Online Sharing Aids Musicians

No matter who you are, each person in our digital cultures class is a pirate. We ourselves have all contributed to “every important sector of big media today-film, records, radio, and cable TV”, each being born by so-called piracy (Lessig-Free Culture). So what exactly is piracy and how does it make individuals a pirate? Well friends, piracy occurs when an individual, without permission, uses another’s creative property. Now can we all honestly say that we have not done this? (No hands go up…) Exactly! When a song is heard on the Internet that catches the interest of one person, they in turn inform others, who then inform others. This, yet a case of piracy, is an example of how online sharing can benefit an artist. The Internet is a main catalyst for allowing the public to hear new independent artists. The exposure that the artists receive from online sharing of music is definitely beneficial towards them spreading their name and gaining them fame. Though in the eyes of the recording company, the online sharing may seem detrimental, in actually it is an advantage for the recording artists themselves.

            The truth is that the free downloading of music by no means “destroys sales” or “ruins the music industry” as recording labels may claim. In fact, it helps sales, maybe not immediately, but in the future. It can be thought about though personal experience. An individual may hear a song from an artist through a friend, causing them to get a free download. Gradually they inform others, while also listening to other songs from the artist. Soon they find the artist is touring and they go see a concert, paying for a ticket and also possibly purchasing memorabilia at the concert. This doesn’t even include the iTunes purchases, or CD purchases from gained popularity after individuals continue to spread artist’s notoriety. In fact, Janis Ian, the recording musician who authored the reading from class stated that she found “every time we make a few songs available on my website, sales of all CD’s go up. A lot,” further detailing that free downloading is a clear benefit to the artist.

            Ian added that the main way an artist can become successful is through one thing, exposure. As she details, “without exposure, no one comes to shows, no one buys CDs”. In her experience she said she has had several encounters with fans who said, “they came to a show because they’d downloaded a song and gotten curious”, yet another testament to the benefit of free downloading (Ian-Internet Piracy).

            Ian’s articles, as well as similar artists accounts, clearly reveals that they artists themselves are not the ones negatively affected by free online sharing. They in turn are positively affected allowing their name to gain recognition, and their music to catch on with fans for years to come.

Flickr Fun

This past week, the class project was one that broadened technological horizons, for me especially. Having never truly used flicker until recently for the assignment, I was opened to several different things, which to me presented myriad opportunities for avid picture takers and photographers.  Our group gathered together and began to piece together what story we would be telling. After jotting down ideas and discussing what type of angles and pictures we were thinking of, our projected story finally was decided and the fun began.

The story Above the Influence summarized the first person view of the life of a college student, and the affects his decisions at a party would have on him. Through 2 sets of 5 pictures our group displayed a student studying, entering a party, accepting or not accepting a drink and joint, vomiting or helping a friend, and then waking up in the morning in bed or outside. From each picture, the story came to life. By using various lighting effects along with some color aspects the pictures greatly displayed what emotion or depictions we wanted to display. The fun of putting the story together and ultimately finishing it on flickr, made it look pretty cool.

Having never personally used flickr before at first it was adjustment, but after thorough navigation throughout the entire website it became clearer what the directions were, and how to upload photos. After finally figuring it out, use of flickr came rather easily. Uploading photos and creating sets was truly not difficult at all. Having the ability to easily upload pictures from users and successfully using flickr is a very effective tool in many different aspects. It can be used in political campaigning, journalism aspects, in showing support for a respective team or group, as well as being effective for showing family and friends photo’s of one’s family events such as a birth or wedding. Flickr’s easy maneuverable ability allows for not only regular users, but new users as well to share useful content amongst each other efficiently.

Though the familiarity with the website may not come as quickly as some may hope, there is no need to panic as several resources for flickr “aid” are across the internet. As noted in PBworks web page, Flickrfun, even when one struggles with usage of the flickr website, there is always support from other users who even give ideas and strategies to make fun in the flickr world more readily. In the words of the sombrero wearing young girl, “Flick is so much fun!”

The Aid of the Internet

The 2008 United States election was a historic event in all accounts. It was a promotion of change. It presented an opportunity for the youth to reestablish themselves as a powerful voice in the electoral process. It also provided the chance for an African American president to live in the White House. The progression of media from the first televised debate to the most recent 2008 election has brought a vast amount of new age technology. Most notably, that technology has to be the internet and the use of social networking.

The use of social networking in politics truly took off during the republican campaign of Howard Dean. Chronicled in Jenkins Photoshop for Democracy, Dean was running for the republican ballot and his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, found it essential to promote his candidate through the “grass roots” system. His campaign team used several online strategies such as “blogging to create a more intimate, real-time relationship with his supporters.” Additionally their use of “Meetup.com” enabled them the ability “to quickly launch rallies, drawing together thousands of people at a time,” clearly actively engaging supporters through an immediate online connection. This, as Trippi explains, is “where the politics of television gave way to the politics of the internet,” a tactic used mightily in the election of the 44^th president, Barack Obama.

