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As a teenager living I the 21st century, the selfie has become such a regular aspect of everyday life as people are taking selfies for various reasons during the day. A generic selfie usually consists of a smiling face with perfectly balanced lighting to show the best parts of the taker face. Take for example the selfie accompanied with this blog. A selfie can also be used as a way to show change in your life for instance a selfie of a man with a new haircut. The selfie posted with this blog is unlike most selfies that are taken, for starters I am not looking at the camera and a serious expression I shown on my face. The reason this selfie was experimental was because it was made to appeal to a certain group of people and not my usual friends and family. The picture taken to show a new style of haircut called a high fade, it is an up and coming trend in afro Caribbean hair styles. The photo was taken to show capture the attention of fellow afro Caribbean hairstyle enthusiasts.

Nikki Minaj- Anaconda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZX4ooRsWs This video is typical of modern day music videos. Attractive women dressed in hardly any clothes shaking their rears in order to attract male attention.  The lyrical content of this song has often been scrutinized for not making any sense; many have compared it to gibberish. With lyrics like “my anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun” it is easy to tell that the only reason the song has topped the charts was because of the award winning music video which left may male viewers in awe of the voluptuous women in the video. People have even gone as far to say it is light pornography. Meek Mill Rick Ross- Believe it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nsV2bQ520Y This video glamorizes the stereotypical rap star life which apparently consists of drugs, fast cars, money and anonymous sex. This lifestyle has been portrayed mostly by popular male rapper such as rick ross, young thug, meek mill and many other male artists. They use the image and the lifestyle in order to attract consumers to listen to their music. Unfortunately it glamorizes crime and drugs which make listeners think it’s acceptable to immerse themselves in this lifestyle. Slim Jesus - Drill Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRo48zg2iyU Songs like these are an unfortunate constant in the hip hop industry. Songs about gang culture and gun crime make young listeners idolize this dangerous lifestyle as they see it as an ample way to make money. I chose this song as it represents a negative side of the hip hop industry, the side that makes teenager think it is acceptable to take part in organized crime. I chose these three songs as they best represent the American hip hop industry. They are related as they are all made by American hip hop artists. They show different gender roles in the industry; for example males are portrayed as always being well dressed, surrounded by guns and drugs and constantly involved in crimes and yet the police have no authority over them. Women are seen as tools for sexual pleasure, in the videos they are dressed half naked and dancing to attract attention to the video and entice male viewers.    

In the war against piracy copyright seems to be coming to a loss, with people constantly finding new ways to share music with the masses. Artists and music producers are finding it increasingly hard to prevent people from doing this. Therefore tough laws are being enforced to stop people pirating and downloading music. Laws such as the three strikes law have been very effective in cracking down on illegal downloads and pirating. The way this law works is that after a third warning, a case can be brought before the Copyright Tribunal, which can fine an offender up to $15,000. As an advocate for the existing copyright laws I am strongly in favor of these tough laws as they help protect creative minds of artists and film makers alike. I strongly feel that these laws to crack down against online piracy and illegal downloads are crucial in protecting NZ from dangerous material from entering the country.   The departments of internal affairs take time to carefully asses all the new material that enters the country and give it the proper rating and also determine whether or not the material would be allowed in the country. If they deem it to be harmful they may not let the material into the country and citizens won’t be able to access the material through the usual media outlets. For example if they deem it harmful to society you will not see it in common media. If people bypass this system and unknowingly bring the harmful material into the country they could be potentially endangering people in the country. Many people think these laws are nonsense and proceed to download things hoping not to get caught, but what they don’t realize is by downloading things illegally they could be bringing harmful material to the country.

After presenting my video representing media cultures through the recreation of the scene from a famous movie depicting the life of Spartacus to 5 different individuals of varying age and gender it is fair to say that I received mixed feedback. Jeff was the first of the participants to view the video. Jeff is a 43 year old duty manager at a popular supermarket his feedback towards the video was quite positive as he recognized the scene within a matter of seconds and found it quite entertaining he referred to the scene as “a bloody good laugh”. However he did make it apparent that there was some confusion with the voice and he wasn’t sure who was meant to be speaking. Joy a 67 year old checkout worker also recognized the clip however she didn’t find it as funny as Jeff.  It was clear that the use of comedy in this scene was key in Jeff and Joy’s understanding of the scene. The comedy wasn’t as effective in communicating the clips intended message but it was indeed effective in capturing the audience’s attention. Unfortunately some of the other viewers weren’t as nice with the feedback. Navneel a 19 year old fellow university student was very confused when presented with the scene and it was clear that he had no idea where the scene came from. Yichong an exchange student from South Korea found the clip very confusing it was clear the language barrier played a large role in his confusion. Sian a 15 year old high school student also struggled to recognize the scene but after watching it twice was able to identify the scene.  Although through the use of comedy in the scene he was able to identify what was taking place in the scene however he wasn’t able to identify the scene. “I have no idea bro” was the feedback received from him when asked the question “do you have any idea what popular movie this scene is from. It is clear that classic movies like this aren’t as appealing to the today’s generation through the response from Navneel.

In this video I have chosen to rein act the popular scene from one of the many movies depicting the life of Spartacus. I have chosen this scene as it acts as a metaphor which best displays current media cultures. It definitely captures the sheep like nature of media consumers these days as they seem to follow any new trend as long as the new trend already has a significant amount of followers. There are similar examples such as vines which are short video clips containing some humorous material usually aimed to entertain the masses. There are also the various challenges posted online which are aimed at any eager media consumer who’s trying to fit in. These challenges are usually based on some issue taking place in society at that current time. For example the ice bucket challenge which started with famous celebrities pouring cold buckets of ice water over themselves in a valiant attempt to raise money for breast cancer research and various other charitable causes. These challenges are then filmed and posted online and the challenge is issued to anyone else who’s keen to raise money for a good cause and appear on camera. Overnight these challenges spread throughout the world as people were receiving nominations to join in. Media cultures such as vines and online challenges are prime example of the copy cat nature of today’s modern media consumer. In this video I also showed how in this copy cat society it is difficult to maintain ones identity with so many people doing the same thing online it is hard to distinguish yourself from the crowd. The frustrated face of Spartacus in the video is evidence showing how hard it is to stand out in the online society due to the media cultures of today. This close up shot of Spartacus's face was perfect for this scene as it helped capture the distress and frustration on the face of Spartacus. The loud dialogue in the background helped show how hard it was for Spartacus who is also portraying a media consumer to maintain their online identity. This scene which was originally shot showing the noble efforts of Spartacus’s fellow slaves unintentionally managed to capture the media cultures of today’s society.