Media representations often play upon the stereotypes which society tend to accept as the representations neutralise over time due to people being exposed to the same thing over and over again.
Women were always perceived as the object of desire, which stays at home and cooks. However with the rise of feminism during the 1950s and 1960s, women had gained liberating rights which then went on to change their stereotypical image to the angel/whore. The femme fatale character was introduced in the 1950s, as women became more ‘masculine’ by taking on the ‘male’ jobs as the men went to war. In double indemnity the femme fatale is portrayed as an evil woman through the use of low key lighting, and as she holds a cigar in most scenes she is presented as a powerful woman as she holds her ‘phallus’. Her tempting attitude, alongside the smoke from the cigarette forms an enigma around her and makes her seem mysterious and more sexual. Overall, women were presented to be luring predators. The rise of feminism was heavily driven by the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 which gave females more sexual freedom, it also allowed them not to bound to motherhood until they are ready for it. This also conformed to some of the issues the public were facing as the rate of back alley abortions.
However post feminism portrayals of women tended to represent women as people who self objectify themselves. To some extent this could be considered to be correct, however this can also be a negative representation of women as it still portrays them to overly sexual. Due to the dependence women have on the contraceptive pill, alongside the legal age that the government has put on when people are allowed to have intercourse, teenage pregnancy has soared. Underage and pregnant follows the lives of teenagers who face different problems during pregnancy, whether that be due to their age, of that the father of the child is no longer in the picture. Personal interviews with the pregnant teenagers allow the viewers to understand that sometimes it is very hard for these mothers. Juno was released in 2007 and the protagonist was a 16 year old mother to be. Stereotypically we would expect pregnant teenagers to consist of those from ethnic minority groups; however Juno is from a respectable white background. This enabled viewers to understand that underage mothers can be from various backgrounds. However in the end of Juno, she puts her baby up for adoption and no longer has to deal with the issues she would have faced with motherhood. In reality most of these girls are forced to keep their babies and give up their whole lives for them.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Monday, 21 March 2011
Net Neutrality
Is it the end for net neutrality?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/jun/15/guardianweeklytechnologysection2?INTCMP=SRCH
• Network providers say it is unfair and unnecessary to have the government interfere in the free market.
• Big online corporations such as Amazon, eBay and Google are among those lobbying to prevent telecommunications firms from exerting more power.
• And although it wouldn't have any direct effect on the net outside of America, say observers, it could restrict speeds on data coming from the US and, more, importantly, influence legislators in Britain and elsewhere.
Sen. Franken: 'We Can't Lose Net Neutrality'
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/11/03/14/sen-franken-we-cant-lose-net-neutrality
• “The Internet has proven not only to be a hotbed for innovation [and] an incredible engine for job creation, but also the ultimate self-distribution channel,” Franken said. “Now you don’t need a record deal to make a song and have people hear it.”
• Internet service providers are "coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important tool for independent artists and entrepreneurs - its freedom and openness."
• And if corporations take over the Internet, the incredible Web-based mobilization and creativity of the last 10 years would no longer exist, Franken said.
• "It's time for us to use the Internet to save the Internet," Franken said, urging those present in Austin and watching online to help build the movement needed to win this crucial fight.
Net neutrality: Who cares?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2011/03/net_neutrality_-_who_cares.html
• The big issue here is whether a principle sacred to internet pioneers - that all traffic over the network is equal - is in danger of being watered down and, if so, whether something needs to be done.
• Some broadband firms want to be free to charge media firms to give their content priority, while some content providers are adamant that this would harm consumers and stifle innovation.
• An emerging trend towards network operators discriminating in favour of certain traffic based on who provides it, as part of commercial arrangements, is a worrying development. Media organisations like the BBC fear that they are about to see all sorts of roadblocks placed between them and consumers on the internet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/jun/15/guardianweeklytechnologysection2?INTCMP=SRCH
• Network providers say it is unfair and unnecessary to have the government interfere in the free market.
• Big online corporations such as Amazon, eBay and Google are among those lobbying to prevent telecommunications firms from exerting more power.
• And although it wouldn't have any direct effect on the net outside of America, say observers, it could restrict speeds on data coming from the US and, more, importantly, influence legislators in Britain and elsewhere.
