Fair Use, Media Responsibility, and Digital Citizenship

Assignment

Fair use safeguards your right to tell your story your way by allowing new works to be created out of old works. The three questions that must be answered with a “rock solid” yes in order to ensure an assertion of fair use is in the "safe harbor" area are; 1. Are you using this asset to illustrate a point that you’re already making in your film? 2. Are you only using what is reasonably appropriate for the demonstration? 3. Is the connection between what you’re using and the point that you’re illustrating clear to the average viewer?

With reference to these three essential questions, a filmmaker o"en moves away from the safe harbor end of the fair use spectrum and into questionable areas. In fictional, scripted films, the further you move away from reality, the more difficult it is to justify fair use.

Media Deconstruction

IMDB describes Little America as, "Inspired by the true stories featured by Epic Magazine, Little America will go beyond the headlines to look at the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and surprising stories of immigrants in America..."

• Produced by Joshuah Bearman (Epic Magazine)
• Directed by Aurora Guerro.
• Writing credits to Lee Eisenberg, Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani, and Dan LeFranc.

The episode for deconstruction is about how "an undocumented high schooler's life is changed by an urban-squash coach" (AppleTV+).

Little America: The Jaguar, Season 1, Episode 2

1. Are they using this asset to illustrate a point that they're already making in your film?

   Yes, the series is based on true stories of immigrants in America. In an interview with Indie Wire Joshuah Bearman, the producer, states "We sent our writers and researchers around the country to find these extraordinary tales from the lives of immigrants... Immigration has become a political issue, but not if you just tell people’s ordinary stories. We wanted to make this show so that audiences could just get to know other people." (2019). This series is intended to help audiences relate to other people.

2. Are they only using what is reasonably appropriate for the demonstration?

   The majority of the episode is dramatized reenactment. The names of the people and places were changed during the storytelling. I imagine this to meet the requirements of Fair Use:

   • Don’t defame the person.
   • Don’t invade privacy.
   • Don’t violate the Right of Publicity.

   At the conclusion of the episode, original materials are used to spotlight the real-life events of Reyna Pacheco, this also reveals a new layer to the story. It shows who the person is and what they went on to achieve after the story ends. The writers also published a biographical interview of each story in the series with Epic Magazine. I imagine this further supports the use of the materials since they hold the copyright to the biographical story.

   Criticisms and responses: From the US Squash website, it was noted that this episode received "tremendous coverage across the world." With media outlets such as Rolling Stone, The Guardian, NPR's Weekend Edition, Chicago Sun-Times all praising this episode.

3. Is the connection between what they're using and the point that they're illustrating clear to the average viewer?

   In the first frames of the episode is clearly stated that the episode is "based on a true story." At the conclusion of the episode, original photos and video are followed by biographical text to draw the parallel from the dramatized story to the real-life events of the character. This supports the provisions of Fair Use by drawing historical context to the story, photos, and videos.