I am trying my hand at remixes. For a course I am doing here at Curtin, we needed to a mash up and remix of a text and change it around into another text. I have paid a little trbute to my mate Steve Irwin, and also wrote an essay, explaining why and how I remediated my text. Hope you enjoy it. I added in some cool tunes! I aint no DJ earth worm, but is amazing what you can do with Windows Media Maker -- a niffy tool. But on my new Mac laptop, I got I Movies, so can't wait to make up another video soon!
I chose to remediate the controversial reporting of Steve Irwin playing with his baby Bob in front of a crocodile. This was in January 2004, and we see the dramatic footage of Irwin carrying his one-month-old son, Bob, while he hand feeds Murry, a giant saltwater crocodile at his Australian Zoo.
In this essay, I will discuss copy right issues, in regards to using other people’s content, and issues that arise when working with it . I will also explore the gate keeper element of creators of content, and how they are able to tell their side story in a ‘read -write’ culture that Web 2.0 culture has facilitated. Finally, I will discuss how meaning is shifted by using multimedia content and go into detail how I shifted the meaning of the original text by using other footage and music in my re-mediated project.
Henry Jenkins says we are in “a moment of transition, where an old media is dying, and a new media is being born.” (Jenkins, 2009) This seems so true, and with mush ups and remixes on Youtube, we are seeing a coexistence of amateurs and professional content. Re-mediated works borrow on the past to create something very different. Anyone with the means of production -- mobile phones, camcorders, digital cameras, and software -- have at their finger tips very powerful tools for creative expressions which can be seen with the many tributes to Steve Irwin. In some ways, my remediation is a tribute to a man who has
changed many people’s lives with his effervescent and enthusiastic reporting on wild animals.
The boundary between text and reader has broken down, as Jenkins’ (Jenkins, 2006) argues. This project falls into the realm of fan culture, where I have ‘reconstructed’ a selected text from original piece of work, and re-mediated within the perimeters of the provided media. :
While breaking down the boundary between text and the reader, I have also broken a few copy right laws. I am an amateur remixer, and the law could come down heavy on me. However, writing in the digital age requires transformative re-mediations for new contexts. According to Lessig (2004), current copyright laws are inadequate to protect and stimulate creative works, while digital writing requires 'plagiarism‘, in some sense. But I feel my creation falls under ‘Fair Use’ , and because I have changed the meaning from the original version, this tends to justify my use of other people’s content.
The only repercussion I have experienced so far, is that my project is copyrighted out to a third party. This is acknowledged by a banner to The Killer’s album, Exitlude, and a link to I Tunes where it can be downloaded. . But I am compensated by Youtube, who still let me present my work. Though the statistics of the video cannot be made public, “because this video has been claimed by a copyright owner.”
Web 2.0 tools is a horse which has bolted out of the gates, and the old copy right culture has been replaced with a read-write culture, And blogs in the early 2000 had a lot to do with this. Rettberg (2008) says that no longer is mass communication in the hands of few producers. He adds that blogs “ support a dense network of small audiences and many producers.” The same applies with platforms like Youtube, which allows anyone to be a producer. The site even offers editing tools.
I used Microsoft Media Maker and Youtube hosted my video titled, “ He wouldn't have it any other way --Steve Irwin” I have borrowed freely from four clips from You tube and used two songs -- Train's Hay Soul Sister and The Killers' When You Were Young-- and I extracted a voice over from the movie, Ten Canoes.
A word on the two songs, by using them, my work has also crossed over to Vidding, That, however, wasn’t necessarily my intention. No doubt I chose The Killers, a band from the US, to make that US and Steve Irwin connection, where the crocodile hunter was revered and given his own program on the US network, Animal Planet.
The original clip was a report of Steve Irwin dangling his son Bob in front of a monster crock. Various people interviewed show their distaste towards Irwin. My version of the text was to draw out the hypocrisy of the media. The day of Irwin’s death, Australian news websites crashed and the former Prime Minister John Howard had said that Australia had " lost a wonderful and colourful son." (The Australian, 2006)
In Convergence Culture, Jenkin's (2006)argues that by participating in popular culture consumers “acquire skills in collaboration and knowledge sharing which may be fundamental to the future of Democratic Citizenship.” He adds that the emergence of participatory media is changing the ways people relate to broadcast media. And this remediation also shows how I borrowed from broadcast media and manipulated it to serve my own end.
To do this, I spliced in an interview of Irwin , in a more contemplative moment, where he states quite clearly what he wants to be . Only those close to him knew that Irwin was a conservation warrior,
Srinivasan (2006) argues that new media is a tool for indigenous communities that can serve “their own cultural, political and social visions “ I wanted to add an indigenous element to the remediation.
Ten Canoes. a full-length film made in Yolŋu Matha language, is set in Arnhem Land, and is a parable of “forbidden love from Australia's mythical past.” (Festival de Cannes, 2009) It is an excellent example of empowerment of indigenous communities through the use of new media tools. I decided to use the opening of the film as an anchor in my remediation with the voice over by David Gulpili who also appeared in Crocodile Dundee. This connection was purely coincidental by the way! I wanted to draw out the “love and hate” relationship between Irwin and the media. By transplanting the indigenous element into my project, I was able to create a meaningful dialogue between Irwin and the press, which at times has had a tumultuous relationship.
Drawing upon iconic Australian imagery, I used a song from Men at Work which was the official anthem for the Australian crew at the America’s cup in Perth. We all remember the brash Bob Hawk, who declared after we won the cup, a national holiday, saying: "any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum." This is the kind of irreverence that Steve Irwin subscribed too and thus suited my purpose well here.
The headlines of the papers in my remediation show that the media gods weren't pleased with Irwin’s sacrificial lamb. Yet Irwin stuck to his principles, saying that there was no way that he jeopardised the wellbeing of his baby. He confirms this with a clip taken by Australia Zoo, adding that that he really wasn’t putting his child in danger:
“Right here...is a tape from the Australia Zoo camera which will give you another angle so all of that ugly stacked up vision of me and the crock, looking like I am endangering my child will be put to bed very quickly.”
The fact that Irwin rebuts the claims against him by the main stream media with his own digital version of the incident, implying that the media had manipulated the event by using footage that sensationalised the incident. This is a great example of how citizen journalist can empower themselves, and how Irwin acted as a gatekeeper, which at the very least allowed him to defend his view of events.
According to Axel Bruns (2005), citizen journalist doesn’t replace mainstream media, but examines, refines and filters it through gatewatching. In a sense, my remediation is a retake on the media’s version. I am a gatekeeper of sorts, and with the comments in the Youtube platform, I invite others to join in the conversation.
Lastly, I spliced an interview with Bambi, Irwin’s daughter. She is asked what does she want to be when she grows up, and replies that she wants to be like her daddy. Once again, I have shifted the focus away from the son Bob, to Bambi. I wanted to give this remediation a more human element. Not only was Irwin a crocodile hunter, he was a loving father.
There are now so many variables to a story. My version is just one of thousands that have been proliferating on Youtube about Steve Irwin. My conversation is just an extension from previous conversations. I have used the tools at my disposal, and borrowed from other digital quotes to create my version of Steve Irwin. This project proves the point that I am part of the water cooler conversation in convergence culture. And more importantly, I am an active creator in a participatory culture.
This remediation draws out elements for a collective intelligence, and how it is possible to draw upon existing media and reshape it toward a collective democratic goal, where the outcome in the story telling doesn’t stop with main stream media, but is extended and expanded upon by a media savvy public.
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