Copyrights and whatnot

So we've had a lecture or two about copyright laws.

There's copyrights, which we all know. They want restrictions on things.
There's copylefts, people who want no restrictions at all.
Then there's the creative commons people, who want private citizens to decide what restrictions should be put on things.

I'm not really sure what side I'm on yet. I've used copyrighted music in the background of YouTube videos before and didn't get in trouble or anything. But then again, that's probably because not many people watch my videos. Wikipedia is a good example of copyleft, because people can pretty much post whatever they want. Lots of people use good ol' Wiki, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's accurate. So if there's never restrictions on anything, that probably wouldn't be good. I'm not sure how Hulu fits into the whole copyrights thing...

I guess the whole big deal about the "pirate's dilemma" is...when you use someone else's music or something, should that be considered stealing or sharing? And how much of something do you have to copy before it's against the law? The whole song? A minute? A split second?

I'm not sure exactly what I think about it yet, but I think as long as we give the original creator of the content credit, it shouldn't be a big deal to use it for your own purposes.

What do you think? And have you ever gotten in trouble for using something that was copyrighted?

The Final Blog...

I actually enjoyed writing this blog...well, most of the time. I've had a blog before, so this was not a new experience for me or anything. It was more challenging than the other blog I had, because for this one I had to be semi-serious and actually have structure to my posts. I'm not very good at that...

What I liked most about blogging about Media Life is that it made me actually THINK about things I'm learning in class. This blog was a nice place to get all my thoughts out into actual words. It was really useful to help me process things we talked about in class, and it forced me to have an opinion about things.

It was a little hard getting people to read/comment on my blog, because it seems like most people aren't all that interested in reading my boring blog. I think if it was on a more interesting topic or something, people would be more interested in reading it. Or maybe I'm just a real boring writer...

This blog relates to my media life because it IS media. By writing this blog, I'm a producer of creative media content, which is pretty cool.

So that is all...


PS- Thanks everyone for reading. Although I did have an enjoyable time blogging, I don't think I'll be using this blog anymore. I still plan to write notes on Facebook though. Don't you worry.

:)

Control.

Question: How many corporations own the media in the US?
Average class answer: 9248
Real answer: 5

Haha. I don't remember what I put as my answer, but I think it was pretty high up there. But really though, only 5 companies own 90% of our media?? It's the same way with music. Five companies control 90% of worldwide music.

I found this website...you pick a media company, and they tell you everything they own. So I picked Viacom...and they own:

Cable

MTV

MTV2

mtvU

AtomFilms

Addicting Games

Gamerailers

Harmonix

MTVN International

MTV TR3S

Neopets

Parents Connect

Quizilla

Rhapsody

Shockwave

VH1

VH1 Classic

VH1 Soul

Virtual Worlds

XFIRE

Nickelodeon

Nick Jr.

BET

BET J

Nick at Nite

TV Land

NOGGIN

VH1

Spike TV

CMT

Comedy Central

Film

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Home Entertainment

Dreamworks Studiis

Paramount Vantage

MTV Films

Nickelodeon Movies

Home Entertainment

Who the heck needs to own all that?? The 5 gigantic media corporations could potentially take over our media. They have almost complete control over our options of what we can watch on tv, and the movies we can watch, and the music we can listen to. I don't know about you, but I think we should teach these big media companies a lesson...I think we need more independent musicians and filmmakers out there. There's already a lot, but we need MORE. It's scary that 90% of our media is in the hands of Viacom, AOL/Time Warner, Disney, Bertelsmann, and News Corporation, and that's it. That's like...our country being in the hands of 5 powerful men...

I was talking to this guy, and he was saying how Starbucks started as one guy in a local coffee shop, and then got bigger and bigger until it became the Starbucks we're all so addicted to now. (I don't know but...) I suppose that's how Disney and News Corps and the other huge companies started too. Little independent companies merging with other little independent companies and then taking over the industry. It's crazy. Don't be fooled into thinking that your media is diverse. It's all made by the same 5 companies. And that's all I have to say about that.

I HAVE SWINE FLU

Not really. It seems like everyone else does though.

It seems like the media has influenced everyone's perspective on swine flu. I remember when we all first found out about it last year, my AI thought is was just a government scare thing, and an advertising tactic to get people to buy things. Like "beware of the swine flu! And while you're at it, buy our new product!" That's what he thought it was all about.

Everyone's got their own opinions on swine flu. Some think it's a big deal and they were first in line to get the vaccine. Others, like me, don't see is as that much of a threat. (Maybe if I get it, then my mind will change...)

