Individual Journal UOW

My First Time Visiting Australia

In my entire life I have never travelled outside of Asia, I have been to lots of other Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. It was until the last few weeks, thanks to UOW program I have finally got a chance to travel outside of Asia, and took the longest flight I ever had in my life, and it was the greatest trip that I ever had.

 

My trip was great for 3 Reasons, they are the university life in Australia, my host family, the outdoor activities that I have done.

University Life in Australia
On the second day in Australia, we were invited to an orientation day in UOW and there was a campus tour in UOW. Stepping my foot onto the area of UOW, I can already feel the vibe of university life in Australia. Compared to most university in Hong Kong, UOW is the biggest university campus that I have ever visited, there are more than 30 buildings in UOW including staff hall and student hall, each building has their own theme such as communication center, business center and language center. Throughout the tour, the student representatives showed us most part of the university and they were super nice and patient in explaining different area of the university.

 

However, the tour was just the beginning of our journey, since we have to go to UOW almost every day from 10am – 4pm, we are getting more and more used to the campus and we get to discover the bestareas in the university.

 

One of the building that surprised me is the Unibar. Unlike Chinese culture, Australian culture are more about having fun and relax. In UOW there is a bar located in the center of the campus, which servessnacks and alcohol to students. Quickly it has become the most visited area for me and my friends where we will go to have a drink at 12pm in our break time and also enjoy a pool game in the bar. And sometimes we even go to the class tipsy but it does help with our thinking.

Host Family

One of the main reason that my whole experience is great in Australia is because of my host family. I have to say that the university did a great job in matching me into this family because there is a lot of common among us, and after discussing with my friends, I believe I have the best host family in the entire tour. I still remember in the host family application form, I have written down surfing and hiking as my interests and in the special needs area, I simply wrote down ‘dogs’. And I have totally fulfilled my expectation. In my two weeks tour in Wollongong, I stayed with the Devenish family. There are four member in the Devenish family, The father Justin, mother Melissa, sister Leilani(14) and brother Cobryn(11). They also pet 3 dogs which are Indie, Rusty and Saxon, they are all very lovely and I have had a great time playing with them when I am home. They live in Pope Road in Woonona which is 30mins away from UOW. The Devenish family is a surfing family, their father has been surfing since he was 14 and he made his daughter and son surfing with him. They have more than 10 surfboards in their house and in their garage, there is a workshop for Justin to shape his own surfboard. Beside surfing, there are also hips of skateboard and mountain bikes put in their garage and these are all my favorite activities. Justin is a Fedex coordinator and he works in the airport, his shifts are not very stable so I could not see him as much. Melissa works part time as a volunteer and she is also a house wife, her cooking is the best I ever had in Australia because she can do Thai food, Italian food and Mediterranean food. Upon the first day I have arrive the house, I found out that I have to stay in a twin room with a roommate, I immediately requested to change to a single room because I needed my own time and my own private area and Melissa kindly allowed me to switch!

 

Outdoor Activities

Australian loves outdoor activities because it is convenient for them to get in touch with the wild life as they are close to the mountain and the sea. In Hong Kong, I love doing outdoor sports such as surfing and hiking.

Since I knew I have to surf in Australia, I have packed my wetsuit in the luggage because no matter what, I knew that that I would be surfing in Australia. Luckily that I was matched with a surfing family and during the weekends, my host family have brought me to go surfing with them! I still remembered that it was a windy and cold Saturday, I woke up at 530am because we need to meet up with their friends on the beach at 610am. It was freezing cold in the morning and the wind were breezing through my face, however it was the best surfing experience that I ever had. Arriving at the beach with Justin and Leilani, the sun still hasn’t come up yet and we already getting ready to jump into the water, and surprisingly, it felt much warmer under the water because in that way I was shielding myself from the wind. The waves in Australia were the best waves I have ever surfed in my life. Since the beach is much bigger and longer in Australia, the way how the waves form are just beautiful and super challenging to ride on because the size of the wave could get really big sometimes. Being an extreme sports lover I have took this into a challenge and tried to surf as many big wave as possible. It was the best experience in my life. After the surf, we get out of the water and quickly dry ourselves up because the wind is freezing cold, and quickly Justin has drove me home and I had to take a hot shower immediately because I was shaking too much!

Review of my blog design and strategy

Starting from September 2018, we are asked to create our own blog and in another way, we are learning how to be a journalist. Since we are writing blogs every week, it is safe to say that I have more than 40 blogs in my WordPress account and I must know how to better handle them in order to reach out to more audiences. Throughout all three semester, I have never been bothered to better design my blog and when I do, I have realised the importance of ‘design’.

