Saturday 24 September 2011

Media Convergencee

   "Ow My GOD!!!...i need to get back home early, or no ill miss the match which is in an hour time!!!". Well this  are the usual dialogue's you can hear few years back. The people then was very sure that we cant do two works at one. However i would like to sincerely welcome ya'll to step in to a new type of world which two works are possible to be done simultaneously. Well actually im talking about the new in thing, which is the convergence of media. Convergence is the process where several media channels come together to exists and operate in synergy or rather in harmony.

   Technology has come a very long way actually. New inventions seems to be unstoppable. However the trend seems to be changing lately. Altough the creation of new invention is expanding, at the same time there is another expanding trend which is the art of converging or combining technologies. Henry Jenkins' Worship at the altar of convergence - A new paradigm for understanding media change becomes the reading for this week on the topic of convergence. The main issues that convergence actually touch on is about technological, industrial, cultural and social changes.Everyone seems to look at things differently at different parts of the world. Thus when different element tend to interfere, new innovation is born. People will try to as much as then can to come out with new innovative product and ideas. Convergence occurs during that period. Human tend to come out with great ides in making life easier by combining tools especially in terms of information delivery and reception.

   Example of convergence that we can see in our everyday life is like the convergence of TV and computer (internet tv), newspaper and internet & computer and cellphones. As different tools are used to do many different activities, convergence of all this is made to make things to be more simpler to do or faster. for example now newspaper is made easy to access and also free with the availability of online news website. besides that with the arrival of smart phone many activities such as booking air tickets, checking mails or even getting quick information which once a point of time made possible if you only have a computer.

   However this new innovation also has its setback. Everyone knows that although an invention is modified, but the original is still considered to have the real quality of the invention. As such when a media is converged, the ability for it to perform its task to the fullest is decreased. For example although the newspaper is made possible online but how many of us could actually get accessed to it and is it user friendly to everyone. Another situation is the use of smartphone. Altought it could be used to do many stuff like to check your mails , but the usage of internet in a smart phone is somewhat could only be used for very minor things and cant be used as well as being used in a computer.

   Ina a nutshell, convergence has brought in the new ways of information handling which is more easier and faster. However you may not expect the technology to be as good as it would be in its original state. However you may not know weather this might not be the end and the true potential of convergence is yet to be discovered.

  


Monday 12 September 2011

Intelectual property

    Those were the days where "what is mine is mine and you can only take it if you can win me". Things then turned around and became lets have a mutual understanding if we can share what we have at hand. However the current situation at hand is considered a new trend all by itself where by "your things will however soon be mine". This example of statement are actually being referred to the uncontrollable issue of copyright infringement that is happening everywhere around the world.

   Copyright infringement is the act of using other people's work for your own use without any permission or acknowledgment towards the actual source. the concept of copyright infringement however is very new as it is developed through the development of technology. Usually this term of related to issues that concern technological stuff such as music, designs or any sort of plan. This act of stealing is not only done by professionals such as producing pirated copies of work but also by the public itself. The simple act of downloading a material from the internet that is from another source which actually does not have the permission to do so  rather than the original source that may allows us to do so is also could be convicted to the copyright infringement.  Copyright infringement is associated with all originals works that has been certified and protected by the copyright law. Thus miss use of such material that is being protected may land you in trouble.

   The statement may arise that "im not doing anything wrong" by the public that is downloading such material. Justification can be made that im just downloading what is made available and the actual culprits are the people that are actually being the middle person. However, even the law states that a bigger punishment will be given to the person that is the actual convict behind a murder rather than the murderer that did it. The person that is taking the trouble to use other peoples work without permission is because he has demands that supports his deed which is the public. Thus everything seems to be interrelated. It may seem as an harmless act eventually for such a thing but just take time to think the actual hardship to create an original work which consist the sweat of day and night work, time, money & sacrifice. Then comes some guys in the middle to take some of the credits for free. Well the actual world does not simply works like that.

   The example of law that protects a copyrighted material are laws such as  copyrights, trademarks, and patents. these law is the basic type of laws that will be used to go against cases concerning copyright infringement. However the the world is not a cruel place as you may think after all. We however can use the other peoples material to help in our work such as scholarly journals and articles. There is however proper ways to do so such as referencing, citing or acknowledging the actual creator. If the owner is reachable its good to ask permission to use the material. the material used however  must not be misinterpreted or the actual meaning must not be damaged due to some changes done. this may also give possibilities fro the owner to charge you.

  In a nut shell, always remember that we must treat others the way we wanted to be treated. put yourself in the position of the other person and think for a moment how if you took all the trouble to come out with your original creation and some geniuses comes and takes it away from you. Thus make sure to respect originality and if indeed you want to use them to help out in your original work, make sure you do it the right way or...SOMEBODY GONNA GET HURT REALLY BAD!!!!...SOMEBODY :-)