I am only writing this so I can quote it in my PDP essay – Lets be fair, you can see the dates and nobody will be reading this but my lectures. And there’s no flies on them!

Although the “tongue in cheek intro” I feel it sums up my second year at University rather well. Who’s learning here, me or you?

Media and Participation demonstrated this to me. Lectures go away and learn a subject area to the point in which they know it enough to teach it to a class. Then we sit there, tired and hung-over taking in a % of what they are telling us. Is this the right way to do it?
Outside learning is going to be a big part of my third year.

As well as thinking a lot about how we learn as individuals, I got thinking on communication. How the media affects how we talk to people. Would I go up to a lecturer and tell them they were the sharpest tool in the shed and there was no point in hiding anything from them like I did at the start of the post? Maybe, but here I have the safety of a hiding behind a screen, no eye contact and it wont be for another year till I come back on here, with another post helping me out of PDP.

And it is this idea of communicating over the media which is going to be stretched over 10,000 words next year and titled “Matt Houghtons Dissertation.”

Hopefully… If it gets accepted…

To summarise,
This year has been about communicating and socialising within the media. I have met a lot of individuals, companies and freelancers which I aim to keep contact with throughout my third year and the early stages of my career. Who knows what’s after that.

I have learnt a lot about myself and how I work. I feel I am a strong team player, always performing well in peer assessments and fulfilling any task given to me. I know where my weaknesses lie and aim to better them this summer, bringing me to my final year where everything I’ve learnt will come together and form a major. Hopefully.

I think there’s some good PDP quotes in that,
see you in a year x

The plan 

To make a website that event promoters can place events onto, for free (at the start) and display their events. Then with a big enough user base students can check out the site to see what’s going on certain days. game on!

Our objective is to raise awareness of the site. Although a lengthy process, advertising around uni is going to be beneficial. Maybe simple flyers saying “why did you take this” would be an irony campaign to get people thinking and engaging with the new idea.

HOWEVER check out the campaign as it stands. We’ll keep going with it, if you keep backing us!

www.f-promotions.com

much love x

Interactive Media is a massive part of today’s world. Facebook, Youtube and many other content creating sites where users have the ability to take authorship of creations and collaborate to create something unique. These are all lovely examples of interactive media, however what happens when it all goes wrong?

World of Warcraft is an online game where users play online, interacting with other users. One example of this was the “Bronze Mustache” case where a college student was alleged to have had a love affair with a married women after meeting on World of Warcraft. The activism took place after, as the story spread and users of the game were disgusted at his actions and decided they wanted rid of him.

Much controversy surrounds the case as an “online mob” was formed against Bronze Mustache, the user name of the college student on the game, and his personal information forced him into hiding but an online reaction had also occurred.

A large group of gamers came online and together created a world of havoc in the world of warcraft as a protest to get the perverted user banned. The all got together and marched through the world as one and eventually committed mass suicide in the game to show how “serious” they were.

Without getting too far into Chinese politics (we never know where blogging about that will take us…….) This can be another cause for china’s ongoing pursue to censor and filter the internet to its country.

After the personal details of the user had been retrieved through use of the World Wide Web China claims to be censoring the internet to protect its population and that is the influence to change certain practices on protecting media content.

They removed certain blogs about the user and situation to enforce a cooling effect on what was escalating situation for the users safety, regardless of what he had done.

Bronze Mustache was forced to drop out of University and he stayed at home protecting himself in his house with his family. This was a sure outcome for the activists as it was more then they wanted. Whether the right or right outcome for society.

A Much more detailed report of the story:  http://dampmonkeyhands.wordpress.com/media-and-activism-assignment-1/

South Parks version of the tale http://www.megavideo.com/?v=3V269C4L 

Overall my first year at Bournemouth Uni has been a success! Spot on! Learnt a shed load which has got my moving and the foundations are set for a promising 2nd year – sounds interesting!

Met some great people (cliché) and had a great time doing many things I shouldn’t have, but got away with it so it’s alrights!
remembe kids, be good – but if you cant dont get caught!
What I will do is try and get some photocopies of my visual diary up, though the deadline for PDP is in like 12 hours so after I probably wont bother as I kinda already have a bit of a blog…. (do they read this or do i photo it?)
anyway, it’s been a pleasure to be here for the year! I promise i’ve done better at the course then this blog and i’ll try and improve on this next year! i’ll set time aside everyweek and talk some more. and you never no what that could lead to
x

t-ra

I started media studies when i went to collage, it was one of the many reasons why i left my school to go to a collage 17miles away instead of staying on at the 6th form a 2 minute walk from my house. (im not sure if that all made sense, but my grammer is top notch this ealry in the morning)

i was instantly interested in both sides of the course i took, the productive side of making cd covers and films, and the theory side involving personal research to explore and investigate chosen topic matters. i enjoyed the course alot and it was clear to me by the second year that i wanted to take it further and i chose the degree over marine biology! (diverse i no) so i looked around and even though i was raised in Richmond, North Yorkshire i was born in Plymouth and wanted to come back down south. i looked around the courses and Bournemouth, although slightly further east then desired, stood out to me and i chose to come and see it.

and i think it’s safe to say the rest is history…

 the course so far is fantastic, i’m learning lots very fast and it seems quite suited to me so far so im happy to be here. Halls are also amazing places to stay, the burns on my

now all this jack johnson i have on in the background is putting me to sleep!

O one last thing, incase you were worried about my lack of sketch book i now have one, so i can scribble down ideas instead of forgetting them. i find it to be a much more convient and effective plan!

SLEEP!