sarahcrosbycom135-blog

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Copyright Laws: An Artists Bodyguard (Blog #4 Revision)

Remember when you were young and you said something funny under your breath and then somebody else repeated it louder. The whole class laughed, but you were mad that you came up with it first. This is what creative artists have to deal with. They work hard to create unique content, but somebody else takes it and uses it to make money themselves.  With copyright laws, these artists can protect their work, but also give permission for people to use it if they want. People should only be allowed to repurpose content if the original artist agrees they can.

A recent lawsuit came upon singer Ed Sheeran as his song “Photograph’s” chorus sounded a lot like the X-Factor winner, Matt Cardle’s song called “Amazing”.  In an article written for The Guardian by Hannah Ellis Petersen, the songwriters for Matt Cardle state, “the chorus of Photograph and Amazing shared 39 identical notes and that the similarities were instantly recognizable to the ordinary observer”.

Take a listen to the chorus yourself:

You can clearly see the similarities in the chorus. Now imagine how much money Ed Sheeran made off this song, and how much less the small artist made. That is not fair or moral, is it? This is where copyright laws can help them.

But what if an artist wants their content to be shared freely and is okay with people reusing them? Tools like Creative Commons, helps people legally share their content, and allows them to create free copyright licenses for their work. This way they can place rules on where and by whom their content can be used.

An example of someone who wants their content to be shared freely is, Leo Babauta. Leo is the creator of a blog called Zen Habits.  On his blog, Leo dedicates a post to releasing his copyright by saying, “if someone wants to take my work and improve upon it, as artists have been doing for centuries, I think that’s a wonderful thing”.  Leo promotes a creative community and just simply asks if his followers will link back to his work.

Copyright laws are helpful when it comes to artistic expression. People who want credit for their work can help protect their content and people who don’t care can give people the right to take it freely.  Copyright laws allow artists to shine and allow people to recognize THEM for THEIR work. 

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Activists or Slacktivists? Blog #3 Revision

Is online activism effective, or is it just an easy way for people to boost their egos?  Although being activists online sounds like an amazing movement, many people think it’s not being done right.  Critics claim it gives people the opportunity to disengage from the issue.  Users can simply type their name into an online petition and feel like they’re activists, but they’re not. The people who are making vigorous direct movements to create change are successful.  They are true activists.

Hashtagging isn’t activism. In 2014, 276 Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted.  People were outraged by what was happening and moved this anger to social media.  A movement began where people posted on Twitter or Instagram hashtagging “BringBackOurGirls”.  Although this defiantly spread awareness of the issue, the hashtag didn’t bring any direct change. In an interview for an article written in The Guardian by author Maeve Shearlaw,  Ben Hewitt, from the World at School Organization illustrated, “the girls are still missing … that is the ultimate measure of success and we are not there yet”. Even if a hashtag is so widespread it doesn’t always make a change. If people donated or contacted government officials themselves, that could be successful activism.

Michelle Obama tweets a picture of herself in support of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, showing how widespread the hashtag was.

Sesay, Isha. “Bring Back Our Girls”Cnn.com,Cnn, April 14 2015,https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/opinions/sesay-bring-back-our-girls-one-year-on/index.html

So what’s an example of successful and real activism? After the devastating shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, two students, Sawyer Garrity and Andrea Peña, along with the drama club wrote their own song called “Shine” to help raise money for their non-profit organization ShineMSD.

Take a look at their powerful performance covered by CNN:

Towards the end of their performance, each of the students gives a call to action.  One student emphasizes how you can do more by contacting government officials, a true form of activism.  According to an article written by Erika Pesantes for Sun-Sentinel, the song has been a huge success as, “Shine” costs $1.29 on iTunes, and all proceeds from it are slated to go to the non-profit”.  By purchasing the song people are directly donating to the cause and contacting officials about gun control has brought a large amount of attention to the issue within the white house.

If you want to participate in online activism, you need direct action.

Donate.

Contact Officials.

Don’t just hashtag.

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Morphing Our Ideal Self Into Our Online Personas (Blog #2 Revision)

The amount of social media users has grown rapidly in the past few years. In this chart created by the Pew Research Center, 68% percent of American’s claim to use Facebook, but how many of these people are hiding who they really are on this platform?

With the increasing social media users the question of whether people portray their real personalities on their social media accounts or do they just show what they want to show rises. Some people believe users portray themselves accurately online, but in reality, we just present the parts of ourselves we want others to see. 

To illustrate why we don’t share everything on our social media accounts, Sherry Turkle, a researcher in technology in modern relationships, gave a Ted Talk discussing these issues:

In this Talk, Turkle states, “ Texting, email, posting, all of these things let us present the self as we want to be. We get to edit, and that means we get to delete, and that means we get to retouch, the face, the voice, the flesh, the body”.  When posting on social media we don’t post the negative things in our lives or bad pictures of ourselves and we are able to control what we say to each other.  Technology allows us to think longer before we respond to somebody, causing somebody’s online persona to come across a lot more calm, intelligent, and respectful which they may not be in real life.

