Week 11: Medosch and Creative commons

Medosch argues that piracy “fulfills culturally important functions” (Medosch 2008, 76). He (re)draws our attention to the benefits of sharing, asserting that the sharing of information and cultural goods gives people a chance to become “empowered through obtaining information, knowledge and sophisticated cultural productions” (Medosch 2008, 81). He implies that creative works are “already networked,” because of “the fundamental condition of humanity as social beings;…through language and the symbolic realm, our creation was always co-creation” (Medosch 2008, 75).

New media has allowed for the sharing of a range of cultural and artistic works which can be viewed in a positive light as having allowed for the sharing of ideas, cultures, experiences and creativity. Although the sharing of information is technically conceptualised as ‘piracy,’ it has important benefits for society and culture. For this reason, medosch argues that the gap between copyright and copyleft views needs to be reduced by the introduction of a new model which allows for the dissemination of ideas yet still reflects the values of copyright activists to some degree.

Japanese anime – a form of Japanese animation historically exclusive to Japan – has been exposed to viewers in the western world through forms of new media such as YouTube. Anime has thus developed a huge fan base in the western world. One YouTube user commented on an anime video writing:

only if this could be real. i love JAPAN for making anime come true. 🙂 without it i dont know what i would read or watch. (its just so true)

another user writes:

I agree with many here, I would be lost without my anime. Also my music has grown alot since I got into anime, I have read Full Metal Alchemist and loved it. I have also seen the following…. . Sailor Moon . Chobits . Lunar Legend Tsukihime . Tokko . Cat Returns . Whisper Of The Heart . My Neighbour Totoro . Spirited Away . Ocean Waves . Only Yesterday . The Girl Who Leapt Through Time . Kiki’s Delivery Service And many more.

The sharing of anime culture through new mediums such as YouTube, should not be seen redundantly as being the result of piracy. Rather, people should recognize that new media “gives people access to information and cultural goods they had otherwise no chance of obtaining” (Medosch 2008, 81).

References
Armin Medosch, ‘Paid in Full: Copyright, Piracy and the Real Currency of Cultural Production,’ in Deptforth TV Diaries II: Pirate Strategies, London: Deptforth TV, 2008 (73-97).

Week 10: Creative Commons License

Creative Commons licenses are all based on the notion that works should be available to be copied, distributed, manipulated, and re-used as long as the original creator of the piece is credited in the new work.

The creative commons license I have added to my blog is ShareAlike which allows other to build upon, remix and change my work as long as they credit me and license their new work under the same license. I chose this license because it reflects by value for the notion of copyleft. It means that any work that builds upon or adapts mine will also be available for others to build upon and adapt. If someone finds a part of my work interesting, problematic, or of value, my use of this license will ensure that it will continue to remain available for access by others. This license allows for the greatest freedom of users because it ensures the original work will remain available for manipulation, because the same license must be added to any subsequent works.

References
CreativeCommonsOrganisation

Week 9: YouTube stars

Media theorists, Burgess and Green argue that although YouTube has established itself as a new source of media power, people who become celebrities by broadcasting their own creative efforts “remain within the system of celebrity native to, and controlled by, the mass media” (Burgess & Green 22).

Instead of being viewed as a new source of media power, YouTube should be conceptualized as a broadcasting platform through which people are able to promote themselves. If and when this process of self-promotion is successful, individuals will remain controlled by the mass media, as opposed to some new source of power.

Musicians such as Alexa Goddard and Justin Beiber may have been discovered through YouTube. However, they are still controlled by the recording industry. People who make their way into the mass media are controlled no differently to people whose fame is not the consequence of a YouTube video they posted. Rather, the difference with YouTube is that people are able to become famous for reasons for simply being funny, ironic, or playing with norms. For example, Claire Werbaloff became an overnight internet sensation after her account of an Australian street shooting was posted on YouTube. Claire was still under control of the mass media; her story was portrayed on the news and she was scrutinized for being a racist based on her account of the shooting. The footage of her was able to be manipulated and was selectively broadcasted on television news channels, outlining the extent to which she was under the control of mass media outlets. The difference on YouTube is this notion of overnight fame; it allows for easy self-promotion, yet they “remain within the system of celebrity native to, and controlled by, the mass media” (Burgess & Green 22).

