Week 10

Reading articles about digital remixing was really interesting to me, because my friend is a huge fan of these musical mashups.  "The Hood Internet," a site where mixers who go by the name The Hood Internet, post their remixes.  The site has just come out with its third album, which feature titles such as: Fleetwood Mac vs. Daft Punk- "You Make Lovin' Harder, Better, Faster Stronger," and "Three 6 Mafia vs. The Long Blondes - Lolli Lolli Pop That Century."  I find my friend checking this site every time he goes online, and he has a The Hood Internet t-shirt that he ordered offline.  

While there is no question that these are quality pieces of musical creativity that add to the music scene and certainly have a large following, their legality is another question.  New technological advances make mixing others' work and posting them for the world to listen to accessible for anyone who takes the time to learn the technology.  Yet major issues come out of this practice.  Firstly, if the original artists' permissions are not asked, the song could be remixed into something that would offend the artists, or not be consistent with the image they are trying to portray or what they stand for.  And if people begin selling these remixes for their own profit without negotiations with the original artists, then it becomes stealing.  As Dexter Holland, the lead singer of offspring comments about the potential selling of the Grey Album, which mixed the Beatles and Jay-Z, "It's the Beatles' musicianship, songwriting and performing that you're benefiting form.  It's the actual recording.  That's what they own.  They own the masters.  You can't take something someone else owns."

In this age, taking others' digital work and slightly altering it into something new is simple, yet the basic law that must rein is respect.  It would be terrible to stifle the creativity of this new art form, but it would be equally deplorable to change artists' music into something they are against, or to give them no money for selling what was originally their work.  Communication and respect for the artist must be key in this new age of digital remixing.

Week 9

Chapter 13 discussed the danger of video games romanticizing violence.  Not only are games becoming more visually realistic, but they are merging real-life situations with fantasy.  Games that simulate fighting against Arab terrorists have become popular.  People think they are modeling reality in these games, and so gain a perspective on world events through these games.  Yet, as Anne-Marie Schleiner, a professor at the University of Colorado, points out, while these games are realistic in some ways, a "number of complexities [are left out] such as economics, religions, families, food, children, women, refugee camps, flesh bodies, and blood, and smell, among other factors.  Osama Bin Laden has been put into many video and computer games as a target, which mirrors a military aim of our country.  However, some of these games encourage stereotyping Arabs.  One game has Osama Bin Laden as owner of a corner grocery store in a city.  This is a common motif in America, and so stereotypes the Arab store owners as terrorists.

Interestingly, one organization trying to make its games exactly match reality, even if it is less fun or exciting for the player.  This organization is the United States Army.  They make simulated war games such as Full Spectrum Warrior, which attempts to give a thorough and realistic view of what modern day warfare truly is.  Clive Thompson, a 2003 Knight science-journalism fellow at MIT, tried the game out and found that, while he is a skilled gamer, it was easy to lose all his men in under three minutes.  Unlike other video games, this one showed that cars are not actually good cover from snipers.  This game is meant to teach judgement more than straight shooting skills.

Comparing two screen shots from a 1980's Atari game and a modern-day game, Kuma/War, reveals interesting similarities and differences.  The poor graphics of the first game made it seem very far from reality, while the visual of the second shot almost made my heart start pounding because I felt that I was about to be shot at by two Arab terrorists.  Though both games put you in the position of the soldier, the second one was much closer to reality, but still lacked the complexities noted above.  This skewed picture of reality can be dangerous for the player's understanding of the world.

Week 8 Continued

My research paper is going well.  I believe that I have set myself up with a topic that I am very passionate about, and I have also done a lot of research so that I can make strong arguments.

My outline is extensive and should make the paper-writing process much simpler.  In doing some last minute extra research before the outline was due last Tuesday, I found some very helpful sources.  One such source was from the Christian Science Monitor, and it made the argument that even some evangelists, who share Bush's religious views, have problems with his infusion of religion into politics, especially in foreign policy.  Iraq and Israel were two countries where even evangelists felt that Bush was making poor, rash decisions due to his religious perspective and the mentality it gives him.  

One claim that I am making is that Bush has given too much federal money to religious groups during his presidency.  An article from the New York Times provided a statistic that displays how much Bush has given, and will greatly help my argument.  Between 2003 and 2005, due to a new federal department created by Bush Administration, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the number of federal grants given to religious groups increased by 38 percent.  I plan to argue that this government action is unfair, because it favors religious groups over secular ones.  This is just one example of how bush has violated the First Amendment.

Week 8

Terrance Smith made the argument that war coverage with new high-tech media equipment and embedding of journalists in the troops is worthwhile yet dangerous and with possibly lessen the objectivity of journalism.  The format of his argument, a roundtable interview/discussion, is incredibly effective.

Ethos is relied upon heavily through the use of the opinions of many high ranking individuals in the media, such as Dan Rather, Walter Rodgers, Ted Koppel, and Donald Rumsfield.  In this type of formatting, the audience can trust that no one's words are being twisted, because their full quotes are being directly stated. 

Terrance Smith would give background information about each topic, and then the others would voice their opinion.  This helped the audience to understand the context of the other's statements.  Sometimes, however, the statements did not seem to be from the roundtable discussion, but rather from actual wartime.  For example, after Terence Smith describes journalist Walter Rodgers embedded in troops who came under enemy fire in Kuwait, a quote from Rodgers thats seems to be during the attack is placed in the same manner that the other speakers, who make statements during the discussion, is placed. At this point I do not fully understand the formatting, but it adds to the pathos of the argument because recalling that time when an American journalist was under fire evokes our emotions.

Week 7

My research process is going fairly well.  My proposal ended up being about four pages long.  This meant that it took a lot of work, but I now have a solid idea about the content of my paper.  After looking further into my sources to write my research paper, I determined that both of my books are written by people who are employed at religiously affiliated schools.  While both attempt to give a balanced view of religion in the Bush presidency, I think that I will mostly likely need to find more sources that are not written by those with strong Christian affiliations.  Finding new sources will be especially necessary if I would like to quote an expert who shares my opinion that the separation of church and state has been violated during the Bush presidency.  I think that such a quote would improve the ethos of my paper.  Statistics that speak in my favor would also most likely be found in a source that is more of an academic critique of Bush's behavior than a proponent of it.

I had difficulty finding visual texts.  I have liked to find more political cartoons, but was only able to find one.  It deals with vouchers, which I plan to discuss in my paper, so this should work out.  I have not yet search for a video clip, but I clip of Bush spouting a religious message of the variety that I plan on quoting textually would most likely increase the potency of my argument.  

In doing such an intense proposal, I began to get a sense of what my formal outline will contain, but have yet to put these ideas to paper.  Although the outline is not due until Thursday, I plan to at least get a bare-bones outline by Tuesday.  Some of the filling out and exact sources can be completed on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I would like to get as much of my outline completed by class on Tuesday morning.  

I think that this step-by-step approach to the research paper will set me up for success.  I have a paper due for another class of mine on Monday, and I only started it on Saturday.  I am glad that I am not allowed to get away with that in this class because it will create a much more in-depth and well written paper.