Sen. Franken: 'We Can't Lose Net Neutrality'
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/11/03/14/sen-franken-we-cant-lose-net-neutrality
• “The Internet has proven not only to be a hotbed for innovation [and] an incredible engine for job creation, but also the ultimate self-distribution channel,” Franken said. “Now you don’t need a record deal to make a song and have people hear it.”
• Internet service providers are "coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important tool for independent artists and entrepreneurs - its freedom and openness."
• And if corporations take over the Internet, the incredible Web-based mobilization and creativity of the last 10 years would no longer exist, Franken said.
• "It's time for us to use the Internet to save the Internet," Franken said, urging those present in Austin and watching online to help build the movement needed to win this crucial fight.
Net neutrality: Who cares?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2011/03/net_neutrality_-_who_cares.html
• The big issue here is whether a principle sacred to internet pioneers - that all traffic over the network is equal - is in danger of being watered down and, if so, whether something needs to be done.
• Some broadband firms want to be free to charge media firms to give their content priority, while some content providers are adamant that this would harm consumers and stifle innovation.
• An emerging trend towards network operators discriminating in favour of certain traffic based on who provides it, as part of commercial arrangements, is a worrying development. Media organisations like the BBC fear that they are about to see all sorts of roadblocks placed between them and consumers on the internet.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
“Digital Media have, in many ways changed how we consume media products” who do you think benefits most – producers or audiences?
With the revolution of the internet, how people consume and receive media products/services has changed rapidly. The internet is used globally by millions of people, which makes it easier for producers to reach a mass audience. In some aspects this can be seen as an advantage for producers, however with so many people accessing the internet on a daily basis, security problems arise. Audiences also benefit, as they can search for anything at one click, but with the internet making it easier for people to communicate it could be argued that rather that helping us the internet is ‘threatening’ as Sherry Turkle puts it. With audiences being able to upload information and pictures themselves, they can to be considered as producers, and therefore audiences predominantly benefit from the Digital Media.
Newspapers were one of the very first mediums to provide society with information. Since then they have not lost their popularity to the internet. Newspaper producers have had to keep up to date with this technological change, and have done so by providing online services where audiences can read their newspapers, with a fee of £1 or £2 for a month. However this still hasn’t made enough of a difference to their revenue. Most of the information provided via the web is free, which makes it harder for websites The Times to gain subscribers. This further heightens the newspapers inability to battle with web producers. On the other hand, websites such as www.blogger.com enable online producers to distribute their content, which empowers them and opens job opportunities for them. Producers of media products such as music videos can easily promotes their products to users of the web through www.youtube.com resulting in more people being aware of their products, and hopefully more sales for producers.
However the adverse affect of this is that producers are faced with problems such as censorship and regulation, and with their products reaching people on a global scale, the problem worsens. Facebook launches in 2004 by a student names Mark Zuckerberg, the website was initially intended for Harvard students, so that they can stay connected to one another. This didn’t last long, as other universities were also signing up to Facebook, and now there are over 40,000 million users just in the USA. Showing just how much of a phenomenon it has now become. Facebook allows people to upload information and pictures, anywhere, anytime. Though this helps users socialise, it also can be a way to exploit people. Though the minimum age a user must be to sign up to Facebook is 13, many younger users still have Facebook. About 2 years ago, a 17 year old, had invited people to a small gathering at her house via Facebook, however hundreds turned up and trashed her whole house. Also Facebook will soon be adding a panic button on their website, which acts as an alert for users to inform Facebook of anyone who may be a threat to them. This in itself shows that with so much freedom on Facebook, as liberating as it may seem, it does raise issues about how safe people are online.
The ability to update news as soon as possible has provided sufficient support for the wikileaks website. The website hit the news back in 2010 for its exposure of the government’s actions. Asange (creator of wikileaks) was arrested last year, however this caused great frenzy amongst the public, as they felt that he was exposing the government’s wrongful actions and in result of that he was being unfairly arrested. People became aware of the government’s hidden secrets, which allowed people to see how their country was being run in a new light.
Audiences, on the other hand, can be seen as the biggest winners of the revolution of the Digital Media. Other than issues revolving around security, audiences use the internet in a way to express themselves. Twitter launches in 2006 and has grown rapidly since. Today almost 600 tweets are made per second. Celebrities are the common reason for people to join Twitter. ‘Ordinary people’ get the change to feel close to their favourite celebrities. In some sense, it could be said that this breaks the role of a hierarchy and it’s a place where people can just be normal.
