Theory on Multimedia Authorship

When we think of authorship we may automatically think of paper and ink. In our minds we visualize paperback or hardcover books that are sold in bookstores all across the country. Authorship is the act of writing, or even the occupation of writing. I was oringally taught that authors were the creators and the writers of the novels I read, but with new technology comes new ideas about authorship. As this new generation moves away from paper and pen and uses keyboards and computers to elicit thoughts, multimedia authorship becomes a relevant concept. Multimedia is using a variety of different media forms to produce and create content. Therefore, anyone who uses media to produce their own thoughts or ideas is technically a multimedia author. Because of the popularity of computers and especially the Internet, almost anyone can be a multimedia author. Each and every day people use the Internet to express themselves. From creating a profile on Facebook.com, writing their thoughts through Blogs, or even using Twitter to inform people what they are doing, the Internet has become the most popular medium for people to become authors. The Internet has allowed authorship to be easily available to anyone, and because there are so many more authors today than ever before, our own words are becoming “lost” within this World Wide Web. It is so easy to post our own words and our thoughts for virtually anyone to see, but it is just as easy for people to take what you wrote and use it for themselves. Multimedia has given us all the power to become authors, yet it has also taken the power of our own words away from us. The moment I post my thoughts on the Web, they are no longer my own. They are only text on a computer screen lost among thousands of others. This multimedia world is lessening the impact of our words, because essentially anyone can take credit for what we say or create. Barthes says, “for the good reason that all writing is itself this special voice, consisting of several indiscernible voices, the trap where all identity is lost, beginning with the very identity of the body that writes”. Barthes thinks that the author’s identity is lost from the very moment he begins to write, and I agree that our own identity is easily missing using multimedia. How many times a day do we read writings on the Internet and never know who actually wrote it? As I focus solely on Twitter for my research project, most of the time we actually do know who is saying what because we see their names, however other forms of multimedia are taking an individual’s Twitter message out of context, and using people’s thoughts and ideas to create a bigger piece of art. Sites like Longestpeomintheworld.com are creating collaborative pieces of art by using anonymous Twitter messages. Even entire books are being sold in bookstores with people’s Twitter messages published in them. What we once thought was just an innocent thought we typed out onto the Internet, has become transformed into something bigger and beyond our control. Once we apply our fingers to a keyboard and type out a text, we no longer have control of where our own ideas will eventually end up. In someone else’s mouth? It’s safe to say that multimedia authorship has allowed our own thoughts to freely run wild all over the Internet. Our identity is easily lost, and once we submit our words to text and to the Internet, we’re ultimately left with what we begin with, just a single thought in our mind.