The Narrative Book of Database Narratives: Le Book of Rage

So, for this narrative I'm just going to outline it and do brief summaries of said chapters. That being pointed out, I think that I'll also just do a bit of creative editing of le names. These are the names:

• Rage Comics--Express Your Rage--rage comics--Cheezburger
• Hot Rage Comics
• Rage Collection--Home of Rage Comics

I'll be editing some for redundancies and others to makes them more titlely (totally a word). They're going to look like this now:

• Express Your Rage
• Hot Rage
• Rage Collection--Home of Rage

So with that in mind, let's get started!

Express Your Rage
This is an introductory bit, explaining how to create rage comics. It'll talk about the superiority of MS Paint over Photoshop and how to draw on experiences of everyday life and make them hilarious through a standardized, poorly drawn comic. All will love it!

Hot Rage
This one will go into great detail about how to push your comic to the front page in tumblr. The chapter will go into the proper way to deal with trolls--because your comic is so good, it's "Hot Rage."

Rage Collection--Home of Rage
The third chapter of this epic series will expound about the collection of rage that you built up because of all the rage comics that you're making. It should emphasize what to do with all of your comics--whether to only post the best, or just spam the Internet (spam). The chapter will recommend which sites are the best to post on (all of them) in order to get your comics out there (to show off).

Well, True Believers, this is it. That is the narrative I drew from a simple google search. I thought it worked out pretty well. I'm going to go eat some cake.

Once upon a time . . .

. . . breasts abroad in all the land were suffering. Many breasts saw ads on the tube, offering products and services to to create recovery plans and offer hope for healing. One month was set aside for all breasts to paint the town pink in order to spread awareness and gather attention that would the efforts to find a cure for the pain. 

One of the breasts was named Susan. She held a parade. Everyone lined the streets, proud of life, hopeful for change and miracles, waving pink banners and eating pink popcorn. Donation boxes were placed in every store in every land and at every finish line. 

All the pink proceeds were poured into the foundation of a massive organization and packed tight until a giant castle was formed. And there, the dreams of happily ever after are shaken and stirred and steamed and stored. Pairs and pairs of breasts flock to the castle in search of their one true cure. 

And some breasts live happily ever after.

The Elven Memes

So we have multiple versions of elves: Santa's elves, Harry Potter's house elves, Lord of the Ring's elves, video games elves. The list goes on an on, which provides lots of great material for meme creation.

Many times mockery is the subject of elven memes. However, sometimes political references are made, such as with Santa's elves and house elves. Freedom seems to popular when concerning house elves and sometimes Santa's elves, though Santa's elves are used to mock Christmas.

Mockery comes mostly from the LOTR and video gaming elves. Elves in LOTR and video games often have powers unattainable to humans and are considered "better" races. A common meme for LOTR is when Legolas, a very popular elf among LOTR and elven fans, is looking out into the distance to see what humans and dwarves cannot. People place a funny image for Legolas to see in the center picture, leaving Legolas shocked in the last frame.

Here's an example:

This meme is mocking computers and losing all the information available. Legolas can see what is happening when the others cannot.

Another common theme is mocking the better abilities elves have in video games. Dominating as an elf is a common theme and often the players of these elves are mocked for their pride and overbearing attitudes.

Example:

In this meme, Joseph Ducreux, a French painter during the French Revolution, is used in memes that mock different subjects. Often the words in the meme are from a vocabulary of large words and using an old way to speak. However, this is not the case since the meme is mocking the language of internet and gaming. The "Level 80 Elf Paladin" is supposed to be a strong character that can dominate in the World of Warcraft games. The "In...Yo...Face" is to mock the gamers' pride for their characters.

In this next meme, the mockery of LOTR and gaming is combined into one.

This is a combination of two memes. The top part is the original meme that circulated around the internet. It's mocking how Legolas never ran out of arrows during the the LOTR movies. The bottom meme is a response to the top meme. The man in the middle is associated with gaming and his words are gaming referencing, bringing together LOTR and gaming into one giant joke.

Besides memes, there are other ways to create internet art about elves. Fan art is really popular as people can curate images, sounds, videos, etc. into a group setting for their individual purposes.

This montage was created from images of Legolas and a quote in the bottom right corner. It was probably created in a photo editor to make the images blend together seamlessly and to add the quote and make it look good. And each montage or fan art carries some meaning from the creator. I believe this creator meant to show their devotion to Legolas. The quote, "And when I look into your eyes, the sky's a different blue" is romantic and all the pictures used are supposed to be attractive. This creator was expressing her devotion and warm emotions towards this fictional character.

