Future of Convergence

Communication evolved from pictures on a wall to a mass connected web that reaches all over the world all at the same time. Considering where we came from, the future of convergence is unimaginable. The printing press was revolutionary for communication. We created books, letters, newspapers, and magazines etc, all combinations of words that connected us.  Now we are connected by an invisible wave that transmits the communication through computers, phones, and video games. Considering where we have come from, the best assumption to make is that the physical components that are apart of communication will not exist.

Cell phones, computers and TV’s have become smaller and smaller with the advancement of technology. The smaller it is the better it has become. If that trend keeps going eventually smaller products will become nonexistent products but invisible waves that allow us to teleport in a click of a button. Imagine going to China from New York in 5 minutes; Or entering a digital space with your Chinese friends to interact with each other face to face.

                                   The digital world is a jump away in the year 2350

Technology is so advanced that this arguably the only place where it can advance to next. The internet will be web destinations that it will be possible to go to. For example if someone wanted to go to WWW. Shopshoes.com, they would have the opportunity to literally go to that digital space. Surfing the internet would become more than just a saying.

In gaming users could become even more interactive. Nintendo Wii and other games like the Wii are integrative with users. This is the beginning of what interactive gaming could look like in the future. 

Gamers could live in a actually game where they are the players and not just playing the game. Ordinary people could live in a game where dinosaurs chases them around in the jungle. Basketball fans could play basket ball with Micheal Jordan and Scotty Pipin.    

-Abelow Dan, "If our future is digital" Wire.com,  http://www.wired.com/2014/04/future-digital-will-change-world/

Post- 4 Why Can't Everyone be a Professional?

 Why Can't Everyone be a Professional?

One of the biggest questions in today's digital age of non paper newspapers and "professional" bloggers, is who is actually a journalist? In the old days a Journalist would be someone who wrote for a newspaper. Usually a journalist would write for an established paper small or larger. However with the rise of the internet and space for ordinary folks to express their opinions, suddenly everyone has become a journalist, photographer, videographer, model etc. The professional world and armature world has been divided by a fine line.

 In Clay Shirky’s “Everyone is a Media Outlet” he explains that mass amteurazation occurs when armatures or ordinary people learn to use technology that was only at one time available to professionals.  In “Everyone is a Media Outlet” Shirky’s uncle, a owner of a small local Newspaper is afraid of US Weekly taking away his readers, but what he should have feared is the rise of the internet and what would come with it. 

Matt Drudge for example, a blogger who produces "news" on a site he calls the Drudge report is one of these so-called amateur professional bloggers. Drudge reports on political news but not in a fashion that a well trained professional would report. He became famous after breaking the story on Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Drudge was not the first person actually have the scoop on the scandal but was the first person to release the story. Michael Isikoff a professional journalist for Newsweek did all of the work to on getting the story only to have it turned down by an editor.

                                                   

For professionals in the field the Clinton story was a risk to publish, considering that the presidents reputation was at stake and the reporter did not have reliable sources. Any professional knows that in reporter your sources are everything and one simple screw up could cost a journalist their whole career. For Matt Drudges the rules didn't matter. Shirky describes the professional members as gatekeepers that make the rules to provide desirable social functions with the professional group.       

 But what happens when regular untrained people are doing what a professional does without the rules? The line between amateur and professionals gets thinner and for on lookers who may not know the difference everyone who looks like a professional is a professional. And Politicians like Trent Mott are not safe from the “outlaw journalist”.  In everyone is a media outlet Shirky describes how Trent Mott’s speech at a birthday celebration turned into him being bashed for being a raciest.  Bloggers took to the web and revealed that Mott’s support for the old president candidate, Thurmond revealed that he supported Thurmond view on race and segregation.

Main stream media decided that they would not cover the story as they decided that “the remark did not fit the template of staple news”.  For “outlaws” however, Gossip is News, anything that can get them a click on their blog is news. Drudge was found guilty of this when he published a story that was completely false. If Drudge was properly trained as a journalist, he would know to always triple check his sources. Unfortunately for him, he was not trained and his built up reputation and credibility took a hit when he published an article that was completely false.