I think the people who are scared of it the most are the ones who watch the news the most. Like my mother. She told me like 6 times to get the vaccine, and she made my brother get it. I mean, I'm not denying that people get the swine flu or that people have died from it. But really...

If you're not exposed to the news, you're not going to care about an issue that you're not really aware of. For one of my classes, we had to watch the news and take notes about the stories that were aired. Seriously, they talked about the swine flu for like 6 minutes of a half hour news show. And if you're watching the news every night...No wonder people are scared of getting swine flu.

The news has a tremendous impact on us. What we hear about the most, we think is the most important. They talk about crime a lot, and most people think crime is a big problem. It's not. But it's what we hear about all the time so we think it must be a big deal. The same thing happened with swine flu. They've been talking about swine flu for like ever, and that's why people think it's such a big problem. If the news people would just stop talking about it, I bet most of our swine flu problems would go away.

Social or anti

So I wrote before about how media brings us together, like to watch a certain tv show or for a certain cause on the internet.

While all this connecting is going on, media is also driving us all apart. I mean, look at yourself. You're probably alone in your room reading this. How is that social? Is it really bringing us togetherness? I think it's weird how in order to feel connected with other people and to find out what's going on, I can just go in my room and log onto Facebook. The internet is making us all more antisocial. I mean, if it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't be in my room half as much as I am now.

Mark (the prof) said in class "We're all together alone." We're connected in so many ways with so many social networking sites, but we're all alone hiding behind our computer screens at the same time. Hmmmm.....interesting.......

Transported.

There are 4 media exposure states. Wow...exciting intro.

One of these states is the transported state. It's basically when you get lost in the movie or show that you are watching. It's when you're so engrossed in something that you don't notice anything else around you. I'm hardly ever in this state, because I keep myself grounded in reality pretty well. And plus, since I'm learning production techniques, I'm always paying attention to lighting and camera angles and how the show is filmed and whatnot. So it's hard to lose myself in the show.

SO. I have a confession...I was watching CSI and it made me scared. I was watching it alone in my room a few nights ago, with all the lights off. And normally with TV and movies, I'm like "That's not real. Psh. This is stupid." But for some reason, CSI scared the crap out of me, and I turned the lights on to watch the rest of it. Like a scared little 7 year old. Watching CSI, I found myself in the transported state, and I didn't like it. We learned in class that most people LIKE being in the transported state, because you can experience things without losing control and without the risk of actually being there. But to me, being in the transported state IS losing control. You lose control of yourself and your emotions and reality. You're watching things happen and you can't do anything about it, and you're so into it that it's hard to detach yourself from it.

So, what do you think? Do you like being "transported" into another world when you watch TV?

Fortune Cookies

So I got this fortune a few days ago in a fortune cookie:

"Do not be afraid of computers. Be afraid of the lack of them."

Really? Is that even a fortune...?

I'm not really afraid of computers, or the lack of them. Actually, I don't know if I would be afraid of the lack of computers. I've never really been in that situation. When I was in Guatemala I didn't really have that much access to a computer, but if I really needed to use one, there was one there for me to use. What would it be like if there was some worldwide crisis and every single computer was destroyed? Would having ZERO computer access scare you?

What do you think? Are you afraid of the lack of computers?

Thursday Nights

SO. Even though I sometimes hate technology like I said in my last post, I like technology too sometimes. Particularly on Thursday nights. Why? Because the two greatest tv shows are on: Community and The Office, of course.

On Thursday nights, we have an "Office Party" (at least, that's what I call it) where a bunch of us all get together and watch The Office in the lounge. [Don't tell anyone, but I secretly get mad when people are too loud and I can't hear what's happening. Haha.] Anyway, was there a point to this blog? I guess I was going to say that media (and particularly tv) brings us all together. It makes us have things in common with other people that maybe we wouldn't normally hang out with. Sure, maybe I don't even know the names of some of the people at the Office Party, but that doesn't matter, as long as we're all coming together for the same purpose. Watching The Office has become a social event, even though we're not necessarily "socializing" during the actual show. We talked in class about how media pulls us together and drives us apart at the same time, and this is just one example of how media pulls us together. Can you tell I'm tired? I think it's bedtime.

PS- You all should start watching Community so I don't have to watch it alone anymore. :)

I'm Watching You

It scares the crap out of me that everything is becoming digitalized. Now, in order to get into my dorm, we have to swipe our card instead of using our key. And because we're swiping our card, it means that they can track who comes in, and when. I don't really think they use it for that now, but just the fact that they can scares me. And video cameras...why are there video cameras everywhere? For our safety?

