WEEK 12: Photojournalism

Due to improvement of technologies, journalist are no longer stick with pen and paper in writing or providing a truth message  to the public. Image has become a better form of persuasion where by people tend to believe more when they see images as an evidence for the situation that happened. According to Eastlake, "Photojournalism is where pictures of events are taken about the truth values and showed to the world through the use of media" (Eastlake, 1857) Thus, photograph has provided a great communication system by providing a great understanding to the public.


The question here is how a photographer managed to be a journalist by only taking a few shots of a certain situation or tragedy? How can a photograph provided a better understanding to the public although a photo can speaks a thousand words which can be describe?

First pictures: shows that a group of child being killed in Palestine due to their war with Israel which we've known has been going for decades.


Second picture: shows that a boy who died as a result to the war between Israel and Palestine.


In both pictures above provide a concrete evidence for the on going wars between the two countries. By taking this picture, the photographer to give a clear understanding of how critical the condition of the war between them. Indirectly we as the audience are affected by what we see and on the other hand, our brain starts to create conclusion to interpret the meaning of the  subject in those pictures as stated by Kieran, M. "the media clearly have a strong and complex influence upon how we understand and shape our world".


What he mean by 'media' here is the photograph which is a great influence to how we understand and shape our view to what we see. 


Other than that, the purpose of a photojournalism is telling the truth for what is happening in the situation which i mention in the first paragraph but as technology becoming more and more complex, we are unable to detect for what is so called the 'truth' and for what is not. Lets take this picture for an example: 

When we see this picture, it only shows a boy who is standing and staring at 'something' which can be interpret with a wall, a car or anything but the face expression tend to show that he is not in a comfortable situation. 

Here is the original picture before it is crop with a program or application called 'adobe photoshop'. Although the truth can be reveal through photograph but it also can deceive one's eyes by only editing it as stated by Kieran, M. "Now, in the age of the electronic darkroom, the informed viewer of a photograph should be sceptical about its origins, or perhaps even acknowledge that the old conventions of photography were based on an outdated cliche which we can no longer accept, that the camera never lies" (Kiran, M. 1998)


Here are some more example that photograph are no longer speaks the truth with the improvement of modern technology:

Photojournalist should take 'ethics' into their consideration before providing pictures of an important event or situation to the public which may persuade or influence the public thoughts. The basic rules of photograph should be apply to important photograph where the message that being presented shall be the only 'truth'.




REFERENCE: 

• Kieran, M. (1998, Media Ethics, London: Routledge
• Zelizer, B. (2005), Journalism : Critical issues, Berkshire: open university press

WEEK 11: Information Graphics

“Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time, with the least amount of ink in the smallest amount of space” (Edward Tutfe, 1983). This is also means that graphics information are design in order to minimize the information by using visual graphic such as charts and lines to provide information for the purpose of achieving the simplicity for an easy understanding. For the sake of the argument, i will show how graphics information manage to be the medium for our human communication.


In order for we to sent out a successful message to the audience, out graphic information should not be too complicated to interpret. Tutfe, E. has also mentioned that Graphical display should:

• Show the data
• tell the truth
• help the viewer to think about the information rather than design
• encourage the eye to compare the data
• make large data sets coherent

(cited from http://classes.ninabellisio.com/GD3371/tufte.pdf)

As far as i am concern, other than for easy understanding to the audience, information graphics also a medium used in order to give a more clear true information and avoid confuse for the public for a specific subject. In order for we to sent a message using graphics, we should know the advantages and disadvantages before selecting the graphics information that we wanted to use. 

A line Graph - show specific values of data but only best with two variables and it best in showing the trend over time. 

A bar graph - uses to display changes in magnitude which is easy to compare and contract data.

A pie chart - best in representing category values and presenting percentages.

A flow charts - shows a movement and progression from one stage a category to another.

but what happen if something wrong in the flow chart and require changes? its more difficult because you have to change the others if you change one of them. I suppose i'll be in trouble if i need to change something in this flow chart: 

Pictograms - visually stimulating and its best in providing a clear and simple explanation. 

