Academic essay

3. Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time.

Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists?

Choose one specific area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digital content.


The aim of this essay is to critically analyse how the internet is used to display forms of creative media. It will focus on the art form of music and how amateur musicians achieve recognition and the impact this has on professional musicians. Outlets such as YouTube and MySpace will be explored. This essay will also discuss the issues, challenges and benefits that amateur and professional musicians face in regards to accessing the internet for publication means. It will also provide a brief overview of how music is distributed online.

Due to advances in the internet, there are now many ways in which people can create and distribute their own content. Some of the most popular ways to do this is through websites such as MySpace, YouTube and programs like LimeWire. With MySpace people can post their own music and advertise themselves on their profile. It’s highly accessible and it’s free, for the user and the consumer. The same goes for YouTube except you can post video as well as audio. With LimeWire you can upload your own music so that others can download it. But these are only a few websites, there are many more available that will allow you to distribute your own content, and get it well known. This provides great opportunity for amateurs in music.

A wannabe musician’s biggest challenge is gaining recognition, but now the internet has provided the means to get it. Amateurs can now use the internet to distribute and advertise their music. This is because it’s free and it’s easily accessible. It removes the need of hiring managers, recording studios and signing up with record labels and it’s the easiest way to get a large audience since anyone can gain access to the internet. When uploading original music content, people can also choose to remain anonymous or put it under a false name. This is because they could be using it as just as an outlet of their feelings or as a coping mechanism and are too embarrassed to put their name to it. A fair few people have gained fame through distributing their music on the net, two of them being Lilly Allen, and the band Short Stack. Both singer and band posted their music on their MySpace profile and through word of mouth everyone listened to their music, landing Lilly Allen a deal with a record Label resulting in her now being internationally famous. Short stack on the other hand, which started off as a garage band, didn’t get a record deal but due to their popularity on the net managed to release singles into the top 40 charts. But will people still pay to get music from professional artists when they can just browse the net and get the music they like for free from amateurs?

On the other hand, professional musicians are now facing bigger challenges due to the rise of amateurs. They may loose some of their audience who prefer to listen to more easily accessible music. The other factor is that the amateur music available on the net is free, where as you have to pay for professional music, so the professionals will be loosing income. LimeWire plays a huge factor in this as it allows consumers to download amateur and professional music free of charge. Another problem present for professionals due to the internet is plagiarism. Other amateur bands and individual artists can do a cover of an already released professional song, and post it on the net for others to download as their own original music.This type of thing can be largely seen on YouTube and possibly other sites were people have made and posted “emo screamo” versions of already existent songs, such as Britney Spears first single , Hit me baby one more time. People can also upload song covers to LimeWire under the original artist's name.Although there are a lot of problems occurring, there are a few benefits to the use of distributing content through the internet for professionals. They can use it as another medium for advertisement and to actually sell their work via iTunes. They can also sell their songs as ring-tones and use the net as a means for consumers to preview a part of their music, before they decide to buy it.

This essay has attempted to discuss the issues and challenges that surround both amateur and professional musicians. It has been concluded that the newly introduced amateur music industry does pose some threat to the professional music industry. With amateur music increasingly becoming popular through the net, consumers are turning to free downloading of their music rather than going into Kmart or Target and buying a professionals CD. Also with the opportunity of free self promotion and distribution of music provided by the internet, record label companies may not be needed later in the future, since everyone can now manage, create and distribute their own music all within their own home.

Bibliography

scholarly sources:
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Websites:
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course overveiw

The blogging has come to end! yay! To be perfectly honest I found having to blog all the time on top of everything else rather annoying, most of the time I actually ended up forgetting to do it. Though I admit some of the tasks were fun like the CNN story and the 1min clip because that's when I can use my creative side the most, that's what I'm best at, writing plays, creating skits, drama was my best subject in school. Also I found watching what other students had created quite interesting as well.I found the Lectures quite enjoyable though, I never got bored or fell asleep in them, like with some of my other classes. The lecturers actually did more then just read words off a slide. The tutorials were good too because you could expand on things from the lectures and it gave you time to do your tutorial tasks during your tutorial. Well that's really all I have to say on the matter, thanks for reading my blog.

