Hey Y’all, one of the activities today was to upload a video to our blog (either something we made or something that falls under a creative commons license). So I’m posting an interview I did in my first year of my screen and media course with local artist/animator (and former RMIT student) Felix Colgrave, the quality of the video isn’t that flash but the content is still pretty interesting I think, check it out if you are interested in hyper-trippy cartoons.

The steps I took posting this video were as follows.

Find video>click “share video”>click “embed video”>copy the code the appears>make a new post on you media factory/WordPress blog>click the “Add media” button>click the “embed video” and paste the code you copied before.

And badaboom! you got yourself a video embedded into your post, now go! use this information for the good of mankind!

Elements of a blog (Nicholas Paton,2017, connector pen on paper)

Copyright in a nut shell is the exclusive rights to something that you have made, so when it comes to blogging (especially in Australia) it is important to have a basic understanding of theses laws and to figure out how they affect you and what you can post online.

One of the of the most important things to remember (being Australian students who blog) is that we can’t claim fair use on posting someone else’s content onto our blogs since ‘fair use’ is an American doctrine. We here in Australia have something a bit different called fair dealing  which is a lot more strict/vague when in comes to what you can and can’t post.

But one of the great work arounds for this is to use works covered by a creative commons licence! the video bellow goes into great length about what the different types of creative commons licenses there are and is definitely worth a watch if your not to sure about what is covered and what isn’t.

Another good resource for RMIT students when it comes to copyright and blogging is RMIT’s quick copyright guide for blogs .

In todays class we discussed how important it is to be ethical in todays online environment especially when it comes to our own blogs. We listed a bunch of ideas which I will list and expand upon below.

• When posting content on the web one should avoid braking the law, meaning that you shouldn’t go around posting about how to make bombs or boasting about crimes you have committed
• You shouldn’t go out of your way to bully/ attack individuals online
• Provide context to your posts, if you are posting something online always take time at the top of your post to explain your why you are posting something, if the post you are making is sponsored or if what your posting is purely option or speculation
• Be original with the content you are posting, copyright laws online in Australia are pretty specific when it comes to what you are aloud to post online, so make sure your not plagiarising other peoples work. Instead write new perspectives on other posts and link to the original so people can go to it and compare your analysis to the original content.
• Be sure to differentiate fact from fiction, make sure that your readers know that what you are posting is either speculation or a researched opinion on the matter. if speculation specify at in the beginning of your post and if what your posting is based on fact be sure to link your sources so people can check your work against  the cited material.
• You want to foster online discussion within your blog, don’t disable or delete  comments because your you don’t want to see them or your afraid that their will be a back lash to your opinion, either stand by what your saying or don’t post at all.
• And probably most importantly to have a unique voice, this harkens back a little to the point before about being original. blogs are a sudo-personal style of writing where people are encouraged to speak their minds and share their views on the world, so make sure you have a distinct style to your writing and don’t try to write overly formal.

For a better and more comprehensive list on how to be ethical in blogging have a look at Ethics in blogging- a 10 point guide  by Lawrie Zion.