Though illegal downloading is one of the reasons to why music companies are losing money, its one of the most common actions carried out by users. It makes audiences receive content for free, and there are many websites which make this happen. Furthermore consumers are able to shop online, which gets rid of the hassle to physically go out and buy items. News on topics such as animals, celebrities, trends, government, etc can be found at the click of one button, and better, for free. Rolling news, keeps updating internet users and unlike before, they don’t have to pay for a newspaper to read about it.
Though many advantages could be suggests, it could be debated that sites such as Facebook, MSN Messenger and twitter create an isolated society. Sherry Turkle stated in her recent book “Alone Together” that Facebook creates an illusion which makes us think that it enables us to communicate better, however in reality it puts us in a ‘cyber reality’ which is a “poor imitation of the real world”.
Newspapers were one of the very first mediums to provide society with information. Since then they have not lost their popularity to the internet. Newspaper producers have had to keep up to date with this technological change, and have done so by providing online services where audiences can read their newspapers, with a fee of £1 or £2 for a month. However this still hasn’t made enough of a difference to their revenue. Most of the information provided via the web is free, which makes it harder for websites The Times to gain subscribers. This further heightens the newspapers inability to battle with web producers. On the other hand, websites such as www.blogger.com enable online producers to distribute their content, which empowers them and opens job opportunities for them. Producers of media products such as music videos can easily promotes their products to users of the web through www.youtube.com resulting in more people being aware of their products, and hopefully more sales for producers.
However the adverse affect of this is that producers are faced with problems such as censorship and regulation, and with their products reaching people on a global scale, the problem worsens. Facebook launches in 2004 by a student names Mark Zuckerberg, the website was initially intended for Harvard students, so that they can stay connected to one another. This didn’t last long, as other universities were also signing up to Facebook, and now there are over 40,000 million users just in the USA. Showing just how much of a phenomenon it has now become. Facebook allows people to upload information and pictures, anywhere, anytime. Though this helps users socialise, it also can be a way to exploit people. Though the minimum age a user must be to sign up to Facebook is 13, many younger users still have Facebook. About 2 years ago, a 17 year old, had invited people to a small gathering at her house via Facebook, however hundreds turned up and trashed her whole house. Also Facebook will soon be adding a panic button on their website, which acts as an alert for users to inform Facebook of anyone who may be a threat to them. This in itself shows that with so much freedom on Facebook, as liberating as it may seem, it does raise issues about how safe people are online.
The ability to update news as soon as possible has provided sufficient support for the wikileaks website. The website hit the news back in 2010 for its exposure of the government’s actions. Asange (creator of wikileaks) was arrested last year, however this caused great frenzy amongst the public, as they felt that he was exposing the government’s wrongful actions and in result of that he was being unfairly arrested. People became aware of the government’s hidden secrets, which allowed people to see how their country was being run in a new light.
Audiences, on the other hand, can be seen as the biggest winners of the revolution of the Digital Media. Other than issues revolving around security, audiences use the internet in a way to express themselves. Twitter launches in 2006 and has grown rapidly since. Today almost 600 tweets are made per second. Celebrities are the common reason for people to join Twitter. ‘Ordinary people’ get the change to feel close to their favourite celebrities. In some sense, it could be said that this breaks the role of a hierarchy and it’s a place where people can just be normal.
Though illegal downloading is one of the reasons to why music companies are losing money, its one of the most common actions carried out by users. It makes audiences receive content for free, and there are many websites which make this happen. Furthermore consumers are able to shop online, which gets rid of the hassle to physically go out and buy items. News on topics such as animals, celebrities, trends, government, etc can be found at the click of one button, and better, for free. Rolling news, keeps updating internet users and unlike before, they don’t have to pay for a newspaper to read about it.
Though many advantages could be suggests, it could be debated that sites such as Facebook, MSN Messenger and twitter create an isolated society. Sherry Turkle stated in her recent book “Alone Together” that Facebook creates an illusion which makes us think that it enables us to communicate better, however in reality it puts us in a ‘cyber reality’ which is a “poor imitation of the real world”.
