Update on "Progress"

Progress has been slow this week, mostly just textual analysis of "frontpages" of the "Media Guardian" Still waiting on the past editions of the sun to arrive for more textual analysis. Progress on possible questionnaires and letters have been drafted to possible university lecturers for advice and guidance. Also i will need to speak to either Ms Ward or Mr White about other options and methods of gaining research. I love NMT.
Joe Carbonaro

Final Hypothesis.

My Final hypothesis is as follows.

"What impact does Media support have on political party success in Britain" ?

Let me know your thoughts.

Update on coursework...

My coursework hasn't come along quite as much in the past week as id hoped as i haven't been able to get my primary research yet. For my primary research i need to get newspaper covers to do my textual analysis. As of yet i am not too sure where i can get past newspapers if at all. I will do some research into where i can get newspaper articles and covers. To do this i am probably going to ask people, go to local libraries as well as take a trip down to the national archives to see if they have anything there. I may even e-mail some university professors of media to see if they have any information or previous studies that can offer me aid in my critical research task.

More coming soon.
Joe

The World of Politics within the Media.

Unfortunately, due to allegations of racism on my blog, specifically towards Chinese people, i have decided to change the topic of my project. My new topic will be Politics and the media. I have been looking at various different topic hypothesis. I want to go something along the lines of "What impact does printed media support have on political party success in Britain". Why not let me know your thoughts about this? I am very open to sensible suggestions without being accused of racism against Chinese people or Politicians now. I think in various different areas i will look at the media images of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and more recently David Cameron of the Conservative party. The specific area of public image through media has always fascinated me and comparing and contrasting the two Labour prime ministers with a new radical Conservative opposition will also be an interesting area of study for me personally. This topic will be aided by the fact that i also study Politics and history for A-Level. I will also be trying to focus on various issues such as regional variation in audience and asking questions such as "how does the media influence different people in different areas?" I will look at Sales figures of papers in different "political hot spot" areas. In all of these areas of study i will be very careful to not dabble in Internet opinion's or other forms of media unless its the online site of a newspaper, such as the Guardian online.

I have done some basic research into my first focus icon, Tony Blair and his influence of the printed media. Tony Blair was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield. I thought about this and wondered if this could have anything to do with the way people viewed him. He seemed to be very popular in his constituency and was viewed by the members of the community to be "a very working class man but with radical ideas" (The Guardian newspaper 1997). However i wondered if coming from such a working class, poor environment this might influence people to ask the question "is this man fit to run the country?" this question seemed, according to conservative voters, particularly prominent.

I also wondered if Tony Blair's close relationship with Rupert Murdoch had anything to do with his so found success in his early years.
"Tony Blair's close relationship with Rupert Murdoch and the reciprocated unprecedented support which he received from Murdoch's globally influential news corporation media empire, has been subject of much criticism" - (The Guardian Online 2005)

More to come soon.

Research into my World Cinema project.

So, this is my first blog looking in depth at World Cinema. Ive got to say before hand, I'm upset at leaving the topic of New Media technology. I really enjoyed this topic. However in the same sort of way i know i will enjoy the A2 level study, i am about to commence. World cinema has always been a very fascinating area to me, as i have always liked Martial Arts and Traditional oriental films. The styles and portrayal of the culture has always been interesting to me. More so, probably now than ever due to the sheer size and boom in the industry. I am even going on a trip to China in February, to discover more about the mysterious culture of oriental china. So it almost seems appropriate that my area of study will be world cinema, more so how the styles of combat reflected in the oriental films have been copied and used by western films. However its not just China that my study will be on, its Also Japan and other oriental areas such as Thai Land too. Martial arts films have become increasingly popular recently especially with the use of special effects in western films. We see such films as "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" and others such as "Curse of the golden flower" have set a benchmark for modern chinese films but i will also be comparing the impact on western film from such films as Thailand's "Ong-Bak" films. Which i also enjoyed mabye even more than Chinese and Japanese films that have huge financial backing. Overall this project for me will be about comparing Western and Oriental film and seeing how one affects the other. Martial Arts such as Karate, Kung-fu, ju-jitsu, Tai-Kwon-do, judo and even to more degree now Muay Thai and how they affect western fight scenes in western movies. Movies like transporter starring Jason Stratham are showing distinctly Chines styles. People such as Mike Leigh in his films with Mike Pope doing cinematography which happens to be distinctly Japanese. Shots showing the whole room and everyone in it are Japanese in origin. How has the different styles of Shots etc also affected the shots used in Western cinema.
More to come soon.
Joe Carbonaro

The Re-Vitalisation of Social Networking Within Gaming.

