Gamer raided by Swat team in front of 60,000 viewers

Title: Gamer raided by Swat team in front of 60,000 viewers

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/05/gaming-streamer-gets-swatted-as-online-griefing-enters-real-world

Summary:

Air Force veteran, Joshua Peters, was targeted by anonymous attackers in the middle of a Twitch stream of the browser game Runescape. The veteran was confronted by 10 armed SWAT team members where they had arrived at the veteran’s house and was in shock.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  Before ending the show, the streamer turned back to the audience, and addressed his attacker. “I see you posting my address. I had police point a gun at my little brothers because of you. They could have been shot, they could have died. Because you chose to swat my stream. I don’t give a shit about what you have against me, or what I did to you. For that I am at a loss for words. Your gripe is with me. But do not involve my family in this. They don’t deserve it.”

Opinion:

In my opinion, this was caused by the development of New and digital media; this is because the rise has introduced newer crimes and forms to which crimes can be committed and since the attackers had attempted it again it was a personal vendetta.  

The mobile phone emoticons that could wipe the smile off your face :-(

Title: The mobile phone emoticons that could wipe the smile off your face :-(

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/feb/06/mobile-phone-emoticons-could-wipe-smile-off-face

Summary:

This article is about how Users of some older smartphones including those from Samsung and reportedly Apple and HTC are finding that when they send a text message that includes a smiley face or other emoticon, the handset converts the SMS to a picture message.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  “The problem is that MMS is stuck in a time warp,” said Ernest Doku, a telecoms expert at uswitch.com. “You have now got lots of data-driven services, such as WhatsApp, where people can send messages that are as long as they like with low charges.

Ø  Britain’s biggest network, EE, charges 40p for an MMS, compared with 12p for a standard text. Three charges 31p for an MMS and 2p for an SMS on its pay-as-you-go tariff.

Ø  The case of a woman who racked up a £1,200 bill over four months through the use of emoticons in texts.

Ø  In a recent survey into unexpectedly high bills the watchdog found that 4% of the 5,700 people surveyed said they had received a high bill caused by unexpected charges for emoticons.

Opinion:

In conclusion, this a very intriguing article as it shows how even new and digital media can backfire, and fall flat on its face causing issues with sending simple emoji’s on an SMS. That fact that phones can rack up $1,200 bill just by doing something simple. 

Post Colonialism Theory- TASK

In this scene, a black man is being pranked however, the way he looks is dangerous and what he does is attempts to punch a guy in the face. This shows he is Dangerous from Alvarado's theory.

This scene demonstrates how black men are humorous as he is smoking a joint, completely out of his mind, and randomly saying "Wazzup!", this is according to Alvarado's theory.

This is a music video where several women, mostly black, have large cleavage and have large asses, and are twerking, this links to Alvarado's theory as he had stated that black people are represented as exotic.

This is an advert about donating money in order to save children in Africa, and they utilise black children in order to look cute and touch the hearts of people to donate money. In accordance to Frantz Fanon's theory the representation is Infantalized. 

This video is footage of Black people being violent on buses and it primitivizes them as it portrays them as fighting animals, that will spark up out of control for dominance and other domination characteristics. 

This video is footage of 6 black men jumping a white couple, this shows who decivilized they are- in accordance to Fanon's theory.

This is a TV series about how a Eastern family is living in the UK, where they attempt to fit in to a Western Civilization, but in reality are weaker than the Western culture.

Desi Rascals is reality TV show that shows the lives of several Eastern families and follows them in their day to day lives.

This is a comedy show of a humorous about Eastern people living in the West. It shows how they are adapting to the Western culture and is so superior to the East.

Post-Colonialism Task

1)      Alvarado

Alvarado’s theory of post-colonialism, suggests that there are 4 racial representations of minority groups. The representations are:

1)      Pitied - looked down upon

2)      Exotic - groups from a good and rich culture

3)      Dangerous – groups that appear as a threat and can cause harm

4)      Humorous – an image that is created for the amusement of the white

Frantz Fanon

Fanon came up with the quote “black skin, white mask”, this means black people would put on white masks in order to become like the White man and mock them. Also Fanon had realized that the majority of black youths. He came up with four ways of stereotyping them:

Ø  Infantilize- portray them as children, small and cute, for example using them in Aid commercials.

Ø   Primitivize- the exotic tribal warriors or ‘bare breasted maidens’ with a natural sense of rhythm.

Ø   Decivilize- The ‘gangster’ pimp.

Ø  Essentialize- Clumping the group together, undifferentiating them.

Edward Said’s Orientalism

Said argued that the west- in particular colonising Europe- constructed a meaning of the East (Middle East ) that suggested it was different, dangerous and uncivilised.

West v/s East = Civilised v/s uncivilised =superior v/s inferior

2)       Does it offer a positive or negative view of British Muslims? To what extent does it reinforce or challenge Edward Said's theory of Orientalism - that the west is superior to the exotic or uncivilised east?

Yasmin offers both a positive and negative view of Muslims. Positive as the beginning shows the boy singing in his language and shows them as peaceful, minding their own business, but when the white locals begin to move away they are presented as a nuisance, which show negativity and that they aren’t very helpful but annoying. Also, the facts that the elderly man is cleaning “Paki, Go Home” off the shutter shows them as docile and calm, as well as refusing to retaliate at the fact that they are unwelcome there. To a major degree, the theory of Orientalism, that the west is superior to the exotic/uncivilised east as the woman is changing from her religious clothes in a field, which is an insult in itself as women in the Islamic community are supposed to keep their bodies covered, furthermore the women is changing in to western clothes, meaning jeans and a t-shirt.  

