Quotation

Working with digital media, either as a creator or critic, means using techniques that are either new or different from working with older media. Nowhere is this more apparent that with quotation. Just to remind you, quotation is “a phrase or passage from a book, poem, play, etc., remembered and spoken, esp to illustrate succinctly or support a point or an argument” (The Free Dictionary). To recite a poem or passage, or to write down lines from a novel are examples of quotation. But when it comes to digital media, quotation often involves copying or reproduction if one is to avoid description as opposed to quotation.

How does one quote from a YouTube video, when it is only present in one place (i.e. the URL) and could disappear at the owners digression? By using the following techniques for digital quotation:

1. Screen shots

• Mac – To capture a portion of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier).
• Windows 8 – To take a screenshot, hold down the Windows key and press the PrtScn (Print Screen) button on your keyboard. Now press the Win + E keyboard combination to open Explorer and navigate to your Pictures library in the left-hand side panel, here you will find a newly created Screenshots folder, double-click on it to open it up.
• Windows 7 – You can take a picture of what is on your screen by pressing PRINT SCREEN (PRTSC or PRTSCN on some keyboards). To copy only an active screen press ALT+PRINT SCREEN. You can paste your screen capture into Paint.
• Jing – captures anything you see on your computer screen, as an image or short video, and lets you share it instantly.
• Copernicus is freeware that allows you to record screenshots, very short videos, but no sound for Mac.

2. Screen capture of video

• Camtasia – Camtasia gives you the tools you need to record on-screen activity, edit and enhance your content, and share in high-quality to viewers anywhere.
• FRAPS – Fraps can show fps (frame rate) in Windows PC games! Fraps performs video capture, screen capture and can benchmark your fps! Supports both DirectX.
• CamStudio –  Free screen capture software for PC. Record video of screen activity.
• Free Screen Video Recorder – full-featured screen video recorder and screenshot capture tool that allows you to easily record screen activities.
• Capture Me – (Free for Mac) offers a floating capture window, which is re-sizable to different resolutions and provides several output options.

3. ‘Ripping’ of video and audio from websites (Including File Conversions)

• Doom9 – The hacks, the cracks, everything you need to understand and use DVD.
• Keepvid – Download and save videos directly from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, Putfile and more. Simply copy and paste.
• Online Converter – Convert files like images, video, documents, audio and more to other formats with this free and fast online converter.
• Pazera Free Audio Extractor, – rip audio from video files. The tool is Windows only, and can extract audio from a variety of file formats like AVI, WMV, VOB, MP4 and more.
• Oxelon Media Converter – extract sound from video files apart from acting as an audio / video converter.
• iExtractMP3 – a software for Mac users that can extract the sound from FLV files (the link is the translated version of its original site in Japanese).
• VidtoMP3 – a web based tool to convert videos from sites like YouTube, Megavideo, Vimeo etc to MP3 files that can be downloaded to your computer.
• Free Audio Editor – audio extractor that can extract audio from video files. also download YouTube videos and rip audio from it. It also supports audio recording, noise reduction and many more advanced features.
• YouTube Downloader –  software that allows you to download videos from YouTube, Facebook, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and many others and convert them to other video formats.
• Clip Converter –  Online media converter that allows you to select format, dimensions and time of a clip from YouTube, Vimeo, MySpace, Veoh and more.

4. Copying and storage in a private archive of text and images online

• Evernote – lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders–and makes these notes completely searchable
• Screendash – With the click of a button, capture images of anything you can see on your computer screen.

5. Downloading HTML, stored and streamed content

• DownloadThemAll  – The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!
• Orbit Downloader – a Download Manager for Windows with special focus on downloading content from social media websites like Myspace, YouTube, Imeem, Pandora and Rapidshare.
• DownloadHelper – a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video, audio, and image files from many sites.
• Flash Get – a leading download manager and has the highest amount of users on the internet.