Month: July 2019

Digital Artefact: Tattoo and Hip Hop Censorship in Chinese Television

Digital Artefact: Podcast 

Contextual Essay:

When thinking about the topics that I could do about soft power or censorship for this research project, I wanted to spread the awareness on China’s censorship on hip hop culture and tattoos on television. I began to research articles regarding the ban from online news outlets like TIME and DailyNews. The people affected by this are celebrities in China who are in the hip hop scene or just generally have tattoos or accessories that look “hip hop”. Several artists have been banned to appear on television or are forced to cover their tattoos to be on screen, which I think destroys their purpose of fully expressing themselves and diminishing the positive impact of hip hop culture.

This photo taken shows Chinese rapper PG One (2nd R) posing for a picture during the premiere of the movie Wu Kong in Beijing on July 9, 2017.

A famous group of Hip Hop artists for the premiere of the Chinese movie “Wu Kong”

I decided for my media outlet to be a podcast, as I believe a strong voice is a powerful tool that can show a person’s emotion and ambition on a certain awareness. In this context, my passion and love for the hip hop culture has driven me to create this podcast and raise awareness with the power of only audio.

The focus in this podcast is the censorship of hip hop artists and tattoos in television. I mentioned several examples of how artist were censored out and is becoming more and more common due to the uprising phenomenon of hip hop culture in China. “Rap of China” is one of the most popular TV shows in China, which involves a lot of people to have censored out hip hop related items and tattoos on the programme.

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According to the BBC, “Rap of China” was viewed more than 2.5 billion times 2017 on China’s largest video streaming website, IQiyi. (Dukoff, S. 2018)

In my podcast, I started off with an strong and loud instrumental as an introduction, kind of like the intro you hear when you watch the 730pm news. I did not add any music after that, because I believe the use of voice alone is more powerful than anything else. Adding a plethora of effects may sound fancy and all, but really gets the audience’s attention is the way you use your voice, arguments you make and the valid facts you state out.

To end it all, I talked a bit about how hip hop culture was created as a outlet for positivity in the 1970s in New York. One of the hip hop pioneers African Bambaataa, also known as the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, states the four core values of hip hop are: Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun. With China’s censorship on hip hop and tattoos, is this destroying the purpose of having hip hop in the first place?

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African Bambaataa, a historical and important figure in the hip hop culture

Tattoos in the 21st century is more acceptable due to the individual freedom of expression. So again, why take away the freedom of people for just being themselves?

Overall, my podcast consisted of a strong introduction of facts and examples of how China and Korea used their power of censorship in the media, argue on how they should not use this power, with a taste of why hip hop was created in the first place.

I hope this can raise more awareness on the censorship of tattoos and hip hop culture, because it is more beautiful than you think.
See the source image

An African boy dancing “breaking”, a popular form of hip hop dancing.

References

Dukoff, S. (2018, April 07). China bans hip hop, actors with tattoos from appearing on television . Retrieved from https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/china-bans-hip-hop-tattoos-appearing-tv-article-1.3771540

Quackenbush, C., & Chen, A. H. (2018, January 22). China Bans Hip-Hop Culture and Tattoos From TV. Retrieved from https://time.com/5112061/china-hip-hop-ban-tattoos-television/

Nelson, G. (2005). Hip Hop America. New York City: Penguin Books. pp. 16, 18, 57. ASIN B001R9DHYE

VICE Asia. (2018, October 09). Retrieved July 30, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHCo0Iwra0I&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

Reflection on Research Project

 

A couple weeks before the deadline of this research project, I was struggling on what topic I should investigate on. But after some deep thought, I decided to focus on the area within animal rights, but couldn’t exactly put my finger on what focus I should strive for.

Eventually, I decided to investigate on animal abuse in the tourism industry, as I realized on my friend’s social media posts that they aimlessly go to animal attractions overseas but do not realize they harm they are impacting on these poor creatures.

During my proposal, I focused on ways to stop animal abuse in the tourism industry. After my tutor gave me some feedback, he told me to direct the focus with some media elements. Hence, my research question transformed into: How to stop animal abuse in tourism with social media? 

For my digital artefact, I decided to give podcast a go. I never attempted creating a podcast before, so I thought this would be a good chance to practice on a new media outlet, instead of my go to of videos. For creating my podcast, I collected data from sources online, like Google Scholar and other news from animal rights organizations regarding animal abuse in the tourism industry. After some secondary data collection, I conducted a video reaction interview of a friend of mine, who travels to countries with animal attractions. The video that was presented to her was the dark side of these animal attractions, with some follow up questions after her initial reaction.

