Convergence Culture

When talking about covergence Henry Jenkins (2006) he says that he means

Henry Jenkins

I found this amusing image online!

 "the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they wanted. Convergence is a word that manages to describe technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes, depending on who's speaking and what they think they are talking about"

Basically the concept that Henry Jenkins suggests is that people are finding different information on different platforms. For example instead of purchasing magazines in a shop, I can now read them online.
 Another theorist Terry Flew (2002) says that "we can define new media as those forms that combine the three C's: Computing and information technology, Communication networks, and digitised media and information content..."

One example of convergence in my media use is now that I am at university instead of phoning my parents is using Skype to talk to them instead. A Similar example to this is at Christmas time we usually have a phone call to my Auntie in America but this time we decided to sit round a laptop and have a Skype conversation with my Auntie and Uncle instead.

Another example of my media use converging is that now I'm at university I haven't got a television so watch programmes on iplayer and 4od, this have become a part of my daily routne to catch up with soaps and other programmes that I have missed online.

A further example of convergence in my recent media use is the fact that I don't have to get paper copies of books for non academic readings, for relaxing texts to read, instead I am able to download free e-books or choose to pay for them and read them on my Blackberry phone instead.

I have a friend in spain who I met on Flickr who wanted to improve his English and so I suggested we became pen pals, however as my friend Andres said would take weeks to recieve a letter and so he suggested using msn messenger to improve his writing and skype to use spoken English on. This shows the convergence of writing letters by hand to keeping in contact via being online at the same time as another person.

Convergence is happening over all areas of the media and it is evident from my examples that in my opinion it is a good thing because for example people will need less media devices to access the information that they want for example I have my laptop for watching television programmes, listening and buying music and also to skype my friends. So my laptop could replace devices such as a television, ipod and also a telephone. Another advantage of convergence in the media is that people can become more easily informed, rather than using traditional sources of media such as a newspaper, they can just log onto their laptop and get news instantly and therefore media becomes more accessible for everyone.

Giving up Facebook for Lent- a crazy idea?

The other day a friend and I were discussing what to give up for Lent. There were the usual things that came up like, alchol, coffee, fizzy drinks, chocolate. But what would be even better to give up than all these things put together?
The anwser: Facebook.
You're sitting there constantly refreshing the page and some days nothing happens, but the repetitive and tedious status updates, "doing a pub quiz", "having the best night out", if you're having such a good time- why on earth are you logged onto Facebook?

Facebook has affected the way I work, learn and socialise. I'm sure I'm not the only one who when it comes to doing some work, the first thing I do is log onto Facebook. I'm don't do this purposefully, it just happens in my subconcious mind. When in actual fact I get more done when I just sign out and focus on the piece of work I'm meant to be doing. Facebook is a distraction, this is one reason why it wouldn't be a crazy idea to see how long I could/ if I could give it up, even if just for a week!

However I thought I would never say this but Facebook has become a huge part of my social life since I've started at university. Facebook enables me to keep in touch with my brother who goes to university in Southampton. Through using Facebook I am also able to keep in touch with my friends from college who haven't yet gone to university. Another aspect of Facebook that helps me socialise is how anyone can create events and groups. For example as I'm apart of DMU pirate society there is a group which allows us all to talk to the members we have met at socials. Facebook's event pages also allow my socialise because pirate society can set up events and invite me and let me know when the next social is happening. Also the club pages that I "like" for example mosh nightclub can also alert me of nights when they have a free guestlist on the door. In Nancy White (2009) blog on "How I use Social Media" states that "we can find, develop and utilize relationships online". Looking at Facebook and how it helps me effects me socially I would have to agree with this statement.

Facebook also helps me learn for example I have an italian friend who came to live with us for a week last summer as part of a cultural exchange week with my orchestra. I was able to add him on Facebook and learn more about his family and culture. Although saying this Facebook can also distract me from learning and doing work as well which becomes annoying.

Overall I have decided not to give up Facebook for Lent because I rely on it too much socially to keep in touch with other people and arrange to go out in the week via Facebook. However at some point I would like to challenge myself and see how long I can go without logging in to that silly stream of pointless statuses and endless stream of pages to "like".

Advertisement.