Obama’s campaign, according to e-poltics, had four key moments where the usage of online networking willed him into the United States presidency.  First, Barack’s ability to fundraise online, allowed “the political professionals to take notice”. His ability to out fundraise his main democratic opponent, Hilary Clinton, turned the eyes of many. It vaulted Obama, helping him create “the network of grassroots organizers that would see him through the next pivotal time.” The networking increased as he gained supporters and momentum. Through his online organizations and via email to his supporters, Obama progressed through stage after stage, winning democratic caucuses due in large part to the online support. His campaign team organized the “MyBarackObama tool kit”, used by his key supporters. The “MyBarackObama tools were vital, since they let volunteers create the initial supporter networks” thus spring boarding him even more as he gained the name on the Democratic ballot. The volunteer organization “essentially built the campaign a structure in places where it didn’t exist”. Without this coupled with the continued online donations Barack could have frizzled out rather quickly.

As election time neared Obama’s campaign continued to progress, actively receiving donations and gaining numerous supporters. When eventually he had won the election, experts looked back at how each candidates teams help promote their respective candidate.  Statistics came back saying that Barack’s campaign contacted 27 percent of the voters, whereas McCain’s contacted roughly 19 percent. This, with great reason, was legitimately a result of email-forwarders, Facebook-status-changers” along with the millions of online donations used to fund the online organizations. Essentially, without the use of the internet and its social networking, Obama may have never won his caucuses, let alone out fund Hilary Clinton. The use of the internet and networking defiantly created a new chapter into the array of politics and its progression of campaigning.

Citizen Journalism- The Next Generation?

      As a reader of news, what do individuals want out of their stories? Is it a detailed description? A personal account? Live in depth coverage? Or audio and video footage? What if someone could report news with all of the above? Granted accuracy and legitimacy is always of high importance but what if it was the only available report, the only available on scene resource. This, friends, is citizen journalism. Having all of these abilities to contribute to mass media news is essential especially in today’s day and age. The resources to some may seem invalid, but in select scenarios the citizen journalist is quite beneficial. This is why Andrew Keen’s statement, in The Noble Amateur, that citizen journalists “simply don’t have resources to bring us reliable news,” and “access to information” is not entirely accurate.

            Matt Wisniewski, a citizen journalist, has a video that proves otherwise to Keen’s comments. Matt’s powerful 5 minute video chronicles the Budget Repair Protests at the Wisconsin Capital in Madison. Yes, the news teams can provide what was occurring throughout the day, but they could not provide the perspective that Matt shows inside the capital. This is merely only one example of the citizen journalist being effective. Others include Mr. Glenn Reynolds, the writer for Instapundt. His journalistic ability allowed him and his writings to gain much recognition post 9/11 and in 2004 he was awarded Web Technology’s Media and Journalism award, although he himself was not a news journalist. Citizen journalism has not stopped there. In some instances news stations ask the public for video, photo, or even audio accounts of key events that they want to report on. They accept these from the public; they accept these from the citizen journalist.

            Citizen journalists not only contribute to the daily TV news, radio news, newspapers, and web news. They go further, offering different perspectives that the public can relate to. They write on blogs such as Northwest Voice in Bakersfield, California. They send letters to the editor, possibly reinforcing a story, or even countering it. Citizen journalist’s role has changed over the year. Yes, some of their stories and input is not needed, but the citizen journalist is not a person who does not matter. They in select cases are essential in bringing news to the forefront. Sharing news to the public’s ear and eye.

Blog # 1: Sherry Turkle's "Life On The Screen"

           In Sherry Turkle’s “Life on the Screen”, Turkle chronicles life in cyberspace and the way that individuals interact through out their computer networking. In the case of the MUDs, people essentially create their own collaborative virtual community. Through the virtual community, players can collectively create, maneuver, and actively discuss on a daily basis. Over time, familiarity makes usage of the virtual systems easier as individuals networking the system gradually become more comfortable. From further honing of the systems, the virtual characters develop their own identity and selves. According to Turkle, “As players participate, they become authors not only of text but of themselves, constructing new selves through social interaction”(12). From the continuous interaction that players have with the various virtual systems, they do indeed create players that reflect themselves or an individual of their liking. This statement holds very true in terms of the recent aim interaction.

            While chatting with my alternate aim partner it became evident that our created selves did indeed take on virtual personas. I myself personally felt that I put significantly more effort into making my discussions more realistic throughout my social interaction. By chatting often I was able to actively continue the conversations as my virtual being, adding more information to make it as realistic as possible. The more specific I became, and the further in depth with my created character I went, the more the virtual reality became somewhat of a reality. Through the project it became more evident that Sherry Turkle’s statement that the players also “become authors not only of text but of themselves,” held quite true. I myself did in fact not only author my aim character throughout the text, but also gave it more of a self throughout detailed characteristics.