Remix and Participatory Culture

After the lecture on remix and participatory culture I decided to do a post even though I do not personally make my own media texts other than set projects such as documentaries, trailer and campaigns from past college work and university. Even though I do not make my own media texts I do consume a vast amount of other media texts mainly through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. I mainly use YouTube for music videos, animations, spoofs and remix videos such as The Grey Album by Dangermouse and Charlie Sheen Winning by Songify. I really like the idea of these remix videos and I watch them because I genuinely enjoy what has been created and by watching these videos I normal find other videos from the side bar recommendations which I enjoy and continue to watch and share with others for a long period of time. Although I like watching these videos I can see that they are an infringement of copyright. However the enforcement of copyright has become problematic due to the ease of remixing as audiences can now get institution standard software and create their own media texts and upload which they are clearly doing. In recent times though with prominent songwriters such as Azealia Banks sampling Lazy Jay on her song 212 without permission the copyright issue has been a main debate within the media and acts such as PIPA and SOPA even being considered but then rejected. But as the culture has evolved I feel that remix has become a normal thing to see which I do enjoy and I certainly do not question it. I use blogger to keep records of my university work but I also read a variety of blogs by friends such as ‘Senorita Glamourista’ which is about her life and I read that to keep updated with her. I also read blogs for general entertainment purposes such as ‘Handbag Vodka’ which is a ‘Bridget Jones’ type blog about a girl from Liverpool and her day to day activities, I also follow her on twitter @Scousebirdproblems again for purely entertainment purposes. @Scousebirdproblems. For me I believe that this is an example of a community that Gordon Graham would call objective, in this case ‘what it means to be scouse’ and the common things people have in common, because of this unique outlook that only so many can relate to especially with the regional dialect she uses she has blown up with over 10,000 followers since she started just over a month ago. Other examples of this would be ‘Men’s Humor’ and ‘Uni Lad’ which are also online communities based on a stereotypical view that people have and their tweets live up to this. I started using Twitter a few weeks ago since I am now bored with Facebook and I have to say I am loving it! I think it is very easy to use and connect with people. I think it is very easy to keep up to date with news, sport and celebrities. However I am not totally convinced and I still believe that Twitter is primarily to stalk people but mainly celebrities. As I explained I have started to get bored with Facebook and do not use it as my main social media any more, twitter has rapidly overtaken this! However I believe that Facebook is a really good form of social capital and allows you to have a variety of groups of separate people such as family, close friends, university friends, college friends and you will use them as resources for different things. Since thinking about my own uses I have come to realise that even though I don’t create my own media texts I consume a lot of original content provided by other users like myself. I have also come to realise that I am apart of participatory culture on a daily basis which I was not really aware of. References Graham, G (1999). The Internet: A Philosophical Inquiry. London: Routledge. P132-136

Pecha Kucha

Networked media presentation

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In this week’s workshop we were shown examples of Pecha Kucha presentations for us to then do our own on a topic. A Pecha Kucha presentation is basically only made up of pictures which stay on screen for around 20 seconds and there are about 20 slides a presentation. The images on screen are relevant to and reinforce what the presenter is saying. I was really intrigued by this style as I had never seen a presentation done this way. I had only ever really seen people basically reiterate what was on the screen and I find that boring and repetitive. However I was very apprehensive as I do not like speaking in front of groups and stutter when I am nervous.

We got into groups and we were given our topic for the Pecha Kucha; it was uses above the level of a single device. For my part I researched and wrote about cloud computing focusing on the software Evernote and the platform iTunes and the roles they help play. Evernote is a software device that the user can access anywhere with internet to finish projects while iTunes is a platform device but because all of the Apple products can interact and sync together means virtually anything stored on the home computer is available to the user on other Apple products.  While writing my part for the presentation I soon realised that I wouldn’t have any prompts on screen in the form of text to aid me during the presentation which I normally would and that scared me as I feel very uncomfortable presenting in normal situations. I decided to get very simple images for my slides so that I wasn’t distracted by the screen when presenting. I was also nervous as university was still a very new concept and I felt I didn’t really know my group that much and was wary as to how they would react to our presentation but of course I was just worrying to much.

I felt very nervous about presenting but overall I think it went well. I also think it has improved my social and speaking skills as it was the first presentation I have ever done at university. I do think that the Pecha Kucha is a good way to present and makes the audience really have to listen to what is being said since the images give little help they only reinforce what is being said, but it is not a style I am comfortable with using so I don’t think I will be trying this again.