YouTube staff too swamped to filter out all terror-related content

Title: YouTube staff too swamped to filter out all terror-related content

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/28/youtube-too-swamped-to-filter-terror-content

Summary:

This article is about how the volume of content regularly uploaded to YouTube makes it tough for the video-sharing website to catch all terror-related content, and how it is different for nudity for certain videos depending on its content.

Fact/Phrases:

Ø  About 300 hours of video material is being uploaded to YouTube every minute, said Google policy manager Verity Harding, who stated: “To pre-screen those videos before they are uploaded would be like screening a phone call before it’s made.”

Ø  When a Scotland Yard unit recently told Google about material that did not comply with the company’s own guidelines, de Kerchove said 93% of that content was removed. But when individuals flag up problems only a third of it is taken down.

Ø  “YouTube has clear policies that prohibit content like gratuitous violence, hate speech and incitement to commit violent acts, and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users.”

Opinion:

In my opinion, this article highlights censorship and how important it is in terms of protecting sensitive audiences from harmful content, like porn and the beheadings.  

Google Glass is on a strategic 'reset' and eight other things we learned

Title: Google Glass is on a strategic 'reset' and eight other things we learned

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/30/google-glass-is-on-a-strategic-reset-and-eight-other-things-we-learned

Summary:

This article is about Google glass and 8 stories that have come up in the past week. Google glass is being reset and going further in to RND for further development. The next story is about how Facebook was trumpeting its video growth and hitting the 1bn daily video views milestone. The third story is about the growth of YouTube partners and partners increasing by 50%. The fourth story is about the super bowl commercial. The fifth story is about how Google Play and YouTube drove the majority of those sales for the success of the film the interview. The sixth story is about how mobiles have become behaviour rather than just a device. The seventh story is about how Google Play and YouTube drove the majority of those sales. The eighth story is about how Google is now getting into the money transfer game in the UK.

Facts/Phrases:

Ø  Cast in the light of $4.76bn (£3.16bn) in fourth-quarter profits, up nearly 30% year-on-year, missing Wall Street expectations doesn’t seem so bad.

Ø   Google blamed the strength of the dollar for a lot of it, saying revenues would have been $541m greater if the exchange rate had been more favourable.

Ø  It has been publicly reported that the film generated over $15m in its first weekend, and that Google Play and YouTube drove the majority of those sales.”

Ø  Google didn’t give any updated sales figures for its Chromecast device beyond saying that last week “we saw our one billionth tap of the ‘Cast’ button”, and that “usage per device” has increased by 60% since it launched, thanks to new apps and features.

Opinion:

In my opinion, the fact that Google glass is being unsuccessful and being sent right back to the research and development division is ironic of its future heading right back to the bottom which is similar to the fall of News Corp. Google is still flailing to survive as the dominant conglomerate as its began to enter the money transfer industry, but the simple matter of the fact is that its only one way Google is heading and that is down.

Post-colonialism: blog task

1) Films:
>Bullet Boy
>AnuvaHood
>Shank
>Sket
>Ill Manors
>Slumdog millionaire

TV programme
>55 degrees north
>Luther
>Line of duty
> The Kumars at 42
>Goodness gracious me
>Citizen Khan

Online only:
>Brother with no game
>Venus vs Mars
>The Ryan sisters
>All about the McKenzies
>Meet the adebanjos
>The crouches.

To what extent can we apply Alvarado's and Fanon's theories to these films? Do they reinforce or subvert typical black stereotypes in British film and TV?

To certain degree we can apply Alvarado’s and Fanon’s theories to these films, as they have a links to both reinforce and subvert typical black stereotypes in British film and TV. In the short film, Tight Jeans, the exotic representation, as in the middle of the film, the three black youths are talking about the “size of their d****” and how they have “f***** everyone, to populate the world” Also to go against Alvarado’s theory, the dangerous representation is challenged as they are less stereotypical of black youths, they are just relaxing and having a laugh rather than looking intimidating. Also, in accordance to the Alvarado’s theory, the racial representation of being humorous, where they are making fun out of each other, in particular when the middle black youth is questioned of knowing what a white man’s genitalia size. With Fanon’s theory, there is evidence for infantilized, essentialized and in some sense primitivized. They were infantilized as they were arguing at the start like little children. In terms of being, essentialized they challenged as they had stood their own out with individual characters rather than being clunked as one group. 

In regards to the “Gone too far” trailer, the pitied representation of black people is evident, when the Nigerian man is presented as typically outcast, emphasised by his costume, for example the sandals and socks. The representation of being exotic is also embodied in the Nigerian brother as he is arrives in the UK straight from Nigeria. The dangerous representation is subverted by the fact that there are no stereotypical representations of a black youth being violent, anti-social or a threat. The humorous representation of black people is evident as the Nigerian brother is entertaining, especially in the sense where he is singing in the chicken shop about being Nigerian. In terms of Fanon’s theory, the character of the Nigerian has been primitivized as he is unknown to the British lifestyle and norms; this is evident from the trailer when he attempts to flirt with women but is shot down. The representation is also infantilized as the Nigerian brother is seen as a child who has just entered the world and is discovering new things.