DMNYU2014

Collective Class Tumblr for Intro to Digital Media at NYU, Spring 2014.

[dmnyu2014]

One of the points made in this article is whether or not fandoms actually make following a show more complicated. Does having millions of people sharing their millions of different views and opininos make it difficult to form your own opinion on a show? I don't think I'm part of a fandom (although I probably am and don't even notice it), but if I was following a series and was simultaneously reading posts on a forum in which people dissect all the details happening in the plot or between the characters, it would all just be very confusing to me. The original Entertainment Weekly article even states that a fandom may give way more depth to a plot than it even intends.

[dmnyu2014]

The YouTube Community: A Culture of Subcultures

Everyone wants to experience belonging in some way. Before the creation of the Internet, if you liked something a little off the beaten path it was difficult to find friends in your town that liked...

We talked a little bit about beauty "gurus" on YouTube last week and I wanted to point out the various fandoms involved in the YouTube community. There are many subcultures on YouTube and it is quickly becoming a popular way to form online communities. Beauty videos are becoming popular and there is a whole fandom that discusses products, fashion, and makeup tutorials.

[dmnyu2014]

A parody video about what it's like to be in a fandom. Coincidentally also a form of DIY media!

[transformativeworks]

You can use fanfic to go to many places, but here are some places where it’s going: http://bit.ly/Rc6lrH

[dmnyu2014]

This is an interesting article from the Organization for Transformative Works that discusses updates in the fandom world. Apparently, you can now take a free nine-week course to learn about the wizarding world of Harry Potter. This was a little mind-boggling to me, not because I'm necessarily a fan of Harry Potter but because I was amazed that the following became so huge that somebody really created this. You can actually join a one of the four houses, move into a dorm and join a chatroom, the "common room" of the dorm and talk with your classmates, and even earn points towards your house.

I also found the "sex in fanfiction" discussion interesting. There is actually an argument against how perfect sexual relationships are in fancfiction. Many people complain that the sex is unrealistic and some communities even argue that authors should include the use of contraception in their plots. I thought people that are part of a fandom in which sexual relationships are the key factor enjoy becoming enthralled in the perfection that comes with reading a romance novel, but I guess in this day and age people have become more realistic.

If you want to read the blogpost by Claire Simpson discussing this issue, here it is: http://clairewriteswords.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/sex-in-fanfiction-the-good-the-bad-and-the-awkward/.

[dmnyu2014]

A whole forum dedicated to discussing various moments that happened between Watson and Holmes that indicated a sexual relationship between them.

[dmnyu2014]

This article describes a different form of fandom - slash fanfiction. This sort of fandom is described as "centered around relationships between between same-sex characters". These characters are usually male. According to another article, http://www.hwslash.net/slash.html, it is usually written by female authors. This is a very sexualized form of fanfiction, and there are many abbreviations that most followers know that I found very interesting. "UST" is unresolved sexual tension. "PWP" is one I found the funniest. It means "plot, what plot?" describing a story in which the focus is not on a plot but rather on "the exploration of a sexual encounter". "H/C" describes an event where a character is Hurt and another comes to bring Comfort. Funny enough, there is a huge "Holmesslash" following in which people explore the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson.

[dmnyu2014]

Last week we discussed indie-gogo.com in class. Recently, I realized a lot of my Facebook friends have been creating these funds for themselves to help them afford their study-abroad trips. Besides this one, another friend of mine created a fund for her pre-med mission to Ghana. On indie-gogo, anyone can create a campaign for anything they want; all they have to do is ask their community. However, is this truly a good thing? Because of this website, many humanitarian campaigns, movie ideas, technological advances, etc. can become funded and their creators can benefit, but if anyone can sign up, who's to say that the funding won't go to something else?

[dmnyu2014]

What makes some fandoms more successful than others?

Is there a surefire recipe for turning a media property into a fandom success?

I always wonder why people are intrigued so much by a TV show or book series that they start a whole community based on it. I found this article discussing all of the factors that create the foundation for a successful user following. While reading through the article, I found that most of the factors that the author mentions make sense, but two really stuck out to me. The author throws in "Two White Guys" and "GIF-able Content", and even though I didn't take these headings seriously while I was reading, I realized that this is very true of most fandom following. Why are we so into "homoerotic subtext"? I found this one quite funny obviously because of the rise in same-sex marriage in America. The paragraph about "GIF-able Content" also stood out to me because it points out how visually focused we are as humans, and how important visual media is to us. Quotable content helps us to remember our favorite parts of books and TV shows, and now that Tumblr's popularity has risen, users love to create their own DIY media through GIFS. It's an easy way to participate in media as well as spread it through the use of online blog websites.