The ability to decide what you want to post leads to the idea that we try to characterize our “ideal self” within our online personas instead of our “real self”.  In an article written for the Huffington Post by Dr. R Kay Green, she emphasizes, “your “real self” is what you are - your attributes, your characteristics, and your personality. Your “ideal self” is what you feel you should be; much of it due to societal and environmental influences.” People try to show their ideal self by posting things that live up to society's standards.  You get likes on your posts and it gives a false sense of self-esteem causing you to post more idealistic content because you feel good about the online image you’ve created.

Online personas are not always authentic and don’t show users true personality.  People alter what they share with the world ultimately trying to live up to society's standards.

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Business In Social Media (Blog #1 Revision)

We all use social media in our personal lives, but have you ever thought about how people use it in their professional lives?  Social mediums are not just used for chatting with our friends, business owners use these tools as well. You might watch videos for entertainment, but some of your favorite YouTubers are using this platform to market their products to you.

How much money can a YouTuber really make by making videos with their products?  In an article written for Business Insider by Zoë Bernard she states, “in 2016, YouTube creators earned total revenues equal to those earned by creators on every other major service, combined”. Therefore, Youtube is an extremely effective business tool.

Take a look at this chart created by Statista:

This chart illustrates 1.8 million Americans earned a total of $3.3 billion on Youtube in 2016.  Not only does this show how much money businesses can make using Youtube, it also shows how other social mediums like Etsy and Instagram can bring in money as well.

Let's take a look at a specific example where Youtube helped a business thrive. Laura Lee is a well-known makeup artist on Youtube with 4 million subscribers.  She recently created her own makeup brand called Laura Lee Los Angeles. She then used her famous Youtube channel to announce her new eyeshadow palette’s release date and show off the amazing qualities of the eyeshadows to her viewers to make them want to buy it.

Let's take a look at her video for her “Cat’s Pajamas” eyeshadow palette:

Creating this video for her helped her sales skyrocket.  According to an article written for the Entrepreneur by Nina Zipkin, her palette “sold out in days -- which is not surprising since Lee has more than 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube”.  Laura Lee made a smart choice using Youtube, didn’t she?

Overall it’s clear to see that the social mediums we use in our personal life can be used for business too.  Mediums like Youtube are extremely effective and can bring in large revenues, just ask Laura Lee!

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Copyright Laws: An Artist’s Bodyguard

Remember when you were young and you said something funny under your breath and then somebody else repeated it louder. The whole class laughed, but you were mad that you came up with it first. This is what creative artists have to deal with. They work hard to create unique content, but somebody else takes it, and uses it to make money themselves.  With copyright laws these artists can protect their work, but also give permission for people to use it if they want. People should only be allowed to repurpose content if the original artist agrees they can.

A recent lawsuit came upon famous singer Ed Sheeran as his song Photograph’s chorus sounded a lot like the X-Factor winner, Matt Cardle’s song called Amazing.  In an article written for The Guardian by Hannah Ellis Petersen, the songwriters for Matt Cardle state, “the chorus of Photograph and Amazing shared 39 identical notes and that the similarities were instantly recognisable to the ordinary observer”. 

Take a listen to the chorus yourself:

You can clearly see the similarities in the chorus. Now imagine how much money Ed Sheeran made off this song, and how much less the small artist made. That is not fair or moral is it? This is where copyright laws can help them. 

But what if an artist wants their content to be shared freely and is okay with people reusing them. Tools like Creative Commons, helps people legally share their content, and allows them to create free copyright licenses for their work. This way they can place rules on where and by whom their content can be used.

An example of an artist who wanted their content shared freely is Amanda Palmer. Amanda is a rock icon, who doesn’t charge people for her music. She spoke at a Ted Conference sharing her beliefs about free sharing.

Amanda relies on donations from her fans in order to get paid for her work. Amanda had made over $1,000,000 just by asking for donations instead of charging people and relying on copyright laws.

Copyright laws are helpful when it comes to artistic expression. People who want credit for their work can help protect their content and people who don’t care can give people the right to take it freely.  Copyright laws allow artists to shine, and allow people to recognize THEM for THEIR work. 

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Activists or Slactivists?

Is online activism effective, or is it just an easy way for people to boost their egos? Online activism has flourished with hopes of making big changes in the world. Although being activists online sounds like an amazing movement, many people think it’s not being done right. By being activists online, critics think it gives people the opportunity to disengage from the issue.  People can simply type their name into an online petition and feel like they’re activists, but they're not.  Although it’s true that some people just click a couple links to make themselves feel good without any direct action, the people who are making vigorous direct movements to create change are successful.  They are true activists. 