In Henry Jenkin's (2006) article on the Eight Traits of the new media landscape he states that
"there is a danger that as this technology becomes so familiar, so much a part of our daily routines that it becomes invisible to us: we can no more see the layer of media that surrounds us than fish notice the water they are swimming in" (Jenkins 2006)

  In my opinion this quote can be applied to advertisement, its everywhere and we don't even realise it! For example I was on Facebook scrolling down my home page and what appears down the side of my page? Adverts. How does Facebook know I have a Nikon camera? Why are they offering me places on a photography course?

The other day my flatemate got "fraped" and instead of being entered as "female", her gender got changed to "male", as a result she was saying that in fact her advertisment had changed to nude pictures of women and advertisements of cars. According to Henry Jenkins (2006) the information we enter becomes a form of collective intelligence and seems to determine the advertisements that come up in our browser. Different advertisements appeal to different genders.

When researching about advertisements on Facebook I came across some information about how buisnesses can advertise on Facebook. Businesses can select an audience they want to advertise to by selecting the location, interests and age of a person. Buisnesses can also use the "like" button to influence their audience. This shows that different businesses use strategies to target their audience.

In a recent photography lecture/ workshop we were discussing how in the current media and advertisements are even these days influenced by classic photographers and films from the past. For example the classic scene in American Beauty. The advertisement is a re-creation of the famous scene from American Beauty but instead is advertising Budweiser. It is evident that some of the classic photographers and films still influence the media today.

 Another example of influences in advertisement is from a photographer called Hannah Hoch. Here are some examples of her work.The image on the left represents the general more towards increasing gender ambiguity. Many of her photomontages point out faults with the beauty culture. She saw how different females are in reality compared to the media. When reading and looking at old copies of Vogue online this could be classed as participatory culture according to Henry Jenkins. As I read these issues of Vogue I came across the following images that have clearly been influenced by Hannah Hoch. 

 

This is an advertisement by Harvey Nichols from Vogue in 2009. Looking at this it could be that it has been influenced by Hannah Hoch as this is similar to her photomontages and the same kind of style as her. 

In conclusion to this blog, advertisement effects our everyday life even if we are unconcious and unaware of this. Businesses and Advertisers conciously use strategies to get their target audience to look at their product. It is also evident that photographers and films are still influencing the modern advertisements of today.

Copyright Debate.

I have recently took part in a debate about copyright, our group was against copyright, this was challenging for me because I strongly believe in enforcing copyright, however this was a good opportunity to think about copyright from a different perspective. In this blog I will reflect mainly on the perspective of being against copyright.

Cory Doctorow

•  It can be argued that too many people are breaking copyright laws to enforce it, however people who are for copyright could argue that the people who break these laws need to be punished. 
• It can be then argued that there are too many people to punish and not all of them will be caught and will be able to get away with infringing these copyright rules.
• The Digital Economy Act is difficult to enforce for everyone as it is hard for internet providers to stop people downloading illegally or breaking copyright laws.
• In the article Cory Doctorow's (2008) article he argues "Why  argues that "the cost of enforcement is high" (Doctorow 2008)
• When remixing media people are unaware that doing this is infringing copyring laws (eg dangermouse 2004)  
•  When it comes to people remixing different media I would have to agree with Doctorow when he states that there is a "paracopyright" meaning that groups of people online are creating own rules of what is right or wrong.
• All of the creative stuff people do is culture and as Doctorow argues "culture is older than copyright" for example copyright was recognised in 1710.
• "Youtube would vanish without its storehouse of infringing clips" (Doctorow 2008) If copying on the internet ended it would be the end of culture on the internet, for example sites like youtube and google wouldn't exist.   
• Culture is shared information, natural inclination of anyone who is struck by a piece of creative works is to share it. Sharing= copying (Doctorow 2008)
• Partipatory culture (Jenkins 2006)- Soulja boi explited social media sites to get himself noticed alllowing 'remixes' of the video to crank that.
• Freedom of knowledge and the right to education are human rights and copyright stops this.
• Copyists know they infringe and don't care or believe the law can't possibly criminalise what they're doing (Doctorow 2008)
• BPI, a body which represents the music industry has called for the Goverment to force internet service providers, such as Virgin and TalkTalk, to block sites which allow people to download music illegally. 

