Uni
The Chasers War On…. What exactly?
Millions of Australians will remember The Chasers, and their hilarious stunts and pranks they pulled. While it was on air as ‘The Chasers War On Everything’, they were a very popular show, averaging between 600,000 and 800,000 viewers each episode at it’s peak. They used comedy satire to relate the news to the public, which most notably was evident in their ‘What Have We Learnt From Current Affairs This Week?’. And personally, that was one of my favorite segments on the show.
“The Chaser is a satirical media empire which rivals Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in all fields except power, influence, popularity and profitability.” (The Chasers)
They’ve had to re-brand their show several times for various reasons, more recently their show was called ‘The Hamster Wheel’ which was more focused on the media, but it was announced that in late 2014, they would be airing a show called “We’ll have to leave it there”.
“This is a leaner and meaner Chaser, basing its attack less around public stunts and ambushes and more on substantial exposure of the absurdities and idiocies of the media.” (Ben Pobjie 2012)
But how did ‘The Chasers War On Everything’ actually contribute to debate in a mediated public sphere? Well, they brought the issues up, and weren’t afraid to embarrass themselves and get into trouble if it meant they got their message across. The Chasers aren’t what you call ‘Journalists’, they rather use the media’s and politicians own words against them in a hypocritical manner, but more importantly, in a humorous way. This allows the public viewers to understand and learn about what’s in the media, but more importantly, what seems like bullshit. The Chasers are great at nitpicking speeches and media reports, and finding inconsistencies.
They do of course, go ‘over the line’ often, whether it be a stunt, or a comment about an individual. This can cause controversy, and again cause people to question the validity of content in their show. It’s because of this, The Chasers War On Everything was pulled off the air. Their most famous ‘over the line’ stunt was when Australia hosted the APEC summit in 2007, where one of the Chasers dressed up as Osama Bin Laden, and managed to get inside APEC. The full video can be found here on Youtube.
The show had/has a large social side to it as well, it brings together the people who watch the show to talk about the content online, and discuss what was over the line, and reach even more people to educate them about what’s happening. And of course, there is the direct conversation, “Hey did you watch The Chasers last night”, and without even knowing it, their actively participating in a public sphere. To finish, here’s a two hour collaboration of every segment of ‘What Have We Learnt From Current Affairs This Week?’ aired, but I suggest only watching it when you have no homework to be done, because once you start, you wont be able to stop.
References:
1. No Author No Date, About, The Chaser, Viewed 6th April 2014, <http://www.chaser.com.au/about/ >
2. Pobjie, B 2012, ‘Biting Hamsters puts media in its place’, The Sunday Morning Herald, 18th October 2012, Viewed 6th April <http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/biting-hamster-puts-media-in-its-place-20121018-27smv.html >
Friend-Zoned With The Pirate Bay
You are in a constant friend-zone with The Pirate Bay. You just are. No matter how many gifts it gives you, or how many gifts you give other people through them. That’s how The Pirate Bay rolls, and it’s totally fine with it. For those of you that don’t understand my poor analogue, the way The Pirate Bay works, is that it works like a search engine. You find torrents that other people are seeding, and it allows you to download from them. The Pirate Bay just direct internet traffic to where it needs to be. And when you seed, it allows other people to download from you. And because of this, the audience, you, not only control The Pirate Bay, but provide the content and functionality behind the website. It would be nothing without you. And I think this is the very concept of Prosumption, being an active user and creating content. Unfortunately a lot of people have the mentality of an actual pirate when it comes to seeding.
The audience is crucial to The Pirate Bay’s success, and it’s downfall. It’s popularity around the internet has made it VERY popular world wide. Alexa, a web information company, ranked the website at 92nd world wide, and 80th just in America. That’s pretty amazing considering participating on this website makes you a criminal. The Pirate Bay relies on dialogic media, meaning that it facilities a two-way conversation for each torrent, and this is commonly known as a ‘comment section’. This allows the audience to talk about the material, give information and reviews. “You participate to contribute information” (Christopher Moore 2014)
“Building a tool that allows an ads-based business to get in front of more eyeballs is not politically relevant by itself, but it can contribute to a larger conversation about censorship, free speech, and Internet freedom.” (Nathaniel Mott 2013)
One of the main cultures that is associated with The Pirate Bay is the issue of copyright. Nathaniel Mott from Pando Daily points out that within the culture of censorship and internet freedom, it can be used as a “political tool” within context. And it’s interesting to know that on a deeper level, just by torrenting movies and tv shows, you’re fighting censorship and copyright laws. You may only be a speck of dust in a massive sand storm, but it all adds up. You can do so much by seeding. So start seeding!
References:
1. No Author 2014, thepiratebay.se, Alexa, Viewed 3rd April 2014 <http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thepiratebay.se >
2. Moore Christopher 2014, ‘Audiences: Power, Access, and Participation’, Lecture Week 5, UOW, 1/04/2014
3. Mott Nathaniel 2013, ‘Is the Pirate Bay a bastion of internet freedom or just an illegal downloads site?’, Pando Daily, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://pando.com/2013/08/12/is-the-pirate-bay-a-bastion-of-internet-freedom-or-just-an-illegal-downloads-site/ >
North Korea Is Best Korea!
