Campaign Project- Who Cares

We were told to create a campaign video of an issue that we feel the most passionate about. I was in a group of three (Liz Nelson, Alia Alhirsi and myself) and as we tried to find a cause we felt strongly about we all came to the conclusion that there was nothing we cared about. There we had it, our campaign and our issue is that our generation has been desensitized from issues like charities that we all don’t care anymore.

When watching the video I can see some things we could have improved on, lighting for one as when interviewing Alia all we could see was her silhouette and also the sound level was too quiet at times. But altogether I feel we were able to get our message across without shoving it down the audiences throat or making it too humorous to take seriously.

The issue in the video is clear, we (students) care more about our money and funding then we do about poverty stricken countries or the less fortunate, but is it all our fault? Speaking for myself only, I can say that I do feel guilty but not very often and especially when I am being hounded on the street to give money to a cause. I don’t like being told what to do and guilt tripping me or following me until I stop is something I regard as bullying. Isn’t that what Comic Relief is for? Helping out those in need?  They raised £74.3 million this year and yet our country is actually £0.932 trillion in debt by the end of this year, as I live in this country I feel as though we should be helping ourselves before we can help others.

This topic is a sensitive one as in the end no one really wins, we will still be in debt; still have homeless people, domestic violence, countries in poverty and lack of jobs. Of course there will be improvement but these issues have been around for years and with the growing population it doesn’t seem as though they will die down anytime soon.

this is the site to see the UK's debt

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_debt_chart.hmtl

It's Viral Friday...

Okay, it's actually Wednesday not Friday but,

Three words: Rebecca Black, Friday.

As the actual YouTube video was taken off but then put up again as I write this entry, I will link up the original version (hopefully it won't be taken down again, if so you, the reader, should have seen it already as it is so widely know now). When I first watched this video a couple weeks ago it had a mere 9million views but when it was taken off the site it had reached 62million views. The wide spread reaction to this 13 year old girls attempt at a music video turned viral for all the wrong reasons, as many viral videos tend to, with poor quality props and settings, bad edits and incomprehensible lyrics. The person who wrote the lyrics for this song was either a lyrical genius or a dim-witted adult who thought that’s what all teenagers do on a Friday. If it’s the latter then I understand why there were so many dislikes towards the video, if it was the former then this person created a song that many people got stuck in their head whether they permitted it or not.

The thing that makes this video viral is that people in the millions watched it, talked about it and posted it on social network sites, it is a perfect example of the power the internet can have. If this video hadn’t received so much attention, would Rebecca Black have gotten so many interviews and have articles written about her? It reminds me of the Christmas number 1 for 2009, people who were sick of the X Factor decided to rebel and through social network groups were able to make Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ number 1 in the charts. Bearing in mind the song was released in 1992 and originally reached number 25 in the UK charts it shows how one thing can be propelled into the spotlight with the right marketing and reasons. The couple who started the rebellion were doing it for charity purposes but also the group represented what many people thought, that X Factor were taking over a Christmas tradition.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2228594104&v=photos&closeTheater=1#!/group.php?gid=2228594104&v=wall&closeTheater=1

(the link to the Facebook Group)

In my opinion these crazes are not completely negative; in fact they make the internet a more entertaining place. Giving the feeling of unity that a group of people are able to overthrow the higher powers with sheer numbers and that the public are not all ignorant followers of what we’re told to believe. On the other hand the reaction and comments towards Rebecca Black can be harsh for a 13 year old to listen to, with comments telling her to die (a little extreme) and others complaining of their bleeding ears, it’s the personal level these comments go to that ruin the viral trends and force videos to be removed. As history is showing us the internet is growing power outside of the computer and with the majority of people on a global level has access to the internet, there is no telling how dominant these trivial things like a teen’s music video or Christmas Number 1 will become.

Here it is, that song I was talking about....

The Fight for Copyright

A few weeks ago I was put into a group for a debate on copyright; unfortunately I was put in the group that was defending copyright which personally I am against. Needless to say my group won the debate but when it was over the teacher asked us which side we would have preferred and 90% of the class agreed that they were against copyright. During the research for the debate it showed that there were plenty of decent reasons to defend copyright and the reason against it were feeble. So instead everyone agreed that there should be a compromise, copyright should be enforced but with common sense and reasoning. I pointed out that my opinion that there is a fine line between a fair system and taking advantage. Who decides what is eligible for downloading and what isn’t? Who monitors the people that decide?  

Abusing the system is unfortunately why many government officials agree to strengthening copyright laws; many of these people don’t even understand illegal downloading altogether. So for a compromise to occur both sides would have to understand where each side is coming from. Yes the music industry is suffering because of illegal downloading, but how many of those songs have been taken from older songs and remixed? Yes creative industries are struggling to get by but doesn’t that get rid of the talentless fame hungry people and make room for people with actual individual talent? It’s unavoidable, the ‘copyfight’ will have to be resolved but when and how is yet to be determined, Pirate Bay seem to be leading the opposed of copyright and doing a fairly good job. If only they would be more diplomatic and persuasive maybe governments and industries would be more willing to listen to the reasons Pirate Bay believes in.

The way I see it, I pay to see films in the cinema (not the food though, unbelievably expensive), I buy DVD's and pay for my television licence as well as for cable channels. I feel as if I pay enough, not to mention all those people who pay for entering competitions or voting in a television contests. The creative industry is doing better than what they are pretending to be with endorsements and tours that bring in nice sums of money, which in the end is what they are fretting about. There is no need to panic all because so many people are sharing music files that the industries will become bankrupt,  Beyoncé's 'I Am....' tour  for example profited $108million hardly spare change. We need to look at the bigger picture, the internet is large and fast with constant upgrading and new software, copyright is becoming harder and harder to control and monitor the choice is whether the two sides of the debate form a coalition or begin a war but either way things will have to change.