Rule number one in journalism- Check your sources. Rule number two, check your sources. And rue number three, check your sources and be objective when checking your sources. Matt Drudge who is openly against Obama leaped at a chance to publish a story that could have destroyed Obama’s campaign. The only problem is that he did not check his sources. Drudge ran a story about a white woman that was beat up by Obama supporters and branded with a B in her face. The story turned out to be a lie made up by the woman and her friends to try and destroy Obama’s reputation.  Of course Drudge’s reputation took a hit but it wasn’t long before Drudge was back on his computer posting “news”. There weren’t any bosses for him to report to, not real consequence, nor did he face being fired. Drudge probably sits on a computer at home in his pajamas reporting to the world.   

                                          Drudge's story went rival because it was controversial but untrue

What does this mean for journalism? Well one thing is for sure is that we are in trouble. This dynamic has created a world where professionals are competing with amateurs. Yes, it is great that amateurs can compete with professionals and have a chance to make it big. However the tables have turned professionals are competing with rookies for mouse clicks. And to compete with rookies professional are losing some of their social standards and putting out poorly sourced material, gossip news, and just pure trash. Just recently New York Post issued an apology for incorrectly naming someone as a suspect in the Boston Bombing.   

                               

                           One of the Bag Men killed himself afraid he would be labeled a terrorist

Bibliography:

Shirky, Clay. "Everyone is a Media Outlet." Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. 24 Feb 2009. 

Drudge, Matt "Drudge Report Archives" <.http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm>

Haugney, "Christine New York Post Face Suit Over Boston Bombing Article" <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/business/media/new-york-post-sued-over-boston-bombing-article.html?_r=0>

Post 4 - transmedia Culture

Its not rare to see someone walking around in a white gown and two massive buns on Halloween  or even on a random day as a mater of fact. The massive buns princess Leia costumes are a representative of how Star wars has taken advantage of transmedia storytelling; that is storytelling over multiple media outlets and platforms. For Star wars these platforms included action figures, costumes, and even household items such as bed sheets. This spread of the Star Wars movie allows the creators to gain massive amount of followers and in turn make more money than if they were to only release a movie. The larger the amount of people who gain interest in your product the larger the income opportunity is. Understanding the relationship and difference between Multimedia and Transmedia helps marketers expand the franchise. Transmedia is presenting a story or products through different media platforms, like: television, social media, books, movies, and comics, etc. A story that is presented through these different platforms is an example of Transmedia Storytelling. 

 “A Transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinct and valuable contribution to the whole” (Jenkins 98) Jenkins explains that the story is able to reach different audiences that use different platforms. The story or product may also reach the same audience but displayed differently in a different Medium. Harry Potter is excellent example of this Phenomenon. The Story of “Harry Potter” lives through different platforms, but all represent the same content. There are Books, Movies, Games, An amusement park, online communities, etc. This allows the story of Harry Potter to live and be shared through these different platforms. Which also allows Harry Potter to remain relevant and ultimately apart of our culture. The goal of any Trans Media marketing campaign is to remain as popular and relevant as possible.

In the case of Star Wars, the show has raked in 37 billion dollars in the last 40 years- not because of their epic move but because of the expansion of their brand outside of the theater.  The plastic light sabers and action figures contributed to the success of the movie. In 1977, no one believe that toys would make a difference in how huge the brand would become but the toys became so popular, that in order to keep up with the demand Star Wars creator, George Lucas, had to send kids promissory notes for the toys that ran out. 

                                    Plastic Galaxy toy collection 

Today Transmedia story telling is every where: for kids and adults.  More recently, the craze over Disney princess Frozen has become a success on and off screen through transmedia storytelling. In addition to joining the rest of Disney characters on ice for a spectacular show, Elsa and Anna has a large collection off princess toys that has little girls all over the world excited. Disney has also mixed with ABC's  adult show happily ever after to even engage adults into the fun. Youtube has found its way into to the story telling with little kids making tutorial videos on how to dress and look like the frozen princesses. 

