Final Video Essay

Reading Response #10

1. Context collapse is an endless amount of contexts that fall onto one another in the span of moments in recording. Anything captured by a camera can be sent anywhere in the world and preserved for all time, something Michael Welsh refers to as “a black hole sucking all of time and space – virtually all possible contexts – in on itself” (Welsh 23). This is extremely prevalent in YouTube’s world of vlogging, where users create video messages directed at no one in particular; the videos encompass an audience possibly as wide as the internet itself or as narrow as a family circle. According to Welsh, vlogging leads to a lack of ability of the individual to understand context and situation. The unlimited amount of contexts that now run through a vlogger’s imagination when creating these videos aimed at anyone and everyone leave behind many separate parts and as a result, make for an extremely cluttered and nonspecific subconscious contextually.

2. Based upon the video reading responses and blog posts I’ve created for this class, I believe that I am most definitely participating in forms of community and self-expression. For me, community is not defined by literal physical contact, but rather any form of mental and possibly emotional connection and contact. If you like a persons status on Facebook, it is akin to nodding your head and smiling in agreement to a statement made in a conversation. The experience of community in new technologies may feel very different and likely effects us all very differently than if it all took place in person, but that does not make it any less a community. Likewise, my definitely of self-expression is even looser. Any form of creative output by a human being is self-expression to me, as what one creates comes from somewhere within the self and expresses something, whether it be intentional or not. Therefore, all of this vlogging and blogging falls very much under the categories of community and self-expression because it is being sent out to and experienced by others as something created from one’s inner self.

Reading Response #9

1. There are a couple of key factors that go into the amount of money Coca-Cola spends to sponsor American Idol. It is widely believed that when people are watching a show they care about, they are more likely to watch the commercials. American Idol brings this to the table and then some. Forbes ranks them as “the most profitable of all reality series,” causing FOX to devote huge amounts of their prime-time schedule to it (Jenkins 60). Not only is Coca-Cola guaranteed an audience that cares in American Idol, but they are also guaranteed one that perfectly fits their demographics. Coca-Cola’s target audience is aged 12-24 years old, which also represents an overwhelming portion of American Idol’s audience. So in American Idol, Coca-Cola has a show that gives them a good chance of getting the attention they want from exactly who they want.

2. In advertising, impression is the standard audience measurement scale in the entertainment industry. It represents the number of people watching a certain show or media piece at a specific time. Expression, on the other hand, is a measurement of the amount of audience participation and interaction with certain media. This is the newer of the two methodologies and was brought about in an effort to better understand how audiences react to different content and why. While which one is actually ideal for the advertisers themselves could possibly vary, in this day and age expression is becoming a must. With new technologies constantly limiting the ways in which advertisers can rely on mere impression to get to the consumer, a greater knowledge of what specifically will draw their attention is needed. For example, with the invention of DVR and TiVo television recording devices, people can now fast forward through commercials thus not seeing them at all; they make no impression. In cases like this, advertisers need to “learn what kinds of advertising content customers will actually be willing to seek out and receive,” as the control of what the consumer sees is now in their own hands more than ever (Jenkins 67).

3. In my opinion, online advertising is effective, but there is much more work that can be done to improve it. It is effective in its specificity. There have been ads bordering my Facebook homepage that are simply for an item I recently looked up and in certain instances, they remind me of something I had forgotten about and upon seeing the ad, I revisit the item. They are also, however, ineffective in that same specificity. The instance I just described is extremely specific, and may not always be the case. As a result, many people find the ads more annoying (and in some cases, creepy) than helpful. Some even seek out software that rids your web browser of advertisements. Much like the case of DVR overshadowing traditional television commercials, the internet age is expanding rapidly and will cause advertisers to have to constantly expand and update their tactics as well. I believe that the more expression in online advertising, the better. Specificity aside positives and negatives aside, it is all about catching the consumer’s interest and at the moment, getting them involved may be the most effective way of doing that.

As far as privacy goes, I am not concerned. To this point, the only invasion of privacy has been in my interests, which I readily advertise on social media sites like Facebook anyway. I see no harm in advertisers knowing what I am into. If it were to get to the point of sensitive personal information being used, the line would be crossed and advertisers would likely be opening up a storm of legal issues. However, as far as my experience goes, I do not feel as though my privacy has actually been invaded.

