Exploring New Communication Technologies: Week 3 Tutorial Task

Task 1

Question no 1

What was Stephen Stockwell's first article in an academic journal? What year? Provide a full citation. What database did you use?

Stephen Stockwell’s first article published in an academic journal was called “Kuranda police shooting”. It was published in 1981.

Full citation: Stockwell, S. 1981, "Kuranda police shooting", Legal Service Bulletin, vol. 6, no. Feb 1981, pp. 48-49.

I found this on HeinOnline Law Journal Library.

Question no 2

In which comic did Governor Slugwell appear? Which Issues? Give their full citation for the earliest. Where did you find this information? What database did you use? (Check the trial databases)

Governor Slugwell appears in the “Flaming Carrot Comics”. There are 3 issues in which he appears and these are numbers 7, 10 and 11.

Full citation:

Flaming Carrot Commics, No, 7, by Bob Burden. (Burbank, CA:Renegade Press, 1985) 36 pages

I found this on the Underground and Independent Comics” database and looked up the character page.

Question no 3

What is the latest medical thinking on the dangers of mobile phones? Provide a full citation.

"the absence of an exposure-response relationship either in terms of the amount of mobile phone use or by localisation of the brain tumour argues against a casual association."

Full citation: D. Aydin, M. Feychting, J. Shulz, T. Tynes, T. V. Andersen, L. S. Schmit, H. Poulsen, C. Johnason, 2011, 'Mobile Phone Use and Brain Tumors in Children and Adolescents: A Multicenter case - Control', Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol 103, Issue 16, June, Pp. 1264-1276 Viewed August 25th 2011

Full Citation:

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/content/103/16/1264.abstract?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=1&title=Mobile+Phone+Use+and+Brain+Tumors+in+Children+and+Adolescents&andorexacttitle=and&titleabstract=a+multicenter+case+study&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

Question no 4

In Bladerunner, What is Leon's Reaction when Holden asks him about is mother? Quote the 1982 draft script and provide a full reference. (Check the trial databases)

Leon's reaction is to check if Holden really asked about his mother he then offers to tell him about his mother Leon then shoots Holden.

Leon: My mother?

Holden: Yeah.

Leon: Let me tell you about my mother...

[Leon shoots Holden]

Full citation:

Fancher, H. Peoples, D.W. Kibbee, R. (1982). Blade Runner. [Script]. American Film Scripts. Chicago.

Question no 5

What does Paul Soukup say Walter Ong saw as the main paradox in 20th century communication? Cite your source.

Walter Ong saw the main paradox of 20th century communication as "that a society given so much to the use of diagrams and to the manoeuvrings of objects in space... should at the same time develop means of communication which specialize not in sight but in sound"

Full citation:

Soukup. P, 2004, ‘Communication research trends’, Centre for the Study and Communication of Culture, Vol 23, p.14, viewed 25 August 2011

Task 2

Newsgroup, shortened to Usenet, was used before there was such thing as the World Wide Web. This idea was discovered by two university graduate students, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979. These two boys came up with the idea of using UUCP to connect machines to exchange information. Usenet was a world-wide discussion system that distributed global information for public access. For example News articles could be posted onto Usenet by people with topical or interesting information and the correct software; these articles were then broadcasted to other computer systems making the information available via a wide variety of networks. Back in the day when there was no World Wide Web, but the internet was available, although very expensive, users of the internet could gain information within limited systems, such as a university system. Usenet allowed these people to gain information from other systems globally, not just within their own community. Usenet was the World Wide Web of its day. Usenet gained an influx of users every September as freshman university students were able to access the network. The September of 1993 however, was a never ending influx of new users as Usenet could be accessed from outside university systems and opened to the general public. At its peak Usenet had over 120,000 groups dedicated to various topics, such as computer programing languages as well as many other topics of interest.

It has been reported that Usenet played an important role in the attractiveness and expansion of the internet. Unfortunately due to decline of use and increased costs the plug is being pulled on the Usenet server.

For more information on Usenet please view this clip.