation or institution than just searching around Internet.
• Targeting one particular audience will help those individuals to be updated about all events that are taking place in their organisation.
• So if the university made it compulsory for the students to spend 2 hours a week during seminar sessions to upload new works in to their portfolios, imaging how much content you will have after 3 years!!!
• By having an online portfolio and CV it will be easier for the students to send a URL of their portfolio to companies they want to work for. Some companies might even want to advertise of placement on the site in order to build future employees.
• By using this site you will have a visually diary, so you can look at your achievements and all the blogs that you have written throughout the year so you will have enough material when it come to writing your PDP or any other annual reviews.
• Even though this design networking will connect individuals from different courses, each course will have their own kind of space but having all different type talents under one roof, collaboration could be easier than before.