CCT300-Labs

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I agree with McLuhan when he states that comics are an extension of photographic media as comics are also a series of photographs with captions telling a story. Photographs and comics are both able to tell stories, but in different ways. For instance, photographs do not have captions yet they still have a way of telling a story, but require the imagination of the reader to distinguish what the story is. With comics on the other hand, the imagination is still doing some thinking as the story but in some cases comics that include captions still require some //connecting of the dots//. In both cases however, images are used to portray a story to the reader. In my opinion, any kind of pictured media that does require some work of the imagination and thinking is a part of photographic media. “Cool” media defined by McLuhan relates directly to photographic media as the reader/viewer must use their imagination to interpret the images being represented. On the other hand, photographic media cannot be “hot” as some thinking is required by the reader/viewer, but a good example of hot media would be movies as they do all the interpreting for the viewers. Thus, since comics require some sort of thinking or participation from the reader, I would say that comics are an extension of photographic media.======

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I feel that the conventional means of mass media advertising cannot translate into Second Life as this method of advertising is not as "mass" as it is being publicized in public. With the Internet, there is more control on what the consumer is interested in seeing, thus, they will filter out the advertisements that they do not want to be exposed to. Furthermore, with the rise in programs to block advertising, the means of advertising on the Internet are not as feasible as advertising on billboards, television or even newspapers. On the other hand, advertising on television is easier to attract to the viewer as new ways of targeting the audience has developed for instance the way small pop-ups are shown on television screen corners for upcoming shows, corporate advertising etc. Advertising on the internet will not always get you the best return on your investment. Advertising on the internet will not lead to as much success as there is advertising on television, radio or other types of mass media. Personally, I don't think that second-life or internet would even be considered Mass media. Even though the internet is at an international scale, the amount of people that use second life arent a great target audience because ideally, the person who is using a second life does not leave their home too much. Usually these people will not contribute towards the purchasing of any products. I feel that Second life is a niche market and that the amount of people that this market is trying to target is not of a "mass" or large scale level.======

//Group Members: Gursimran Ghai, Manpreet Japra, Mathew Kaniyamparambil, Ramy Hamdoun//
Three concepts from McCloud's online comic //Chapter 5 and 1/2// that relates to a comic book of choice would be //Garfield//. Three important techniqes of web-comics would be using larger fonts and text to attain the attention as it is much different viewing comics online and in print. The physical representation of the book is being replaced with the visual representation of one's computer monitor. That monitor may vary in sizes for every reader. This comic book mostly uses the concept of strips, which are simple to understand, and are usually contained in three boxes. Those three frames are able to show to the reader what is going on, yet interestingly enough, this comic is very "Cool" especially since there is a lot of thinking involved between the frames. This explains why the lines between the frames are much more thicker, which show a lapse of time. The strip method is much better for webcomics especially since they are easier to read especially since the comics are short and simple to read on the screen and allow the reader to complete the comic and continue reading another or continue doing other work. Garfield is primarily a print born comic, however the web version is well designed with color. Garfield webcomics are in full color as you see in comics, but at the same time this one is not as dense in color, but it's still funny. The Garfield Comic online is well developed especially since with pages it requires changing of pages, but with Garfield, the strip is very simple and fits to the top of the screen every time. Above all, if the strip is clicked on, it enlarges to fit the screen for much easier reading. The very simple and faded background makes the comic stand out more especially since the Garfield comic uses contrasts of colors. For instance, the blue background allows Garfield to stand out while knowing that he is still standing in a background. In almost all Garfield comics, the background is in contrast of the characters being depicted and always allows Odie, Garfield or Jon to find a different way to stand out.

This is a culture jam in which we have decided to depict Nike and the methods of manufacturing their products they use. The dollar sign is made of a child representing the fact that Nike uses child labor for their products. Furthermore, we have changed Nike's slogan and added emphasis on "Don't" as we are asking the audience to not support their products by purchasing them.

Week 8: Lab (Due November 5th, 2009)
==__Select an article under any section and critically analyze it using FAIR's FAQ. Follow the questions and make an assessment. Decide as a pair whether you consider this specific new article objective. Explain why or why not.__==

////Chrysler Hopes to Double Sales Within Five Years////
[]

The sources come mainly from Chrysler officials and individuals that hold executive posiotns within the corporation. Some references have been made to the US Government as well.
 * Who are the Sources? **

No, it seems that most of the individuals within the article that have been menstioned come from a diverse background as there are international individuals referenced including the owner of Chrysler being European.
 * Is there a lack of Diversity? **

The point of view of this news is being reported through the eyes of the governments and the impact it will have on the economy. Most of the information is from a government or official point of view.
 * From whose point of view is the news reported? **

In this situation, not many stereotypes have been made but at the same time since the economy is important in today’s state, however some small stereotypes about vehicles have been made about Chrysler’s vehicles and the bailout money that has been given to the corporation to keep them away from bankruptcy.
 * Do Stereotypes Skew Coverage?**

No, the language is not loaded especially since most of the article is factual information that has been quoted by officials and representatives of Chrysler.
 * Is the language Loaded? **

