Journalistic Practice and the Cultural Valuation of New Media: Topicality, Objectivity, Network

Around the turn of the twenty-first century, American journalism is undergoing an existential crisis provoked by the emergence of digital and networked communication. As the economic model of producing journalism is undergoing significant changes, this study argues that the crisis of journalism is primarily a cultural crisis of valuation. Because the practices that traditionally defined the exclusivity of journalism as a form of public communication have been transposed to the online and digital environment through social media and blogs, such practices no longer value journalism in the same terms like in the age of mass media. The key to understanding the cultural crisis of journalism in the present, this study argues, is to revise the traditional narrative and its associated terminologies of the institutionalization of journalism. Journalism is thus defined as a structure of public communication, which needs to be enacted by producers and audiences alike to become socially meaningful. The consequence of seeing journalism as a structure sustained through social practices is that it allows to see the relation between audiences and their journalistic media as constitutive for the social function of new media in journalism. Through the analytically central dimension of practice, the study presents key moments in the history of modern journalism, where the meaning of new media was negotiated. These moments include the emergence of topical news media oriented toward a mass market (the penny press in the 1830s) and the definition of a schema of objectivity which valued journalistic practice in professional and scientific terms around the turn of the twentieth century in analogy to photographic media. In each phase, material, cognitive and social practices helped to define the value of a given new medium for journalism. Through the schemas of topicality and objectivity, journalistic practice institutionalized a privileged structure of public communication. The legacy of defining these schemas is then regarded as the central reason for the cultural crisis of journalistic practice in the present, as practices have been transposed and re-valued to sustain either forms of alternative journalism (as peer-production) or forms of self-communication in network media like blogs. Neither the form nor the technology of the blog alone can explain this differential social relevance but only the different ways in which social practices integrated and value new media. The study synthesizes an interdisciplinary array of concepts from cultural studies, sociology and journalism studies on subjects such as public communication, interaction, news production and cultural innovation. The theoretical framework of practice theories is then applied to an extensive body of primary and secondary source material, in order to retrace the cultural valuation of new media in a historically-comparative perspective. The study offers a theoretical and empirical contribution to the analysis of cultural innovation, which can be adopted to other cultural forms and media

Automated color correction for colorimetric applications using barcodes

[eng] Color-based sensor devices often offer qualitative solutions, where a material change its color from one color to another, and this is change is observed by a user who performs a manual reading. These materials change their color in response to changes in a certain physical or chemical magnitude. Nowadays, we can find colorimetric indicators with several sensing targets, such as: temperature, humidity, environmental gases, etc. The common approach to quantize these sensors is to place ad hoc electronic components, e.g., a reader device. With the rise of smartphone technology, the possibility to automatically acquire a digital image of those sensors and then compute a quantitative measure is near. By leveraging this measuring process to the smartphones, we avoid the use of ad hoc electronic components, thus reducing colorimetric application cost. However, there exists a challenge on how-to acquire the images of the colorimetric applications and how-to do it consistently, with the disparity of external factors affecting the measure, such as ambient light conditions or different camera modules. In this thesis, we tackle the challenges to digitize and quantize colorimetric applications, such as colorimetric indicators. We make a statement to use 2D barcodes, well-known computer vision patterns, as the base technology to overcome those challenges. We focus on four main challenges: (I) to capture barcodes on top of real-world challenging surfaces (bottles, food packages, etc.), which are the usual surface where colorimetric indicators are placed; (II) to define a new 2D barcode to embed colorimetric features in a back-compatible fashion; (III) to achieve image consistency when capturing images with smartphones by reviewing existent methods and proposing a new color correction method, based upon thin-plate splines mappings; and (IV) to demonstrate a specific application use case applied to a colorimetric indicator for sensing CO2 in the range of modified atmosphere packaging, MAP, one of the common food-packaging standards.[cat] Els dispositius de sensat basats en color, normalment ofereixen solucions qualitatives, en aquestes solucions un material canvia el seu color a un altre color, i aquest canvi de color és observat per un usuari que fa una mesura manual. Aquests materials canvien de color en resposta a un canvi en una magnitud física o química. Avui en dia, podem trobar indicadors colorimètrics que amb diferents objectius, per exemple: temperatura, humitat, gasos ambientals, etc. L'opció més comuna per quantitzar aquests sensors és l'ús d'electrònica addicional, és a dir, un lector. Amb l'augment de la tecnologia dels telèfons intel·ligents, la possibilitat d'automatitzar l'adquisició d'imatges digitals d'aquests sensors i després computar una mesura quantitativa és a prop. Desplaçant aquest procés de mesura als telèfons mòbils, evitem l'ús d'aquesta electrònica addicional, i així, es redueix el cost de l'aplicació colorimètrica. Tanmateix, existeixen reptes sobre com adquirir les imatges de les aplicacions colorimètriques i de com fer-ho de forma consistent, a causa de la disparitat de factors externs que afecten la mesura, com per exemple la llum ambient or les diferents càmeres utilitzades. En aquesta tesi, encarem els reptes de digitalitzar i quantitzar aplicacions colorimètriques, com els indicadors colorimètrics. Fem una proposició per utilitzar codis de barres en dues dimensions, que són coneguts patrons de visió per computador, com a base de la nostra tecnologia per superar aquests reptes. Ens focalitzem en quatre reptes principals: (I) capturar codis de barres sobre de superfícies del món real (ampolles, safates de menjar, etc.), que són les superfícies on usualment aquests indicadors colorimètrics estan situats; (II) definir un nou codi de barres en dues dimensions per encastar elements colorimètrics de forma retro-compatible; (III) aconseguir consistència en la captura d'imatges quan es capturen amb telèfons mòbils, revisant mètodes de correcció de color existents i proposant un nou mètode basat en transformacions geomètriques que utilitzen splines; i (IV) demostrar l'ús de la tecnologia en un cas específic aplicat a un indicador colorimètric per detectar CO2 en el rang per envasos amb atmosfera modificada, MAP, un dels estàndards en envasos de menjar.

