Content on the internet, when original and self-made, can be claimed by its creator(s). It is known as their Intellectual property and they have, to a certain extent, an amount of control of it and who uses it. This is were copyright is initiated. Copyright is the legal ownership of the content on the internet, and when users use this copyrighted material, they have to refer to its creator. If a user doesn’t refer to its creator, it is known as copyright infringement, an illegal act that can be punished up to millions of dollars. An example of this is Disney’s copying of original cultural stories for creative purposes, however, it’s here that in lies the question: to what is ownership and control over content legible? Disney defended themselves by saying the cultural stories produced a certain amount of freedom. A similar accident happened later on with a Japanese comic artist who copied ‘free’ ideas from online without reference.

reference: http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-4.html

As discussed last week, the internet can be a dark, invasive space that puts personal data at risk and invades privacy. In a sense, you could say the internet is TOO invasive and dangerous, however people believe it is a necessity. At its core, the internet is a money machine that purchases content for profit, and the cycle continues. The internet is the largest platform currently, each user being able to search and share to their heart’s desire… however they are being surveilled the entire time. Surveillance is considered one of the largest breaches of privacy.

China is known for its surveillance, having intense facial recognition software and billions of cameras in public. Amongst many other countries, China knows everything about its people, retrieving all their data from their devices and constantly tracking their whereabouts. America and Australia are amongst the other countries who are believed to use the same protocol, however China’s regime is by far the most known and brutal regime of surveillance.

References: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4901/4097
https://youtu.be/lH2gMNrUuEY

The future of technology is based off adaption and mutability of technology. However, with these adaptations, technology can become more advanced than ever, and significantly more powerful too. The law of the internet only extends so far – the capability of its users being almost infinite. The dark side of the internet only expands with the emergent of technology. Spamming, viruses and hacking of hardware are all examples of control over internet by outside sources, these unwanted accesses can cause problems with your owned technology as well as giving people access to private information.

As earlier discussed, certain networks have control over its advertising for specific users. Facebook confessed to looking at people’s data in order to provide them customised advertisements. With the adaption of these networks, aside from the positives, we are giving them more control over our data and further access.

References: https://blogs.harvard.edu/futureoftheinternet/files/2013/06/ZittrainTheFutureoftheInternet.pdf

My BCM112 digital artefact has definitely been one big rollercoaster so far. This is my second year of doing TikTok as my digital artefact (I also did it in BCM114 last year) yet the outcomes have differed astronomically. As I earlier addressed, I had 4 viral videos last year. My luck with these videos led me to believe it would be easy for me to make more viral content, I WAS WRONG.

The followers I made last year aided me in getting a significant amount of views, however my most popular video only received a mild 3450 views and I average 150 likes a video, nowhere near what I was used to even though my videos correlated with popular trends. I even lost a few followers due to my content not being as desirable and posting too much. I did some research to explain why my videos weren’t attracting as much attention and discovered something significant: Oberlo reported in February that the popular app had gained over 800 million users since November 2019.

Due to this massive increase in followers, it would make sense that my content is even more blurred within the app. I currently have made 65 videos on the app, my steady pace of posting has remained consistent from the beginning of the semester. I hope to continue this consistency through to the end of my digital artefact. Hopefully the continuation of my project will bring more attention than it previously has. I’m going to try to post even more desirable content in order to grab more attention.

Make sure to watch my Beta video on youtube and follow my TikTok (both linked below) 🙂

https://www.tiktok.com/@juliajanejohnson

Part 4?! The internet paradigm subject is so broad and conceptual. This week we learnt about Hyperreality , Simulation and spectacle. Essentially there are 4 phases of an image: REFLECTION, MASK, ILLUSION and SIMULACRUM. Each are stages of a simulation. A reflection is a capture of a reality, a mask covers reality, an illusion is an altered reality in its absence and a simulacrum is a substitution of reality. This week’s topic is basically how EVERYTHING is perceived online. Hyperreality is an altered version of reality, a brightened, energised version of the world, false yet intellectual. It is perverted and alerting yet captures all audiences attention. Many people created these altered but popular realties. But why? is the lingering message, is hyperreality a desired implication? The pattern of internet paradigm longs this question.

reference: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Jean-Baudrillard%2C-Simulacra-and-Simulations-Baudrillard/643e68abfd0de2aa954b84473fef62779259b655

“The concept of framing consistently offers away to describe the power of a communicating text” – Robert M. Entman, Northwestern University

This week’s topic heavily surrounded the perception of media, framing and schema. Framing is essentially the way something is perceived online where as schema is the pattern of data stored by memory. Framing is commonly used in media to make an altered reality. Framing and schema correlate due to how our minds process data.

As seen in the above image, framing is how we perceive ALL content, even in its simplest forms. Without the outside image, the framed media is perceived much more differently. Framing media constructs a certain point of view, even forms of photoshop and angling allows a different form of framing that makes audiences view media from a different perspective. All media is manipulated so audiences see what the producers want them to see.

Reference: https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/cornwall/en/hearings/exhibits/Mary_Lynn_Young/pdf/05_Entman.pdf

This subject definitely has me learning in depth, COMPLEX content. The concept of the ‘internet paradigm’ is a complex and subjective concept. In this section of the concept, we learn about distributed media and ‘Meme warefare’. ‘Meme warfare’ is referred to as “competition over narrative, ideas, and social control in a social-media battlefield”. In a simpler form, Meme warefare is when become political in a sense and have a specific point of view. An example of this is the military based memes on TikTok and Twitter during an accident involving Trump and Iran in January. People on TikTok and Twiiter made dark jokes on the a pending crisis, mentioning everyone being “shipped off to war”.

There are many forms of distributed media such as Open loops and Feedback loops. These describe what type of media is being produced basically. Meme Warefare and distributed media correlate due to how it is perceived. Certain Memes spark debate and are controversial , the operation of these memes are to draw attention and ignite conversation, giving it engagement. The meme then evolves from there.

Reference: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/8290/7202

This subject is definitely opening my mind up to MANY theories and ideas, that being said, the Medium is The Message definitely opens mind up to more of the possibilities within media. The economic progression of digital media is astronomical. Most media is essentially free and are used as platforms for mediums to deliver their messages. However through advertising and copying content, media’s economy thrives.

The internet has an industrial paradigm which enables economic fruition. Glitches are a perfect example of this paradigm, they are described as “Broken is Beautiful” due to them causing large amounts of attention even though they are an unconventional form of media. The impressions from these forms of media cause a larger scale of influence on messages perceived, the pattern caused being astronomical and global. By far, the medium is the message is one of the most complex social theories, yet also one of the most interesting.

my brain rn #bcm112 pic.twitter.com/dbJzmlo5XJ

— jules (@juliajanej1) April 6, 2020

reference:

https://www.edge.org/conversation/kevin_kelly-better-than-free

The medium is the message, this communicating theory can be bamboozling. However, all sources of media from news platforms to radio to television have their own characteristics that define the messages they produce. It is much like the death of the author , a conceptual theory, in which all content can be interpreted by the individual reader. Yet, the medium is the message holds much influence by the medium who delivers the message.

An example would be TikTok, the application I am using for my DA, it’s relevance as a platform and medium being both dynamic and poignant. The platform is used as a constant meme platform for users, causing many trends such as “whipped coffee” and tiktok dances. Ideas and beliefs on TikTok are diverse although the app still holds many strong ideals and diversity still being a strong message itself. Tiktok has seemingly taken over as the main social media platform… which is why I have taken it on as my digital artefact, the thought ideas and beliefs being heard intrigues me and i’m interested to see what content I produce intrigues and challenges viewers.