Breaking Down The Remix

With my video remix, I attempted to intertwine audio, video and still images to effectively portray my idea of steroids in Major League Baseball (MLB). I started my remix with a picture of a baseball with the National Baseball Hall Of Fame Logo on it. I thought this was more effective then a plain title page stating my topic. I added a grainy film effect and Ken Burns effect to give the image motion and make it look like it was moving. Next, I displayed an image of what I consider to be a normal size arm and then went into an image of a ridiculously strong arm. This represented the change between what I thought of as normal and what I thought steroids added to a player’s strength. This was also a lead-in to my next four clips, which showed two players before his alleged steroid use and then after as a comparison. The players I chose were Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire because I thought it was very easy to see the changes in their body build and because they were two of the most influential players in baseball while they played. I had a little trouble with this because the players are not wearing the same uniform and they look so different, it is hard to tell that they are the same player. I decided to overlap text on top of the image with the player’s name to make it easier on the viewers that are not familiar with baseball to know that they are the same person.

Next, I showed an image of Alex Rodriguez in his rookie year. He looks very slim and slender. I then went to an interview that Rodriguez did on “60 Minutes” where he flat out denies using steroids or any other banned substance. For this clip I zoomed in just on Rodriguez’s face to make it look as if the viewer is right in the interview. Next, I showed an image of Rodriguez after his alleged steroid use but the difference is not as noticeable as it was in the two players. I cut to a clip of Rodriguez stating that he did in fact take a banned substance. I chose this clip because he says almost exactly what the interviewer said when he previously denied using steroids. I was attempting to almost give some comedic relief and because the two interviews are so similar, portray a negative image on Rodriguez as being a liar.

I then cut to an image of the MLB logo. I used this image as a lead-in to my next clip, which changes the MLB logo from a player holding a bat to a player holding a needle, representing steroids. I left this image up a little longer, changing it to black and white to represent the negative impact steroids have on baseball. I then showed three quick images, which were timed along with the music I had playing in the background. These images were 756*, which is Barry Bond’s homerun record and many people think it should have an asterisk next to it, because he allegedly used steroids. Next, I used an image of fans holding up asterisks as Barry Bonds walks past because I thought this image showed the fan’s opinions of steroid users. My final image I use a picture of fans holding up a sign that says “Ruth did it on hotdogs & beer.” I thought this was an effective ending because it brings back a memory of a better time in baseball, again showed fan’s opinions and also leaves a lasting impact on the viewer.

In the background of my entire remix, I have Steve Vozzolo’s “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” playing. I thought this was appropriate because “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” is one of the most iconic baseball songs. At the end, I used the song to help prove a point in my video. In the song it says, “For its one, two, three strikes you’re out of the old ball game.” I used three quick cuts for each number because I thought it added twist to the video allowed me to prove further that the video and the music were coordinated together.

Mashing-Up The Tradition (Rather Boring) Research Paper

Lawrence Lessig is a big believer in the freedom of expression and the ability to change an original piece of artwork. Lessig begins his claim by describing his college friend, Ben, who survived his English major by carefully constructing paragraphs through quotes. Lessig explains, “were it music, we’d call it sampling. Were it painting, it would be called collage. Were it digital, we’d call it remix.” (1)

This idea of using pieces of other’s work came into play during our recent assignment to create a “mash-up” of images in attempt to explain our point of view regarding a controversial topic. This compilation of images, in essence, is not far removed from a traditional written research paper.

In my mash-up, I attempted to portray my belief that known steroid users should not be admitted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. I chose a collection of images that I felt best portrayed my point of view. If the assignment had been to write a research paper, I would taken a similar approach. I would have stated my argument, and then used the work of other’s, in the form of quotes, as support to my statement. Both the set of images and the written essay are examples of remixes, and “built the argument by clipping quotes from the authors [I] was discussing. Their words made [my] argument.” (1)

One of the biggest fears described in Lessig’s article is that “using the tools of digital technology- even the simplest of tools, bundled into the most innovative modern operating systems- anyone can begin to ‘write’ using images, or music, or video.” (11) Using another author’s work and altering it enough does not make your creation an opponent to the original work. In my opinion, using another author’s work actually brings more attention to that work than there originally would have been.  Lessig agrees with me when he says, “Why is an author annoyed (rather than honored) when a high school student calls to ask for permission to quote.” (1)

Another example of this that Lessig brings up is the famous mash-up musician, Girl Talk. “Between 200 and 250 samples from 167 artists [are found] in a single [Girl Talk] CD.” (12) Many people feel that Girl Talk is ripping off other artists, but I feel that actually more attention is given to these artists after Girl Talk uses a sample of a song. As a fan of Girl Talk and several other mash-up artists, I can say that I learned of numerous new songs I had not previously heard of through the mash-ups. I think that the same is true with all forms of media, the more a work is used, the more attention that is brought to the original piece and artist.

