Social misfits

The Smartest Man And The Highest Priest

http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox/120c6bfa9d6c9a73 (cut and paste to access)

http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox/120c6c1864c3bba9

I had a real problem getting these pics up. Blogger wouldn't let me do it, and I'll be honest I cheated I have to admit it. The photo shop is done by a friend who really knows it, BUT the ideas are mine.

1. What is the purpose of the remix? I guess to see comedians in a new light,as real, intelligent critics of the times we live in.

The remix will circulate virally at first I think, youtube and other sites. the hopes would be that it make it into the mainstream via postcard, magazine, t shirt.

I believe I did repurpose the media text, and added value possibly culturally

Is it transformative? yes because through remix the meaning has changed. i wonder what the outcome would be if I denegrated the iconic figures, but I didn't I kept their value and made what could be read as equal or greater than the source figure images. That is a question I have is it fair use if I were to denegrate the idea of the source material? Does that matter?

The intended meaning is I consider George Carlin, or some comics as smart and as important as Einstein or the pope. There is a quiet fringe of people who might believe that, but with the remix I'd like to bring it to the forefront.

Technique and choices- i used Iconic figures against Carlin, to consider him just as Iconic, and I used a play on words, and of course the art of photo shop.

I believe the source image is fair use, that being Einstein and the pope

Barack Obama and Sam Cooke Remix

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0imz3w

If the streaming audio does not work please download the mp3 from the above link and listen while watching the slide show. I could not find a slide show that would allow me to upload my own audio track so the slide show is separate from the audio.


The purpose of my remix is to strike an emotional chord with Barack Obama supporters. The music, audio clips and slide show are meant to come together in a way that represents the importance of Obama's election as President of the United States. The remix, as a whole, should serve as a way to reflect back on a monumental time in American history. I do not plan on having this circulate anywhere other than this blog.

Recently I have been listening to a lot of Sam Cooke's music, and realized how relevant his song “A Change is Gonna Come” is to our current political climate. Because Sam Cooke was involved with the civil rights movement, I would imagine that “A Change is Gonna Come” held sentimental value in his life. The message of the song parallels many of the ideals represented by Obama's campaign and his administration. This involves hope for a better tomorrow through significant changes in policy. After choosing the song, I added clips from Obama's inauguration speech to really support the message of the lyrics and the tone of the music. In addition to the audio, I selected several photos which are meant to serve as a snapshot of what the song is saying. Many of these photos show Obama in candid situations, interacting with people and personifying hope for American people.


It is difficult to say whether or not my remix is considered to be fair use of the source texts. While there really are no negative connotations to be taken from the remix, it does infringe upon copyright laws. It seems unlikely that any sort of legal action would be taken against such a positive message, but the audio clips from Obama's speech certainly alter the song dramatically. It is interesting to look at how the convergence of two different pieces of audio and images can create such a meaningful message. If this piece were to be used for educational purposes I believe it would probably be considered fair use of the source texts. Hopefully this remix means something to somebody.

Remixing brings back amateurism?

Back in 1906, one of America's favorite composers John Philip Sousa, asked that Congress "remedy a serious defect in the...law, which permits manufacturers and sellers of phonograph records...to appropriate for their own profit the best compositions of the American composer without paying a single cent therefor"--a form of "piracy" as he called it." 

He was angry and upset that his copyrighted music was being reproduced at a low cost, and he wasn't making money from it. This kind of reminded me of Metallica filing a lawsuit against Napster. Anyone remember that? They claimed that Napster encouraged piracy by allowing copyrighted songs to be distributed for free. Sousa was very much like them back in 1906. As he was the first composer to speak out on the issue of music being duplicated into "mechanical music",  Metallica was the first from the recording artists to take a stand against P2P (peer to peer) sharing. Sousa probably would have had a heart attack if he knew that something like p2p sharing would come along...

It wasn't just about the money though. Sousa feared that this form of "mechanical music" would eliminate creativity and and cause a cultural emptiness.  He said that "we will not have a vocal cord left." He feared the death of "amateur culture." He feared that people would be less connected to practicing and creating that same culture. The love for music would be fizzle...

Remixing faces its own set of criticisms. Taking someone else's original, not to mention copyrighted work, to make something of your own is taking a lot of heat. But remixing produces two positives: the good of community and education. People learn from each other while remixing, People learn about what's going on around them through it. People inspire others to do it more by doing it. It's connecting people to their culture and stirring more interest in it. 

So does remixing bring back a sense of amateurism that Sousa once feared would be dead? Does remixing hurt further creation of original material? Or does it inspire it? 

