Betsy’s Blog

Check out this really interesting article on camps for youth who are web-obsessed in South Korea…I think there are similar camps/organizations promoting these types of activities in Northern California:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/technology/18rehab.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

Take a look at these situations, and see if you can assess how they might be assessed in terms of copyright laws…

http://www.ymdi.org/img/pdf/assessmentcopyright.pdf

For those of you making a film for your new media project and beyond, this is a really good, comprehensive guide on how to walk confidently along that seemingly dangerous line between copyright infringement and fair use…promote freedom of expression!!

Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use (from the centerforsocialmedia.org):

http://centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/bestpractices.pdf

If you would like to obtain copyright protection for your website:

http://www.keytlaw.com/Copyrights/Register.htm

To check if a paper of yours is/has been plagarized:

turnitin.com

If you’re contributing to Wikipedia, here are Wikipedia’s policies, as well as a section on “copyright tagging” so that you’re aware:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Basic_copyright_issues

For teachers, researchers, and students, fair use can be tested against the Four Factor Fair Use Test (from http://www.hawaii.edu/infobits/w2001/copyright.html):

1. What is the Purpose and Character of Use? If it is for personal or educational use, then it leans towards the side of fair use. If the intended purpose is it for commercial use, it leans away from fair use and towards the need to obtain permission from the author.

2. What is the Nature of the Copyrighted Work? If the original work is mostly factual data, then the tendency is to allow for fair use. If the original is mostly creative work, it leans the other way.

3. What Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used of the Copyrighted Work? If it’s just a small portion of the work you’re borrowing, the balance tips towards fair use. If you plan to use a significant amount of the original, the scale tips in the other direction.

4. What may be the Effect Upon Potential Market or Value of the Copyrighted Work? If you widely distributed your paper or Web page, will it affect the original author financially? Are you taking away the original author’s business by publishing your work?

can’t wait to go to college man, it’s like natural selection–every hot chick has a brain

as long as it got onto my college resume that’s all that mattered

mathematical, methodical analysis of advancement

lunchtime was club time to pad resume

Virgil–his pseudo-rebellious amalgam of a personality

felt good to do something not to put on our college resumes, suburbia, we had nothing to do, as long as our grades were there, we were trusted; cheat sheets

it’s amazing what the right piece of clothing can do for your image, but like everything else i got tired of it, at least it will look good on my college app

how do you feel about being the token asian–it’s for aesthetic purposes, so what i’m still on the team, everyone has their role

stephanie–female asian character is interesting, adopted into a white family

affirmative action and school sports–the protest scene

infused with SAT words–nice touch

shots of interaction between whites and Asians–rapid cuts, focusing on expressions, fight scene

car scene interaction between asians and hispanics

power becomes an addiction, along with an image comes maintenance–drugs, cheat sheets, clubs, etc.

Commentary- stay tuned!

Mobiles and the Appropriation of Place (Ito)

-Mobile phones are “somewhere, someplace” technologies that enable distant others to be physically present or that access information for immediate use

-Before mobile phones, landmarks and pre-arranged times dictated convergence; now, the younger generation set up a general time and place to meet that is honed and solidified via messages closer to the actual time–lateness is merely acknowledged and not apologized for, since messaging allows the other party to move on to other tasks in the meantime

-mobile phone use does not end once the gathering occurs–it is used for a variety of purposes with the premise of enabling contact and communication that would not otherwise be available

-older generation would call this more flexible lifestyle a “slackening of manners,” but there is a new consistency of social patterns/behaviors now associated with gatherings

-mobile phone use happens on the tailend to the aftermath of a gathering, as well–empty transit time allows for messages that continue conversation and contact to tie up the gathering

- mobile phones allow “gatherings” to extend beyond face-to-face interactions

Technologies of the Childhood Imagination (Ito)

-Pioneered by Pokemon, enterprises such as Yugioh have become “media mixes” that itegrate multiple media through licensed character content

-Pokemon was innovative in that it took video game fodder to create non-interactive media (TV shows) combined with portable, intimate media (Game Boy, playing cards) to allow youth to “perform these narratives in diverse settings” (31)

-Imagination as a “social collective fact” that has become more mobilized and has created “communities of sentiment”; it is not just about escape now, but also about action (31)

-Yugioh’s “imaginary” is based on media mixing, hypersociality, and remix; it is indicative of the blurred lines between “real” and “virtual”; children’s activities in the real world mimic those of the children in Yugi’s world

-the media mix concurrently creates virtual references; also, changes the position of the media consumer–it depends on increased sociality faciliated by technologies, signifiers and systems of exchange (“digitally augmented sociality,” 32); it pervades the “semiotics” of everyday life; it creates hybrid communties like the adult Yugioh communities (remixing appropriates and reshapes cultural content)

-single card collecting allow youth to create their own hierarchies and “microeconomies” with their own rules and values

