FINAL PROJECT!

For our final project, we had to read from Robert Putnam’s book “Bowling Alone.” Putnam argues that the degree of social capital in America has declined since the 1950’s. By this he means, “Americans have been dropping out in droves, not merely from political life, but from organized community life more generally” (Putnam 64). Without engaging in activities such as bowling leagues, PTA meetings, and other community events, he thinks that the level of creating and maintaining bonds amongst people has been on a dramatic downfall. However, our group wanted to disagree with Putnam’s theory. In our project, we wanted to portray that not only are youth still engaging in social relations and social capital, but they are engaging in different forms of interaction that are still capable of leading to new opportunities and promoting new relationships. Putnam states that “Trends in numbers of voluntary associations nationwide are not a reliable guide to trends in social capital” (Putnam 53). However, ask any of the youth on this campus who are involved in various volunteer organizations and events and I’m sure that they will disagree that the volunteer work they are doing is not making a difference in social gain. To depict our new theory, we first went to the dorms where we found a group of kids playing the interactive video game, Age of Empires. When we interviewed them, they told us how they gained just as much interacting on the internet as they would doing any other face to face activity. They told us how they were able to talk to kids in other countries, and the level of communication that they experienced was no different than going to the bars on a Friday night. Our next stop was the bowling alley. We went to Western Bowl in Champaign and interviewed some of the workers and bowlers. When we talked to one of the bar tenders that worked at the bar in the bowling alley, he completely agreed with our theory. He stated that he had been working there for many years now and he had not noticed a decline in participation. He supported our idea that even though many people are engaging in interaction via the internet, they are still partaking in activities offline. The only person that we had that disagreed with us was a man who told us his son’s girlfriend just broke up with him over facebook. He refused to accept that talking over the internet was a form of interaction, and told us that the social capital exchanged between youth was definitely declining. The next person we interviewed was my informatics 202 professor, Lori Kendall. From being in her class, I knew that she was very involved with interaction taking place on the internet and was a big fan of it. I thought that I could get more out of her that directly supported what we were trying to get across. However, I’m sure that with all of her scholarly background and knowledge concerning the subject, she could not completely agree one way or the other. We still got a lot of useful information from her interview though. For our final piece of footage, we went to the Union and filmed the bowling alley during a time when no one was there. We wanted to show that people are still going to the bowling alley such as when it was packed at Western Bowl, but that they are also doing other things when they are not at “bowling leagues, PTA meetings, or involved in community work” as Putnam referenced. It worked out well because even though no one was bowling at the time, there were a lot of kids playing Dance Dance revolution which perfectly supported our thoughts that people are engaging in more technology based activities. Overall, it was not very hard to get the footage for our film. We decided to make a brochure to go along with the video documentary so that people would have something tangible to look at while watching the movie. I think that an idea always leaves a greater impression when people are able to think back on it later and reexamine what they learned. Sara and I did all of the filming and created the brochure, so Bill was willing to do all of the editing of the film. Overall, the final project was a very enjoyable one. We did not have as much freedom as we did with the other projects since we had to base it on a selected theory but it was still fun to go around and collect information from different locations.

Interactive website

The interactive website that I chose was WebMD. It offers information about various medical issues and suggestions about living a healthy life. The website offers message boards in which people can interact and give feedback about what they think a group of symptoms might be, as well as support for people suffering from similar disorders.

http://boards.webmd.com/webx/topics/hd/ADHD/ADD-ADHD-Children-with-ADD-ADHD/

Bill's Question

1. The opening paragraph immediately made me think of holograms. Yes holograms like the ones seen in star wars where you can see the images as if they are 3d objects before your eyes, and the fact of the matter is that there are pushes towards this form of a medium. How do you think this new form will impact the world, and would this initially be a stand alone form? Would the ability to turn movies or pictures into 3d works make them any more or less meaningful? Would people accept this technology, especially given that it would likely take up more room then a painting or a TV.

Personally, I think that if we were able to turn movies or pictures into 3d works, it would be awesome. I think that if we were able to feel like we were actually in the movie, viewers would feel more connected to the characters and be able to get more insight into what the characters are feeling. I know that the Jonas Brothers just came out with a new movie in 3d which turned out to be a big hit. I, unfortunately, have not seen the movie yet, but I can imagine that it lets the audience feel like they are actually at one of their concerts, or at least more so than if it were not in 3d. I also have been in the 3d simulators at parks like Universal Studios and Disney World. The 3d attractions that they have there make you feel like you are actually in the movie and give you an experience unlike any that you would get in a regular movie theater. However, I think that this would not work with every movie or every person. I think that with some movies it would actually be scary to feel like you are actually there such as war movies or horror films. I also think that some people might feel nauseous if they felt like they were actually in the movie so they should have the option of seeing it in its original form. That is why I do not think that 3-dimensional media would be able to stand alone because it would not please everyone in the audience (not that everyone is ever pleased though). I think that most of the public would accept this technology because I feel like most people want to test the limits and see what else different types of media have to offer. I, for one, would accept 3d works of art, movies, and television with open arms because I think that it would be really cool to feel like I am escaping from reality and entering a different world, if only for a couple of hours. However, the option should still be out there for people who are comfortable with the original mediums.

