Reflection on People Media

People media is all about the involvement of people in media. They are being used as media and as a media.
People media refers to the persons that are involved in the use, analysis, evaluation and production of Media and Information. There are two types of people media. The people as media and the people in media. People as media are people who are well-oriented to media sources and messages and able to provide information as reliable and accurate as possible. People in media are media practitioners who provide information coming from their expert knowledge or first-hand experience of event. People media acts as media itself. They are the people who give and/or share information to other people for them to have new knowledge. Example of people as media are opinion leaders, citizen journalism, social journalism and crowd sourcing. People in media are those who control media. These are people behind any forms of media—such as ads, videos, etc—that access information and acquire new knowledge. They provide information coming from their expert knowledge or first-hand experience of events. Example of people in media are print journalists, photo journalists, broadcast journalists and media journalists.

Reflection on Text media and Information

Text media and information is all about text; how text is being used; the media of text and types of texts and file formats which is really important in our daily lives, more especially in media. Similar to visual media and information, the purpose of this is not just to attract readers, but in broaden the use of texts and its capabilities.
Text is a simple and flexible format of presenting information or conveying ideas whether handwritten, printed or displayed on screen. Text is being used in media as form of communication, to convey information, tells us about something and is used for signs.
There are types of texts and file formats. Hypertext served to link different electronic documents and enables users to jump from one to other in a non-linear way. Plain text are fixed sized characters having essentially the same type of appearance. Formatted text’s appearance ca be changed using font parameters such as bold, italic, underline, font size, font color, etc.
Typeface also called font, font type or type refers to the representation of a text in the digital format which is usually comprised of alphabets, numbers, punctuation marks, symbols and other special characters. The types of typefaces are serif, sans serif, slab serif, script and decorative. Serif connotes formality and readability in large amount of texts. Sans serif brings a clean or minimalistic look to the text. Slab serif carries solid or heavy look to text. Script draws much attention to its self because of its brush-like strokes. Lastly, decorative texts caters to a wide variety of emotions or themes. 
There are some common file formats that are usually being used. The text, document, rich text format, portable document format and post script. Text is an unformatted text document by an editor as notepad on windows platform. Document is a narrative format for storing documents created by Microsoft word package. Rich text format is a cross platform document exchange; default format for Mac OS X’s default editor. Portable document format was developed by Adobe systems for cross platform exchange of documents, supports image and graphics. Post script is a page description language used mainly for desktop publishing.

Reflection on Media and Information Literate

Being media and information literate is very helpful in this new era. It is how  we analyze informations and determine whether they are fact or fallacy and also, being ale to use media and to know its capabilities and be able to enhance those.
What is important to understand is that media literacy is not about "protecting" kids from unwanted messages. Although some groups urge families to just turn the TV off, the fact is, media are so ingrained in our cultural milieu that even if you turn off the set, you still cannot escape today's media culture. Media no longer just influence our culture. They are our culture. Media literacy, therefore, is about helping students become competent, critical and literate in all media forms so that they control the interpretation of what they see or hear rather than letting the interpretation control them. To become media literate is not to memorize facts or statistics about the media, but rather to learn to raise the right questions about what you are watching, reading or listening to. Len Masterman, the acclaimed author of Teaching the Media, calls it "critical autonomy" or the ability to think for oneself. Media literacy encompasses the practices that allow people to access, critically evaluate, and create media. Media literacy is not restricted to one medium. Being an information literate is  being able to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. Information literacy is a crucial skill in the pursuit of knowledge.  It involves recognizing when information is needed and being able to efficiently locate, accurately evaluate, effectively use, and clearly communicate information in various formats.  It refers to the ability to navigate the rapidly growing information environment, which encompasses an increasing number of information suppliers as well as the amount supplied, and includes bodies of professional literature, popular media, libraries, the Internet, and much more.  Increasingly, information is available in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability.  This abundance of information is of little help to those who have not learned how to use it effectively.
The purpose of being information and media literate is to engage in a digital society; one needs to be able to use, understand, inquire, create, communicate and think critically. It is important to have capacity to effectively access, organize, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a variety of forms.