Hey everyone at Canon Palmer.
Firstly i just wanted to apologise for not updating my blog for one month.
As many of you know the exams have come thick and fast. I seem to have been dealt an especialy bad hand with all nine of my exams taking place in two days. Regardless of this i still havent forgotten about the blog, and have been researching and learning about my chosen area even whilst relaxing. By this i mean activly playing with my Playstation three. As many of you know, Grand Theft Auto has recently become the most sucessful entertainment product ever sold. There are many reasons for this. Grand Theft Auto put simply is simulating "Life". Yes, there is shootouts and drug abuse, prostitution and gambling but lets face it, most of us are living, compared to Grand Theft Auto, very boring lives. Did you know, two of the best features of Grand Theft Auto IV are the use of Niko's Mobile Phone and Internet Access. The Main Character Niko, will dial a number into his mobile phone and arrange to meet someone, who is his desired target. He will drive to the location and then our protagonist will dial numbers and watch from the top of a building, to see who picks up the phone. Then Niko will have an idea about who to assasinate as the target picks up his phone. The Use of reality and in the game is simply incredible. Everythign is as Life like as possible. It may sound crude, but in one level the known target is homosexual, who is on the fictional website, lovemeet.com. Our protagonist will sign up to the website and arrange a date with the man and then, shoothim. Talk about a "hot date".
Anyway what interests us in terms of covergence, is Grand Theft Auto's Online Multiplayer. "Liberty city", a fantastic take on the city of New York is free to roam around and cause havoc in. Complete with weapons, cars, helicopters, bikes and your best friends in character form. This is hugely entertaining with characters in the game currently being played being able to speak to eachother while playing, to co-ordinate their gameplay. There are quite a few people in Canon Palmer that have the game and playing with a big group in teams is truely fantastic. Stealing a four door car from the city, bundeling all your mates into it, and seeing them shooting out the windows, whilst your driving the car is entertaining. The gameplay is something i have never seen before and this truely opens up the world of online gameplay with social networking. The use of the in game mobile phones and internet is a fantastic feature which enables people to chat and meet, whilst in a such a real life scenario. There is nothing that says you have to run round the city causing mayhem. Its just a lot of fun, especially with the new technology that the game encompasses. If you get a chance play Grand Theft Auto, beacuse apart from being the ultimate stress reliever, the new technology incorporated into the game, is revolutionary and extremely fun.
Once again, apologies for not posting, there will be regular updates and good luck to anyone else next monday. One Love, rightous Youths....Joe

Online im Perfect...

This is the new Playstation 3 home i was telling you about. I was recently informed that i was knocked off the top spot by Raeesa, that bum! So i thought id better get my brain in gear and update. Provided you have just seen this movie? doesnt that look amazing? Just through owning a playstation3 i can have my own life, online! I think this epitomizes exactly what we were discussing in class about creating yourself in your own image. My specific area of study is the convergence between computergames and social networking. Playstation home is convergence at its best.
Let me know what you think.

Helping to change the future by leaving your PC on? / Gaming socially?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7329990.stm

Hey folks, recently i added a post about a piece of software on my Playstation three. I was browsing the web for more on New Media Technology and i saw this article on the same software. This piece is for Personal Computers rather than Playstations, however it works upon the same lines. Dontaton of computing power for other causes, just by leaving your PC, or playstation's power on. Is this a waste of electricity? No, probably not as thinking about it. The scientific project now using our computing power, would have probably had to use the same amount of electricty to power its own computers had they been left on. The Link for the BBC's Article is above.

