In our last class I distinctly remember one statement mentioned by the professor saying something along the lines of how we are able to analyze everything and it is important to do so in order to fully grasp how the new media affects us.
Memes:
We started off the semester talking about memes and what they were and what affect they have on us. We concluded that memes are explained to be “a unit of cultural information that replicates while still remaining whole” (78), taken from the reading From Memes to Mashups: Creating Content from Content. I remember before highlighting this definition and watching the Ted talk it was hard for us to really put our finger on how to explain and identify what a meme was. We discussed the pros and cons of memes and how a negative trait is how in generating content from other content, the original creation is lost.
YouTube:
YouTube was a revelation for people all over the world in multiple different ways. When creating my YouTube playlist it really got me to thinking for how many different reasons I use the website and how so many people use it differently. YouTube can be used for promotional videos, creating an image for organizations like universities. It can be used for how-to and DIY videos, web series, music videos, educational Ted Talks, vlogs, and just plain silly videos. It has really opened up an arena where multiple people can come and express themselves and ideas.
The Gang of Four:
We discussed The Gang of Four ; Amazon, Google, YouTube & Facebook and whether or not they are inherently good or bad. They are all very convenient platforms and used in our day to day lives but with a platform like Amazon, are they pushing out room for smaller businesses by providing virtually every product you can think of online?
Web series:
We learned about the concept of a web series and how it is a very good platform for anyone, but specifically minorities, to express themselves and the real things that happen in their lives in a more realistic light than TV typically can. They are able to create this content because it is very inexpensive to do so as all you need is a camera , an idea, persistence, and people to support your idea.
Video Games:
When covering the topic of videogames we discussed the major issue of sexism. When the team presented on that topic, it was really interesting to see what their interviewees had to say. I noticed that they were really passionate in explaining that it is important to have multiple representations of game characters because it can have a certain effect on people in the sense that their stereotypical impressions of others. If they had the opportunity to play as a minority figure, then the stereotypical impression may change, and a domino effect could take place.
There is so much media evolving so quickly, it will be important to be able to take a step back and analyze it to realize the affect that it is having on society.
