week3: playlist and personality

Could a person's character be gained through drawing connotations from one's choice in music genre? This is true to some extent. For example, if you pick up an ipod on the ground an it is playing a song of 1990's, you may have an impression of a nostalgic fan in your mind. However, this kind of impression stays in a superficial level because nobody can tell if the owner liston to this song very often or on a rare occasion. Even the owner listen to this song frequently, no one knows if the owner likes the melody, or the rhythm, or the lyric or this song has some special meaning for him/her. 

On my personal experience, many songs in my iPod have never been played. Some of them are in the year Pop list, some of them are recommended by my friends and some of them I even do not know why they are in my iPod. Thus it seems to be arbitrary to judge a person by one's playlist. An extreme example is how can we gain the character of a person who is tone deaf or real deaf? 

week2：lacks security

It is said that in the virtual world of cyberspace nobody knows if you are a human or a dog. Cyberspace is a free space that everyone could play. However regardless of the identity portrayed there is no denying performing any identity can impact and influence an individual.  It just like a costume ball, people all wear all kinds of masks to hide their identity. People could play any role they want to play to blow off their repressed emotion.

According to Lewis (2006), there are too much informations on internet and that is risky because misinformations may mislead and confuse people. 

People would often trump up their background, degree, experience, adventures or even sensational lies sometimes. For example, a lot of eyewitness claim they had seen UFO debris and extraterrestrial body. A few of eyewitness pretend to be kidnapped by aliens. Some add that the U. S. government even allows aliens to abduct and experiment on humans.

It seems silly to trust everyone on Internet because most personal informations people put on Internet are unable to verify. On the other hand, it is also risky to share too much real personal informations such as your monthly salary, home address and holiday plan.

reference list:

Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539.

week7：Working in new media

Have a simple breakfast, pick up a newspaper, kiss your family and go to work, that's the way how people begin a day in the past. The age of traditional media is over and it is clear 

that traditional media have been displaced by new media gradually. As new media technologies are changing people's lifestile, the way people finding jobs and focus your 

efforts has been changed as well.  

Although it is only 21 years since the internet has been invented, more and more of people's careers can not be separated from the network. Nowdays, building up a strong network around is necessary for a person who want to find a good job and be very 

competent at a job.  

In this competitive new media world, a lot of people lost their job security even though they have a university degree. Philistine works could be very popular in the network if they 

are propagandized massively, while talented young people were too often ploughed under because they are out of date. For example, a professional animator may need to write blog to promote his work and communicate with his fans. He may also needs to translate his 

visual skills into computer art programs rather than only put out a comic book (Winstead, 1998). Is no longer as easy as it once was.

reference list：

Winstead, T. 1998. "In lieu of an abstract, here is a preview of the article." Imagine. 5 (5): 12.

WEEK 6: prawns + vitamin C = poison？

It has been rumored for years that eating prawns shortly after taking vitamin C will cause arsenic acid to form in the body and create a potentially fatal situation. It's an urban legend that has been going around the internet and is not based in fact（Snopes. 2005）.

Health and well-being is big business and misinformation is rife. It's quite difficult to tell an authentic news report from an invented one. Scientific rumor is particularly confusing because the general public is likely to be misleading by alleged research data and professional term beyond their knowledge.

It is difficult to escape the rumor! Although more and more rumor were proven false, many people still prefer to believe them.

According to Lewis, the medical literature saw lay users of the web not as discriminating health consumers actively accessing health information but as passive recipients of online health information prone to outbreaks of ‘cyberchondria’. It seems many people prefer to believe the information on internet rather than to ask a doctor when they fell uncomfortable.

As the new media emerges, posting information become much more easer and personal. For this reason, misinformation and wrong medical concept spread fast and general public believe easily.



Reference List:

Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539. 

Snopes. 2005. "Prawn Shopped." Accessed April 9, 2011.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/shrimp.asp

Week5：New Media and Lifestile

Silverstone (2002) discusses the experience of everyday life is no longer containable within physical space since media have penetrated deeply into the daily life. In the past people accept information passively by newspaper, magazine, radio and TV. As the new media emerges, communication becomes active mutual participation instead of passive acceptance. With new media including social networking sites, email, chat software and client terminal, people can reinforce existing relationships and get more information about new entrants into their offline world.

Subrahmanyam and Greenfield (2008) said that adolescents are heavy users of newer electronic communication forms such as instant messaging, e-mail, and text messaging, as well as communication-oriented Internet sites such as blogs, social networking, and sites for sharing photos and videos. Adolescents seem more likely to live in media rather than live with media. They use new media as a platform to introduce themselves, share their experience and tell their stories.

Nowadays, the first thing after getting to know someone might be asking his or her Mobil phone number, email address, personal home page, or blog. Hence, it can be learned that new media has quietly penetrated into every corner of people's lives, influenced their cognitive ability and moral sentiment, and changed their life stile directly.

Reference list:

Silverstone, Roger. 2002. “Complicity and Collusion in the Mediation of Everyday Life.” New Literary History 33(4): 761-780. 2007.

Subrahmanyam, Kaveri and Greenfield, Patricia. 2008. “Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships.” The Future of Children 18(1): 119-146. Spring 2008.

WEEK 4: Brazen Theft in Age of Information

Slane (2007) points out that as a result of it is an emerging society, information and knowledge can be produced, exchanged, shared and communicated through all the networks of the world. There is no gainsaying that the network has promoted cultural exchange, however it also bring hidden troubles of piracy.
It is a disaster for practitioners of Creative Industries if their copyright does not get be protected effectively. As Jon (2007) says, if you can not protect your original work from piracy, you don’t own anything.
Pirate Software and movies remain incessant after repeated prohibition while music and other copyrighted material is being downloading illegally all the time as well. Katz (2005) believes that copying software without authorization is equal to stealing. There is no good excuse for using pirated software or film, if you use or buy pirated software or film, you are breaking the law.
Have you ever consider the lost of income to copyright owners due to the illegal downloading? No matter it is a film, software, game or music, it is someone else's property – their intellectual property.


Reference list:

Jon, Lewis. 2007. “If You Can't Protect What You Own, You Don't Own Anything:Piracy, Privacy, and Public Relations in 21st Century Hollywood.” Cinema Journal 46(2): 145-150. 2007.

Katz, Ariel. 2005. “A Network Effects Perspective on Software Piracy.” University of Toronto Law Journal 55(2): 155-216. Spring 2005.

Slane, Andrea. 2007. “Democracy, Social Space, and the Internet.” University of Toronto Law Journal 57(1): 81-105. Winter 2007.