Constructing Identity

1 What is identity?

Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, the characteristics determining this. (Concise Oxford English Dictionary)

2. Interview classmates:

How many online identities do you have? What are they like?

For me, I have 3 online identities totally,details are as follows: -Gmail and Facebook:Kristen Ho -Yahoo Email: Nana

For Jenny, her email and facebook account are using "Jenny lo", totally she have 2 online identities.

For marina, she have 3 emails that are using "marina wu" as a name of online identities. Her facebook and renren (Chinese version of facebook) are using "marina wu" as well. Totally, she have 5 online identities.

In what ways are they different to your “in person” identities?

Nothing at all. We all like to use our nickname as an online identity.

What are some benefits of expressing one’s identity online?

Expressing one's identity can help us to recognize who are the one we usually talk to. Also, we can separate different people into different groups according to their online identity and thus we can be more convenient and easy to communicate with different groups.

What are some risks?

Others may trace your personal information according to your online identities and then you may lost your privacy.

To make matters worse, people may therefore make use of your personal information to do some illegal things.

On your blog write a two paragraph report on a class member who has an interesting set of online identities (you may use pseudonyms ie fake names)


I have one friend who really likes to have a daydream during the lessons. So, she changes her facebook name to "Dreaming xx". It is a funny online identity as I never see someone would use their preferences or habits to be one part of online identity.

 

Contemporary understandings of identity are changing. Nowadays identity is thought of in more complex terms:

“In sum, the selves that we have are composed of multiple identities and contradictory experiences. In late-modern society, it is almost impossible to have a fully unified, completed and coherent ‘self’; rather, we all tend to have fleeting, multiple and contradictory selves”

(Charles Cheung “Presentations of Self on Personal Homepages”, p45)

3. An example of an online digital artwork that explores identity:

Mouchette: Mouchette.org. See website. Refer to Tribe and Jana, 66-67 Description ·         subject matter     The subject matter is an artist who called herself "Mouchette", but which is not her real name. She pretend to be a 13-year-old teenager who is raped in the 1967 Robert Bresson movie, Mouchette, and express the feelings and the thinking of that French girl. There are different subject matters on different website's page. For example, a fly symolizes an idea of death and represents that she is dead as "Mouchette" can be translated into "Little Fly" in English.  ·         types of activities invited by the site            There are some interactive texts if you click the hyperlinks such as "dummy" and "Triple X". Then, you can send your name and email as well as some feedbacks or comments on her website. Moreover, there are some multiple choices for you to make a guess for her manipulated details. "dummy"  "Triple X" ·         style eg colours, composition of pages/screens               The vivid colours are often used in this website. There are some colourful photos to be used as a background. Moreover, some pages use a full black background with white words and thus there is a big contrast we would see. ·         mood               The mood is so aggressive as this website is talking about the suicide and violence. Sometimes, we would see some "bloody" photos which show an idea of death. The work is controversial because… ·         published comments               Some published comments are so erotic as it arouses people's sexual curiosity. For instance, if you click the hyperlink, "Flesh&Blood", you would see a girl who sticks out her tongue and this page asks that "Want to know what my tongue tastes like?" and "you also want to come that close to me?". Most importantly, it invloves many themes that is related to suicide, violence and death and includes some screaming sounds. It may stimulate the uncomfortable feelings. So, it is a controversial work. ·         classmates’ opinions                Some classmates think that this website gives a disgusting feeling and is not suitable for some childrens to browse. But they all think that it is an interesting website as it uses a story of one dead girl as a theme or topic. A conclusion: ·         Summing up previous points              To sum up, this website includes many photos and questions to show one French girl's life. At the same time, it spreads a message of suicide. To some extents, it is not moral and very controversial.

Internet and media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZwNb11n9zk

1) What is the primary source of news for you?

The primary source of news for me is online news. For example, I like watching some news via http://www.bbc.co.uk/.

2) Do you think that 'mass media' will some day be totally replaced by digital media/internet?

Some types of 'mass media' are as follows:

I don't think that 'mass media' will be totally replaced by digital media or internet although I like watching some news online by using my phone.

It is because the online news may not be reliable. Indeed, there are many online news such as BBC news or YAHOO news which are trustworthy and faithful as it is controlled by some offical organization. However, we would discover some news are shared and posted by people on Facebook deliberately in order to spread an anti-social message or even mislead people.

Moreover, many people also prefer to watch news on television or newspaper. Some of them may not really know how to get the information from the digital media or on the internet. Thus, 'mass media' is an important way for some people to receive the social message.

'mass media' can be one traditional way for government or countries to spread the immediate message to public. For example, the television broadcasted the message of September 11 attacks for a mass audience immediately. It can be the most effective way to send the message for society.

So, 'mass media' will not some day be totally replaced by digital media or internet.

Digital Knowledge

1) What is a brief history of the encyclopedia?

