Week 10 Blog

Before I discuss the topic this week I will post the questions and answers from the under 20 year old I interviewed.

What are your favourite movies and why?

I enjoy arthouse movies, I like the visual and musical stimuli present in these. 

Due to my interest in music I think arthouse movies is a perfect compliment to both genres sometimes basically like watching a really cool music video.

Do you like to read? If so what do you like to read?

I like reading most genres, crime, thriller, and classical sci fi. Though the Game of Thrones series is a genre that is far above my normal readings, but due to the characters, and intricate writing I found myself drawn to it.

Do you play video games/what games do you like to play?

I am into a range of video game, from RPG to first person shooters. Games like Skyrim, Call of duty, Grand Theft Auto, Star Craft 2.

How do you think books/movies/games influence your life?

Not so much

Do you think music is just as important to you as books/movies/games?

Definitely no debating the effect of music. Music has a sense of reminding me of places and times in my life. Not all good and not all bad, but still a time period in my life. Whether that was in a particular place, or emotional state.

I think without music the world would be a very different place. movies, and games for the most part feature music, so it is equally as important in those areas of art.

What music do you like?

New bands in the 60's - 70's style e.g. the dandy warhols, the brian jonestown massacre, 

Early punk e.g. the ramones, the clash, joy division.

classics - the rolling stones, cream, jimi hendrix, the beatles 

I think the most interesting thing to take out of these answers is that none of the more popular texts or bands are mentioned. I think it is very easy to dismiss that not all young people will enjoy the same thing that everyone else enjoys. It is almost a given when discussing what adults like as it is understood people have varying tastes.

It is easy to discuss what younger people are engaging with in terms of Twilight and the Hunger Games because they genuinely are the most popular texts at the moment. There will always be exceptions to this however. I know that when I was in high school it was very hard to find friends who liked the same music as me; and even though I had friends who shared the same tastes in movies and TV, we were in the minority. 

I think therefore that when analysing how younger people engage with texts it is worth understanding that not all of them engage with the same things. This could help enormously in understanding youth culture as the reasons that the minority engages with the alternate texts could be different to the reasons they engage with the more popular ones. 

One thing I did find particularly interesting was that the interviewee did not think of any of the texts as influencing his life at all. It is taken for granted that popular texts shape youth popular culture but it is obvious that not all youths see it that way. 

Week 9 Blog

When I was a kid my favourite cartoon was Batman: The Animated Series

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/200/8/5/batman___the_animated_series_by_stormy94-d57w6a1.jpg

The reason I enjoyed this show so much was because of the stories and the detective feeling to the plot. While like any young boy I enjoyed a bit of cartoon violence, each episode drew me in because there always something for Batman to solve. I think this says a lot about what makes children interested in a piece of pop culture.

While it seems obvious; there always has to be something to draw the child in. Another show I was very much involved with as a child was Pokemon, the catch for this was all the extra information surrounding the show. You could not only learn about the different Pokemon creatures but collect the cards as well. It became a social thing where you could talk to friends about it and trade cards with them. While Batman did not have that same social aspect, as I would usually watch it with my brother and had no other friends who had a strong interest in it, it shows that for something to be memorable a kid needs some kind of hook. Arguably Pokemon did not have the same high level of plot development as Batman: The Animated Series it did have something else to keep the children entertained. As everyone knows it was extremely popular.

This could be a very good concept to keep in mind when it comes to educating children as well. By incorporating some sort of hook children will more likely to be engaged in the topic. Personally I think the type of engagement that the Pokemon phenomenon had would be ideal. While it would be almost impossible to generate that kind of hype the same way again, it would be interesting to see what could be done with a trading card system that educated school kids.

Going back to the idea of the detective style plots in Batman: The Animated Series, I think educational videos could learn a lot from this. Care must be taken though that everything will appeal to a child, as I personally remember many videos shown in class as a kid that were just so awful it was hard to take seriously. While the idea of a hook may be at the core of a way to engage children, no other aspect of quality should be neglected. 

Overall I think it is important that when teaching kids, the focus should be on getting them engaged.