But not all fan art is this way. Some have more negative, mocking meanings like memes. The tones are determined on the content and words used within the images created. Elves tend to be more mocking or political in their memes while fan art is devoted more to the likeable emotions.

Memes and Art

Being an intense sports fan, I found some really great memes on my favorite team.  Most of them revolving around one of our stars.  Oh, Kobe Bryant!  While I love and respect what an amazing basketball player he is, I am keenly aware of how much distaste there is for him among the basketball community.  He is notorious for being a bit of a ball hog and maybe a little bit cocky.  This meme mocks that notion but defends how most Lakers fans feel about his dominance on the court.

While I am from Southern California and have been a Lakers fan since I was a little girl, a lot of the Lakers fans around the nation are what we call "Bandwagon Fans" which are the fans who just follow the team because they win and have more money to build better teams.  As true Lakers fans, we are often called upon to defend ourselves and our star players and this meme helps us do just that.  All the Lakers Haters out there get on Kobe for not passing but what's the point of having a great shooting guard on our team who just passes the ball instead of making baskets. 

Now this meme, while it again portrays Kobe's passing problem, also requires a bit more knowledge about the team and the things that are happening in the season.  It references game 2 against OKC Thunder during the playoffs earlier this year.  It the nail biting last seconds of the game, it was Steve Blake who they passes the ball to in the last seconds rather than Kobe, and he missed the shot, losing the game.  Coach Mike Brown got a lot of rap after that game for designing the play as such.  Now, while I saw this and laughed, it wouldn't mean so much to someone who didn't watch the game. 

Now, fan art was a little bit harder to find, but not impossible.  This first one I found, I actually do not like at all. 

I'm a fan of Michael Jordan too, and I don't think that there can be only one master.  Michael Jordan was a phenomenal basketball player in his time, Kobe is in his on time as well.  This is mainly referencing a play that they both performed that is very similar.  I think that digitally, this wouldn't be that hard to create, but it definitely had to take some time to select some photos that have each player looking in the same direction with the same size smile and all the elements that make it so these interesting right next to each other.  But besides that, there is simple 5 words placed over the top.

This next one seems to require a little bit more technological skill:

This image portrays our new addition Dwight Howard.  I like the way his arms are held out because it shows how he is being welcomed to our team with open arms.  He has often been referred to as Superman so it is showing how he now fits into the Lakers team and along with our starting line up, will rise and create a great season for the Lakers.

Pokemans?! No, really.

Ok, this might just blow your mind: when I was ten years old, I was into Pokemon. No, really. You know, like every other ten year old at the time, except I would willingly admit it. :D  I'm a fan of the old stuff, and when it comes to the generation after generation of new pokemon, it's become like a bad novel series - it just needs to stop.

I find the idea of a widening generational gap within the same game absolutely fascinating. There are so many memes, comics, and writings about growing up with 'pocket monsters' - it left a mark on us, and that's why we still love them! Think back to the games that you loved to play, the 8-bit ones with the terrible music, and it makes us want to go back and play them again.

But then we get older. And the old stuff gets more awesome.

Gyrados vs Articuno - Gyrados uses splash!

Yes, THAT is Gengar. Is your mind not blown?!

 The stories and cute little 'monsters' you played with as a kid get twisted into the awesome stories and art of today. I think the memes are there to remind us of just how embarrassing it was when  we were little, but all the fan art, the really cool, realistic stuff, is there to show us that ANYTHING can become meaningful or gritty, creepy or inspiring. It brings back those memories when we were kids, the ones that made us love pokemon in the first place.

Isn't Photoshop just awesome?

Meme Awareness

This definition for "meme" is offered on my computer dictionary:

"an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation."

It's a term used in biology, usually, I guess. But it totally makes sense why that word is applied to the current use of meme media, of passing ideas through use of familiar images in order to link to it all connotations and past hyperspace/mainstream culture associated with it. 

Dr Pepper is right, virtually every topic has memes made for it—even Breast Cancer Awareness, the topic I believe I'll be doing. I'm doing research about it for now. (If, in the end, it looks like it won't work for whatever reason, my backup is Harry Potter. Potter Project = done in one second.)