Reading Response #8

1. From Roger Ebert’s perspective, video games are not art. To him, art is able to teach more about the experiences, thoughts and feelings of other people. He states of the forms of art he has been most effected by, “They could instruct me about life, love, disease and death, principles and morality, humor and tragedy. They might make my life more deep, full and rewarding” (Ebert). Although he did not play video games at the time of the blog entry, he felt that he could not personally experience his definition of art through video games. He also however, could not define the artistic experience that makes something like music compelling, so he did leave a little room for the “to each his own” argument.

Ian Bogost, on the other hand argues that since the era of avant-garde, there has been no universal definition of art so trying to define video games as “art” or “not art” is a struggle no one will win. Instead, he believes that games should be seen for the specific type of modern art they represent, or as he puts it: “the developing conventions, styles, movements through which games are participating in a broader concept of art” (Bogost 12). An example of such categories are proceduralist games, which favor both immediate gratification and external action causing the player to reflect on the themes of the game without the need for resolution. While I find cinema to be a richer artistic experience than video games personally, I tend to agree with Bogost in this argument. I believe that Ebert is being a little stubborn and unfair in his views, especially considering he refuses to give video games a shot himself. What may not be a rich experience to one person may be incredibly compelling to another, so just because one person does not see something as artistically compelling does not make it any less “art” in general.

2. I believe that video games are absolutely a legitimate art form. Their settings, characters and storylines have evolved to the point that it takes an incredibly talented team of visual and computer artists to construct them, and just like the many other forms of art, from fine art to abstract to music, they offer the consumer an emotional and possibly informative experience through visual stimulation. For me, “Depression Quest” does not a powerful experience on the same level as cinema. Cinema is the ultimate emotionally compelling experience to me. Video games have always been something of a boredom hobby for me; something to do to pass time and find some entertainment but not much more. However, I believe that art is extremely subjective. For others, I can easily see video games being an experience as powerful or maybe even more so than cinema. Just like film critics will disagree on whether a certain film is “good,” it’s all a matter of preference.

3. “Depression Quest” is something like video games meet literature. Yes, you are guiding the main character throughout a created world and what happens depends upon your choices, but it does not come in the CGI heavy, 3-dimensionally created visual world of today’s most popular video games. Instead, you are relying on narrative prose to create the visuals of the story in your head and you chose among a series of written options for what to do next.

Empathy plays a big part in the way certain games are experiences. For example, in “Darfur is Dying,” we are forced to empathize with the characters due to their extreme humanity; we are able to put ourselves in their shoes much more easily than the often epic situations of characters in other video games. In the game, “weakness is all the player ever gets. There is no magic to invoke, no heroic lineage to appeal to; strength adequate to survive is simply inaccessible” (Bogost 19). As a result, the character’s situations are easily felt for and empathized with, creating a different, and possibly more evocative gaming experience.

Reading Response #7

1. The term “transmedia” refers to storytelling that uses many digital platforms to tell a single story. It is often used for promotional means, such as getting the audience involved to garner their attention and get them interested. They draw together a dedicated audience with cultural attractors and then give them something to do with cultural activators, such as games.

The term “origami unicorn” refers to any added element in a series of fiction that reopens up thought and debate about previous works in the series or franchise. It stems from a scene featured in the director’s cut of Blade Runner, in which character Deckard discovers an origami unicorn. This small detail caused viewers to question whether Deckard is a replicant, and thus the entire film could be seen in a different light. 

2. The website for the movie The Blair Witch Project can be seen as being very successful transmedia in terms of gathering audience attention through cultural attractors. The site gives every appearance of depicting real events while not explicitly addressing whether or not the story is real. It has a time line of events not featured in the movie that are relevant to the story, pictures of the filmmakers in the movie with captions such as “Heather and Josh editing a film class assignment a few weeks before embarking on the Blair Witch Project,” feeding into the fact that in the film and by all accounts of the website, they did not return from their trip. By giving the appearance of reality, the website captured the imagination of fans through the interest that is always paid to the unexplainable (UFO stories always gather attention, for example).

3. The Matrix franchise differs from those that use transmedia techniques purely for commercial means in that it defined a whole new type of synergy. Instead of forcing out endlessly simple and easily forgotten cross-promotion merchandise like plastic action figures and the like just to get attention quickly, The Matrix used licensing that mirrored what drew viewers to the original story in the first place. This was done through “co-creation,” which called for cooperation between the companies involved in the film’s creation and its distribution to ensure the creation of content that expands the points of the franchise and gives viewers new experiences.