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
The mutualisation of news
“Gone are the days of "us and them" journalism. The web has led to a news community where ideas and news are shared rather than delivered”
With the revolution of the internet, people are able to upload information at any time of the day, it’s like rolling news you can update anything whenever you chose to. This is bad for professional journalists as people don’t consider their work to be any more valued than anyone else’s. Newspapers especially, the news which is published a day after it happens is seemed to be less shocking as people hear of it before hand.
"There was a very clear wall, dividing readers and writers," said Rusbridger to an in-house meeting of journalists
“Rusbridger says: "It cannot be true that there are only a handful of people worth listening to in the world. Comment is Free is infinitely richer and more diverse and more plural.”
With the revolution of the internet, people are able to upload information at any time of the day, it’s like rolling news you can update anything whenever you chose to. This is bad for professional journalists as people don’t consider their work to be any more valued than anyone else’s. Newspapers especially, the news which is published a day after it happens is seemed to be less shocking as people hear of it before hand.
"There was a very clear wall, dividing readers and writers," said Rusbridger to an in-house meeting of journalists
“Rusbridger says: "It cannot be true that there are only a handful of people worth listening to in the world. Comment is Free is infinitely richer and more diverse and more plural.”
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
The Impact of New & Digital Media Case Study
Title: Impact of Social networking.
Explain why you have chosen this topic and why you think it will be rich to study this are: I have chosen this topic because with the introduction of the revolutionary web, many aspects of our everyday lives has changed. We now communicate via the web, resulting in a isolated nation, where we connect with the world.
Media texts/products that will become your primary sources: Facebook, Twitter, MSN Messenger and Skype.
1. Has new digital media had an impact upon ownership and control of the media institution(s) involved in your case study? Explain in detail any impact and what
exactly has changed.
Facebook:
Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 whilst he was studying at Harvard. Facebook has over 1,700 employees and offices in 12 countries.
Regarding Facebook ownership, Mark Zuckerberg owns 24% of the company, Accel Partners owns 10%, Digital Sky Technologies owns 10%, Dustin Moskovitz owns 6%, Eduardo Saverin owns 5%, Sean Parker owns 4%, Peter Thiel owns 3%, Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners own between 1 to 2% each, Microsoft owns 1.3%, Li Ka-shing owns 0.75%, the Interpublic Group owns less than 0.5%, a small group of current and former employees and celebrities own less than 1% each, including Matt Cohler, Jeff Rothschild, Adam D'Angelo, Chris Hughes, and Owen Van Natta, while Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus have sizable holdings of the company, and the remaining 30% or so are owned by employees, an undisclosed number of celebrities, and outside investors.
Most of their revenue comes from advertising as they don’t charge their customers.
Twitter:
As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of capital funding by the venture capitalists who backed the company. Williams took over the role of CEO, and Dorsey became chairman of the board. On October 4, 2010, Williams announced that he was stepping down as CEO. Dick Costolo, formerly Twitter's chief operating officer, became CEO.
MSN Messenger:
MSN Messenger was created in 1999 on web 1.0 and since then it has revived several of times to keep up with the rapidly changing technology. Each year a new version comes out, about 5 versions have been released. It’s owned by Microsoft which is one of the largest companies in the world.
Skype:
Apparently an eBay company.
2.What impact has there been on the way in which the audience now consume the media products/texts involved in your case study? How does it differ from what went before? Consider SHEP
People have now become so dependent on social networking sites. As everyone is ‘so’ busy these days people find it easier and more appropriate to contact others via networking sites as they don’t have time to go out and meet them face to face.
“ Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber- reality is a poor imitation of the real world” Sherry Turkle
“ MySpace has been sucked into its own black hole recently, cutting 500 employees and admitting that they’re no longer battling binary codes with Facebook” The online Sub- Life (Guardian)
websites can be accessed anywhere anytime, on new smart phones, laptops, computers etc. This makes it easier for people to access these websites and making them more dependent on these specific meeting sites. Skype calls can be made on the phone and are free, they also include video calls which allow users to meet face to face but not actually face to face. Before people used to go out meet with one another, but now at the comfort of their own home they can reach a wide audience.
“Traditional courtship has been negatively impacted via online dating by removing the element of conversation”
3. What impact has there been on how the media institution now has to produce the texts and the way in which the texts/products are distributed and exhibited? This should involve a detailed textual analysis of at least 3 texts to demonstrate the point
Facebook now has to be accessed through phones as well due to change in technology and rise in demand as well as Skype, MSN messenger and Twitter.