I was also recently researching my own topic, of the convergence between Social networking and the gaming industry. I happened to stumble upon this article about PlaystationHome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Home <<< This is a link to the Wikipedia article about PlaystationHome. I will soon be updating again and following the progress of the developers of PlaystationHome to see when it is released so i can download it!. Then i can write about it all.
I have also made a purchase of (Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare) for the Playstation three. I thought id take a little time out to say what a fantastic game with a fantastic online multiplayer. If any of you out there have this game look out for "Thecarbonator" by the way... add me as a friend and we can have a game or two. The game uses the PlaystationNetwork to match make games of up to 12 players in combat situations of arenas all over the world. You can use any bluetooth headset to chat to the players you are playing with and coordinate your teams combat against other teams in the game. The System is quick and even players on a low bandwidth do not get Pinged from the game as it runs on one flat server with only one playspeed. Which happens to be quick. If you ever get the chance to play this game then definately do. Its like a gaming social networking with people becoming members of Clans, with the clans having their own Tags etc.
Thanks for listening...

Update soon.....

T'internet... Of The Future??

Whats good people.
I know my specific area to write about was Social Networking and Online Gaming, however, i decided after seeing an article on a popular news site that i would broaden my horizons. I have copied and pasted this article about "The Grid" for you.

"The Internet as we know it, could become obsolete within a decade".

Forget dial-up; forget broadband: The future, it seems, is The Grid. It's the brainchild of CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research based in Geneva. It's there that Sir Tim Berners-Lee first invented the internet, so it's appropriate that the next stage in its evolution should emerge there. But what is the Grid? In fact, it is a spin-off from another major research project. For several years, the particle physicists at CERN have been building a device called the Large Hadron Collider. Knowing they would need massive processing capability to cope with the data from the new device, the scientists set about integrating thousands of computers all around the world. Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the project, says: "We need so much processing power, if all the computers were here at CERN there would be a problem getting enough electricity to run them. "We had to have a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research partners in other countries." That network of linked computers - connected by superfast fibre-optic cable and combining together to act as one giant super-computer - is the Grid and, one day, it won't just be for scientists. We'll all be connected to it. It's not actually a new principle. SETI@home is a programme for PCs which is helping to analyse the data of the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. It's been downloaded by half a million public-spirited people who allow the spare processing power of their personal computers to be used remotely by the astronomers to number-crunch their scientific data. But while SETI@home runs on private PCs and over existing telephone cables, CERN's Grid uses fibre-optic links to dedicated resources in major computer centres and can therefore handle much more complex calculations.

This is interesting as, recently i was on my Playstation3 and i decided i would sign up to an external programme called "mobilehome". when turned on, the extra computing power of my playstation3 is donated to universities around the U.K. to help their research into various aspects of science and technology. SO this principle hasnt just been established in Puerto Rico, but in the Homes of games console owners!

The long-term possibilities for home entertainment are immense. It's estimated that connection speeds could be 1,000 times faster than current broadband capabilities. Imagine being able to download feature films in the blink of an eye, or the entire Beatles back catalogue in less than a second. Grainy webcam images would be replaced by crystal clear pictures and sound, and video gaming would be transformed. According to Professor David Britton, a leading figure in the Grid project: "With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine." And there are also medical applications. It's already been used to help research anti-malarial drugs. Researchers used the Grid to analyse 140 million different compounds - a process which would have taken 420 years to complete on a conventional internet-linked computer. The Grid might soon be used to help unlock the secrets of the human genome.

Hows that for processing power?. Truth of this matter is that all of this power, within computing and other technological advancements starts with people like me, who are simply adding programmes, that dont hinder the performance of your Personal Computers or Games consoles but help to advance technology. So if its true what they say, about computing power this large being able to unlock the human genome and further medial research. I could be contributing to curing a major disease just by adding this application to my playstation3.
Thanks, Let me know how you feel about these posts, its nice to have feedback.
xxx

The Playstation 3 Network? Soon To Be A Gaming Myspace?