Other factors which should be took into consideration is what the brain can see through our human senses such as eyes. The factors are Color, form, depth and movement. Thus its important for the information graphic designer to know about what color should not be subtract or add for the graphics, in what form should it be, how the depth works and which movement will be suitable. As mentioned in Visual communication: images with messages:

"Color, form, and depth join movement to constitute the principal of images that make the cells in the visual cortex responds quickly to a stimulus" Lester, P.M (2006)

From all the graphic information above proved that graphics are used in order to communicate with others - as a medium to sent a message or as an explanation for a subject.

REFERENCE:

• Lester, P.M, (2006), Visual Communication: images with messages, Holly J. Allen
• cited from (http://classes.ninabellisio.com/GD3371/tufte.pdf)

WEEK 10: Games and Avatars in the information age

When i took philosophy in my first year, i am amazed when one of our topic arguing about our human senses with 'A brain in a Vat' hypothesis which created to demonstrate Descartes doubt of how far can we rely on our senses. During this week, this hypothesis has been made into an animation. For me it is true that you can doubt everything about yourself including senses, our body and mind but we could not doubt that 'we are doubting'.

If its true that we're a brain in a vat, and everything that exist is only a fake representation created from so called 'who?', thus we're no longer can rely on our senses. But when more or less the same argument produced in the Visual communication class where we are no longer can rely on our senses - it provides me with an acceptable argument where without technologies or aids such as transportation vehicle, spectacles for those who has sight problems, shoes for all of us to walk with then we are through. Then it seems to me that we are no longer can rely on our body senses.

Its a tough argument though but when Chris asked me "are you a cyborgs?", my mind start answering strictly "No, i'm not". and here comes the new argument. How can we be consider as a cyborg? what makes you a cyborg? 

"By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organisms; in short, we are cyborgs. This cyborg is our ontology; it gives us our politics. The cyborgs is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centers structuring any possibility of historical transformation" (Haraway, 1991)

In this case we are cyborgs in the 'Cyberspace' through the communication like Internet which later provide a new identities for us to enter a new different world from reality but at the same time we are able to communicate with people from different places who also has the same identities created by us. As stated in the 'Cyberculture Readers' books:

"Cyberspace: A new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by the world's computer and communication lines. A world in which the global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators, entertainments, and alter-human agency takes on form: sights, sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming in a vast electronic light"

Games nowadays has improved to a great level where we can have our own visual identities (cyborgian identities) which exist in the visual world but controlled by us in the real world. Games such as Modern Warfare, Sims and World of Warcraft has become a big entertainment to the public especially for 'gamers'. Below is the pictures of the 'gamers' which participate in war craft competition which shows that people nowadays are 'cyborgs' and other video games who also a representation of ourselves.

                                           -Modern Warfare

                                         The Sims

Simulacrum is a post-modern condition which also means something that replace reality with its representation. Thus cyborgs live in a simulacrum which have their different identities from the reality. A good example for cyborg identities who live in a simulacrum is 'Avatar'. The real world are separated from the real world where they use cables in order to transform them into an Avatar member of the simulacrum world.

For the conclusion, we are cyborgs depends on the identities that we created. Not all human are cyborgs nowadays but for those who have 'facebook' or 'myspace' or gamers who literally have a representation of themselves to communicate with other people through visual world - then those people could still categorized as 'cyborgs' in the form of community as stated by Rheingold:

"Visual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feelings, to form webs of relationships in cyberspace" (Rheingold) - cited from the cyberculture reader by Bell, D.

REFERENCE: 

• Bell, D. and Kennedy, B.M, (2000), Cyberculture Reader, London: Routledge

WEEK 9: Cinema and television

Television and cinema has become a form of entertainment nowadays. Due to the improvement of technologies which increase drastically in our modern and digital era, some of television shows or movies are providing us with knowledges and updates. As a consumer to television product we should aware of what we are watching and the message hidden within the story, it may comes to social issues and even political. In order to understand these, we also need to understand the cultural literacy of a movie that we watch.