Firstly I would like to talk about the header or my blog. I have created my own quote “My Thought In My Own Words” to indicate to the readers that all these blogs that I have wrote are genuinely coming out of my mind. With the background photo being in an urban area which echo with the Hong Kong environment, which also tells the readers that these blogs are coming from an urban busy city. My last name is also included in the header but I intentionally spelled it  ellenburger instead of Ellenbuger, because I would like to have a nickname as my writing name.

As it is seen in the header, there is a hamburger icon in the right side of the front page which could be expanded into a menu, in the menu there included all the subjects that I have took throughout the 3 semester in my UOW school life.

Going inside any category, it is where readers can start to read my blog. Each blog contain a featured image which is related to the topic that I wrote. Which can help the readers to get a brief idea on what will the blog post about. Two examples of blog posts are shown above. The date of when the blog is published and session to leave comments are also provided in that way I could stay in touch with my readers or further discuss my ideas with my readers.

In here which is under the contact category, I have included a session where my readers can send me any feedback or questions to me. Since I believe that feedback is always good for me to improve my blog design or writing style, having this option could be good for me if I want further improvement.

As for the font and colour of my blog, I have chose this font because it is not as sharp as to look at as Times New Roman. It create a soft and warm feeing for my readers and they can comfortably read my blogs. I used dark grey as the background colour because it is not as bright as white or red so it will be easier for my readers’ eyeballs. A pink colour is used to highlight important information such as my name and the hamburger icon, the contrast could be eye-catching for me readers so they know what they are looking at.

In order to reach out to more readers, every time I publish a blog I will also share it on Twitter and Facebook, so it is more visible on the internet therefore more readers can read my blog. I have also used to hashtag function to categorise my posts so my readers can find my blog by searching the correct hashtag.

In conclusion, I have learnt how to create my own blog and my writing skills is improved a lot. I aim to create a better and more consistent writing style so I can attract more readers.

Research Proposal

In my research topic, I would like to examine cinema going experience on people from 3 different cultures. For the 3 cultures I have chose Hong Kong, Filipinos and Indian. Since cinema going experience could be a very wide topic, I would like to include all the relationship among media, place and audience.

Cinema going experience has changed throughout all these years, from the old schooled theater going, where we watch actual live performance, to the black and white movie projector era, and to the modern 4D cinema where we can not only watch a movie, but to feel a movie. With the advancement of the technology, it would be interesting to look at how people from different culture visit cinema back in the old days and to the modern days.

For the methodology, I will be doing traditional interview with 3 people from different cultures. Throughout the interview, I will be recording the audio and writing down notes. The reason why I would prefer a face to face interview is because I think that it could bring me a better narrative as I can see his/her expression during the interview, such as his/her facial expression, his/her gesture and the words that his/her used. In that way, I can gather more accurate information that I needed.

By conducting this research, I hope to benefit different stakeholders. Firstly, cinema owners. Since I am gathering datas from people of different culture, cinema owners can use the data to analyse what their audience want or like in a cinema, therefore create a better cinema going experience for their customers. Secondly, film makers. Since people from different culture may have a different taste to movies, film makers can use the information that I found to film a movie that suitable for certain group of people or everyone.

Small Journey From UOW to KITEC

This week we had an unusual tutorial class. Unlike a normal class, all of us are going on field trip near the Kowloon Bay area, not a very good weather for a field trip because it was raining, but luckily all the location that we are going to are indoor.

Arriving into the classroom, I did a lucky draw for the location where my group need to go and it was KITEC. We were told to set Kowloon Bay MTR station as the starting point and KITEC as the ending point where we will observe different media practise such as how people use their electronic device, and how company use electronic device to promote their products.

Moving onto the first check point of our journey we have arrived Kowloon Bay MTR station, we can already expect tons of electronic screen where they put the digital advertisement on and we were not disappointed. In the station alone, we already counted over 20 digital media board and all of them contain different kind of information such as food, new promotion and upcoming events. After recording our findings, we then started going to the KITEC shuttle bus station. Locating at the bottom floor or Hang Seng office tower, we could not find any digital advertisement so we changed our focus on the people. At the queue to the shuttle bus, most people are looking at their mobile phone or listening to the music and they could not realised that the bus has arrived since they are too attracted to their phone.

Finally we have get on the bus, the only digital clue we can find is the tiny TV screen attached to the bus next to the driver seat. On the screen it is playing a programme which will only appear on this TV because all the information was about KITEC. And the passengers, as usual, they are mostly checking their mobile phone.

And we have arrived to our final destination – KITEC. In a fashion mall like KITEC, tons of digital boards are located in different area, some are used to point direction, some are used to display the latest schedule and there is also a giant TV located in the center area of the mall. It seems that the TV only plays the news channel but since it was a quiet weekday, no one actually take their time to stop and look at the screen.

