News and Technology

21^st century is the age of information technology where 24/7 news circulations is the order of the day. Gone are those days where a morsel of information took days and months to reach the recipient. For instance, Pheidippides ran over 25 miles in a single day to bring news of the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. In the late 80's the cult of Pigeon Post was also common in Europe as also in subcontinent nations.

Each and every day 'something' in happening in and around the world that needs an attention. Thanks to media and technology this events/incidents are audible, visible, timely and easily reachable. Starting from Floods, famines in a country to massive annihilation of a city due to bombings, victory of a nation in sporting events, weather forecast to Royal Wedding- all comes under the huge cloud of information, yclept as 'NEWS'.

So, What is News?

 It is "new information about a subject of some public interest that is shared with some portion of the public.”- Mitchell Stephens¹

Kurt Loder, an American journalist said- “well, news is anything that’s interesting, that relates to what's happening in the world, what's happening in areas of the culture that would of interest to your audience.”

The copious amount of work devoted in circulations of news is an understatement to justify how much societal commitment news have become. The role of journalist in such a scenario has become important. Kovach and Rosenstiel (2006) charted few codes depicting the purpose of good journalism, like obligation to the truth, loyalty to the citizens, discipline of verification, independent monitor of power, keeping the news comprehensive and proportional and so on. However, MoJo (Mobile Journalism) and CJ (Citizen Journalism) have altered the styles and standards of conventional journalism. The practice of Citizen Journalism and social networking has made the work of journalism much easier and effective. Content is the king, there’s no need to maintain very high journalistic standards. The over use of news circulating in various media outlets can give rise to a glug of news, which Prof Garry Whannel terms as Vortextuality. Also, there are chances, of improper and derogatory journalism, a sort of plagiarism in a bad way called Churnalism; popularized by Nick Davies in Flat Earth News.

Reference:

1)      Class Presentation by Steven in Uni of Beds (2011).

Images Reference:

http://newswriting.pbworks.com/f/1298516108/old_typewriter.jpg [Accessed: 05-12-2011]

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/Violin/Violin0802/Violin080200017/2496867-computer-keyboard--key-news-conceptual-technology-background.jpg[Accessed:05-12-2011]

http://www.unsaint.org/Main.files/wtc_005.jpg [Accessed: 05-12-2011]

http://www.nitro-digital.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/billboard12.jpg [Accessed: 05-12-2011]

http://bealesblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/mojo.jpg [Accessed: 05-12-201]

Studying Digital Games

Cyber-Culture remains incomplete without the study of digital games. The genre can be simplified into the difference between ‘Narratology’ versus ‘Ludology’.

Narratology is the understanding of the game in terms of narrative structure, agency, characters and plot.¹ Janet Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck narrates; the future of Narrative in Cyberspace is the first medium/book where 'Cyberdrama' has been preached. Stories define how we think, play and understand our lives. Murray discusses the unique properties and pleasures of digital environments and connects them with the traditional satisfaction of narrative.

Ludology on the other hand was coined as a popular expression.² It denotes the study of the games in general, where Ludus, comes from a Latin word means game, and logos is a Greek word which has many meanings but most appropriately be translated into reasoning, science or also measurement. Thus, it is understood primarily as the scientific measurement of play activity excluding the interpretations of humanities debate about gaming based on scientific understanding of gaming based on experimental data.

Some of the key terms like Agency, Aporia and Epiphany can help further for understandings,

Agency:  In an ergodics an action is developed by the player during his/her interaction with the game, and not as a pre-defined sequence of events that cannot be modified. Taken from Action Theory, Brenda Laurel defines agency as “the power to take action” while Murray³ goes further and claims that agency is the feeling that one has an effect in the system.

Aporia & Epiphany:  Taking the participation of the player into action, Aarseth advocates a view that the basic structure of any ergodic art form is dialectic between aporia and epiphany. Aarseth, claims that Aporias are NOT ‘semantic gaps that hinder the interpretation of work” but instead “localizable” “roadblocks” that must be overcome by some unknown combination of actions.’ And epiphany is a sudden, unexpected solution to the impasse of the event space. Other importance aspects of this study being Steven Poole's- Videogame Incoherence where he discusses the concepts of Incoherence of Causality, Incoherence of function and Incoherence of Space.¹ 

Some of the common methodologies for studying digital games are as follows: - Richard Bartle's- Four Suits, Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis, Robert A. Stebbins- Serious Leisure and Jonas Heide Smith's Game Theory.

References:

1)      Class Presentation by Steven in Uni of Beds (2011).

2)      Frasca, G. (1999). LUDOLOGY MEETS NARRATOLOGY: Similitude and differences between (video) games and narrative. [Online]. Available from: http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm [Accessed: 04-12-2011]

3)      Murray, J.H. (1997). Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: The Free Pres.

Images Reference:

http://cultureandcommunication.org/tdm/nmrs/fa1/files/2010/11/ludologyfightnight.jpg [Accessed: 04-12-2011]

https://depts.washington.edu/critgame/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/keywords_wordle_2.jpg  [Accessed: 04-12-2011]

http://mmogsandyourteen.org/pics/diversity_char.gif  [Accessed: 04-12-2011]

 

Intellectual Property Rights

“Intellectual Property Rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.” The creations of mind are like inventions, industrial design for article, literacy and artistic work, symbols that are used in commerce.

Intellectualproperty rights are broadly divided into two categories: Industrial property and Copyright. Industrial property includes features like inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source. On the other hand, Copyright includes literacy and artistic works such as novels, poems, plays, films and musical works etc.

In contemporary digital, multimedia, cyber-world; IPRs is extensively growing phenomenon and proved its importance over the time to safeguard the intellectual capital and intangible assets. Therefore, “individuals, firms and the public sector are using IPRs to privatize knowledge-based assets and creative expressions.”¹  

WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) defines further the boundaries of IRPs. WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: Policy, Law and Use; classify additionally the needs, importance and legal aspects of intellectual property rights.

A Common person may also benefit from this IP rights. IP rights reward creativity and human endeavor which fuel the progress of humankind. For instance, the huge source of entertainment world, the multibillion dollar film, recording, publishing and software industries that devote their work in bringing pleasure to millions of people worldwide- would not exist without copyright protection. And since the patent system provides rewards, researchers and inventors gets extra incentives to continue producing better and more efficient products for consumers.

References:

1-      Andersen, B. (ed.) (2006). Intellectual property rights: innovation, governance and the institutional Environment. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

Image References:

http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/images/ipr.gif [Accessed: 30-11-2011]

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/usinfo/30145/ejs/ipr_600.jpg [Accessed: 30-11-2011]

http://www.second-man.com/wp-content/uploads/Ryan/iprightscampaign/ip_ad_worth_protecting.jpg [Accessed: 30-11-2011]