North Korea has been in the media a lot over the past few years, especially with Kim Jong-Un, becoming the new ‘Supreme Leader’. The country is infamous for lying to their public and threatening every nation in the world that isn’t North Korea with their nuclear weapons arsenal and war. I chose the picture below because I think this photo tells us so much about the views of the public in North Korea, as well as the government towards each other.
You can clearly see the concerning faces of the adults who can understand the authority and power that Kim Jong-Un possess, and how reckless and cruel he can be, while the kids who do not understand the political controversy and state of their nation seem calm. Kim Jong-Un and his General, are standing straight and look seemingly happy to be there. The two completely different reactions can be contrasted to visually see the opinions of the North Korean government of both sides.
This image is very powerful, and can be interpreted by us in many ways. Personally, the obvious meaning (the Denotation) is that the people of North Korea hate Kim Jong-Un. And perhaps by looking further into it (the Connotation) is that North Korea are trying to advertise themselves as a happy country, where everyone loves their ‘fearless leader’.
All signs point to Kim Jong Un trying to present a cuddlier, more family-friendly image to the world. (Huffington Post 2012)
If there’s one thing to take away from this photo, I think it’s the fact that even though the North Korean government and media are trying to shape the world perspective of themselves (unsuccessfully I might add), this photo can illustrate a governments, an individuals or organisations influence in the media, and what they can do with it. It shows the dangers of how easily we can fall for a false message (If it’s done right), and how much it can influence people’s ideologies.
We have to give him some credit though, after all he did stop the production of nuclear weapons to prioritise their major hunger crisis. So I guess that’s good in some way.
References:
Unknown, 2012, North Korean Family, Image, news.com, Viewed 27th March 2014, <http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/this-north-korean-family-is-just-loving-life/story-e6frflri-1226453845192 >
Ryan Craggs, 2012, Kim Jong Un Family Photo: North Korean Leader Poses With Terrified-Looking Family, Huffington Post, Viewed 28th March 2014 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/20/kim-jong-un-family-photo_n_1812069.html >
Learning French
For those of you that don’t stalk me consistently, it will be news to you that i’m learning French at Uni as one of my subjects. French as a language has always interested me. It seems sophisticated. And i’ve always wanted to learn another language, because i’m immensely jealous of people that can speak to languages. Especially when you can have a private conversation with people that also speak the other language! I’ve always wanted to do that.
But learning another language is hard, or so i’ve been told. So far we’re just learning the grammar of the language, which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Every object even has a gender! And you have to remember what it is. It’s all so much to take in at once, especially when you have a 3 hour tutorial.
The pronunciation however, I find easier than the actual spelling, thanks to my awesome technique. An easy way to pronounce words in french correctly (or at least almost), is to put on an extremely stereotypical offensive French accent. I know this sounds stupid, and possibly rude, but it really helps! Because you naturally roll your tongue on certain letters, which you’re supposed to do, but it just makes it seem so much easier!
I also find that when learning French, it will either feel like you’re fluent already and you’re a genius, or that you have to reinvent the wheel just to understand what’s happening. And why you don’t pronounce the bloody endings of words, and why ‘Y’ is pronounced as ‘E-Glrek’. You just can’t win with the French, unless you’re Germany (I’m going to hell for that)
I would recommend French as a language to most people, because it’s interesting, and fun to learn. You may have to put in a lot of hard work, and a fair amount of study (which i’ve terrible at), but in the end it will be worth it. Especially if I still want to do a semester in Paris next year!
“But GTA Made Me Do It”
It’s human nature to find someone, or something to blame. Always. A simple “Because” doesn’t suffice in our society, especially when talking to your parents. And whenever there’s a violent crime or event, the media will always try to give the public what they want. Something to blame. And that’s usually Video Games.
There have been numerous events where a seemingly innocent and harmless kid has shocked everyone into committing such violent acts. There are usually a whole lot of reasons involved that the media tends to ignore, such as bullying, depression and poor family situations. One example is a “Polite, well-respected graduate student” named Steven Kazmierczak. He killed 5 of his fellow University students in the United States before committing suicide with the same gun.
Now, the first thing I think of after hearing this is, ‘HOW did he get a gun?’. The fact that a UNIVERSITY STUDENT managed to obtain a gun highlights how lenient the US are with gun laws, and also how oblivious his parents must have been to the potential dangers. The video below is a skit by The Daily Show, and highlights just how stupid gun control is over in the US compared to Australia.
The link between this crime and video games was made by a man names Jack Thompson. He said to a reporter, “We find from brain scan studies out of Harvard that if you get started playing, for example, violent video games you are more likely to copycat the behaviours in the games.” During the same news interview, Mr Thompson continued onto a self-promotional parade about his books. Now, this makes me think that he only said what he did about Video Games, to get the attention he wanted. Because whenever you hear on the news that “Video games cause kid to murder”, the news makes it out to seem factual, and everyone panics.
