Mashing Up The Media: expressing with video, sound, and text

This video blog was the hardest assignment I have encountered this school year. My ODD made finding the perfect images, sound, and video a necessity and many hours were wasted searching the interwebs in vain for the “Holy Grails” of media contents. Narrowing down the topic was hard enough; it was a miracle I finally settled down on the riots in Egypt from among my myriad of ideas.

Part of what interested me most in the Egyptian topic was how strongly most people felt compared to how little most people knew about the situation. I sure didn’t know anything, so I spent a bunch of time researching it, hoping to have a video explaining my findings. Unfortunately, a clear black and white representation was impossible. For every good thing to be said about the revolution, another bad point could be made. For every evil act the police or army committed, an equally violent or morally wrong action was taken by the rioters. In the end, I did not feel comfortable creating a video completely for or against the situation.

The final product was supposed to convey the confusion and uncertainty that surrounded my journey. The main soundtrack, “In the house, in a heartbeat” is the theme music for the zombie movie 28 Days Later. The surging masses of protesters and their almost mindless actions reminded me of the crazed minions in the film. I included the video of the van, and the shooting to show the brutality that some of the regime’s enforcers are resorting too. I also picked the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at the tank to show that violence was indeed coming from both sides. The end of the video featured the latter part of “In the house, in a heartbeat” and focused on a powerful photo of the riots and the protester’s rallying cry.

Is rioting the best solution to changing your government? Can a stable or better government emerge from the unrest? What if it’s your only option? These, unfortunately are not questions I can help solve in a 1:30 YouTube video. The last scene, taken form the trailer of the 2004 Dawn of the Dead, again shows a final comparison to of the rioters and zombies. Is it a critique and warning against their violence and unrest– a statement that nothing good can come from their actions? Or is it a representation of how scared and trapped the offending government should feel, now that they have caused the masses to rise against them? Its final message is completely up to you.

Copying Our Copyright: when it’s ok to cite

To the casual observer, the simple mash-up assignment must seem very preferable to full fledged research paper. But like most things in life, the deceptively “smaller” endeavor can involve just as much planning, critical thinking, and effort as the latter.

Quoting was a very important part of Lessig’s commentary. He speaks of the peculiar way our society reacts to quoting other author’s work. In “Rw, Revived” (2) he explains: “Whether Justified or not, the norms governing these forms of expression are far more  restrictive than the norms governing text. They admit none of the freedoms that and writer takes for granted…” When one quotes a writer or lyric for a college essay, no one cares. But the moment someone transcends into photography or music, they move from scholarly expression to stealing.

My chosen photos, could get me into much more trouble than if I had written a 8 page essay on the topic. And Cthulhu forbid I had used an accompanying soundtrack without permission. When it comes to the completely free transmission of ideas, it seems only text can remain completely unscathed.

Part of the fright of copyright seems to just be about the money. As Lessig later writes in the same chapter: “This means that more people can create in this way (music remixes), which means that many more do.” I’m sure back when paper, pencils, and writing was controlled by the elite, rich, and powerful– they wanted to control written documents just as badly.

Now that everyone with a camera and a youtube account can be a director, the people at Hollywood are no longer without competition. With remixing technology, digital instruments, (and especially auto-tune) composers and artists need only a computer and a microphone to produce their own music. Suddenly the “specialists” aren’t so special anymore; they feel threatened by the surging availability and reproducibility of their product.

Trying Out Twitter:another creepily controlling social network site

Twitter is the aptly named social website that allows quick short burst communication with large amounts of people. Your “tweets” can let your friends and family know every triviality or opinion in your life. Voyeurism with our celebrity idols is even more indulged with this technology, as you can know instantly when your fixation is “eating a piece of fried chicken.” Upon examining the content and terms of service of the site, it seems Freishtat and Sandlin would find Twitter in the same scary league as Facebook, with the same questions and concerns.

Identity on Twitter is a strange thing, and much different then Facebook. With Twitter, the focus is on what you say in those 140 word limit boxes. The goal is to have followers, or people that give a damn about what you have to say. In order for people to want to follow you, you need to give them “what they want”, and not necessarily always “who you really are.” The focus is to, as the article says (519), speak and act in a accepted and socially constructed way to net the most “Social capital.”

As for privacy, some of Twitter’s actions were creepy from the very start. It wanted to scan our Gmail accounts and grab all the emails in our contact lists. It did this, to compare the accounts to its own servers to show us which of our friends currently have a Twitter account. Sure, its convenient and works much more quickly then searching our friend’s email individually. But what about the email addresses Twitter now has of people who don’t use their services? Those people had no intention to give their information to Twitter or are aware that they now have it. We should never be willing to give up our privacy for convenience. Like the Freishtat and Sandlin’s concern about Facebook, this generation is willing to allow surveillance and give up personal information as long as it appears they are in control (516).

Who Do “You” Belong To?: controlling user content on facebook

When anyone attempts to speak against a trendy technological revolution (especially someone from academia) has to try extra hard to not simply appear as an old “fuddy-duddy“– who is doing everything to resist societal change from his Good ‘ole Days.

But grumpy old person or not, Freishtat and Sandlin’s concerns about the dangerous consequences of Facebook may be more realistic than any of us hip youngsters care to realize.

Facebook’s rhetoric definitely gives us the appearance of control. We get privacy options and the ability to select and block our friends. We can decide to post whatever and whenever we want, but the amount of control we actually have over our provided content is alarmingly little. The Facebook terms of service are completely one sided, and not at all in your favor. Everything you post on their site becomes their property; photos, comments, likes, interests all are saved on the Facebook servers, even after account deletion.  Best of all, they reserve the right to change the terms of service at whim, without notifying its users.

Try to think of an embarrassing picture you’d never want anyone to see. Now imagine one of your dumb friends accidentally posting it on their Facebook. Even after a hasty deletion, Facebook will have a copy on their mainframe for as long as they want. Any application or third party program that you gave permission to access your information might also have a copy, as well as any old creepy dude that managed to save the image for his own personal  pleasures.

Still feel in control?

Alternative Social Networking: not your average “facebook”

One of the wonders (and in some cases, horrors) of the internet is that it allows people who posses obscure and non-mainstream interests to easily find each other. The accessibility and proximity allows fads and fetishes to flourish in ways that would never be possible before Web 2.0. A quick search of “Alternative Social Networks” on Google led me to some sites dedicated to real life vampires and internet mediums.

VampireFreaks allows people interested in the Gothic and vampire genre to create personalized web pages and connect with other enthusiasts. Users can chat with friends, create events and meet-ups, or even form selective social groups known as “cults.” The site offers pages for creative outlets, such as journals or bands, and even a classifieds section for “Help Wanted” and promotions. The owners pride themselves for their site’s individuality, and are even “brought to you by” FuckTheMainstream.com.

Way to stand apart from the masses, teenage girls!

www.psychics.co.uk was created by a pair of British celebrity mediums, Craig and Jane Hamilton, who have been in the supernatural business for decades. Their website not only acts as a vendor for live phone call readings and their multitude of psychic paraphernalia, but also as a database of finding local, or online mediums. They also created a forum section for mediums and patrons alike to share their experiences, methods, and opinions.

Who wouldn't want a reading from Smitty the Psychic?

These sites are only really useful for those that share a profound interest in their subjects, but those that are enthusiastic will find a thriving community dedicated to the genre they enjoy. While both sites do feature online stores, VampireFreaks seems less invasive advertisement structure than the Psychic page– the lack of user profiles and plethora of price tags on the front pages makes Craig and Jane’s site appear more online store than online community.