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/Facebook_and_Twitter_Access_via_Mobile_Browser_Grows_by_Triple-Digits
“30.8 percent of smart phone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010”
“In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112 percent from the previous year”
“MySpace attracted 11.4 million users”
“Twitter, which has experienced tremendous growth in both mobile and PC-based visitation, attracted 4.7 million mobile users in January, up 347 percent versus year ago”.
With free signing up, all of the sites have to compete with this and try not to charge customers for using their websites.
4. Is the size of the audience any different now than before the impact of new and digital media (or has the pattern of usage changed)?
Facebook has announced 400mm users, Feb 5, 2010.
Twitter themselves finally publish numbers indicating there are 50mm tweets created each day. ”Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second. (Yes, we have TPS reports.)”
Oct 21, 2009 - Skype’s registered users grew 41 percent to 521 million people. That’s a stunning 40 million new registered users in the past three months. Revenues grew 29 percent to $185 million
5. Who are the primary target audience now and has this changed? Who was it before and how to you know?
Facebook:
Current: 13-40
Originally: 18-25
How do you know? The site was set up to communicate with students from other universities, but the age restriction has become 13+ with parental permission.
Twitter:
Current: Mostly celebrities
Originally: Ordinary people
How do you know? Twitter was set up in order for people to communicate in groups, quickly and easier. However these days’ people use twitter to follow celebrities and see what is new with them.
MSN Messenger:
Current: 11-21
Originally: 16-24
How do you know? The age limit to owning a msn account used to be 16+ but now it’s 13+. With the introduction of Facebook, older people prefer it less to use msn messenger.
Skype
Current: 13+
Originally: 16-35
How do you know? Just cause.
6)How have the audience responded to the change? Is there more customer choice? Is there evidence of a more pluralistic model? What evidence do you have to support this?
Audiences have become more active, in the sense that they can put forward their views on Facebook statuses, through tweets. There is more customer choice, as there are so many social networking sites; it’s just that Facebook is the monopoly at the moment. There is a form of pluralistic model, people can join small groups of these sites to show their interests.
7)What concerns/ considerations are there (if any) for media institutions involved in your case study as a result of the impact of new and digital media?
The biggest problem is censorship and regulation of their websites.
“Interesting news from the world of Internet bean counters: Facebook’s growth last month stalled to virtually nothing – at least here in the US. And a number of people are pointing to the social network’s seemingly endless series of privacy and security gaffes as the culprits.”
http://www.itworld.com/internet/113310/are-privacy-problems-killing-facebook?page=0%2C0
Security is a problem with all of these networking sites.
8)What are the political and social implications of the new technologies and the methods of their consumption?
Politically people have become a bit freer, as they can put across their point of view. Socially some say that people have become isolated as they now connect via the web whereas before they would meet face to face.
9)Consider the effects so far, and possible effects in the future, on media institutions involved in your case study?
Facebook may have to somehow make their website stricter to enable younger children not signing up to it.
Skype will take over phone calls, and make people lose money.
Msn Messenger will die out.
Twitter will get immense.
Explain why you have chosen this topic and why you think it will be rich to study this are: I have chosen this topic because with the introduction of the revolutionary web, many aspects of our everyday lives has changed. We now communicate via the web, resulting in a isolated nation, where we connect with the world.
Media texts/products that will become your primary sources: Facebook, Twitter, MSN Messenger and Skype.
1. Has new digital media had an impact upon ownership and control of the media institution(s) involved in your case study? Explain in detail any impact and what
exactly has changed.
Facebook:
Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 whilst he was studying at Harvard. Facebook has over 1,700 employees and offices in 12 countries.
Regarding Facebook ownership, Mark Zuckerberg owns 24% of the company, Accel Partners owns 10%, Digital Sky Technologies owns 10%, Dustin Moskovitz owns 6%, Eduardo Saverin owns 5%, Sean Parker owns 4%, Peter Thiel owns 3%, Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners own between 1 to 2% each, Microsoft owns 1.3%, Li Ka-shing owns 0.75%, the Interpublic Group owns less than 0.5%, a small group of current and former employees and celebrities own less than 1% each, including Matt Cohler, Jeff Rothschild, Adam D'Angelo, Chris Hughes, and Owen Van Natta, while Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus have sizable holdings of the company, and the remaining 30% or so are owned by employees, an undisclosed number of celebrities, and outside investors.