week 9 task

week 9 media

week 9

This time we discussed cyber Utopia's and how things can be Poetic. Though I don't really understand the meaning of the word Poetic. Like what is poetic? Isn't it just a personal opinion, there is no one definition of what something has to be before its considered poetic, or if there is I've never been told it. Anyway moving on we looked at a website the lecturer had created , now I found it very strange and too chaotic, though I'm told it's artistic and poetic. I'm sure it means something to some people but it just completely confused me, though I do think he's pretty clever for creating it, I could never do something like that, I wouldn't have the patience.

week 8 task

week 8 media

week 8 lecture

In this lecture we learnt about Cyber Politics and eDemocracy which is the Internets role in political campaigning and other government use of the internet to raise awareness on issues.I also learnt that Australia doesnt have the constitutional right to free speech this really surprised me, I know that America has it but I at least thought we had some sort of right to it since this isn't a communist country. We also discussed the issues of Hackers and I got the feeling the lecturer was saying that hacking was a good thing but maybe I didn't read it properly, regardless I diagree why should anyone have the right to hack into my computer to access my private information and photographs.

week 7 media

Here's a clip that explains the concept of creative commons and it's uses.

week 7 lecture

In this lecture we learnt about the restrictions of copyright and how creative commons works. The normal rules of copyrighted material is that no one can use , share or distrubute the material without the original creators consent. But now with Creative Commons the rules are a lot more flexible. Creative Commons is a non profit free organisation that allows you to have a licence on your material that states it's still yours but that others may share or distribute it as well. We also learnt about open source software and free software. Open source is where you can go in and stuff around with the softwares codes and alter it to your own preference.

week 6 media link

This video is an example of when fans that have already consumed an existing idea use this idea to make new material which is then in turn consumed by others. This video is using the concept of rewinding time from the video game Prince of Persia. In the game, if you make a mistake and die you can rewind back time and reverse it to the point before you made the mistake, in this video they show what it would be like if you did that in real life, it's pretty funny.

Week 6 lecture

In this lecture we learnt about Consumption and Production and how it is either shared or private. We made a list of big screen consumption which consisted of cinema, TV and PC's. Small screen consumption consisted of Personal media players such as the iPod and mobile phones, the latest one being the iPhone. We learnt how fans of productions make there own films and stories using the same ideas or characters that are already being consumed in the market. In doing this the fans are consuming the original source, and then reproducing a new material with it, that is then consumed by others. Mobile phones are also responsible for a lot of news footage because when something happens it's convenient for people to just pull out their phones to capture it on film. The problem with this though is that people use their phones to capture things such as fights in the school yard and then post them on the net, which is not just unfortunate for the victim of the fight, but for the "bully" as well or the instigator of the fight, because they're caught on film doing it and can be identified. I know a girl in my grade from my school, with a couple of her friends had decided to ambush this girl they didn’t like when she went to the bathroom during class time. Some other student walking past decided to film it and put it on YouTube. Because it was during class time no one was around outside, so the teachers weren’t aware of it, and the girl that was attacked went home without telling anyone anything and then was just absent from school a few days. A week later our principal got a call from some parent saying her daughter found the fight on YouTube, the principal then watched it recognized who the attackers were and they were expelled from school. Also naturally everyone else from school went online and watched the fight aswell, though I saw it because it got sent to one of my friends phones and she showed it to me in class.

CNN news story! Cult on Uni Campus!

Uni Students After Dark!

Scavenger Hunt - Week 4 Tutorial Task

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?

Alan Turing was wearing a gas mask while riding to prevent himself from getting hayfever

-found using yahoo at http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/museum/tour28.rhtm



2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?

Bill Gates birthday is on the 28th of October 1955 found using yahoo at http://www.answers.com/topic/bill-gates

Bill gates sold his first program at 17 found using yahoo at http://www.zimbio.com/Bill+Gates/articles/19/PROFILE+Bill+Gates

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?

It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 in London found using yahoo at http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/worldweb.htm

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?

6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?

9. Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?

