Edward Snowden . A truly globalised hero and courageous patriot of the world.

I believe to the fact that everyone have a right to their own privacy. In under no circumstances, that anyone can invade it for whatever reason it may be. Edward Snowden believes in this code and uses it to his advantage and equally manage our human rights under the surveillance of American security agencies.

Dedicated as a hero, Snowden should be praised and glorified as our global patriot. Having the courage and confidence to expose all those secret files to the population of the world, he received such compliments from nearly everyone. Except, obviously, to some agents that worked behind the scenes in these agencies that are fully disgusted and contemptuous. The world responded greatly of Snowden's actions and there are even movements being formed for the causes of human rights and the repudiation of espionage. Demonstrations also occur from many places around the world regarding the action the U.S should take in their reverberation for Edward Snowden.

In my opinion, I believe that Edward Snowden deserve a medal for what he did. He truly justified the term ' privacy and human rights ' into the world. And people can see that, which is why exactly rallies are created to stop NSA and CIA to prosecute Snowden. When asked of his motivations to his actions, Snowden explained that " I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong." I fully supported this statement and one hundred percent agree. Great minds think alike, they say. And I do believe that Edward Snowden's concept of privacy and human rights are no different than mine.

" I don't want to live in a society that does these sorts of things [surveillance on its citizens]. . . . I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. . . My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." That was Snowden's explanation to the regards of his actions. Two of the most extremely powerful reasons why he did what he did. And I truly back that up.  We, as the conscious united population of the world, should know and understand this idea and apply it to our everyday life by showing our gratitude and acknowledgment to our globalised patriot Edward Snowden. Without whom, we would not be as free and exempt from the surveillance of these contradictory agencies of U. S. A . We should hail our hero. We should support and defend him together as we are stronger if we're united as the population of the world. Long live Edward Snowden.

Photo Source (1):
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1373643!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/hong-kong-snowden.jpg

Photo Source (2):
http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/13/snowdown_hero_poll_31_percent_of_respondents_say_nsa_leaker_is_a_hero_but/170426835.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg

References:
Ritzer, George and Jurgenson, Nathan 2010 'Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital 'prosumer', Journal of Consumer Culture , vol. 10 no. 1, pp. 13-36.

Innovators or Pirates?

Many mashup artists and DJs around the world use remixes in order to re-create a music that suits their and many others' ears. They use beats, added vocals, drums, etc. But does this make them pirates? Or innovators? Think of it this way, if somebody has an idea to create something, but someone ELSE uses that idea to create something different and perhaps more alluring, does that make the latter a thief? Or a genius?

I begin to think that maybe this topic is not that black and white, there's a shady grey area in there somewhere. Similarly with music videos, if an artist or a recording company established one with their own design, music, lyrics, plot, idea and another artist forge a similar one but with their own music and lyrics, what would the audience think of the latter artist? Would they simply criticise him/her straight away or judge him/her or perhaps even praise him/her because the result is simply better than the previous artist?

Above illustration pretty much sums up everything about innovators and pirates (the left being innovator & the right is a pirate). After careful consideration and research, I have concluded my decision that they are indeed pirates. It doesn't matter if they change their design or lyric or words or images, if the IDEA is similar (or the same) , then it is stealing. Therefore, it makes them pirates. Idea is something that's extremely valuable and fragile at the same time, because lots of people can adapt that idea to make something more profitable to them.  Similarly with DJs and mashup artists, even though they remix a song that sounds a little bit different than the original, but it still CONTAINS the original part in their remixes. Even though, yes, they did use their own instruments but somehow it is not authentic. Therefore, technically speaking, they can't sell it to make profit to them because it's not 100% their idea. Pretty much only 50% that they contribute, really.

Us as audiences (consumers) can choose NOT to pay if such artists tend to do so because we know the product is not genuine. Unfortunately, there are many cases globally today that artists still charge consumers for their remixes. I disagree with this as I believe it's not legitimate.  Same with the interpretation below, (the right being innovator, the left being pirates), pirates are generally taking something from someone and uses it to gain acquisition from consumers. From the customers' point of view, we should know better and perhaps report those who does things this way and next time to point out that it is wrong. And they should not charge us a single cent for it.

Photo Source:
(1) http://static.lolyard.com/lol/people-vs-govt-fishing.jpg

(2)https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7KGvajx-rtET05ZJ_u8wnCTryUJtsWwm9kggXZV10DhgRTa-B9eM_8-K2cXshGIoDGIT9OY299pX1HELysLz1ZTVnp01OwWoA7WmFBkQYRTK_bQxif6gh6-GvxSIpkl5sT5_bse9oTv4/s1600/Government+vs+The+People.jpg

References:
Martin, B, Moore, C and Salter, C. 2010, 'Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry', First Monday, vol. 15, no. 12.

Media Empires

We've all heard of Walt Disney, Sony, General Electric, Viacom and Fox Entertainment Group, just to name a few. They are all the alpha dogs of the media empire in the 20th century. Their logo and reputation are extremely well-known globally. Many have acknowledged their work and cherished their products all these years.

But what about Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube? They are the new media empire that debuted recently, hence, the new alpha dogs in the 21st century. Media empires have changed drastically in response to the time and space compression of globalised technologies. For example, nowadays businesses use the social media to help promote their marketing and management strategies. Facebook & YouTube have contributed alot to companies around the world, by guiding them achieving their goals & objectives necessary.

But what are the major differences in 'old', 'new' and 'social' media, you might ask? Well, all in all, old and new media are converging. Old media is slow, isolated and imposing. New media is fast, simple and offers greater diversity of ideas & viewpoints. While with social media, the opportunity and access are unlimited and diverse. This proves how media changes over the years and us as users have to be able to adapt to it otherwise we will get left behind. Disney, Murdoch, Hearst are few examples of new media great empires. Seems to me, that today it's a bit harder to imagine if the social media empire would be able to climb such height.

But they are trending. They are getting there. They're more stronger than ever. In the next decade or so, things would drastically change, as how things are with media, in general. Contestants such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Vox, AOL, are the big dogs in this battle to claim the throne of social media empire. It's hard to name who would win, but then again, it's hard to say who will not. Technology has contributed lots of its power to each of these companies, but it's a matter of who will distribute them and uses it to their great advantage. Everything is never as it seems, they say. Well, we might just have to wait and see as time will tell soon enough.

Photo Source:
(1) http://www.wayneming.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Building-A-Social-Media-Empire-In-5-Steps.png

(2) http://fasthorseinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/old-vs-new-media.jpg

References:
Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, 'Globalization: consensus and controversies', Globalization and culture: global melange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp. 7-21.