This week’s lecture takes a closer look at media use in public space, public and private. I learned about some restrictions of photographing/filming in public space and was challenged to take pictures in Wollongong campus.  

So, what defines a public space? According to UNESCO, a public space is termed as “an area or place that is open and accessible to all people regardless of gender, race ethnicity, age or socio-economic level”(weblog, n.d.). In other words, public spaces are areas used for public gathering or connecting among spaces such as parks, beaches, pavements, streets. In the Digital Age, the definition of public space expands to virtual areas online that allow human interactions and socialising.  

In Australia, there is no official right for privacy as in New South Wales law (Nemeth 2016) and therefore, it is not compulsory to have permissions to photograph or film people in public spaces as long as it is for non-commercial purpose (Sydney Morning Herald 2016).  

However, for this assigned task, I researched and found out that university is in fact a private property. It is thus important to check the rules and regulations regarding photography on campus. I could not find information on UOW website, so I instead referred to rules published by other universities, namely Standford University. It is written that filming or photographing are allowed given that the person does not interrupt with “the operations of the university, the privacy of individuals on campus, and the taking of such photos is consistent with University policies”.  

Despite knowing about the rules of taking photos in public and private spaces, I felt quite awkward to raise my camera at first. The first picture I took was around 5 P.M in the afternoon. As I was striking around, I came across a guy sitting in sofa area near the library entrance. He was fully immersed in his digital device without sparing a single minute looking at the digital signage behind.  

I continued to walk outside the library to find a few more spots of signages. It was surprising for me to realise the enormous amount of signages around campus in a various places, mostly where students are more likely to pass by the most. The information being displayed on those devices ranged from daily news, advertisements to announcements. 

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Among the pictures I took, I found an interesting contrast between the empty space near the signages and the coffee shop full of people chatting and doing activities at that hour. 

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Although digital signages are meant to capture the attention of passengers for important information, it seemed to me that they are not compelling enough to compete with other digital devices such as smartphones for attention. 

 

I was back to the library 15 minutes later and for the sake of curiosity, I looked at the corner to find the guy whom I took a snap of before. There were then two people, the guy and another student. They were sitting at such close distance, yet, none was making conversation with one other.

With two smartphones on their hands, both were preoccupied in their own online world. And the digital signage kept changing to another slide. Time was passing by. 

I came to realise that we are living in a very noisy world that divides our attention into significantly small pieces. As technology is evolving rapidly, it is getting harder to attraction a person’s attention than ever. The once-upon-a-time rules of ambient television (Lemish 1982) seems to be outdated in this new century.  

• Viewers don’t “orient to the screen even when not watching” since they are engaging with their smartphones/laptops/iPads. 
• Viewers also don’t “adjust implicitly to other viewers” (trying not to block view, etc.) because everyone has different interest in online content and is constantly on their phones, which makes ambient televisions now remain only ambient background with no noteworthy impact on people’s viewing experience. 

With the help of advanced technology, it seems that the more connections we have the more disconnected we become.

REFERENCES:

Lemish, D 1982, ‘The rules of viewing television in public places’, Journal of Broadcasting

Nemeth, A 2016, ‘Australian Street Photography Legal Issues’, weblog post, viewed 30 August 2019, <http://www.4020.net/words/photorights.php&gt;

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2016, ‘Taking photos in public, what are your rights?’, viewed 30 August 2019, <https://www.smh.com.au/national/taking-photos-in-public-what-are-your-rights-20161214-gtb1jt.html&gt;

UNESCO n.d., ‘Inclusion Through Access to Public Space’, weblog post, viewed 30 August 2019, <http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/urban-development/migrants-inclusion-in-cities/good-practices/inclusion-through-access-to-public-space/&gt;

University Communications n.d, ‘Film, Photography & Video Request’, Standford University, viewed 30 August 2019, <https://ucomm.stanford.edu/policies/film-photo-video-requests/&gt;