New Challenge for Media Arts

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=7950739&rf=true

As an advertising student, I am familiar with a new term, "Media Arts". Media Art describes the way

iTunes Dancer was the pioneer work of "Media Arts"

to make the packaging of touch points of the products and consumers (the retail presence, the content of the website, the PR program, the CRM initiatives etc.) tell the brand’s story gracefully and artfully.

The news article attracted me because the title told me that the pioneer success of Media Arts, iTunes, was reported to be insecure in protecting the consumer's account privacy. This was the first doubt about iTunesI have seen in the mainstream media.  

However, I would never read this article is I was not familiar and interested in Media Arts. This article was published without any pictures to attract readers' attention and show the key information.

I used to believe that iTunes is the most perfect strategy which combined marketing and advertising  in a creative way. A brand engages the audience in the new digital world is the key for its success and the pioneer works have helped the silhouette iPod dancer, paired with the revolutionary iTunes Music Store, to hold the largest share of the fragmented portable digital MP3 music player market at 50%.  

This multi faced story reported  different opinions from both the side with complains and the side rejecting the complains. These conflicts showed that the new technology creates new marketing opportunities as well as creates problems. I believe there is no perfect computer system ;you can't imagine how intelligent the human beings are in breaking these system.

I was expecting some future analysis about the future of marketing and advertising in the new digital time. Should the government limit the new application of marketing and advertising? Should we update the relevant law?  Unfortunately I cannot find any answer from this and other news article with similar topic.

This problem is probably new for Media Arts, but it is not new for online users. Did ebay , Strawberrynet meet similar problems ? How did they solve them? If I was the author, I would make my discussion linked with broader ways of thinking , and offer the access to future information.

New Kind of Business

http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/new-era-of-journalism-ahead-hartigan/story-e6frfkur-1225910555655#ixzz0xhztBdSU

 

The Future of Journalism Is Not Predictable



Everything in the new digital world changes. And so does journalism.

I didn't really understand that what is special of new era of journalism before I start a course called “online and mobile media" this semester. However, after more than 10 weeks training from my lecture, an expert from this new area, I get new thinking.



I was interested in other people's thinking when I was reading this article. In fact, journalism has been changed in many ways, from the format, audience, regulations to even the ethnics.

Since there were no pictures to remind me through what perspective the author would like to discuses, I had to read this article word by word. It was tired.

However, I was disappointed the mainly thing the author discussed was about the increasing demand of journalism in the new era because of he increasing demand of information from the Internet.

There are many people who are not optimistic with the future of the journalism because in the new digital world the mass decides everything. Journalism, which used to stand for elites' culture, is going to die.

I got different opinion. Because of increasing amount of sub-cultures because of the Internet and mobile tools, elite culture is no longer the leading one. They do have stronger competitors now. Then, journalism is going to be divided into different parts. The traditional journalism has to brand itself in the free market.

So I am different with the attitude the person who accepted the author's interview at the end of this article. Looking to the future, I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic.

I did really expect another people’s opinions from this article, about alternative development of journalism industry in the non-democratic countries such as China or North Korea. Probably If I was the author, I would at least to put set some accesses towards relevant information to the audience like me.

Males bosses are better? There are many exceptions!

http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/women-bosses-a-nightmare-finds-survey/story-e6frfm9r-1225904707948



To be honest, to discuss male or female who is better in the workplace, is not a new topic to me, who took sociology as one of the majors in the first degree.

However, this article attract my attention because it showed the very simple conclusion in its title that, male are better.

After reading this whole article, I found that what the article really discuss is different. What some survey really showed was that , sometimes female manager were less popular because of the characteristics of females' personalities.

Don't you think journalism should not put misleading information in the title because sometimes the title is the like the hypothesis. Some readers only read the title. And this article is very sensitive to the women.  

Dear Author,journalists have the responsibility make sure that his published article are ethical.

