Ocean Alley, European Tour 2016

Fresh off a string of sold out shows across Australia and New Zealand, Sydney’s Reggae-grunge group Ocean Alley, are gearing up for their first European tour. With their Debut Album ‘Lost Tropics’ set to be released in May, the boys will tour the album across Europe for two months. With a busy schedule, the band will be jamming in shows in the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Playing in cities that are famously known for their ties to various music movements, like Punk in London and Electronic Dance Music in Berlin. The boys will showcase a different type of performance, one that their audiences will not be used to. Bringing a slice of the Australian subculture to Europe.

The 6 piece came together in 2010, starting off as a group of mates who were into the same type of music and wanted to play together. It didn’t take too long for their similar styles to mould together, they quickly moved away from Jimi Hendrix and Red Hot Chilli Peppers Covers and started creating their own unique sound, one which embodies the relaxed yet decadent lifestyle they follow.
They made the move from playing in their garage to performing at people’s parties and local, mini festivals. Many of their earlier gigs were played on timber pallets, in their friends back yards with blown speakers and wild crowds. Their music, now more refined and technical, represents these early days. The band’s laid back yet uplifting sound has the ability to transport the listener back to those hot summer nights, it allows you to experience the reckless culture that everyone who grew up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches went through.

As they started writing their own songs their audience grew. With their songs being posted on youtube and Triple J’s Unearthed, they began to book their first venue gigs. After touring the Sydney pub circuit, they quickly started hitting the road to play shows across Australia from Byron to Tasmania and across to Perth. in 2013 they released their first EP ‘Yellow Mellow’, this cemented their position as one of Sydney’s most popular up and coming acts. They couldn’t play a show at the Moonshine in Manly or The Oxford Art Factory on Oxford Street, without it selling out and being completely packed.

With the band getting more exposure, they began to attract the attention of like-minded artists and creatives. A partnership that resulted in some very creative work is the one with the Sauce Studio.
The Sauce studio, also hailing from Sydney’s Northern Beaches is a creative agency, specialising in film and photography.

The team from The Sauce were already friends with the band, which made it easy to work collaboratively. Together they came up with a series of iconic, playful music videos. The film clips add another aspect to the Ocean Alley experience, they portray the groups enthusiastic and colourful nature through a combination of digital filming as well as 35mm film.

With the summer festivals in Australia finishing up for the season, Ocean Alley prepares to take their music to the other side of the world.
Summer in Europe is usually associated with sipping dry Rosé under a striped umbrella on the Mediterranean. With Ocean Alley in town, this tour looks set to shake up the traditional notions of a ‘European Vacation’.
If you happen to find yourself in Europe over June and July, be sure to check Ocean Alley out.
You can catch them at these dates listed below.
You can also Pre-Order their debut album ‘Lost Tropics’ here.

Looking Back

Since I first started writing blogs for BCM102 at the beginning of my course I have always enjoyed it. The process of being given a subject matter then interoperating it based on your experiences with the media and outside world is what has really inspired me. I have tried to portray that a lot of thought and care has gone into my blog’s that I am not just writing them because I have to. This semester especially I have based my blog topics on my own personal experiences and my attitudes toward the weekly subject or idea. You can write about something more affectively if you can relate to it. This can also be a hindrance, as it doesn’t allow much room for outside comments from other sources and experts. Overall I hoped to portray my ideas and thoughts about our current media space based on my own personal experiences. Throughout the study of these subject I hope that my experiences and ideas have grown and expanded, which has reflected in my blog posts.

Each blog post was different yet could all be linked to the same themes of our media space and how we behave within it. I start the research for my blogs each week by looking through the lecture slides and readings. After getting a general understanding of the weekly topic I would search other sources online to get a better understanding from a few different perspectives. Even with a variety of different opinions and theories I would always try to have my voice/opinion the leading point throughout the post with reference to sources and relevant examples. I think I could have done some more thorough research on the topics to gain a better understanding therefore allowing me to explain it better throughout my posts. Taking my time and making sure that my posts read smoothly and made sense the whole way though is something else I have noticed.
My Blog posts were shared to my twitter account and were sent as emails to my followers. I think I could have tightened up the social network features on my blog in order for people to have easier and more available access to my work, in turn spreading it to a wider audience. Posting my blogs on Facebook would have helped me reach a wider audience. I use Facebook a lot more and have a lot more friends on there than twitter. My writing still needs a lot of improvement especially my grammar and punctuation. I need to focus on my writing to make it friendly for a blogging environment. Making it easy to read yet still having the correct information. Each blog post I tried to simplify everything, to not use words that didn’t necessarily have to be there. Like just then, I didn’t have to use the word necessarily to get my point across. Making my writing reader friendly yet still informative was a good technique in improving my writing.

