Is this allowed?

This doesn't quite relate to journalism, but I had a distinctly British-education experience this week that surprised me. I visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on Tuesday with my religion class and was interested to see that in the Ancient Egypt section, some of the artifacts on display were completely available to the public. I’ve been to similar historical museums before in the States, and it seems like all of the items are always contained within glass cases unless it’s a large sculpture or painting.

In this section, there were some stones with hieroglyphics on them mounted on the wall, with information cards in front of them. No glass, no ropes blocking them off. Even more intriguing: there were no signs or anything saying not to touch them. I didn’t, because as a 21-year-old university student, I would rather not get yelled at for touching things I’m not supposed to in a museum. (Just in case it’s some well-known bit of English manners to just not touch it, without them having to warn you.)

I really liked this, though, because it made the artifacts and all of the information really accessible. I read about the stones and then was able to look at them up-close, in detail. Being inches away from a piece of history like that and getting to study it so easily was an amazing experience.

Has anyone else noticed this in other museums they've been to? Are there places in the States that are like this, too? 

 Okay, I might have touched this other one when no one was around. Don't tell on me!

And The Winner Is...

This is a great article that discusses some of the nuances of broadcasting the Olympics. It focuses mainly on the stories we don’t get to see, like the upsetting downfall of gymnast Jordyn Wieber who fell just a little short of perfect. What I found most interesting about the article is a short couple-sentence mention on how NBC deals with the tape delay of the events in the US. Because the games are happening five hours in advance, US TV viewers could find out all the news from the Internet before they watch NBC coverage. I don’t remember too much from watching NBC at the Beijing Olympics back in 2008, but I like to think that NBC does not give spoilers. They article quotes, “Wieber was such the favorite that though the Olympics are on hours and hours of tape delay, the NBC announcers didn’t even begin to alert the viewing audience that something might be amiss with her chances until soon before the final element, the floor exercise”. Imagine if NBC had reported the outcome before the Americans had seen the program. Would we be glad to know, or feel cheated out of getting to experience the outcome ourselves by watching it on TV? Is a journalist’s job to report news immediately, or convey news in order for the audience to make their own personal connections? 

Article:

Jordyn Weiber stunner: "Quite honestly, it's horrific"  

BBC Olympics

While watching the swimming events yesterday, I was struck by the coverage done by the BBC. Every single time there was an athlete from Great Britain competing in any race, the commentators focused almost all of their attention on that athlete. This would not be completely out of the ordinary, except for the fact that most of the time the Great Britain athlete was in fifth place or worse. Even after losing, the commentators would not focus on the winners, only commenting on how the Great Britain athlete "tried hard." And when Michael Jamieson, a British athlete, won silver in the 200m backstroke, announcers stated that coverage would turn to the "silver medal ceremony."I do not completely remember NBC coverage from the last olympics, but I do not remember only focusing on the Americans. And I definitely do not remember announcers ever calling a medal ceremony as if only one person is receiving a medal and not all three.

The incredibly biased coverage struck me as odd because of the BBC's reputation for unbiased coverage. I understand that this is the olympics and every country focuses on their athletes, but when the commentators are not even discussing the person who wins the event, something seems wrong.

Who is Eating Who?

In light of our discussion today, I have decided to cater my post towards effects of the Internet. But don't worry, I'll return to our main theme of the differences between American and English media next week.

"Many people in the U.S. and around the world lack the education and skills required to participate in the great new companies coming out of the software revolution… Qualified software engineers, managers, marketers and salespeople in Silicon Valley can rack up dozens of high-paying, high-upside job offers any time they want, while national unemployment and underemployment is sky high. This problem is even worse than it looks because many workers in existing industries will be stranded on the wrong side of software-based disruption and may never be able to work in their fields again. There's no way through this problem other than education, and we have a long way to go."

 Marc Andreessen, "Why Software is Eating the World"

       What do Farmville, Wells Fargo, the Amazon Kindle, iTunes, Netflix, and Skype all have in common? They are thiefs. Thiefs of industries. One decade ago, people were online. 50 million people used broadband Internet. Now that number is over 2 billion and counting. Ten years from now, 5 billion people may have smart phones. In the words of Marc Andreessen, founder of the world's first web browser Mosaic, "software is eating the world." But maybe its the other way around: the world is eating software.

        In 1995, Nintendo Systems delivered millions of N64 systems to American households. Mom and Dad wrote checks to pay for everyday meals, groceries, clothes, or services. People went to the bookstore to purchase a book. Or maybe the library to rent one. Record companies not only recorded music, but sold it. Blockbuster gave people hard copies of movies and expected them to return them three days later, or else suffer the detrimental "late fee." People paid telecom companies for the use of home phone services and, if you wanted to talk face to face with your buddy in Oxford, you'd either have to fly across the ocean or record a video cassette, seal it in an envelope and let the postman deliver the video message.

