Darja’s IDM Blog ♡

Hello everyone. Welcome back to my blog. ( ◠‿◠ ) This week, I have been assigned a group in order to create a video project on the topic of ‘‘YouTube, podcasts and parasocial media’’.  Social Media In our video, we will discuss and explain what a parasocial relationship is and how does one lead themselves into a parasocial relationship, consequences of being exposed to media personas, actors, influencers and celebrity culture and finally, the intimacy of the medium. Additionally, we will be giving examples of our own experiences with parasocial relationships, the effects that they have on daily life, social isolation, fandoms, positives and negatives etc. We’re hoping to add an element of humour and entertainment into our video since it will be dedicated to an audience of our age group!   This topic peaked my interest as soon as I found out that it’s one of our options for the project. The reason being, is that I’ve been engaged with YouTube ever since I was young, leading to ...

Hello everyone! This week, I took the time to expand my knowledge on the topic of feedback, specifically, how to give and receive feedback from others. Furthermore, I got the opportunity to review some of my course mate’s blogs.   I have read four articles in relation to feedback - ‘‘Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback’’, ‘‘Be a Mirror’’, ‘‘Is a fixed mindset holding you back?’’ and ‘‘Seven ways to crush self-doubt in creative work’. From these, I have learned about a “fixed” mindset and a “growth” mindset.  An individual with a  fixed mindset  refuses to believe that their talents and intelligence can grow and develop further. They keep themselves in a safe zone from which they can avoid making mistakes as they understand mistakes as a negative, making them doubt themselves and their work. On the other hand, an individual with a  growth mindset  takes their mistakes as an advantage since they use them to reflect on themselves and their work, giving them an...

Hello and welcome back to my blog! This week, I watched a series of videos which broadened my knowledge on the topic of design and film production. Film production is something that I’ve been waiting to learn about in more detail for quite some time, so this week’s videos definitely peaked my interest. Production Process   What is design thinking? Well, by watching ‘‘What Is Design Thinking?’’ I learned it is a philosophy and a set of tools which helps you solve your complications creatively. It specifically focuses on the human-centred side of creative problem-solving. Throughout a design thinking process, you’ve got to empathise and figure out who you’re designing for and what their needs are, with which helps you innovate based on those needs.   I learned that there are five main steps to design thinking, which are: 1.       Empathising  – this is practically the foundation to the design thinking structure. You’ve got to understand the people w...

This week, I read two opinion pieces called ‘ ‘Digital Media companies found lacking in helping users understand the online environment’’ and ‘‘Ofcom research: Nearly half of people across the UK nations have come across false or misleading information about Covid-19’’. After I took my time to read and understand the two, I attempted to read a journal article called ‘‘News media literacy, perceptions of bias, and interpretation of news’’.  My experience of reading this week was surely more difficult than the others, however, I challenged myself and tried my best to understand the style of writing that was used in both opinion pieces, and the academic writing used in the journal article.   I found the opinion pieces to be significantly more interesting than the journal article. I was aware that misinformation can be found all over the web, however, I was surprised to discover that the vast majority of media platforms aren’t willing to promote the importance of digital literacy....

This week, I watched a series of videos which expanded my knowledge on the topic of digital media. The first video that I have watched is called ‘‘Digital Media Are Networked | Digital Literacy 101’’.  Before I watched this video, I understood digital media as a source of content, be it entertainment, knowledge, etc. However, after I watched the video, I realised how broad and inclusive digital media really is. This is something I hadn’t particularly thought about in the past. As opposed to traditional media, digital media is interconnected and extremely interactive, giving you the opportunity to react, share and discuss your thoughts and opinions online. Whereas traditional media is a one way process, in which you receive information or entertainment through books, newspapers, magazines and radios.   ——— The second video that I have watched is called ‘‘Digital Literacy and why it matters’’, in which I learned about the topic of digital literacy and why it’s important in socie...

This week, I have read ‘Using Student-Constructed Questions to Encourage Active Reading’ by author Ernest Balajthy. This paper was published by the International Literacy Association and Wiley in February of 1984. I think that this has implications for my critical reading as this article has been peer reviewed which gives it credibility. However, this paper was published almost thirty years ago. Therefore, it is likely there is more research done on this topic, possibly, expanding upon it or introducing new techniques.    After reading the paper, I have come to the conclusion that it is primarily aimed at educators, teachers and lecturers in order to help students of all age groups learn about the study technique of active reading. The paper lists tips and guidelines to help facilitate development of one’s active reading skills.  The paper establishes that self questioning is a valid and efficient technique for studying, although, judging by my experience, I would believe...

This week, I watched three videos which contain heaps of advice about consuming information from different sources and processing it into knowledge. I learned something new and reflected on my previous mistakes in order to set myself up for success! ——— The first video that I have watched is called ‘‘The THREE BEST science-based study tips’’. In this video, we are greeted by Mike, a doctor and co founder of ‘RemNote’, a note taking tool which helps one with their studies.  Mike states that the three best ways to study, according to books ‘Make it stick’ (by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel) and ‘How to become a straight A student’ (by Cal Newport) are: 1.       Quizzing 2.       Spacing 3.       Mixing Quizzing, as Mike states, is the most challenging yet productive way to study, as you are using cognitive effort and putting yourself up for a challenge. By using this method, you sho...

Hello! My name is Darja Gubenko and I’m seventeen years old.（＾∇＾） Some of my hobbies include art, which has been of vast interest to me ever since I was young, as well as photography and editing. I’ve always loved watching fantasy movies with my family, and I couldn’t help but be extremely fascinated by the editing and special effects in each one. This fascination, as well as my innate love for art, has compelled me to pursue a degree in ‘Creative Digital Media’! As I mentioned previously, one of my biggest hobbies is art. My interest in art has sparked from a young age and over the years, I have learned that art is so much more than holding a pencil and drawing with it on a piece of paper. Art is not just ‘‘drawing’’, but a vast collection of knowledge accumulated over centuries, including theory, linear perspective, proportions, anatomy etc. I want to apply this knowledge to the ‘Creative Digital Media’ course. I want to discover new things about this course while applying and augmen...