When I was study social research method, I was taught that there was rule for every sociologists that to avoid make hypothesis which might have negative impacts to the society. It means, to help to society to operate in the right track is an very important issues for every human being.





On the other hand, I think the result of this social research still need to be discussed with analysing other factors which make the female managers are less popular in the workplace.

Is it because of the predominance of the male manager? ( Male's manager's working style has probably been the standard) Is it because of the average education background of female? Is it because of other social responsibility of female?

If other factors such like these do have effect to the popularity of female bosses' popularity, then the problem is not only about being a female; the problem would be discussed in the further level. 

If you want to report some sociological economic survey result, please choose a decent survey.

No matter how much she earns, woman is always the loser in a relationship

http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/men-who-earn-less-more-likely-to-cheat/story-e6frfm9r-1225906112849#ixzz0xbiWV300



So Women Are Always the Losers?



It is really rare to see articles about relationship in the "business story" . Is that reminding people that, it is wrong to be less rational and careful than doing business when you are choosing your partner?



The topic is interesting because it seems like to discuss the relationship between income and cheating.

The article is consisting with 2 parts: to discuss the case if women learn more money; and to discuss the general cases.

September 9, 2010 7:37 AM

if the hypothesis of these social research is true, then there is nothing a woman can do to to protect their relationships or marriages. because no matter who you are, man is averagely twice as likely as woman to be unfaithful.

However, it become bored with just giving the result of study about the other factor which can affect the faith to relationship for women and men.

Thanks so much to this article. As an investment, men are full of risks.

I have no doubt there still are many nice , decent guys who are faithful in this world. However, happiness is something to be given.nothing can be important than To be who you really are.

Anyway, if i was the author, i will add some more deep discussion with some current news or issue.

Is Japan Going to The End of "Miracle Economy"?

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/world-business/japans-export-growth-slow-on-waning-global-demand-20100825-13r3q.html
Japanese economy was a miracle. Although this economy was partially the product of the cold war. In the new era of global economy, Japanese economy is exhausted with the threatens from US, EU and other rising Asian powers.



Japanese Economy Was The First Asian "Miracle Economy"

The Japanese export growth continued to slow down. The title indicated the key information. At the beginning, the author indicated that all the downturn had started since the currency intervention of the US 15 years ago. This background is very important and is the true reason for bubbles. I knew at that time, the author is a person who understood this issue very well and this article was going to be successful.

In order to make this multi-faced story, the author interviewed some very big people, including the chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley, Finance Minister of Japanese government. These interviews brought some this hard news very powerful explanations to support the title information.



Japanese Quality Vehicles Are Well-Known



In the first part, the author described the current situation of Japan's export growth rate, with analysing the causes and the effects. From currency intervention to the domestic policy making, I was very fulfilled with the information I could get.



The second part of this article was actually about the future prospects. How could the currency intervention continue to influence Japanese economy in the future? Will there be any recovery in Japan's biggest markets overseas ( China and the US)? Is the future of car and electronics export ( the leading export industries) optimistic? The author also showed official figures to support his opinion.

You get what you pay for: discounting quality is false economy

http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/you-get-what-you-pay-for-discounting-quality-is-false-economy-20100812-121gu.html

"Pedigree" is a pioneer work of  new business model

This article is written by a professional in advertising industry. This interested me alot because I am taking an Master's degree related to advertisgin recently.

The Author seemed upset to see the economic downturn because the whole industry is highly effected by the big economic enviroment, especially in the Western countries like Australia.

This author choosed an very interesting topic. What is the role of advertising in the new digial era under economic downturn is a very big issues. However, this author disappoited me because all he was talking about is to complain the client's side.  The most important thing for advertising professionals is to think what they need to do to become trustworth and  then the clients would spend more money on advertising to help the business.

for example, beyond advertising, Disruption ( the philosoly of an advertising agency 'TBWA") believes that by changing the rules, the brands could gain a distinct competitive advantage and create new market. It doesn’t believe that brands could outperform the market if they simply keep doing what everyone else does. TBWA has helped its clients break free of conventional thinking by applying Disruption. A great example of this is Pedigree. It has moved from a product-based packaged good strategy to a brand-based strategy. Pedigree’s success shows the shifts in corporate behavior, marketing and communications, and resulting brand perceptions, could be enormous.