Clearly these memes don't follow the common route of mocking or poking fun at their subject matter. It seems they're more poking fun at the idea of memes, but that may be the nature of memes in general anyway. 

But the first image is just not even humorous on any level. We know cancer kills. We know it. Then not eating kills us too. Looking at that meme makes me think: awareness doesn't change anything; DO something. Give food to those who starve. Get informed about cancer, your own history and treatment and prevention procedures.

The second meme brings to light the often overlooked fact that breast cancer has no gender bias. It's not all about pink. Look at all the blue in that meme; and the male fish is solemn, serious, while the female fish (eyelashes) in the background is surprised. Some people get caught up in the pink and don't remember breast cancer is just cancer located in the breast, same mutation that happens anywhere else in the body, no matter which body. 

Once we become familiar with memes, we realize their intent is to deliver a message, and one, like I said, heavy with preconceived notions and ideas of the image. Connect these with obvious statements to contradict or reemphasize the image, and your message is wrapped and delivered. The two (image and text) work together, blend flavors, to get the right taste in your mind: you are now thinking what I wanted you to think. And now, every time you see another meme you'll have that meme in mind, and a whole web of relating images and thought patterns is forming.

Memes are a strain of new media cancer on the web culture system: mutating out of control, sometimes ruining once-innocent images/icons (Wonka, fist pump baby, Schrute) so that, always, those images will represent something more than ever they originally did.

Fan art was a bit harder to find. Interestingly, a lot of what I've found so far is anime style. 

I don't know much about digital art rendering whatnot, but this would appear to be not drawn by hand. Shadowing/highlighting looks pretty cool, proportions also seem realistic, so it wasn't just some beginner, is my guess. The artist has two works posted where I found the one above, both relating to breast cancer awareness. Going off what Lev has said about Selection and Compositing, it would appear that the artist hasn't composited separate existing material and rendered a new media, but has more or less "drawn" the image using selections offered through digital software. The final presentation isn't montage, because it isn't made of complete media elements pieced together; however, anything digitally rendered isn't coming purely from scratch, either. The available colors, any filters or effects, these features are "shipped" with the software, included, programmed in. So, this artist isn't necessarily producing this "fan art" as an imitation of something she saw already displayed in association with breast cancer awareness (a lot of fan art is pure or exaggerated imitation, much like a singing attempt at a karaoke bar versus a professional band cover of the same song), because there is no real "image" for breast cancer, excepting the pink ribbon, which does make its artistic appearance in the piece.

Here's one last photo that I believe does represent a composite of familiar images mixed together with "invisible" editing to send a "real time" message.

Elves and hyperlinking

So I was thinking of using elves as a possible topic because there are so many definitions and cultures of elves created by authors, games, movies, and myths. One site I found introduced the culture of elves for a game I've never heard of. Here is the link http://www.elftown.com/_elves.

This site used a lot of hyperlinks on the many pages. This worked well because when you are introducing an entire culture for a game, there will be many questions along the way. I liked the hyperlinks because I could go to a different page to read more about something that caught my eye and then return to the original page that I was on when I was ready. Sometimes I kept clicking links continually and found myself on entirely different topics concerning elves. I was able to get the information I needed when I wanted it. It made the website more informational for the new reader.

Le Rage Comics

So for my final project, I think I'm going to look at rage comics, like the ones at ragecomics.com. While there are several sites devoted to rage comics (ragestache.com, ragecollection.com, and ragecomicarchive.com) I picked ragecomics.com because it was the first on the list that didn't link to a website devoted to lolcats.  So yeah, time to look at links.

It turns out that ragecomics.com does not link well to other sites, but instead to rage comics on its site. It knows its purpose, what people come to expect, and how to present it.  There are two small links at the bottom of the page, devoted to what are called "sister sites." All three are own by the same media group--Rainy Cape S. L.. Ragecomics does also host links to follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook. That's about it. I almost find it interesting that the site does not link to other rage comic sites. I think it doesn't because then they'd have repeating comics or that the site is simply trying to make money and by linking to a competitor, they would be taking away hits to their own site.

Interfaces

Interesting GUI history here (where i found these pictures of the 1984 and 1986 [color] Macintosh desktop displays below)

1984

1986

Also, I looked up Blade Runner to see what Lev's words represent, because how can I make a visual comparison for his concepts without looking up what he's comparing them to? A very interesting trailer to the film. If that was made in 1982, Lev sure is right: the futuristic style portrayed in that film is still highly visibly in use today. And, Harrison Ford was quite the hunk.

