Copyright & Audiences

For this week’s lectorial – week ten- focused on both copyright and audiences.

Starting off with copyright.
Guest speaker, Anne Lennox (the senior coordinator of copyright, management and Digital) shared her knowledge. I think this topic was incredibly relevant to our area of study, and also our upcoming project brief four revolves around using copyrighted material for educational purposes (ideally going against what we were told)..  What I found most interesting was how long copyright material lasts, as most countries have diverse terms, in Australia it only endures up to 70 years, and then it can be used freely, unless it is renewed. If you steal someone else’s material, you don’t have an option besides dealing with the consequences. It is understandable. If someone stole my work without permission, I obviously would want them to get caught. Therefore, footage that has been licensed to be copy free, and issued before May 1^st 1969 can be used without punishment. After the basic brief of copyright, Anne raised the issue of copyright and social media. It such a public domain, run by institutions in which don’t have great authority. Once you post something on Facebook, Instagram or twitter, you literally have no control over what happens to it. Social media has become a jungle, there are literally no boundaries and sometimes can be dangerous, as of the limited control over personal ‘property’.

Next, Brian continued with the idea of audiences- who they are, early theorisations of the mass audience, and the idea of fans and fandom.
‘The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable. You should welcome that, media people. But whether you do or not we want you to know we’re here.’  JAY ROSEN
Something that stood out for me was how media operates to brainwash and manipulate the audience into believing a certain ‘truth’. Reminding me of the hypodermic needle/bullet theory in vce media. Mass audiences can be so intellectually dumb when it comes to processing the truth, however as media has shifted, and taken complete control over audiences, it comes to be extremely difficult into knowing what is true, and what is false. I think everyone can say they are a victim of this, it is out of our control.