References

Jean Burgess and Joshua Green , ‘YouTube and The Mainstream Media,’ in YouTube: Online and Participatory Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009 (15-37).

week 8: the use of visual metaphors from old media to “naturalise the limitations of the new medium”

Lui argues that web designers, by employing metaphors of old media designs, are able to mask the limitations of the new medium. He notes the obvious spatiotemporal limitations of the new media forms means that limited content can be displayed on any one page at a time. This requires “clever visual metaphors (and) coding techniques that create the faced of a whole harmonium” (Lui 2004, 227). These limitations may be overcome through selective representation of information, smart and effective use of links, and by displaying the page in a way that is similar to the display of older media forms. For example, newspaper websites such as The Age, The Herald Sun and The Times have been constructed in such a way so as to mask, or naturalize the limitations of the web by mimicking the format of the actual newspapers themselves. For example, news articles are not presented in full; beginnings of articles are displayed as links to more information, as headlines on the front pages of newspapers are accompanied by a page number reference to the complete story. The layout of the new media form is perceived as a consequence of the designer’s effort to make the page appear similar to the old form. The spatial limitations of new media such as the web means that limited information can be displayed in one space at a time. Web designer’s of newspaper web pages mask this limitations by naturalizing the typical layout of newspaper front pages.

Although new media designs have the tendency to “naturalize the limitations of the new medium by disguising them within those of older media,” their layout does allow for optimal usability despite spatial limitations of the web. For example, the Ebay homepage lists links to categories and specific items popular at the time in order to optimise the space that it available by making it easier for users to find what they are looking for. In this way, the extent to which new media layouts mimic old media layouts may be conceptualized as evidence for the ability of old media forms to optimize the space available to them. Thus, the layout of new media forms can be viewed in terms of the designer’s ability to optimize available space by overcoming spatial limitations, as opposed to the designer’s ability to mask the limitations of new media.

References
Alan Lui, ‘Information is Style,’ in Laws of Cool: Knowledge, Work, and the Culture of Information, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004 (195-320).

Week 7: Blogging as a way to construct an identity within the Post-Modern context.

“life’s a bitch – you cant change it, you’ve just got to deal with it”

I’m sure you have all heard this statement in some form or another, is stuck on the fridge at my friend’s house; it is number 1 on the list of things his mother has demanded “all teenagers should know.”

It explicitly contravenes my understanding of life and identity as being “what you make it.”

In post-traditional society, we are free in the sense that we are not assigned explicit roles as our parents and grandparents (especially) were. The notion of the nuclear family, religion, and other values once core to society have declined in meaning and relevance; people are now more open and accepting of homosexuality, atheism and other values and lifestyles previously denoted or brushed under the carpet by traditional extremists.

In traditional societies, individual actions did not have to be analyzed because choices were already prescribed by the traditions and customs. There was not such a sense of ‘freedom to become’ as there is today. People living in traditional societies were restricted by time, context, and expectation. In post-traditional society, who we are and how we are to behave have become matters requiring consideration and decision making. The approach to identity is much more bottom-up; life may be seen as a narrative, every detail of which we are able to control and manipulate through the types of interactions, practices, consumption, and spaces with which we engage.

The number one thing I think we (gen y) will be telling our kids (if we decide to have them) might be more like ‘life is your work, in progress.’

The concept of the blog encapsulates this notion in a literal way, which is why I believe they have become so popular so quickly. The blog is not only a “tool to manage the self” – as Lovin argues – but it is also one of the means through which users manipulate and master the act of ‘becoming’ in this world. We no longer look to tradition as much for answers or direction, we find direction through ourselves and through our identities, which we construct. Blogging is one way through which we do this.

Winner of Canadian blog award 2007 for best personal blog – Raymi the Minx – primarily contains an array of pictures and videos of Raymi doing mundane activities such as cooking dinner, making drinks, partying with friends, etc. The pictures and videos are accompanied by short captions; the impression I got from scanning through her blog is that she is a self-confessed alcoholic who doesn’t do much else with her life other than eat, listen to “the same 30 songs each day,” and party. One fan thanks her for “not giving a shit” and for “keeping home (Toronto, Raymi’s hometown) in (her) back pocket, at all times.”

The bottom-up approach to identity bought about by the decline in traditionalism may be used as the basis for understanding why blogging is practiced in the post-modern context; as a tool for constructing the self within the post-modern context – a context in which identity can be understood as a narrative to be constructed by the individual.

Questions to think about…

Do you think blogging would be successful if it was not for the context of post-modern society?

