Ito and Lessig

       According to the opening of her new blog, Mimo Ito is a cultutral anthropologist that studies new media use through younger people, especially in Japan.
The author of amateur media production invites us to look at amateur media as an essential sociocultural learning tool. She encourages the reader to let go of the ideology that amateur is bad and as an essential for cultural production. Amateur media production is distinctive cultural domain characterized by an ethic of peer-to-peer appropriation and experimentation that differs fundamentally from more professionalized forms of media production (itofisher.com).  In this day and age the study of amateur media cannot be ignored as we are encouraged by various social networking site, blogs, and media to be individual creators.Three key things focus around amatuer media production innovation, reputation, and participation. Ito states that amateur media is coming in to the limelight and even surpassing the importance of commercial media. The video for “Code Monkey”, was exa,ple of how someone who is percieved as amateur can use innovation, participation, and reputation to gain pro-status in the world of digital media. The role of the collaboration plays a big part in promoting amateur media artists becasue the fans fuel the artists and the artists fuel the fans. Collaboration and innovation combined with humor and imitation seem to off set a large number of social media changes that inspire and keep the amateur visions alive and growing.

Overall Mimo Ito sums it up best with this paragraph, “ The AMV scene is an example of a creative community that has been highly successful in recruiting a very broad base of young creators into video editing practices, keeping barriers to entry low and the pleasure of creation high. At the same time, the community has developed ways of highlighting and celebrating the work of those who have the commitment and skills to develop exceptional work. Although participants in the scene experience tension between the more "common" and "elite" forms of participation in the AMV scene, both are integrally related and synergistic. The health of the AMV scene as a thriving amateur, non-commercial, and networked creative practice is predicated on the diversity and hierarchies that have evolved over the years” .

Lessig

 Lawrence Lessig is a well-pronounced academic that has ahd the honors of teaching and studying in various departments at Stanford and HArvard Univerities.For much of his academic career, Lessig has focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He is the author of five books on the subject, including the one for the Introduction, Remix.
In the beginning of this article Lessig introduces a woman by the name of Stephanie Lenx, who like many of us, taped a video of her baby dancing to prince and posted to youtube.com for her relatives to view. Univeral Records, the owner of the rights to Prince’s music retaliated against youtube stating lenz violated the right sof the company and should pay. Lessig goes to point out the ironic and paradoxical train of thought that a multi million dollar company would be after an innnocent women playing an innocent part in the social media when in fact the lawsuit they were creating costed them more moeny then what they were suing her for. Overall I feel as  though lessig was trying to point out that corporate amaeirca is irrational and being wuite destructive and hypocritical, to an innocent and innovative participant of social culture. Lessig goes on to describe a gallery by the name of, “White Cube”, in London where T.V.’s filled with normal people singing John Lennon’s Solo’s were played back to back. A female artist artist with the last name of Brietz was respondsible for the works. The focus of th work was nto so much a tribute to Lennon but a tribute to the lives of the people he touched, since they were the star of the show. The core meaning of the exhibit was to focus on what happens after the distirbution process of such media processes sucha s music. However, like Lenz, Brietz faced a laerge legal battle to get the right to have ordinary people use pre claimed corporate media. I find this ironic becuase half these legal battles don’t have anythign to with the artists wishes but the corporate greed and control the record executives wish to have on social media. Lessig conveys that the blend of free media and culture have the potential to become something great for everyone. However it is industiry that is resisting this creative revolution by making erroneous claims about about money and rights, just to keep the ball in their court and not in the peoples. Jsut like the people have become interavtice in blending thses medias the record companies to become involved witht he remix culture, not oppose it aand artists can be that bridge, by donating music and certain rights to Creative Commons. This poses a great benefit for the artist and the label, as new people viewing the music perse  through a group of synchronized performers on t.v. Are feeling the same creativity and ispriiig artists int he same way the music was introduced to the audience years ago.