Reflection on Visual Media and Information

Visual media is an important part of media. This is where the appearance of media, especially visual media is being dependent. This is the one that is responsible for the designs of media and in media. This is what gets us into media. It makes a thing attractive and not boring.
Visual Media are sources of data or information in the form of visual representation that may be abstractions, analogues, rough illustrations or digital reproductions of objects. The purpose of visual information is to gain attention, create meaning and facilitate retention. It is to attract attention, serving to clarify ideas, illustrate or embellish facts that may be quickly forgotten if not visualized. Examples of visual media are photography, video, screenshots, inforgraphics, data visualizations, comic strips, cartoons, memes and visual note-taking. Visual media serves to channel messages from the source to the receiver. The message will be delivered poured into visual symbols.
There are some common visual media file types. These are Joint Photographic Experts Group(JPG) which was designed with photographs in mind. It is capable of displaying millions of colours at once, without the need for dithering, allowing for the complex blend of hues that occur in photographic images. PNG or Portable Network Graphics is a lossless image format originally designed to improve upon and replace the gif format. PNG files are able to handle up to 16 million colors, unlike the 256 colors supported by GIF. GIF or Graphics Interchange Format is widely used for web graphics, because they are limited to only 256 colors, can allow for transparency, and can be animated. GIF files are typically small is size and are very portable. BMP or Bitmap Image File is a format developed by Microsoft for Windows. There is no compression or information loss with BMP files which allow images to have very high quality, but also very large file sizes. Due to BMP being a proprietary format, it is generally recommended to use TIFF files.
Also, there are kinds of element designs. The line, color, shape, space, scale and space, texture, typography, dominance and emphasis, and harmony. In drawing, a line is the stroke of the pen or pencil but in graphic design, it’s any two connected points. Lines are useful for dividing space and drawing the eye to a specific location. Color is one of the most obvious elements of design, for both the user and the designer. It can stand alone, as a background, or be applied to other elements, like lines, shapes, textures or typography. Color creates a mood within the piece and tells a story about the brand. Every color says something different, and combinations can alter that impression further. Shapes, geometric or organic, add interest. Shapes  are defined by boundaries, such as a lines or color, and they are often used to emphasize a portion of the page. Negative space is one of the most commonly underutilized and misunderstood aspects of designing for the page. The parts of the site that are left blank, whether that’s white or some other colour, help to create an overall image. Scale is the size of an image. Textures can create a more three-dimensional appearance on this two-dimensional surface. It also helps build an immersive world. Typography, like color, texture, and shapes, the fonts you use tell readers you’re a serious online news magazine, a playful food blog or a vintage tea tins shop. Words are important, but the style of the words is equally essential. The element of emphasis has more to do with an object, color or style dominating another for a heightened sense of contrast. Contrast is intriguing, and it creates a focal point. Harmony is “The main goal of graphic design,” according to Alex White, author of “The Elements of Graphic Design.” Harmony is what you get when all the pieces work together. Nothing should be superfluous. 

Reflection on Current and Future Trend of Media and Information

Current and future trend of media and information is all about the curiosity of people. It is about the willingness to explore the use and power of technology and enhance it to be better and be useful to all of us. Curiosity in our system is natural to human. As time passes by, a more and more innovative mind rises. As years passed by, new trend in technology is introduced to the public. New and fresh inventions are being useful to us.

The use of the internet has become limitless through the years, and has cast its influence across countries all over the world. Learning is constant. People naturally yearn for information for them to understand things and phenomenon around them. The introduction of newer trends and advancement in Media and Information Technology is driven due to people’s desire to enhance media experience and exposure. The technology trends will reshape the way we do business in the future. A few years back, things like the holograms, virtual reality and the self-driving cars were just a figment of our imagination. Only in a matter of the last few years, we see that technology is growing at a breathtaking pace.