[dmnyu2014]

The 10 Biggest Super Fandoms on the Internet

Fandoms are more devoted than ever. Here, we take a look at the most intense among them.

I found this article interesting because I never thought about the fact that following a celebrity qualifies as being part of a fandom. Here, Beyonce is considered the number one biggest fandom on the internet.

[dmnyu2014]

User-generated content has a history that is much longer than YouTube or Web 2.0 (source).

[dmnyu2014]

Facebook Profiles Can Predict Work Performance

When a company is in the process of hiring a new employee, there's a standard set of things it typically does — follow up with references, check the cover letter for obvious typ...

It's no secret that employers use social media to learn more about applicants, especially recent graduates. In a recent study, evidence shows that the appearance many people display on their social media profiles has a strong correlation to the type of employee they will be. However, there is also evidence suggesting that no such correlation exists and employers have no right to demand social media passwords from their employees if they choose to keep their digital presence private. Additionally, if employers discover information such as specific political views or sexual orientation on an applicant's Facebook profile that they otherwise would not have known and decide not to hire the applicant, they could potentially be sued for discrimination, which would be more hurtful than helpful to a company.

[dmnyu2014]

Mixed Verdict in Apple-Samsung Patent Fight

The dispute between technology rivals ended with an award of nearly $120 million in damages to Apple and $158,000 to Samsung.

After years of bringing disputes to court, Apple and Samsung have finally settled another case regarding patent issues around the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S2 & S3. While Apple was granted more money in this case, there will most likely be more patent disputes between the two tech giants, which, as the article notes, at this point is simply quite silly due to the companies' net worth and the relatively minimal damages they are rewarded. 

[dmnyu2014]

Geek Feminism interviews the OTW's Francesca Coppa

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to give us your questions for an interview with Dr. Francesca Coppa, one of the founders of the Organization for Transformative Works. Thanks to those of you who...

In this interview, Coppa answers questions about why OTW focuses on women mostly, the general difference between male and female fanworks as they deal with copyright implications, some of her favorite fanwork videos, and a few other great topics.

[dmnyu2014]

This Is A Video EVERYONE Needs To See. For The First Time In My Life, I'm Speechless.

“This media we call social is anything but, when we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut”… This is one of the most vital messages that everyone needs to hear. Look Up is a spoken word for the “online” generation. Written, performed and directed by Gary Turk, it is an extremely important life [...]

Lately this video has been shared quite a few times by my friends and friends of friends, so I decided to give it a try. The content is pertinent to our studies, especially regarding the concept that some people believe social media has made us anti-social. Interestingly enough, there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between Gary Turk, the person who produced this video and  digital media, as he makes use of social media to make his point, which is to "turn off your screen and look up", in order to truly enjoy life. Isn't it ironic? 

[dmnyu2014]

YouTube culls hundreds of game clips

Interesting article in which game publishers are defending youtube accounts even though they are breaking copyright laws.  The article makes a few good points including this one as it says, "Technically, uploading footage is a breach of copyright. However, many publishers see the clips as a useful and effective means of promotion for their games. The creators of the videos sometimes use advertising to make money from their efforts."

[dmnyu2014]

Just some Harry Potter fandom

[dmnyu2014]

Last Friday, I attended an MCC-hosted talk in which Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Matthew Fuller, and Lev Manovich discussed how their fascinations, ideas, and research shaped their understanding of the emerging and ambitiously interdisciplinary field of software studies.

Here are some notes I jotted down:

Noah Wardrip-Fruin reflected on three texts from the humanities, social sciences, and computer science fields (The Closed World, Paul N. Edwards; Plans and Situated Actions, Lucy Suchman; Computation and Human Experience, Philip E. Agre) that laid the foundation for his critical engagement with software. He interprets software not as a metaphor of digital culture, but as a system of operations with communicative power. For example, his current project on the collision detection feature in video games analyzes how the meaning of collision varies according to the context/narrative of the game (Pong vs. Tax Avoiders).

Matthew Fuller's definition of and work in software studies does not settle for a "straightforward reading of code" but aims to ask how an abstraction of computer science can become "experiential" -- how it has and can be used to "consolidate or reinvent existing social structures."

Lev Manovich focused on software's roots and increasing relevance in art practice. He expressed a concern that though more and more people are becoming familiar with programming, few are fully computer-literate. He offered a solution that people also be taught software culture (which includes communication protocols, networks, and client systems), which they can become familiar with through, interestingly, big data. He shared about a project, Selfiecity, an example of what he refers to as "cultural analytics" -- analyzing big data for insight to cultural patterns, democratizing what metadata is typically used for and how it involves users.