Remix Culture

Most people immediately think of music when they hear the word remix, however this is only one type of remix. A remix can be anything that has been altered to give it a new meaning. You can basically remix anything. With the rise of sites such as YouTube, producers are easily able to get their work out to a large audience. This has led to a huge influx of remixes, both serious and parodies. The example below on YouTube is one of my favourites. It is a remix of the popular AC/DC song Thunderstruck but played on Cello’s.

In class we discussed whether remixes are classified as original and if originality is even important. In my opinion nothing is original. Everything has inspiration from somewhere and it is virtually impossible to be truly original. I also don’t believe that being original is important. The video above is clearly inspired by AC/DC so isn’t original, but it is definitely creative, which to me is a whole lot more important.

Sources:

Youtube Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3SBzmDxGk

 

Annotated Bibliography

Source 1 – http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/category/photography-tips-2/

The page provides tips on photography and information on how to shoot many different types of photos. With our digital artefact heavily involving photography this is an extremely useful source for us. It covers a wide range of different styles of photography and overall provides a large amount of information. I think this is an extremely detailed source and will provide us with some great information on little things we can implement to keep improving our photography and to make it look like it was taken professionally.

Source 2 –  http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/08/30/best-photo-editing-tips-for-beginners-18-quick-fixes-to-common-image-problems/

Photo editing is important with our digital artefact as we post solely photos. This page provides 18 tips on editing photos for beginners. Being a beginner in the area of editing photos, this is something that I need to use. The tips are for common image problems which is something that I will likely encounter being a beginner and won’t have the knowledge to fix. The page provides the solution to these problems and explains it in a clear and concise way which makes it easy to read.

Source 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqKHo1Q7OMc

This video provides information on how to get started on Photoshop and 10 tips on editing photos with the program. While it is quite a lengthy video, it is very detailed and provides great insight into how Photoshop works and things that beginners such as myself can do with it. Many of the things listed are editing techniques that we can use on our photos for our digital artefact and will provide useful in improving the quality of our artefact, which is just as, if not more important than producing a large quantity.

Source 4 –  http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/3789/abstract-photography-beginniners/

As our digital artefact is primarily taking abstract photos, I found this source useful. It gives tips for beginners on taking abstract photos and what they can do to go in the right direction. I haven’t had much experience in photography at all let alone abstract photography so this source provides useful information for me. It provides good detail of different methods for producing abstract photography however I feel it could go into depth a bit more with some of the tips. It still gives some starting points for us to go with

Source 5 –  http://artunderus.tumblr.com/

This source is a Tumblr page that posts abstract photos taken or uploaded by the user. It has a large amount of photos in a wide variety of settings and with a lot of different focal points. I found many of the photos very interesting and it provided me with a lot of ideas for potential posts that we could make. It also reiterated the point that we need to post often and have a larger amount of content if we want to get a larger following.

Source 6 –  http://scarpgodenot.tumblr.com/

The same as my previous post, this is a Tumblr page that posts abstract photos. The difference with this source is that the user frequently posts and interacts with the audience. This seems to have helped build a bigger audience as this user has a lot more views and followers to each of their posts. Having seen this, it has shown me the importance of interacting with the audience and not just blindly posting content all the time and then ignoring the page. We need to engage the audience. I have also had a few ideas for future photos from looking through this source

Source 7 –https://www.facebook.com/facesofuow/?fref=ts

Faces of UOW is an established page on Facebook that takes pictures of people at UOW and then has about a paragraph of text below with a quote from the person which is usually something interesting about themselves. This appears to have been inspired by the wildly popular blog Human of New York. The page posts on a regular, almost daily basis and constantly interacts with its audience. As of this post, it has 4626 followers which shows that the creators have done a fantastic job building an audience. By following these strategies they use we can hopefully start to build a large audience as well.

Source 8 –  http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/improve-facebook-news-feed-performance/

Our digital artefact uses Facebook as a platform that we promote our artefact on. Therefore it is important utilize Facebook correctly to get the largest amount of views possible. This site provides 18 ways to improve the viewership of your Facebook page. How the Facebook promotion system works is explained and the page actually provides some very useful tips and explains them thoroughly. I found it useful as I didn’t understand how ‘reach’ worked on Facebook and having never had a page on Facebook it helped me understand how we can increase our following.

Source 9 – http://mashable.com/2012/06/03/the-beginners-guide-to-tumblr/

Tumblr is the other major platform we have our digital artefact on. With Tumblr being completely new to me, I need information on how to use it and how to take advantage of the features it possesses. This source provides a beginners guide to Tumblr and information about how to use its features. It is a useful source and while it only covers the basic features of Tumblr I have found it extremely useful in teaching me how to use Tumblr and to now utilise it for the digital artefact.

Source 10 –  http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/get-followers-tumblr/

Similar to my previous source, this one gives tips on how to get more followers and views but this time on Tumblr. Like I stated in my previous source on Tumblr, I have no experience using it so this source was helpful in explaining ways I can attract more followers to the page. I like how it simplifies it down into three steps and then further elaborates on these steps. This source will be great for giving us ideas on how to promote our page and get it out further into the public eye.

Marvel & Transmedia

Dr. Pamela Rutledge describes transmedia as “Transmedia storytelling uses multiple media platforms tell a narrative across time. Each media piece—whether it’s a comic, novels, video games, mobile apps, or a film—functions as a standalone story experience—complete and satisfying. Like a giant puzzle, each piece also contributes to a larger narrative.” This to me is a perfect definition of transmedia.

A great example of this would be the Marvel Universe. Through a wide range of mediums including film, television, comics, games and books, multiple stories are told through different characters that all contribute to the overall story of the Marvel Universe.

