Lecture 8: No news

Nope, thats not some kind of dig at the rumour spreading nature of the blogospheare. The lecture turned into a lie-in (good times :) ), so theres actually no news.

But theres as interesting article in this weeks Media Guardian(23/11/09)which shows China blocking more social networking sites such as Twitter, a full list can be see here. The government believes social networking sites

spread misinformation

Although several sites where blocked not long after a clash which resulted in 197 dead, hmmmm.

On that obvious note, tis time to go back so sleep. But watch the BBCs Never Mind the Buzzcoks season 23, episode 8. The funiest bit of tele I've seen all week I think. Also remember sharks can only attack you when your wet.

Lecture 7: How many ways can you tell a story? (read on to find a few :) )

This week, the blog looks at the ways the internet and new media has been used for story telling. There are loads - some are dire and seem highly pointless, but some are actually pretty good.

The first way is the good old fashioned blog. Some good old fashioned text and a persons imagination being all the tools required. Examples of this can be seen here and here. Apart from maybe the odd picture these require readers to think and treat the entry as if it were a book, be it an electronic glowing one prone to frequent 'are you single' pop-ups. Blogging can also be concidered a story at a basic level - any blog recounting a series of events through a persona.

As the lecture 6 entry shows, interactive fiction is also a great way to tell a story. Its engaging and potentially addictive - so a little like pokemon without the shiny colours. Unlike pokemon this has staying power, concieved in the 80s and still going. Its even appearing profitable with a call for stories from publishers. Modern examples include Tears May Fall and I don't remember why this game is called "Onion". These are well and good - but the second cousin, twice burried by common sense but still regretably somehow here is Hyperfiction. Think I'm being overly harsh? Play this. This example shows all the flaws hyperfiction has - a very vague and circular narrative, which struggles to convey ideas of plot or character - the essence of stories. This could only really appeal to the intensely introspective or bored. This seems like a better example of the medium, but based on the whole two seconds I spent playing it I can tell that will be three hours your not getting back.

Twitter fiction, such as this is a refreshing method of story telling. Blog such as this describe it as,

"Twitter is a rolling real-time format and this contrasts greatly with the typical editing process"

I can't say I fully understand the process but it seems enaging and interactive, made interesting by a 140 character limit on posts. This storytelling depends on crowdsourcing, getting users to generate content - which is an essentially genius plan for the lazy would-be entrepreneur. This method of storytelling is further exploited by sites such as Story Mash and Flight Paths. These demonstrate the fincial ability of collabrative fiction through sponsorship and sign up fees. They require users to write and submit material in a variety of media. This is great, the readers' entertained and is also telling people to check it out the site to see their name in lights. Everyones a winner - except there not as the submissions aren't neccessarily anthology standard and the skills needed by editors, especially regarding multi-media may not be amazing. The end result being a crowded but low quality affair.


There we go, a couple of internet based storytelling technqiues :) Not all good it's safe to say but interesting. Jedward are gone from tnhe Xfactor incidently I just heard so all is good in the world of money making music based talent shows. Laters :)

p.s its been a whole entry without an embed :s so check this out, funny stuff :)

Blogging and citizen journalism

It's reading week so hoipefully your all not reading, and enjoying Family Guy season 8. Unfortunately I am, its even e-publishing related (helpfully).

I'm the wrong side of lots of research and 10,000 words of new media's effects on citizen journalism. But if your interested in the impplications of blogs, tweets and what ever next months craze will be on citizen journalism will be then this book will help you no end. Written by Dan Gilmour,whom I'm lead to believe is some kind of blogging god, the book is titled We The Media. It explores the effects of new media on journalism, and on current journalistic out-put. Good stuff.

The second piece of dissertation proposal filler that has turned up is a two part documentary on citizien journalism by the BBC. It explores the strenghs and weaknesses of new media and its benefits to citizen journalism. It also has some interesting case-studies, such as plight of Egyption bloggers.

That was a fun distraction, only 120 pages left... Laters.

Lecture 6: The 80s return?

You read right this week something 80s has come back - but don't run and hide, unlike bad musical throw-backs this is actually good, frustratingly!

Going by the name of interactive fiction this form of story-telling/entertainment was big during the 80's with companies such as Infocom. Despite this loss of popularity sites such as http://www.ifiction.org/ still produce new material. Its hard to tell if this is a game or a story, but either way it can become quite addictive. The idea, like in the picture is to progress the narrative by interacting with story. Originally this 'limited' form couldn't keep up with the advent of pictures and lost popularity. But in the same way that the book never translates to the film, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. No pictures arguably reduces interactive fiction's limitations, and if anything makes it closer to an actual book, and besides hopefully the average attention span hasn't decreased that much.

