New Media has given a platform for people to enrich democracy through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Blogs. It allows a new kind of public sphere as people are now 'expected' to have a say. There is now a plurality of voices and new media is now communicated from various platforms and people, making our media 'many-to-many' as opposed to 'one-to-many'. There are many theorists such as Michael Wesch, Henry Jenkins and David Gauntlett who provide a utopian view that believe new media has in fact enriched democracy. But has it really given us so called 'normal' citizens a more democratic set of tools?
Habermas believes that democracy depends on a public which is informed, aware and which issues the debates of today. He doesn't think that new media has enriched democracy as he believes that the mass media and globalisation has reduced the effectiveness of the public sphere and there is now a reduction in plurality of voices due to this.
However, some say democracy is stronger today. The arrival of Web 2.0 has strengthened the public sphere. Before sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which were formed around 2005, the public sphere was said to be weaker, this was because of the mass media such as newspapers, radio and TV, who were the "Media-Gods" according to David Gauntlett. The so called "Media-Gods" used to feed us their information which we often took without realising some news corporations may be biased. We were only hearing 'one' voice which created a lack of plurality. we weren't aware of debating to such extent as we do today as we were distracted and trained as consumers so we wouldn't question what we were seeing. Also, in the past the "Media-Gods" would only select a few topics to inform the world about and set a news agenda usually reinforcing hegemonic values. It is only recently that we have been provided with the 'bigger' picture.
Nowadays, things are different. Citizen journalism - a collection of news and analysis by the public in the forms of mobile phones, blogs etc. - has become an alternative source of gaining knowledge and news. It is easier to load your Twitter feed than to access the BBC site through your mobile. An example of this is 'My Tram Experience' - an amateur shot video by a woman on the tram secretly filming a middle aged white woman being racist towards other passengers of different ethnicity while she held her young child in her lap. This video was shot on a mobile phone by a passenger who happened to be travelling on a tram for the first time. She uploaded the video onto YouTube and within hours the video had been viewed and shared onto Facebook and Twitter thousands of times. The question is would we have been able to witness the racist woman on public transport had there not been YouTube and a convergent device? No, because of the rise of Web 2.0, we are now providing the news through new media as it allows us to post what and when we want. John Hartley now describes media as 'many-to-many' as opposed to 'one-to-many'. We are now promoting democracy through new media as we can now have a say and provide real debate with easy access. The woman from the video was arrested and charged for her actions. This would not have been possible in the past as an amateur video would not have been able to gain such publicity. It is now evident that the online world is now 'part' of the world and has a 'role'. However, although it can be argued that we are now providing the news, it has to be mentioned that the power of mass media is still there as news corporations such as The Sun posted the video onto their website which gained the attention of readers who could not access Twitter and Facebook.
New media has certainly enabled democracy as many campaigns and petitions are being held online. This shows how new media has enriched democracy as this wouldn't have been able to have happened before, as people would have to go round with a clipboard asking people to physically sign their petition which would only ever work on a small scale. New media allows us to petition worldwide through the click of a button. A recent video names 'Kony 2012' is cyber activism at its finest. 'Kony 2012' has received over 90 million views on YouTube in the space of just over a week. The video is about Joseph Kony's army in Uganda which is abducting and raping children and the video shows how we can actively help to 'Stop Kony'. The is evident of new media enriching democracy as the petition has now reached millions of signatures with the ease of clicking a button. However, is our democracy really there? It can be argued that one click on our mouse won't do anything to help the situation. The campaign has been referred to as 'slacktivism' by dystopian Morozov. The word is a combination of 'slacker' and 'activism' which describes how people feel like they have been helping by sharing the video when in reality they haven't done much. So is our democracy really there? Clay Shirky certainly seemed to think so as he publicly tweeted at the time saying 'I'm just going to put this here, so it's time-stamped: I bet they catch Kony in the next three months. Will follow up either way.'. So who's view is the correct one, Morozov's dystopian view or Shirky's utopian view? However, since the release of the video there has been a numerous amount of articles claiming that the charity organisation who produced 'Kony 2012' aren't in fact as amazing as they make out to be. The video is said to miss out key points and some argue that the video is a sign of propaganda. This shows that although we do have the option to post and debate whatever we want, the quality of information may be poor as we aren't verified news corporations.
It is certainly evident that New media has enriched democracy as before there was no such thing as citizen journalism and YouTube. Also, new relationships have been formed between new media and mainstream media which show that the mainstream media still have the major power, but utopian thinkers may argue that it is slowly coming down to us. It is obvious that new media has become more democratic as web 3.0, which Morozov describes as 'nastier than its predecessors' is said to be bringing about surveillance as governments may see the rise of democracy as a threat.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Monday, 21 May 2012
"For media audiences, the internet has changed everything." Discuss
"For media audiences, the internet has changed everything." Discuss
Media has changed the industry vastly. It is now a global network in which new information and media texts can be shared, emailed, 'liked' on facebook and followed on twitter. It is a powerful tool, but is this change necessarily a good thing?