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As shown above, the film Captain America: Civil War, the comic book Iron Man and the television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D all each add their own individual piece the Marvel Universe and even connect with each other through crossovers and cameo appearances. Transmedia such as this gives the opportunity to tell a large amount of new stories and keep fans engaged.

Sources:

Transmedia Definition: http://athinklab.com/transmedia-storytelling/what-is-transmedia-storytelling/

Civil War Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrVegVI0Us

Iron Man Picture: http://comicvine.gamespot.com/iron-man-1-2-amour-in-armor/4000-171042/

Agents of Shield Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PerIAuv27SQ

 

Live Game Streaming

http://prezi.com/llizrmsrp0pn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Earning hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to sit at home and play video games. Doesn’t it sound great? This is a reality for some though as the live streaming gamer becomes more and more popular. The basic premise is that the gamer has a live stream of them playing an online game, allowing the internet to watch, and interacts with the audience through a chat box. They do this through sites such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. As explained in the IB Times, it is easy and relatively cheap it is to start up one of these live game streams.

The most popular example of this in the world today is PewDiePie. He currently has over 42 million subscribers to his YouTube channel which gives him an extremely wide reach. His earnings in 2015 were in the millions and is the most popular channel on YouTube. His popularity has spawned many others attempting to replicate his efforts with varying degrees of success. One of the most popular in Australia would be xMinks, with over 300000 followers.

With such interest in the live game streaming market, it will be interesting to see where it evolves to and what the next step is.

Sources:

http://www.ibtimes.com/how-live-stream-video-games-twitch-youtube-gaming-any-budget-2160659

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/youtuber-pewdiepie-opens-up-about-his-73-million-earnings-from-playing-video-games-10374402.html

https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

https://www.twitch.tv/xminks

 

 

 

 

 

The Changing Role of the Audience

The role of the audience has changed from being passive by receiving and accepting the content given to us by the media to an active role where the audience participates in the content creation. Things such as video creation on YouTube and blogs such as this as a place for people to share their opinions and thoughts have become wildly popular. However the most important creation from this change in role of the audience is Twitter.

Twitter has become an instant news source for society. In comparison to legacy media where news can take hours and even days to be reported, twitter reports it within seconds. This has led to a rise in citizen journalism. The audience has become the creator as anyone with a smart phone and a twitter can report on an event instantly. This has led to many legacy media outlets using twitter as their sources rather than sending journalists out to the event. It means that almost anywhere at any time there is someone to report on an event. We have moved from passively accepting whatever the media industry reported to becoming the reporters and being actively involved in the content creation.

Constantly Connected

Most of the world’s population is constantly connected to the internet in one way or another. Through phones, laptops, computers, televisions and even watches, we always have this access at our fingertips. Many people have their phone on them 24/7, meaning that their phone has essentially become a part of them. This has made life much easier for people, students are able to watch lectures on their laptops and phones, workers can access emails outside the office, people can stream television shows from overseas and get breaking news the instant it happens. Even something as simple as an argument at the pub over trivia can be answered in mere seconds.

But while there are many positive aspects of this culture of always being connected, what are the negatives? There have been suggestions that social media is replacing real world social interactions and that we spend too much time on our gadgets. I personally disagree as I think social media and phones have made social interaction easier as you have access to everyone instantly which makes organising times to meet up in person much easier.

While there are many positives to being constantly connected, there are periods sometimes where we do just need to switch off.

Happy Birthday?

One thing that really stood out to me this week was the fact that someone can claim ownership of the song Happy Birthday. Could it be true? Do we really have to pay royalties for singing Happy Birthday? As it turned out, Warner Music had indeed acquired the rights to the song and were charging royalties for its use. They have since released it to the public domain but one must wonder how much they made with it since they purchased it in 1988.

This caused me to think about the issues of ownership and copyright. I believe that these concept definitely have their place. If a person creates something they should have the right to ownership. However I believe the restrictions on this should be loosened. Creative Commons is a good start as it allows things such as remixes and redistribution for non-commercial purposes but owners still have to choose to do this. Once we begin to move towards this across the board, I believe that we will all be better off for it.

The Medium is the Message

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Throughout the week I have spent plenty of time, like I am sure plenty of others in the course have, trying to interpret what Marshall McLuhan meant when he phrased the term ‘the medium is the message.’ After reading countless theories and interpretations, I think I have formed my own opinion on what McLuhan meant.

Prior to this week’s lecture my understanding was, like the meme shows, that the medium was a tool to portray the message and nothing more. However mediums are so much more than that. They directly impact the way we live our lives. Moving from written mail to email is an example of this, adapting the way we complete this task to keep up with technology. While content is still important, as without it the medium doesn’t have a use, it is the medium that directly effects our lives, and society as a whole.

Until next time!

About Me

Hi, my name is Hayden and I am studying a Bachelor of Communication & Media Studies at the University of Wollongong.

Why am I here? For the last five years I have worked in an accounting firm in my hometown of Goulburn. I studied while working and got my Bachelor of Commerce from ANU. However one day last year while sitting at my desk at work it dawned on me, I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life. Accounting wasn’t for me. After thinking long and hard about where I wanted to be I decided to follow my biggest passion in life, sport. Knowing that my sporting abilities will not allow me to progress beyond the local leagues, looking for something in sports media seemed like the next best thing. So I packed up and left little old Goulburn, prepared to take a chance on my dream.

My first week at Uni has been an interesting experience. Moving to Wollongong having lived in a small rural town my whole life has taken a bit of getting used to. But the transition has been reasonably smooth as Wollongong is such a lovely area.

Having worked in an Accounting firm for the last five years, these concepts of blogging and digital artifacts are very foreign to me and while I’m nervous about moving into a completely new field, I’m excited to learn and to challenge myself to keep progressing!