My Still Image Mash Up project is about the GOP in Washington, DC taking away rights of women- redefining rape, cutting funds for Planned Parenthood and other programs geared towards helping young women facing an uncertain future based on their hard and tragic circumstances. I included still images, from Creative Commons, of women covering their faces. The final image is that of the State of Liberty with her hands up to her face instead of holding her torch. I opened my video with images that “set up” the context of my argument. I include a picture of the Capitol building, a red Elephant banner representing the Republicans, and an image of John Boehner. Boehner is a Republican from Ohio who is now the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives. The pictures of women follow those political images.

I used the Ken Burns effect on my images of women. The idea was to pan to their faces or down to something that displayed why their faces were covered. An image of a young woman in a field with her hands up over her face pans from the top down to her pregnant belly. The idea was to show that she is in a desperate situation because of this unborn child. Whether this means that the baby is unwanted or if government spending refuses to help her with her baby. Another image that is a little different from the other images in the video is what looks like an old painting of some kind of demon with his long, dark tongue sticking out at a woman and he has his claw ripping at her hair. Her face is contorted and distressed. The image was put into the video because I see from that one picture that the crimes of sexual assault and rape have been around for a long, long time and that women have been the victims of those crimes for centuries. So much so, that someone painted a picture of it.

I included audio clips of a poet, Sonya Renee, talking about how it sickens her that the men in Washington will force a woman to have an unwanted child but refuse to help her pay for its care. As she says, “I am outraged that they want us to believe that they believe that women deserve better!”. I also used two audio clips of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talking to the House of Representatives about how funding for programs such as Planned Parenthood have a positive impact on the people receiving help from those programs. She talks about how smart, open, and responsible family planning keeps the number of unplanned pregnancies down and that the Bush administration spent almost a decade tearing apart these programs. The result? The number of unplanned pregnancies went up and the number of abortions to deal with these unplanned pregnancies also increased. Behind the clips of Sonya Renee and Hillary Clinton talking, I have Beethoven’s 7 symphony playing at a slightly lower volume. I felt the other clips sounded empty without something behind them. The movement of the music sets a sad tone, almost a hopeless tone against the rage of Sonya Renee’s words and Hillary Clinton’s matter of fact arguments.

I planned to put in a video clip of a congressman (any) talking about wanting to redefine rape or defending the budget cuts for programs that assist victims. I was not able to find a clear one. I was also unable to even download a video of the men in charge of this bill introducing it. I find it unfortunate that the GOP cannot even stand up in front of a camera and defend their attempts to redefine a crime that is so ugly and violent in nature. I’m not even sure if they really believe they are right. I do know that I would be ashamed to face my family if I stood for a bill that redefined rape and took rights away from victims. I guess I would be too ashamed to face a camera and say it to the nation.

I didn’t include more pictures of the 173 men who have signed onto this bill because not enough people who watched my video in class understood who John Boehner was and I doubt that anyone would recognize other congressmen. I found that that might hurt the flow of the video unless I had an audio clip or video clip of those men actually talking about the bill. My video mash up is not completed the way that I wanted it to be completed, to be what it should be.

In typing a paper criticizing the GOP, I would have to give many, many details as to what was happening in Washington, DC. I would have to give the names of many congressmen who are involved in the shaping of this bill. I would have to define the bill concerning rape and abortion and medicare as it currently stands. With the use of seven images, I can set the tone by opening with politically related pictures, including an elephant standing for the Republican party. I am also able to simplify the argument based on those pictures. I can make my point clearly without the muddle of definitions and facts.

This is a sort of remixed media. Lawrence Lessig, in his article ‘Rw, Revived’ says, “…remix draws upon the work of others in order to do new work”. The pictures I used in my mash up are not all necessarily images that were tagged to support or critique the GOP. With Creative Commons, the question that is asked (according to the Lessig article) is, “For what purpose has a copy been made?”. This does not apply to my mash up. What concerns me is that the work is on Creative Commons for use. I can use these things for my creative, remixed purposes.

Freishtat and Sandlin cover privacy, agency, and identity in their article about Facebook and its users. It is a place for the world to put their lives on the web in a popular and protected home on the internet. Is Twitter the same way? I don’t think so. The authors also argue that Facebook allows users to believe in their control over their own information by shifting its power and giving “Facebookers” more say in their privacy.

What does Twitter do? After skimming through posts from various celebrities and friends that I now follow, I see links for websites, seemingly satirical posts, and statements about going to get groceries. Twitter only allows 140 characters for each post. This limits people to making sure that they say what they want to say- shorten their sentences and use internet abbreviations (lol, lmao, wtf, etc.) to make their point. Twitter is a very short and sweet to the point type place for users.

