Copyright Confusion

Copyright was an extremely grey area for me, particularly with online content, before I took a look at week two’s readings. Turns out everything is copyrighted. Everything. I’ve therefore been breaking laws since my 1999 prep project on fish. Nobody gave me permission to stick those pictures on my poster…
Anyone could then (theoretically) knock on my door and try and sue me for using their tumblr quote on my Instagram last week? Seems entirely surreal slightly frightening to me…
Lucky, there is such a thing as creative commons, explained so neatly in the reading video, which are licenses people may attach to their content, thereby granting the public complete access without asking permission. Although different varieties of freedom are attached to different licenses, it gives those of us without any budding photography skills some reassurance.

 

Fin

As I scurried into the lecture (late again, cursed 56!) I caught the end of Adrian’s reference to materiality and immediately flashed back to my overwhelmed self a week prior… Philosophy again? Really?

Regardless of my initial dismay, much of what he had to say was in fact extremely thought-provoking. His overarching idea: materiality matters. My lightbulb moment occurred as he asked us to take away all discursive meaning of a book and attempt to explain it to someone that has never seen nor heard of one before. It was near impossible and I kept being roadblocked by yet another question ‘but what are pages?’, ‘what are letters?’. It made me realise that everything I understand about a book is in its materiality and the preconditions I’ve developed about it.
He then moved on to question our expectation that a narrative would have a beginning, middle and end. And well, since Aristotle times, this is precisely true. A story without such a narrative structure leaves my mind reeling and makes me feel more than a little uncomfortable. Yet have I unconsciously been experiencing this bizarre approach to narrative online everyday? In a network that is entirely limitless and you have complete control over where you begin and finish to read, does a beginning middle and end exist? I think that yes, each singular entry online has some kind of structure and this is integral to our understanding of it. I can’t tell if this is my OCD personality talking however, so it will be interesting to see how my perceptions change (if at all) over the semester.

 

Tweet Tweet

Something Betty mentioned in the tutorial this week is the importance of creating an online presence, in a professional manner. She mentioned things like Linkedin and Twitter as two key platforms to present yourself as a future employee.

This got me thinking about the fact that not only do I not have a Linkedin account, but, and I feel like a failed media student to say this, I literally have no idea how to use Twitter.
Are there others in the same boat as me or should I just leave?
Don’t get me wrong, I have an account and I follow some obligatory profiles like Jimmy Fallon, The Age and ahem, Justin Bieber. But I get confused as soon I have to favourite something… Is that just like liking it? Or does it carry more weight, like the word would suggest? And apologies for trying again to draw similarities to Facebook,  but is retweeting a post just like sharing something? Because it seems to me people retweet bloody everything. Is it awkward if noone retweets your post? So many questions, such confusion.

Anyhow, here is my twitter account: @GonzalezKarlee feel free to add me if you know what you are doing and I will try to learn by example.

Much obliged xx

Lecture/Unlecture/Symposium/Whatever

As it is now week 3, reflecting back to the first unlecture or symposium seems a bit hazy. (Note to self, stay on top of blog posts!) Especially as my notes page consisted only of two words ‘quality vs quantity’… (Note to self, be more attentive with note taking!) However my memory is not so shabby that I do remember sitting in the room wondering why we were in building 56 and why do I feel like I’m in a philosophy lecture? Fair to say my brain wasn’t at all prepared for the nature of discussion in week 1.

??

Something I did take away from it (apparent in my thorough notes) was the limitless capacity of knowledge we have at our fingertips. Accessing academic writings or works does not mean going to University. University holds a very different role in contemporary society, one thats job to me, as a student, is to provide me with the tacit knowledge, rather than explicit. To give me quality training which will ready me for the workforce in ways other surface definitions.

On the basis of that introductory lecture, I am expecting big things from this course and am excited (yet slightly apprehensive) to see what’s next!

‘Enter Title Here’…

Here I am, a second year Professional Communications student and aspiring journalist starting my first ever blog. My biggest dilemma, what do I title it?

I would like to blame this fierce obstacle of commitment issues for my lack of online presence. And for why it took the inclusion of a blog into the curriculum for me to actually get serious about it. Truly, starting my own blog has been on my agenda for most of my high school life and indeed the entirety of my university life and yet previously, when I got proactive about creating one, I got caught up in the pressures of a perfect header and quirky avatar and then I would bail with a sharp slam of my laptop and a trip to the fridge.

It’s not about the physically writing of content, as this is indeed my passion. More so, I’m just panicked at the concept of a blog truly being an insight into me as person. There is no style guide to follow, as there is when writing for any given publication. The whole thing is up to me… and there are too many questions to address; Who is my audience? Why am I writing this? Do people care? And no matter what I write, the most terrifying concept is that as soon as I press that ‘publish’ button, it is exposed in the public domain that is the Internet.

Adrian Miles addresses this idea of the Internet as a public sphere in the Week 1 reading, and highlights the integral care we must take when posting public content. As he states, we are creating our online persona, of which we are in control of. It this idea of how I want to be portrayed that has me so bewildered, as it makes me second guess who I am away from the internet. This train of thought then, has allowed me to come to the realisation that my personality is not a tangible and absolute thing and that it grows and evolves continually. My online persona then, should simply be a reflection of this and therefore I must allow it to grow as I work my way through this course.

And so I would like to officially welcome you to my blog, and to invite you on the journey that I undertake as I work to build my online presence and voice.

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