Meme

Richard Dawkins created the term "meme" in his book, The Selfish Gene. He used the word to explain how cultural information spreads. It became more popular when internet memes arose which can either be an image, hyperlinlk, video, website, or hashtag. Usually it is just a picture with an ironic sentence that plays off of either the person or thing in the photo or the character they play in a show or movie. 

Here are a few of my favorite memes:

A meme that I created via Meme Generator:

5 Favorite Examples of Remixes

Wonderland Mafia

I liked this remix because it shed light on the children's movie Alice in Wonderland and showed that the caterpillar smokes out of a pipe throughout the movie. I love how they made me look at the character of the caterpillar in a different way. It was very well edited to show the caterpillar singing a Swedish House Mafia song. 

F**k the Pain Away- Miss Piggy

I liked this remix because they used a well known children's television show and made it dirty. They did this simply by making it look like Miss Piggy was singing a song about sexual things. This was funny because it is something that you have never seen in the Muppets and it changes the way you look at the characters. 

Black Male Black Hoodie

I especially liked this remix because it shed light on a typical news report of a suspect being a black male in a black hoodie. Showing these instances on the news and put together in one video  shows how often this simple description is used to describe a suspect to a crime. It makes the audience think about why this is such a trend and if it has anything to do with race. 

It's Raining 300 Men

I liked this remix because the video played off of the scene of 300 men falling off of the cliff and put it to the song, It's Raining Men. This was funny because in the movie it was a very dramatic scene, but in the remix it is depicted as a good thing that they are "raining" off of the cliff.

MixBit Project: Radio Technology

My intention with this project is to explore the many different technologies used in radio broadcasting. In the video I take a tour around the WUTT radio station at UT. There are applications used on the computer as well as the machines used to air the material. I show the board which controls volume and what is currently playing on the air. I also show the CD and AUX plug ins to show that you can play music off of nearly any format of media. The time reset button is used to give a 7 second delay in what is being said in the studio and what goes on the air. When this button is pressed, it erases the last 7 seconds of air time in case of accidental profanity or obscenity.

Letters To A Young Contrarian- Chapters 6&7

The main thing that caught my attention is this portion of the book was Hitchens take on journalism. When you think of journalism, you think of reporting the facts. As I read on, I was proven wrong. Hitchens explains, "…the suppression and distortion of known facts is the highest duty of a journalist." At first this seemed turned around to me. I always thought that if I were to become a journalist I would be reporting the most important and shocking stories, but the most interesting stories are those which expose the truth on a sensitive issue. Exposing the truth isn't always a good idea for someone in the media because it causes hostility and competitiveness.

I was very disheartened when I read this because I want more than anything for media to become more truthful. This is the main reason I got into communications; I wanted to be a part of saving the media from becoming a business tactic rather than its intended purpose to be entertainment and a voice of the people.

Letters To A Young Contrarian: Chapters 4&5

These couple chapters focused on argument and as quoted in the text, "…the art of challenging what is appealing." This is an intriguing concept because it is so unarguably true. When people try to challenge the way others think, it is an art form in itself. To have the determination to debate to the end is truly what makes an argument a true argument. A person who believes in their position whole-heartedly will find attacks to their concept as personal attacks to them as a person. They see this argument as a part of their being. As an example, the author used religion (what's new?) to highlight the importance of a persons argument. "If you have ever argued with a religious devotee, for example, you will have noticed that self-esteem and pride are involved in the dispute and that you are asking him to give up something more than a point in argument."It means more to this person than to say that they won an argument. They want to change peoples minds to agree with their opposition.

Argument is important because, how else are we supposed to share rash ideals with one another? Yes, they may become heated as both parties defend themselves to the moon and back, but in the end both sides will have gained insight to another way of thinking. This isn't to say that they will change their minds and conform to their opponent, but they will modify their argument with the new information the other person has shared. For intellectual growth I agree with Hitchens when he says, "argument was valuable, indeed essential."

In arguments a person may be proven wrong. They may have heard something irrefutable. In this case, the ultimate victory has been achieved in the art of argument. As Hitchens explains,"…the prime responsibility lay in being able to tell people what they did not wish to hear." No one wants to hear that they are wrong, ever. So in an argument this is basically the objective; to show the other person that they were wrong all along and that you were right.

Letters Of A Young Contrarian- Chapter 2&3

I got hung up on one very plain and simple idea from the text. "…the idea that art can be a religious activity and that poetry can aim to be as exact as sculpture." I love the comparison between art and religion because as someone who has their foot in both the art world and the religious world, I can see the similarity. In religion we look for answers and guidance. In art we look for a way to express our reactions to these answers and how we are feeling about the guidance (or lack there of) we are given. Maybe he meant art can be a religious activity in a completely different way, but this is what I thought of when I came across it. It made me think deeper about the reasons why I do the art that I do and if it in any way relates to my religious beliefs, and I have found that it does.

Another great piece of advise from Hitchens is his philosophy on writing. I personally like to write poetry and am moving into creative writing, so this especially applied to me. I love to write but I dont always have the time. Sometimes I try to sit down and write because I have nothing else to do and I feel like expressing myself; these are the works that I usually delete. They dont mean anything and I realize that when I go back and read it later. My best work is when I am in tears and bursting with emotion. I find that I have a NEED to write at those moments. If I dont write when I need to, I feel bottled up and ready to explode. When I read this in the book, I related completely to every single word. Hitchens advise for writing is to, "Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all; ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?"

Letters To A Young Contrarian- Chapter 1

I took a lot away from this first chapter of Letters to a Young Contrarian. Hitchens main focus in this chapter was on opposition and the life of a person who is an independent thinker. He starts by highlighting the fact that as a society we see unique thinkers as a good thing. "It can be understood from them that society, like a benign family, tolerates and even admires eccentricity." We admire those who think differently because we learn how to think from these ideas that they share. He also pointed out that we may encourage this way of thinking, but if you veer too far from the social norms, you begin to be less accepted. "Go too far outside "the box," of course, and you will encounter a vernacular that is much less "tolerant." His argument is basically that even though independent thinking and opposition can be frowned upon by the general public, that we should still make an effort to share our thoughts. He states in the text, "The life of an oppositionist is supposed to be difficult."

This resonated a deeper thinking in me because I applied this thought to my life. As someone who dreams of being in the media industry, it is important that I stick to my guns and not have my morality swayed by the trends of the public. How can I be loud and proud about the things in the world that I dont necessarily agree with without the fear of encountering hardship along the way? There is always going to be people that disagree with me, but that doesn't mean I need to be quiet. In the text he spells this idea out very clearly; "A shameful terror reigns, the bravest turn cowards, and no one dares say what he thinks for fear of being denounced as a traitor and a bribe-taker. The few newspapers which at first stood out for justice are now crawling in the dust before their readers…" As someone with a say in the news and trends, they should feel more responsible in their duty to be a voice of the people, not a generic voice that the mass population can simply accept as truth.

In his story about his friend who stood up for the black individual in the military, it shows that there doesn't need to be a giant group of supporters behind you in order to inflict change. One voice can speak to the minds of many, and the power of courage beats the power of numbers any day. "As so often, the determination of one individual was enough to dishearten those whose courage was mob-derived."This is inspiring, to say the least. After reading this it made me want to find my passion and share it with the world. I believe this was the point of the chapter, to instill an urge to break the norms and share individuality and opposition within society. This is the only way that we can change things in the world; we need to speak up.

Hitchens ends the chapter with an inspiring quote on opposition… "It is something you are, and not something you do." Hopefully one day I will find my inner oppositionist and be strong in my attempts to change the world.