-Yugioh reflects a newer, extroverted and wired childhood–media mixes in childhood content has changed the cultural landscape

Commentary:

Ito seems to be a fan of the use of mobile phones as a means of connectivity, and contrary to deeply held views that use of mobile phones depersonalizes interaction, Ito suggests that, in fact, use of mobile phones creates a more highly personal social space, particularly in seemingly isolated and anonymity-inducing urban spaces. Ito falls into the group of cultural anthropologists who recognize the empowering capacity of new media technology and practices and the social and cultural evolution that it carries with it. Her scrutiny of specific situations (“gathering” as facilitated by mobile phone use, and the blending of “real” and “imagined” worlds by media mixing such as the Yugioh enterprise) created by employment of new media takes the discussion of the socio-cultural development of societies that utilize these media to a more nuanced analytical space in which broad factors such as SES, gender, race, etc. are not enough to understand social practices and cultural transformation that reflect digital media integration and advancement. Particularly in youth technoculture it is important to thoroughly investigate the practices themselves and to develop semiotic, linguistic and coded analysis of peer participation in order to shy away from abstract analysis of trends. I thought her point about how pervasive use of new media extends the parameters of social interaction was interesting–for instance, idea that we continue conversations in “dead space,” during transit periods. Most of the time, I’ve seen the insertion of new media technology in certain social situations as distracting, obtrusive, and not conducive to what I thought was “real” conversation and connection. Ito’s argument is interesting because it subverts the idea of what is typically accepted as “connectivity” and has forced me to rethink my generally vehement dismissal of new forms of interactivity facilitated by new media.

When the Moon Waxes Red (Trinh)

stay tuned!

Overview

media is dynamic and multi-faceted and represents the interactions between technologies, economics, texts and audiences (18) ; we cannot just dismiss media as having negative influences on childhoods anymore

“childhood is dying” and in some ways media is responsible for this, and yet children are liberated and more aware with more access to information than every before–an “electronic generation”

Neil Postman’s The Disappearance of Childhood is a technological determinist account of how print media forced slow apprenticeship to literacy, while television and other types of newer media are “total disclosure” media

Dan Tapscott’s Growing Up Digital sees the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood as reinforced by new digital media as a means of empowering younger people–he simultaneously sets up the comparison of television to internet; television:passive:dumbing down:: internet:active:democratic/interactive/community building

both views are symptomatic of socio-historical changes with respect to childhood:

1) children are becoming increasingly dependent on parents, as more children are investing in cumpulsory and post-cumpulsory education

2) children are maturing earlier having sex at an ever earlier ages

3) peer group changes–those living “modern” vs. those living “traditional: childhoods; crime?

4) children’s rights legislation

5) children as a direct consumer market

Buckingham’s thesis: While the lines between adulthood and childhood are becoming increasingly blurred and children are becoming more “empowered,” at the same time they are denied the opportunity to assert control

Technologies:

proliferation-tv has become delivery point for other media

convergence -digitization has helped to merge information and communication technologies

access-a whole new range of media for the domestic consumer; prices are falling; boundaries between production and consumption, mass and interpersonal communication, are breaking down

implications of technologies for children:

1) technology is being used in more individual ways

2) new cultural forms are made possible allowing children to play a more active role in creating/producing (yet there still is a gap between technological “rich” and “poor”

3) growing access to information intended for adults, renders less control of information that can reach children; material can be copied and circulated and sent transnationally even; pornography is much more accessible, and there is not a ton of evidence suggesting the efficacy of controls

Economics

privitization-commercialization of contemporary culture

integration and globalization-media is dominated by a few giant media conglomerates producing “common culture” in order to ensure success of these corporations internationally; at the same time, competition has increased “niche marketing”; creation of communities that transcend national borders

implications of economics on children:

1) children have become discovered as a target market population

2) children have more influence on parents’ purchasing power

3) growing youth culture suggests that sometimes children have more in common with children from other cultures than their own parents

4) leisure activities are more privatized and commercialized

5) commercialization of media reinforces gap between rich and poor; the “haves” become “early adopters” and can expand their technological equipment and know-how over more time

Texts

convergence of technology and economics

intertextuality

interactivity-hypertext, CD ROMS, computer games

implications of texts on children:

1) while the public is becoming increasingly concenred about what children are exposed to, the media no longer sees child as innocent, but rather as “sophisticated, demanding, ‘media-wise’ consumers”

2) children are portrayed as savvy/knowing, adults are conservative/will never understand–this is a “discourse of consumer sovereignty masquerading as a discourse of cultural rights” (31-32)

1)increasing niche market

2) popular cartoons/TV programs make reference to other texts/genres with increasing irony and intertextuality–TV programs are not just the programs but all the commercial additions that correspond to them: “identity of ‘original’ text is not clear; Disney is an example of “trans-media intertextuality”

3) children are becoming older younger; children’s programs are becoming increasingly adult; adult programs are becoming increasingly infantilized