#TwitterThoughts

Facebook and Twitter have been two of the fastest growing social media sites in the world today. Facebook is much more function and allows for more expression of the user. With Facebook, a user can post information about his or her favorite movies, favorite music, relationship status, and thoughts as a status updates. The concept of Twitter is very similar to a status update on Facebook, and that is about all a user can do on the site.

Twitter has been a rapidly growing form of communication. With a limit of 140 characters, “tweets” must be concise and to the point, which eliminates reading long drawn out posts.  Twitter encourages users to “tweet” throughout the day anything that is on their mind. Oklahoma City Thunder guard, Russell Westbrook, tweeted 5 times over a span of 5 hours.  “Sports Guy,” Bill Simmons tweeted an astonishing 19 times in only 9 hours. This avid use is encouraged by Twitter and has become acceptable by the popular culture.

Twitter has vastly been shaped by popular culture and allows for “corporate, government, community and [the] individual to overlap.” An example of this is when New Jersey mayor, Cory Booker, used Twitter as a way to communicate directly with residents, which helped get the city’s roads cleared of snow. Many times, the best way to get information on a breaking news story is by following it on Twitter. Recently, when the Philadelphia Phillies were about to sign pitcher Cliff Lee, I was following the new information almost religiously on Twitter. Twitter broke the story that the Phillies signed him before Sportscenter and even ESPN.com.

To me, Twitter appears to be a much safer method of expressing thoughts and ideas. I think that Freishtat and Sandlin would agree that Twitter is less revealing about a person and lets the user have a majority of the control about his or her page.  I think the only part of Twitter that Freishtat and Sandlin would be skeptical about, is the idea of “retweeting” something. Once a user posts something, just about anyone can “retweet” it, which I think would make Freishtat and Sandlin worry about their information being safe.

Who’s In Control- Facebook Or You?

Freishtat and Sandlin argue that many aspects of the world are vastly changing, and a large portion is due to social networking sites, such as Facebook. Education, advertising and even social norms are all changing, largely in part thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s college dorm creation. This raises the question, are we as Facebook users, controlling the site, or is the site actually controlling us?

In their article, Freishtat and Sandlin express their belief that, “Facebook uses a rhetoric of control to attract, maintain, and discipline users, and to help shape a public environment that appears to foster, but in fact is hostile to deliberative possibilities” (515-16). Most people will say that their Facebook page is, “a way to keep in touch with old friends,” but in reality, Facebook has become much more complex than that.

Users are able to control the written content of their own page, but that is about the only part they can control. If another user uploads a picture of you that you do not approve of? Too bad. Even if the user deletes the picture, Facebook still owns the right to a copy of it. Facebook has the power to suspend anyone’s profile, at any time, if they deem that the user is displaying inappropriate content. This means the site can remove users entirely, with little or no explanation. Also, Facebook boasts of having hundreds of applications, but most of them require access to the your personal information, leaving not much on the site still in your control.

Facebook has come to consume so much of everyday life that some people struggle to pass an hour without checking their page. The site will be the first thing they do when they wake up and the last thing they do before they go to sleep. Many teachers have even banned laptop computers from class, because students were easily distracted due to checking their page.

Facebook started out as a site that the users controlled, but now it has become a site that controls, or even possesses the users.

Do You Digg Memeorandum?

In Bryan Alexander’s Web 2.0 article, numerous microcontent sites were mentioned for their prominent roles in changing the way the Internet has been used in recent years. Throughout the reading, the sites that stood out the most to me were Digg and Memeorandum.

Digg provides a minute and a half video featuring founder, Kevin Rose, describing how the site is run. Digg boasts that it is “democratizing digital media” by allowing the users to determine the content on the site. Users upload a picture or story and it shows up on the site as an “upcoming story.” If other users like your post they “digg” it, but if they do not like it, they can opt to “bury” it.  If the post generates enough “diggs” it qualifies to be part of the “top 10” stories category.

Memeorandum is a gathering of political news, site. The site explains that there are far too many political news and opinion pieces “scattered” across the Internet, for a person to read. Memeorandum brings the various links together “in a single, easy-to-scan page.” The site automatically generates a summary of a topic, “drawing on experts and pundits, insiders and outsiders, media professionals and amateur bloggers.” Users of Memeorandum do not control the contents of the site.

Both Digg and Memeorandum take pride in bringing together hundreds of news stories, to make them more easily accessed and viewed.  After viewing each of these sites, I found that Memeorandum was most useful.  Memeorandum gives the major story then below it provides related stories and lists the author of each story. This makes it easy for a user to pick and choose which source he or she would like to read from.  I also felt that some of the stories on Digg were not necessarily important. For instance, the story with the second most “diggs” in the last 30 days was, “Teenager Gets Ass Whoopin for Acting Hard On Facebook (Video).