Alright Guy's Once again id like to take this time out to apologise for not having a post up sooner. the last post was over a month ago and is overdue, due in no small part to the fact that i had to also contribute to another blog, coinciding with my media studies project in school. Recently i was in lesson and we were discussing key terms in Media studies. One of the terms that interests me most is "convergence". If you wish to find out more about this "word" and its meaning, I recently started looking at "The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies" to try and gain an insight into what "convergence" actually means, in terms of the media and its respective branches.(http://convergence.beds.ac.uk/) << This is a series of magazines, published by a university on "convergence" that i intend to glance over very soon. Im trying to find something similar online, but so far havent been sucessful.
Moving on, what does it mean? Well to put it shortly and in my own definition, the "mergance" of two different aspects of the media, in this case, into one single aspect. Social Networking (Myspace, Facebook) and Online Gaming (Dedicated Servers for MMOG's). As I said in my last post, i now own a Playstation 3. Im still trying to explore all of the features, due to a lack of time to play with it, that the playstation 3 has to offer, but the one that im most interested in, and most relevant to the "Convergence" topic, is the Playstation Network. SO...What is the Playstation 3 network? Wikipedia says...

PlayStation Network, often abbreviated to PSN in the gaming community, is Sony's free online service provided for use with their PlayStation 3 (PS3)[2] and PlayStation Portable (PSP) video game consoles.

I was quite amazed to hear that since the Playstation 3's Release a year and a bit ago, there are 2.9 Million people registered in North America alone. Not to mention Japanese Figures at 4.34Million people. So.. Obviously this is popular, it doesnt quite rival myspace yet, at 10.96Million people but then again it has been out for not even a quarter of the time "myspace" has existed for. I thought that id try and see what the "playstation Network" was really about and signed up, hoping that i would find some "convergence" between Social Networking and The Gaming Industry. Surely enough, i did. I was even amazed to find my own personal "AVATAR" winking at me every time i logged in. And then i recieved messages from friends i know, that wanted to play a cup final at Wembley or work together, using a "bluetooth" headset, to take down a russian warlord in a popular shoot-em-up game, came pouring in. So now, i dont have to invite my friends over to play with them, and i get a free internet browser on my T.V... Im Impressed. Games are fairer, due to matchmaking setups and i no longer need to spend my days on MSN Messenger, as the "PSN" provides me with my own instant messaging service. I could go on and on about the features. Sure there are downsides, not having a keyboard means typing a message takes for ever. But when there is so much offered by the console and the Network you cant realy fault Sony here.
Im going to be investigating this more, by covering more consoles and see how "Microsoft" have countered Sony's biggest project since the Original Playstation more than 15 years ago. Consoles have come a long way since then.
Ciao..
Let me know your thoughts, provided you have time to read the amount ive written.

(I think that deserves a promotion up the Blog Rankings Sir..HintHint)

Playstation Generation!

Hey People,
Just thought i'd say sorry for not posting a blog earlier. Due to my exams i havent been able to post a new blog or any comments. Once again, Sorry.

So recently, i finished my exams and the first thing i did was to unbox and plug in my new Playstation 3 games console. I must hastly add, i am a Sony fan and heavily disregard any comments that state the X360 or Wii are better. I opened up the menu, and played Fifa Football 2008 for a bit. The next day i had a lot of time on my hands and seeing as usually setting up games consoles or PC games online takes forever i decided to do it. Surprisingly i found that i had a completed the setup and the registration within five minuites. FIVE MINUITES... i was shocked, expecting this to take for ever i was over the moon. But the thought about what is exactly in the Playstation 3 to enable this sheer ease of its wireless imternet access and remembering back to how long gaming used to take with a PC and that stupid noise of a dialup. However, there is a problem with this. Im Addicted. Any free time i have, i want to test my dribbling, driving and shooting skills against other online. The ease of the access is incredible and im online in a forum preparing games with others in the school in no time. Even Mr Chan is in on the act! Incredible in my eyes, especially when we look at how unsophisticated my Sony Vaio laptop is, now that its 12 weeks old.

If anyone happens to be as into PS3 online gaming as me, my network ID tag is...
>> Thecarbonator <<
Feel free to add me onto your friends list.

Much Love gamers and guests.