theMazed

‘Wayne’s World’ is a postmodern comedy. ‘Wayne’s World’ uses plenty of references, some of which are: Garth recreating the infamous shower scene from Psycho with donuts, Wayne getting pulled over by a cop who looks like the T-1000/Robert Patrick from Terminator 2 and the sequence with the string of product placements. The thing is, we have to be aware of these references beforehand so that when we see them in ‘Wayne’s World’ we can make sense of them.

The use of the camera also invites the audience in on the action of ‘Wayne’s World’. Wayne appears to address a camera but we feel like he is addressing us personally as he is introducing himself and his friends and the places that he frequents. The camera also lets us see the world behind the camera, which is supposed to be hidden from us. During the shooting of Cassandra’s music video, we see all the equipment that is supposed to be shooting it. We see the equipment shooting Wayne’s initial home cable show and also in the studio set up of the show. Similarly, ‘Wayne’s World’ sees the audience as important because we are required to read the English subtitles when Wayne and Cassandra are speaking in Cantonese.

We can make easy assumptions why ‘Wayne’s World’ is a Hollywood type of film. ‘Wayne’s World’ is an American film, so it came from the Hollywood studio system. It is a system that has been mass-producing films for mass consumption from its beginnings. ‘Wayne’s World’ uses Hollywood star players and the Hollywood auteur to brand itself. ‘Wayne’s World’ uses the standard Hollywood aesthetic practices. But we can to use some aspects of the language of film criticism to find out if ‘Wayne’s World’ is in essence a Hollywood type of film. The terms that we will be dealing with are: utopian sensibilities, postmodernism, plot and story, self-reflexivity, continuity editing and the classical Hollywood cinema narrative details about film .

Voice Over IP (VOIP), the technology that lets you use your Internet connection to make and receive phone calls (with a regular telephone, not just your computer), seems to be expanding its reach daily. Many of the big telecom companies have been adopting it. Many younger people have been abandoning landlines since cell phones are now almost required in our society today. At most, a landline may be kept for the purposes of a broadband DSL connection, but with cable broadband, landlines aren’t a necessity even for those who need such connections. But cell phones often have reception issues and the pricing structure means that one often has to be careful not to make too many calls between 7am and 9pm on weekdays, when calls are usually metered. Per minute charges over your monthly allotment can very quickly skyrocket.

VOIP makes an excellent supplement for some. The cost, especially if not using one of the large telecoms’ VOIP services, can be quite inexpensive. There’s yet another option out there that is kind of a cross between VOIP and the old Internet voice conferencing applications like NetMeeting. “Skype” has become a real phenomenon among lots of bloggers in general. The voice quality is not only supposed to match a regular telephone line, but with broadband speeds to actually surpass it by quite a bit! It provides voicemail, conference calling, and many of the features you would want out of a telephony product. Microsoft has built in VOIP over Wifi functionality into their newest Windows Mobile 5. ‘VONAGE’ probably the best-known and perhaps oldest VOIP provider already offers a version of their software that works with Windows Mobile devices, including smart phones. “Skype” has also has a version for Windows Mobile Devices. It seems the main benefit that will come out of all these technologies converging will be to drive prices down even more and one would hope to increase the overall voice quality. Of course the ultimate in convergence here would be a cell phone (in particular a smart phone) which would also be able to use one of these internet telephony services, and thereby avoid some of the pricing weirdness of mobile phone plans.

Microsoft’s approach to the mobile device market and television is a lot like the “Survivor” ethos. On the popular reality TV show, contestants are advised to “outwit,” “outplay” and “outlast” their opponents. That might describe what Microsoft is doing in both television and mobile computing. First, on May 11th, Microsoft and Philips Electronics announced they will marry Windows with Nexperia. Nexperia is a range of chips used in devices such as mobile phone handsets, DVD players, and digital television sets. Philips will extend this to include its Nexperia chips for in-car entertainment and next-generation digital TV systems. Philips will also add support for Microsoft’s Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10 system in its chips for portable music and video players.

A number of new features are expected as well, including improved applications such as a PowerPoint viewer and more powerful versions of Excel and Word. Further usability enhancements incorporate improved one-handed navigation and the ability to add caller ID photos. While QWERTY keyboard support, persistent storage technology, and upgraded wireless manufacturer and carrier support allow more robust advancements.