Now, i’m supposed to base this post around what the media being blamed for today and is it justified. And it’s quite simple. The news is being blamed for representing false accusations as the truth. And this is true, to an extent, and there are the obvious exceptions of course. It might surprise most of you, but Fox New’s is not actually technically news. It’s entertainment. They won a court case in 2003 which gave them a legal precedent to no longer show the news. Everyone just ASSUMES that it’s news because it’s called “Fox News”, and it covers current events. Some people even confuse “The Onion” as a news source at times, and I find that personally hilarious.
So in conclusion, the media are accused of providing false facts as true, especially in the case of Video Games, and this impression from those educated enough to question the media, is totally justified.
References:
Benedetti Winda 2008, Playing The Blame Game, NBC News, Viewed 17th March 2014, <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23204875/#.U0u9u-aSz-s >
Unknown Author 2009, Fox-Can-Lie Lawsuit, FoxNewsBOYCOTT, Viewed 17th March 2014, <http://foxnewsboycott.com/resources/fox-can-lie-lawsuit/ >
First Week of Uni Complete!
My first week as a uni student is officially complete! And I’ve got to say, i’m loving it so far. I love how interactive the lecturers are, especially when it comes to twitter and wordpress! So far, every single one of them have shown such enthusiasm and passion for the subjects they teach, the kind that’s very rare to find in high school teachers. And i’m loving it. It somehow makes attending these lectures and tutorials so much more exciting.
I’m off to a good start with my BCM110 and BCM112 subjects, because I already had a blog set up, and it’s allowing other students to use it as an example, or to take inspiration and idea’s. And I love that. I even got retweeted by both my BCM110 and BCM112 lecturers when I offered help to all the new bloggers, which drastically helped my view counter! It’s a bit of a personal milestone, reaching 297 hits in one night. That was crazy.
My MEDA101 class at the innovation campus was awesome. It’s all about digital media, and digital art. And that’s exactly what I love. Being able to represent idea’s and emotions through digital forms to reach people. A lot of people found it dreary, and similar to English in High School (which I can see), but this time it isn’t about books or poems. It’s about audio and visual! And to me, that’s so different! You can actually interact with it.
If i’m going to be honest, my French was a little scary. The lecture was great, but when it came to the tutorial, it just got very intense very quickly. It’s going to take a lot of patience and studying to get good at it. But hopefully hard work will pay off. I’ve currently stuck sticky notes all over my room labelling objects in french, so hopefully that will work too.
But all in all, my first week of uni was great, and im excited for next week. Oh, and I managed to fill my car with exactly $20.00 so im pretty excited about that.
Welcome New Readers!
For my BCM110 and BCM112 classes at Uni, we’re required to use wordpress to blog about everything we do. So I’ve decided to just use my current blog, and just add my uni posts to it as well. That’s why I have a lot more posts than most people would at this stage 😛
To any new readers, all my BCM posts can be found through the headers up the top. This main feed shows everything I post, and I tend to post about a range of subjects and topics, as you can probably tell by the headers. If you’re interested to know a little more about me, you can read my ABOUT page, but I’ll mention some of the highlights.
So my names Jake Pascoe. I live in Gymea, Sydney, Australia. I love Football (or soccer, whatever you prefer to call it), I love taking photos and videos, and I hope to become a director one day. Im a big fan on indie music, but I like a whole range of music really. My current music obsession is Keaton Henson, and you can expect a blog post about him soon when I have some free time. Im a huge Manchester United Supporter, and I’ve seen every home Australia game since 2010.
I love to laugh and make friends, I make bad jokes, and i’m looking forward to meeting a lot of new people. If anyone has any questions about wordpress, i’ve had this domain for 2 years, so feel free to shoot me any questions in the comments, my twitter or even my email jake.pascoe@hotmail.com
Anyway, great start to #UniLyf, I hope you enjoy reading my blog
Fog down at UOW
On one of my first days at UOW
UOW Discovery Day
I recently attended the University of Wollongong’s Discovery Day, which essentially is a chance for year 12 students to take a few lectures in the Uni, and experience what it is like, see the campus and just generally check it out.
I thought it was pretty cool personally, they had a wide variety of choices in topics to look at, but unfortunately I didn’t get into the main lecture I wanted to get in.
They organised it very well, and I was impressed with the Lunch Time DJ, especially at the beginning when he mixed some generally older songs, which personally I love to mix myself. Im hoping to attent Wollongong Uni myself, because it’s close, its got a good reputation and the campus/people there seem pretty cool.
Just to sound unbiased here, I would love to get into UNSW, but the course I would like to study requires an ATAR of 99, which is realistically impossible for me.
Anyway, UOW sounds and looks great, and I can’t wait for the HSC to be over and to attend Uni already. Plus I was snapped in several photo’s making it to their Facebook page.
jakepascoe.com 