Coming to the end of our journey, we discovered that there are many digital media around us everyday, but we didn’t even realised since we are too busy walking. Back in the days when we watch TV we have to watch it at home even the screen was very tiny, but nowadays, company is putting up big screen in the center of the mall to show TV information to everyone.

Navan’s cinema visit experience

Navan is just like another female adult who enjoyed lots of different movies and this week, she have decided to skip her class for the new movie John Wick 3. Since it was her last minutes plan with her friend, she rushed to buy snacks and to the cinema, she has arrived just in time when the trailers started to play, she has ignored the trailer because she is getting comfortable with her jacket as a blanket.

She would describe the movie as fun to watch and she will be excited to watch what will happen throughout the movie, but it was too bloody and violent for a female audience. Although the movie is great for her, her overall experience is not as great as the movie.

Since her friend is always late to the cinema, she usually give the ticket to the front gate staff so her friend can come in later, and when her friend finally arrived she kept asking what have happened earlier in the movie because she has missed out the front part. It has annoyed Navan because she does not want to talk too much in the cinema, and it has made her feel even more awkward. During the movie, Navan also felt the need to go to the washroom but she didn’t go since she didn’t want to miss anything. And she felt uncomfortable holding it.

However, Navan would say that this cinema going experience is great for her because she felt excited as she skipped her class for this.

Are You a Good Multitasker?

Technology advances everyday, with tons of different electronic product out there to distract you from your daily life, we could be talking on phone, while watching a movie on a screen and replying to a message on our alternate phone at the same time. At a long run, modern citizen have became good at multitasking and their ability to stay focus on one job is decreased.

Here is a simple test to see if you are good at multitasking, take out a paper and draw a line in the middle, and then on the top part you will spell out your phone number repetitively, and at the bottom part you will spell out your full name. It is easy to do it separately, but what if I ask you to do it all at once? Try to spell first number of your mobile and then go to spell the first letter of your name, after that, go back to the top part and spell the second number of your mobile and then go back to the bottom part to spell the second letter of your name. Repeat this method until you have finish spelling out your full name. If you are able to finish it within 30 seconds, you are pretty good at multitasking.

However, no matter how fast you finish this process, there is no way it could be faster then doing it separately. Focusing on one task first and then moving on to the other task is a more efficient way, it could also decease the chance of an error. This little test can prove us that no matter how good we are at multitasking, there is no way it will be more effective as the concentrated way to complete a task.

With everyone being so hard to concentrate now, different competitors race to try to keep their customer ‘addicted’ to their product. And here is how attention economy comes to play. In attention economy, it treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economy theory to solve various information management problem. So why does attention matter? Since attention involves the allocation of cognitive resources to deal with multiple inputs at once, competitors need to create something that makes the allocation goes 100% to their products. From the addicting tone when a message comes in, to the eye-catching user interface. And that will be how they keep a mobile on your hand.

 

Justice to the Orcas

Living on Earth, the connection between human and all other kinds of biological life form is important because we both share the same planet. While we as human, see ourselves as the highest and the most intelligence form on this planet, we are sometimes underestimating other animals, and even making rules of them.

 

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment – According to their official website, they inspire other to protect animals and the wild wonders of our world through the power of entertainment. They have 12 theme parks in the U.S. and they provide sea animal show to the audience and they are also involved in many missions such as sea rescue and animal welfare to promote animal rights to the public. While SeaWorld addressing themselves as a ‘great’ and ‘positive’ image to the public, are they really as protective to the animal as they promised?

 

Tilikum Has Died: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amqti23NoL8

 

Let’s have a look at this video. Tilikum is an orca that was captured by human when he was 2 years old. He was captured for more than 30 years and forced to live in a tiny space with other orcas. According to the article from PETA, the maximum dive depth of a wild killer whale is 525 feet (160 meters), and in the SeaWorld, Tilikum can only have a maximum dive depth of 35 feet (11 meters) due to the limited space of the tank that he lived in.

 

Living in such small space, Tilikum suffer from captivity-induced stress, which causes his dorsal fin to collapse and all his teeth worn down to the gums. His body was also covered with rake marks which was inflicted by other orcas. Sea animals are never a tool of entertainment for human, we should not trap them and train them for the sake to perform even if it is for education purpose. For me, Tilikum has died at the age of 2 since he was captured but buried at the age of 36.

 

“Relax with our wonderful orca shows.” “All animals here have loving caretakers and wonderful homes.” “Animals here live longer than in the wild.” “And helps children understand amazing sea life creatures.” With these being the slogans of SeaWorld, are they really helping the public to understand sea animal, or are they covering their crime using the name of ‘education’? It appears that orcas at SeaWorld are dying far shorter of their usual lifespans. As 41 have died on the park’s watch with the average age of 14 years old, do they really lived longer than in the wild as they said?