Disruption has also been used by some of the world’s leading companies. It opens up new levels of creativity by challenging a business’ conventions to create new ways of marketing, communicating, and even offering products and services. A disruptive idea has been considered as the best, fastest and most effective way to overturn conventions and achieve an expected vision.

In addtion, I hoped I can hear any clue for the future of advertising industry and its future development because since the tranditional business is now discouted the only thing advertising can to is to transfer its rules and change the tranditions.

Personaly, I have 4 ways of thinking. First, the practical way of creativity is changing. For example, Adidas believes that “impossible is nothing” is not a fact, but an opinion; Pepsi revitalized the Pepsi generation theme by reminding us that “every generation refreshes the world”. In this turbulent world, the role of disruption has pivoted. Advertising needs to create a reference point that can be constantly looked back to unexpected directions the market may have taken people in. In addition, people are living in a new digital world; and then actions speak louder than words. Brands are judged in the way they act and in all the initiative they take. Therefore, Disruption about brand belief needs to be augmented with another discipline, Media Arts, at a deeper level.

Second, advertising communications can contribute to reinforce companies’ business strategies more deeply.Today’s market has changed and the business world has involved beyond recognition in the internet age. Therefore advertising needs to offer something new to corporations that are creating their own rupture in their business model, services and communications, in order to change its path and accelerate growth.

Third, under the Global Financial Crisis, creativity is essentially important because advertising needs to help companies seek branding and marketing opportunities in a downturn. The moments to be remembered forever in human history are all from the hard times. The downturn is the time to reset. It demands that advertising acts smarter and does things differently.

Finally, Disruption needs to be applied properly. It needs to be applied on the right product at the right time in the right place with all the right people.  For example, advertising for human rights organization against Chinese Government with the background of 2008 Olympics  has annoyed the biggest market, China

'Lost Generation' in the Global Scale

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/13/2982810.htm?section=world

As someone born in the baby boom of China, I totally understand how desperate the jobless "lost generation" could be.  This news article attracted me because the title reminded me that not only the Chinese university graduates, but also all the young people worldwide are facing to the same problem: employment difficulty. However, I didn't fulfilled with the information provided by this news article.



Japan already has one 'Lost Generation' of youth during a hiring 'Ice Age' from 1994 to 2004.



The first part of this article introduced that the as the effect of current global economic crisis, " young people except the ones in living in the Europe, are facing to the job opportunity crisis. And political and social instabilities could possibly be caused by this trend. This is a very good and true summary of the some current issues in a global scale and inspired people that some complicated issues has been linked with population.

But how would be political and social instabilities could be caused will be differed from country to country. According to other news article with similar topic, I realised that most Chinese young people might be unsatisfied with the lack of social welfare system because even they can get a junior level job they still cannot  afford their urban life without social financial support. However, some young people in advanced countries might blame the ongoing process of globalization because the relocation of the capital reduced their comparative advantage as labours.

 

Second, it is mainly discussed the 'poerty trap"  focusing on the developing countries. And many government of the poorest countries have offered the training  program. But, how about the the semi-peripheral countries and the developed countries, has there any solution been applied?

With extra readings , I also realised that societies with aging population have been threatened by this job crisis in a more deeper level. For example, Japanese society has very low average fertility rate but Japan already has one 'Lost Generation' of youth during a hiring 'Ice Age' from 1994 to 2004. It means Japanese elder generation are under greater pressures to looking after their grown-up children.

At last part, the future prospect, it indicate the warning offered by the UN, that this crisis will continue. the picture offered by UN in this article described the working person in a farm but without indicating the key messages. However, I really hope I can get some advise and future, professional, deeper analysis from experts. And relative information is linked under this article.