New media narratives: Remix culture shakes things up

First off, here is my Flickr set for Assignment #3.

There is an art and a craft to taking existing content and creating new meaning. With the availability of digitalized text, images, video clips, and audio files online, there are endless possibilities for creative expression through remixing. Remixing originated with sampling different music tracks to create new mashups, but it has evolved beyond audio. The combination of available content, simple tools, and social platforms has made remix culture an everyday norm. People craft photo collages, videos, and other web projects, making use of all kinds of existing content while adding in their own unique interpretation. This was not possible with older media institutions as much of the content was not digitalized nor readily sharable on mass.

This paradigm shift that blurs the lines between consumer and producer has given way to a dynamic ecosystem of creativity, freedom, and people power. The megaphone belongs to anyone who wins the attention of viewers with their work. Of course, this comes with complexities around authorship and intellectual property. In the Flickr set, I've highlighted a recent and relevant example  - the Harlem Shake. This viral meme took the Internet by storm this year and recently hit 1 billion page views. It was a good example to draw on as the song itself is a remix (by Harry Bauer Rodrigues who used samples from Hector Delgado and Jayson Musson) and tens of thousands have upload their own version using the track. It emphasizes the active participation of consumers, something that characterizes remix culture and the digital revolution we're going through. 

The topic of remixing seems to evoke interest in academics, artists, musicians, lawyers, political scientists, and digital media experts alike. It is fascinating as it brings people across the spectrum to the same table.

For more on this discussion topic, check out the accompanying Flickr images and watch or re-watch the first remix dance video that got a billion people shaking. 

References

Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press, New Haven.

Fitzgerald, B. and O'Brien, D. (2005). Digital sampling and culture jamming in a remix world: What does the law allow? Media and Arts Law Review, 10(4), 279-298. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/Zd0dMk

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/Z6BuKK

Jenkins, H. (2006). Welcome to convergence culture. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/16Cdd4m

Knobel, M. and Lankshear, C. (2008). Remix: The art and craft of endless hybridization. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 22-33. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/Xu35dp

Lessig, L. (2004). Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. Penguin, New York.

Lessig, L (2010). Re-examining the remix. TED.com. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/16y3FFD

Lynskey, D. (2013). Harlem Shake: Could it kill sampling? The Guardian. Retrieved from 

http://bit.ly/10kCH3N

The Harlem Shake Hits 1 Billion Views (2013, April 4). The Visible Measures Blog. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/Xu515P

McKinley, J. (2013, March 10). Surprise hit was a shock for artists heard on it. New York Times. Retrieved from http://nyti.ms/13YpHWx

Week 7: Participatory Literacies

Week 7: Participatory Literacies

As Howard Rheingold notes, “a participatory culture in which most of the population see themselves as creators as well as consumers of culture is far more likely to generate freedom and wealth for more people than one in which a small portion of the population produces culture that the majority passively consume.”

Although not on our formal reading list for this week, if you have the time, I'm sure you'll find this relatively recent article on Howard Rheingold interesting:

Howard Rheingold by Joi Ito

Howard Rheingold is truly a digital elder, and I mean that in the most respectful, old-school way. All of the fetishizing of the “digital native” can distract us from the wisdom of those who experienced and shaped the birth of internet culture, and Rheingold was right there, in time and in space. His new TED Book, Mind Amplifier: Can Our Digital Tools Make Us Smarter? traces the history of mental augmentation in its social, cognitive and technological forms.

The article is written by 

Anthony Wing Kosner.

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Some key ideas for this week:

★according to recent studies by the Pew Center on the Internet and American Life, more than half of American teens online have produced media content and about a third have circulated media that they have produced beyond their immediate friends and family.

★growing importance of participatory culture in the everyday lives of young people. Work across a range of disciplines suggest that these emerging forms of participatory culture are important sites for informal learning and may be the crucible out of which new conceptions of civic engagement are emerging.

★the next techno-cultural shift according to Rheingold

★collective intelligence


Part of this participatory literacy (which I would include as an element of transliteracy) are new skills or existing skills that we must refine for the online arena:


Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery 

Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes

Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details. 

Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities 

Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal

Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources 

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.