An autoethnographic practice-based study : exploring the use of Generative Adversarial Networks within the working processes of printmaking

Mini Dissertation (MA (Fine Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2022.This research explores the creative effects of including Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in the printmaking working process. A GAN is an artificially intelligent computer model trained to mimic the abstract properties of a given dataset. The GAN generated images are used to create new prints, which are then used as data on which the GANs can re-train. The resultant body of prints yields a unique perspective that can be used as part of a feedback loop within the creative generative process. Printmaking in Western and South African art has been contested and regarded as a ‘non-art’. Mixed-media and hybrid printmaking are mitigation strategies which address this. Incorporating GANs falls within the remit of hybrid printmaking. Until now their influence on the creativity that drives the printmaking process remained largely unexplored. This research provides a basic understanding of GANs, with a focus on their limitations. GANism (art made using the medium of GANs) is studied in order to further understand the application of GANs within the art making process. A review of works by contemporary GANist artists Mario Klingemann (b.1970); Jake Elwes (b.1993); the French collective, Obvious; Tom White (b. unknown) and Anna Ridler (b.1985) has been conducted. An autoethnographic practice-based research methodology focused on the generative and explorative phases of the printmaking processes is conducted. The study includes reflective methods and documents a process-driven approach to using GANs as an artistic tool within the working process of printmaking. This research contributes to the existing hybrid printmaking and GANism scholarship by presenting an application of GANs as a digital tool within printmaking.Visual ArtsMA (Fine Arts)Unrestricte

Digital document imaging systems: An overview and guide

This is an aid to NASA managers in planning the selection of a Digital Document Imaging System (DDIS) as a possible solution for document information processing and storage. Intended to serve as a manager's guide, this document contains basic information on digital imaging systems, technology, equipment standards, issues of interoperability and interconnectivity, and issues related to selecting appropriate imaging equipment based upon well defined needs

Application and Theory of Multimedia Signal Processing Using Machine Learning or Advanced Methods

This Special Issue is a book composed by collecting documents published through peer review on the research of various advanced technologies related to applications and theories of signal processing for multimedia systems using ML or advanced methods. Multimedia signals include image, video, audio, character recognition and optimization of communication channels for networks. The specific contents included in this book are data hiding, encryption, object detection, image classification, and character recognition. Academics and colleagues who are interested in these topics will find it interesting to read

On the Persistence of a Modest Medium: The Role of Editorial Illustration in Print and Online Media

