Reflections
The Medium
When I first started working on my website I was apprehensive because I have never created one before. I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was hard for me to get used to maneuvering around the website. However, after a week I finally got the hang of it. I even used Weebly for another one of my classes. At first I really wasn't fond of Weebly because I have a slow computer and it often took forever to drag and drop everything in the right places. On a fast computer it works much better. I feel that this course was definitely a challenge, although I think it challenged me for the better. New technology is coming out everyday whether we are ready for it or not, times are changing. I am more prepared to tackle the world head on after taking this course. Since I am majoring in Writing Arts I am used to typing up essays and printing them out to edit them. This Writing, Research, and Technology class was not traditional in the sense of it was not what I was used to. We had to use technology from the start. Not once did I have to print out any of my work and hand it in to be graded. I liked that because it gave me easy access to fix anything on my website at any time. It also allowed my teacher to visit my website and look at all my work. I like how this course incorporated different technology, for example, YouTube and Twitter. One of the assignments was to choose a YouTube video and create an argument for it. In groups we then had to comment on the video as either the advocate, interrogator, or antagonist. My group had a problem with this because we all had different schedules. So instead of commenting on the actual video on YouTube we embedded the videos on our website and commented on them like a blog. I liked the idea of having to comment on the YouTube website but realistically it wasn't possible with all of our schedules. For the Mashup project we had to create a proposal and then tweet it. Incorporating Twitter into this assignment was great because we are college students, everyone uses Twitter. This was a great way to get our proposals out and anyone of our Twitter friends was able to see it, including the teacher. For the actual Mashup I ran into many problems. According to the core value number 6, Writing Arts students will understand the impact evolving technologies have on the creation of written texts, I definitely understand the impact of technology, however, knowing how to use that technology isn't always the case. While actually creating my video I ran into problems because I don't own a Mac computer. I had to frequently go to an open Mac lab on campus in order to create my video. I used the program IMovie which often gave me trouble because since I didn't own the computer I couldn't save it. This forced me to re-download my video every time I wanted to edit it. Looking past all of the technological issues the Mashup made me realize that there are so many different ways to get your voice heard besides the traditional pen and paper way. With the Mashup I was able to create a video that expressed my feelings about a topic. Instead of writing an essay about SeaWorld I really enjoyed using videos, pictures, and music to express my argument.
The Message
The topic I chose to do my Mashup on was whales in captivity at SeaWorld. I thought this topic needed to be heard because of the recent documentary Blackfish which shed light on the fact that these whales in captivity are a danger to themselves as well as the trainers. We learned about how we can get our point across by using different types of media. The remix and mashup culture are becoming very popular in today's society. Remixing is like cutting and pasting and putting things together to create a bigger idea. There are examples of remixing and mashups all over YouTube. Another example of it is the Application Vine. Vine is where you can make a 6 second video and many people choose to use old videos and mash them up with new songs or people talking over it. I liked this assignment because it allowed me to use my creativity when constructing my video mashup. I decided I wanted to do my mashup on the whales at SeaWorld after I watched the documentary Blackfish. Blackfish is about the incidents that happen to trainers in SeaWorld because these whales were taken from their home in the wild and forced to entertain millions of guests each day. The documentary gives a voice to the whales because they are unable to tell their side of the story. It shows how they were taken out of their natural habitat and brought to the SeaWorld parks and put into small tanks. The whole purpose of the video was to tell people that these whales in captivity become hostile because of their living conditions. Since they are hostile and dangerous they become aggressive towards the trainers. There have been four documented incidents of deaths at SeaWorld because of the whales vicious attacks. The reason I chose to do a mashup because I wanted to show the world that these whales are not meant to be cooped up in small tanks. Their natural habitat is the wild. They are meant to swim free in the vast open sea. In my mashup I showed both sides of the story. I used many images of happy people enjoying their time at SeaWorld. I found stills and videos of kids watching the whales go by in amazement. I wanted to put these in there because these parks are never going to close. Zoos, aquariums, and SeaWorlds are going to stay open forever. They are family affairs that bring many people together which makes them lots of money. Besides if you close them down now you can't release these animals back into the wild again. They won't know how to survive. They have been hand fed on a schedule their whole lives. So I made a point to put the happy images of SeaWorld into my mashup because we still visit there today. I remember going there when I was younger with my family. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to see the whales jump and splash on Que. I had no idea of the whales living conditions when I left the park. To be honest I stopped thinking about the whales after we left. That is why I wanted to showcase where the whales live when the show is over, and the danger they cause to themselves and the trainers. I cut back and forth between nice images and videos as well as the intense side of the whales. I used old commercials from SeaWorld and videos of people enjoying the show. I used the same soundtrack that SeaWorld uses in their Shamu show. However, I made an effort to show that the whales lived in small modules with the lights out when the show was over. I used clips from the Blackfish documentary which had past trainers tell about their experience in SeaWorld. I thought that this gave the mashup credibility. After showing how SeaWorld staff captured these beautiful creatures from their natural habitat, I used pictures and videos of how they hurt one another inside the small tanks. I used the a sad song like R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" to really capture the mood. After showing the bad side I wanted to give SeaWorld a chance to rebut Blackfish's story. I found images and tweets off of SeaWorld's twitter rebutting the argument. I also found some news articles that says SeaWorld wants everyone to know Blackfish is a lie. I concluded my video with a memorial slide dedicated to all lives lost at SeaWorld by whales in captivity. I liked how my mashup went back and forth from the good and the bad because in life there is also going to be good and bad in everything. The mashup gave me an opportunity to tell about a topic I was very passionate about. According to core value number 6 I completely understand now the use of technology in doing this project. I was able to get my voice heard through media and send upload it to Youtube for millions of people to see.