Some examples of future technology trends are advancement in 3D printing, self-driving cars, wearables and everything about computing, robotic workforce and impact of artificial intelligence. The 3D Printing is termed as the third wave of industrial revolution. This imparts power to people, to produce anything they want. We have started thinking in terms of 3D Printing of your household utensils, even 3D Printing, your favorite dinner dishes. The concept is about mass production of factory products. Organs are rarely available for transplant and the 3D printing of the organs is a giant step in this direction. Google emerges as one of the most popular names in the area of self-driving cars.  Autonomous vehicles are also undertaken by companies like General Motors, Tesla and Daimler. However, so far there is someone available to take care of a situation, for anything that goes wrong. The challenge ahead is to resolve any difficulties that may occur. 2020 will see the emergence of an ultimate level, with the fully robotic driver. Wearable are focused mostly in the area of fitness. Some of the applications for the wearables are to keep a count of the steps taken, tracking the heart rate and tracking the fitness data. Wearables are working in divergent areas such as those tracking your blood sugar levels and the interactive t-shirts. A smart watch is a wearable that poses as a device for making a call as well a navigating the city. We see robots everywhere, replacing the workforce at low cost and greater operational efficiency. The human workforce will dwindle in numbers, by the year 2020. We will view the robots, even in the fast food chains and the restaurants. The technology companies are making artificial Intelligence smarter. Google has come up with Allo, a smart messaging app that tells, not only what to reply to a message, along with other useful contextual information like nearest restaurants and the movie listings. 

Reflection on New Media and Media Convergence

New media are forms of media that are native to computers, computational and relying on computers for distribution. Some examples of new media are websites, mobile apps, virtual worlds, multimedia, computer games, human-computer interface, computer animation and interactive computer installations. New media are often contrasted to "old media", such as television, radio, and print media, although scholars in communication and media studies have criticised rigid distinctions based on oldness and novelty. New media does not include television programs (only analog broadcast), feature films, magazines, books,  – unless they contain technologies that enable digital generative or interactive processes.
Media or old media has been used in the marketing/advertising world for years. When related to advertising, traditional media encompasses that of television, newspaper, radio and magazine ads. These forms of communication are the steadfast ways that businesses have reached both consumers and other companies for decades. They are the roots of advertising and the most common form utilized by businesses on a daily basis. Though traditional media is effective, over the course of the last few years we have seen more and more businesses utilizing new media to reach its target audiences.
Media convergence, phenomenon involving the interconnection of information and communications technologies, computer networks, and media content. It brings together the “three C’s”—computing, communication, and content—and is a direct consequence of the digitization of media content and the popularization of the Internet. Media convergence transforms established industries, services, and work practices and enables entirely new forms of content to emerge.
Media convergence happens when different media sources join together. it allows media text to be produced and distributed on multiple media devices. it is also the ability to transform different kinds of media into digital code, which is then accessible by a range of devices.

Reflection on Media and Information Sources

Media and information sources are all about the sources of information that we gather all the time. It is on how could we obtain it and on how to evaluate those sources.
Media and information source is any source that serves as a means of communicating to a general, public audience. The various means by which information is recorded for use of an individual or an organization. It is a means by which a person is informed about something or knowledge is availed to someone. There are three types of information sources; primary, secondary and tertiary.  Primary Sources are original materials on which other research studies are based. It reports a discovery or share new information. They present first-hand accounts and information relevant to an event, in an original form, not interpreted or condensed or evaluated by other writers.  An example for these are letters, photographs, diaries and speeches. Secondary Source of information is the one that was created by someone who did not have first-hand experience or did not participate in the events or conditions being researched. They are generally accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. Secondary sources describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate, comment on and discuss the evidence provided by primary sources. Examples of these are books, journals and magazines. Lastly, Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources. It index, organize and compile citations to, and show primary and secondary sources that can be used. The information of the secondary sources are already ‘digested’ – reformatted and condensed in tertiary sources, to put it into a convenient, easy-to-read form. An example for this is are reference books such as dictionaries and encyclopedia.