Why do you think user’s find enjoyment in reading personal blogs written by people they’ve never met, and will never meet?

Do you think bloggers would blog if people didn’t comment on their blog posts (but they knew their blog was being viewed and read by others)?

References
Geert Lovink, ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse,’ in Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge (1-38)

week 6: blogging using wordpress; how the rigidly defined database affects user agency.

Helmond argues that wordpress “masks the database and creates a continuous blogging experience within the browser” (Helmond 2007, 53).

Our ability to interact with and manipulate the database allows for increased user agency and masks the rigidly defined nature of the browser. For example, the vast range of themes to choose from allows the user to easily personalise their blog, making them feel more in control and allowing them to choose a theme which reflects their own taste. Widgets can also be personalized and “enable social interactions” (Helmond 2007, 78). Personalisation of the blogging space allows for the creation of “an additional self.” The user’s ability to customise masks the rigidity of the browser and thus, “real self (isn’t) aware of what is happening” (Helmond 2007, 60). The idea is for the browser to be “out of the way, to not be seen…so we interact with it intuitively” (Helmond 2007, 63) and so it appears less complex to the user.

Continuity of the blog is emphasized by the layout of posts, widgets, themes, blogrolls, permalinks, ping etc. in reverse chronological order. Permalinks acts as pathways to other blogs and content, allowing for increased continuity and connectivity within the blogging space. The continuity of the blog masks the rigidly defined structure upon which it is built and allows for a continuous blogging experience of which the user is conceptualised as having agency and control over their own individual blog. In this way, the ability to customize masks the constraints on agency, for example, the space available to the user or the size of files users are able to post in a particular space.

References
Anne Helmond, ‘Software-Engine Relations,’ in Blogging for Engines: Blogs Under the Influence of Software-Engine Relations, MA Thesis Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, 2007 (44-80).

Week 5: Do the benefits of sharing counteract the problem of privacy?

Social networking sites are built upon the notions of open-ness and connected-ness. For Zuckerburg, the openness of the world is a pre-condition for solving “the world’s biggest problems.” It is beneficial to live in an open world because sharing ideas stimulates more, sharing experiences evokes feelings of connectedness and collaboration, sharing lifestyles contributes to a better understanding of humanity, sharing interests via electronic communities such as LiveJournal contributes to feelings of belonging and unity. It is easy to say that society benefits from an open world; however when speaking of specific practices or vehicles through which it is assumed the world will become a more open place, we must think about the content that is shared before we conclude that society benefits from the openness that it creates.

My Facebook news feed … the following posts are typical: the depressive lyric or quote, the paradoxically implicit yet explicit stab at one’s ex-boyfriend/girlfriend/best-friend/friend of an ex-friend etc., the check in at uni, the check in at ‘my bed,’ the odd video or song, the self portrait in the mirror with the camera, the “who’s doing to ___ tonight” aka “just letting you know I’m going out tonight, don’t expect me to say hello if I see you” post, the promotional post, the annoying spam … etc. Facebook allows me to keep in touch with old friends and distant family, and it makes it easier for me to pursue new friendships and sustain old ones. I’m not sure if I can say that I benefit from the content others share with me. What I read on my news feed certainly does not assist me in “solving the world’s biggest problems.” The reality of the content shared of Facebook challenges Zuckerburg’s belief in the nature of the relationship between sharing and societal benefit. Sharing is beneficial, however, the type of sharing that occurs via social networking is often limited by our tendency to utilize the wall post as a means of manipulating and contructing ourselves.

Zuckerburg over-estimates the benefits of sharing, per se. But what about the benefits of “sharing more?” This notion is tied to issues of control and privacy. Zuckerburg states that people have control over what they share (on facebook); however, this is not always the case. ‘Tagging’ is one example of this; we’ve all had the experience of being tagged in a photo we wish we never knew existed. The dreaded photo pops straight up on our wall, on the news feed, and in our album. Of course, we can delete it and ‘untag’ ourselves. But the practice of deleting is admitting that we have a problem with the photo and is this is sometimes worse than allowing people to see the photo in which we have been tagged. Furthermore, the notion of ‘freedom’ is tied to the concept of an open world. However, this is undermined by the limits Facebook places on our lives outside the network. The Facebook user, for example, may not wish to be photographed due to the fear of being “tagged.” Facebook limits our everyday lives in the sense that the user must remain aware of it when she is not using it; it has become a means of surveillance which evokes stress in some, who feel they must always be careful.