Brief 3 Peer Reviews

The first essay I'd like to review is Anna Patricia's Candy Crush Essay. Her essay was very in depth and eye-opening for someone who has quite a large game folder on their phone. She explains how Candy Crush manipulates its users to keep playing and spend real money in order to win because when we win it releases dopamine. She believes these games can cause addictive tendencies which is specifically dangerous to young children who has "pliable" minds. Personally I can see where she is coming from with this, but I played many an online game as a kid and as much as I love a board game, I think it’s important that we let children make their own mistakes. Online gaming is a totally new and different ball game to sitting around a table with your family and friends. You’re dealing with new challenges, people you don’t know and sometimes online bullying. However, I think it’s important we monitor the amount of time children spend attached to a screen but nonetheless I think kids are smarter than we think and can use online gaming in a positive way that doesn’t stunt their mental development. However I really enjoyed her essay, I don't disagree with her statement that Candy Crush and similar games are a manipulative money making scheme, I just feel that we can use online gaming as a tool to help development skills in children, not stunt them.

On that note, lets talk OG Disney! Holly Francis talks to us about the interactive musical components in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She really gets us thinking about the techniques that go into the musical production of the score behind the Disney classic. As she mentions, film scores are often used to influence the mood and tone of the scene the audience is seeing before them. It's adding to the experience by adding in another sense. Although I can see where she went with this topic, I don't feel the music is a film is interactive in the same way another digital artefact might be. I believe that while music may have an effect on the audience, they aren't directly interacting with it in the way one might with a website, smartphone app or video-game. So maybe she could've chosen a different artefact to discuss. However I did enjoy the essay, it was very informative and the pictures of the scenes she described were helpful to jog my memory.

Brief 2 Peer Reviews

Sarah Tribble: 10 Reasons to Give Audiobooks A Chance

I read Sarah Tribble's "10 Reasons to Give Audiobooks A Chance" and found what she had to say quite interesting. I personally don't listen to audiobooks so when I read her title I found her writing trying to convince me. For a person who doesn't have time to sit down and read a book, audiobooks can be a great way to get around that as you can listen to them in the car, on a bus or even while you're cooking dinner. For a uni student like me, I don't have the budget to pay $18 a month plus the $15 per book for an Audible subscription, when I'm already paying for an Apple Music or Spotify and Netflix subscription, and then trying to pay rent. This might be different for people who don't have the expense of rent or housing, but personally, the main thing stopping me from listening to audiobooks is the price. That being said, I really liked what Sarah had to say and her examples sounded interesting to read.

Liam Stewart: Ten Films or Television shows made better by their soundtracks

I really enjoyed reading this curation. I could tell that Liam was quite passionate about the songs and films he mentioned in his work by his depth of knowledge and insight. I probably only knew half of the films he mentioned, so perhaps some pictures may have been a nice addition to really state that invitation to listen. However, the ones that I did know I really enjoyed reading what he had to say about the composers and film scores or soundtracks alongside the films/shows. My favourite would've had to have been his writing on Hedwig's Theme from the first Harry Potter film score.

Holly Francis: 10 Youtube videos focusing on tutorials and educational videos that give instructions in teaching how to do something new

After reading Holly's curation, I must admit I did learn a thing or two. Her chosen videos were on a variety of topics which would suit a range of different interests. I really liked the Bermuda Triangle video because I enjoy hearing all the different conspiracy theories. I did find however that her topics were almost too broad, that I couldn't find a theme between them. I almost think because there would be thousands of Youtube videos on tutorials, she could've almost made her topic more honed in on one or two types of tutorial videos.

Brief 2 Reflection

Looking back on my topic proposal and then to my actual curated collection, I think this has translated well from my original thoughts to the actual listicle. I tried to make the collection a bit broad when it came to different sub-genres in kdrama, so that a variety of people could find something they liked. I can't wait to find out whether or not people actually gave these a watch. Kdrama and getting people to be more aware of the cultural diversity in television is something I'm extremely passionate about and therefore I had a lot of fun writing this.

I just hope I can convince people to get away from is the tediousness that is associated with reading subtitles. A lot of people don't watch foreign entertainment for that very reason, however a good actor will tell the story through more than what they are saying and so sometimes I find I don't even need to read the subtitles to understand what is happening.

Here is an article I found while researching, where an Asian-American University Professor named Ji-Yeon Yuh talks about why she thinks Korean Drama is becoming more popular internationally. It's worth the read if you find what I'm talking about interesting.

I really like how informal I've made the language in my collection, I wanted to create a friendly and casual vibe to my writing so that people find that comfortability when reading it. I also wanted to sprinkle my personality over my writing and make people laugh. I think with television shows among others, it's all about everyones individual opinion and taste, so I can state that my collection is definitely not without bias. Holistically, I believe my collection is about bringing an asian culture to a generally westernised audience.