Week 8 Blog: Recommended text.

For my resource I found an excellent book on popular culture in general called Re-reading popular culture, written by Joke Hermes. However I want to focus specifically on Chapter 6: Children and the media. This chapter focuses on how popular culture affects children and their interactions with society. It also dispels a lot of myths regarding children's popular culture, including one that is of particular interest to me; the influence of TV and video games on young children with a particular focus on violence in media.

In terms of relevance to CLN647, I particular found it interesting how Hermes discussed how children learn and interact with media, particularly educational media. After interviewing a number of children regarding how they viewed the third world based on the information they received from television, he found that children thought of it as a place that's constantly miserable and full of hardship. While the standard of living in third world countries is obviously poorer than in the first world, this extreme form of "black and white" reasoning is telling of how children absorb information.

This chapter touches on gender issues as well, particularly within video games. It came as a suprise to the author of the book that many of the games are gender "neutral". While a lot of the more violent games are seen by younger people to be "boys games" there is very little difference in how children of either gender interact with games. It was also interesting to see that most younger boys did not mind having central female characters in games. Which in my personal experience is not always true of older gamers, which has caused some controversy recently.

I also think one of the most important aspects to consider when analysing children's consumption of popular culture is that they don't only watch movies or play games that are aimed at them. It is limiting to only focus on "children's" texts. In the book Joke Hermes says it a lot better than I can:

 "We are used to defining children by age, and in opposition to being an adult.9 In terms of media usership, this is hardly adequate. Children see much more than just children’s programming on television; the game player community extends far into adulthood. By linking age to emotional and cognitive development, media scholarship excludes children from debate about what they like." (2005)

This has actually lead to a number of much talked about issues such as children being exposed to violent media.

Violence in popular culture, particularly video games is another issue that comes up regularly. Every one of those links has come to the conclusion that violent video games do not cause violence in children. While this is a sign of bias on my part as I think the concept is ridiculous; all of the sources, aside from the reddit discussion, are reliable sources of information. It is almost impossible to find reliable information stating otherwise. This also concurs with the literature that Hermes consulted for the book. It is telling of children's ability to distinguish reality from fiction, something that is often woefully underestimated in my personal experience.

Overall I think this chapter brings up a lot of issues worthy of discussion and all the information is well referenced with reliable information. It has given me a lot to think about and also broadened my understanding of youth and popular culture.


References 
Hermes, J. (2005). Re-reading popular culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.

Week 7 Reflection

I particularly enjoyed the social reading article from this learning packs readings. While I have not engaged in social services such as goodreads before, I have messed around with sharing quotes through the kobo app on my smartphone. While most of my e-book reading is on a kindle e-reader rather than my phone, I did find this a very interesting use of social media technology. Beyond the sharing of quotes that you like, I found that people can comment on pages or sections of the book and people can start a conversation around that. I expect this level of communication around books to increase in popularity; I know from experience how great it is to find someone who likes the same books as you. You are able to talk to them about the things you love. This kind of technology makes it much easier to reach out to these kinds of people. Modern technology is able to used for much more than just social reasons however.

The article also brought up how Amazon want to track people's reading habits so that authors can write to cater to such statistics. I understand the business reasoning behind such technology but I think it cheapens any artistic quality to the book. While there are many authors that write books to cater to a mass audience there are many that are far more focused on the art of writing; it will be interesting to see how this technology impacts on them. It is quite alarming just how easy it is becoming to implement such technology. Despite how complex it really is, modern technology is becoming easier for the average person to use.

I think Bruce Derby's article talking about technology in schools sums this up quite well. Previously using technology in a classroom could have been a risky prospect due to the time spent learning how to use the technology in the first place; now this is no longer so much of an issue. In fact I think it is becoming increasingly important to engage young children with such technology early on so that they are better equipped to use it in their later adult lives. It is becoming increasingly obvious that tablets and smart devices are being used for more than just the social uses discussed above. This means that allowing a child to get familiar with the technology now could help them immensely in their future personal and professional lives.