No, the context is well explained as the situations throughout the article are well focused and the setting is well described throughout.
 * Is there a lack of Context?**

Yes the headlines and stories match especially since the article does not lose focus towards what Chrysler has to accomplish in order to reach their goal of doubling their sales within five years. The article has kept focus on their plans and what they will do to achieve their goals.
 * Do the headlines and stories match? **

The economy is an important issue these days and Chrysler is important to the Canadian economy, which is why the Financial Post has a separate part of the paper in which this and similar articles regarding the economy have been highlighted or sharpened enough to be visible and attract the reader’s eye.
 * Are stories on important issues featured prominently? **

__Using the criteria of Transparency and Functionality in slides 8 and 9, do a media analysis of two major information sources (i.e. About.com, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, MSN.ca etc).__
__//Wikipedia://__ In terms of Functionality, Wikipedia overall is a well run website. The internal search engine is quite effective as the searches are available in many languages and the search engine allows the new auto-complete function, thus while typing a keyword, articles relating with similar terms show up as well. This can be a good feature in a situation where one is searching for a broad article, yet while typing in the search terms, a more specific term is found. Updates on this Wikipedia are done by users and typically a community of users. Most of the articles on line are not completely reliable but a good place to start. Since anyone can change it, citations and information are done by the vast community of people. Articles throughout Wikipedia are interlinked and most articles have sections at the end for citations, thus is linked to other websites on the internet. Some extra features that enhance the website include the various languages and the large variety of articles in so many different languages. Furthermore, other extra features include the discussion pages and accounts for individuals. Tools that are interesting are the links for featured content, recent changes and random article. Pop-up ads are not common on this website, making it better as well as the fact that Wikipedia is rarely down or unreachable. In terms of spelling and grammatical errors, the community of users watch over and are usually dealt with in time.

In order for Wikipedia to keep its level of integrity, it is important for sources to be present on each article. Most articles available on Wikipedia are tracked and any changes made are viewable by the administrator. Therefore, most articles have a tag which tells the last update which is important for transparency.

__//Google://__ Google’s internal search engine is a state of the art technology which has been developed and perfected over time. The updates on Google are almost instantaneous as websites enter the World Wide Web. During a search, the hits that are returned also show related articles for the various hits that come up after a search. Furthermore, the amount of extra features available from google is numerous and grows every so often. For instance, some include Google Scholar which is an important search utility for articles with clarity and excellent transparency. Grammatical errors are not typically found through Google unless a hit has grammatical errors itself. With Google’s page rank system, there are more transparent and resourceful websites shown at the beginning of searches, but typically towards the last few pages where there are websites, more errors may appear. However, at the same time, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Google is seen to always be online and rarely down, and Google has an interesting way of reducing broken links. Some hits have been cached and have digital snapshots taken, reducing the amount of broken links available online. Generally Google does not use pop-up ad’s for advertising, but use the side bar to cater advertisement for each and every different user depending on their interests and keywords.

Google’s sources are as clear as water and many sources that are introduced online are easily traceable or easy to locate. Google allows many features to be a part of their search and allows the page of results to be sorted by newest or recently changed or edited etc. Google’s privacy policy is easily accessible from their home page and is clear as well. Google is a quality built website as most of the Functionality and transparency features pass this website to be well developed and since there are many users using Google, it is by far one of the most successful websites on the internet.

Week 10: Lab (Due November 19th, 2009)
==__Using the site SocialGo at__ [|www.socialgo.com]__: Build a social networking site. Using some advice on these slides incorporate some functions to your SNS and explain how these features contribute to your visibility online.__== []  The topic that is outlined in the social networking website will allow people that have the same interest to connect to each other and stay in contact as well as have an interesting conversation. Other websites can easily be linked based on the same topic. Furthermore, with links to other social networking websites to link directly to me are a part of making the social network visible through the connection of other websites including, twitter, Facebook and MySpace. With these sites being popular and the fact that the populations within these communities are larger, audiences vary throughout the websites. RSS feeds are also important with the various elements of news based on anything possible being available to the community. In addition, with this in mind, RSS feeds that are important and linked to information that is interesting and related to the topic would make the site more popular. With web 2.0 connecting websites together in social terms is important and with the various other sites that drive lot of web-traffic, linking it to SocialGO will contribute to becoming more visible online.

__What features of Twine did you find most relevant to Web 3.0?__
Twine fits into the description of Web 3.0 as Twine is directly related to a database which is linked through tags and is intelligent enough tto use tags and connect it to other websites. Twine is relatively intelligent especially since the program is able to connect to other databases and above all Twine connects to other databases and does its own further recearch. With these features, Twine becomes more relevant to web 3.0 and becomes an excellent part of web 3.0. Part of web 3.0 is databases which is what Twine is connected to - multiple databases - which is what is used to conduct specific searches. Twine allows users to input their information, for instance one's interests can be inputted and the database generates searches based on those interests which have become connected to tags. Tagging is becoming an important part to web 3.0. Besides connecting links together like Web 2.0, Web 3.0 is connected to other databases. Almost everything on Twine is based on tags which makes indexing and searching on through its semantic seach engine easier.