In this thesis I explore the role and significance of editorial illustration, developed in printed publications and evolving within online publishing structures. Editorial illustration has a long tradition of illustrating stories in news publications, but I argue that in current online news websites its particular role has all but failed. Online publishing has become the driving force within editorial publishing and this raises the question whether, and how, editorial illustration can continue to be a successful constituent in an online publishing environment? I argue that the continuation of editorial illustration lies within digitally native narrative forms, from online interactive documentaries, game-based storytelling, data-visualisation to memes: viral images spread through social media. Within these forms the significance and agency of illustration is not only clearly present but evolving, except here illustration is interwoven with the story. I argue that these forms of illustration, as well as printed illustration, are based on the same conceptual model and articulate editorial illustration’s inherent attributes. I propose a constellation of four attributes (manifestation, translation, reflection, and engagement) that together give rise to the key quality that illustration offers to the reader, deliberation. Illustration should not be understood as a separate artifact, positioned next to a text, but as a multimodal practice, always related to a story, enabled by the specific qualities of its contextualizing medium. As practice-led research, the thesis explores this proposition in practice and theory within printed and online forms of editorial illustration and in relation to online media technologies and material properties. Central is the development of a potential method of online editorial illustration that I call data driven illustration, a formation employing the material and semiotic expressive potential of live data and code. The research draws primarily from the ideas of media materiality (Hayles, Kittler, Manovich), but in doing so is supplemented with other relevant theories found in semiotics (Barthes, Hayles, Kress and van Leeuwen) and audience reception (Hall). This interdisciplinary approach is applied to the field of illustration through a historical study of wood-engraved news illustration in the Illustrated London News; through my own practice as an illustrator, in this case, work undertaken for the NRC newspaper; and explorations of various examples of online illustration. This thesis offers a first step in constructing a framework for editorial illustration, to move beyond the print paradigm and provide a language through which to explore illustration as an emergent practice

Medial Transformations: Theorising the Intelligent Mediation Sphere

Media are playing significant roles in the context of the contemporary world. They are deeply interwoven with many aspects of life. The relationships between contemporary media and societies and cultures are complex. Therefore, theorising media situation is a challenging endeavour. The central goals of the current book are to review the ontological and epistemological shifts in medium theories, to theorise contemporary media and critically examine the ‘new’ media practices. In a nutshell, the discussions revolve around three areas of media ontology, media typology and media practices. Media ontology addresses the concepts and definitions of media at a meta-level. The concept of media can be defined either positive – media as a particular technology or cultural/communicational means – or negative – media as complex sets of medial relations or mediation processes. In the current book, media are defined as mediation processes, sets of non-linear mediated formations in transformations (a dynamic-organic state of ‘becoming’ cultural events, media situations, mediated environments and mediation sphere). Media cannot be reduced to certain modalities or technological characteristics, rather they ‘set the shape, pace, rhythms, and typography’ of cognitive, communicational, cultural, social, biopolitical life in temporal and spatial living environment. This definition can provide a holistic approach for categorisation of media. In chapter one, the frameworks of arguments are further discussed in detail. Chapter two, three and four encompass the critical analysis of pre-medium, medium and post-medium theories. The pre-medium theories lack a cohesive and explicit line of discourses in defining media. The medium theories explicitly addressed the issue of media and introduced a new line of scholarship informed by various disciplines during the emergence of the ‘mass media.’ The post-medium theories encompass a larger spectrum of scholarship addressing the issue of mediality in globalised and networked societies. Media typologies are usually based on media technologies or instruments of practices. In the current book, the broad media taxonomies are contextualised on the basis of mediation spheres, the holistic definition of medium discussed earlier. This categorisation provides the scope for analysing dynamics of media situations in a holistic way. The milestones of media transformations in history can be divided into six categories including, presentational, representational, mechanical, electronic, intelligent and biological mediation spheres. In chapter five the dynamics and characteristics of these mediation sphere are further discussed. Contemporary media practices, which are usually termed by the practitioners, can be broadly divided into two categories of media-design (e.g. software design, application design, information design, web design, game design, sound design, computer graphic design, vision-design, interface design, etc.) and media-art (e.g. app-art, application art/software art, game-art, sonic art, digital art, algorithm art, bio-art, neuro-art, interactive-art, video-art, etc.). The two fields of practices are conceptually indistinguishable and complementary to the larger contemporary media culture. The media arts practices are usually the innovative open fields, avant-garde practices or critical reflection on media culture. Media design practices are influenced by the mainstream productions, media literacy, media competence and communication traditions within a given media culture. The media usages and media literacies are expanding progressively depending on the context of media culture. In chapter six, a case study of app-art practices and critique of app culture are discussed in the framework of the intelligent mediation sphere

Activating the archive through generative systems – Remaking images from the Aalto rare books collection

The focus of this thesis is on generative processes applied in the context of art and design. Specifically, it looks at the conception and application of a suitable analogue generative system utilised for working with archival material from the Aalto Visual Resources Centre. The project is documented in detail to describe the process from conception through execution in a systematic and transparent way. The review of three different taxonomies and the analysis of selected works, as well as the identification of artists’ motivations for using generative systems, are used to define the scope of generative art as well as to define and discuss the thesis project