Today's technological developments also give this form of storytelling a new boost through the mobile nature of technology. There is potential for interactive fiction to download to mobiles or e-readers. No longer would people need to pretend to text in awkward situations. Mobile technology would increase its potential target audience and popularity massively. Some efforts have already been made to bring interactive fiction into the 21st century with sites such as http://code.google.com/p/iphonefrotz/ which brings interactive fiction to the iPhone. However interactive fiction isn't all good; whilst it is frustratingly addictive, it is ultimately frustrating. In a modern capitalist age it would also be hard to monetise interactive fiction considering the large amount of free games and software, having implications on its success and the amount Jamster will be able to convice you to waste on downloading it to your phone. Having said this, combining the principles of interactive fiction with new media developments could make the form viable and popular again to a mass market, although arguably slighlty more limited.

Forums such as rec.arts.int-fiction show that the interactive fiction community is still thriving. And this end this is what I've chosen to do make my artifact. Interactive fiction is new to me, and a challenge (writing in interactive fiction code maybe the least enjoyable thing I've done since watching Nick Griffin on question time) but seems like an interesting and un-developed area of e-publishing.
Intrigued about interactive fiction, try playing this Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy.

The next blog could be in two weeks time, so I recommend filling your time with Family Guy Season 8. Laters.

Number 5 - The internets gift to publishing

Its Sunday, and no one likes Sundays - so before the e-publishing begins heres a little audio nugget. If you like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, electro or free stuff then give it a play.

But back to e-publishing, the entry this week looks at how the internet has benefited publishing, or not as the case may be.

Love or hate the internet, and lets be honest only the over 60's probably hate it, it has revolutionised how news is delivered. News sites such as the BBC's (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) or CNN's (http://www.cnn.com/)extend the coverage they are able to dleiver massively. They allow news stories to be viewed long after events have occurred and in this way can add background to current stories. They also make the organisations much for interative, giving users videos or other media and the ability to filter stories through 'most popular' lists. Everyone loves a filter, it makes life easy. But in the case of news sites one based on popularity isn't always good. It can result in serious stories being over-looked whilst 'that really funny one with the dog and the firework' sits pretty at number one. Interactivity isn't all bad - in an age of Twitter and Facebook the interactive elements of news sites give massive potential exposure through stories being posted to social networking sites. Not to mention the presence these sites offer organistions in current social circles. Although the internet has arguably had a role in contributing to a highly negative news development. As part of the instant and constant culture that has developed, in part due to the internet, televised news has become 24 hour. This has its advantages to be sure, but also means stories are less researched and fact checked - resulting in news event such as the balloon and the boy hoax.

The internet has had a more clear cut effect in magazine publishing. Reading, it's awesome if your reading something your enjoying (such as this blog? :p) - but if your not then watching paint dry becomes a real alternative. And this is where the printed magazine isn't so good, people read the bites they want and put it down. The internet solves this problem by helping the delivery of content to be more targeted, and through the inclusion of various media attention holding. Magazine sites have clear and user-friendly structures, and more potential space for content. Whislt these are all benefits offered by the internet 'digital guru' Tom Teodorczuk belives that the magazine on paper is safe. Speaking in the Media Guardian (05/01/09) he says

The great adavantage magazines have is glossy pictures

, going to explain how its better to read and view pictures on paper. He does however believes news papers are going to much more web-based in the future.

One key thing the internet brings to publishing is the abilty for commenting. This can be seen at its best in arcticles such as the Washington Post's article on the sniper shootings several years ago, but at its worst in arcticles such as this http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/oct/24/tvandradio.theguide by Charlie Brooker which provoked massive un-constructive comments. The article has been removed but he talks about it in hindsight here The Worlds First Satire War. This brings up the next problem with commenting, just like with blogs the identities and credentials of commenters are unknown. In some kind of blog uber-smoothness this leads to the role of gatekeepers, these are organisations or individuals that control what information is released and its fair to say commenting gives them issues. The majority of gatekeepers are large conglomerates. Whilst the the ability to delete comments they still can't control them and this reduces their gatekeeping abilities. Personally I think this a good thing.

This blog is long. Still not much left, and its all terribly interesting :). E-publishing gives a place to literature such as poetry, though sites such as that old faverote Lulu and projects such as Archipelago. These work using the publishing system, the online equilant of the publishing value chain and I belive ultimately publishing's future. It cuts out warehousing and other expensive things, so everyones a winner ... except warehouse owners. As awesome as the publishing system maybe it still has the same weakness - finacial capital.

Right, that ends it. For more information, read this blog, http://thirdyear-cou632.blogspot.com/ who's author kindly lent me her notes with which to write this blog. If you've read this far thanks - heres another song to say thanks :) see you next week.