Questions for 4/14/09

1. The authors state "A medium in our culture can never operate in isolation, because
it must enter into relationships of respect and rivalry with other media." Do you agree or disagree with this statement and why? What types of "rivalry" do you think they are talking about?

2. Imagine that you lived before the time of lap top and desktop computers. All you had were typewriters. In reference to your jobs and your school work, how do you think your life would be different? Would some things be the same, and what things would be more difficult without programs such as Microsoft Word right at your fingertips?

3. Bolter states that "each new medium has to find its
economic place by replacing or supplementing what is already available,
and popular acceptance, and therefore, economic success, can come
only by convincing consumers that the new medium improves on the
experience of older ones." Can you think of any remediation that you have encountered that has NOT improved the experience of the original medium?

Video Project

College Life: County Market


For this project, Sara and I were stumped on what to do. We kept going back and forth on what we wanted to film that would be interesting to the whole class. First we were going to do the dollar store, then we were going to compare the dollar store to Wal-Mart, then we were going to ride a random bus and see where it took us. If this were a paper that we had to write, there sure would have been a lot of prewriting and planning because we had no idea. Finally, we decided to do it on County Market, the newest addition to our campus. Sara and I often spend every Saturday and Sunday there, mainly because they give out a lot of free samples! However, we wanted to see why the grocery store chose this location, why other students shopped there, and why people worked there. When we got to the location, we wanted to capture all of the features that the store had to offer including the deli, the produce, the study area, the Caribou Coffee, etc. We went around filming and along the way stopped some customers to ask why they liked shopping at County Market. The main response that we got was because it was conveniently located right on campus and was open 24/7 so it was a great place to study. We did have some people who did not want to be filmed so that was kind of frustrating. The whole process of filming this documentary on County Market was very similar to writing a paper. We had to come up with a general script for what we wanted to say in the introduction to draw people in and establish what the purpose of our project was. After that, we had to think of questions that we could use to interview the customers and the workers which would act as the main points in a paper. They were the “body” of the paper. While using the video camera, we were able to continuously rewind and examine what we had just filmed which was similar to the editing of a paper. If we didn’t like something, we redid it. If we missed a specific shot, we were able to go back and capture it. If we wanted to cut a piece out, we were able to. The whole process of creating this documentary was essentially just like writing a paper on the topic, only in visual form. The film documentary was a remediation of the standard research paper. I think that by being able to actually see the inside of the store and the customers that shop in it, the film documentary is “that which would evoke and immediate, and therefore authentic, emotional response,” as stated by Bolter. If all of the information that we gathered and the pictures that we gathered were just put in to words, I do not think that it would have the same effect on the viewer. By being able to actually see the in’s and out’s of the store, the viewer is able to make a better decision on whether this is some place they would like to visit or learn more about. Gathering all of the information was the easy part. It got a little difficult (and frustrating) when using iMovie because neither of us had ever used it before. We had to mess around with it a lot but eventually we were able to get all of the clips exactly where we wanted them to be. While these projects always seem time consuming and troublesome when in the process of creating them, I think that being able to see the end result is really cool and well worth it.

Teri's Question!

1. What does the author mean when he says," All current media function as remediators and that remediation offers us a means of interpreting the work of earlier media as well?"

I think that he means that everything has to start as something. Nothing can just magically create itself. Everything that has been created is a remediation of the original idea that it is based off of. All of the current media that we think of such as television and computers have been remediated off of other media such as radio and newspapers. Without the radio and newspapers, we could have never just jumped straight to such high-tech devices as flat screen TVs and lap tops. These new remediations offer us a chance to look back at the previous media that we were using and analyze them based on their individual advantages and disadvantages. For example, reading a newspaper online saves paper and space, but it also take away from the personal design and style that a paper newspaper might have offered. We would have never known the difference if the internet hadn't offered newspapers, but since they do we tend to look back and think about how this has either added convenience to our lives or added stress. By being able to interpret the work of earlier media, we can make further changes and remediations. I think that the remediation process is never ending and that there will never be a perfect project that can not be updated or remodeled.

Questions for Tuesday, April 7th

1. Out of all of your experiences using the media, which experience did you feel was the most "real" and why? What types of hypermedia or transparent media did the creators use and why do you think it was effective?

2. Bolton states in reference to digital hypermedia, "With their constant references to other media and their contents, hypermedia ultimately claim our attention as pure experience. In this claim, and perhaps only in this claim, hypermedia remind us of high modern art." What do you think he means by this statement and do you agree or disagree with it?

3. Out of the 3 ways that Bolton restates the double logic of remediation (Remediation as the mediation of mediation, Remediation as the inseparability of mediation and reality, and Remediation as reform) which do you agree with more and why?