As mentioned by Shirato and Yell, "cultural literacy can be defined as both a knowledge of meaning system and an ability to negotiate those system with different cultural contexts. It is virtually impossible to describe and analyse what is happening in any communication context or practice without using the concept of cultural literacy. In other words cultural literacy means the ability to understand and appreciate the similarities and differences in the customs, values and beliefs of one's culture the culture of others.

The movie trailers above is called 'Crows zero 2'. It is a movie of groups of high school gangsters showing their inside and outside school way of living. In this movie, the students tend to go for power rather than education where the school committee rules are no longer exist within the society. All the main character such as Serizawa and Genji have their own representation of way of life - for example Serizawa is someone who described to be an influential person in their culture. While Serizawa is a son of one of the influential Mafia in Japan who just got transfered to the high school. Action and fights has become the major attraction to the student in the school which lead to something so called 'big fights' in the end of the movie.

From here i can say that the culture being represented in this movie seems to be contradicting with our ethical students rule. As a student in high school, we should not be more attracted to something other than education especially when involving crimes such as fights. By representing these characters in the movie will indirectly affect the viewers perspective especially for the younger generations. It is more affective to heavy viewers as they tend to copy in reality from what they see from the representation in television. 

Although Brunei culture and society could not easily avoid from this situation to happen but by producing this film, the producer should aware of the culture literacy which may created from this movie. The culture might also affect the politics in certain countries such as Brunei. According to my experience, i have heard that fight rate in Brunei by high school students either from the same school or not has increase after the release of this movie. A matter of fact, the cultural literacy sometimes ignore or ethical rules tend to be broken for the sake of profit. As mentioned in Turow.J:

 "Another part of the strategy is to get the subsidiaries to work with one another to find new ways from the creation, distribution, and exhibition of materials" (Turow, 2008)

As a conclusion to this, i realized that it is important for media students and media organization to take cultural literacy into their consideration before interpreting of what they watch and what they produced due to it may affect politics although it depends on the individual as stated by Lipitz:

"..Culture exist as a form of politics, as a means of reshaping the individual and collective practice for specified interests, as long as individual perceive their interest as unfulfilled, culture retains an oppositional potential" (Lipitz, 1990: 16)

REFERENCES

• Hartley, J. (1999), Uses of Television, London: Routledge
• Schirato, T. & Yell.S (2000), Communication and Culture: An introduction. London: Sage Publications
• Turrow, J. (2008), Media today: An introduction to Mass communication. New York: Routledge

WEEK 8: Photography

Human brain seems to be more complex compare to other species but on the other hand, we also have this delicacy where by our memories does not exist forever. Memories to our experience in life tend to exist and disappear as time goes by. We might remember what happen or how we look like the past 5 years but when i ask my self, "Without my photograph, would i remember or recall what happened or how do i look when i was 3 years old?" the answer is no. maybe i would remember some situation but i could not recall everything that has happen in that situation. Thus, a photograph is a memory as stated by Bachen.G:

"there is even a kind of memory we call 'photographic,' meaning an exact and self-conscious recall of past event, scenes or text'.

Our mind or perception can be subconsciously change when we see a photograph.Not all pictures can be taken as a representation of a reality but once it manage to reach this level, our mind and view to certain things may be change. How does cultural critique of photography did this? How can a photograph can change our view for other culture? i will explain using the images above:

Both of the picture above represent the Indian people lifestyle and culture. From these pictures it shows that they do not have a proper standard of living which can be seen from the house in the second picture. 

'a photographer is able to place him or herself in a privileged position/location to bring or social or political issues to the attention of the viewers' as stated by Wright.T (1999). We as the viewers will arrive at a conclusion that India is a poor country when we see those pictures. It is because we feel that we''re in the situation above. While in the first picture it shows that how Indian people struggle to gain their income every single day. Indirectly we are producing a critique to their culture and society from both photograph and it proves that photograph is one of a powerful persuasive tools the photographer used to sent a message.

