Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Interesting Debate Topics

Is animal testing a justified?
Is the death penalty appropriate? Or should it be banned?
Should cell phones be used during class?
Should laptops be allowed in classrooms?
Is global warming an issue?
Is there good reason for the American war on terror?
Does school detention do any good in high schools?
What impact does social networking and social networking sites have on society?
Is euthanasia justified?
Are video games containing violence appropriate for children?
Are single sex schools more effective than co-ed schools?
Is television an effective tool in building the minds of children?
Should jobs be subcontracted into developing countries?
Is cloning animals ethical?
Is the grading system used in high school effective?
Do celebrities get away with more crime than non-celebrities?
Is it justified to develop nuclear energy for commercial use?
Is it effective to censor parts of the media?
Are humans to blame for certain animal extinctions?
Are alternative energy sources effective and justified?
Do school uniforms make school a more effective place to learn?
Is drug testing athletes justified?
Is it appropriate for adolescents to be sentenced to life without parole?
Should high schools provide daycare services for students who have children?

Monday, April 10, 2017

How to Create Effective Marketing Campaigns

by Sam Ashe-Edmunds

Marketing is part science, part art, and it can lead to effective sales strategies.

Marketing includes the upfront research that leads to the development of the communication of a sales message. A marketing campaign starts with learning about your target customer, marketplace and competitors. Using that information, you will choose different types of media and create your advertising and promotions. Start with number crunching, then use that information to create effective communications to boost your sales.

Research

1. Research the marketplace. Determine if there is a need for your product or service, or customers might not want to buy it. Do this by looking for competitors. In addition to finding competitors, examine the differences between their business and yours. Look for a unique aspect about what you sell. For example, there might be many restaurants in your city, but you might be one of only a few that cater to budget-conscious families.

2. Create a demographic profile of your potential customers. List the gender, age, race, location, marital status, parental status and income level of your primary customer and secondary buyers. Conduct customer surveys if you have access to their phone numbers or email addresses. Contact your industry's or profession's trade associations for research they have conducted. Conduct a survey on your website and offer a prize for participation. Limit this to people who have purchased your product online or who use a code on product packaging.

3. Research your competitors to learn their price, selling message and product or service benefits. Compare your business to your competitors.

Product Development

1. Determine if you need to change your product or packaging to better compete in your marketplace. A menswear store might consider adding boys clothing. A hair stylist might benefit from adding facials, manicures and pedicures and becoming a full-service salon.

2. Develop a brand, image or position for your product or service in the marketplace. Your brand might be that you offer low-cost quality or that you provide high-end service. You might offer name brands or focus on servicing what you sell. You can position yourself as the destination of young, hip consumers, or sensible, practical seniors.

3. Price your product to achieve your marketing goals. Once you know what you need to charge to make a profit, determine if you will undercut your competition, sell at a competitive price or price yourself higher. A low price positions you differently than a high price in the eyes of consumers. A low price decreases your profit margin but can help you take market share from higher-priced competitors. A high price might reduce sales but gives you higher margins and might position you as a higher-quality product or service.

Promotion

1. Decide where you will sell your product. Based on your target customer and brand position, your best options might include retail stores, online, in catalogs, through TV offers or with direct mail. Consider your price point and branding when you choose distribution channels. Selling a high-end product at Wal-Mart, for example, sends a mixed message.

2. Develop a public relations campaign to generate free media attention about your product. Send press releases to newspapers, industry trade associations, magazines, websites and radio stations. Write your press releases to focus on the newsworthiness to the public rather than making your communication read like a free ad. If you are a new business, stress that angle in local publications. If you have won awards, play that up. If you are creating jobs in a community, lead with that fact.

3. Create an advertising campaign to send a controlled message to the marketplace. Research different media using each one's media kit. A media kit contains the demographics of the readers, viewers or listeners of a newspaper, magazine, website, TV station or radio station. Using the reader profiles in the media kits, choose media outlets with audience demographics similar to your target customers. In the ads, sell the benefits of your product or service rather than the features. Have a grand opening.

4. Use promotions to generate more brand or product awareness. Create in-store promotions, such as coupons, aisle displays or product sampling. Sponsor events, such as charity balls, auctions or sporting events. Donate products to charities to raffle or auction.

7 Steps to Planning a Successful Promotional Campaign

How to Plan and Execute a Promotional Campaign

Businessmen at computer in startup office — Credit: Thomas Barwick/ Stone/ Getty Images

Marketing

A promotional plan is an important marketing tool when it comes to launching a new service or product or expanding your market reach into new verticals or demographics. When planning a promotional campaign, keep in mind that a successful campaign achieves all of the following desired outcomes and goals:

The question is how do you achieve these outcomes with your campaign? The process is easy, but it takes "planning" time. Here are seven steps that will get your campaign off to the right start.

Step 1: Assess Marketing Communication Opportunities

It's important in this first step to examine and understand the needs of your target market. Who is your message going out to? Current users, influencers among individuals, decision-makers, groups, or the general public?

Step 2: What Communication Channels Will You Use?

In the first step of planning, you should have defined the markets, products, and environments. This information will assist you in deciding which communication channels will be most beneficial. Will you use personal communication channels such as face to face meeting, telephone contact, or perhaps a personal sales presentation?

Or will the nonpersonal communication such as newspapers, magazines, or direct mail work better?

Step 3: Determine Your Objectives

Keep in mind that your objectives in a promotional campaign are slightly different from your marketing campaign. Promotional objectives should be stated in terms of long or short-term behaviours by people who have been exposed to your promotional communication.

These objectives must be clearly stated, measurable, and appropriate to the phase of market development.

Step 4: Determine Your Promotion Mix

This is where you will need to allocate resources to sales promotion, advertising, publicity, and, of course, personal selling. Don't skimp on either of these areas. You must create an awareness among your buyers in order for your promotional campaign to succeed. A well-rounded promotion will use all these methods in some capacity.

Step 5: Develop Your Promotional Message

This is the time that you will need to sit down with your team and focus on the content, appeal, structure, format, and source of the message. Keep in mind in promotional campaigns appeal and execution always work together.

Step 6: Develop the Promotion Budget

This is the exciting part. You must now determine the total promotion budget. This involves determining cost breakdowns per territory and promotional mix elements. Take some time to break down allocations and determine the affordability, percent of sales, and competitive parity. By breaking down these costs, you will get a better idea on gauging the success potential of your campaign.

Step 7: Determine Campaign Effectiveness

After marketing communications are assigned, the promotional plan must be formally defined in a written document.

In this document, you should include situation analysis, copy platform, timetables for effective integration of promotional elements with elements in your marketing mix. You will also need to determine how you will measure the effectiveness once it is implemented. How did the actual performance measure up to planned objectives? You'll need to gather this information by asking your target market whether they recognized or recall specific advertising messages, what they remember about the message, how they felt about the message, and if their attitudes toward the company were affected by the message.

look at these two links for further help

https://prezi.com/umcdx3hxwfti/unit-329-brand-development/?webgl=0

https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/best-marketing-campaigns-2016/

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Ethics and Legalities in Digital Marketing

Rules of the Game:

I believe that marketing of brand within social media is a positive step for the end users and public. However, we need a lot to do to make the vision perfect. Here are few recommendations to ensure your social media marketing remains ethical.

1. KYA – Know Your Audience:

Before embarking on any social marketing drive, make sure that you:

Know about your audience, their preferences, interests and choices
Have a complete demographic and psycho-graphic overview

This will help you refine your target audience and also facilitate in developing anti-spam mechanism. In addition, it will allow you to segment the audience and send over relevant messages that will drive engagement; the ultimate goal.

2. Stay Away from Biases:

Businesses and marketers need to stay away from (negative) political, religious, ethnic, or any cultural bias that could be termed as controversial. A slight mistake can lead to a big PR disaster and loss of your job (as marketer). We have seen that many top social media managers got fired for just one wrong tweet.

3. Never Compromise On Privacy:

Privacy is a very sensitive domain as it is top concern of the internet generation. If you are doing some marketing via social media, make sure you do not violate privacy rules. Some companies extract Facebook and LinkedIn data to build their email campaigns. This is a cutting-edge sword and requires attention to core concerns. Just a promise of not spamming might not be enough, you need to give unsubscribe option with every message you deliver. To read more about ethical email marketing.

4. Be Transparent:

If you are endorsing some product, idea or personality; you need to disclose why you are endorsing it. Mentioning your relationship with that particular product, non-profit entity, brand or political entity in your campaign, handle, or bio is essential.

5. Speak Truth:

If you have some interest or affiliation in something being discussed, you need to politely communicate your affiliation. It does not require that you explain your interests but tell as to why are you supporting a particular thing. Another important element here is to be true to yourself as well as the audience.

6. Think Before You Tweet:

Internet if flooded with unauthentic information pieces, which has made the marketer’s job more complicated. Therefore, always verify what you share before sending it out for prospects. Any factual error may lead to embarrassment and negative perception of the brand.

7. Imagine the Impact:

If you are sharing some information through your social channel which has been acquired from a third party source, give clear disclaimers to avoid suspicions of conflict of interest. Moreover; be very careful about your tweets and retweets. Public perception matters a lot. For instance, you might retweet something a politician has said in order to spread the news but some may view it as your support for that person. This can be very tricky for your brand.

Conclusion:

Finally, if you do the campaigns with a documented marketing strategy, it can save you from many troubles. Probably the best way to avoid any misconception is to map your content and have a content calendar. Moreover, a strict monitoring mechanism has to be installed to ensure compliance with the code of conduct.

http://www.business2community.com/social-media/7-fundamental-ethics-social-media-marketing-01571504#adth2mSzRrheHEuT.99

Why does ethics come into it?

This is a grey area but marketers have a responsibility to act ethically.

Of course, there is a difference between illegal activity and unethical activity. Responsible brands are unlikely to be acting illegally as marketers should be familiar with privacy legislation. It is the unethical activities which have the potential to really damage brands.

Marketers know that a brand’s success is built on consumer trust and so delivering on its promise is key. If a brand fails to act ethically, whether this is done accidentally or deliberately, this trust is undermined.

In the past, we have seen brands acting unethically over their claims or trying to be something they are not, harming their brands For example, the companies that provided the popular game app, Angry Birds, and the ‘Brightest Flashlight Free’ app have been using these apps to track users’ movements 24/7 and passing this information along to other companies. Acting as mini tracking devices, these apps collect information about where people travel throughout the day. As it is unreasonable to expect consumers to know they’re being spied upon, these app companies can be said to be acting unethically, and should their actions become public knowledge, it would undermine brand trust and dramatically reduce downloads.

But who owns the data?

Our every movement in the digital world leaves a trail that can be tracked. Various permission may well be given by consumers when first signing up to websites and apps, but these permissions are often without the consumer’s active knowledge as companies hide what data they are collating and for what purpose. For example, permission for companies to re-use family photos and videos that have been posted onto networks, such as Facebook, may well be buried in the T&C’s.

So all the while people are using a platform, data is being collected by the brand and being used to make a better product. Would consumers consider it morally acceptable if they found their personal details and images elsewhere on the web without having given explicit permission? Again, many consumers would see this as overstepping the ethical line.

The moral dilemma

A moral dilemma reigns. The Internet is meant to be free from control and a force for good where ideas and information can be freely exchanged . But who defines when something is ‘a force for good’ and when it’s okay for information to be ‘freely exchanged’? Large tech companies are dominating Internet activity and whilst generally perceived to be benign, they are increasingly deciding what Internet freedom should look like. Taking a closer look at the following examples shows that their actions are not always ethical.

• Google’s “don’t be evil” motto seems to mean that if Google does it, it’s for the common good. This is despite accusations of monopolistic practices in search and being criticised for spying on consumers to sell advertising. Google appears to want to define what is ‘good’.
• Facebook “helps you connect and share with the people in your life”. Another way of looking at this is that it is a giant marketing platform for collecting data on people’s lives and then selling this to advertisers.
• Unethical sites have tapped into Facebook to help them disseminate ‘fake news.’ This ‘news’ is so realistic, and targeted at people who have the propensity to believe it, that there are concerns it may have influenced the way people voted in the U.S election.
• Twitter claims to help you to “get in-the-moment updates on the things that interest you” and yet they aren’t transparent about how users’ data is sold on to advertisers.

If the world’s largest tech companies are not transparent in their marketing activities this highlights the scale of the moral dilemma today’s marketers must navigate.

Navigating the moral tightrope

It’s an exciting time to use digital tools as they are changing fast, but by ignoring the ethical dimension marketers are in danger of undermining brand trust. On the horizon, we can see which will measure peoples’ emotional response to ads through facial recognition. To do this, consumers must grant the platform access to their webcams, adding another dimension to the moral maze.

The arrival of big data means that there will be even more data available requiring more powerful tools. So, now’s the time for marketers to obtain clarity around what is and isn’t ethical. There are currently few guidelines around the ‘rights and wrongs’ in the world of digital marketing. Perhaps it’s time for companies to introduce an ethical marketing handbook, making it clear what is and isn’t acceptable in the online world? By considering the brand damage that could be done by acting unethically, this should be incentive enough for marketers to review their own and their companies’ moral compasses!

Thursday, March 30, 2017

The Basic Online Marketing Funnel: Reach, Engage, Convert

E-mail marketing

This is an excellent Prezi explaining the unit
looking at email marketing

https://prezi.com/b6wj94blwr01/unit-327-e-mail-marketing/

Friday, March 3, 2017

Animation

Different Style of animation Styles covered:

Traditional animation
2D Vector based animation
3D computer animation
Motion graphics
Stop motion
Rotoscoping

Traditional Animation

Traditional animation, sometimes referred to as cel animation, is one of the older forms of animation, in it the animator draws every frame to create the animation sequence. Just like they used to do in the old days of Disney. If you’ve ever had one of those flip-books when you were a kid, you’ll know what I mean. Sequential drawings screened quickly one after another create the illusion of movement.

2D Vector based animation

This style has become very popular in the last decade with the increasing amount of people doing it due to the accessibility of the technology. Flash is cheap and easy to use. Such are other vector based animation programs. 2D animation can be done in After Effects too.

Adobe Flash

Probably the most popular 2D animation software out there. Flash has a long lineage of animation making, even before it was purchased by Adobe. Flash is vector based, which I don’t personally like, but it’s very intuitive to work with (as most Adobe’s products are) and relatively cheap.

Adobe After Effects

An interesting choice for 2D animation. After effects gives you great control when creating rigs for 2D, and using the puppet tool is very convenient and intuitive. I find After Effects to be a great choice since I’m very comfortable with Adobe’s work environment, but that’s my personal preference. Since it’s also an editing software, it’s great to be able to edit and color correct in the same place you animate.

3D Animation (CGI, Computer Animation)

3D animation works in a completely different way than traditional animation. They both require an understanding of the same principles of movement and composition, but the technical skill set is very different for each task. while in the past you had to be an amazing draftsman to be an animator, with computer animation that is not the case. 3D animation is more similar to playing with puppets rather than drawing.

About 3D Animation

3D animation, also referred to as CGI animation, is made by generating images using computer graphics that create a series of images that forms an animation. CGI means Computer Generated Images, so it can easily mean both static and dynamic images using computer graphics.

The animation techniques of 3D animation has a lot of similarities with stop-motion animation, as they both deal with animating and posing models, and still conforms to the frame-by-frame approach of 2D animation, but is a lot more controllable since it is all digital feedback.

Instead of drawn or constructed with clay, characters in 3D animations are digitally modeled on screen, and then fitted with a ‘skeleton’ that allows animators to animate the models for their use.

Animation is done by posing the models in certain key frames, which the computer will then calculate and perform a ‘tweening’ animation that is interpreted by the computer in each frame between the key frames.

When the modeling and/or animation is complete, the computer has to render each frame individually, which unlike 2D or stop-motion animations, can be very time consuming depending on the quality of the images and the quantity of polygons in the scene.

a 3D animator will spend most of their time looking at curves that represent the movement of different body parts over time.

Another big difference with 3D animation is that unlike traditional animation, the character’s body parts are always present and should be taken to consideration.

When animating in 2D, the character has to be drawn from every frame. When the character is viewed from the side, half of its body isn’t shown and thus isn’t drawn. It technically doesn’t exist. It’s drawn on a flat page and there isn’t really more of the character other than what the animator draws.

With 3D though, the character’s body parts always exist in the shot. Even when one hand isn’t visible, it’s still there. That adds some work for the animator, since we need to be aware of the entire character at all times.

The last major difference with 3D animation is the frame rate. Traditional animators usually work on 2’s which means they draw a new drawing every 2 frames, and thus having one drawing last for 2 frames. With 3D animation, however, the motion is always smooth (except for stylized pieces which intentionally try to look different) and having a character stop completely looks like a mistake.

Even when the character is standing still there should always be some sign of life or gentle movement to keep the illusion of life, this is something 2D animation can get away with much more easily than 3D animation.
History

3D animation has definitely revolutionized how the animation industry looks today, and it was all started with Toy Story (1995, Lassetter.) Computer generated animations wasn’t completely new at the time, since it had already been often used in TV shows, movies and computer games, but Toy Story set the bar by being the first feature-length computer animation, leading to a whole new industry and market.

3D animation also lead to studios trying to achieve photo-realistic animations by combining high-level computer processing with advance motion-capture. This has led to films such as Final Fantasy: Spirits Within (2001, Sakaguchi) and The Polar Express (2004, Zemeckis), with very mixed results. This kind of animation became rarer as the decade passed, as the process is a lot more complicated than key framed 3D animations, but has passed on to feature film VFX.

Software used for 3D animations

Autodesk Maya

Maya is the industry standard 3D software, used in most large studios. Maya, Softimage and 3D Max are all a part of Autodesk and work quite similarly. Choosing one is a matter of personal and technical preference.

Autodesk Softimage

From Autodesk: Softimage character animation software offers high-performance creative tools for artists and technical directors working in 3D game development and visual effects.

Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D is a motion graphics artist’s best friend. It’s a 3D program for the After Effects user. Very intuitive, and works directly with After Effects without the need to render first. This would not however be my first choice for serious 3D production since it was designed from the ground up with motion graphics in mind.

Blender: Blender provides a broad spectrum of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing functionality in one package. Through its open architecture, Blender provides cross-platform interoperability, extensibility, an incredibly small footprint, and a tightly integrated workflow.

Motion Graphics (Typography, Animated Logos)

While still considered a form of animation, motion graphics is a rather different from the other types of animation. Mostly because unlike the other types on our list it is not character or story driven. It’s the art of creatively moving graphic elements or texts, usually for commercial or promotional purposes.

About Motion Graphics

It’s the art of creatively moving graphic elements or texts, usually for commercial or promotional purposes. Think animated logos, explainer videos, app commercials, television promos or even film opening titles.

The skills for motion graphics don’t necessarily translate to the other types of animation, since they don’t require knowledge of body mechanics or acting, but they do have some attributes in common such as understanding good composition and the all important camera motion.

The process of creating Motion Graphics depends on the programs that are used, since video editing softwares often have different UI or settings, but the process is the same. Motion Graphics usually involves animating images, texts or video clips using key framing that are tweened to make a smooth motion between frames. These programs also supports scripts that will automatically alter the animations to various preferences that are required. Motion graphics also often uses particle systems to create various effects. It is basically points in 3D and 2D space that is shown as texts, images or visual effects. The particle effects are made with emitters that digitally produces lights, surfaces, or a disassembling animation.

Motion Graphics are simply flat-based images or 3D objects that are given the illusion of motion, accompanied with music or sound effects. This technique is often used for multimedia projects.
History

The term Motion Graphics came about computer based video editing, as programs like Adobe After Effects and Apple Motion made editing images definitely a lot more easier, since previously, before the advent of computer editing, it was a very time-consuming process, which made it limited for high-budget productions, but in present time it is highly popular for commercials, news shows and internet videos

Adobe After Effects

After effects is the most common software for motion graphics. It is the software that streamlined motion graphics and made it so much easier to make.

Stop Motion (Claymation, Cut-Outs)

Stop motion is done by taking a photo of an object, and then moving it just a little bit and taking another photo. The process is repeated and when the photos are played back one after another they give the illusion of movement. This is similar to traditional animation but it uses real life materials instead of drawings.

About Stop Motion

Stop-Motion animation can be referred to any animations that uses objects that are photographed in a sequence to create a animated action.

The process of Stop-Motion animation is very long, as each object has to be carefully moved inch by inch, while photographing every change, to create a fluid sequence of animation.
Claymation

One of the most popular form is Claymation. Working with clay or play-doh characters that can easily be manipulated for animation. Advanced claymation (such as The Neverhood or Armikrog) uses metal skeletons on which the clay is then molded for more sturdy rigs.
Puppets

Some animators would use regular Puppets instead of clay one, usually also built upon some sort of skeleton rig. The faces of the characters can be replaced based on the expression, or be controlled within the rig.
Cut-Out

Another popular form of stop motion is Cut out. Using construction paper or cardboard characters and placing them on a paper while shooting the animation from above (That’s how South Park was made before they switched to computers.) The cardboard is then moved a little each frame to create the illusion of movement.
Silhouette

Similar to cutout animation, silhouette animation uses cardboard or some kind of flat material, but the objects are all black and the shot is depicted with silhouettes only. This is one of the oldest forms of stop motion and is rarely used today.
Action Figures / Lego

Some use action figures or lego characters for animation. This genre is very popular on YouTube with many channels dedicated to creating funny skits with lego characters. Robot Chicken is a great example of that. They use famous action figures to make fun of pop culture.
Pixelation

Pixelation is a form of stop motion that uses real people and real environments to create unreal videos. It uses the stop motion method of taking a still photo, moving things around, and then taking another photo, but the subject matter is usually real people instead of puppets.
History

Stop-Motion animation was very often used as special effects before the introduction of CGI animation, and as such has a very long history in both the animation and film industry, starting from The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1887, Blackton.) One of the most earliest of clay animations was Modelling Extraordinary (1912), and Stop-Motion animation also created the first female animator, Helena Smith Dayton, who made a clay animated short based Romeo and Juliet in 1917.

Another technique, which came about in the 80’s, was Go Motion. This technique involved programming a computer to move the models for the animators before each frame was photographed. It was used when creating visual effects for RoboCop (1987, Verhoven) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Kershner.) It was a lot more complicated than doing it by hand, but the result was a more realistic looking animation.

The Stop-Motion art form also created animators that would set the standards, like visual effects master Ray Harryhausen who created animations for Jason and the Argonauts (1963, Chaffey) and Clash of the Titans (1981, Davis), and Nick Park who created the Wallace and Gromit franchice. However, Stop-Motion wasn’t always made for shorts and visual effects. There have been many feature-length Stop-Motion animated films, most notably The Night Before Christmas (1993, Selick) and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005, Park.)

Software used in stop motion Dragonframe

If you’re planning on making a professional stop motion video, Dragonframe is the best tool for the job. Its comprehensive software can be used with many different attachments, such as devices that control the camera, lights and even camera focus.

It gives the user complete control over the lighting of the shot with an option to program the dimming of the different lights over a period of time. It comes with a keypad controller for easy control of the photo taking process, and for flipping between frames

iStopMotion

If you’re looking to spend a bit less and you’re making stop motion more as a hobby, this software is just for you. It’s not expensive and very user friendly.

It does have good features though, such as DSLR support, onion skinning, using an iPad or iPhone as a remote and even chroma keying (using green screen.)

Rotoscoping

For either broadcast video or Internet streaming video, rotoscoping is the rotated projection of a sequence of usually photographed action image frames so that the artist can trace from the frame or create an image to superimpose on it.

It can be thought of as "painting on movies" efficiently. Prior to computers, an animation stand called a Rotoscope was used to project a sequence of action frames against a surface so that a set of animation frames could be traced or created.

The same work can now be done with digital images and special computer software. Tools that provide efficient ways to rotoscope include Digital Magic and Elastic Reality. Rotoscoping is frequently used as a technique for combining (compositing) cartoon figures with realistic settings in television commercials and is also used for special effects in feature-length films.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Plagiarism

Plagiarism

http://www.quetext.com/

If you are not sure if it is your own work. Use this link to check before submitting in your work

http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/prevention/

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?

Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work or borrowing someone else's original ideas.

But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense:

ACCORDING TO THE MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE DICTIONARY, TO "PLAGIARIZE" MEANS

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
to use (another's production) without crediting the source
to commit literary theft
to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud.

It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

BUT CAN WORDS AND IDEAS REALLY BE STOLEN?

According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE CONSIDERED PLAGIARISM:

turning in someone else's work as your own
copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.

See our section on citation for more information on how to cite sources properly.

WHAT ABOUT IMAGES, VIDEOS, AND MUSIC?

Using an image, video or piece of music in a work you have produced without receiving proper permission or providing appropriate citation is plagiarism. The following activities are very common in today’s society. Despite their popularity, they still count as plagiarism.

Copying media (especially images) from other websites to paste them into your own papers or websites.

Making a video using footage from others’ videos or using copyrighted music as part of the soundtrack.

Performing another person’s copyrighted music (i.e., playing a cover).

Composing a piece of music that borrows heavily from another composition.

Certainly, these media pose situations in which it can be challenging to determine whether or not the copyrights of a work are being violated. For example:

A photograph or scan of a copyrighted image (for example: using a photograph of a book cover to represent that book on one’s website)

Recording audio or video in which copyrighted music or video is playing in the background.

Re-creating a visual work in the same medium. (for example: shooting a photograph that uses the same composition and subject matter as someone else’s photograph)

Re-creating a visual work in a different medium (for example: making a painting that closely resembles another person’s photograph).

Re-mixing or altering copyrighted images, video or audio, even if done so in an original way.

The legality of these situations, and others, would be dependent upon the intent and context within which they are produced.

The two safest approaches to take in regards to these situations is:

1) Avoid them altogether or

2) Confirm the works’ usage permissions and cite them properly.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Info Graphics

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system's ability to see patterns and trends.