In Media Res returns in full force with new operating model

For the past couple of months, we have been re-conceptualizing how In Media Res works in order to make it easier for participants to upload materials onto the site and in order to reduce the backend labor involved in customizing each clip. This has resulted in a temporary slow down of content on the site, but all that is about to change! We have converted In Media Res from a scholarly clip archive to a scholarly filter. This means that instead of building our own free-standing video library (something that requires substantial server power and support on our end, and a fair amount of technical know-how on yours) we're setting up a curatorial frame around video taken from third-party sites (like YouTube, Google Video etc.). Today's post by Tara McPherson on a sly parody of MPAA anti-piracy films As curators, this makes all video on the web fair game, be it excerpts from television or film, movie trailers, music videos, archival clips, web sitcoms or other various popular home-brewed forms like remixes and mash-ups. All of these video hosting sites make it extremely easy to embed clips on our website -- it's something you can do in just seconds (as simple as cutting and pasting a bit of text). Focusing on web video does not however mean that we must rely entirely on the content that is available online. We can -- and should -- furnish our own materials when desired and upload them to these same third-party sites (and from there onto the MediaCommons site). In part, these changes emerged out of on-line conversations we had in November and December over how to make In Media Res more user-friendly. Those conversations also raised concern over relying on video content from sites that habitually cow to copyright pressures; especially as MediaCommons seeks to strongly assert our fair use rights as scholars to circulate copyrighted materials for pedagogical and critical scholarly purposes. We hope these conversations will continue as we transition to the filter model. In the meantime, we have set up accounts with Youtube, Veoh and other third-party hosting sites that curators can use to upload materials. While this is not a solution to the copyright quagmire, at the very least, it reinforces our commitment to fair usage of copyrightable materials by providing curators with an official umbrella to operate under when uploading materials. We will also continue to burn back-ups of all IMR pieces in case the original video files are removed from the third-party sites. With renovations now complete, we are embarking on an ambitious push to make In Media Res a daily stop for media scholars by having new curatorial efforts every Monday thru Friday by a different scholar each day. As always, these short features are intended to spark conversation on the site about contemporary and historical media practices and the future of media studies scholarship as a whole. Scholars committed to curating at least once between February 1 and May 11 for IMR include: Hector Amaya, Tim Anderson, Mark Andrejevic, Michela Ardizzoni, Miranda Banks, Doug Battema, Ron Becker, Marnie Binfield, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Megan Boler, Patrick Burkart, Jeremy Butler, Paula Chakravrartty, John Downing, Gary Edgerton, Cynthia Fuchs, Joy Fuqua, Faye Ginsburg, David Golumbia, Joshua Green, Hollis Griffin, Mary Beth Haralovich, Amelie Hastie, Tim Havens, Jennifer Holt, Vicky Johnson, Vamsee Juluri, Jyotsna Kapur, Kelly Kessler, Derek Kompare, Marwan Kraidy, Shanti Kumar, David Lavery, Dan Leopard, Elana Levine, Amanda Lotz, Moya Luckett, Madhavi Mallapragada, Dan Marcus, Vicki Mayer, Anna McCarthy, Allison McCracken, Alan McKee, Tara McPherson, Walter Metz, Toby Miller, Susan Murray, Laurie Ouellette, Brian Ott, Jane Park, Roberta Pearson, Alisa Perren, Dana Polan, Arvind Rajagopal, Jeff Sconce, Katherine Sender, Sharon Shahaf, Shawn Shimpach, Louisa Stein, Serra Tinic, Chuck Tryon, Michele White, Karin Wilkins, Joe Wlodorz An exact schedule is forthcoming and weekly schedules will be promoted on the site and through various listservs. Enjoy!