Feminism & Genderlect Theories

“Feminist communication theory...begins with the goals of understanding and explaining gender, refusing to accept stock answers and unchallenged common-sense assumptions. Feminist communication theory begins with an assumption that we are in need of deep structural change to produce new social relations and just societies." Feminist communication theory theorizes gender, communication, and social change. Genderlect Theory views communication between men and women through a humanistic and scientific approach, stating that the differences between the communication styles that women and men use are cultural. Genderlect Theory claims that men are more concerned with power while women focus on connections, leading to "cross-cultural" misunderstandings between the sexes. An example of this difference that a supporter of Genderlect Theory may believe would be how men and women think about personal relationships with the opposite sex and how they talk about their problems in different ways. However, Genderlect Theory claims that men view the world through the lens of hierarchy and that women are only concerned with making connections. Do you believe this to be true? I myself have known plenty of men who think about or view relationships just as the women they are dating do, and miscommunications arise from personality differences, not miscommunications. I believe that Feminist communication theory relates to Genderlect Theory because I believe Genderlect Theory to be categorizing women and communication, using stereotypes to form the theory, which is what Feminist communication theorists strive to avoid.

Here is an example from the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" which tries to show how differently women and men think about relationships, which would support the Genderlect Theory if it were true:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBUj-iF4Tg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m19MuX02mUw&feature=related

Genderlect Styles and Feminine Communication Theory

As I understand it Deborah Tannen views communication between men and women as cross cultural, and follows the rules inherent in learning another language. That language is Genderlect. She goes on to say that men speak with the idea of giving a "report" whereas women communicate in terms of gaining" rapport". This matches the idea that men seek independence and women community. There are certain signs to the language. For instance women engage in what is called cooperative overlap. men view this as a power move to take control of the conversation. Another term, the "tag question" again tries to create community even in a one on one situation such as "That movie was pretty good, don't you think? Tannen has many sharp critics completely opposed to her theory, suggesting that she forgot to consider male domination of women, both physical and mental. In essence this arguement states that men and women are not equal. this is the belief of Carol Gilligan. Gilligan's idea is where the article on Feminine Communication Theory picks up. That article states again that communication as a study has always been to better a white male society. It considers that even calling Feminine Communication a theory is political, basically saying we are not theorizing, Feminine communication is real. The two media texts I have are from movies. The first is from "Diner" by Barry Levinson. just watch the scene and see, but it is an example of two ways of communicating going on here. The man is reporting the signifigance of his records, and the women is looking for rapport with the man, and even with the records. The second clip is a montage of scenes from Annie Hall, BY Woody Allen. After the voice over the scene with them after tennis is revealling. Annie catches herself doing a cooperative overlap, she refers to it saying "oh how dumb, you said I was good, so i had to say you were. I'd like to know what anyone else picks up in the rest of the clips.

Race in Communication

Stuart Hall brings up a great point in his interview from the film Race: The Floating Signifier. He expresses his concern for the way in which race functions as a sort of “guarantee” in people's minds. In essence he is saying that common justifications used to describe a particular point of view, belief, action, etc. are generally not based on logical reasons but rather on what stereotypes are understood in that society. Because certain cultural traditions and political views, etc. are common among certain ethnicities, many people tend to understand these ideals and traditions as guarantees. Stuart certainly believes that this is not true and that people's beliefs cannot be directly associated with a genetic biological disposition. This means that the history of culture has everything to do with the ways in which people live their lives. It is the struggle or hardships of the past, that can be attributed to molding cultural ideals and not genetics. Black culture in America is an example of this and represents the growth and development of cultural ideals and the ways in which they are shaped by history. Being put in a certain position, over a long period of time, where certain conditions are to be faced, is the greatest determining factor in black culture and the struggle to overcome these challenges. It seems as though Hall is saying that biology has much less to do with the communication and social structure of society and politics than the histories of those people that are involved. It is important to understand how communication is affected by the structure of race in society. According to the video clip taken from Dateline, posted below, much of what people feel or understand about racial and cultural differences is subconscious and is not all that apparent at first look. It seems as though the stereotypes which society tends to accept, can over time, condition people to believe something that is simply not true. The Dateline video shows several professionals from different areas of expertise, being tested on their subconscious racial beliefs. While the results don't seem too surprising, it is certainly apparent that prejudice and racial stereotyping have much to do with the ways in which people are accepted in society. Although some people question the validity of the test, the findings could have serious affects on the ways in which cross cultural communication works, which in turn can affect major issues in the US and elsewhere. This idea is not only limited to black and white communication but all cross cultural communication. Do you think it is possible to communicate, cross culturally, without any bias and prejudice?


You only really need to watch about 4 minutes of this video to grasp the main idea.


In the article, Communication as Raced, these ideas are also presented in an argument that claims that the study of communication itself is raced. Because the study of communication focused almost exclusively on those who were in power, much of what people understand about studying communication could be from a biased perspective. There are many different aspects of cross cultural communication to consider when discussing this topic. The important question, is whether these issues will ever be truly resolved.