After almost 2 months of this subject I have learnt a lot about how research can be done and ultimately what research is. At first I thought it was just scrolling through Google scholar looking for the most reviewed journal, now I realize it can be as simple as watching a movie with your friends or just having a conversation with someone. I already knew that research had to be done in the real world with real life scenarios and hypothesis. You can refer to other peoples research as much as you want, but if you want to get results about your own questions then you have to go out and research it yourself. That being said it has also taught me a valuable amount on how to find research through more contemporary mediums such as the Internet and the library facilities. It has taught me to look for a variety of different sources with different ideas and viewpoints. Constructing your own opinion based on a variety of diverse information is the best way to learn. I need to keep a more open mind when it comes to gathering information, I tend to only look for what I want to write about and what will be the easiest to explain instead of trying to find the best way of explaining it. The process of these blogs has really highlighted that online readings can only take you so far. My time management wasn’t as good as it could have been. I was always a week behind with my blogs. This week delay didn’t leave me with a lot of time to conduct as much research as I could of. It also restricted me from really thinking and planning out my research for each topic.
I have met a lot of engaged students in my tutorials and lectures. I have expanded my twitter network, which has opened up a lot of new connections online making it a good resource to share and gain links, ideas and information.

The research techniques and ways of thinking I have learnt from this process has given me a new set of skills and enthusiasm that I will be able to take into the rest of my university career and into the post uni world. I have also learnt that I must focus more on the attention to detail of everything from my time preparation, to research methods to the way I produce my blogs.
In the future I hope to use the techniques I have learned and the resources I have discovered to further investigate ideas and theories based around our ever changing media landscape.

Overall this blogging assessment has really helped me look at things with a different point of view. It has taught me to think differently about ideas and actions that may seem very simple at first but are in fact crucial to our modern way of living.

leadership spill

We caught up with UOW political leaders to get their reactions on the liberal party leadership challenge

TV versus Interent

Even now with such an abundance of different telecommunication devices and entertainment systems 88% of all broadcast television still takes place on the traditional Television set as opposed to laptops and other portable devices. This statistic says a lot about the media practices and habits of the average Australian household.
This quantitative research shows the hours that the TV is spent on and is a helpful ethnographic method in analyzing the way people behaves in their homes and natural environments. What it doesn’t show is what people are doing while the TV is on. I have seen this trend a lot through out this subject, that it is very common for families and people to leave the TV on yet hardly anyone is paying attention. Everyone can be sitting around in the living room in front of the TV consumed by their own devices in their hands.
The debate whether the Internet is good or bad for society is an idea that came to mind when researching the ethnography of media in the household. The Internet has bought people together virtually yet has isolated everyone realistically.
Nie and Hillygus explore this issue in their journal THE IMPACT OF INTERNET USE ON SOCIABILITY: TIME-DIARY FINDINGS.
Is it healthier to all be sitting in different rooms while chatting to one another online or all sitting around the television set together looking at the same one way platform, with no ability to collaborate or contribute to the medium.
Popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow the audience to take on a role of the producer as well creating an online forum to discuss the different issues.
It is studies and statistics like these are helpful in defining what media use is better for the average Australian House hold.

References
NORMAN H. NIE D. SUNSHINE HILLYGUS, 2002 THE IMPACT OF INTERNET USE ON SOCIABILITY: TIME-DIARY FINDINGS, VOLUME 1, ISSUE , viewed August 15 http://sites.duke.edu/hillygus/files/2014/05/v01i01a01.pdf

Tales of a lost youth

Surviving the post high school years

I still remember that feeling when I finished my last HSC exam, my friend nick and I drove dangerously fast to the bottle-O around the corner spent what little money we had on 3 cases of the finest Victorian bitter.
We regrouped with our fellow classmates at the beach car park and filled an old metal drum with all our hard written work and research of the past 2 years, See you later Otto von Bismarck, adios Pythagoras you and your theorem can get stuffed. Setting this pile of study notes and textbook photocopies ablaze I was overcome with a euphoric sensation I’d never experienced. The anticipation of venturing into the big bad world was equally terrifying and exciting I couldn’t wait.

