Comm 150 Kids

The Sining del Pilar 2012 - Cheche Lazaro lived up to its promise. Through the entire event, I was able to see how the Broadcast Department uses the academic pursuit of knowledge to critique and produce. 

Personally it was amazing to see the department move as a unit because faculty, staff and students were involved in every step of the event. The set-up was also innovative that encouraged discussion between the audience and the presenters in both physical and conceptual aspects. An atmosphere of collegiality was generally present and the reactors always gave respectful, constructive criticism to the presenters. I think that these factors were essential in making Sining del Pilar what it is - a celebration of art and critical thinking among peers. 

The video rant series by the BC 128 class of Prof. Jun Austria caught my eye because I found myself admiring the productions. In less than two minutes, my fellow BC students showcased their wit and humor in creative yet meaningful video rants. Topic were diverse ranging from procrastination to the confusing behavior of parents. Despite this, all the rants had a message, some more outright than others,  and were effective in driving their points home. Overall, I’d say that Sining del Pilar 2012 was a success, despite minor glitches and delays. The “festival” was able to make visible the fruits of labor of the BC department and grant them the recognition they deserve. 

Long live BC Week! 

-Nico Pablo

Broadcast Krtika: Ann Curtis, AnnBisyosa – studies about Anne Curtis

Two studies that interest me was about the famous Local celebrity here in the Philippines, Anne Curtis. It is, no doubt, an interesting topic as we talk about media and the people. Fandom has been an interesting study since it involves a certain behavior of the audience. 

One thesis concept paper presented by the Broadcast Communication students was about consumption due to advertisements of Anne Curtis. It made me think over fandom and how it extends to new media. Internet, though not always limitless, has been an arena for people to extend further their interest on particular objects or events. Giving for example, Anne Curtis, her fans need not just wait for her next commercial, Tv or mall show. They can have fan pages in Facebook, websites, blogs, they can have video and photo streaming. Places where they can share sentiments with other people whom of the same interests. One of the concepts presented by Henry Jenkins is transmedia navigation which is “the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities.” Transmedia navigation is very much applicable in internet. The question of how people will follow through if internet’s timeline moves not just twice ours. 

The UP Broadcast Department’s Kritika presentations opened new interesting topics for future studies.

Links: http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/henry-jenkins-fandom-literacy-and-scholarship/

- Angeleen Jimena

Alalang-alala ko pa noong unang beses kong mapanood ang Matrix. Kasakasama ko pa noon ang mga kaibigan ko at bumili pa nga kami ng pirated VCD sa Baclaran (wooo miss piracy!) 2002 na noon ng una ko itong napanood. Siyempre, manghang mangha ako noon sa mga stunts at visual effects. Grabeh lang ang beauty ni Trinity at wishluck ko rin maging ganoon at makipag kissing kissing kay NEO (gush reminisce ng kaadikan kay Keanu Reeves)! Ngunit tulad sa mga pelikulang napanood ko na sa oras na matapos ito ay muli na akong lalabas ng bahay upang makipaglaro na hanggang sa pagmamalaki na lamang sa mga kaibigan na napanood ko na ang mga eksenang ginagaya gaya lang namin. Grade five lamang ako noon at walang kamuang-muang na isa pala itong pelikulang babagabag sa aking kaisipan sa tuwing haharap ako sa makinaryang kaharap ko habang isinusulat ko ito.

WELCOME TO THE DESSERT OF THE REAL

Kamaikailan lamang ng ikuwento ng aming guro ang tungkol sa Virtual Reality, na parang isa itong decaffeinated na kape. Kape na hindi naman talaga kape. Ang virtual reality tulad din nito, isang realidad na hindi naman talaga realidad, isang espasyo na hindi naman talaga espasyo.

Kaya naman laking mangha ko lang ngayon ng makita ko ang mga website tungkol sa MATRIXISM. Ito’y mga website na binubuo ng mga sumasamba at patuloy na sinasamba ang pelikulang MATRIX. Isa itong religious movement upang paniwalaan ang propesiya ng pagdating ng messiah, ang THE ONE.

Kung titignan e hindi naman nauna ang Matrix na magkaroon ng ganitong mga organisasyon. Nariyan ang mga tagasubaybay ng Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings at kung anu-ano pang pelikula at literatura na sinasamba ng kanilang mga tagahanga. Kaya naman ay hindi na ako magtataka kung isang araw ay may simbahan na sina Bella Swan at Edward Cullens.

Ngunit bakit lumalaganap ito sa internet? Anong pwersang panlabas man o panloob ang humihila sa mga taong ito upang magbuklod-buklod at lumikha ng isang relihiyon na may sariling teksto, dasal, propesiya at kung anu-ano pa? Ito na ba ang sinasabi ni Nietzche na “THE GOD IS DEAD!”

