Task 1D - The Importance of Audio-Visual in Social Media

       Audiovisual communication breaks down the traditional barriers of written communication to ensure that your audience understands the message easily, resulting in better discussion and collaboration in business, education and personal applications.

The above quote summarises the importance of the use of audio-visual in communication today. 

• Social media uses audio-visual as an effective means of advertising. People use social media to view television programmes and interact with them. Digital technology has revolutionised the way we view film, changed the way children are educated, in fact it has impacted greatly on the way we live our lives in the developed world.

• The following quote from the article Virtual Community: No 'Killer Implication'(Andrew Feenberg and Maria Bakardjieva New Media Society 2004) reflects the fact that the internet has become, not only a means for communication but also a means for creativity:

      what the internet offers is a flexible communicative space that can be construed and bent in an infinite number of ways by sufficiently motivated groups of people. The implications and significance of what these groups build depends on the shape that they give to the space they create, and the relationships produced within it.  

Audio and visual are very effective tools for creativity.

• I often video the choreography I create on my pupils. I do so as a memory aid, but also I find it useful to look at what I have created a couple of days later and see whether I am happy with it, if not I make changes and then video these and compare them with the original choreography. I find it useful to be able to do this as it enables me to step back from what I am doing at the time and give my work a more considered opinion. It also enables me to show the choreography to my colleagues and get their views.

• I also use video to show my pupils their faults. I have found that it has a greater impact on them than merely telling them about their faults and, if they can see what they are doing wrong they are more likely to try to correct it.

• I take the video on my phone or tablet as it is so easy to do so. I have in the past sent copies to my pupils on their phones, but, having done some research on copyright in relation to my work on BAPP Arts, I no longer do this.

Below is one of the sites I visited about copyright:

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-sharing-photos-and-videos-online/

• As part of my work for BAPP Arts I uploaded some photographs of my past pupils to Flickr. I used images from my website that I had previously obtained permission to use. 

This is the first time I have personally done any photo uploading, as my website photos were uploaded by the person who created the website. I found the process very straight forward. It is not something I would use for my own personal photographs as I hate being photographed and the thought of publicly displaying photographs of myself fills me with horror. 

Posting these photos did make me reflect upon all the pupils I have taught who have gone on to perform professionally and I enjoyed looking at the photographs and remembering the pupils.

Below is the link to my flickr photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/128213425@N02/sets/72157646687009643/

• I use Youtube a lot to look at dance and I have uploaded videos of my pupils dancing and linked it to my website for advertising purposes. I have all the relevant licences,such as PPL and PRS, for the use of the music but, I have had to request that my pupils do not upload any of their dances because of possible copyright consequences.

I had an incident a few years ago where I had taken a group of pupils to perform at Disneyworld. One of the parents had videoed the performance and, unbeknown to me, uploaded it to Youtube. I received an email telling me to take the sound off the clip because of music copyright infringement. I asked  the parent in question to take the video clip down.

• I started to think about all the showreels that are on Youtube and Facebook. It is one of the key ways in which performers and choreographers advertise their work. I wondered how people managed with regard to copyright if they didn't all have the relevant licences and permissions, so did some research on the topic.

• In my research I discovered the site below which mentions the fact that there is a clause about 'fair use' in Youtube's contract. I wasn't aware of this, or of the fact that you could dispute the copyright claim if you felt your video came under this 'fair use' clause. The link to the site is:

http://www.actonthis.tv/2012/05/rights-showreel-fair-use-youtube/

I found the information on the above site very helpful and, if I have anymore notices regarding infringement of copyright when posting video clips in the future, I will certainly consider challenging them.

• The European Commission recognises the importance of audio-visual in today's digital communication world. It has developed a digital agenda to look at the developments of audio-visual in the media. Below is the link to the site:

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/Convergence


I found the following figures taken from the European Commission's 'Green Paper Preparing for a Fully Converged Audiovisual World: Growth, Creation and Values' very interesting:

Internet video users are expected to increase globally to 1.5 billion by 2016, up from 792 million in 2011. 72 hours of video footage is uploaded to Youtube every minute

• The above image is one I discovered on Pinterest. It is advertising the speaking photo app that enables you to add audio to photographs you have taken. I love this idea as it is a great way of remembering exactly where and when the photo was taken but also how you felt at the time.

It is evident that the role of audio-visual in social media is an important one and one that will increasingly affect our lives as Web 2.0 continues to expand and develop.