That was over 2 and half years ago. Since the beginning of this adventure they call life I can say I’ve seen my fair share of how good it can be and just as much of how bad it can be. Since finishing school I’ve been around the world, fallen in and out of love, laughed so much I pissed myself, been so scared I’ve cried, partied with people who didn’t share my language race or religion. I’ve also been kicked out, lost friends to suicide, to drugs, to motorcycles and various other temptations and addictions.
Everything you learn at school is meant to help you survive in the world, you’re teachers tell you you’ve got to study hard otherwise you’ll be handing out hostel brochures in Byron Bay. On the contrary there is nothing you learn during high school that can really prepare you for what lies ahead. Nothing you learn in extension English is going help you get past corrupt cops in Bali.
It is encouraged that you under go tertiary education In order to make something of yourself, but I have a friend who has been studying chiropractics for 3 years and has aged almost 50 years, the pressure of studying, passing and keeping a distinction average isn’t healthy for a 20 year old. On the other hand I have a friend who went to one of the most expensive boarding schools in Sydney and is now a marine electrician. I see him almost everyday after work, stinking of diesel and itching the fiberglass out of his shirt and he’s never unhappy.
I am also studying at university and am really enjoying what I’m doing, getting good marks. My marks could be better if I didn’t put so much focus on the weekend. I’m quite happy with where I’m at, but like a lot of my peers and friends its what happens after you get handed your piece of paper and graduate that’s scary. Although it’s very advantageous to have a degree it doesn’t assure you a job. There are a lot of post grad’s who labor digging holes or pour martinis in restaurants waiting for the next job interview.
To properly evolve as human you must go out and learn things that can’t be taught in a classroom or through an online lecture.
Experience is the ultimate teacher.

Interview

In preparing for my second assignment survey I conducted a preliminary interview with a student from my tutorial to test out some different types of questions based on a social media theme.

 

Hypothesis- Social media makes it harder for people to create their own actual identity.

 

Do you think social media is healthy for young people?

Yea it’s a good way to connect with new and old friends and a good way to express your self, no restrictions on ways to express yourself and who you are.

How many social platforms do you use?

3, just Facebook and Instagram, snap chat, I use social media more to just browse and explore other profiles not so much to continue working on mine.

How much time and effort do you spend on your online profile?

Different sites different time, I upload more to Instagram, I try to put a photo up every 2 weeks where as Facebook is more of just a browsing tool where I can see what everyone else is doing

Why do you think people care about their social media identity so much? You don’t really know everyone online so you only way get an idea about them is through their social media identity, if they look good and share cool things online then you will assume that is what their like in real life.

Would you say your online identity accurately reflects your real identity?

Facebook is more individualized and personal and instagram is hard to properly show who you really are just through photos, a lot of people only upload photos of themselves which doesn’t really reflect what they do and who they are.

Do you think we control our social media identities or is it the other way around? Social media can dictate peoples self image and their self-confidence but it is possible to change your online persona quite easily

All of these questions are very open-ended leaving it all up to the interviewee’s own personal ideas and opinions. The methodology I used when conducting this interview was simply asking questions based around my preconceived notions of Social Media habits.

Most of the data retrieved from the interview is qualitative as it is mostly just personal opinions, theories and habits. There is a bit of quantitative data in there when referring to the amount of time spent on social media platforms daily and the amount of platforms used.

Looking back I think I could have used some more in depth questions to get more detailed responses to get a better more accurate conclusion answering the hypothesis. Personally I don’t think that social media has a very powerful role in allowing people to establish their own identity and I would need to do more research and ask some more detailed questions to come up with a significant conclusion.

The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream Journalism

With the revolutionary emergence of social media and its constant convergence on the media landscape it is quickly changing the face of mainstream journalism. With such easy access to social media networks it is possible for almost anybody with an Internet connection to be a journalist.
This article by Nic Newman looks at the impacts Social media is having on journalism and how countries like the United Kingdom and America are dealing with the rise of citizen journalism.

This article is useful as it focuses on a relevant event, the Iranian protests in 2009 where the use of mobile technologies were dominant in reporting on the events that took place and then social media platforms were used to distribute the stories.
Newman contrasts how in years past news was only available on traditional forms of media such as Newspapers and Television and Radio Broadcasts which took a lot longer to be prepared and aired. In a country like Iran where the government has such a strict control on the media, the news stories would often be one sided and biased leaving out certain pieces of information especially when reporting on student clashes with the government.

Newman explains how powerful information and videoing sharing sites such as YouTube were in allowing everyday Iranian citizens to have their voices and stories heard. “Iranian citizens are having their voices heard, their faces seen and their story gets told around the
World without filtering” (Scott Rubin YouTube spokesperson)
This statement from one of the worlds most used and popular social media sites shows just how powerful it is in allowing citizens to produce their own news stories and share them with the world with no restrictions or filtering necessary. People no longer have to wait for the hourly bulletin to see what is going on there is far more stories available through social media which you can access wherever you are through mobile devices.

