SIAM RAHMAN's Reflection
Digital Media
Media has been a part of human civilization ever since its inception. Compared to the long history of humans, digital media is a recent addition to our societies. Though digital media is all around us, and easy for us to notice, it is difficult to define. A broad definition would be, "Digital Media is transmitted as digital data, which at its simplest involves digital cables or satellites sending binary signals -- 0s and 1s -- to devices that translate them into audio, video, graphics, text, and more." [1]
Tony Feldman in his book Introduction to Digital Media [2] categorizes digital media into two categories to make it easier for us to define digital media. These categories can be crudely labelled as offline (like CD-rom, USB drives) and online media (like television, social media).
In the modern world it is impossible to imagine a day without the involvement of digital media. It is woven into the very fabric of our daily lives. In the last year, people have spent an average of 147 minutes every day on social media [3], and that is only one aspect of digital media. There are other and more common kinds of digital media, like television, video streaming sites and online newspapers.
So, digital media is inseparable from our lives. This makes our lives more convenient in many ways. It is a very powerful tool; therefore, it must be handled carefully. Because, the more powerful a tool is the more damage it could cause in the wrong or untrained hands. According to a Royal Institute of Public Health study [4], social media is linked with increased rates of anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. Other media like television is not free from this flaw. Access to cable television is related to decline of I.Q. [5]
The danger and opportunities digital media bring to communities is what makes the dynamics of various digital media communities important and concerning. This is the motivation behind our project in Hulu Langat: to help a community learn to use digital media properly.
The Community
The target community of our project was the youth of Dusun Tua. Dusun Tua is a village of Hulu Langat, Selangor, Malaysia. Hulu Langat is the fifth largest state of Selangor with 840 square kilometers, but it is second most populous with 1,400,461. It is also the second most densely populated district with 1688 people per square kilometers. [6]
Though it has a dense population, the technology or information literacy rate in this district is classified as average to poor by its residents according to study. [7] This makes Hulu Langat a good target for our project. A good untrained population with poor technology literacy is at great risk of damaging itself through digital media. A breakdown of the district’s economy and lifestyle puts more emphasis on this fact.
Hulu Langat has a median income of RM 8361, which is the fourth highest in the state. [8] If we look at the district’s economy, especially that of Dusun Tua, we see that the economy is dependent on agriculture. [9] This pattern fits a model of development. Agricultural dependent and populationally dense communities tend to be growing rapidly. But Dusun Tua cannot develop properly without proper technological literacy.
Thus, Dusun Tua is a community where digital media literacy is of great importance. Absence of literacy plans can harm the community greatly and soon. On the contrary, proper technological education can boost its development. So digital media literacy in schools must be take seriously because digital literacy can improve the productivity of the future workforce [10]. As a district, with a dense population, that is a must for proper socio-economic development.
References
- What Is Digital Media? All You Need to Know About This Booming Industry, Maryville University, https://online.maryville.edu/blog/what-is-digital-media/
- Feldman, T. (1996). Introduction to Digital Media. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203398401
- We Are Social, & DataReportal, & Hootsuite. (January 26, 2022). Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2022 (in minutes) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved February 01, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/
- Royal Society for Public Health, Status of Mind, https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html
- Hernæs, Ø., Markussen, S., & Røed, K. (2019). Television, cognitive ability, and high school completion. Journal of Human Resources, 54(2), 371-400.
- "Key Findings Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020: Administrative District".dosm.gov.my. 29 Dec 2021. Retrieved 5 Jan 2022.
- Tan, Shyh-Mee & Singh, Diljit. (2008). AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INFORMATION LITERACY LEVELS OF LIBRARY AND MEDIA TEACHERS IN THE HULU LANGAT DISTRICT, MALAYSIA.
- "HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND BASIC AMENITIES SURVEY REPORT 2019" (PDF).dosm.gov.my. July 2020. Retrieved 5 Jan 2022.
- Selangor State Economic Planning Unit. (2018). Economic Development of Selangor. Retrieved from https://www.epu.selangor.gov.my/images/Publications/Economic_Report_2018.pdf.
- MARKHAICHUK, M., & PANSHIN, I. (2022). The Impact of Digital Literacy on Labor Productivity in the Context of the Educational Environment Transformation. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research (EJER), (97).
Digital Media
Media has been a part of human civilization ever since its inception. Compared to the long history of humans, digital media is a recent addition to our societies. Though digital media is all around us, and easy for us to notice, it is difficult to define. A broad definition would be, "Digital Media is transmitted as digital data, which at its simplest involves digital cables or satellites sending binary signals -- 0s and 1s -- to devices that translate them into audio, video, graphics, text, and more." [¹]
Tony Feldman in his book Introduction to Digital Media[²] categorizes, digital media into two categories to make it easier for us to define digital media. These categories can be crudely labelled as offline (like CD-rom, usb drives) and online media (like television, social media). So, in layman's terms it is every
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I tried to keep my motivations up, and told myself repeatedly about the importance of cloud computing. No matter how difficult the course was, AWS is one of the leading cloud computing service providers and I will need in future regardless of where I work. Plus, most companies cannot afford to run without cloud computing because that requires huge investments and maintenance. So, as someone who wants to make a good living in the future had to learn it well.
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