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Monday, 30 April 2012
Henry Jenkins
1. What are Henry Jenkins’ ideas about how the media landscape is changing?
Jenkins states that there is definitely a transition where an old media system is dying and a new media system is being born. An era where spectatorial culture is giving way to participatory culture. Where a society based on a small number of companies controlling the story telling apparatus giving way to a much more complex media scape where average citizens have the ability to seize control of the media system
2. What is ‘convergence culture’?
3. How are Jenkins’ ideas similar to those of David Gauntlett and Michael Wesch?
4. How might we disagree with Jenkins’ utopian ideas about the media?
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Online Age
1. According to this video, what was the music industry like in the 90s and how has it changed more recently?
Mass drivers such as music channels (MTV) and radio were powerful and more and more artists were being signed. Now there are more and more artists coming up, however it does mean that independent labels can't compete with the mainstream labels. There is now a bigger connection across music. It enables artists to do their own thing as they don't necessarily have to follow what everyone wants to hear as there is such a vast amount of artists out there. However it is often that only the artists who are signed to the big labels will get mass publicity.
Mass drivers such as music channels (MTV) and radio were powerful and more and more artists were being signed. Now there are more and more artists coming up, however it does mean that independent labels can't compete with the mainstream labels. There is now a bigger connection across music. It enables artists to do their own thing as they don't necessarily have to follow what everyone wants to hear as there is such a vast amount of artists out there. However it is often that only the artists who are signed to the big labels will get mass publicity.
2. What are curators (such as Pitchfork and Hypemachine)? What is their role? Why are they important?
Curators such as Pitchfork and Hypemachine are music reviewing tools for customers for them to differentiate between the so called 'good' and 'bad' music. It also gives music and artist news with commentaries too. Pitchfork Media particularly focusses on independent and underground music, mainly from the indie-rock genre. The Hype Machine is an MP3 blog aggregator which allows people to listen and find music that their friends are listening to and more importantly people who aren't their friends so they get a wider spectrum of what to listen to.
3. How can you link what this video says about creativity (in video-making, in particular) to David Gauntlett's ideas and to the theory of the long tail?
Due to the rise in technology, artists are now able to create more original and creative products which could lead to a new type of audience which isn't the mainstream. Although these fan bases may not be of a large scale, these small fan bases show that due to the increase in music production it is now evident that niche audiences can be formed due to this.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Audience 1B
The project which I am going to be referring to my advanced portfolio where my group and I created a music video for the song 'I'm 17 - Rizzle Kicks', a digipak and a magazine advert. After researching our artist, we found that 'Rizzle Kicks' appealed to a number of teens varying from the ages between 15-19. As our artist was quite unheard of during our course, our audience consisted of fans, mainly who were in further education with an urban background. However, as the instrumental of the song 'I'm 17' was the same as Arctic Monkey's song 'Old Yellow Bricks' we had another type of audience which was fans of the indie and rock genre with a larger age range from 14-25. Due to this we were able to experiment and vary what we could feature in the video because our audience was somewhat diverse.
Our research consisted of looking into similar products to our artist. As our artist was a hybrid between pop/indie and rap it was difficult to find many artists who were similar. The closest artist we could find to ours was The Streets, Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32. All of these artists had elements of rap and singing in their songs much like Rizzle Kicks. As Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32 are also fairly new to the mainstream side of music, it was helpful to look for similar products as both of those artists had just been releasing their first studio albums. This meant that we could watch videos of their upcoming singles to gain knowledge of what their fans like. It was also convenient for us that both artists were also promoting the release of their album through newspapers.
According to Andrew Goodwin's theory, music videos should represent a connection between the lyrics and the visuals. This was evident in Wretch 32's video 'Don't Go' - a song about a girl leaving her boyfriend - as the girl is walking away from her boyfriend. We decided to think of certain scenarios which replicated our lyrics to fit in with Goodwin's theory. Also, from watching Wretch 32's 'Don't Go' we found that another feature that many artists include in their videos is themselves performing into the camera be it via rap, singing or dancing.
The Uses and Gratification approach can be applied to our media product as we feel that our audience was an active one as our audience may take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. In reference to our music video, our audience will be able to relate to our video 'I'm 17' where our artist is taking part in activities you'd stereotypically associate with a 17 year old or anyone around that age. Our audience may watch the video and replicate some of the things that they have come across in the video rather than being passive. McQuail would see this as a 'personal identity' being created from our video as it portrays our artist and his fans in this way.