Pros 

Experimenting with a podcast lets you only use the power of voice in your media platform. As compared to video where you have to add effects, footage, and other media elements, podcasts only uses audio so it is somewhat easier and flexible to create with just your voice. The audio editing software is fairly easy to use. I used the audio editing software Audacity for this project.

On a side note, it is also easy to listen to as people can download it for offline use.

Cons

Due to the use of only audio, it is hard to describe certain visuals in the media platform. If I want to show the gruesome side of animal abuse, it cant be as simple as just putting some footage of tigers being skinned for their fur. I would have to verbally describe it as detailed as I can, in order for my listeners to paint the image in their head.

In conclusion, I enjoyed experimenting with podcast for my research project. This gave me new experience and understanding of how a podcast works and how to improve it for the next time I create a podcast. I am satisfied with the outcome of my podcast as I was able to add primary and secondary data, and also increase my confidence with the use of voice, which is a little cringe to hear at first honestly.

During the podcast creation, I realized I should be able to point out my facts and information in a coherent way with not a lot of blabbering around. I would definitely use this lesson for the next time in the future when I pursue my career in the media industry.

References

Digital Narrative: Live-streaming of Street Dance Events

 

What is my research project about? 

This research project has allowed me to discover the outcomes of being able to broadcast “underground” events to a global scale, in real time. I analyzed the effects of street dance events in the past and also the impact it made when turned into an online event where the globe can spectate at the same time.

The change between underground events and having the opportunity to view events online has somewhat both pros and cons. In the past, if you wanted to know about an event and feel the energy, the only way was to go to the event itself. It brought that selective feeling as not a plethora of people would watch, making you feel like one of the chosen ones. In the 21st century, people can watch on their phones wherever they are in the world, which loses its authentic underground touch. The quality of the livestream also depends on the bandwidth connection in the area, which plays a major role on feeling the vibe of the event.

Image result for livestream bboy

Two World Class Bboys going head to head in RedBull BC One World Final

“Live streaming can be technically difficult and particularly challenging when it comes to things like bandwidth. Quality of footage is a major issue and if poor, it can reflect badly on professional organizations.” Abraham, I. A. (2015)

Why this topic? 

I decided to investigate on this topic due to my interest on street dance and how the media has changed the game for what was known to be underground and evolved into a global media community. My research question: How effective are live-streams for street dance events? The purpose of this research was to find out whether the energy and vibes are affected when live-streamed, which are major components for the street dance scene.

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Live stream advertisement for a renowned street dance event 

Methodology 

In order to investigate on this matter, I conducted three face to face interviews who are part of the street dance community in Hong Kong. They consist of dancers of breaking and wacking (forms of street dance). These interviews were useful as I was able to ask any follow up questions and also they were knowledgeable in their field of events. I also conducted an ethnography study before I interviewed them, to see how they would react when watching a livestream event. I used live-streams from YouTube from RedBull and other popular street dance events globally.

For the formality of the research project, I sent out consent forms to them, to explain how their information would be used in the research project.

I also looked upon YouTube comments of the to find what other users think about the live-stream, which I stated later in my digital narrative when I started speaking in the video.

Results 

The interviews were effective, but it could have been better with maybe interviews from people who are event organizers or the media production team. This is due to the limitation of the weeks needed to prepare this project. Overall, the interviews provided some information that I found quite intriguing.

Through this research, I was able to find out the effectiveness of live-streaming on street dance events. Even though the live-streams were able to provide a convenient method to stay up to date with these underground events, some vital elements were missing through this media advantage. Some agree that the livestreams were able to show the energy of the event, with people and dancers going wild when someone performs a spectacular move. However, compared to events in person, the audience couldn’t give “props” online. They simply shout to themselves when something cool appears, but it is not like the event in person where you can see others go crazy as well.

Image result for bboy props

Audience of an event giving props to the dancers

Although the live-streams may have missed out this real time “props” function, the live-streams were still able to portray the vibe and energy of the event through this real time technology. Viewers were still able to keep up to date and feel as if they were part of the event, which created a global media community for the street dance worldwide. But the effectiveness depended on the bandwidth connection, the livestream angles i.e. if the camera crew knew the right angles and timing, and also the function of giving props together as a global community.

