Online Documentaries

Getting funding from documentaries is a hard task, and only a select few become hits and make reasonable profits. Super Size Me made a grossed a total of $20, 641, 054, and this is the 11th most successful documentary to date. Websites such as youtube have offered opportunities for many armature documentaries relating to special interest such as the one below. It also offers an outlet to individuals who feel their voices aren't being heard and want to express themselves. Many people have experience their 15 minutes of fame through posting a video blog, skit, or documentary on youtube. The large man dancing to Beyonce's Single Ladies actually made his way onto the Tyra Banks show, and even performed live on stage at Beyonce's concert. And even more recently Justin Bieber was discovered by Usher online and now he is a teen heart throb.

One of the more bizarre cases would be Chris Crocker who became famous for his 'leave Britany alone' video which defended Britany Spear's VMA comeback performance. This was played on many talk shows including fox news, Maury Povich, and the Jimmy Kimmel show. He has now recorded and sells songs on itunes and is hired to endorse products that relate to Britany. Youtube offers people an outlet to voice their opinions for free. It almost puts a new meaning to freedom of speech.

Documentaries and video blogs offer knowledge. It may be one persons point of view that they have recorded on their iPhone in their bedroom, or a social activist like Michael Moore opening the eyes of viewers to a social, environmental, but most of the time a political issue. The more information that is out there the better it is for the consumer. They are able to take in as much as they can and form an educated decision.

My Mobile Phone is an Extention of my Body

I don't know that i could live without my mobile phone. Well, obviously i would physically survive, but I think I would have pretty severe withdrawal symptoms. My life is in my mobile phone, all of my friends contacts, a calender reminding me of peoples birthdays and events I have commited to, the internet if i ever need to look something up on the go, and when I forget to put on my watch in the morning, I rely on it to tell me the time.

More and more mobile phones are becoming a necessity. If you have a mobile phone, you are expected to be available around the clock.

Since mobile phones came out they have been used as an accessory. Business men and women used to place their mobile phone on the table when they went out to lunch to show their important status. I remeber when my mum came home with her first mobile phone and we were so impressed with the size of it; "Oh my god! its like the size of a Mars Bar!"

Since then, phones became smaller and smaller. The smaller your phone was, the more important you were seen to be. Now with the inroduction of the internet on mobile phones, they need for a bigger screen had increased the size of the phone once again. When they were first introduced, mobile phones were used for business purposes, now they are a social necessity.

Mobile phones are even being used to make micromovies. These micromovies are scripted with paied actors and consumers pay money to download and watch them. As of yet this phoenomonem has not taken off, although there are many interesting clips available online. Another advantage of being able to film from your mobile phone is to make use of the footage as evidence. There have been recent cases where school bullying that has extended to physical altercations has been filmed and been used as evidence in the prosocution process.

The video below shows how adicitve mobile phones can me. One interviewee describes loosing his phone as the equilavent to loosing an arm. Although there are psoitives to all the uses of a mobile phone, such as needing to keep in contact in emergency situations there are many negatives aswell. Face to face communication has be drastically reduced with the growing dominance of the mobile phone as the primary source of communication. More and more the mobile phone is becoming the most used piece of technology today. According to Ruston and Stein (2005) “Coupled with the near-ubiquity of the mobile phone, this capability of the phone as conduit for multiple connections and perspectives in any given space positions it as a catalyst or potential vehicle for the simultaneously interactive and immersive media experience.”

Politics and YouTube

YouTube can be used effectively by political parties and politicians. However, there is also the danger of political figures being subjected to ridicule through satire and parody. What are the benefits and risks of utilising YouTube for political gain?

In recent years political parties have been using social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube to promote themselves and their campaign. Their aim is to relate more to the younger generations such as Gen Y, known for using new technologies and social media. Although this method of gaining followers has worked for Barack Obama, it is yet to be as effective for other political parties. Jiohn Edwards announced his candicy on his political website whitch only saw 166,000 views in the 2 years leading up to the election. Current president Barack Obama posted a political video 'Robots Attack' on YouTube and recieved the same number of views in 24 hours.

At the end of this clip it says 'On January 14th the Democratic primary will begin, and you will see why 2008 won't be like "1984". This may be relevant to people who were adults in 1984, but the younger generations may be less aware of what the advertisment is talking about. And the whole clip looks as though it is promoting Hilary Clinton.

Social media can be used to promote political parties, but also used as a culture jamming technique to tarnish the oppositions name as shown in the video below which portrays Kevin Rudd as a crazy, unintelligent leader of Australia.


Facebook groups have also priovided a platform for political candidates, however some have proven to be more successful than others. The Barack Obama Facebook group has 8,251,217 members as opposed to teh Kevin Rudd Facebook group which has 33,211 members. I believe the younger generations are more accepting of Barack Obama because he supports people that are important to younger generations, such as Beyonce, who sung at his daughters birthday.

Origional or Reproduced? Produsage.

I am driving home from university listening to the radio in my car. A song comes on that draws my attention and I want to see the video clip. So when I get home I jump on the computer and type in youtube.com. I search the artist and song name and countless altered clips pop up; aniture remixes and home made video clips. Anyone who has access to the internet has the ability to consume media, change it slightly, and reproduce it.




Culture jamming is a perfect example of produsage. Adbusters take existing, well known advertisments and alter them slightly to change the message, but the addressee still associates the advertisment with the big name brand. Their aim in this process is to tranish the big brand name such as McDonalds or Absolute Vodka. However, it may be agrued that by culture jamming these brands, they are also providing some free advertising for them. As they say, any publicity is good publicity.

There is money to be made out of produsage; rapper and produser Kanye West is the perfect example of this. In songs such as 'gold digger' and 'stronger' he has taken a popular hook from a song, changed it slightly and "prodused' hit songs. About 2 years ago i attended a Kanye West concert and before playing gold digger, he palyed the Ray Charls origional. I think i was the only one in the audience singing the oriogional song at the top of my lungs, everyone else looked confused.

The process of produsage could be argued as others building on an idea to make it better. Although i dont know weather the origional produser would apprecte it. I dont know wheather I would call produsage creative, but i think is it definatly a smart thing to do. If you know something works, why not benifit?