One of the more interesting side effects of the digital age is the increases in political advertisements. Anybody with enough time and some photoshop skills can whip up a campaign poster. Through in some Windows Movie Maker and you got yourself a TV-ready advertisement.
Along with self-promotion and easier distribution comes the attack advertisements. With ridiculously fast information dispersal, any fact can be twisted and manipulated into a video, slapped on the advertising circuit, and be live within a few hours.
Take this ad for example.
Pretty shady of that politician right?
Well, not really. His aide made a phone call while in the town car they were riding in. The number for the sex line is only a few digits away from the Department of Criminal Justice's. The call was terminated in under 60 seconds, and the DoCJ was called a few minutes later.
Nonetheless, the attack ad was run, and technically, everything the ad talks about is true, so it wasn't slanderous. This ad ran on local television stations. Broadcast television is typically targeted towards a lower class market, and in this case, hopefully a market that won't bother fact checking their political ads.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Newspaper vs Online News
I am examining the differences between the print version of the Argus Leader and the webpage of the newspaper.
The first thing that comes to mind is the tactile sensations that are created by holding the physical newspaper. It is a sensation fraught with nostalgia. Books have been a large part of my life, but it seems the older I get, the less I have a chance to hold them. Compared to the instant gratification and graphics of the internet, paper print seems like old haps. Maybe then, this is the reason that the newspaper refuses to be put out of it's misery. The older demographics cannot let go of a day gone by. Holding the paper is the literary equivalent of a safety blanket for them, it's comforting, it's warm, but it isn't really useful at all. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone pre-30's who read their local paper. And why would they? Who wants to read what some over paid editor has to say when I can listen to all my friends' and family's opinions?
The second, and most obvious thing when it comes to digital newspaper is space. The physical copy of the paper is forced by budget and size constraints, and looks very... unprofessional? The website, cradled softly by my large monitor looks neat and proper, ready to be let open the gates of knowledge, but only if you want it to. Compared to the physical paper which looks like a messy, dirty, unorganized slop of useless garbage, ever ready to belch forth whatever happened to be most important to the editor that day. Though they are sending the same message, and in fact, usually contain the same stories, the physical newspaper seems a filthy relic of a bygone age, while the digital paper is a clean alternative to those archaic rags.
The first thing that comes to mind is the tactile sensations that are created by holding the physical newspaper. It is a sensation fraught with nostalgia. Books have been a large part of my life, but it seems the older I get, the less I have a chance to hold them. Compared to the instant gratification and graphics of the internet, paper print seems like old haps. Maybe then, this is the reason that the newspaper refuses to be put out of it's misery. The older demographics cannot let go of a day gone by. Holding the paper is the literary equivalent of a safety blanket for them, it's comforting, it's warm, but it isn't really useful at all. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone pre-30's who read their local paper. And why would they? Who wants to read what some over paid editor has to say when I can listen to all my friends' and family's opinions?
The second, and most obvious thing when it comes to digital newspaper is space. The physical copy of the paper is forced by budget and size constraints, and looks very... unprofessional? The website, cradled softly by my large monitor looks neat and proper, ready to be let open the gates of knowledge, but only if you want it to. Compared to the physical paper which looks like a messy, dirty, unorganized slop of useless garbage, ever ready to belch forth whatever happened to be most important to the editor that day. Though they are sending the same message, and in fact, usually contain the same stories, the physical newspaper seems a filthy relic of a bygone age, while the digital paper is a clean alternative to those archaic rags.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Newspapers
To me, Newspapers are a dying media.
They seem to be an outdated form of communicating a message, and in the modern day, one that only targets the populace that is too grumpy to use modern medias. The simple fact is that blogs and the internet are beating newspapers without even trying to. Why would I read some stuffy journalists' opinion on the current state of affairs when I could read a Harvard graduate's thesis on the issue?
Papers that I remember:
Argus Leader - father worked there
Madison Daily - read it once
I have an interesting relationship with the Argus Leader. I grew up with my father working there. He sold ad space to business in the local area. On 'Take Your Child To Work' days I would be hustled around the office, looking at all the various workspace, but by far the most impressive thing is the massive printing presses. Our family has numerous friends that still work in the Argus, and the fact that their jobs' time is numbered.
They seem to be an outdated form of communicating a message, and in the modern day, one that only targets the populace that is too grumpy to use modern medias. The simple fact is that blogs and the internet are beating newspapers without even trying to. Why would I read some stuffy journalists' opinion on the current state of affairs when I could read a Harvard graduate's thesis on the issue?
Papers that I remember:
Argus Leader - father worked there
Madison Daily - read it once
I have an interesting relationship with the Argus Leader. I grew up with my father working there. He sold ad space to business in the local area. On 'Take Your Child To Work' days I would be hustled around the office, looking at all the various workspace, but by far the most impressive thing is the massive printing presses. Our family has numerous friends that still work in the Argus, and the fact that their jobs' time is numbered.
Friday, February 11, 2011
IPv4 Addresses running out
I am interested to see the effect that IPv4 exhaustion has on the state of social medias.
Here is a quote from Vint Cerf.
"Eventually there will be no more IPv4 'public address space,'" he continued. "When that exhaustion occurs (and it won't happen in a uniform way—some places will run out before others), then there will be some devices that only have IPv6 assignments. They will not be able to directly interact with IPV4-only devices."
How will this change the state of social medias? Will some devices be favored over others? What if those devices align themselves with a certain service. Imagine if all phones came packaged with a deal on Facebook, preventing you from using Twitter, blogging software, etc... but allowing unlimited access with Fbook.
Here is a quote from Vint Cerf.
"Eventually there will be no more IPv4 'public address space,'" he continued. "When that exhaustion occurs (and it won't happen in a uniform way—some places will run out before others), then there will be some devices that only have IPv6 assignments. They will not be able to directly interact with IPV4-only devices."
How will this change the state of social medias? Will some devices be favored over others? What if those devices align themselves with a certain service. Imagine if all phones came packaged with a deal on Facebook, preventing you from using Twitter, blogging software, etc... but allowing unlimited access with Fbook.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Video Project
In this project I used a screen cap program to film me writing out "English for New Media" in paint.
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