It seems that Microsoft is insuring that it will continue to prosper in a world of digital convergence. At the same time I think Microsoft sees that video is going to be a key driver in developing future markets. more

Analysts say in game advertising could generate as much as $1 billion in new revenue for the fast growing industry by the end of the decade because it almost assures advertisers quality time with an audience they need young men. The increased spending is another sign of the booming popularity of video games. In 2004, $7.3 billion worth of video and PC games were sold in the United States.

Mobile-phone gaming has historically been driven by casual games, ports of old arcade games, and simplified versions of sports games. Amp’d Mobile the first fully integrated 3G mobile entertainment company for youth/young adults. Gameloft a leading international publisher of video games for mobile phones announced a multi-year partnership at E3 Expo to create exclusive 3D video games designed specifically for Amp’d Mobile and 3G. Games based on movies are also as popular in the mobile phone world as they are in the console world, with tiny video versions of Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and Revenge of the Sith all making appearances. Amp’d Mobile, set to launch nationwide later this year, will leverage the nation’s largest CDMA 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) network and will offer traditional wireless phone services plus a completely fresh user interface and fully customizable experience designed specifically for the 18-35-year-old audience in America. Gameloft has emerged as one of the top innovators in its field. The company creates games for mobile handsets equipped with Java, Brew or Symbian technology. The total number of mobile handsets with this technology is anticipated to exceed one billion units in 2007.

Media violence is a controversial issue, which has been, discussed many times in media. What is media? “God is all knowing and all-powerful. He is a spirit, not a body, and he exists both outside us and within us. God is always with us, because He is everywhere. We can never fully understand him, because He works in mysterious ways. In broad terms, this describes the God of our fathers, but it also describes electronic media, the second god, which man has created” (Tony Schwarthz, 1983). So by this perspective we can image about its’ power. Now we need to know about media violence. According to oxford dictionary “showing or caused by strong force or caused by very strong feeling.” Here the question is what is that force or feelings, obviously the answer will indicate media. Radio and television are everywhere and they are always with us. American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released its Policy Statement on Media Violence, a document claiming that several studies have “proven” there is a strong connection between children’s aggressive behavior and a penchant for violent entertainment. A prediction to the test by showing pairs of nursery-school children a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, regarded as violent, and non-violent cartoon more . After each film the children, who were friends, were observed for fourteen minutes while in a playroom, and special note was taken of any signs of aggression directed towards each other. Although statistically fully significant, a comparison of the two conditions revealed more rather than less aggression after the violent cartoon. This theory predicts that a violent film will act to remove the inhibitions that normally prevent a person from expressing aggression. Media stories of any occurrence of criminal violence contain complex message that tell us much about gendered relations of power, the way boundaries of acceptable social behavior are policed and the way the media itself operates. Not only children but also adult seduced by the media in different way and media is responsible for many real life violence directly or indirectly.

Reference:
· Schwartz, Tony, 1983, Media: The Second God, Anchor Press/Doubleday Garden City, New York.

Radio is everywhere. It wakes us up in the morning and accompanies us around the house - in the bedroom, in the kitchen and at the same time entertaining and informing us about the latest updates of life. It helps us get to work, advising us of traffic problems and calming our nerves as we travel, in the car or on public transport. For some of us, it keeps us going through the day, either at work or at home, providing company and making us think. At the end of the working day it helps us get home again.

Radio and Television are in the process of rapid change and has created the mass audience on a scale that had been impossible in the past. The introduction of digital broadcasting has already started, and the message from around the world is positive. Digital signals will be available to a large proportion of the developed world before the new millennium. At the same time, we are seeing a parallel revolution in information technology. more

As with many new consumer technologies, from home video to mobile phones, the development of digital radio is being pursued at different speeds, with different business models, in different parts of the world. Digital radio works similarly to analog devices but without the crackles and hisses. Tuning is easy because the radio can automatically scan the airwaves and present a list of available stations from which to select.

Digital technology means that not only are there more stations than ever to choose from, but we can listen to them in new ways via our televisions, on the internet, on our mobile phones as well as in car radios. Which is a new era of digital communication. learn more

The services digital radio can offer could change the medium forever. We are only at the start of the revolution, but already digital radio can offer much easier navigation between stations, the ability to pause and rewind live radio, the opportunity to listen at a time of our own choosing to programmes we have missed, the ability to download and store songs on our MP3 players or to see information about the track or programme we are currently listening to. This is only the beginning; future services could include video clips and much enhanced text services. In this way, radio is at the forefront of the media and technology convergence that has been talked about for so long.