Digital Identity Resources (vis @catherinecronin)

Here are the links from Cathrine's presentation on Digital Identity that I think will be most helpful in terms of postmodernism.

Social network sites as networked publics (2010) by danah boyd (@zephoria)

Digital identities: Six key selves of networked publics (2012) by Bonnie Stewart (@bonstewart)

Digital dualism and the fallacy of web objectivity (2012) by Nathan Jurgenson (@nathanjurgenson)

The IRL Fetish (2012) by Nathan Jurgenson (@nathanjurgenson)

You are not your name and photo: A call to reimagine identity (2011), Wired article by Tim Carmody (@tcarmody)

We, our digital selves, and us – YouTube video (2012) by Alan Levine (@cogdog)

Please read and make notes!

Media in Minutes

Not all of the videos in the playlist are relevant and some are name differently to the terms we use e.g. The Reinforcement Theory is also known as Selective Exposure / Selective Perception.

PLEASE NOTE: These videos are just introductions to theories and not an exhausted list. Further research is needed to gain a greater understanding.

Reading and annotating an article [Screencast]

After today's revelation, that some of you are not actively reading and annotating articles as part of your preparation for the Audiences and Institutions section of the exam, I decided to create a screencast to show you how I expect you to read and annotate an article. It's a bit rough and ready but it does the job!

Link to the original article: http://www.economist.com/node/21556635

Where to look for articles about the Magazine Industry...

To help you get to grips with reading around the topic of the magazine industry, I thought it would be helpful to share a few websites that you can trust (to an extent).

MediaMagazine - Remember to ask me for the username and password.

Guardian Newspaper (Media Section)

Independent Newspaper (Media Section)

The Association of Magazine Media

The Economist

Wired

TechCrunch

Please remember that even sites like these are open to bias and should be handled critically.

Keep up with your case studies!

You must remember that the Audiences and Institutions unit is a case study and as such is an active, evolving topic. With that in mind, you need to keep up with events.

Playstation Magazine which I gave out as a case study has since shut down. This follows the closure of Nintendo Power, a long running Nintendo-related magazine. Both magazines were published by Future US, Inc.

A quick glance at Future's website suggests that they are concentrating their energies in the digital market, significantly updating GamesRadar, as well as launching a new weekly interactive digital tech magazine.

While I was looking through related articles I also came across this article about the fact that Newsweek is going 100% digital.

You have got to keep researching and reading. This topic is alive, kicking and is never not interesting. There is always something to learn!

Catherine Cronin on Digital Identities at #pelc13

Hey, Josh, Hannah, Alice, Lucy, Danni and Alice, this one's for you...

Enacting Digital Identities from Catherine Cronin

While some of her presentation will be directed towards educators, just glancing at the slides, I can see there will be something for the six of you to take away about digital identity in our postmodern age, not least slide 13 <-- go check it out!

So, I know you all have awesomely exciting lives, but perhaps on this rainy day you can spare a little time to watch the live stream at 12:00 (BST) and listen to what @catherinecronin has to say about digital identities.

*The link to click on is GILL GRAGIE CINEMA (ALL KEYNOTES) - Day 2. Sign up and follow instructions.

G322: Audiences and Institutions - Awesome Revision Booklet

Need help revising for the Audiences and Institutions section of your AS Media exam? Then look no further.

Download this awesome revision guide, courtesy of Mr. Ford.

It includes a detailed glossary of key terms, an example case study, advice on how to revise and how to approach the exam.

G322: TV Drama - Awesome Revision Booklet

Need help revising for the TV Drama section of your AS Media exam? Then look no further.

Download this awesome revision guide, courtesy of Mr. Ford.

It includes a detailed glossary of key terms, links to example clips, advice on how to revise and how to approach the exam.

Thinking through audiences and institutions...

Successfully responding to the audience and institutions section of the exam is about being able to link your case studies to the theory. This needs to be thought through. Here's an example...

NME is one of the longest running music magazines. It has expanded horizontally (Melody Maker merged with NME in 2000) as well as diagonally multiple times: 

• NME.com (1996)
• NMEVideo.com (2011) - replacing the defunct TV channel
• NME TV (2007 - 2010)
• NME Radio (2008)
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) 

Each of these expansions can be seen to be in response to a number of factors including consumer demand for converged content, and the desire to turn NME (the weekly indie-music magazine) into a recognised Brand at the heart of the British music industry. 

Moreover, each of these expansions have caused changes in both production and exchange. 

Production has evolved moving from a concentration on written content even into the launch of NME.com but that soon changed as web technologies improved. With the move to high speed broadband connections  NME has sought to make the most of streaming audio and video online through their websites. Moreover, they have launched several apps that do the same. This suggests that they have recognised the power of these mediums. As such, NME as a production company has grown to include a diverse mixture of roles beyond the traditional journalists. Moreover, the magazine itself has become integral to promoting the online arm of the brand through intertextual referencing to the website and apps on every single page.  

Exchange has also certainly been effected. In their efforts to meet consumer demand they have developed a more direct relationship with their target audience. Events such as a Nirvana Nevermind Listening Party (2011) organised through Twitter shows how the company is seeking to leverage social media to keep readers engaged in the NME brand. In part due to the success of this event the magazine has continued to produce content related to classic albums including self-produced documentaries...

This is unstructured and would need to be presented more eloquently in your essay, but what I am trying to show you is how you need to be thinking this through... you have to connect the theory: expansion, convergence, social media etc, with the case studies, in this case NME.

You should be able to do this for three magazines to support different arguments within your essay.

I'm posting this because I care!

Part of me does not want to post this as it will only contribute to perpetuating dependency... but I guess some of you are not ready to think for yourselves. However, I only want to see you do well, so if this helps you take the next step...

Your current essay question is asking you what factors have affected institutions within the magazine industry and what decisions have they made in response to those factors that have affected the processes of 'production' and 'exchange'?

Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts.

What are those factors you ask? And my knee-jerk response would be seriously!? But alas... those factors are:

• Expansion (particularly diagonal expansion)
• Which is arguably a response to the continued growth and impact of multi-media convergence.
• Which has grown significantly because of the WWW
• Which has also seen the growth of social media

So in other words how have the above areas affected the magazine industry and how have magazine institutions responded to them? And specifically how have they impacted on the way magazines are produced and how have they impacted on the point of exchange?

Now, the next bit you have to do for yourselves. I am not going to do it for you. Your essay structure is there in the bullet points. You need to develop each of those points with 'secondary' and 'primary' (3 magazines and their owners) evidence that you explore and discuss.

*This is the last time I will help you in this way... The problem I fear for a number of you is that you simply do not know the content well enough. You need to read, digest, discuss and then read some more. If you were more confident with the content and the concepts you might not find putting the essay together such a struggle. Please think about that.

Mr. M.

Did you know 4.0

Eternal moonwalk #meme #FTW!

Eternal Moonwalk is a never ending moonwalk made up of user-submitted videos. It's an awesome #meme, a great example of the power of the viral web and is also exceptionally #pomo! 

*You can hit the buttons below the video for some added MJ sound effects!

Laters!

Is Community A Postmodern Masterpiece?

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Is Community A Postmodern Masterpiece? | Idea Channel | PBS

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A2: More useful stuff for 1a & 1b

These links all come courtesy of Andy Wallis over at Ashfield Media:

• Answering question 1a

• Key concepts revision

• Another A grade exam response (only 1a and 1b are relevant to you).