 

Image result for livestreaming

What did I learn? 

Throughout this research process, I was able to understand more about the BCM240 material into practical matter. I can see the relation between media, audience and place towards the investigation regarding live-streaming street dance events in today’s generation.

Media practices has changed the way people view street dance events. In the past, the only way to know anything about the event and the highlights is to be there in person. But with live-streams, people do not need to go all the way to another country to see an event, but stay at home and enjoy the event from the comfort of their home. The audience of the livestreams are also affected as now they are a little lazy to go out to watch these events in person, which could create a loss of audience in these events in the long run. The use of public place is used as these live-streams can be viewed at home, work, school or anywhere you can think of that provides an internet connection.

Technical side of the project 

In a technical aspect for this project, I was able to produce a simple video with an application called Clipchamp. Clipchamp is an online video editor that is easy to use for anyone, even with little editing experience. Due to technical difficulties with my laptop, I was not able to use the professional video editing software I normally use. Which is why I had to focus on making a simple video with the online video editor that requires no download.

The video started with an introduction of the research project, briefly talking about how street dance events were like in the past and the present day. It then proceeded to showing a few clips of the ethnography study I conducted, with finally the interviews to uncover the questions regarding livestreaming street dance events. I ended with a conclusion of how live-streams changed the game of the street dance world. I used a myriad of fonts and transitions to make the video stand out more. I did not include music as I felt it would make the video lose it’s professionalism of the video.

Reflection 

Overall, I believe I fulfilled the requirements and successfully portrayed the research idea into my digital narrative. With this video, I believe it can give people the idea on how the media has changed the game for the world. Not solely on street dance events but also other aspects in life.

I had a few setbacks though, such as not organizing my time well for the interviews and video planning. But overall, I believe I can learn from this project and understand more on how media brings a lot of positive impact in the global community we live in today.

References

Blog 9: Attention Span, New to the Old

So I was asked to co-design a test to see the attention span of a family member and mine and basically report how that goes down. Here is what went down.

I asked my uncle to do a series of tasks around the house. The following tasks included:

  • Get a score of 10 points in Flappy Bird (Yes I still have the game somehow)
  • Clean up his room neatly
  • Vaccum the living room
  • Search online for 10 random facts about animal rights (indirectly helping me for my digital artefacts)

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He was given the time of 30 minutes to finish all these tasks.

Let us hear what he has to say about this test.

He mentioned how this test was kind of stressful, as everything had to be done in just 30 minutes. He tried to do the easiest one first, which he thought would be the 10 random facts. But then he realized he had other tasks that required more time, which created more stress when he thought about the bigger tasks he had to do. In the end, he wasn’t able to complete any of the tasks perfectly.

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But it doesn’t matter, even I failed miserably at this.

But what can I take away from this little attention experiment?

Well the older we get, our attention span grows smaller and smaller. Our concentration for tasks gets harder as we age, which is kind of scary if you think about it. Although we will be pushed to do more tasks with time pressure as the motivator when handed out with a plethora of tasks, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be top notched material?

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My uncle also mentioned how he was distracted several times as well for starters, he wasn’t taking this very seriously. But overall, he just kept getting distracted on other things like his mobile phone etc.

“The attention spans of human brain are getting shorter. We have lost almost four seconds of our attention span in the past 15 years. This means we cannot concentrate on a thing for more than 8 seconds on an average.”

References

Blog Design Review

Blog design plays an important role in making a blog stand out. I believe to make a blog stand out, you got to present your personality into it. Let me show you my blog.

I started using a black and white theme, keeping it simple and clean. Why you may ask? If you know me personally, I am direct and not into sugar coding. Simply put, black and white. And also I just like black and white.

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For my blog, I placed the header image as a black and white photo of the Hong Kong streets, to represent where I come from. It is an introduction of where I come from to users who do not know who I am. Even my WordPress name “ErrylClassics” is a unique way of saying this blog is the one and only. Originally it is just a fancy way to make a cool and fresh name, but now I like to think of it as this blog as one of the classics since the name “Erryl” is hard to find in this world. Therefore, I believe this stands out due to this fact.

On top of that, the logo of my blog is a selfie of myself, wearing something simple. I believe there is no need to dress fancy or stylish when showing yourself off, just be yourself and that is all everyone needs to know. Therefore, I believe this gives off a strong personal touch to my blog.