I'm a little (or a lot) paranoid that my life is like the Truman show. Even before I saw the movie, I thought that. In reality, there's probably not some big conspiracy against my life. Or maybe there is. Either way, we all have the capacity and ability to watch and record others almost constantly. There's cameras on almost everyone's cell phone. If we're lucky, our computers have webcams. Video cameras watch us everywhere we go. This is the lovely thing called "surveillance."

Facebook tracks our every move. Google knows everything we search for. Credit card companies know everything we buy, where we bought it, and when. There's countless ways that we are being tracked by machines. And the machines work for ... whoever, I don't know. Each other? The government? Big corporations? Demographics people?

In scholarly terms, this is called "dataveillance," which is surveillance by machines. It kind of creeps me out, that people (or machines) can know so much about me, and even where I'm at. Darn that GPS.

I guess part of it is my fault. I could throw away my cell phone, never use my credit card, and refuse to use the internet. I could move to some exotic island where they've never even heard of anything I'm talking about. Then I wouldn't have to worry about people watching me.

Maybe media tracking devices are not being used against me. Maybe they are. Either way, I don't like it. Going to an exotic island sounds fun anyway.

Technology and whatnot

Sometimes, I HATE technology. Like right now. When my computer is "finishing restoring files" like it has been doing for the past 16 hours. Stupid computer. What if my computer NEVER finishes restoring files? What if my flash drive stops working? Everything I've ever done in college would be...gone. I have so much faith in my little black computer. What if it breaks? There would be no way of getting everything back. Good old fashioned pen and paper is so much more reliable...

It's funny how much trust we put into our little technological devices. For example, cell phones. I have everyone's number stored in my phone. What happens if my phone breaks or I lose it? All the numbers I once had would be lost. Very few of these numbers are committed to memory, and I bet most people don't write down numbers in an address book anymore (I do, though, because I'm skeptical of technology). And it's sad how lost I feel when I accidentally leave my phone in my room when I go to class. What if I miss a text or a call? How will I know what time it is, if I don't have my phone to check every once in awhile? How many times have I risked being late to class because I had to go back to my room to get my phone...is having my phone really THAT important to me? Sadly, yes, it is. And it scares me that it's so important to me. It's one of the few things that I have with me at all times. My little blue phone is my connection to the world. What happens when my connection device breaks? What then?

Is our technology really worthy of all the trust that we put in it?

Newsflash

People who watched Sesame Street as a kid do better in high school.
Seriously.

Suicide and the Media

So in a couple of my classes we've been talking about death/suicide and the media. In t101 we watched a video of policemen beating a guy to death in an airport. All on camera. And there was this video...I don't remember if we actually watched it or just talked about it, but there was this kid that committed suicide live on the internet on camera. Nicht gut. What was he thinking? What were the people watching it thinking?

In one of my classes (t205) we learned that the media actually cause suicides. How? Let me explain. Say Person A was a wonderful teenager in high school, but no one knew about Person A's secret depression. One day Person A commits suicide. The community is shocked. It's publicized in the local newspaper, school newspaper, the news on tv...in other words, lots of people hear about the suicide. Person B hears about Person A's suicide. Person B thinks to themself "I'm a little depressed. Maybe I should kill myself too." Person C thinks "hey, why don't I give it a try?" It might sound crazy to you, but it happens. And the result is: more suicides.

There are a bunch of studies that show that suicide rates go up after a suicide is publicized, and then drop back down after that. The greater the amount of publicity, the greater the amount of suicides following it. It's called the copycat effect, maybe? And it's really sad. Really really sad.

How to solve the problem? The news could just never report on suicide cases. Ever. I guess that's the only real solution I can think of. Or maybe after the news airs a story about a suicide, they could advertise/promote depression hotlines or help services or something. Or make some announcement that killing yourself is not the only way out of a hard situation. I don't know...I think they should do something.

What I'm wondering, though, is if the news people know that by reporting on a suicide, they're actually causing more suicides. Literally. Do they even know? And if they know about it, then why do they still report on suicides? How could you let yourself do that? And if they don't know, why doesn't someone tell them??

Sorry this is such a sad topic.

I'm sorry this blog sucks

Sooo this is obviously a lot less interesting than I thought it would be...

So in discussion last week we talked about this thing called One Laptop Per Child. And basically it's some program that the world wants to do to give every child a laptop. Duh. So they're trying to make these laptops that will cost only $100 to make, and then give them to every child in the world. I think mainly in Africa, actually. And they're powered by the sun. I think. Maybe I should research this before I write about it...

Anyway, these laptops will provide kids with "access to knowledge" and will be for 6-12 year olds. Their mission statement is "To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning."

Ok, so what does that actually mean? That kids can't learn without laptops? That we need to sit behind a screen in order to be educated? We didn't have laptops when I was 6, and we learned just fine. Well, most of us did...

