Mash ups and remixes: Should users be allowed to create their own content using existing material?

REMIXERS MANIFESTO
1. Culture always builds the past.
2. The past always tries to control the future.
3. Our future is becoming less free.
4. To build free societies you must limit control of the past.
(Sourced from RIP: A Remix Manifesto, 2009)

Anyone who was born in the late 1980s onwards has become a part of a "media generation": a generation that has become literate in the ways of the internet and new technologies. The internet allows us to share ideas and information as well as building communities through the usage of technology. People can share their creations and thoughts through a variety of different sites and blogs.

On youtube, there are various user generated videos- some of which contain music that is solely their own and others which contain music that isn't. Along with myspace, youtube has become a place where people can share their creations and promote themselves.

Mash ups have become increasingly popular with artists such as Radiohead and Jay-Z being mixed together to form Jaydiohead, by DJ Max Tannone. In RIP: A Remix Manifesto, Brett Gaylor follows his favourite remixer Girl Talk, a DJ who also uses samples from different songs and artists and puts them together to form something different.

If users create something different using bits of other people's creations is it right?

When Jay-Z found out about project Jaydiohead, he openly supported it with a tweet saying: "There are 3 or 4 REAL gems on Jaydiohead." However, even though this was a good case many other people, especially those who work at the record companies, disagree with mash ups because they take songs without any permission and create something that the artists have not agreed to.  But, if the music is out there, surely it's there to be enjoyed?

I think that users should be allowed to create new content using others creations. Originality isn't around much these days, in fact many of Walt Disney's creations were stolen from things that were already in the public domain. So, maybe we need to 'borrow' other people's ideas to create our own successful ones?

Is digital media a good way to convey news?

Digital media helps people to access the news from wherever they are around the world. Websites, videos and articles can go viral within a matter of minutes because of the usage of social networking sites and the ability to share news with the click of a button. Media consumers can have a variety of different news outlets at their fingertips, therefore it's a good place for people to get news and events known globally.

Image courtesy of: http://venturebeat.com/company/wikileaks/

WikiLeaks has thrived from the internet as it continuously releases new material about things that they believe needs to be known by the public. Without the freedom of the internet, this site would not be able to spread the information that they have.

However, is this freedom really as good as it sounds?

Although people are able to see information and it's sources on this whistle blowing site, it is also putting at risk some of the people that are named in the cables. Because some of the information hasn't been censored properly, names are emerging which creates a safety risk. Therefore, does this make the leaking of cables right? People want to know the information but are we really willing to put people's lives at risk just to get it?

Newsgames: Do they take the seriousness out of the news?

 Image courtesy of newsgames.gatech.edu

Newsgames "can persuade, inform, and titillate; make information interactive; recreate a historical event; put news content into a puzzle; teach journalism; and build a community." (Bogost, Ferrari, Schweizer, 2010)

The progression of advancements in technology has allowed an audience to consume media in many different ways. For example, the gaming community online has grown considerably in the last few years with the introduction of games such as World of Warcraft (WoW). This has inspired games to be created with news stories as their theme.

By playing a game based on a news event, the user interacts with the issue. It could provoke them to find out more about the issue or it could do the opposite and take all seriousness out of the real situation. For someone who's just stumbled across the game it can be a good starting point for them to access a news story. After all, curiosity is something that strikes us all and we always want to know more. However, if you already understand the concept of the story then the game can become simply just a game as you interact and get involved in the game without thinking.

Many of the games that I have found have been biased. For example, there are many games circulating the internet opposing George Bush. These games allow people to express their views via the creator. This is somewhat safer than actually hitting George Bush with a shoe yourself (as one of the games allows you to do!)

So, are these games a good way of getting news across to various audiences? Yes and no.

Much of the gaming community is comprised of young people- often teenagers. Therefore, they'll be the ones much more likely to stumble upon these games. These games can then become viral as they're shared via social networking sites such as facebook. Furthermore, these games can then go on to reach an older audience if, for example, the gamer's parents are aware of the games that they're playing. So, these games can then reach a variety of people.

Will New Media mean that one day everything will be digital?

The digtalisation of media is something that has been happening for many years. However, with the progression of computer technology it is now occurring more rapidly than it had done in the past. An example that can be used to illustrate this is the advancements in music players. This timeline shows the gaps in new technology reducing as the 20^th century was nearing the 21^st.

Is New Media killing off things such as the newspaper and radio?

We are surrounded now by hypermedia; “Computer applications that present multiple media (text, graphics, animation, video) using hypertextual organization.” (Bolter and Grusin, 1999). This makes discovering the news an even more interactive process. We can have articles at our fingertips that include videos of events that have happened.

Radio has evolved as well with the introduction of digital radio. This means that we can now access it from anywhere via the internet. This is a complete change to when people used to actually have to own a radio to listen.

The internet has become the main force behind many things. We can practically find anything we want or need within a few key strokes. Practically every form of media has been merged onto the internet. People don’t need to own lots of different machines and equipment to access different forms of media.