decasia » The fallacy of blaming universities for unemployment -
For those following up on the ‘future of universities’ topic, this short post outlines a problem with the ‘vocational’ model of higher education.
Music for Deckchairs: Efficency or education? -
From a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy is capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of exercising authority ov…
UOW’s own Kate Bowles has a blog with some thought-provoking posts on education and technology, and other intersecting issues. The latest post also considers these in the light of recent media coverage in Australia about proposed cuts to University funding.
BCM310 Emerging Issues in Media and Communication: Steubenville vs. Delhi: A tale of two coverages -
Why does the U.S. media offer sympathy for Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, but demonize Indian men?
The bad news just keeps coming: the gang rape of a medical student in India resulting in her death; the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Pakistan; a Swiss tourist…
‘The HIVE - Play the game and crack the codes of cooperation’
What if we took all the stuff that makes games fun and turned it to solving real world problems? That’s the question posed in The Hive, a transmedia project profiled in the latest SMART Seminar.
The Hive is a film, a social game and a community website. It is built onto Facebook and aims to tap into the massive number of gamers on the Facebook platform.
Science filmmaker Annamaria Talas said The Hive tackles a profound dilemma we face every day – whether to cooperate for long term gain or abandon ship and reap instant rewards.
Economists call this The Tragedy of The Commons, while for mathematicians it’s The Prisoner’s Dilemma. At its core is a fundamental tension between the short-term benefit of the individual versus the long-term interest of the group. This conflict is at the root of many of our global problems including climate change, pollution, resource depletion and over-population.
None of these issues can be solved with technology alone, they require behavioural change. For civilisation to survive the next century we need to learn to cooperate on a global level. But for most of us it’s hard to put the future ahead of the present.
During the seminar, Ms Talas told the audience that an interest in the emergence of cooperation sparked development of the project.
http://smart.uow.edu.au/events/UOW132161.html
Journalistic Balance as Global Warming Bias -
‘A new study has found that when it comes to U.S. media coverage of global warming , superficial balance—telling “both” sides of the story—can actually be a form of informational bias. Despite the consistent assertions of the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that human activities have had a “discernible” influence on the global climate and that global warming is a serious problem that must be addressed immediately, “he said/she said” reporting has allowed a small group of global warming skeptics to have their views greatly amplified.’
Click for more …
Can One TV Show Shift Refugee Policy? -
A fascinating discussion of the SBS TV series ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’, from the Crossborder Collective
From Al Jazeera English: ‘War is hell, but for Hollywood it has been a Godsend, providing the perfect dramatic setting against which courageous heroes win the hearts and minds of the movie going public.
The Pentagon recognises the power of these celluloid dreams and encourages Hollywood to create heroic myths; to rewrite history to suit its own strategy and as a recruiting tool to provide a steady flow of willing young patriots for its wars.
What does Hollywood get out of this ‘deal with the devil’? Access to billions of dollars worth of military kit, from helicopters to aircraft carriers, enabling filmmakers to make bigger and more spectacular battle scenes, which in turn generate more box office revenue. Providing they accept the Pentagon’s advice, even toe the party line and show the US military in a positive light.
Empire examines Hollywood, the Pentagon, and war.
So is it a case of art imitating life, or a sinister force using art to influence life and death - and the public perception of both?
Joining us as guests: Oliver Stone, the eight times Academy Award-winning filmmaker; Michael Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker; and Christopher Hedges, an author and the former Middle East bureau chief of the New York Times.’
For more, click here …
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/empire/2010/12/2010121681345363793.html
An innovative approach to addressing global issues in the media … the second series of ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’ starts on SBS TV tonight …
Greg Jericho in the Drum …
Last Friday a couple rather odd things occurred in the Australian film industry.
The first was the announcementthat the big budget sequel to X Men Origins: Wolverine would be filmed in Sydney. This was unusual because big budget overseas feature films have largely deserted Australia in the past couple of years due to the high value of our dollar.
Read the full piece here …