Authorship in media writing

Media has the ability to make life more real.  The user of media, whether creating or reading what others have created, engages in a relationship with others.  This can be in a variety of ways, from internet use, cell phones, television, radio and text.  The common denominator is all information shared  has an author and at times, depending on the format a multitude of authors.  This shift in the ownership of a created piece of work that becomes accessible to others on a worldwide level is what makes life and media work hand in hand.

                Information accessed on the Internet is often intentionally (or unintentionally) tied to clickable links, allowing the consumer to instantly gather possibly more information than ever intended.  All information, though it may seem to just linger out there, unclaimed by any single person, is traceable back to it point of origin.  Manovich wrote that new media created new models of authorship which involve multiple forms of collaboration in order to present a finished product.  This seemed to imply that very little circulating on the Internet is original work.  From one aspect, that is true.  The work has been changed here and there, in virtual reality, but still, one person had to have set this into motion.  The remixing, sampling and open source projects all started somewhere, but have been art of some type mashed together with other art.  This probably started with the Dada’s and their desire to shake-up people’s view on how art is created.  The Dada’s concept of “found objects” recycled into a new art is an easy parallel to what remixing and sampling are in the humanities of the 21^st Century.

                Diakopoulos’s graphs in the Remix Culture paper depicted the original “book” type of authorship represented as person to media to person, ie: writer makes literary work and it is read by a consumer.  I understand his four figures shown in the reading, but I think there is one more that could be represented.  Sharing on the Internet means a literary work has been produced and released worldwide.  Again, I envision this as a ray, in a scientific aspect.  The writer creates a starting point and shares it with millions of people at once.  Those reading this static work (written, photo or video) and shares it on their chosen media outlet (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google+, etc.) and it just keeps expanding exponentially with no end.  The author will always remain the author.  Ideally, no one should be making changes to a piece of work that is not intended to be part of an open source or remix process. 

I find the art of remixing, sampling and meme extremely enjoyable.  Photoshop and Microsoft Video have made this simple to do.  The process of making these sampled works often involves using what others have already created.  I do this sampling to learn the writing process, especially that of classic rhetors.  I even practice speaking in a rhetorical manner and find that it does affect those I am addressing.  Language and everything associated with language can be used in current times to create works that will cause a reaction or evoke an emotion.  After Miley Cyrus danced on stage with a foam finger, twerking at the music awards, I created a meme of her and Thicke onstage with Thicke’s head removed and Beetlejuice’s head replaced.  In quotes, I wrote “Oh Miley, you’re my #1 too!”  Yes, the photo was taken from the MTV website, but the idea and meme creation stemming from the frame frozen in the video, was mine.  To make this claim, I simply added Girlboxer1970.com to the photo-shopped picture.  To my audience, they realize I didn’t take the photo, I just put my “twist” on the entire performance that honestly disgusted me, yet like a train-wreck, I couldn’t look away.  That is how I want consumers to view my writing, photography and videos.  I’m fine with being a train-wreck as long as my audience continues to return and I don’t get charged for altering Thicke’s head into Beetlejuice.