Most of their revenue comes from advertising as they don’t charge their customers.
Twitter:
As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of capital funding by the venture capitalists who backed the company. Williams took over the role of CEO, and Dorsey became chairman of the board. On October 4, 2010, Williams announced that he was stepping down as CEO. Dick Costolo, formerly Twitter's chief operating officer, became CEO.
MSN Messenger:
MSN Messenger was created in 1999 on web 1.0 and since then it has revived several of times to keep up with the rapidly changing technology. Each year a new version comes out, about 5 versions have been released. It’s owned by Microsoft which is one of the largest companies in the world.
Skype:
Apparently an eBay company.
2.What impact has there been on the way in which the audience now consume the media products/texts involved in your case study? How does it differ from what went before? Consider SHEP
People have now become so dependent on social networking sites. As everyone is ‘so’ busy these days people find it easier and more appropriate to contact others via networking sites as they don’t have time to go out and meet them face to face.
“ Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber- reality is a poor imitation of the real world” Sherry Turkle
“ MySpace has been sucked into its own black hole recently, cutting 500 employees and admitting that they’re no longer battling binary codes with Facebook” The online Sub- Life (Guardian)
websites can be accessed anywhere anytime, on new smart phones, laptops, computers etc. This makes it easier for people to access these websites and making them more dependent on these specific meeting sites. Skype calls can be made on the phone and are free, they also include video calls which allow users to meet face to face but not actually face to face. Before people used to go out meet with one another, but now at the comfort of their own home they can reach a wide audience.
“Traditional courtship has been negatively impacted via online dating by removing the element of conversation”
3. What impact has there been on how the media institution now has to produce the texts and the way in which the texts/products are distributed and exhibited? This should involve a detailed textual analysis of at least 3 texts to demonstrate the point
Facebook now has to be accessed through phones as well due to change in technology and rise in demand as well as Skype, MSN messenger and Twitter.
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/Facebook_and_Twitter_Access_via_Mobile_Browser_Grows_by_Triple-Digits
“30.8 percent of smart phone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010”
“In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112 percent from the previous year”
“MySpace attracted 11.4 million users”
“Twitter, which has experienced tremendous growth in both mobile and PC-based visitation, attracted 4.7 million mobile users in January, up 347 percent versus year ago”.
With free signing up, all of the sites have to compete with this and try not to charge customers for using their websites.
4. Is the size of the audience any different now than before the impact of new and digital media (or has the pattern of usage changed)?
Facebook has announced 400mm users, Feb 5, 2010.
Twitter themselves finally publish numbers indicating there are 50mm tweets created each day. ”Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second. (Yes, we have TPS reports.)”
Oct 21, 2009 - Skype’s registered users grew 41 percent to 521 million people. That’s a stunning 40 million new registered users in the past three months. Revenues grew 29 percent to $185 million
5. Who are the primary target audience now and has this changed? Who was it before and how to you know?
Facebook:
Current: 13-40
Originally: 18-25
How do you know? The site was set up to communicate with students from other universities, but the age restriction has become 13+ with parental permission.
Twitter:
Current: Mostly celebrities
Originally: Ordinary people
How do you know? Twitter was set up in order for people to communicate in groups, quickly and easier. However these days’ people use twitter to follow celebrities and see what is new with them.
MSN Messenger:
Current: 11-21
Originally: 16-24
How do you know? The age limit to owning a msn account used to be 16+ but now it’s 13+. With the introduction of Facebook, older people prefer it less to use msn messenger.
Skype
Current: 13+
Originally: 16-35
How do you know? Just cause.
6)How have the audience responded to the change? Is there more customer choice? Is there evidence of a more pluralistic model? What evidence do you have to support this?
Audiences have become more active, in the sense that they can put forward their views on Facebook statuses, through tweets. There is more customer choice, as there are so many social networking sites; it’s just that Facebook is the monopoly at the moment. There is a form of pluralistic model, people can join small groups of these sites to show their interests.
7)What concerns/ considerations are there (if any) for media institutions involved in your case study as a result of the impact of new and digital media?
The biggest problem is censorship and regulation of their websites.
