Week 13 LectureNotes COM 325

1. Week 13 Lecture Notes
Personal Connections: Conclusion: The myth of cyberspace (pages 174 – 179)
Strategies for Creating Visual Presentations
Copyright info from www.copyright.gov

2. Response toNew
Technology
 People tend to respond deterministically (a causal
construction), asking what new technologies does to us
and whether new tech are good or bad.
 Concerns that mediated communication damages our
ability to conduct face-to-face communication
 Fear that new media degrades language
 Fear that new media undermines community connection
 Fear that new media replaces meaningful relationships
with substitutes.
 Media are cause, people are changed
 Online and offline are separate places, meaning
mediated communication is a space

3. Responseto
NewMedia
 The social shaping approach views new media as
leading to closer families
 More engaged citizens, more resources, larger and better
connected social network.
 People affect our personal connection as much as digital
media affect personal connections.
 People come to digital media with social agendas, social
commitments, and social practices
 Mediated communication is a set of tools (not space)
people use to connect

4. How toAnalyze
DigitalMedia
 Digital media vary in the degree to which they are or
provide the following:
 interactive, social cues, temporal structure, storable,
replicable, mobile, reach
 New media for personal connection make social norms
visible and offer opportunity for changing them
 Digital media are not saving us or ruining us. Digital
media are not reinventing us.
 Digital media are changing the way we relate to others.

5. Strategiesfor
Visual
Presentation
 Visual elements of design
 Use white space to assist the viewer or reader
 Avoid clutter and too much content per view
 One visual per minute is enough.
 Use headlines and other visual cues to direct the eye
 Be careful with color to avoid wrong meanings
 Add visuals that summarize info at a glance
 Consider page layout, color, spacing, font choice and size
as well as content.
 Assist viewers with colorblindness

6. Colorblindness
 Avoid using color as the only carrier of information
because a color-blind person cannot decipher that info.
 Two types: Cannot distinguish between red and green
 Cannot distinguish between blue and yellow.
 A lack of contrast in light/dark segments makes info
unreadable for color-blind users.
 One in 10 men are colorblind according to the National
Institutes of Health.
 Strategies for readable visuals:
 Use black type
 Use high contrast in values (Convert the visual to
grayscale to see if enough contrast exists)
 Label info directly on chart elements rather than relying
on a legend
 Information taken from The Wall Street Journal Guide to
Information Graphics

7. Cultural
Meaningsof
Color
 Different cultures attach different meanings to color. See information about
symbols of color and color meanings around the world at
 https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/color-symbolism-and-meanings-around-the-
world
 Blue is considered the safest color choice around the world
 Red means:
 * China: Good luck, celebration, summoning
 * Cherokees: Success, triumph
 * India: Purity
 * South Africa: Color of mourning
 * Russia: Bolsheviks and Communism
 * Eastern: Worn by brides
 * Western: Excitement, danger, love, passion, stop, Christmas (with
green)

 Go to https://www.poynter.org/news/understanding-color for a brief tutorial about
color meanings in document designs.

8. CopyrightLaw
 Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws
of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors
of “original works of authorship,” including literary,
dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other
intellectual works. This protection is available to both
published and unpublished works.
 Copyrights are governed by federal law. A copyright
lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years (thanks to
the Copyright Extension act of 1998).
 As soon as an original work of authorship is fixed in a
tangible medium of expression it is protected by
copyright.
 Registration with the Copyright Office is optional but
gives an advantage should a person need to file an
infringement suit

9. Onlytheowner
ofthecopyright
hastheright:
 To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
 To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
 To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the
public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental,
lease, or lending;
 To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary,
musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes,
and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
 To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of
literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works,
pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works,
including the individual images of a motion picture or
other audiovisual work; and in the case of sound
recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a
digital audio transmission.

10. TheCopyright
Notice
 A copyright notice is optional for works distributed after
1989.
 What does a copyright notice look like (for works other
than Phonorecords of sound recordings*)?
 © name, date
 Copyright by name, date
 Copr. Name, date
 Any of these will do for everything except phonorecords of
sound recordings.


11. Whatworksare
protected?
 Copyrightable works include the following categories:
1. Literary works
2. Musical works, including any accompanying
words
3. Dramatic works, including any accompanying
music
4. Pantomimes and choreographic works
5. Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
6. Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
7. Sound recordings
8. Architectural works

12. What isNot
Protected by
Copyright?
 Several categories of material are not eligible for federal copyright
protection. These include :
 1 - Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression
(for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or
recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have
not been written or recorded)
 2 - Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or
designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering,
or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
 3 - Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts,
principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a
description, explanation, or illustration
 4 - Works consisting entirely of information that is common
property and containing no original authorship (for example:
standard calendars, height and weight charts, lists or tables taken
from public documents or other common sources)

13. Copyright
Legislation
Timeframe
 1709 The first copyright act, the “Statute of Anne,” passes in
England. It grants copyright protection to the authors of books.
 1787 U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 8, authorizes Congress
to pass copyright and patent legislation.
 1790 First federal copyright statute passes. Protection is limited
to maps, charts, and books. Duration is 14 years, with the
possibility of a 14-year renewal term if the author is still living.
 1831 Term extends to 28 years with the possibility of a 14-year
extension. Protection extends to published music, which is
protected against reproduction (but not performance, until 1891).
 1856 Copyright protection for dramatic public performances is
added.
 1865 Photographs and negatives become eligible for copyright
protection.
 1870 Protection for dramatic works, pantomimes, paintings,
drawings, and sculpture is added to the Copyright Act.


14. Timeframe
 1886 First major international treaty in relation to
copyright, the Berne Convention for the Protection of
Literary and Artistic Works. The treaty has been revised 5
times since then.
 1891 First U.S. copyright protection for foreign works.
Prior to this, most major American publishers were
“pirates,” reprinting without permission the works of
noted European authors such as Dickens and Dumas.
 1909 Copyright Act of 1909. A major revision that
broadens the definition of works of authorship and
extends terms to 28 years with the possibility of a 28-year
renewal. Amendments later extended the renewal term to
67 years (for a total of 95 years of protection).
 1912 Movies are granted copyright protection.
 1955 United States becomes a signatory to the Universal
Copyright Convention (UCC ), giving U.S. authors
expanded protection abroad. 1972 Sound recordings
receive federal copyright protection.

15. Timeframe
 1976 Copyright Act of 1976 revises the law to cover unpublished items and
calculate copyright duration based on life of the author plus 50 years (with
no renewals); codifies the judicial doctrine of fair use and adds specific
exemptions for libraries and archives in Section 108.
 1998 The United States joins the Berne Convention. This leads to the
eventual dismantling of all formal requirements (notice, registration,
renewal) for copyright. 1990 Works of architecture receive federal copyright
protection. 1992 Copyright renewal is made automatic. All works published
from 1964 to 1978 are given an automatic 75-year term.
 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act extends almost all copyrights by
another 20 years, so works of authorship now have a term of the life of the
author plus 70 years.
 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives online service providers some
important safe harbors from copyright-infringement suits, but also adds
criminal sanctions to anyone bypassing certain technological protection
measures on digital content.
 2002 Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act)
authorizes the use of some digital resources in distance education settings.
 2007 Electronic copyright registration begins
 2014 Supreme Court rules that online streaming services may be
considered a public performance

16. References
 Baym, N. (2015). Personal connections in the digital
age (2nd ed). Malden, MA: Polity Press.
 Wong, D. (2010). The Wall Street Journal Guide to
Information Graphics. NY: W. W. Norton & Company