Newman then goes on to examine the role twitter had throughout the protests. Twitter is the most prolific and up to date social media site with most news organizations using it as a more direct portal to their audience. The article shows that Twitter was the most common media used in spreading information through the protests with a hash-tag #Iranelections49, that became the central point for people willing to view and share information and stories.
It is interesting to see that throughout the protests the Iranian government tried to shutdown twitter and other information sources but links had been shared on how to hide your IP address from the authorities. This demonstrates the power of social media and how it is not confined by any government censorship or restrictions and the ability it has to spread across the world much faster than any traditional form of news.

This article is very informative and useful in describing how powerful social media can be in spreading information a lot quicker than traditional forms of media. Although the article only looks at one case where social media was used as a journalistic tool in a third world country during a violent protest. The results may be quite different in a western democratic country with a more open and free media.

References:
Newman, N, 2009, The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream journalism,

Is it worth it’s 15 seconds?

If you hear someone say one thing then hear someone else say the complete opposite both with conviction and strong beliefs who are you meant to believe? Journalists are held  to a strict, traditional code of ethics when it comes to reporting stories and issues especially those that have a serious impact on the rest of the public, including climate change and the threat it poses. In todays turbulent  global media journalists are faced with the challenge of reporting what the public need to hear and what the public want to hear. Journalists are often forced to compromise their principles and ethics in a sacrifice to compete in the global media market. The rise of the blogosphere and internet reporting has opened the door to pretty much any citizen journalist, allowing them to report on whatever they want however they want, this poses a threat on the traditional ethics and integrity of journalism. Will the journalistic traditions and mores that have characterized much of 20th century US news reporting carry over readily into
the new media? (Ward 2009)

Global warming and climate change is a major issue that will have a massive impact on everyones lives or so some would believe. It is an issue that has divided most of the population with many accepting it as a serious issue that must be addressed and some thinking of it as a myth. When it comes to journalism and reporting on climate change journalists have an obligation to the public to report on it truthfully and with integrity. Many journalists choose not to report seriously on climate change dismissing it as a ‘lefty theory’ with no relevance. Journalists must report on these issues based on scientific evidence not their own personal opinions and views. This practice of bias reporting is slowly changing though as the affects of global warming and climate change are continuing to impact on the world we live in.

Journalists and the mass media are also pressured by their respective governments when it comes to reporting on sensitive issues such as climate change. Governments fear that the power of the media will influence the public opinion in relation to their policies and how they are acting towards global warming. It is essential for the healthy functioning of a democracy that the media report on issues in a fair and balanced way with a variety of viewpoints and theories based on facts and evidence not on personal opinion and ideology. In today’s technological world the media is humanity’s fundamental means of communication and it must provide the general public with the proper information and scientific data especially when it comes to issues such as climate change, not brainwash the public through propaganda reporting tactics.

References
Ward,B, 2009, Journalism ethics and climate change reporting in a period of intense media uncertainty, Vol. 9: 13–15

Gavin, N, T, 2009, Addressing climate change: a media perspective, Volume 18, Issue 5

A Student abroad

After digging things out of the ground and selling them to China, international education has become one of Australia’s largest export industries turning over a billion dollars a year in revenue. Australia has become a centre for international education and cultural experiences. With such a multicultural society Australia is a huge target for students looking to spend a year abroad or continue their studies in one of the many well known Universities. With Australia’s strong white dominated community there are many different attitudes and thoughts in regard to international students and their place in the country. Australians have a well known reputation for being racist against people from non anglo backgrounds. this has been seen in various race riots including the Cronulla Australia day riots in 2006 and more recently the bashing of Indian exchange students in 2010-2011.

Who is the real Sherlock?

Since old sherlock first appeared in a published piece in 1887 in a series of short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he has been solving crimes all around the world in various forms, cities and time periods. The original Sherlock Holmes character is a classic example of english country house detective fiction, but the traditional idea of 19th century detective walking the gloomy streets of victorian London with a pipe and magnifying glass have been reformatted and adapted to various cultural contexts and settings.

The film franchise starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes pays tribute to the traditional detective character set in the original time period and using many similar themes that were present in the original stories. More recently though we have seen the character travel across the Atlantic and establish himself in New York in the television show Elementary. Adopting to a modern cultural context with his sidekick  Watson being played by Lucy Liu and set in the present time period, the show conforms to more of an American detective based style while remaining in character as a mysterious english gentlemen with a shadowy past. The show still presents themes and clues linking it to the original plot, making it a piece of literature that will continue to adapt to each era of entertainment and media.

References
Penny, L (2014) ‘Sherlock and the Adventure of the Overzealous Fanbase’ New Statesman,

Asher-Perrin, E (2014) ‘Battling Super Sleuths: The Awkward Case of Elementary, Sherlock, and Building the Better Adaptation