 

How do we stop this on-going trend?

 

Theme park that included sea animal shows are everywhere around the world, even in the Hong Kong Ocean Park there are ocean theater that with dolphin show. And the living condition for the dolphins and other sea animals in these theme parks are more or less the same as in the SeaWorld. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is a charity dedicated to establish and protect the rights of all animals. Other than the rights of marine lives, PETA also have other campaigns that protect the animals’ right such as #stopbullfight and Go Naked than Wear Fur. These events could truly raise awareness to the public of the animal rights as it does not involve with actual animal shows. Furthermore, education in school is also important as it can build a solid foundation to the younger and help them to be able to identify if the animal show is an entertainment for human, or a torture for the animals.

The Changing of My Father’s Television Experience

Having a conversation with my father about how he used to watch TV with his family really shocked me because other than reading books, it was his only entertainment at home. In the old 70s in Canada, when movies and TVs are still not very popular and not everyone owns it, they are already satisfy with the quality that their giant black TV box have brought them.

Compared to nowadays technology, where we can freely access to many online streaming platforms, with thousands of way to access internet such as laptop, mobile phone or tablet, we can watch TV or movies everywhere such as in a car, in a restaurant or on the bed. This is such a game changer to the modern family because it breaks the tradition of family sitting together and watching TV shows. My father told me that watching TV together is like a family bonding and a daily routine for him, but with the rapid development of technology, we no longer have to sit in front of the TV to watch TV, we no longer have to wait at a certain time for a certain show to start. Living room with TV is no longer a place that gather family members around!

Different streaming platform have also helped ‘breaking up’ family members. Take Netflix for example, they have family plan where up to 4 family members can watch 4 different movies or shows at the same time. Imagine your father watching a movie on the smart TV in the living room, your mother watching a comedy on her tablet with her tablet and your brother watching a TV show on his phone in his bedroom. There is no more interaction with each other because everyone is watching different things, and no room for discussion because although everyone is in the same house, they are not sitting own and watching the same programme together.

Technology no doubt brought us a lot of benefits, but while we think we are more ‘connected’ to each other, are we actually ‘disconnecting’ with each other?

Collaborative Media Ethnography

The meaning of collaborative ethnography could be hard to understand but it is actually very easy to define when we break it into two words. Collaborative refers to work together in an intellectual effort, and it is central to the practice or ethnography. Ethnography can be defined as the study of people and cultures, but the outcome could varies based on different ethnographers’ view. To link it to media studies, collaborative ethnography can help us easily understand how television technology has affected our development of personal media spaces.

In my previous blog, I have mentioned that my father love watching the show All in the Family when he was young in the Canada. It is one of the key element that keep him and his family together because they can laugh and discuss about the show with each other. From time to time, it became a daily practice for them to sit together in the living room in a certain time and get ready for the show to start. The TV show All in the Family has became their daily routine. This is how television could change one’s routine in life.

According to Lassiter (2005), ethnographic subjects are to be consulted when the researcher and the ethnographic subject can be related to. In that way, better understanding of the culture can be gained by the society. Therefore, consulting my father provided my a great opportunity to understand how it was like in the Canada as I have never lived in the Canada. And it was easy for us to talk because obviously we are father and son and we already have a great relationship with each other. For a collaborative ethnographer, it is important for the researcher to develop a relationship and mutual trust to each other in order to get a deeper understanding to the subject.

References:

1. Lassiter, L., 2005. The Chicago guide to collaborative ethnography. Chapter 2, “Defining Collaborative Ethnography“ Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.15 – 24.

My Father’s memories of TV

My father is an outgoing and easy-going person, growing up in the Canada, his favourite after school activity is to watch TV with his brother. He would describe his old TV a big black box with a little screen with a speaker on top of it. It is located in the living room and it has all other furniture facing towards it such as couch, a rocking back wooden chair and the dining table around it. Although there is couch and chair but he would still prefer to sit on floor with his brother to watch TV because it gave him a warm feeling. While his father would sit on the couch and mother sitting on the rock back wooden chair.

His favourite TV show was All in the Family which is an American sitcom, he always feel excited to watch another new episode, and whenever the show comes in, he will sing the tune with his brother and his parents will be very happy. He describes his watching TV time as a bonding of his family because it is the time when everyone sit together and enjoy the show in a safe and secured environment.

Not only will he watch TV show but also TV news, TV news keep him up in the Canada community as he can know what is going on around the area. However his dad will also make criticism about the news and he always felt annoyed and he will go into the bedroom to avoid it.

Although he might not like it when his father start criticising on the TV, he loved his moment when they are sit together in the living room watching TV because it is a bonding to his family.