“Interesting news from the world of Internet bean counters: Facebook’s growth last month stalled to virtually nothing – at least here in the US. And a number of people are pointing to the social network’s seemingly endless series of privacy and security gaffes as the culprits.”
http://www.itworld.com/internet/113310/are-privacy-problems-killing-facebook?page=0%2C0
Security is a problem with all of these networking sites.
8)What are the political and social implications of the new technologies and the methods of their consumption?
Politically people have become a bit freer, as they can put across their point of view. Socially some say that people have become isolated as they now connect via the web whereas before they would meet face to face.
9)Consider the effects so far, and possible effects in the future, on media institutions involved in your case study?
Facebook may have to somehow make their website stricter to enable younger children not signing up to it.
Skype will take over phone calls, and make people lose money.
Msn Messenger will die out.
Twitter will get immense.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Linked Articles
Media Magazine
Examples:
• Rodney King, and African- American man, caught on tape being battered 4 police men. The footage made it on to prime time news, and the explicit nature of the video raised fury among viewers which then resulted in six days of riots. The video is still available on YouTube.
• News organisations now include formats where people can join chat rooms, ask questions on Q&A’s, comment on blogs etc.
• Bebo, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook.
• Wikipedia news and Google news.
• Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was caught on camera by many accidental journalists, and when people were searching for lost ones, they turned to social networking sites to spread the message.
• London bombings – first hand footage of it was seen to be more emotive and hard hitting.
• 23 year old, Seung- Hui Cho, an undergraduate from America, sent videos before his killings to the NBC news. Also during the massacre, many other people pulled out their gadgets to record it.
• Twitter and Flickr were the centre of attention when the Mumbai bombings took place in November 2008.
Theories:
Before audiences were passive, they took in what they were given and didn’t question what they saw. Now with the power to exploit whatever you want, many people have become active, they are actively taking part in the media.
Benefits to institutions:
Many big news firms can make the most of UGC to attract more audiences, make their news seem more real and raw.
Benefits to Audiences:
Audiences are able to respond to information they get, create their own content and play an active part.
a. What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
Someone who witnesses and captures events that take place in the moment and expose the news to others via the media.
b. What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
Footage of Rodney King being beaten up by the police.
c. List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
Q&A’s, emails, forums.
d. What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
UGC is more real, in the moment, raw, whereas professionally shot footage is more mediated.
e. What is a gatekeeper?
A gate keeper is someone who decides what is and isn’t worth ‘news value’.
f. How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
Now the audiences make their own news, they are in control of what is in the media and is not.
g. What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
Citizen Journalists.
• Rodney King, and African- American man, caught on tape being battered 4 police men. The footage made it on to prime time news, and the explicit nature of the video raised fury among viewers which then resulted in six days of riots. The video is still available on YouTube.
• News organisations now include formats where people can join chat rooms, ask questions on Q&A’s, comment on blogs etc.
• Bebo, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook.
• Wikipedia news and Google news.
• Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was caught on camera by many accidental journalists, and when people were searching for lost ones, they turned to social networking sites to spread the message.
• London bombings – first hand footage of it was seen to be more emotive and hard hitting.
• 23 year old, Seung- Hui Cho, an undergraduate from America, sent videos before his killings to the NBC news. Also during the massacre, many other people pulled out their gadgets to record it.
• Twitter and Flickr were the centre of attention when the Mumbai bombings took place in November 2008.
Theories:
Before audiences were passive, they took in what they were given and didn’t question what they saw. Now with the power to exploit whatever you want, many people have become active, they are actively taking part in the media.
Benefits to institutions:
Many big news firms can make the most of UGC to attract more audiences, make their news seem more real and raw.
Benefits to Audiences:
Audiences are able to respond to information they get, create their own content and play an active part.
a. What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
Someone who witnesses and captures events that take place in the moment and expose the news to others via the media.
b. What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
Footage of Rodney King being beaten up by the police.
c. List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
Q&A’s, emails, forums.
d. What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
UGC is more real, in the moment, raw, whereas professionally shot footage is more mediated.
e. What is a gatekeeper?
A gate keeper is someone who decides what is and isn’t worth ‘news value’.
f. How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
Now the audiences make their own news, they are in control of what is in the media and is not.
g. What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
Citizen Journalists.
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