The encyclopedia is a branch of knowledge that have lots of entries to record the factual information in order to illustrate things and make a general system for the offspring.

Briefly, the earliest encyclopedia is the Naturalis Historia which is written by Pliny the Elder. His work involves many different chapters such as geography, medicine and so on. Although it probably lacks of proofing the facts, it is so comprehensive as it covers more than 20,000 facts from other authors and his own experience.

In the Middle Ages, there are different kinds of encyclopedia which cover classical erudition and Christians thought. And different countries can have encyclopedias for themselves. For example, China have the Four Greats Books of Song to be the encyclopedic work during the Song Dynasty. During Renaissance, the encyclopedias are more common for scholar and public to have because of the invention of printing.

Since the international development in the 19th and early 20th century, more languages are used for encyclopedia and thus larger market are developed. As for the modern encyclopedia, it is electronic and can even available for everyone to join and use.

2) What are some key features of that encyclopedia

a) according to Wikipedia
Wikipedia is written by thousands of volunteers around the world and supported by non-profit organization. Indeed, it is managed by all-volunteer staff. Everyone can join and edit the information of Wikipedia on the Internet, it means that Wikipedia is not only controlled by the experts. Moreover, its content consists of lots of unacademic topic that can be general reference works for student to do a research. Wikipedia articles are across many Different languages and one-third articles are in English.

b) according to Encyclopedia Brittannica
Encyclopedia Brittannica is written by full-time editors and experts. It can be regarded as multi-volume works. It have a hierarchical give a hierarchical format for outline of knowledge and thus it is useful for checking the fact quickly. Its articles are all in English either.

3) Which encyclopedia was most useful for this research?

I think Wikipedia was most useful for research as it contains many basic information across different kinds of topic for an uninitiated people.

As the above mentioned, its entries and articles are in many different languages such as japanese and French. If anyone want to use the information from Wikipedia, they just need to get it on the Internet freely. Undoubtedly, Wikipedia are in international way for people to get the information they want.

Also, it is unlike Encyclopedia Brittannica as there is no need to study how to find more detailed articles through the hierarchical outline.

4) Can you trust this encyclopedia (the one you used) 100%? Why or why not?

I cannot trust this encyclopedia, Wikipedia fully. It is because anyone can be the editors to change the information. Although there are some volunteer to manage the system and help undating the content after people did an editing, its content may not be correct.

The reason for that is Wikipedia prefer to the "Neutral Point of View" policy. Diverse political, religious, cultural opinions are involved, thus it may not be reliable. Even there are some articles of Encyclopedia Brittannica in earlier editions are criticised that it is not accurate and being questioned. Therefore, I think Wikipedia articles can only be reference works. And I would not trust Wikipedia 100%.

Digital Photography

1. What is the difference between analog photography and digital photography?

First of all, the difference between analog photography and digital photography is that analog photography involves chemical process that is related to photographic film. But digital photography would involve digital process. Indeed, analog photography is more traditional than digital photography in the way of taking photos.

Secondly, digital photography can have digital manipulation. That means we can change everything in a photo, for example, adjusting the colour tones and the contrast between brightness and darkness. Also, we can add any special effects like composing lots of interesting pictures or combining two photos in one frame. All these can be done by Photoshop software and so on. But analog photography is rigid relatively as it only records what you see and shows the most truthful thing. Sometimes, I think analog photography can be more objective that we cannot alter the details of the photos.

Finally, for digital photography, we can save photos in a memory stick, CD or any other electronic devices. It is convenient for us to choose the photos we like and delete the one we don't want to keep either. These functions are something that analog photography cannot do as well.

2. What use is digital technology to photographers?

As the above mention, digital technology can let us alter the photos. For example, we can change the tonal value of the dark and light or choose the natural scenes to be the background  in the photos. Although it would change the content of the photos, people would use digital technology as it can make a great different in the photo and make the photos more interesting.

3. Is photographic truth at an end? Has it ever existed? http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/features/digital_essay.html

According to the above website, photographic truth seems to be at an end. Undoubtedly, digital manipulation is becoming commonplace nowadays. Everyone can change the colour or even clean up the details in a photo but leave no tracks. So, it is difficult for us to identify the photo is fake or not. And it definitely affects our sense or thinking when the photos are manipulated. Therefore, photographic truth will be at an end.

In fact, there are many photos are manipulated in newspapers or magazines. For example, people like to change the colour tones of the model's face or adjust the lighting of photos. It can make the photo more beautiful or even perfect. However, photographic truth would not exist. The original photos are "disappeared".

When we see a photo, what the photo are showing may not be the truth whether or not people change the photo by digital manipulation. However, keeping the original or 'truthful' photo can be one evidence in our history. Newspaper should keep the photographic truth as well. Just like keeping the concept of sincererity in our mind. Hope we can do it.

The left one is original photo.

And the right one is the photo I used Photoshop software to manipulate it.