However, as our video may not necessarily portray positive scenes to our audience, we decided to add in humour and make the so called negative into a positive. Our target audience were happy with what was shown and weren't shocked by the under age drinking that was included as nearly everyone in our audience can relate to it. Older audiences may be disturbed claiming that it may encourage under age drinking isn't an issue as we believe that as we have shown things in a humoured way which emphasises how it isn't real.
Our final media product was aimed at 15-19 year olds who were in or going into further education. We feel that we have portrayed our artist in a comedic and light hearted way to boost his music career as it is our artist's breakthrough single. We also feel that we have shown stereotypes of our audience age range precisely to some extent as our general feedback was positive.
Our research consisted of looking into similar products to our artist. As our artist was a hybrid between pop/indie and rap it was difficult to find many artists who were similar. The closest artist we could find to ours was The Streets, Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32. All of these artists had elements of rap and singing in their songs much like Rizzle Kicks. As Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32 are also fairly new to the mainstream side of music, it was helpful to look for similar products as both of those artists had just been releasing their first studio albums. This meant that we could watch videos of their upcoming singles to gain knowledge of what their fans like. It was also convenient for us that both artists were also promoting the release of their album through newspapers.
According to Andrew Goodwin's theory, music videos should represent a connection between the lyrics and the visuals. This was evident in Wretch 32's video 'Don't Go' - a song about a girl leaving her boyfriend - as the girl is walking away from her boyfriend. We decided to think of certain scenarios which replicated our lyrics to fit in with Goodwin's theory. Also, from watching Wretch 32's 'Don't Go' we found that another feature that many artists include in their videos is themselves performing into the camera be it via rap, singing or dancing.
The Uses and Gratification approach can be applied to our media product as we feel that our audience was an active one as our audience may take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. In reference to our music video, our audience will be able to relate to our video 'I'm 17' where our artist is taking part in activities you'd stereotypically associate with a 17 year old or anyone around that age. Our audience may watch the video and replicate some of the things that they have come across in the video rather than being passive. McQuail would see this as a 'personal identity' being created from our video as it portrays our artist and his fans in this way.
However, as our video may not necessarily portray positive scenes to our audience, we decided to add in humour and make the so called negative into a positive. Our target audience were happy with what was shown and weren't shocked by the under age drinking that was included as nearly everyone in our audience can relate to it. Older audiences may be disturbed claiming that it may encourage under age drinking isn't an issue as we believe that as we have shown things in a humoured way which emphasises how it isn't real.
Our final media product was aimed at 15-19 year olds who were in or going into further education. We feel that we have portrayed our artist in a comedic and light hearted way to boost his music career as it is our artist's breakthrough single. We also feel that we have shown stereotypes of our audience age range precisely to some extent as our general feedback was positive.
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
I will discuss how my skills in using digital technology contributed to my creative decision making from my foundation portfolio, where we created a two minute thriller film opening and our advanced portfolio where we created a music video of our choice.
Final Cut Express was the main programme that we used to aid us in our foundation and advanced portfolio. The programme allowed us to edit, cut, slow down, speed up and much more to our footage. At first, we had slight difficulties in getting to grips with the programme as we had never used Macs before but after a variety of filming tasks, our experience with the software was slowly increasing. In reference to our foundation portfolio, final cut express helped us to switch around the colour schemes in designated shots. This helped us vastly for our film opening as in doing so, we were able to create a dark and gloomy atmosphere which reflected our sub genre which was a psychological thriller.
Inevitably we were much more confident in using Final Cut Express during our advanced portfolio. This helped us to create out music video as we were exploiting some of the more complex and professional tools that Final Cut was offering. For instance, we created a blur effect which emphasised how drunk the artist was in our video. We did this by overlapping the chosen scene with the same one and starting it by half a second later. We found that this created an effective approach in making our artist look like he was walking while he was drunk as the camera was slightly jerky and was aided by the blur effect which we included.
In our advanced portfolio we also had to complete the ancillary tasks. For this task we had to create a digipak and a magazine advert. We evaluated all of the options to us and concluded that Adobe Photoshop would be the most appropriate programme to use in order to maintain a 'professional' look. We all know how complicated and frustrating Photoshop can be at times but we still decided to go with it. We used online tutorials to guide us in the right direction on how to apply affects and use certain tools. One particular tutorial we watched was explaining how to give your specified image a 'spotlight effect' where it looks as if a shining bright light is shining onto our image (our artist) to emphasise its importance.
Although we still had troubles in using the software in our advanced portfolio it was still a vast improvement from how we used the programme during our foundation portfolio. In our foundation portfolio we decided to use Photoshop to create our film poster to go with our film opening. We took a movie still from our thriller opening and pasted it into Photoshop, there we edited it to give it a more sinister and darker feel to it to put across our sub genre. We did this by making the object in the image brighter and the background darker as we felt that this looked more professional.
