Synthesize the
readings. What are some common themes?
All of the 4 readings have a common theme: social media,
viral popularity and the ability of anyone to make an adaption through a
picture images, video clips and/or text and sound to make an argument. Before
the internet, if something was filmed or published, the authors had to go
through a rigorous process for the most part to have their work receive any
kind of attention. Now with social media, YouTube, Vemio, etc, anyone can be an
author. There are no longer that many hoops to jump through. I believe memes,
meme culture and video remixes are just ways the common public makes a
statement involving the many things they may not have control over. However,
they do have control over one thing: what they publish or create on social
media in response.
What is Kuhn’s main
idea? How does it relate to adaptation, authorship and/or editing?
Due to the abundance of video hosting sites including
Youtube, Vimeo and others, along with remixing tools available to the general
public, video remix has taken on a world of it’s own. Kuhn believes that remix
videos have been limited in their categorization because the ethics of
cinematic theory have been placed on video remix, she believes looking at video
remix through a rhetorical theory lens is more beneficial. According to Kuhn, “a remix is a digital
utterance expressed across the registers of the verbal, the aural, and the
visual” (Kuhn, 2012, p. 3).
Kuhn believes that the roots of video remix arises in the
Soviet montage approach associated with Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, and
Lev Kuleshov with montage and collages, but they focus on visuals. Kuhn belives
that we mix in sound, you make an interplay between sound and visuals, and
those are the differences.
I believe when a person is looking at a video remix, they
are looking at a particular message the author wanted to get across. The author
uses other peoples’ work, from the video(s) to the music, etc. and basically
rearranges/edits them to give another point of view or argument. I believe
video remix can be great educational tools but some of them you have to really
consider the source. Video remixes can be just as biased as the person who made
it, so I believe when viewing a remix you really need to have a understand of
what the video remix is originally about and what point the author is trying to
cross. Kuhn believes that a video remix provides a strategic digital argument,
and remix cites, synthesizes and juxtaposes it’s sources (Kuhn, 2012).
I believe the video remix titled “We Want Your Soul” by Mr.
Mondialisation is a great example of a video remix showing how corporate
America looks to take over your thoughts and ideas (a.k.a soul) through
advertising. Clips from hundred of commercials trying to sell product and
giving people a certain way of thinking is paired with the chanting song “We
Want Your Soul” by DJ Adam Freeland. I believe in this remix, it makes it seem
as if people can’t even think for themselves, everything is mediated and driven
by the media and advertising. We are always being told what to buy, what’s in
style, how to act on TV and so on. Also, are lives are consumed by numbers,
such as our credit card numbers, social security numbers, how much money we
make, etc. Everything is dehumanized. “Here you are America, you are free to do
as we tell you.”
3) What is Rintel’s
main argument? How does it relate to issues of adaptation, authorship, and/or
editing?
Through the use of social media, memes, images, either
superimposed or pictures with a text style and white font, have been created to
poke fun or voice opinions of the masses. Many memes are created in response to
natural disasters, political and crises issues, and some just for humor. Rintel
says there is some drawback with memes in the fact that many of them use
copyrighted content. I believe the main argument for Rintel is that Internet
memes have become a staple for people voicing their concerns and their right to
freedom of speech.
When it comes to adaptation, authorship and editing, I
believe that is pretty much the main definition of a meme. A person takes one
picture and adds text to it to get a point across. The text can be humorous,
educational, offensive, or just for laughs. One thing I did not realize is that
there are actually websites dedicated to creating your own meme, and that they
are very template. Anyone can make a meme and it can go viral within days.
My issues with memes is that they are so many of them, when
are they going to stop? Honestly, until last week I did not really know the
images I see all over social media actually had a name, a meme, I just knew
they were super annoying and they are everything. I thought to myself, can
anyone make a meme with photoshop? If that’s the case, these are silly. Anyone can put any text on a picture they want
and all of a sudden it’s supposed to be important, and funny? I think they are
annoying. Several years ago I saw the humor
in them but now I try to ignore them at all costs, because as soon as a storm
comes, you’ll see tons of superimposed images, if any law changes, here comes a
string of random memes by random people, if a celebrity makes a bad move, they
have thousands if not millions of their own memes the next day. I may make a
general assumption here, but I feel that people who have time to sit and make
memes and share them need to find something with more structure to do with
their time.
What questions/critiques
do you have about the articles this week?
My issues with both the Kuhn and Rintel article is that
anyone with access to a computer can create and publicize any type of meme or
video remix they want. I believe video remixes for the most part can have some
educational value, but I think to get the most from a video remix a person
needs to know all sides of the story. Video remixes and memes are just the
general public’s way of making a statement, but for some reason I feel a little
uneasy just watching something anyone can put together. I think you have to
look at them with a more critiquing eye.
Internet memes- will they every go away or will people lose
interest in them? Since they are so overwhelmingly popular now, I feel like at
some point people will lose interest. I remember E-cards were popular in 2007,
and now I have seen them less and less online.
Kuhn, Virgina. (2012). “The Rhetoric of Remix.” In
“Fan/Remix Video,” edited by Francesca Coppa and Julie Levin Russo, special
issue, Transformative Works and Cultures,
no. 9. Doi:10.3983/twc.2012.0358
Rintel, S. (2011). Crises memes: The importance of
templatability to internet culture and freedom of expression.
No comments:
Post a Comment