8 year old girl does a tutorial on how to do make-up and hair like Frozen's Elsa  

                                    Even Adults want to look like Elsa 

 Using Multimedia and Transmedia successfully will allow a story or product to be a marketing success. The benefit of using Multimedia is that you are projecting your product to possible consumers through a specific advertise form. By incorporating Transmedia Storytelling your product is reaching different audience through different media platforms. Many of these platforms are: Facebook, twitter, YouTube, movies, books, television, comic books, costumes, toys etc. Spreading a story through these different platform gives fans/viewers a place to interact and share there likes and dislikes about show. This leads to creating a community of fans around the Transmedia story. Fans of popular television shows can interact on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Websites, etc. Jenkins argues, “viewers get even more out of the experience if they compare notes and share resources than if they try to go it alone” (97). 

This form of fan participation is key to keeping a shows relevant and their fans loyal.  Many shows are judged on the turnout of viewers they create during the release of their new episodes.It’s all about the amount of viewers you can attract and maintain loyal.Understanding Transmedia Storytelling and Multimedia is essential for anyone who is trying to get their product viewed and purchased.  Different marketing campaigns have different goals and therefore target different audiences. An up and coming filmmaker, author, storyteller has to consider how their stories content and grow and be expanded through the different media platforms. Marketing campaigns need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of using the Multimedia and Transmedia.

Citation:

How Exactly Star Wars Made 37 Billion, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, 2014 Web, http://www.wired.com/2014/11/geeks-guide-star-wars-empire/

Pavlik, John V., and Shawn McIntosh. Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York and London. 2006.

Final Project - Sarah Hastings One Newark

This video is a  montage of the conditions surrounding the new One Newark school reformation plan. The new plan was put into place by Governor Christie, who appointed Cami Anderson, the new superintended of the Newark school district. According the One Newark website, under the new plan all Newark schools will be open and available to students of Newark no matter what section they live in. All  schools will be held to the same standards of curriculum and teachers will  be held to a higher standard of accountability. One Newark has already started to and will continue to close failing public schools and replace with charter schools. The website says that One Newark is committed to having students attend excellent schools in thriving communities.

On digital paper this school reform plan sounds great. However, since the plan has been put into place the community has been outraged. The consequence of the One Newark plan has left many students with out seats in classrooms or even schools to attend. The students that were enrolled into schools, were forced to travel across town into a different area of Newark regardless if there were schools closer to where they lived. In addition, many teachers were laid off and replaced with recent college graduates despite students and parents concerns. This picture looked quite different than the one Christie had promised.

ONE NEWARK MONTAGE

Community activist, local government, and parents all agree that the plan was implemented before any actual planning could be done  After all "One Newark" was put into place only a few months after it was announced to the public. That raises the question- Why was there a rush to push for "One Newark"? What was the motive? It doesn't appear to be for the benefit of Newark students, so who is benefiting?

The Charters schools are financially benefiting from urban areas. Charter schools are becoming privatized in a way that allows them to profit from failing schools in poor neighborhoods. The business of schooling is starting to pick up business. Charters are paid by the government to educate children who can't afford to obtain a decent education. This arrangement relieves the government from the stress of the daunting task of providing a quality education to urban areas. However, for profit charters are a conflict of interest and will only harm the kids involved.

The video is made to provoke critical thinking and collective action. The goal is to have Newark residents watch the video and consider the motives of Christie and his administration. I suggest that Newark residents don't fight against Christie's plan but take collective action to take back control of the city. Although Christie and Cami Anderson is not willing to work with the community, if the community works together to gain control of Newark District, they will not have a choice but to start cooperating. If money is the motive for Christie then money is where the power lies. Perhaps we should start our own charter school and get paid to teach or own kids; just a suggestion.   The video will live on you tube and Newark News Facebook.




Resource List

NJ Spotlight -Article by Laura Waters  -  NJ Spotlight - http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/09/09/opinion-time-to-cash-in-on-charter-schools-i-don-t-think-so/

Jersey Jazzman -http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com

Newark Student Union -https://twitter.com/newarkstudents
NJ.com -

www.nj.com - One Newark Article

post 4

After everything we have read this year, and all the assignments that have been completed, all the information clearly shows that the coming together of computing, telecommunications, and media in a digital environment will continue to happen and the connection between these outlets will continue to strengthen. With our knowledge of the past and our ability to grow up during this generation, we have seen how drastically technology has changed and we can expect it to continue to change and to continue to evolve. 

