The Recomposition Of Maggie Ryan

      Similar to Good Copy Bad Copy, this reading also does a nice job of looking at a situation from all angles. The situation of Maggie and her picture on the college website questions the concepts of ownership, signification and recomposition. This particular situation is great for exploring the idea of context and how texts can be altered for a reader simply by removing the correct context and adding a different one. 
       Maggie's picture happened during a protest of something she was very passionate about. She was utilizing her 1st amendment rights to express herself and yet that situation was minimized when her photo showed up on the school's website. I believe that the incorrect context of the image was one of the primary issues. It seems as if Maggie is "Average Female College Student" who is enjoying a day in the snow, when in reality that was far from the truth. I think another primary issue is the fact that the school used the image without Maggie's permission. As a student, Maggie has the right to decide whether or not she is photographed for public purpose or not, and that right was completely stripped away from her when the image was published without her consent. 


      The reading does a nice job of pointing out the other side of things, like the fact that if "...Maggie was aware of the photographer’s presence and continued with her activities nonetheless, the argument that she had any reasonable expectation of privacy would be weak” (231). My question is, however, what does going outside and participating in a protest have to do with being a "student having fun in the snow"as the title of the image on the website stated? What if Maggie wasn't a student and had just been participating in the protest? Would she still be subjected to not having any privacy? This reading makes me think a lot about how we are able to utilize our rights and our privacy as students on a college campus. On campus, our words are monitored, our internet usage is monitored, even what we post on personal social media accounts is monitored, so where is the privacy?

A secondary issue in the reading is Maggie's control of her image. It is because that Maggie didn't know her photo was being taken that she lost control of how her image is presented and perceived.  While Maggie knew there was a photographer in the area, she had no idea that it was her picture that was being captured, especially for public use on a widely visited website. If Maggie's argument for privacy is weakened due to the fact that she was outside in public, I can see where the school could diminish her side of things, however there is no doubt that Maggie had no control in her image and how she was presented and that is where I believe a major problem lies.