Just thought those were helpful visuals for me. Moving along.

Interfaces. Lev said:

"the computer interface acts as a code that carries cultural messages in a variety of media" (64).

If I'm understanding correctly this " 'non-transparency of the code' idea" that Lev's getting at, this is how I'd translate it: 

Say a message from an alien language is coming to Earth through the universe. Our satellites catch the frequency and start sorting through the components of the language to present/translate it for us earthlings to understand. Come to find out the message came with picture and text (multimedia aliens) and our satellites recreate these coded medias, passing them along to be displayed on computers. But then this non-transparency of the code idea comes into play (the satellite cut, now it pastes).

"A code may also provide its own model of the world, its own logical system, or ideology; subsequent cultural messages or whole languages created with this code will be limited by its accompanying model, system, or ideology" (64).

So because our computers are programmed and designed with only so much original capacity and code, the alien language may have alterations in its presentation through interpretation of language by code. As Lev said,

"it may make some messages easy to conceive and render others unthinkable" (64).

So, a piece of media will have an original source, but once extended into hyperspace, the interface used to pluck it from oblivion and place it on the screen will have its own possibly altered interpretation for displaying the media.

But not only that. The way we come to see media depends on how it is presented to us: we interpret through what we're shown. Another layer to the interface: our own face.

I sure hope that's a good interpretation by my inner-face (brain) because otherwise I'ma be lost.

So, the human-computer interface helps humans and "aliens" (coded language) get along, understand each other, even work and play together. 

New media can be separated into content and interface when its "informational dimension" is considered (the paints [contents] existed separate from the final painting; the code existed separate from the final display [interface]), making it a different experience from that with traditional art: the focus is on the content and its abilities rather than the final product. (? That's what I'm understanding from last paragraph, page 66.) Informational versus experiential.

But if we consider "experiential" new media to be more like traditional art, we don't separate content and interface. Once the "particular configuration of space, time, and surface articulated in the work; a particular sequence of the user's activities over time in interacting with the work; [and] a particular formal, material, phenomenological user experience" (66) have been combined to create the art/experience, then "to change the interface even slightly is to change the work dramatically" (67). So in order to consider new media as art, the interface must not be altered. (Though its variable format would easily allow it to change, new media maintains integrity as art if it is treated as unalterable once its content is "published" in the interface. This touches back on the new media principle of variability.)

The interface exists on content; the content creates the experience through the interface. There is no experience without both, but the emphasis you give to whether the components are interdependent strictly or flexibly determines your own experience with the media. (My example as an editor: reading a book can be uninterrupted fun, or I can constantly focus on the [poor] uses of language and punctuation.) Entertainment versus study.

Overall, the graphical components of the interface offer an interaction for the user, which in turn constructs the user's understanding, interpretation, and acceptance of media. This gives us something of a "chicken and egg" discussion (not that egg=content therefore egg proceeds chicken (interface); no, more along the lines that media=reinterpretation of industry=review of industry=redesign of industry=new view of media . . . and so forth, and we'd be hard pressed to find which came first, art or industry?).

Hyperlinking

Let's start with a hyperlink: Melissa's little secret Yeah you wanna click on it don't you!  Go ahead...

...so there it is.  Yes, I am a Lakers Fan.  And yes, it's one of the topics I am considering for the final project.  This is also the site I decided to write about.  This site is chalk full of hyperlinks and it makes the site quite interactive.  Through this site, you can go to pages that tell you about the Lakers schedule, their stats, different multimedia objects that have been archived there.  You can click on various links that show you different articles out there in various forums.  It will also take you to sites where you can buy paraphernalia (of course) and places where you can buy tickets to the games.  And if the links on the top of the page are not enough, they are all repeated on the bottom of the page as well.  Oh but this is not all, there are links to twitter pages and advertisements or basketball related sites that are things that you are interested in and motivate you to click.

Honestly, this site would not be worth anything if it did not have hyperlinks.  When I go on this page (which I do often) I'm mainly there to read various articles that are linked.  Well, reading about the big move of Steve Nash makes me really excited to see it.  Well I'm already there, lets look up the schedule and see when they start playing.  Oh look, they are playing the Jazz on November 7th in Salt Lake City!  Ok, I should probably buy tickets.  Good thing I have this handy dandy link at the top of the page!  Click!  Ok tickets bought, now what to wear...Ah, I will just need to go to the store now and get the latest garb so that I can show my support for my team.  Ah, wow, so much I was able to do!  These links really make this page what I need.  They give you all the information that one would need who were interested in the topic.  I appreciate very much that I am able to make the most of my experience while visiting the site.