I'm scared that the world is becoming overly digitized. I mean, half the crap on the internet isn't educational or correct anyway. Why do these kids need internet access? And just because they have a laptop doesn't mean that there will even be internet access.

Speaking of internet access, IU's internet wasn't working 2 days ago...and I was frustrated. And then I was just thinking...do I actually need the internet? If it came down to it, would I be able to survive without the internet? Would you? Should you? Why are we so dependent on machines?

I need to go to bed now. Hopefully soon I'll have something actually important to write about.
Thanks for reading.....

web-log

Hmmmmmm so I should probably write something, eh?

I would like to say that I do not appreciate the fact that my psych professor automatically assumes that everyone in the class believes that we evolved from monkeys, or apes, or whatever. Should I say something to her about it, or just let it go?

And I think I might try to minor in philosophy.

So anyway...in Media Life class we're talking about how "the internet doesn't forget" as Seth Godin says, whoever he is. And we're talking about multiple versions of ourselves. Like, how I present myself on Facebook is not the same self I show on YouTube or on this blog. Actually using myself as an example is a bad idea...

Yeah, so think about the different ways you portray yourself to others on different social networking sites. Is one version of yourself really the "true" you? Are some versions more accurate than others? It's hard to portray personality through words and pictures. Sure, the internet can tell you facts about people, but knowing stuff about people doesn't really mean you know them. Of course, I bet you already knew that.

I really have nothing to say...
...so thanks for reading, and comment if you can think of something to say.

The interweb

We haven't really talked about anything in class that's all the interesting to blog about...haha.

So what we've been talking about is how our media use is moving from just passive consumption, to actively participating in media production.

For instance, instead of just watching a movie, we now make our own and post it to YouTube.
Instead of just reading websites, we create our own.

Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, blogs, and a lot of other media content would not exist without us. We are the driving force behind it.

Without us, there is no Facebook. Sad day.

And in a way, we're screwing over the internet industry. We can do all this stuff for free, and the website/internet people are losing money like crazy. (except I think Google is doing pretty well.)

We took a poll in another of my media classes, and out of all of us (maybe 120 people?) only 1 or 2 people said that they would pay money to use Facebook. Would you? Like $5 a month? I wouldn't. We're so used to having all this stuff available to us for free, so why would we ever think that paying for it would be acceptable?

One thing, though. TV used to be free. If you had those rabbit ears, you could watch whatever you wanted. Back then they thought that paying for TV was crazy and they'd never do it. Now we pay for TV. Are websites eventually going to turn into that? I sure hope not.

So here's my question to you:
If they did start charging to use your favorite social networking sites, how much a month would you pay to use them, or would you just ditch it?

You Can't Change The World.

Hey kids.
I'm actually not sure what I'm supposed to write...I still need to talk to the prof about it...

But anyway, let's just give it a go and hope I'm doing it right...

On the very first day of class, we (all 400+ of us) filled out a survey about our media use and whatnot. One of the questions was "Do you think you can change the world?" I put yes, along with 88% of my class. So in class on Tuesday (or Thursday?) the prof told us that we can't change the world. That's right. Can't.

Not the thing you'd expect to hear.

That of course made me mad, at least a little. We all want to think we have an impact on the world. Or else why would we do anything at all, right?

The prof's point was...um...?
Oh yeah. I remember.

The point was this: our generation grew up with computers, where we can constantly edit life. We write an essay, decide to take out a sentence or a paragraph, and all we have to do is press delete. We make a YouTube video and edit out the parts we don't want. We can cut and copy and paste and delete and add and who knows what else. We can change whatever we want, whenever we want. And so, since we have this mindset with computers, it translates over to our real life. It's so easy to change the digital world, that we think we can change the real world.
An interesting argument, eh?

So, with that being said, do you still think you can change the real world?

I think we can. Maybe we won't reach the entire world. Maybe not everyone will be changed. But what we say and do can and does impact people, even if it's just one person in a small way. Add up all the people we've impacted in our lives, and yes, I'd say that's a change in the world.

Ok ok just one more thing. In discussion yesterday we were talking about pros and cons of the internet. I think what's funny about the internet is that we can pick and choose our reality. Nothing on the internet is really real...obviously. Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and MySpace and whatever else you kids have these days are just edited versions of yourself. It's a false reality. You can lie, (mis)represent yourself, and fake it so easily over the internet. You show only the side of you that you want people to see. It's your edited self. The way you wish you were.

I love the internet as much as the next person, but when it takes over face to face conversation...I think there's something wrong.

So...that is all, I suppose.
Any thoughts about any of this?