Audiences

children are becoming increasingly highly media literate

amount of new product can’t keep pace with the increase in outlets for it

both a growing interactivity as well as fragmentation

implications for views of child audience:

Commentary

The blurring of public and private spheres is facilitated by the proliferation of vast, diverse and pervasive media. The at one time socially prevalent desire to achieve “family” that dominated the private sphere, seems to have become replaced by new media forms that promote multi-tasking, interactivity with the public sphere, and dependency on these forms within the context of the private sphere, that begs the question, is it possible to really attain cohesive, communicative, nurturing family units in this new media age? Do we need to change our conceptualization and expectations of what “family” means and how new media plays a role in that? As Buckingham argues, it would be a mistake to dismiss new media forms as solely providing negative influences on childhood. What constitutes “childhood” in this new media age; if “adulthood” has historically been associated with “maturity,” “literacy,” “experience,” “know-how,” how are new media youth defined according to these constructs? What are the dangers that come along with the shifting nature of “childhood”?

This past summer, I worked with Livable Places to organize this event. You can see an example of a wiki page under donate…there are all kinds of new media involved on these pages. Check it out!

http://parkingdayla.com/

Overview

setting up historical framework:

1)1960s culture wars was followed by 70s new discourses for reorganization of economy and state which took place during the 80s in capitalist world under conservative governments (which cut social welfare programs, increased federal deficit, expanded military, etc.)

2) collapse of Soviet Communism and end of Cold War, tearing down of Berlin Wall

3) nationalist/religious wars have exploded since then–new fear and instability–”with no political forces able to offer an attractive way out of the current morass of economic recession, political instability, and cultural confusion” (15)

4) U.S. culture wars have intensified-partisan politics have strengthened–with rightist assaults on “pc-ness”

5) New technologies have changed patterns of everyday life–restructured work and leisure (**tell me about it! Bernice Johnson Reagon), created new jobs/reconfigured old jobs, new forms of accessing info, communicating with people, etc.)

Having placed “new technologies of the past decade” into a historical time, Kellner then explains how new media are ambiguous and have contradictory effects:

1) While they provide more choice, and more possibilities for creativity, and intervention of alternative cultures,

2) they also provide more openings for new forms of surveillance and social control through more efficient/subtle techniques of indoctrination–keeping people blissfully unaware, obliviously ensconsed in bubbles away from “the madding crowds and sites of mass political action”–how can we strike a balance, so that new media is controlled, and doesn’t do the controlling?

media culture is fairly new–culture industries in the 40s began to colonize leisure time, and with the advent of the tv, media became the dominant force within cultural/social/political/social life; in most capitalist countires, media culture is produced for profit

media culture is not just the instrument of dominant ideology but also needs to be contextualized and interpreted within a “matrix of the competing social discourses and forces which constitute it” (17)–**Hollywood writers strike

yet, in some senses it is the dominant culture, and force of socialization–everything is in your home and at your fingertips; it erases “distinctions between reality and media image, while producing new modes of experience and subjectivity” (17)–”a decisive novelty in human adventure”

some political economists argue that we are in a “post-Fordist” society in which what we’ve historically accumulated by mass production and consumption, state regulation of the economy and homogeneous mass culture (not sure about that one), is replaced by more flexible regimes–TNC’s replace nation-state as “arbiters of production” (18)

Conservative culture reigns supreme in tv and radio still, progressives divided by micropolitics and/or identity politics

the concrete struggles of society are influenced by media culture–not just news and information, but fiction and entertainment, as well

Theory Wars:

A historical context:

1) “theory fever” in the 60s–new theories of language, the subject, politics, culture, etc. , neo-Marxism, second wave feminism;

2)70’s–globalization of theory–theories spread across borders and national cultures–discourses on race, class, ethnicity

3) 80’s–supertheory, hegemony, and dominance

4)90’s–multi-culturalism–affirmed “otherness”

What are theories? Foucault–theories are “instruments”, weapons to attack specific targets (24); “ways of seeing” to interpret phenomena and events, using “concepts, images, symbols, arguments, narratives, etc.” (24); critical social theory–“conceptualize the structures of domination and resistance…point to forms of oppression and domination…illuminate the possiblities of social transformation and progress…(they) are weapons of critique and instruments of practice…” (25)

approach to cultural studies–intertextuality and transdisciplinary approaches are key

The Frankfurt School :

began critical communication studies in the 30’s and came up with term “culture industries” (process of industralization and mass-produced culture that dominated life and legitimized capitalism)

More on it’s way! I didn’t realize I did the wrong reading…Lister will be up by tomorrow!

For those, who are interested in the recent strike of the Hollywood Writer’s Guild, here’s an article from the Associated Press. Maybe we could discuss this in section at some point?

FYI:

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/entertainment/other/20071106_ap_canthewebbenefitfromwritersstrike.html

 FYI:

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/5603