The layout of the website has links at every point.  There are the most important links at the top of the page.  Then, throughout there are pictures that make the information even more appealing.  They use headlines and different colors.  There are specific sections for specific information and the reality is, this is basically a hub for anything Lakers you would want to know.  Of course, if you went to the page, you obviously have interest in basketball and the different things it entails so the site prompts you to move around by simply having the information available.

Principles

So Manovich uses large words that confuse me, but I think I got the gist of what makes up new media. By following his principles, we will learn why homestarrunner.com is considered new media (despite not posting anything in a couple of years.

The first principle of new media is called numerical representation. This means in some form the media can be depicted in numbers. As is common with most things in computers, the computer code of the media helps it fit this. In the case of homestarrunner.com, the website is stored in code, recalled from said code, and made viewable because my computer understands said code. But what is even more is that this code can be changed, which affects the actual website and maybe even videos themselves. By manipulating the code and not the actual media, the numerical representation is changing, but that changes the media, too. I think that because of that, it could be argued that while a computer interprets the ones and zeros into content we understand, it could also mean that the code is the media and the media is the interpretation of the code according to the computer. It's like what Dr. Pepper was saying about different web browsers and how they “see” websites differently. Most people may not see what the computer “sees,” but what the computer thinks what the code is supposed to mean based on its “sense” of web browsers. Well, I think this is enough meta for me, so next subject.

Modularity means that a piece of media can be broken down into smaller pieces of the same style or type. In the instance of homestarrunner.com, each page follows the same format of the whole: there is the small flash player that runs all the videos and links the separate pages—used for the separate videos—into a whole site. This means that each page, or module (see what I did there?), is exactly the same set up as the whole. This allows for a comfort and expectation to come upon the viewer; the view will see the similar pages if brought there through a link and associate it with the site as a whole.

Automation means what is sounds like it means: that the media can do things without human involvement. It does not need authorization from its author in order to run. An intro video would be just like this. When you get on a website, the video starts without any direction from you or from its creator. The program itself runs without any help from humans. It is thus automatized (while not a word, would be a good way to explain turning people into cyborgs).

Variability is the idea that new media can be customizable—it can be a different experience for you than for other people. It could even be different when you engage it multiple times. The video game Skyrim comes to mind. It starts out vaguely the same, but that's about it. You create your own character from different species, use different skills, and you even level up differently. This can work not just between people, but between restarts. This customizable makes the game varied. This is one of the reasons why MMO's are so popular. They can be customized to make new group experiences that can be repeated but in different ways.

Speaking of transitions, this level of customization in video games is almost transcoding. Transcoding is the interaction between old and new media. It's like the cut scenes from some of the Resident Evil games. Cut scenes are little short movies that people watch to explain why they are doing what they are doing in video games. For the Resident Evil series, it's why you are running around killing zombies. So, they're just little movies. But the creators of the games took it a step further. When something drastic is about to happen, they have the player push certain buttons in order to survive the cut scene. This forces the player to become once again that they are playing a game, not just watching a movie.

As far as which of these principles is the most important, I believe that it is variability. By being able to change the experience for each and every user, you create a standard that must be met by others as well as yourself. People begin to expect that applications, games, and maybe eventually movies must be tailored to fit them specifically. This goes beyond anything most people have come to expect since interchangeable parts were invented. The idea that the parts fit in different spots for different people could only be done by new media. Bam! Chew on that metaphor for a while.

Prologue - Chapter One

I apologize - I was out of town for most of the weekend, and then I got sick. Isn't that fun? But the one really interesting thing I was able to understand from the reading is that the internet, like early cinema in the 1920's and 30's, is going to change how humanity lives and expresses itself. But THIS time, we see that it's changing us, so we can document and illustrate for future generations exactly how it affected us and how we developed from simple HTML to massive Flash-based web pages.

And hey, I can talk to someone in Afghanistan nearly instantly through e-mail and chat. That'll change the world for sure.

5 Principles of New Media

Post By Cherise Jenkins:

New Media consists of 5 principles: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding.

