Category: Group A

Sports GIF

Counter GIF

Analysis: 

When sports GIFs are used, they are often show epic plays, whether they are successful  or failures. Regardless, they usually display the extreme of either side of the scale. That is why they are entertaining and often used in context of describing something amazing, or an “epic fail.” For my counter GIF, I decided to display an NFL team in action, but in a really unimpressive way: warming up before the game. This has no “wow factor,” as a sports GIF (portraying success or failure), usually has in order to captivate the viewer with either awe or humor.

Reaction GIF

Counter GIF

Analysis:

In the reaction GIF, Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreations reacts to something (in the context of the show) with a very animated, emotional face. This, and other reaction GIFs, are meant to depict an emotional response to something. Andy Dwyer is showing extreme excitement to something with his eyes and mouth wide, opening into a smile. The counter GIF shows the Andy Dwyer, the same character from the Reaction GIF, doing something insignificant, and unemotional. This clip could hardly be described as emotional, let alone called an emotional GIF. His lack of emotion on face and action in his body language suggest an unresponsive and non-reaction act.

Fandom GIF 

Counter GIF 

Analysis:

The fandom GIF above is an iconic scene from the movie Dirty Dancing. “The Jump” is a really big task for Baby (Jennifer Grey) to accomplish with Johnny, and she works on it throughout the entire movie, and finally succeeds in it in this scene. It is arguably the best-known scene in the movie and is referenced in other movies (Crazy, Stupid Love) and other forms of media. “The Jump” is a famous icon from Dirty Dancing. The counter GIF above is from the  same movie, however it is a scene that does not hold much popularity, and actually shows Jennifer Grey failing at dancing. In other words, it is not iconic, and therefore would not catch on in other platforms of social media.

All GIFs not created by me were found on GIPHY. I used GIPHY creator to create my counter GIFS. 

Posted from Digital Studies 101 Blog by Lindsay

Sports Gif

Example:

Counter-example:

Analysis:
The sports gif typically celebrates athletic achievements similar to a highlight reel of one play. The first gif is a classic example of that, a game-winning shot in a basketball game. We see the tension build as the players drive down the court. We’re briefly held in suspense until the shot swishes in and we see the players celebrate. There’s a whole narrative inside this tiny clip. The counter-example is the utter refutation of these norms. There’s no suspense. The score of this game is 56 – 0. With nothing at stake, this moment feels like a whole lot of nothing. The moment is also less significant because it’s an insignificant kick. You could potentially have a meaningless pass or run play that is still really cool. Not the case with a field goal. We don’t even get the satisfaction of seeing whether the kicker made the kick because the clip ends early. This gif ultimately stands totally counter to sports gifs because they are an attempt to immortalize a moment of particular importance or memorability. This counter-gif is immortalizing a moment utterly lacking in significance or importance.

Reaction Gif

Fandom Gif

Example:

Counter-example:

Analysis:
Fandom gifs are a staple of the internet. Certain series seem to lend themselves to fandom gifs. The Office for instance, with its iconic moment and cutaway scenes, is perfectly gif-able. The same can be said for the popular HBO series Silicon Valley with its endless list of memorable scenes and running gags. In the example we see a hilarious scene all Silicon Valley fans remember fondly; when Jin-Yang smoked a cigarette inside his VC’s office. This gif is super short and only contains a single line of text, but it’s still very effective at reminding fans of this hilarious scene. It’s almost like this gif is an inside joke between the gif and fans of the show that others wouldn’t be able to comprehend just by looking at the gif. The counter-example is the exact opposite. I don’t think any fan would recognize this shot. It’s from the beginning of season 2 and is totally unremarkable. It’s a shot of Silicon Valley in Bay area California, but there’s nothing about this gif that communicates that. I find the idea of a gif depicting the namesake of a TV show taken from that very TV show that you do not know is actually from that TV show to be a hilarious way of turning fandom gifs on their head.

Posted from My blog by Will H.

In class on Monday we talked about the concept of digital blackface, particularly via animated reaction Gifs. Recently, I read a similar article discussing white people using dark-skinned emojis. She merely poses the question and tries to get a specturm of answers which I thought was pretty cool. For example, Leslie Miley, a pretty outspoken and well-known advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech said absolutely not, adding “my blackness is not for your entertainment.” Others clarified they will only use emojis of a race other than their own when speaking the third person.

The author’s own mother had a different interpretation, saying that as a black woman she feels okay with it because it shows solidarity. A similar take was that it feels weird to use symbols like a white fist when texting specifically about civil rights topics because of that symbol’s association with white supremacy. The author also took a poll which I thought was pretty neat.

Is it for white people to use darker skin-tone emoji?

— Megan Rose Dickey (@meganrosedickey) September 29, 2017

Overall I thought the article was a little bias towards once side, but ultimately offered up the idea of discussion, which was great. So naturally I was pretty disgusted when I saw the replies to the articles on Twitter, some thoughtful engagement, but the large majority misogynists with responses like “Oh another SJW finding something to complain about” and “This is a stupid article” and people talking about how this was just another attempt to create divisiveness in America blah blah blah.

Here’s a tip for you, if your response to a call for discussion about to topic is to resort to attacks and unconstructive criticism, YOU are the actual engine of divisiveness. I think it’s unfortunate so many people refuse to engage in the discussions because I think they are incredibly important discussions to have at the intersections of race and technology. We cannot just ignore these things.

Posted from My blog by Will H.

In Lisa Nakamura’s article “I WILL DO EVERYthing Am Asked,” she emphasizes the prevalence of exploitative content focusing on African Americans. Racist content has almost become completely common place all over social media and people barely even notice that they are perpetuating a hateful culture by sharing this content. Now more than ever, there seems to be no boundary on what people are comfortable with posting on the internet for the world to see. Also, with the anonymity of the internet, people feel completely invincible when they post something offensive because they can hide behind a screen. With a quick Google search of the word “meme,” two images popped up immediately that struck me:

I have seen both of these images used before on social media with different captions but I will emphasize the fact that with one search for memes on google, these are two that come up immediately. The first image shows the image of an apparent drug addict with a seemingly humorous caption to gain likes and appreciation by online users. This is incredibly offensive because it turns an image of a person struggling with addiction into a joke for people on the internet to laugh at. The second image is of Stevie Wonder, who is a popular target for memes for being blind, and this meme is blatantly racist. Essentially joking that he should be thankful to be blind because he can’t see that he is a black man. After reading the article and looking around the internet, it is obvious to me that racism has become pervasive throughout social media.

Sources:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470412914546845

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1144795-spicy-memes

Posted from My blog by Charlie

In ‘I WILL DO EVERYthing That Am Asked’: Scambaiting, Digital Show-Space and the Racial Violence of Social Media, Lisa Nakamura discusses the concept of anonymity and online platforms that facilitate this anonymity, which is alive and well, striving in the online world.

Posted from DIG101 by Danae