Na maski pa rin pala dito sa Pilipinas ay magkaroon din pala ng mga tagasunod ang mga palabas tulad ng ecantadia.

Malamang ay hindi ko masasagot ang mga katanungan na ito ngayon. Ngunit isa lamang ang hinula ko. Hangga’t hindi balanse ang mundo, anu mang salik ang naiisip mo mapa ekonomiya o kasarian o kung anu pa may relihiyon at  relihiyon na lilitaw at lalabas upang turukan ng anestisya ng kalamanan ng sanlibutan upang panatilihing itapak ang kanilang mga paa sa burak na kanilang kinalalagyan. Ang internet daw ay may kakayahan magbuklod ng sanlibutan. Ngunit, anong pagbubuklod ba ang kaya nitong likhain? Tulad din ba ito ng decaf na kape? 

==Everything that has a beginning has an end“ 

Enormous.

That’s the word to describe how the internet has influenced every aspect of human nature and how it continuously do so at present. In the Episode 4 of Virtual Revolution, all the effects of internet and other evolving ones were presented, discussed and dissected in a way. It did not just salvage-pointed facts but also, it tried to trace how internet has venomously penetrated into the entirety of our lives – in business, relationships, culture, education, politics, etc. – it has poisoned us and our future. And come to think of it, even the coming generation’s physiological make-up. Surprisingly before it can actually happen, it has been given a name - Homo interneticus.

For experts saying that web is on its way to change the physiological aspect of human beings, I think for now, I can’t totally agree with them. Maybe this episode of the virtual revolution has not yet been enough to convince me about that particular matter on physiological evolution of humans as caused by internet usage. Should we rather say, we are changed into puppets with brains meshed in the chains of the internet. It makes itself dragging so we could find it hard to unleash ourselves from the “alarming” convenience it gives to us. Having trapped by the internet knot - our way of thinking, working and getting information changed, and changes.

Given the genesis of enormous changes internet has introduced into our lives, it is now up to us whether we classify their effects as positive or negative. As for me, to say that internet has positively affected us is to forget that a coin has two sides. Of course, we cannot claim here that it has an entire halo in the eyes of humankind. Internet, though it has given as a wide avenue of possibilities to connect, to gather information and to share a part of us, it still lead our lives to a hollow of dependency, impatience, fast-way-preference and many others. The internet continues to tickle our curiosity far beyond where it should be only. And its usual target? The young generation. They may be growing slowly in terms of physical manifestations but their minds - they grow as fast as the internet evolves. No one can tell when and where internet influence will meet its dead end.

As it evolves, it leads us to a spectrum of superhighways. Maybe soon, National Bookstore, Fully Booked or any other bookstore will no longer have consumers for people will resort instead to internet for information. There will be no need for post offices, mail envelopes or stamp for email will be soon the most convenient way to reach out to distant people. There will be no need for pens and notebooks in school for there can be laptops or iPADs to be used to take down notes. There would be no need for blackboards or whiteboards for it is more convenient and more creative to use Prezi or Microsoft Powerpoint to present reports or to facilitate discussions. Or, get sample reports from the internet.  There are a lot more. They could even be  “awesomely worst” forms.

 The episode of Virtual Revolution indeed gave me the alas to have these thoughts be conceived. But of course, nothing beats learning from empirical experience. The online campaign of Obama during the US Presidency elections reminded me of the Student Council Elections in UP Diliman. I remember a rule for campaign materials that there should be no picture of the candidate printed alongside the name. It is because of the rationale that student leaders run not for physical publicity, but for the principles and character they carry that are not so much meant to be just divulged, but moreso for them to be trusted in delivering success through projects and calls. And so the political parties they belong with used online media campaign to post their pictures alongside their names, for face-recall. It has been, I think, a great help for the candidates’ campaign machineries because students don’t remember just names, but their faces also. And besides, online media campaign stays even after school hours, where students can take time to search for their credentials and such, and where campaign teams of candidates can continue to do their work.

In general, I am one with Zuckerberg in saying that if we are better informed, we make better decisions. If we will apply it with the given example mentioned regarding the Student Council elections, if we are better informed about the credentials of candidates as provided in online media campaigns, then we can better decide who among the candidates deserve our vote for the vacant council positions. This can as well be applied to other situations involving the use of the internet. But just as how Primetime Bida has Mara and Clara and University List has UP and Others, of course the internet has positives and negatives. But just as Aleks Krotoski said, let us hope that the internet, no matter what it can give us in the future, may it evolve on the framework of changing human nature for the better.