 After assessing both sides of the argument, I still believe that there should be some sort of copyright rules in place because it isn't fair on the people who create the media such as photos and music that get copied. Copyright is an advantage to the creator because without it anyone would be able to have their work copied. I also believe in copyright because otherwise the media industry is being destroyed by remixes, and the copying of dvds as the quality of the product will never be as good as the original.

The Campaign Project.

For our campaign our group choose to raise awareness about the environment. Due to the streets of Leicester being filled with rubbish it wasn't hard getting enough footage! We choose this issue because it's something that effects everyone whether they like it or not. Throughout our video we focused on the main forms of litter such as Mc Donalds wrappers, cans and bottles and cigarette butts. When editing our video we attempted to move between shots to show the contrast of nature and how the litter around us was destroying our environment. Just from walking by the canal and round a local park we found no end of litter in such a small area.

Pecha Kucha Presentation

Folksonomy presentation - completed

View more presentations from Vanessa Yau.

When conducting our Pecha Kucha presentation we unfortunately did not succeed in sticking to the rule of 20 seconds per slide and also did not manage to use 20 slides for the whole presentation. However would love to try this method of presenting again as it was thoroughly enjoyable. As a group we found this a fun and challenging way of learning about folksonomy. When creating the presentation I have learnt that by including simple bullet points or one single image on a slide, rather than huge amounts of text on the slide makes the presentation more successful. As a result, to follow the rules of a Pecha Kucha presentation it is best to stick to the specific points of the subject you're talking about. For example when I was talking about the advantages and disadvantages of folksonomy, I discussed the points I wanted to make based on the pictures I showed on each slide of our presentation.

My Psychogeography Project- derive of Leicester.

(can also be found at my flickr account which may be better quality for viewing)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/estherblountphotography/5259102772/ 

"In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all theeir other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry inoto or exit from certain zones." (Debord, 1958)

For my Psycheography project I decided to start in a car park near wikinsons in Leicester. The scope of my journey was totally random. I chose to map the buildings in leicester from different perspectives for example abandoned buildings and looking up and down at strange angles. I have documented my journey using photographs and putting them together using windows movie maker. The algorithms I used in my journey was throwing two dices, the number they added up to, I would go down that number of streets.

Copyright.

This is Cory Doctorow, after reading his article "Why I Copyfight'" I will assess his argument by giving reasons for why I think it doesn't work.

In Cory Doctorow's article he suggests that “Internet transactions are more apt to commit a copyright offense” (Cory Doctorow, 2008) I would have to agree with this statement because there will always be more sites being created for example the site “Napster” was shut down due to Metallica filed a lawsuit because they discovered that “Napster” had spread over their network a new demo of Metallica's that hadn't even been released yet. This is problematic because even though “Napster” was shut down there will always be P2P sites such as “Beemp3.com” that will replace them and do exactly the same as Napster has done.

 An issue with using sites such as “Napster” are not only breaking copyright legislations but also when people are caught they can argue that it wasn't them as there could have been more than one person using the computer and therefore they have the same IP address. People are then able to challenge the law when and if they get caught.

One reason why Cory Doctorow's argument doesn't work is because people infringe copyright but don't necessarily admit to it, where as other people aren't even aware that they're doing it. For example copying a picture from “Flickr” and using on as a desktop picture would be an infringment of copyright rules, but the person doing this may not be aware that this is breaking them. Another example of copyright infringement on “Flickr” is when people try to pass off photos if other peoples as their own, for example there was a case where someone reblogged a photo from flickr and saying it was their own. Copyright infringement doesn't just happen online however, it can also happen with people copying dvds with certain software that allows them to over-right copyright restrictions.

Another reason why Cory Doctorow's argument doesn't work is that technology has ways of getting round copyright laws for example encrypting things that we download. This could be seen as an example of what Doctorow meant by "Para-copyright". My interpretation of this is groups of people online are creating rules about copying things in which they think are either right or wrong. However "online culture" wouldn't exist if these copyright rules did work and sites like youtube and google would not exist and be shut down. In my opinion there does need to be some restrictions when it comes to copyright for example when remixing media but people do it and are unaware that they are infringing these copyright rules. For example it can be argued that videos by “Dangermouse” (2004) are original or not.

Should tracks like this that have been made by mixing pre existing media be classed as original?

What affect will this have on the artist that has produced the original track?

By infringing copyright rules it can be argued that the media industry is being destroyed.