Numerical representation is when new media objects are represented through digital code. Shape and images is depicted from mathematical functions. This allows media to become programmable and usable through different computerized media methods. An example of this is when a picture is created in a photo editing program. While we see the picture, there are number codes and algorithms to create the shape, size, and color that we want. We may not see the codes and algorithms, but they are there for computer functionality.

Modularity is when a new media object is made of separate, whole parts which are also divided into smaller parts. It's like a body. A body can be divided into systems, which is divided into organs, which is composed of tissues that are made of cells, which can be further divided into molecules and atoms. New media is separated into individual parts and so on until you reach the smallest parts, like the atom, which is the pixels, 3-D points, or text characters. This can be demonstrated by a new media video. The video is not just a whole video as it appears, but is broken down into still frames, images, and pixels.

Automation is when a computer is able to recognize and understand what it is being asked by humans and design its own things. A program agent, such as Photoshop, will be able to do the work for a user. Websites exist where the person only has to provide the images, theme, and music and the website will compose the slide show accordingly. The user did not have to do any work since program agents recognized the wants of the user and composed the desired result.

Variability is when an object can exist in multiple forms and versions. This happens when a computer helps assemble the object. Rather than copying objects, the object becomes a variation in the different programs it is used or viewed in. This is only possible because objects in new media have modularity. An example of this would be if an image from photoshop is being used in a word document or website. The image, while appearing mostly the same, would be automatically adjusted for the needs of the word document or website. The image would be the same, but a different version.

Transcoding is the most confusing. It is when the cultural and computer levels of new media influence each other. As things change and influence each other, transcoding becomes apparent as a new computer culture is created. An example of this would be communication. The culture of communication has changed because the computer culture has created abilities for instant textual communication, which in the end created a new culture computer culture with examples being instant messaging, social media sites, emails, etc.

I believe transcoding would be the most powerful in the new media culture because of the effects it has had on communication between local and international peoples. Communication has changed with digital and new media. The way people connect and interact has changed due the the cultural and computer layers of new media influencing each other and changing our lives.

I'm not going to lie and say that I understand anything that Manovich is trying to portray, but I will attempt to define these key principles and not sound like a total idiot so here goes!

The principle of numerical representation states that new media objects are described using mathematical function.  When new media objects are created on computers, they generally originate in numerical form and new media becomes programmable through algorithmic manipulation.

The principle of Modularity is defined as the 'fractal structure of new media" meaning that new media elements are represented as collections of discrete samples.  These samples can be assembled into larger objects, but still maintain their separate identities. These are stored digitally so that it can be used in different media objects.  This makes me think of things like prezi presentations.  While it is one presentation, it consists of various multimedia elements that each are defined on their own, and can be edited or eliminated without difficulty.  I know that is really vague but I don't really understand much of it so bear with me.

Now using these two principles, we can now allow for the automation of many operations involved in media creation.  This means that one can modify or create a new media document by using templates or simple algorithms   Many programs on the computer, for whatever document that is being created have automated features set up that allow things to be automatically created without having to manual program it.  Just like any computer game or computer program, there are certain features that allow specific things to happen,  For example, in Microsoft Office Excel, certain mathematical functions are set up so that if you need a certain thing to happen you pick from an automatic formula and make adjustments where needed and it does all of it for you.  It needs for an interaction from the user, and then the automation of it kicks in.

Variability is used to define the liquid nature of new media.  While old media could be fixed and could be multiplied off of its master.  New media is different in that it gives rise to many different versions.  It builds on itself as it progresses.  Variability would not be possible without modularity where these digitally stored elements can be assembled into many different sequences and can be created and customized easily.  This makes me think about the website we used in class the other day where we could see a screen shot for old websites.  They are updated and made better as they move along.  Pepper even said some images will not be shown because they were not stored correctly, so this shows the variability of these new media websites.

Transcoding gives a great summary of all we've discussed.  New media consists of two layers, the cultural layer and computer layer.  The cultural layer and computer layer influence each other and result in a new computer culture.  "A blend of human and computer meanings, of traditional ways in which human culture modeled the world and the computer's own means of representing it.

I do not pretend to even slightly understand what in the world this chapter is talking about.  Yes, I have written this blog post, but no, it still doesn't make great sense to me.  I hope you all can help me understand better through your posts.  Sorry, that I am of no help!

FIRST!!!!

FIRSTT!!!!!!