Technology has changed storytelling for the better, drastically increasing our UX (user experience), but also allowing the story writer the ability to have insight on to what works and what doesn’t based on statistics (social shares, comments, reviews, etc.). When our parents were growing

up they would read a story in the newspaper, take in the information and that would be that. But today when we are reading stories, our capacity is so much greater to do a deep dive into the information we are taking in. For example, “Someone reading a news story may click on a hyperlink for an unfamiliar name, taking him to another website that described the person, which in turn may lead to other interesting links” (Converging Media, pg. 161). Technology has changed storytelling forever and for the positive.

We as a generation need to approach the future with an open mind and with a willingness to learn and adapt. We are going to see things in our lifetime that we never imagined possible and these things will be foreign and unfamiliar to us, just like iPhones and tablets are to our parents and grandparents. If we are going to continue to be able to grow and thrive we must have the ability to catch up with the times, something our generation has not yet had to do.

It is safe to say we can expect new, exciting, and extremely developed technologies on the horizon. Just look at the development of the Internet over a 20-year time period. In 1991, “Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web, a global publishing platform on the internet” (Converging media, 165). The connection was slow, there were very few webpages, and barely any one had access. By 2001, “Seventy-nine percent of U.S. households have Internet access” and “There are 70,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S.” (Converging media, 165). is clearly evident that technology has evolved and will continue to evolve.

Another example I would like to draw attention to, like the textbook addressed as well, is   The Gameboy had 2 buttons, a directional pad, small gaming screen, and video games that could be played in black and white. Today there is the PSP, PlayStation’s portable gaming device. This device comes with numerous buttons, a large hi-definition color screen, and you can play DVDs and GO ON THE INTERNET. Again just in 20 years, the technology of a product has grown exponentially.

video games. I want to focus specifically on the handheld video game. In 1989, Nintendo released the Gameboy.

With all the advancements we’ve seen and all the advancements we can expect, what should we be thinking about?  I believe we as individuals, with all the access to data in our hands, have an obligation to dive deeper into the information given to us, to develop the information given to us, and to check the credibility of the information given to us. Raise questions, check sources, develop ideas, use your available outlets, and continue to evolve as the technology around you does the same.



Pavlik, John V., and Shawn McIntosh. "Interactive Media." Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print. 

Semester Project - M. Tiffany Settles

BLACK WOMEN IN TELEVISION

Diahann Carroll as "Julia"

My semester project will consist of a video that depicts “Black Women In Television”?

Women of color have not been portrayed in a positive light on the small screen. The images of black women in television are often times negative stereotypes. It was those early TV actresses that made us proud to see someone who looks like us on television. For example, Diahann Carroll as “Julia” set the tone for actresses such as Clair Huxtable and Olivia Pope. The sitcom Julia challenged the racial stereotypes of black women in the media. They were also changing the image of black women, the way we viewed ourselves, and the way we were being seen by others. For once in American television history black women were being heard. Earlier black actresses were influential because they were giving black actresses a new role in society, making amazing contributions to a new style of entertainment for the rest of the world to enjoy.

Kerry Washington as "Olivia Pope" - SCANDAL

Still today, black actresses in leading roles are still very rare. Although we are seeing a high point towards some black actresses careers in television, we still have a long way to go. Now when positive black when are being depicted in a TV sitcom their considered angry black women. Before that we were only expected to play the role of a maid, mammy, jezebel similar to today’s catfights, neck rollers, baby mamas, or gold diggers. Even now, producers believe displaying dignified African American women in nonstandard roles of black actresses are not believable to viewers. The television shows Julia and The Cosby Show was sending the message of racial uplift from their perspective and not the misconceptions of white America.  

