Hitler is not commonly a person you talk about lightly and humor is almost never involved. Hitler the German Nazi leader from 1934 to 1945, who remained in power until he killed himself. Hitler was an oppressive leader responsible for the killing of millions of people or genocide.  The genocide known as The Holocaust resulted in about six million european deaths. The total number of victims of the Holocaust add up to about 11-17 million people.  This event is acknowledged as serious and devastating still till this day.

Parodies started emerging surrounding Hitler around 2006, two years after the movie about Hitler was released, Downfall in 2003. The Downfall is done completely in subtitles, this was the main appeal to video makers and internet users to begin to create parodies. One scene in the movie shows Hitler in complete upset as he has realized that the war is truly lost, this scene is what artist use to create parodies. Changing the English subtitles gave room for many interpretations of the movie and also humor. The parodies make Hitler seem that he has taken part in the popular culture that we live in now and is up to date with news, events, and mainstream gossip.

The increase in individuals making parodies grew quickly but 2010 there were thousands of videos. The New York Times during the popular peak of creation wrote an article influencing people to “keep up with the meme.” Creators of these parodies named themselves “Untergangers.” Popular videos include “Hitler got banned from Xbox” and “Hitler finds out pokemon aren’t real”.

The issue of controversy has raised questions among viewers but people seem to be okay with this. As long as the videos dodge the topics that hit a sore spot, like the Holocaust that is a very serious matter. The director of the film Downfall announced that he thinks the videos are funny and bring ironic humor to the film. He stated: The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it’s only fair if now it’s taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like.”

In 2010 Youtube stopped planning bans on all parodies and even started placing ads to bring in revenue. An attorney stated,  “All the [Downfall parody videos] that I’ve seen are very strong fair use cases and so they’re not infringing, and they shouldn’t be taken down.”

A website that covers all of the memes and parodies is one click away from having humor at your hands. The parodies play to bring ironic humor and a twist on a serious matter. Check it out.

By Kaitlyn Wamsteeker

Indymedia was the revolutionary source for causing upraise of independent voices. Was founded on November 24, 1999 in Seattle when they reported on the WTO protests in Seattle, Washington. Creators wanted to create a website where they can post accurate news stories that were different than mainstream media sources.  This lead to the creation of independent media website of Indymeida. Focuses on violence, protesters and riots demonstrators, gives an authentic voice.

Focuses on grassroots and non-corporate news coverage. Grassroots refers to the work of non-professional journalists. The website is funded purely by donations. Independent coverage gives room for opinion and a wider range of news coverage. New stories are submitted to the website, all articles that they find very compelling are displayed on the front page and they rest are available on different pages and side bars. The side bars gives you options to look at media in different countries.

There are more than 150 media networks worldwide. 60 in the United States and 15 in Italy and are now published in many languages. The variety of languages includes, English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Russia, Arabic and more, this creates a form of globalization.

When the website first started during the battle of Seattle there were five million hits a day. More recently there has been a decrease due to blogs and other media sources where the topics and be discussed on specific topics. Now there is about two million hits a day on a busy day.

Indymedia impacted and started citizen journalism. Journalists started to feel like they had agency over what they say and wrote. This gave independent writers the option of posting their work anywhere with full opinion. Also Indymedia has also had an impact on activism. The gathering of a variety of news sources for Indymedia led to global access to knowledge. Known that was provided was up to date; some are even updated minute-by-minute and reliable. This independent news gives a different view than mainstream media and causes extra awareness and transnational activism.

Indymeida claims to be unbiased. They still do background checks and see if the story is reliable. Comparatively to Drudge admits to being openly bias.

Live IMC coverage radio is available on their website and accessed from the home page. Also gives the opions of entering your emails for updates that are sent directly to your personal email. Even if you would like to post your own story, there is a link for that on their homepage that leads you to a screen that allows you to type up and submit what you would like. At their “About” link they describe themselves as “network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings.”

Other Independent media websites that promote citizen journalism are RINF, a daily source of under published news. Slashdot, are user submitted news. and OhmyNews, that promotes that  “Every Citizen is a Reporter.”

By Kaitlyn Wamsteeker