Remix Culture: Organizing the Chaos of Limitless Opportunities

Nowadays, it seems that every movie has a similar plot or is some type of remake, social media is overrun by 60 second clips mostly comprised of pop culture references in an attempt to plug in some form of satire or message, and there’s a hard time knowing who exactly comes up with an original idea due to how fast something blows up into a trend after going viral. However, remix culture is collaboration at its best, allowing an idea to grow and branch off like a living tree due to the limitless reach and exposure it can receive from the internet. It gives people the sense that just because something exists, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. I made the video below with my students in mind, hoping to inspire them into learning more about copyrights and fair use.

Plagiarism has evolved to encompass everything we can see and being able to appropriately use copyrighted material is becoming a key skill. The original creator needs to give permission before their work can be used by someone else, either given verbally, in writing, or in the form of a Creative Commons license. Many of the students in my classroom love to create, and I enjoy seeing how imaginative they can be, but sometimes they are so focused on what they have envisioned that they don’t think about going through the proper channels to obtain their components. I believe that showing them my video and giving them an opportunity to remix it themselves would help show them how to properly use someone else’s work and transform it in their own unique way. With everyone in this younger generation wanting to be content creators, guiding them to create legally will put them on the path for success.

References:

Banko, N. (2023, July 7). Copyrights and fair use [Video].

https://youtu.be/0xkFWSNI_zY