Courtesy of Google Images

The main purpose of my video is the let people see that before there was Reality TV we had positive black women. Diahann Carroll didn’t break down barriers for black actresses to accept demeaning stereotypical roles. All representation of black women on television is not positive, and we should all be held accountable for what is being produced for TV. We need more programming that helps us progress as a race of people. We have to demand more shows that send the message of black women’s success and accomplishments. Now with so many options we have to make a conscious decision not to support. My sole objective is to make people of color uncomfortable and reject the negativity of poorly depicted black women in media. I feel compelled to display previous actresses to today’s viewers of black women should see themselves. My video will live on social media and will be added to my professional reel.  

      

 Work Cited

1. Hooks, Bell. Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. New York, NY:

            Routledge, 1996. Print.

2. Hill, George H., Lorraine Raglin, and Chas Floyd. Johnson. Black Women in

            Television: An Illustrated History and Bibliography. New York: Garland

            Pub., 1990. Print.

3. Smith-Shomade, Baretta E. Shaded Lives: African-American Women and

            Television. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2002. Print.

FINAL - Caroline

Caroline Becker
Final Project
Convergence
12/04/2014
                                    The How To Do It Yourself

Before the advent of “how to” videos on YouTube or other “social media” internet sites in the 21^st Century, there were “self-help” videos purchased in retail stores nationwide known as “DIY” instruction tapes, otherwise known as “Do-It-Yourself” videos played on DVD recorders or, before that, VHS or BETA tape cassette machines. “Do it yourself” tapes were basic methods of modifying, repairing or building something as a “lay” or ordinary person, without the aid of an expert or professional.
With Iphone, tablet and laptop “WiFi” internet accessibility commonplace today, we accept “how to” and “do it yourself” videos on YouTube and other sites on the internet as “mainstream” educational tools just as we accepted music videos in our daily lives 20 years ago. It seems “how to” videos are innocent enough: they free us from the grips of “professional” rip-off artists like repair persons or so-called “experts” who use their inside knowledge of a product or service to exploit the ordinary consumer. “How to” videos could be akin to prescription medicines in that they are not needed ordinarily but essential when facing a daunting home improvement project or, in the case of prescriptive medicine, an infection needing temporary antibiotics to fight the spread of a disease.
But what if we over-rely on “how to” videos like some patients abuse prescriptive medicines ordinarily necessary to maintain physical or mental health?  How can this be possible? How can “how to” videos be possibly negative if abused by the onlooker? As a young teenager, I used “self-help” instructional basketball videos to supplement, or enhance, what I was taught by AAU, grade and high school coaches in order to learn a proper “cross-over” dribble, or how to “box out” for a rebound or how to properly position my arm, elbow and hands to shoot a basketball straight. It helped me because I used it “in addition to” constant practice or playing multiple basketball games every day except July and August when I escaped from indoor practice with my teammates and coaches. What if the “how to” basketball tapes took a new, over-consuming and deleterious life of not supplementing, but instead substituting, actual game time playing or practicing with a team? Could “how to” videos be an isolating, insular element of a virtual basketball “education” where, in its most extreme instance, these videos could be used as a means of undermining actual team involvement, with real-life coaches and players, which might then be used to undercut equal financing of high school and college sport programs currently protected by Title IX by the federal government? After all, it could be “logically” argued, in a most illogical manner, that women’s sport programs don’t need equal federal funding for college sports if “how to” videotapes can be a less expensive, alternative means of educational and athletic learning.
In order to fully grasp and understand “how to” videos, including it’s predecessor “self-help” instructional videos, I am going explain the background and broader context of information about how these videos came about.
I made an outline and, in order to fully understand “how to” on the Web, I had to research the history of it. After extensive research, I realized that before the rise of “DO  It-Yourself” culture really exploded on the scene after the Vietnam War in the 1970s and 1980s. Although the Arts and Craft movement relied on written instructional books or magazines, it mainly died out after the First World War. With America becoming more and more mechanized shortly World War II, the DIY movement gained steam in the 1950s and 1960s but, increasingly, an epidemic of DIY interest rapidly spread throughout the “intellectual” and cultural Northeast in the 1970s.  In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the “DIY ethic” could be traced to the explosion of punk rock, indie rock scenes, pirate radio stations and zine communities. Punk bands began to record their music, produce albums, merchandise, distribute and promote their words independently, outside of establishing music industry in residential homes rather than at traditional venues to avoid corporate sponsorship and ensure their creative freedom. There was no internet at the time punk music was distributed but “boot leg tapes” became ordinary, if illegal, means of distributing musical creativity just as jazz or blues were disseminated “undercover” among music enthusiasts in the 1940s and 1950s.
In the 1990s, a countercultural group entitled “The Riot Grrrrl” blossomed into a little known, but heavily influential, musical force. They were an underground feminist youth movement dedicated to empower females in combating sexism, homophobia and sexism worldwide through underground musical self-expression.
 “Riot Grrrrl” adopted the core values of the DIY punk ethic by leveraging creative ways of communication, through zines and other projects, as a means of self-empowerment.
            The DIY punk ethic applied to simple everyday living, like vegetables gardening, reclaiming recyclable products from otherwise discarded garbage, learning bicycle repair rather than taking a bike to a mechanic’s shop and so on.
The DIY movement spread through North America and grew into other areas of daily life among young and old enthusiasts but particularly among college and recent-graduate student age groups. The movement involved the renovation of run-down homes but also sparked related projects like vegetable gardening, health and personal growth-  improvement culture. This is when Steward Brand published his first edition of The Whole Earth Catalog. which emphasized intellectual endeavor, science, as well as new and old technology.