Other than that, Photograph also mostly used as an evidence to a situation which indicates the truth and reality. For example the photograph above was taken in Amsterdam. Through the image of people in the picture above proved that prostitution activities or business are legalized within the city law. Once again we also provide a cultural critique of the society in Amsterdam with certain perspective.

This picture was Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky which said to be his Bill Clinton scandal. In the first place, Bill Clinton able to denied about his relationship with Monica for the sake of his wife Hillary. But after a few shot being captured as an evidence, he no longer denied this case anymore. Thus photograph may sometimes produce truth and justice of the reality with the the 'Camera as witness'

REFERENCES

• Wells.L, (2003), Photography reader, Routledge
• Wells.L, (2000), Photography: A critical introduction, Routledge
• Wright.T, (1999), Photography hand book, Routledge
• Batchen.G, (2006), Forget me not: photography and remembrance, New York; Princeton Architectural Press

WEEK 7: Visual Narrative and the Media.

"Narratives, from the Latin word Narre to make known, to convey information, provide individuals with a tool for learning and teaching others about the world" Tomascikova.S, (2009). In other words, narratives also known as storytelling which done by a narrator for the audience to interpret. Narrator also plays an important role because story will not exist if not being passed from one to another. A story must have two things to be called a story, first its arrangement of the story which consist of the plot of the story. Second is the message which can be produce from the story. As mentioned by Christopher Nash (1994) that a narration involves the recounting and sharping the events. A narration has to describe the event and provide a structure of that event which sometimes may lead to the relation of the historical narratives. Human are no longer stick to the rule where story are told through verbal communication.

The problem is how images(paintings) can tell a story when it does not have a proper plot and where is the structure or discourse of the story we get from the images? 

Images or pictures can act as a narrative which designed to provide story to the viewers because narrative also involves songs, poem, movie and pictures as its discourse material. "Narrative expression is the narrative discourse and, while story is the substance of the narrative expression, discourse is its form with its various material manifestations (words, pictures, etc.)" as stated by Tomascikova.S, (2009).

                                    Mona Lisa, The Louvre, Paris - by Leonardo Da Vinci (1503)

Most probably when we look at this painting, everyone has its own ideology or interpretation produced from this image but the truth still remained as an enigma to the public. A simple women who is sitting full with unpredicted emotions later create more and more story or myth about her but in the end, the question still remain - who's the women in this picture? some of them said that 'Monalisa' represented Isabella of Aragon - the widow Duchess of Milan due to its 'widows veil' on her head but some of them challenged with a statement that 'Monalisa' is the representation of the mistress of Guliano de Medici and the veil on her head represent a married women at that time.

Others also believed that 'Monalisa' in this picture was Mona Lisa Gherardini - the third wife of wealthy silk merchant Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo. The most famous theory created from this visual is 'Monalisa' is actually a representation of Leonardo da Vinci as a women portrayed due to their faces structure was more likely to match with each other. There other story which being created and interpreted by others from this painting by looking at the smile, position of her hands, the way she dressed and etc. I took this painting as an example to show how narrator use visual image to tell a story is because other than creating a complex mystery from a simple paintings, it also have the identity which related to the history since the 15th centuries. As time goes by it improvise to a new story which try to adapt to the environment and new thoughts as stated by;

"Finally, for every narrative there is a narrator, real or implied or both. Stories don't just exist, they are told, and not just told but told from one perspective or other" (Lamarque.P , 1994)

This also proves that a visual images tend to tell more stories compare to a concrete structure sentences. Maybe painting does not have a proper plot which has to be follow in a story in chronological orders but movies or videos showed that visual narrative are often use as a tool of communication with the audience.

Lets take this game for example - 'GOD OF WAR'
In this video game, it tells a story about Greek Mythology which involved wars between GODS such as Kratos, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and etc. Here, it follows the narrative which passed down from generations to generations and end up being tell visually .