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On the bottom of my selfie, a quote I placed can be found which is “Communication is key to this world.” A reference to the communication course that I am taking.

In my blog posts, I like to use the different colors and headings to emphasize certain parts of my post. If the sentence is a warning or something important for readers to take note of, I may use a red font or even use Heading 2. Quotes may be used with Heading 3 or 4 to emphasize the impact of the quote. I also use a lot of imagery to show a vivid representation in my posts. This gives a clearer perspective to my readers on what I am trying to portray. I get a majority of my images from Google or are my own self taken photos. I also include some GIFs to make my post more alive, literally.

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I created the navigation bar so it can be put into three categories: Sem A, Sem B and Sem C. Within these categories, you can see the courses inside that semester and find certain posts. This can create some convenience when users try to navigate for a post they want to find.

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I believe what I need to improve on is to add more hashtags to my posts, as this can really increase the popularity of my WordPress blog.

 

Week 7&8: Research Proposal

Digital Storytelling, what a unique way to portray your findings towards an audience.

Image result for digital storytelling

As I heard from my tutor that we have a research project based on digital storytelling, I was pretty stoked and challenged at the same time. I have to present something I find fascinating about media spaces and showcase them in a creative and informative way.

First thought that comes to mind?

Livestreaming of street dance events.

Image may contain: one or more people and indoor

Let us take a step back and see why this topic is more unique than you might think. Back in the 80s when Hip Hop was just introduced to the world, it was just a type of underground event. Hard to find, probably in some dark abandoned place or even a friend’s house around the block. You would hear stories or through the grapevine on how awesome these underground events were, wishing you could experience it yourself. To hip hop fanatics like myself, these places and events are so historic that they are definitely on my to go to list before I die. If only I could just be able to find these places faster.

Fast forward to the our world now, the digital world. These so called underground events can now be viewed simply on your phone, livestreamed.

Image result for livestreaming

Through this research project, I would like to discover the effectiveness of livestreaming street dance events in our world today. Also to observe the changes from being underground to being broadcasted around the world.

Background

In the past, people would only hear about stories about these underground events, or you would have to go yourself. This was a thing of the past. Now we are able to feel the vibe and watch the action in real time through any media platform, with the power of livestreaming. You could be in class, going to work or even in the toilet taking a dump. And you would still wouldn’t miss a piece of the action of the mind blowing moves you were dying to see.

Common livestreaming platforms of street dance events would be either on YouTube, Facebook or even Instagram. A lot of event organizers around the world have started to use livestreaming to promote their events, but the more renowned channels would be Stance and RedBull TV.

Image result for redbull tv

I aim to investigate the effectiveness on how livestreaming these niche events have either brought more benefits or harm to the global street dance culture.

Methodology

As I have mentioned before, I myself am I hip hop fanatic, for any element. Whether it is graffiti, emceeing, dj-ing or street dance, I try to involve myself into the scene locally. I have several friends in the street dance community and I also actively participate in street dance events as well. I would gather more information by finding livestreams of certain events and make my street dance friends watch it, to observe their behavior when presented with a livestream. After that, I will ask several questions towards the participants for further investigation. Other than the ethnography study I will conduct towards my friends, I will ask base if off by an auto ethnography experience where I would do the same as watch a street dance livestream see if the experience of being at the event in person and at home have any major differences.

Image result for ethnography

Here are some potential questions that I will ask:

  1. What do you think about livestreamed events?
  2. Do you feel the vibe of the event from the livestream?
  3. What do you think can be improved?
  4. Does it make you want to go to the event more next time after watching the livestream?
  5. Any difference from watching playbacks and the livestream?

I will also look into the comment sections of the livestream playbacks on YouTube and Facebook for further research.

Digital Narrative

I will create a YouTube video for this project, using the format of storytelling due to the creative freedom that comes with it.

Image result for digital narrative

I will start the video with screenshots and footage taken from the past, regarding street dance events. After the background section, I will proceed with how in our digital world, we can now access underground events with our media platforms. I will include footage from my ethnography study with my participants, with clips of their interview as well.

I may also add voice overs in the video, on top of my own auto ethnography section when I observe street dance livestreams, to create a more catchy and personal touch in the digital narrative.

Due to the formal nature of the project, I will provide consent forms towards the interviewees, for their right of privacy and using their information data in my video.

References