Although Freishtat and Sandlin’s article focuses on Facebook, their statement about Facebook being a place for “real identities” to have a home can be applied to Twitter. On Twitter, a profile is not 30-some photo albums of your college years or videos of you on the 4th of July. A Twitter seems to give the minimal information about where you are and what your user name is. It is your posts that make a statement about  your identity. Many people post links to news sources about the trouble in Egypt or to other world issues. Others will tell me that they hate the Superbowl Halftime Show.

I believe that Freishtat and Sandlin’s argument about Facebook being a place for “real identities” holds up with Twitter, to an extent. I believe the limited characters on posts make it hard for people to really get across their point, unless they are very tech-savvy and good with tweeting usefully.

With the establishment of Facebook, Freishtat and Sandlin refer to Aristotle’s concept of phronesis. Phronesis is the “consideration of knowledge as socially constructed and socially defined” (Freishtat and Sandlin). Facebook is a new way of learning and developing as an individual. Facebook’s rhetoric includes buttons that can be clicked in order to expand knowledge and socializing. There are Like buttons, a Block This User option, Add As Friend option, and many other small and convenient ways of moving around Facebook.

With this structure of Facebook and other social networking sites, Freishtat and Sandlin focus on them through the lens of poststructural thought. The symbols and signs of Facebook are very much a part of the users activity on the website and part of their learning/social experience. Everything from the layout of the site to various activities, such as browsing, playing games, and “facebook stalking” (which is often a way of finding out information about someone by looking at their pictures, videos, and information) are familiar to Facebook users. These activities and whatever new things Facebook will allow its users to access in the future have shaped how we find out information.

This familiar structure also has provided us with particular acceptable social mores. A Facebook status should never be vying for attention to a problem such as “my boyfriend broke up with me. ” or “I’m madly in love with her! <3″. This is similar to loudly complaining or swooning about something in front of friends in order to have them comfort or congratulate the person. Also, attempting to flirt with someone you do not know very well in person can be seen as creepy or “stalkerish” and can get that person blocked from a user’s profile.

Facebook has given today’s youth and new way of learning. Just as we do in person, we have certain lines that we do not cross. We have ways of gathering information about other people. We network and connect in a whole different way than our parents. Facebook is our new Phronesis.

I had never considered the use of tags as a way of keeping blog entries or posts categorized or in order. Alexander states that it is a way to keep those things from going into chaos. He cites flickr for this by saying that “tag-centric” flickr is host to “100 million images”. I looked up some other websites that also have this sort of “tag-centric” media– tumblr.com (a place for posting and blogging macros, gifs, survey’s, videos, music, and all kinds of media) where anyone with a tumblr can tag an entry with specific key words. Other users can run a search on the dashboard for pictures or any media pertaining to their search, find tagged posts, and reblog it from that original blog.

Alexander also talks about an “openness” between discussions on Web 2.0. The microcontent depends on a “2 way street”– the ability to share information of different kinds, yet while certain information is shared, the microcontent does not have complete access to everything. The example used in the article is that of Amazon.com, where users can “harvest” ISBN numbers but no one else but that user has access to the shopping cart filled with whatever the user has decided to purchase. Overall, the article is very detailed about how information is shared, what is accessible and what is not, how things are organized and shaped in order to be presentable to the world.

WEB 2.0 FINDINGS

socialtext.com

socialtext.com is a website for business professionals, colleagues, employers, employees, etc. to come together to “solve problems new and old”. The website makes serving a company’s customers much easier by allowing collaboration between many people at a time. This means the asking of questions, sharing expert advice, new project ideas, etc. The software on the website is similar to that of Facebook and Twitter– again, allowing an easier flow of communication for the website’s users.

Banner for socialtext.com

twiki.org

twiki.org is a website where, I believe, the same objectives can be accomplished as on socialtext. They claim to have a similar software that makes it look and feel like a social networking website but its contributers are corporate and it’s focus is on business. I find the website very confusing to look at. There are a lot of ads and little cartoon people telling me different stuff about the website.

Banner for Twiki.org

I feel that socialtext.com has a much cleaner, softer appearance. It’s appealing to a person who is new to the website and might not know where to start. They are very detailed about answers to questions, which is a good thing, but it’s hard to see that through all the advertisement banners and little animations.

-J

Diana Prince spins around and is Wonder Woman

I feel that this image is appropriate as this is how I like to think of myself in the morning. I feel very tired right now, so I don’t really feel exactly like the Amazon Princess. But I like to daydream that I do.

Here is my page on tumblr.com. I post and reblog all kinds of funny things.

And this video always makes me feel good:

Takes me way back to 8th grade.

-J