Let's Meme About it

Memes have taken out internet world by storm. From cats to political candidates you can meme about everything. They are found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram whole pages are dedicated to the creativity of these humorous pictures. Specifically in class we talked about the recent election and how Joe Biden was a popular topic in the meme world. Several pictures display captions of him interacting with President Obama and other political candidates in childish and immature (for a vice president) manor. Of course these are all just fun and games.

These are a few of the most popular moments in 2016 that were "meme worthy". These memes are not created by one person but developed by many who find a topic funny or interesting enough to dedicate the time. Multiple pictures can be used multiple times and organized by a certain hashtag making communities easier to find these pictures. 

Week 16 Blog Post

Collaboration is a valuable source of knowledge. Over this semester I have learned what it means to collaborate with my peers, collaborate online, and how not to collaborate. My skills have grown and I have learned that their is greater ability to make a difference with multiple minds rather than just one. With the group projects and activities my groups and I have been able to create, make a difference, and learn that our opinions can be told in multiple ways. I have learned the many ways I can output content and be creative. Topics that interested me the most were the Public vs Counter public, Anorexia/Reddit community and Black Lives Matter. Also our Unit 2 project was something I enjoyed participating in.

As I have said my fellow students have grown over the semester and have given me greater value in other peoples opinions. Throughout my life it is hard for me to delegate and this class has taught me that just because people may not have the same opinion as me we can come to a collective agreement and achieve our goal in many ways.

Here are a few blogs that stood out to me throughout the semester and even show improvement throughout the semester:

Madison Marshall
Her blog is very detailed and consistently very informative. She also has great use of visuals.
Noelle Woolway
Her specific blog that stood out to me was #DeafTalent. I am interested in deaf culture having taken sign language myself.
Miles Mayfield
Has good ideas and well written posts.

This is Copyright

Ever since the beginning of time, people have been renewing and evolving our knowledge. Through

source: the Red List

science, math, fine arts, philosophy and so on the greatest ideas have come from ideas that have previously been created. For instance, Shakespeare, one of the most well-known and studied artist of his time, had created many plays that we have created and recreated multiple times. How many versions of Romeo and Juliet have you seen? Leonardo Dicaprio wouldn't be able to sweep you off your feet in his version had the original not been created in the first place. How about Much Ado About Nothing? Twelfth Night (the movie She's The Man is based off of)? Christmas songs have been done and redone, remixed and auto-tuned for your enjoyment over the years. But what many people do not know is the steps that are involved with assuring that you won't get sued over just a tiny bit of copyright infringement and your hopes and dreams of your creativity being known to the public squandered.

source: EDM

Copyright is a big deal. Originated obviously because artist wanted to make sure that their "original" creation would not be copied by other people. And yes it has come into good use. But on the other hand our creative world has evolved even further. Copyright has become so involved that it is hindering the creativity of musicians that feed off of other content to create their own. Electronic Dance Music for example. This music specifically uses samples of other songs to create their own music along with maybe some original sounds and content they create. Fines people charge for use of their songs rack up in a 4 minute long song. Lower level EDM artist are unable to make albums because they are forced to pay thousands of dollars before they even see any revenue from their artwork.

source: steemit

Piracy is a way for people to share copies of movies, TV shows, even music for free. Copyright comes into play because it protects artist from people seeing/listening to their work for free. Viewing/listening for free means the actors, artist, directors, back round dancers, and what not don't get paid. Which is a problem of course. But now it has gotten to the point where people freak out if your Youtube description box doesn't fully state all the ways you don't own the content that is clearly not your in the first place. Youtube takes your video down. In my opinion Copyright needs to take it a step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes it is wrong to steal other peoples work unfairly. But does it have to be to this extreme? Let's evolve people.
Relating this back to course content, we had viewed a movie where the focus was on a relatively popular artist that basically made his fame through his underground network of fans that had collectively produced over time. He was unable to make and album due to the amount of cost it would make for him to produce one and the fact that copyright rules would basically hand him a lawsuit the second the album dropped. We have also learned about Open Source apps and programs that allow us to create content legally.

sources:

http://bciptf.org/2014/03/copyright-and-electronic-dance-music-production-what-are-the-legal-risks-to-producers/

Unit 3 week 15 blog post

Task for this unit 3 projects we were required to create tasks for our own cause as well as participate in task for the next group. Our group (HydroFlaskGivesBack) chose tasks that were geared towards those who looking to purchase a HydroFlask or those who already own one. They were pretty easy to come up with since they really require the use of spreadable content. As in that many people who have one and do not know they can use the feature. At the end of day 1 I could relate to the concept of membership. I did not start this group nor did I know much about the cause until I did my own research.

The day 2 activity required us to individually and collectively do the tasks that the other group assigned. I learned more about a cause that I did not know much about on the first day while I did the tasks assigned. I like how this activity is making it easy to coordinate simple tasks for people to complete but they are also very effective.

Tasks included: 

1. Sending an email to the University of Arizona asking for a Hope Phone phone drive

2. Spreading the word via Twitter, Text and Flyer 

Black Lives Matter

Screenshot from the video of the incident (Image courtesy of Flickr)

March 3rd, 1991 history was made when taxi driver, Rodney King, was tazered and beaten multiple times after a traffic stop had gone bad. King was reported to be speeding and was assumed to be high on PCP after refusing to exit his vehicle. King suffered many brutal injuries after the incident. Eleven days later, the officers who were present in this incident were acquitted for their crimes and with that the riots of 1992 began. This incident, which had many similar incidents beforehand, had received so much attention throughout the nation because it was one of the first incidents where visual footage was broadcasted nation-wide. The raw footage of the beating moved many people to emotionally react towards the outcome of the acquisition of the officers and educated many on something they may not have been aware of before. 