-Mots Venturina

We now exist in a world improbable without technology. Internet in particular has slowly and pervasively infiltrated our daily lives. We rely so much in it because life is very much easier with its help. But with the way the younger generation embraces this budding new media, is it really for the better? Or is it changing us for worse?

South Korea, the most wired country on Earth, introduces the use of internet to its people at an early age in school. This is what Korea holds in claiming that they have the brightest people and soon enough, they will be able to produce a generation who is more intelligent than them. It is not new that internet provides us every bit of information that we need. The kind of education that Korea gives could possibly provide its young people the empowerment through their intelligence.

It seems all good. But it’s not all that. We are gradually changing and what’s more daunting is that we barely notice it. Every sixty seconds of our time we spend facing the screens, we actually trade up to a minute we could have spent socializing and personal interaction. We are slowly evolving from humans fond of personal communication to humans preferring screen interactions or Homo interneticus.

Yes, we have the internet to help us and make life easier for us, but we must always remember that the information we get from this new media does not equate to the intelligence of a person. We could get insights from the internet but for me, nothing beats the insights coming from a real person talking in front of you. Also, real intelligence for me is not just getting and absorbing necessary information but also analyzing and opening yourself to continuous learning in the world outside - in the real world.

-Sajea M.

—-END—-

One of the blogs I’ve read about Virtual Revolution questions what kind of people we are becoming in this digital age. Funny, the next thing she said was not to search for the answers online. I guess with that she has already answered the question for us.

Jeremy Rifkin once said that “the greatest turning points in human history are often triggered by changing conceptions of time and space.” We now live in the era of computers where 24/7 we are multitasking and relations and thoughts are virtual and portable. Thus, the conceptions of time and space have changed significantly from dating back to the old days where some households down even own a home telephone.

We have evolved to a species of Homo Internecticus. Maybe way more than we care to admit it, our lives heavily depend on our virtual realities. But it doesn’t stop there — many more issues emerge after admitting that certain level of dependence.

Is the web, with its instant connections and access to information, having an impact on our relationships and possibly even the way we think and behave?

I think what we are going through (or what our parents, and the internet immigrants are) is a certain kind of panic. A panic by the future panicked by what they think the young ones are doing. But if we can actually control this phenomenon more than it is controlling us at the moment, the the question should not be who we are becoming, but who do we want to become. The future of this Virtual Revolution and all the advancements that will come after will largely depend on how we will be able to handle it as humans. Even though we’ve already allowed our lives to be largely dependent on it, it’s very success is dependent on us.  

Read more:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/makingofprog4.shtml

What I find amazing in the 4^th of the Virtual revolution is that for one moment there, it made me realize that maybe the internet does not only employ a virtual reality where my virtual identity can exist—that is, separate from my material reality—but that the internet has made me consume and create something in accordance with the culture it presupposes which distorts the material reality I hold on to offline. It gives me an opportunity of a space where I can exist and create the things where there aren’t consequences at all and if I may choose so, withhold my identity for the virtual identity I have created. In my mind I will be living a beautiful, free world with limitless possibilities, and slowly the self that’s staring right through the computer screen will succumb to addiction and will slowly disintegrate along with my neglected life and human connections I use to manage offline.

I must agree, the internet is fast on its track in changing how we function. For the most part, transactions and communication have revised ways and strategies to make everything wired and connected and for everything to be convenient and easy. What we’re losing here however is something that is personal. And now, I can say that the ease of reach has weakened the intimacy of certain human connections. While talking with a person on video chat may serve the same purpose I reserve the sentimentality of valuing the significance of talking with someone face to face.

It is in the relationships and the acquisition of phenomenal numbers of connections that superficiality arises—to have tons of facebook friends without knowing much about them. There’s a form of affirmation and “constant action and reaction to friendship” that should always bounce back from one online friend to the next for everything one posts or create especially in social networking sites. Just as psychologist Sherry Turkle says it, it’s like “bringing people into the loop of feeling your feeling.” And with this we can assume the power to have a say at almost anything and without restraints do we voice these out in sync with the humming of the machine.

-Yani Royulada

While absorbing the information from the fourth episode of the Virtual Revolution, I was simultaneously introspecting, asking various question I haven’t thought of for the past years of using the internet. How do I process information now? To what extent is my dependence on internet in accomplishing my daily activities? Am I conditioned to perpetually seek social sympathy with the loop at play?

I have read several studies on the physiological impact of the internet to our brains, that it is slowly changing its form to adapt to the way information is acquired through the internet. In fact, one study in Columbia University claims that Google drastically alter how individuals retain information now. Google was said to be the external memory source of human memory, or worst case scenario, even the new replacement for memory. The said study showed that most people, especially of the generation Y, tend to make less effort to retain information because of the fact that they can google it later anyway.