Media link lecture 5

This video is very funny it pays out how people have fights through things like youtube comments to each other and the terms used, but it has some language so if swearing offends you don't watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QyYaPWasos&feature=PlayList&p=tFZnpTzVqIo

Lecture 5

This time we learnt all about social media and networking. we learnt how virtual communities changed from people just talking because they have similar interests to people only talking to their friends and people they know on msn, facebook, myspace etc. We also have individual identity on the net. This term refers to how you represent yourself on the net through your comments, convo's and profiles and various social networking sites. When the internet first came out it wasn't vary popular due to the belief that only computer nerds used it, compared to now in society its considered alien to not have the internet. But the only problem with all these social networking sites is the terms and conditions of joining them, is your information safe once you post it? that's something you should consider

My use of communication technologies

I've used communication technologies as far as i can remember the first being the home telephone then i got a mobile when i was 13 then came msn, then myspace. Myspace died and was replaced by facebook and now I'm addicted to it, I'm not a big twitter fan, but i had to get one for news and politics because it was part of the assignment to tweet about the assignment. I heard about such technologies because well their existence is common knowledge really , I just knew about them because everyone uses them so naturally i used them as well. Your privacy in using these things is up to how much you choose to put out there, well facebook is in stalker mode so everything you do all your friends will see, so what you reveal is up to you. All my friends on facebook are people i have spoken to or met at some stage, you don't just add randoms to facebook , its not like with myspace. With facebook your revealing a lot more personal information. If you do have friends on the net that you've never met, they are not your actual friends, in my opinion reading words on a screen is not any form of a relationship. People that get attached to these Internet "friends" are attached to the idea or image of the person that has been created, not the actual person themselves, and that image that has been created might not even be real.

facebook off

watch this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvepYYNjfBk&feature=fvst its pretty funny. It's a fake movie preveiw of how these two guys fight over the same girl by stealing each others identity's on facebook.

Lecture 3

In this lecture we learnt about film work. When making a film you have to use, as my News and politics lecturer would say, the 5 W's and H - who, what,when,where, why and how. There are many shots used in filming for different purposes. There's the close up which can be used to help show facial expression . The medium shot which allows for the character and action to be on the screen at the same time and it helps answer 'what'. Long shot sets the scene and answers the question of 'where'. 'When' is indicated by things such as daylight and the fashion they're wearing it helps assess the time period the scene takes place. Big close ups on characters facial expressions help indicate what a character is thinking answering 'why'. 'How' can be explained through the use of a series of medium close ups or close ups. We also learnt than when the first films were made that they weren't very creative at all being clips of boring mundane things such as a man sneezing. The first TV was shown in 1939 and blockbuster's only began in te 1970's.

Lecture 2 media reference

This is the picture of an old dinosaur sized IBM computer

About me

Hi, my name is Tanya and I am currently studying a bachelor of communications, majoring in journalism and writing at Griffith University. I am currently in my first year of the course. I just turned 18 this year and still enjoying the clubbing life, I find it much more fun than house parties. I have one parent- my mum and one sister and a nephew, I also have three pet cats that sometimes drive me up the wall. .My main hobby is reading, I'm a pretty big book worm and I worked at a public library for 2 years so I had a lot of access to books. Currently I am addicted to facebook, used to be myspace but myspace is old and boring for me now , there's much more to do on facebook. Well its basically a gossip tool really, but finding out what everyone's up to is what makes it interesting, anyway that's just some basic info on me, catch ya later.

Lecture 2

Charles Babbage was the inventor of the first digital computer, but it was more mechanical than electronic. Computers first started to be produced commercially in the 1950's but they were for only government and military use. The first PC called O was released in 1975 but it didn’t do much other then sit on a desk. The company Apple was then made by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The Companies Microsoft and IBM then started on the computer business. While IBM focused on creating PC system as a whole Microsoft just focused on the software of the computer. The companies chose to work together creating a PC named DOS 1.0, they also created windows, which made the market troublesome for Apple. The term cyberspace came about which meant anything contained on the internet.

Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple

Uploaded on Flickr June 28, 2008 by gabemac

Cocaine Jesus video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxN1T5ErFyA If you want a bit of a laugh you should watch this vid, its pretty funny.

Tanya