  For years after this, magazines like Mechanic Illustrated and Popular Mechanics offered ways for readers to keep current on useful, practical techniques and skills in home automobile repairs. DIY home improvement books were first created as collection of magazine articles and, eventually, Sunset Books created an extensive line of DIY or “how to” books based on previously published articles from their magazines. In fact, the DIY movement included personal health, wellness and fitness. By the mid-1980s, Jane Fonda revolutionized personal fitness with “how to” instructional videos and, coincidentally, my father partnered with Ms. Fonda’s company to develop work-out wear, using instructional hang-tags showing exercises, such as sweatpants having exercise hangtags for the hips, buttock and thigh areas, attached to the piece of clothing being sold, boutiques he created with Ms. Fonda having her videos, books and clothing, in over 1200 J.C. Penney stores nationwide. Clearly, self-help instructional dissemination was everywhere by the 1990s, on tapes, on cassettes, in stores and “on the street” depending on one’s cultural proclivity. By the mid-1990s, Better Homes and Gardens as well as Time-Life all followed with their own brand of DIY home-improvement, personal growth and other videos made for the burgeoning world wide web. Established in 1995, HouseTips.com was among the first Web-based sites to deliver free extensive DIY home improvement content created by expert authors. Sine then, the DIY exploded on the Web through thousands of sites.One organization I came across is something called Khan Academy. A hedge fund analyst, Salman Khan, invented a new way of learning math. He produces micro-learning lectures through YouTube videos. Teachers found Khan Academy and started change the way children were taught. They used it to flip the classroom.  What does that mean? First, the old way of learning, the student will sit quietly with no interaction with the teacher and no matter how brilliant or great the teacher may be, he or she has to teach in this 1 size fits all structure. Now, with the Khan Academy, the teacher assigns the lectures for homework and what used to be homework, is now what is being taught. Basically, a student has a self-paced lecture at home, where he or she can pause and rewind and not feel embarrassed by asking a teacher to slow down or explain again. By having the lectures at home, the child will go to school and do the work problems in class and make interaction as productive as possibleKhan Academy is a paradigm that starts with the fundamentals from the very beginning whatever subject. The paradigm generates as many questions as the student may need until he or she gets 10 in a row. Instead of just passing through the motions and building a foundation with holes in them, they treat it like learning a bike. When you learn how to ride a bike, you get on the bike, fall of the bike, stay on, fall off but you take as long as you need until you can ride that bike.
As the student goes along with the questions/exercises, the Khan Academy collects data from each individual student. Teachers can see how long a student was on a problem, what videos he/she watched, when did they pause the video and what exercises did they do. By using technology with flipping the classroom, Khan is humanizing the classroom, not dehumanizing, it.
The Khan approach can be used with older people who are too embarrassed to ask another human for help. Lets face it, the last thing someone wants to hear is another person asking if “ you understand it?” It avoids the awkward questions. If someone is bored, they can just watch the lectures at the comfort of their own at their own pace.
It even helps the street kids who cant go to school because he needs to work to help support his family. A step after this is, what if that street kid can help you or your children or your children friends making it a rippling effect and causing a globally one-world classroom.
These lectures and videos make “how to” videos essential. Now there are websites like eHow and WikiHow, these are websites of step-by-step instruction with pictures to explain “how to” do practically anything. If an individual wants to learn how to do anything outside of school, now there are thousands of videos on YouTube or on Google.
But, with all the praise and accolades that DIY or “self-help” videos garner, what if they are overused, or misused, in the future? What if Khan Academy instructional videos on mathematics evolves into a substitute for, not a supplement to, classroom videos such as what we are seeing with “online” college instructions from virtual colleges such as University of Phoenix or DeVry University, Capella University or other “online”
virtual, impersonal academic colleges? What if, a decade ago, I followed DIY or self-help
instructional videos on basketball techniques and, instead of having a high school basketball team or an travelling AAU “elite” girls basketball program for teenage girls, I was told that I could learn “virtually” instead of practicing with real teammates or against live opposition? What if sports, instead of teaching cooperation and teamwork, became isolating through self-taught videos which undermined the core values of team sports? Could some “talking head”, bean-counting Administrator at any academic level undercut girls’ sports financing by substituting a “virtual basketball” experience in place of having trained coaches, instructors, trainers and the like thereby circumventing Title IX requirements and allocating more college funding for the more lucrative men’s football or basketball program? In my worst nightmare, I realized that something virtuous like self-help or DIY instructional videos could be manipulated into something totally different, even mutant, to the original intent of these videos, which was to increase self-knowledge and independence, in our personal, athletic, creative and academic life.
            I know there will be cries that my hesitancies are unfounded; that I am delusional or totally paranoid about the possible misuse of DIY videos. After all, wouldn’t it be great if an athletic instructional video mirrored the “Wii” experience and actually captured your image-form and showed you what you are doing wrong, from a form approach, athletically. But, with every blessing, there is a curse. And the possibility of someone misusing a virtual instructional “Wii” video “game” by substituting it for real life, hands-on instruction by a professional coach, teacher or instructor makes me hesitate, and even long for, days past when DIY represented a thumbnail instructional
“sketch” of what to do; when self-help videos were just that, not “self” or being alone videos and when life was real, not virtual, as it is in many ways today. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HGY38tTA-Y&feature=em-upload_owner

