My Bio

My name is Emma Howard and I am a senior majoring in New Media at UMaine. I declared my major my junior year, so I will be here for an additional semester. I grew up in Southwest Harbor, ME and went to Ithaca College for my freshman year. I decided that I wanted to be closer to home so I transferred to UMaine for my sophomore year. I started off college as an exploratory student, and then I declared myself as a social work major. When I left Ithaca I came to UMaine as a business major, took one day of classes, and declared myself undecided. I then decided I would be a theatre major, so I declared that. Then I found New Media. Finally I am taking classes that will get me toward having a major. I really like New Media, although I find programming very hard. I want to make movies for a living. What kind of movies I don’t know yet, but I can’t wait to take more classes in film to find out what direction I want to take.

"The World Needs You to See it With Fresh Eyes" response

1."Professor Anne O'Dwyer taught me about cognitive dissonance - the psychological discomfort which occurs when you're confronted with a set of facts suggesting that what you're doing or believing is irrational or stupid. You pay $10 to go to a movie, and the movie is pretty bad. But rather than admit that you wasted $10, there's a tendency to say it isn't wasn't really so bad: the acting was impressive, the special effects looked really realistic - whatever you need to tell yourself to convince yourself that you got your money's worth. You want to feel like you're not a sucker. We paper over the cognitive dissonance in much of what we do - the fact that this clearly isn't the best way to be ordering a society, to be living a life - because we've got an awful lot invested in the route we've been pursuing. To admit that it's flawed would be too much dissonance to handle." Pick an issue that you believe the media has "papered over". Describe how you figured out you were not getting the whole truth. What was the more complex truth & why was it hidden (or more important who benefits from the partial truth & who loses?) What is the cost to you and what can you do about it?

For the past day I have been trying to think of an answer to this question, and I cannot come up with a time that I thought the media “papered over” an issue. I can think of times when the government covered up things, like the Watergate Scandal, but that is not something that I personally discovered. I don’t think I pay enough attention to the news to be able to answer this question. (Yes, I know I need to start.) I can relate to the part about not admitting that I wasted something. I don’t like to regret, so even if something goes wrong, I like to think of it as a learning experience. I don’t do this so that I don’t feel like a sucker; I do it because I like to make everything I do mean something. I like to learn from myself. I can realize when something is flawed, for example the parking on campus, and I can realize when I am flawed, for example I have a really bad sense of time. I think when things are covered up it is bad for the people who do the covering and for those who are only showed the cover-up. Living with a lie weighs heavily on the liar, and being lied to is like a false sense of reality, both are bad.

2. In what way have you been encouraged to "sit back, relax, and enjoy the show" and how can you "grab the steering wheel before we go over the edge"?

I think that whenever a huge event happens in your life, you are either encouraged to “sit back, relax, and enjoy the show” or “grab the steering wheel before we go over the edge”. Personally, if something bad happens in my life I tend to worry about the little things, like getting assignments done on time for my classes, instead of thinking about the big thing that just happened that needs my attention. At those times my friends and family around me say I need to “sit back, relax…etc” and they say they have everything under control. All I need to do “be” and they will take care of the rest. They will decide everything. However, their comes a time when you get tired of just “being” and you want to start “acting”. I think that is an important time to “grab the steering wheel before we over the edge”. That is when you make that first step to having the “bad thing in your life” relinquish control, and you begin to get stronger. If you stay in your simple state of just “being”, eventually you will completely lose yourself and your ability to pick yourself back up. You will go over the edge. It is important to let others take control, but then it is also important to take that control back.

"What is New Media?" response

1. What are the three transportation media? What is the difference between a transport medium and a transport vehicle?

The three transportation media are land, water and sky. The difference between a transport medium and a transport vehicle is that the vehicle helps us convey ourselves in the medium. The vehicles are limited by the medium.

2. What are the three communication media? Give examples of communication media vs. communication vehicles. Email uses which communication medium?

The three communication media are interpersonal medium, mass medium, and new medium. Some examples of communication media vs. communication vehicles include “conversation vs. electronic mail” and “utterances and speeches vs. webcasting”. Email uses the interpersonal medium.

3. What are the advantages/disadvantages of interpersonal communication? Of broadcast communication?

The advantages of interpersonal communication are the each person and control over the content that is conveyed, equal control and the content is individualized to meet certain interests and needs. The disadvantage of interpersonal communication is that because it can be individualized and all have equal control it gets complicated with each additional person, and it becomes less personal. The advantages of broadcast communication are that everyone gets the same content and only the person who sends it has control over the content. The disadvantage of broadcast communication is that the content cannot be individualized and the recipients have not control

4. What are the characteristics of the New Medium? Is a many-to-many communication possible without the new technology of laptop, iphone and Internet?

The characteristics of the New Medium are that individualized info can be sent to a potentially infinite number of people and the all the people involved share equal reciprocal control over the content. Many-to-many communication is not possible without the new technology of a laptop, iphone and Internet.