Creativity

Through the use of new media creativity is at an all time high. The use of new media fosters creativity because new media gives the user many new windows to exercise their creativity. One example of new media fostering creativity can be shown through the many mash-ups that are on the video sharing network called YouTube. YouTube consists of videos that are user uploaded for mass viewing.

One of the mash-ups that are on YouTube is a mash-up featuring video snippets from "Winnie the Pooh" and audio from the song "Crank That" by Soulja Boy. This video shows how users are able to combine different video and audio content into an creative work, called a mash-up. Even though new media can inspire creativity it can also create other legal and copyright issues.

In the article titled, "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?", by Brooks Barnes, she addresses the issue of   the legally and copyrights to the creative content uploaded by users. Barnes notes that Nickelodeon has a $1 billion piracy lawsuit pending against Google, the owner of YouTube, because of a mash-up that was uploaded featuring characters from Nickelodeon's TV shows. Barnes also goes on to elaborate that, "Disney’s view is starkly different: any unauthorized use of Disney property is stealing"

Even though new media such as YouTube can foster creativity in the user, there are some things that need to be looked at more carefully, such as this issue on copyrights and content piracy. My beliefs are that if the uploaded content is worked on by the user,and uses the content strictly as a platform to show their creativity then there shouldn't be a problem.