                                                            Work Cited

"Do-it-yourself." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/do-it-yourself>.

Wolf, Marco, and Shaun Mcquitty. "Understanding the Do-it-yourself Consumer: DIY Motivations and Outcomes." AMS Review (2011): 154-70. Understanding the Do-it-yourself Consumer: DIY Motivations and Outcomes. Springer-Verlag. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13162-011-0021-2>.

MOROZOV, EVGENY. "Making It - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/13/making-it-2>.

Brunell, Miriam. Girlhood in America an Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Print.

Chandler, Meghan. "Grrrls and Dolls: Appropriated Images of Girlhood in the Works of Hans Bellmer and Riot Grrrl Bands." Visual Culture & Gender. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://vcg.emitto.net/6vol/Chandler.pdf>.

"Whole Earth Catalog." History of. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://wholeearth.com/history-whole-earth-catalog.php>.

Godfred, Melody. "2013 Met Gala -." Write In Color. 7 May 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. <http://www.writeincolor.com/2013/05/07/2013-met-gala-punk-couture-and-the-power-of-creative-collaborations/>.

"SF Oracle, The Houseboat Summit | Vallejo Ferryboat." SF Oracle, The Houseboat Summit | Vallejo Ferryboat. 1 Feb. 1967. Web. 4 Dec. 2014. <http://www.vallejo.to/articles/summit_pt1.htm>.