*Seeing WAS Believing: Breeding a Generation of Skeptics

Seeing is believing…. Or so that is the way it has always been in the past. Today, however, in an age of mechanical manipulation, our once most trusted sense has severely declined in worth.

The question plaguing this technological generation has become:

Can we really believe anything we see?

Is visual evidence today even worth anything considering how easily it can be altered? As a result of the incredible advanced technologies that exist today, manipulations can be so convincing that there is no way for the average person to recognize it has been changed in any way.  Take for example the baby-snatching eagle video that went viral. Only after receiving millions of hits did skeptics debunk the hoax that this video really was.

There are tons of examples like these seeing as the average person has access to devices, such as Photoshop, and 3D animation programs, necessary to engage in these kinds of manipulations. I took a seminar class in my previous semester (CS402 with Professor Finn) dedicated strictly to the topic of visual evidence. The existence of such a course in itself is proof that this is a topic worthy of some serious consideration.

In a world where citizens are an integral part of media and what makes headlines, there is often public outrage when they find out they are deliberately duped for the amusement of others. An additional example of an occurrence like this was with Lonelygirl15.  Unsuspecting audiences everywhere were fooled into buying into the seemingly innocent reality of this bored, goofy girl’s vlog only to find out she had an entire production crew behind the making of it and she was just an actress. Reactions to this ranged from disappointment to downright anger.

This goes to show that as much as we know we have to be cautious about what we believe on the Internet many people do still believe much of what they see and they expect personal blogs and vlogs to be genuine and truthful. Seeing as Lonelygirl15 is several years old now, I wonder if this has taught Internet users that anything from pictures to written blogs to personal youtube videos that appear genuine can potentially be frauds.

So…. If we can believe what we read, hear or see… what can we believe?

Looks like modernity is breeding a generation of skeptics..... 

The New Fan-Artist Relationship

My previous blog post (hyperlink essay) focused on the increasingly well known organization TED , yet I did not actually link to any specific TEDtalk. Therefore, this week I have decided to discuss one talk that assists in furthering the arguments set forth in my previous post related to the incredible opportunities the internet provides us with.

The talk I have selected to bring to your attention is entitled The Art of Asking , and it was presented by a female artist in the music industry named Amanda Palmer . Palmer discusses a creative idea that, prior to the age of the Internet, would have NEVER come to fruition. Concisely, Palmer discusses the unbelievable experiences and support she has managed to receive from her fans all purely thanks to social media and the affordances of the Internet itself. The web is essentially responsible for her continued career. Palmer’s record label dropped her band before it produced a record, therefore, she wouldn’t have been able to share her music with others without the Internet. The Internet enabled her with the ability to share her music technically for free. The reason I say technically for free is because despite the fact that anyone could download her stuff for free, Palmer requested that her fans make donations for the music. So instead of insisting her fans pay a set amount, this system allowed them to pay what they wanted for her songs- a concept which reminds me a lot of the idea of our new gift economy.

Regardless, in doing this Palmer was able to earn $1.2 million via Kickstarter from approximately 25 000 fans that preordered her album. This is the power of fan culture.  Artists produce art for them, therefore, especially in today’s global village they should be entitled to a say in this relationship between what they give and receive – Palmer provided them with this voice.

The fact that Palmer could be so successful in making money this way opens doors to a whole other way for struggling artists in the deteriorating music industry to make money. This notion of asking for donations to help proliferate the music and support the artist is fantastic. It embraces change rather than trying to fight it. Most importantly though, fans really feel like they are consciously, actively supporting the art of an artist they love.