Hashtagging isn’t activism. In 2014, 276 Nigerian school girls were abducted.  People were outraged by what was happening, and moved this anger to social media.  A movement began where people posted on twitter or Instagram hastagging “BringBackOurGirls”.  Although this defiantly spread awareness of the issue, the hashtag didn’t bring any direct change. In an interview for an article written in The Guardian by author Maeve Shearlaw,  Ben Hewitt, from the World at School Organization illustrated, “the girls are still missing ... that is the ultimate measure of success and we are not there yet”. Even if a hashtag is so widespread it doesn’t always make change. If people donated or contacted government officials themselves, that could be real activism, and that could lead to real change.

Michelle Obama tweets a picture of herself in support of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, showing how widespread the hashtag was.

Sesay, Isha. “Bring Back Our Girls”Cnn.com,Cnn, April 14 2015,https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/opinions/sesay-bring-back-our-girls-one-year-on/index.html

So what’s an example of successful and real online activism? Remember that A.L.S Ice bucket challenge everyone posted? In this challenge people either had to dump ice cold water on their head or donate money to research. According to an article in The New York Times, written by White House correspondent, Katie Rogers,  they raised over $115 million, helping them find a new gene related to A.L.S.  Many celebrities participated in the challenge, spreading awareness even more.  This Is real online activism, because not only are they spreading awareness for the disease, they are directly helping the cause by donating the money to research.

Ellen Degeneres pours water on Kim Kardashian for the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Rozeman, Micheal. “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: Stars Who’ve Accepted” eonline.com, Enews,http://www.eonline.com/photos/13337/als-ice-bucket-challenge-stars-who-ve-accepted/415128.

If you want to participate in online activism, you need direct action.

Donate.

Contact Officials. 

Don’t just hashtag.

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Morphing Our Ideal Self Into Our Online Personas

As social media rapidly grows within our society, the idea of whether or not we accurately portray ourselves through our social platforms is heavily debated.  Some people believe we accurately present ourselves, but in reality we just present what we want people to see.  Sherry Turkle, researcher in technology in modern relationships, states in her Ted Talk that, “ Texting, email, posting, all of these things let us present the self as we want to be. We get to edit, and that means we get to delete, and that means we get to retouch, the face, the voice, the flesh, the body”.  When posting on social media we don’t post the negative things within our lives or bad pictures of ourselves, and were able to control what we say to each other.  Technology allows us to think longer before we respond to somebody, allows somebody’s online persona to come across a lot more calm, intelligent, and respectful which they may not be in real life.  Furthermore, this allows allows a person who is extremely shy in real life to appear to be outgoing.  It is easier to start a conversation or have a connection with somebody on social media because they can only judge you off of what you post.  Somebody can easily hide behind the screen talking to people they never would in real life.  This same shy person may post various pictures of them out “partying” with friends to make them appear more social.  

 Similarly Dr.R.Kay Green, a senior marketing consultant, in her article for the Huffington Post, discusses the idea between your “real self” and your “ideal self”.  Your real self is what you really are.  This includes your personality, your characteristics, values, and attributes.  On the other hand, your ideal self is what you think you should be, which is heavily affected by society's views or standards.    Dr.R.Kay Green illustrates, “through interaction with the social medium, the real and ideal selves intersect; and the ideal self is at least partially actualized. In essence, our online selves represent our ideals and eliminate many of our other real components.”  Therefore, people do illustrate some characteristics about themselves, but leave out many details in order to fulfill their standards of their ideal self, and morphe them into something society wants them to be.

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Business in Social Mediums

Social Mediums are not only used to have fun chatting with friends, it is also a way for people to pursue careers.  Many people watch Youtube videos for entertainment, whereas many business owners are posting videos in order to get viewers to be interested in their companies.  According to Business Queensland, Youtube provides an excellent way for businesses to demonstrate their products and their expertise.  By posting their videos they are able to show their product in action  while providing a way to add a personality to their products.  The company is able to put a face behind the product and add character to it.  By having somebody consumers love and support behind the camera it makes people want to buy the product that much more.  For example, Laura Lee is a makeup artist, also known as a beauty guru, with 4.1 million subscribers on her Youtube Channel.  Laura is from Alabama and has a super sweet accent and the most adorable personality, causing all of her subscribers to love her.  Although she started out just posting makeup tutorials for entertainment, she used this platform to develop her own makeup brand, Laura Lee Los Angeles, and launched her first makeup palette, called Cat’s Pajamas.  On her youtube channel she posts videos demonstrating her Cat’s Pajamas palette and all the amazing looks you can create. Laura has created a large community, her subscribers, that all want to buy her product because of how well it performs on her channel and how much they love her personality.  Laura Lee is one of many makeup enthusiasts on youtube and has made friends with other beauty gurus.  She posts collaboration videos with other makeup enthusiasts which helps her get support from their subscribers and also allows more people with the same interests to view her companies products.  Youtube for me was a way to watch entertaining videos, post funny videos with friends, or to just have a place for school projects.  By looking at Youtube through a business lens I was able to see how easily ones business could thrive using social media.