Media and information sources can be obtained by human, indigenous, library and internet sources. Human Source is any person who can be a source of data or information. Communication with peers/colleagues is a good way of obtaining vital information. Traditional sources are sources that are obtained traditionally by an indigenous community or people. Library sources are sources that are found in the library. The internet is a global system of networked computers that allow user-to-user communication and transfer of data files from one computer to another. It is the information sources found in the internet. Unlike library sources, some of the information available in the internet are not peer-reviewed or referred as no one individual or group dictates what information should be published or how it should be presented. The freedom to post items allows individual to publish their opinions, ideas and creative works on the internet. Evaluating internet sources is known as CRAAP. Currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose.

Reflection on New Information Age

The new information age is the era where our lives were revolutionized by technology. people enhaces the power of technology and delivers it to its undescoved capabilities.
The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information technology. The onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution, just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age. The definition of what digital means (or what information means) continues to change over time as new technologies, user devices, methods of interaction with other humans and devices enter the domain of research, development and market launch.
During the Information Age, the phenomenon is that the digital industry creates a knowledge-based society surrounded by a high-tech global economy that spans over its influence on how the manufacturing throughout and the service sector operate in an efficient and convenient way. In a commercialized society, the information industry is able to allow individuals to explore their personalized needs, therefore simplifying the procedure of making decisions for transactions and significantly lowering costs for both the producers and buyers. This is accepted overwhelmingly by participants throughout the entire economic activities for efficacy purposes, and new economic incentives would then be indigenously encouraged, such as the knowledge economy.
The Internet paved the way for faster communication and the creation of the social network. People advanced the use of microelectronics with the invention of personal computers, mobile devices, and wearable technology. Moreover, voice, image, sound and data are digitalized. We are now living in the information age. Examples of these are web browsers: Mosaic (1993), Internet Explorer (1995), Blogs: Blogspot (1999), Wordpress (2003), Social networks: Friendster (2002), Multiply (2003), FB (2004), Instagram, Microblogs: Twitter (2006), Tumblr (2007), Video: YouTube (2005)

Reflection on Technology Literacy

Technology literacy is being able to know everything about technology. It is being able to know its use, how it will be used, its limitation, being responsible in using technology by knowing your limitations and being able to enhance the power of technology that will be helpful to us.
Technology use is integral to functioning in everyday life. Very few of today’s educational and professional paths do not require using technology to communicate, problem-solve or complete research. Students who attain technology literacy have an easier time achieving education goals and entering into their career of choice. Technology literacy is the ability to appropriately select and responsibly use technology. Technology literacy is the ability of an individual, working independently and with others, to responsibly, appropriately and effectively use technology tools to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information.

Reflection on Types of Media

This topic is all about the types of media. The ones that are being used to spread and learn new information.
There are three types of media. The print media, broadcast media and digital or new media. The oldest media forms are newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, and other printed material. These publications are collectively known as the print media. Although print media readership has declined in the last few decades, many people still read a newspaper every day or a news magazine on a regular basis. The influence of print media is therefore significant. Regular readers of print media tend to be more likely to be politically active. The print media is responsible for more reporting than other news sources. Many news reports on television, for example, are merely follow-up stories about news that first appeared in newspapers. News paper, books, magazines, comics and brochures are some examples of print media. Broadcast media are medias that are used to spread information or news reports broadcast via radio and television. Media such as radio and television that reach target audience using airwaves as the transmission medium. Some examples of broadcast media are television, radio, satellites, mobile phones, movies/films. In digital and new media, the contents are organized and distributed on digital platforms. Example of this are internet, social media and computers.