Copyrights

     Current copyright laws can have a mixed variety of effects on producers.  Where laws can be pretty airtight and protect a producer's work from being stolen or illegally used,  problems still arise. 

     Copyright laws usually don't harm a media producer, however it is nearly impossible to regulate the amount of media being stolen and used illegally everyday. For example, music that is created and copyrighted by musicians could be used without permission for countless videos, projects or a vast majority of other things without the knowledge of the musician.  There isn't an elite squad of cyber police checking ever YouTube video everyday to make sure a 13 year old didn't illegally use a famous musician's song.

     So what can media producers do to help protect their work?  I happen to be a musician myself.  I have heard a few times before from other local musicians and artist, and also from our Communications professor, Kevin Williams, that if you simply put a postage stamp on your work, it can protect you from someone stealing or illegally borrowing your work.  It may not always be the case that a producer wants their work to be private and never allow others to share it. Sometimes you may want to intentionally make your work available to others.  In this instance, media producers can choose to just have their name attributed with their work.

     A simple step like mailing your band's first EP to yourself will hold up in court if the need ever arises.  Taking the proper precautions to protect your work from being used against your will can help to protect media producers, but it can hurt them if they don't.

COMM 203 Critical Thinking

Students (and people in general) are using critical thinking less and less every day.  No one really wants to think about how they arrived at an answer, they are just content with the fact that it's correct.  Many of our daily tasks require little thought and most of the next generation is fixated on the technology that controls their lives.  That's the problem.  The technology we use and the convenience of those technologies such as iPads and Smart phones and the applications we use with them, like Facebook, require minimal critical thinking skills.

The convenience of such devices are what cripples this crucial skill.  I no longer have to remember when projects are due if I have my phone do it for me or when my friends' birthdays are if it shows up on Facebook.  There's absolutely nothing I need to remember think about from Facebook.  Even if there was a comment that have 47 likes, Facebook will have it pop up as a "Memorable Post". 

When I was younger and played video games like the Legend of Zelda, I had to think about how to advance through the dungeons.  There were puzzles and problem solving skills required to beat the game.  Now most of the game market is riddled with First Person Shooter games that provide you with objectives to tell you what to do and a cursor to show you where to go.  Be that as it may, this doesn't at all exclude a FPS game from requiring strategy or thought. However, video games are becoming increasingly easier to play and requiring less critical thinking to complete.

This helps to show us how our society is evolving with technology and critical thinking.  Many of the day to day tasks we face don't require critical thinking.  We also need convenience in order to function.  I would forget most of the tests I have or important projects that are due if I didn't get an email from Shepherd University's LMS, Sakai.  If Facebook required us to think more it definitely wouldn't be as popular. If we can just play a game to shoot and kill stuff, then why would we spend our leisure time trying to figure out how to open the next door in the dungeon?

COMM 203 - "Why Cyberculture?"

     The article "Why Cyberculture?" by David Bell found in the Media Studies Reader, explains aspects of the cyberculture world; how it is ever changing, ever evolving and ever encompassing our daily lives.

     "...cyberculture studies is a complex field (or post-field) which not only makes use of diverse academic traditions and theoretical perspectives, but also deploys a diversity of research methods and approaches" (Bell 66)

     As explained in this quote, it can be seen how expansive cyberculture can and always will be.  Just as cyberculture evolves, so should our thinking and research methods.  No single approach can be used to study cyberculture and we must constantly adapt to meet our researching and learning needs.

    So what does this mean for everyone living in the technological world?  We must choose to either adapt to the changes we encounter daily from cyberculture or be left behind.  We must also realize that cyberculture is a large part of our lives.

     As well, no matter how strongly we feel, technology is an enormous part of our everyday lives.  Even if we aren't using the Internet or surfing the web, it dominates our conversations, lives, and ideas in more ways than we realize.  Name even a few times where someone somewhere hasn't mentioned something about Facebook, etc.  Even if some disagree, there is definitely some aspect of our lives that has been affected by cyberculture.

COMM 203 Facebook

First of all, I haven't personally approved or updated or switched, or whatever it's called, to the "new" Facebook. However, I now understand why all my friends say they hate it.  As if it weren't already annoying enough to have those 10 or so friends who post tons of useless information all day, now I have the ability to know absolutely everything they listen to and look at on the Internet.
Along with being kind of irritating, this is also pretty invasive. I may not want everyone to know about all the things I do on the Internet. It's intrusive to my privacy. I'm sure many people simply don't care about every detail of everyone's life.

Comm 203 - Social Media Video

From what the video shows, bloggers can put themselves in a lot of danger if they are careful about something as simple as what they post.  What happened to these people may have been extreme, however there's still plenty more trouble we can get ourselves into (lawsuits, etc.). Just like anything you post on the internet, you should always be aware of who may see it and what their reaction may be.

Bloggers and others involved in social networking and social media, need to use discretion when writing and posting on the internet.  As people who write, read and post on the internet, we're responsible for the outcomes and reactions to what we put there. 

video from CNN:  http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/09/15/mexico.violence.internet/index.html?iref=allsearch

COMM 203- Scott McCloud

One way that Scott McCloud revolutionized comics was to create new ways to show progression of time.  In comics, this is a vital part of the experience. Like McCloud states in his speech, the author gives you the panels to see, and then lets you imagine what is in between.  This is what aides the experiences that a graphic novel presents. If the "in between" parts were shown, the it would just be a movie with word bubbles. Think about any comic that has been adapted to film... like Kick Ass, or Superman, or Spiderman.

COMM 203- Graphic Novel

Graphic Novels can help us to communicate in many different ways.  Just like movies or television, a good graphic novel can be funny, sad, scary, or dramatic.  But unlike movies or television, the let you convey more intense moments. While a movie could still achieve this feat,  nothing can beat a chilling, enlightening or hilarious still panel from a graphic novel.  By writing a graphic novel, I can tap into the raw emotions of my audience and aim right for what I want to convey, whether it be something dramatic and powerful, or in my case, goofy and funny.


photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/4209642025/