WEEK 12 GAME CULTURES: EXPLORING TECHNICITY AND CULTURAL CAPITAL

In the German language a game is an activity which is executed only for pleasure and without concious purpose. Today the definition of game comes closer to Adornos' definition by identifying game as an art of form. A game must have components and rules, the components are the hardware while the rules are the software. For example the rules for chess are White starts first. the Queen can move in different direction, the King only once and so on.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27tTpm_suWU&feature=channel

Most games do not have the same rules or techniques but they are very interesting. They are different types of games namely Educational games, Action, Puzzle, Multi-player games, e.t.c. Game play is the interaction with a game mostly video games through its rules, connection between and the player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and players connection to it.

Finally a video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. A good example of a video game is Play Station or Xbox. Both use a console to operate the game. 

WEEK 11 EXPLORING MARSHALL McLUHAN

Culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or a group of people. Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or create an artistic perspective. McLuhan states that people adapt to their environment through a certain balance or ratio of their senses, and the primary medium of age brings out a particular sense ratio. He also sees every medium as an extension of some human faculty, with the media of communication thus exaggerating this or that particular sense. McLuhan has four stages namely

• Tribal age: Hearing the most important sense
• Literate age: Creation of the alphabet
• Print age: Gutenberg's printing press
•  Electronic age: Telegraph 

WEEK 10 PRIVACY

Privacy is the claim of individuals, groups to determine for themselves when, how and what they should tell about themselves or let others know about them. Privacy has been for like 50 or 70 years or even more. 20 years ago, privacy had nothing to do with the media.
Privacy is the control over one's information. Any information any company holds and can be visible to people has to do with the permit that they can be identified either by their email address or phone mobile.
Cookies measures how many times a site is visited and where the user has been but it is not harmful to the computer or network.

WEEK 9 SOCIAL MEDIA

 Social media is the interaction between two or more people using technology mostly the internet for different reasons such as business or fun. A very common example of social media is social networking, it can be either Facebook, Hi5, You tube or Tagged.

Social network can be defined as a social structure made up of individuals which are tied up in other to be studied and also individuals that  show common interest in an activity. The reason for social media is the need to belong to a group or the control over it. Also it helps producers to advert their products. For example most advertisers use Facebook because it is a social network which is mostly used by consumers.

Finally, it is also a way of showing one's identity to another but privacy must be involved.

WEEK 8 PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE CULTURES

Dataveillance is the surveillance of a person's activities by studying the data created by actions such as credit card purchases phone calls and also the internet. Surveillance is the monitoring of an individual's behaviour either from a distance for example CCTV cameras or from the internet.
There is a slogan that says "Big Brother is watching you", Big Brother is a reality television show in which a group of people live together in a large house which is isolated from the outside world but can be watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for two months with mostly 15 participants from all over the world and the winner goes home with a cash prise after avoiding all forms of eviction. The idea of Big Brother started in 4th September 1997 but it was first aired in Netherlands in 1999 on the Veronica TV channel.
Lastly, Bureaucracy is a set of protocols and regulations put in place to manage the activities of organisation, mostly large organisations.

WEEK 6 EXPLORING THE TECHNOCULTURAL HISTORY OF NETWORK AND FEEDBACK

Networks can be dated back to the 1970's Telegraph. Networks are appropriate instruments for a capitalist economy based on innovation, globalisation for firms to work together for the same purpose. Feedback is an information or result or conclusion which is reported after a discussion or after an event. Most feedbacks are used to improve or get to know what people think about them. For example, after a presentation either by an organisation or an industry, they ask for feedback. This feedback contains questions and the answers gotten from the feedback is used in improving the industry. Feedback is compulsory, but it always advisable to fill on. An example of a feedback form can be seen.
Lastly, Internet is the combination of both computers and cables in which information is sent from one network to another and it is also said to be the backbone of a computer.

WEEK 5 ADVERTISING

Advertising is the non personal communication of information paid for or usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. The simplest definition is advertising is an act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television to get more customers.

Advertising helps us to choose which product we want. For example, there are different types of biscuits like Shortbread, Maryland, etc, as consumers we have different varieties to choose from. Also as I stated  above, to advertise a product it has to be paid for depending on the time used in advertising it.

Lastly, adverts change within the years because people enjoy moving with time. No one likes to be left behind in the latest improvement or change. The first Coca Cola advert was in Black and White but now the newest advert has a lot of color, drama and also action.

WEEK 4 POST MODERNISM

Post modernism was discussed in the fourth week. I understand that Modernity leads to changes and completely different segments which are very important but different in meaning. Also they are things we make up, believing they are real and fighting for them to be real.

Post modernism is a scientific study in order to explain reality. Reality is not only by human understanding but they are constructed in order to understand or explain reality. It is also the flexible way of changing truth.

Also other words were made reference to like:
Imitation - It is neither positive or negative, it is just what someone does.
Pastiche- Mocking someone or something, not the original story but a third party.
Pastiche- It borrows from many different places and not understanding the original story. Also it is putting together different stories to create another story.

Lastly, Rowland Barthe stated that there are fours ways in valuing things in our culture:
Functional value- Instrumental purpose
Exchange- economic value
Symbolic value- this is the value a subject gives to an object
Sign value- value within a system of objects (no functional value)

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer- The Culture Industry:Enlightenment as Mass Deception

Media in communication is a  tool used to store and deliver information or data. Films, radios and magazines also make up the media. Deception are acts to change beliefs that are not true or the whole truth. Movies and radio do not pretend to be art since as violence becomes open so as the power grows and the lines between begins to show through. The Culture Industry as stated by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is the same to a factory producing standardised cultural goods – through film, radio and magazines by manipulating the masses into enjoying it no matter how bad economic position. They were both members of The Frankfurt School (The Frankfurt School  refers to a school of Neo-Marxist who have come to amend or extend the Marxist Theory).


Finally most people believe that the products or the movies made by the mass culture would not be popular if people do not enjoy them. Which is true because individual are hard to please and for example the movie Twilight is popular because people enjoy watching it if it was not what they wanted, it would not have sold.

RAYMOND WILLIAMS- THE ANALYSIS OF CULTURE

Culture in the easiest definition is the way of life but to my understanding, Culture is the process of human perfection or behavior to certain norms and values. Norms are the rules a group of people follow mostly in social norms and failure to follow this rule can lead to expulsion from this group. An example of social norm can be seen in this image.

Values are the ideas or behavior that can be judged as either good or evil. For example in most countries, if an individual fights for her country it reflects the value of patriotism and this can be judged as good.

Raymond Williams also stated in page 52 that "We see most past work through our own experience without even making the effort to see it in something like its original term. Which is true to the fact that most people analyse  history with their understanding and they don't bother to see it in the primary term even if it has a different meaning to what it meant.

AUDIENCE

In order to discuss the word Audience, it has to be understood. Audience is a group of people who participate in an event or show either by taking part in the event or by just clapping. An example is shown below:

The way in which the audience members receive this information is through a Transmission Model that is from the sender to the receiver. The sender can be a football match and the receiver is the audience.

There are different types of things that can lead to an audience, example Adverts, Shows but the most common is the Cinema. Many people go to watch movies at the cinema and different reactions take place. Youtube also brings about an audience by allowing people to post and also watch different videos.

Finally the different types of audience we have can either create their version of what they have interest in, leave a comment about their opinion or do nothing about it.