"GOD OF WAR"

"GOD OF WAR 2"

"GOD OF WAR 3"

These 3 different parts of games have their own plot of the story which is related to one and another and this also proves that it can be take as a narrative - for it has its own message and meaning to sent and it also have plot which also one of the important subject in narrative theory. Since its a myth or fiction, this kind of story affect two kind of audience which is the 'authorial audience' (an imagined group of audience who knows that it is a fiction) and the 'narrative audience' (an imagined group who do not know) as describe by Donald N.Mccloskey.

Mr Bean series would be a good example of visual narrative which used less verbal communication in the movie but we audience manage to interpret what the movie trying to say according to its plot and meaning convey from the action being done by him in the movie.

REFFERENCE

• Nash.C, (1994), Narrative in Culture: the uses of storytelling in sciences, philosophy and literature, Routledge.
• Tomascikova.S, (2009), Narrative theories and Narrative discourse, Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Vol. 2 (51) - 2009  Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies
• Retrieved from http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/mona.html
• Huisman.R, (2005), Narrative concepts, Fulton

WEEK 6: Visual Rhetoric

Rhetoric means the act of persuasion. Its not only limited to verbal communication whereby the speaker will try to persuade the audience to think or act in certain way as the speaker wished to. Other than speech or words, visual images/pictures are used as a tool to persuade viewers. Both words and visual are combine together to create a more persuasive tool by the advertising companies and business organization to make income. How does visual images can be used to communicate with the public by persuading them to think or accept the message the way we want them to interpret?

As mentioned by Aristotle, The method of persuasion is a "demonstration," and demonstration's instrument is enthymeme which is a form of argument. (Rhetoric)

Rhetoric must have an argument to answer by the audience. By using this methodology, the producer may convince the audience accept a specific interpretation of message. Without an argument - there is no persuasion exist in the communication. The process of this argument is by creating an unstated premise or question to the audience which later involve the audience to solve the unexpressed premises.

Adidas is a well-known football shoes brand.
All of the famous football stars are wearing Adidas in the pictures.
We want to be famous and good as them? - 'Adidas football shoes is the perfect choice to play football'

In this pictures, a men died in front of the women. Without the instruments in the picture, we will not know the cause to his death. By anchoring the whole picture with the instrument, we knew that he died because of drugs.
Drugs is harmful - unstated premise 1.
He died after taking over dose amount of drugs - unstated premise 2.
We can conclude that drugs can bring us to death condition. This is how visual image persuade people to accept the message they trying to sent.

This picture does trying to say that the weight of the polar bear was balanced enough to pose on a cracking ice. An issue which is general or fact to the public nowadays is global warming. The atmosphere is becoming thinner as a result of direct sunlight. This image trying to say that this species are in danger where the ice-bergs melts drastically every year. Human condition are also affected in this situation. Although the pictures does not conclude this conclusion but from the image we can get the idea that our human including animal species are in danger if we keep on ignoring the global warming situation.

In this video showed a competition between two giants car industry which is BMW and AUDI. In this advertisement designed by BMW, it mentioned all the statement about good car condition, great car regeneration and other criteria that BMW have. The end part when the boy looks outside the windows and said that its not a vision anymore to have this excellent figure of (BMW) which all parked outside. The first unstated premise found - why is one Audi park within all BMW?
When the boy look outside the window and spot Audi parked between his favorite cars (BMW) - where the second premise comes in 'Almost every cars has it!" said the boy.
We can conclude that BMW is much better then Audi from the criteria described by the boy in his class whereby he did not see Audi remain in the same level like BMW anymore.

(incase the video did not work* click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KYaF95w3g)

      REFFERENCES: 

• Kress.G, Leeuven T.V, (1996), Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design, London ; Routledge
• Charles.A, Marguerite.H, (2004), Defining visual rhetoric, Routledge
• Linda M., (1994), Images in Advertising: The Need for a Theory of Visual Rhetoric (Journal)