The 1992 LA Riots (Image curtesy of The Society for U.S. Intellectual History)

#BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012, after the death of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman was acquitted for murder. Since Martin's death many similar incidents have been brought to light through visual footage and pictures. Popular to what many believe, Black Lives Matter goes deeper than the police brutality movements that have taken social media and news outlets by storm, but is used to bring attention to all aspects of minority mistreatment. 

"Not a moment, but a movement." (www.thebaynet.com)

The spreadability of this footage created an uproar of those who felt, with what little they could really do, they should somehow or someway speak their minds. Other than protesting and rioting they took to the internet. Thus #BlackLivesMatter took to the trending topics and still remains a popular hashtag today. The use of this hashtag has connected many of those with the same ideas, interest, maybe even relatable scenarios within this community. This information is relevant to class concepts because this was one of those activist groups that was solely built through social media and a single hashtag. This movement is linked throughout Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It has made a major impact throughout our country and even internationally. Details were brought to light that might have otherwise been overlooked. Regardless if you agree or disagree with the topic that is being argued there is a part of you that has to admit the impact is impressive. 

What you don't see won't hurt you, right?

(source: Harvard Business Review)

A large majority of recent class time and independent readings have been based on how your own searches and history are influencing what you see despite what you really should be seeing overall.

Or a biased feed one would say. Places like Google, Facebook, twitter, now even Instagram all consist of algorithms that determine what you see based off of people you follow, what is shared among followers, what you search for, people of people you follow, or how often something or popular a certain post is. With this information people have determined that this is a problem responsible for biased information, otherwise people who may search for some information may only see information regarding that topic rather than seeing information from both perspectives or a perspective contrasting theirs.

(source: Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal)

For instance, Google uses an auto-complete algorithm that gives you search options based off of your history or what other people have typed in as you are typing in your search topic. This is an issue when you type in "Why do w..." and search options like "Why do white people..." comes up. Even though it may not have any relation to what you were typing curiosity sets in or even just seeing the question/statement might spark a stereotype. This was originally constructed in order to somehow make typing up your topic in the search bar easier. However, seems to be encouraging stereotypes among all races, genders, ethnicities, etc.

Now, in social media aspects places like Twitter and Instagram have algorithms that increase the visual traffic of popular posts. Although, what is popular might not be politically correct or in your best interest. Popularity does not mean that it is really what you "need" to be seeing. "Information balance" vs "information junk food" so to speak. You only really see or pay attention to what you want to see. This now follows news topics. Why do people only engage in searches that share their personal view? Is it intentional or is it just viewing what your search algorithm gives you? Can you even search for something you don't even know is happening? However, places like Twitter is mostly a rapid fire display of information making it harder to filter out what you want to see while still only showing what people are talking about based off of whom you follow. Instagram shows the most

(source: www.exintra.com)

popular posts based on who you follow. Facebook on the other hand only shows you what it thinks you want to see based off of likes or shares or even what you click on. I mean, how much of all 500 of your Facebook friends do you actually see rather than what you see of your 10 friends that you keep up with?

Bias in algorithms is an issue. Being aware of an issue itself let alone being able to visually see all perspectives of an issue is crucial. I think when forming an opinion about something, there is only so much credibility you can get when you only get your information off of Facebook and/or Huffington post.

Get The Job Done

(source: MacRumers)

Mac, Iphone, Ipad, Ipod. In 2012, USA today determined that more than 55 million Americans own an Apple product in their homes. Every year Apple releases a new version of the Iphone, every year is met with high demand to release a product up to the standards of it's 55 million consumers. But who exactly was the mastermind(s) behind this company? 40 years ago, Steve Jobs and two of his friends, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, collaborated to create Apple. Fast forward many products and years later, Steve Jobs, at the age of 56, passed away from pancreatic cancer, shocking the country. The company that has brought the world together through face-time had lost its' head leader.

(source: Business Insider)

Many people, who may or may not have known him very well, perceived Jobs as a technological genius. A highly intelligent man who single-handedly brought up Apple and created these ground-breaking devices all on his own. Yet upon his death, many of his co-workers, partners, and peers came forward to present the reality of Steve Jobs. One of the more famous peers who was seen as a more competitive type friend of Jobs was non other than the co-creator of Microsoft (created in 1975), Bill Gates. While many others came forward to say that Jobs only stole their ideas to remold them into his own invention, Jobs stated, "He shamelessly ripped off other peoples ideas." In Walter Issacson's biography of Steve Jobs. That he (Gates) had unashamedly stolen from Jobs to produce Windows, which had similarities to Jobs' Macintosh. The same outrage occurred after Google came out with the Android, for also having too many similarities to Jobs' Iphone device (New Yorker).

(source: History Things)

Upon reading this article I too thought that this was an incredulous description of the beloved Steve Jobs. However notorious may be the man seemed to know what he was doing creating a massive empire like Apple. However, the many speed bumps in his way were regarding his not-so-lovable attitude towards others.