I agree, that the internet has indeed penetrated human physiology, possibly shaping the way we perceive and react to reality based on the various studies I  have encountered. Children, who are born in a generation which can’t function without the aid of new communication technologies, are the latest wave of the cyborgs, a product of the blurring line between the virtual and the real. The shift to associative thinking has necessitated the disjunct between this generation to the older liner-thinking generation, thereby the standards and systems which makes society work and progress is now inapplicable and obsolete. The social structures, such as the educational system, needs to be reformatted to address the needs of the ‘computer’ thinkers.

As much as there is a negative general perception towards this phenomenon, I think there is still room to be optimistic. After all, it is the internet which deconstructed which seemed to give the world a balance, the existing power relations and accepted truths about space, freedom, and society. It made us rethink our capabilities and empowered us to be more engaged with issues clouding the society and the academe. With the free flow of information and unconstrained nature of the internet (as long as SOPA and ACTA are not passed), we are limitless.

- Fatima Gaw

Link to the mentioned study about google and memory:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/15/google-memory-study-columbia-university_n_899730.html

As the old saying goes, you can say that you’re getting old if you’re comparing your generation to that of those younger than you. Then, I can say that I’m getting old.

As I watched the fourth part of BBC’s Virtual Revolution, I realized, so much has changed. With the vast developments in technology, the preference of younger generations shifted from the real world to the virtual one. What bothered me was the fact that internet users get younger and younger as time goes by. In South Korea, for instance, children aged 3-5 years old use the internet, and youngsters use it up to 18 hours per day.

The pervasiveness of the internet seems to develop a new kind of society —- a society that is dependent on the internet.

More and more students rely on online sites than books in the library when it comes to research. More and more kids play video games and practice their mental skills than spend time with friends while playing under the heat of the sun. More and more friends spend more time on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate.

Indeed, there is a shift of preference among younger generations.

The advancement of technology and developments on the internet seems to affect this change. Aside from the fact that it serves as a status symbol that sets one’s position in the social spectrum, its accessibility and ability to make work easier appeal to the younger internet users. One can connect with a long-time friend despite the distance between them. One can make friends with a stranger without seeing the other person. One can assume the position of an army rebel killing opponents with a gun without using a toy gun or release a lot of sweat running under the sun. Because of this, more and more children and teenagers resort to the internet.

We can just look around us here in the Philippines. When it comes to making our own papers for a class, we choose Google as our search engine —- all we need to do is to type what we need to find and, after a few seconds, everything we need is right on our own computer monitors. We don’t need to spend much time roaming around the library to search for something —- we can get everything we need in just a click.

The use of the internet among youngsters affect them so much. Because of their exposure to the internet, it makes them rely much on the internet. It seems like a drug to them —- they cannot function well without internet access.

As Jenkins puts it, there are both positive and negative effects on using the internet. It is up to the users how to use it. As with internet usage among younger generations, maybe all we need is moderation —- do not use it too much so as nto to get addicted to it.

- Mhai Cabujat

We are the Homo Interneticus, species specially geared to use the different and constantly changing technology around us. The period? Virtual Revolution.

It’s interesting how experts use the word revolution to describe the current fixture we are in. A struggle. Struggle for and against what? Struggle for whom? Struggle to what end? I have found books, online posts and the like that talk about how the web is drastically changing the way individuals establish their relationships with other people, how it manages to “rot the brain” (as what was mentioned in the four-episode BBC documentary, Digital Revolution) of the new generation by “destroying children’s sense of reality.” And honestly I don’t think this is what we should focus our attention to.

For me, the internet is like money, not that you can trade it for something else, but it’s because the internet is neither a boon or a bane, a gift or a curse—its significance is based on how one uses it. The internet is a medium. The person sitting in front of the screen, typing, clicking away… that’s the creature who has the power on what to do with the internet, the one who can manipulate its content, and ultimately, the one who can steer its effect on people. If only we can teach each and every human being in the world on how to properly use the web, on what content to put up, on how to use this space in nurturing information sharing and forming relationships (and nourishing offline relationships in the world wide web). 

The content is still what keeps the internet going, the materials that determine the effects that would subsequently crystallize in the way humans behave. The internet magnifies these changes through its pervasive and far-reaching capacity.

I can only hope for a future where everyone is enlightened on the many positive uses of the internet, and stays on utilizing these capacities for the greater good. 

“More connection. More possibilities.” So let’s stay connected. Let’s keep on educating each other about the internet. That, for me, is the true revolution we should be participating in… in this digital era.

To know more about the Digital/Virtual Revolution, go to http://bbc.co.uk/digitalrevolution.  

-Reeneth S.