        Now, Farmville and gaming sites are taking over the gaming world. Wells Fargo uses software to help users manage finances. The Amazon Kindle is replacing printed type with software. iTunes controls the music industry, along with other software music programs like Spotify and Pandora. Almost everyone uses Netflix. If you don't, then they probably don't watch many movies. Skype may be the fastest growing alternative telecommunications company in America. How does this new age of software affect the physical industries of which they have successfully usurped the thrones?

        Digital means more efficient. Computers will never replace humans. Computers can't create content. But computers can do one thing: render the "Professional" in existing industries obsolete. Software doesn't make the user a professional. Software is the professional. And when physical industry succumbs to the digital takeover, what will those who lack skill and education in this new field do for a living? Jobs are disappearing with the widespread dominance of software. Where will new ones come from?

The Ads of the Irish

While in Dublin, Ireland this weekend I came across various images that challenged, encouraged and perplexed me.

This was an Abercrombie and Fitch ad located on one of the main streets in central Dublin. Sex in advertising is a hot topic; however, the object of sexual enticement is most often a woman. Conversely, in this ad, the male is the one being objectified. Men portrayed as sex symbols have been a topic of our class conversation with regard to Ryan Lochte. Lochte gained a large amount of national fame by being portrayed in the media as a sex symbol; however, as we found out this weekend, he is far more than just a smoking hot body. This advertisement challenged me because I realized that when I think of the negative components of sex in advertising I immediately think of the exploitation of women. The exploitation of males in advertising gets overshadowed by the objectification of women; nevertheless, I think the concept is something to which attention should be paid.

The second image I saw was encouraging. This was painted on the side of one of the buildings in a highly trafficked area in Dublin. This directly ties into our discussions about stereotypes. Way to go Dublin providing discouragement with regard to labeling. This picture definitely draws awareness to an important issue; however, I am unsure as to the advertisement purpose of this picture. Is this an ad for Heinz or is this simply the benevolent act of some harmony-seeking citizen?

The last image perplexed me immensely. I saw a couple of these spray painted phrases around the city of Dublin. I tried to rack my brain in an attempt to contrive an explanation for these; however, I was unable to think of any explanation to prove their existence significant. Any thoughts?

Bad PR for London Olympics Already?

In just the first week of the London Olympic Games, LOCOG, the organizers of the games are already receiving ridicule and complaints from fans who were denied access to purchasing tickets to events such as football and swimming. If you turned on the TV at any time this week to watch any of those events, you surely would have noticed the abundance of empty seats. For an Olympics that was said to have sold all of their tickets, they sure have a lot of people not showing up.

LOCOG claims that the empty seats belong to family members and Olympic sponsors, the total being over 1.1 million seats in all. After all of the complaints, LOCOG announced that they would be releasing 3000 more tickets on Monday, July 30. However, I've been watching the past two days and I'm still seeing many more open seats than I ever remember from an Olympic game, and yet I am still unable to find tickets to anything! Now, not only are the fans becoming upset, but the athletes are outraged as well. They are disappointed with their apparent lack of fans. How is this going to affect the reputation of the London Olympics after the games are over. Can LOCOG still solve this problem and salvage their reputation?

Being from Atlanta and having attended the games when they were hosted there, I know how one mistake can cloud the world's opinion on the games as a whole after the bombings that occurred that killed two people. It was a tragic incident that lowered people's opinions on whether a city like Atlanta was fit to handle such a huge event. If these stands don't fill up soon, will the London Olympics forever be known as the games that had no fans in their stands?

Information from this article: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/london-olympics-2012/news/London-Olympics-Empty-seats-prompt-investigation/articleshow/15262718.cms

Cool Graphic Novels in England

I know there are lots of graphic novels back in the States, but I haven't been led to buy one until today.

First of all, I'm a sucker for the punny title, but more importantly the actual premise of the story is very enticing. It interweaves the childhoods of the author, who is the daughter of a Joycean scholar, with the childhood of James Joyce's daughter Lucia. After reading the first two pages I shrugged and took it to the cash register. I can already tell that it has a very interesting take on storytelling and if there is a graphic novel to read, I may as well start with this one.


I'm fascinated by this kind of story form. It seems that there are a lot of tropes and nuances to be explored with an adult picture book such as this one. It may very well express a story in a more pronounced way than a traditional book can. I think there is a lot of potential for combining art and story to make a really powerful book experience.


What effect do you think this kind of visual storytelling will have on books and possibly articles in the future? Do you think it's a powerful storytelling device or that it's just a gimmick? -Joanna 


Here is a video about the novel: