Democratising potentials of digital remixes
Kuhn (2012) suggested the rhetorical and semiotic possibilities of making digital arguments in the "The rhetoric of remix". It is useful as when it comes to analysing videos, it seems most people just take the cinematic theories for granted, which could be restricted and some of the aspects are underexplored (e.g. dialogic nature, sound, etc.). In addition, the digital remix offers an opportunity for different types of media (image, sound, video, mainstream, niche, drama, documentary, etc.) to “come together” in order to form digital arguments (see also the Examples of scholarly multimedia). Although it is somewhat clear that digital remixes not necessary have political intentions or bring democracy to the society (e.g. there are also possibilities that the dominant/mainstream ideas are just being reinforced no matter intentionally or not), they still form a space(?) for that to happen.
The appropriation also creates a feedback loop to keep these arguments alive. I think it addresses the dialogic nature that both producers and viewers should be taken into account when analysing digital arguments. Although the content and audience response are important, it is also crucial to understand why the creators choose to pick certain materials but not others. For instance, if I have not watched Star Trek/Sex in the City before, I probably will be confused about the remixes since I do not know the original context. This may imply the reliance of mainstream media somehow reinforce their “mainstreamness” (even with the democratising potentials).
In addition, Horwatt (2010) proposed a categorisation of digital remixes, which I have mixed feeling about it. On one hand, I kind of agree that there should be categories of the practices since otherwise digital remixes may just refer to anything (like I still find it difficult to define what is media). But on the other hand, as Kuhn suggested, different categories can be unclear and overlapped in some ways. Nonetheless, I still appreciate his efforts of taking the practices of digital remix seriously (before reading his work, I just simply call all digital remixes videos).