Another form of technology that we used was our cameras. We shot both our foundation and advanced portfolio in high-definition. We felt that the cameras helped us as they were easy to use, clear in quality in picking up footage and sound. We felt that these cameras that we used were appropriate as opposed to non-HD cameras as most films are now shot in HD and it also gives us a crisper and more professional look to our foundation and advanced portfolios.
Web 2.0 was integral in our course in decision making, as it allowed us to promote and gain feedback from our peers in large numbers. We found that asking people to watch our video wasn't enough, and decided to post our videos to a numerous amount of social networking sites through YouTube in order to gain feedback and publicity. For our advanced portfolio, we regularly uploaded our music video to YouTube a numerous amount of times as a work in progress to easily post through sites such as Twitter and Facebook in order to receive feedback to make our final product even better. However, during our foundation portfolio it has to be said that we didn't utilise our possession of Web 2.0 as we weren't fully aware of it's capabilities and heavily relied on questionnaires and small scale feedback from close peers.
Overall, my group and I feel that our experience in using digital technology has vastly improved in making creative decisions as we all feel that our advanced portfolio is better than our foundation portfolio simply due to our experience and knowledge of how to utilise the programmes that we were able to use.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Peer Assessment for Yasmin's Essay
Good Points:
- Yasmin uses all the main and relevant theorists with examples relating to her final product.
- Her research and planning section has been explained in a detailed format making it easy to understand.
- All of her points have been mentioned in depth and also explained too.
- Good use of terminology - referred to theorists' main ideas and explained them too.
- Identified her problems that she faced during the process.
- Used a numerous amount of examples, referring to other music videos and where their inspiration came from.
- Explained how they went against stereotypes.
Improvements:
- There is a lot of information and it may be unrealistic to write this much in the real exam due to time constraints (I don't know if Yasmin completed this essay in timed conditions or not!)
- Maybe you could be more critical of your own work instead of praising it all the time!
Pretty amazing to be honest. Level 4.
- Yasmin uses all the main and relevant theorists with examples relating to her final product.
- Her research and planning section has been explained in a detailed format making it easy to understand.
- All of her points have been mentioned in depth and also explained too.
- Good use of terminology - referred to theorists' main ideas and explained them too.
- Identified her problems that she faced during the process.
- Used a numerous amount of examples, referring to other music videos and where their inspiration came from.
- Explained how they went against stereotypes.
Improvements:
- There is a lot of information and it may be unrealistic to write this much in the real exam due to time constraints (I don't know if Yasmin completed this essay in timed conditions or not!)
- Maybe you could be more critical of your own work instead of praising it all the time!
Pretty amazing to be honest. Level 4.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Discuss how you used genre in one of your products.
The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my Foundation portfolio where we had to create a two minute thriller film opening.
The genre of our opening was obviously 'thriller' and this allowed us to be creative with our narrative as there are a variety of sub-genres for thrillers, varying from mystery to psychological. Our thriller was a combination of a revenge and psychological.
For our research we decided to watch a numerous amount of thriller openings which had an apparent theme of revenge and psychology. We thought this was important as genre is a contract between producers and audience which 'disciplines' choices and 'reduces desires'. We thought that this was an important part of our research as our target audience preferred sub genres to contain the common clichés we see in modern film.
Steve Neale said that genre is to do with a circulation of expectations between industries, media texts and audiences. According to his theory, our thriller would have to feature generic or stereotypical characters and settings for our thriller opening to succeed. This is shown in our dark shots where the torture scene is happening. We found that from the existing thriller openings we had researched, we found that they were shot in the dark with minimal lighting. We replicated this by having our torture scene shot in the dark with minimal lighting in to make it look slightly frightening and mysterious.
We decided to use parallel editing to make our opening look fast paced by switching between the two story lines taking place. Although this concept was already common in some movies, we hadn't come across it in our research and our idea arised from watching thriller openings which featured 'flashback' editing.
However our thriller opening didn't feature the full conventions of a thriller opening as in one of our storylines from our parallel editing a man is walking in daylight. This may not be a generic convention of a psychological thriller as you'd most likely expect a man walking in the rain, in New York. However, because our character is walking in the daylight with apparently no danger around him, it creates an enigma code. Roland Barthes' enigma code generates and controls what and how much we know in a narrative and holds our interest. It's a puzzle waiting to be solved. In accordance to our opening, a certain element of mystery was raised, why was he captured? What did he do? Will he survive? We feel that we created an enigma code in our opening successfully as the feedback we got was generally good and a lot of questions were asked along the lines of 'what is going to happen next?'.
Genre is a contract between the producers and audiences which 'disciplines' choices and reduces desires. We felt that our opening displays and portrays our genre clearly as we have used generic conventions from our research. However, if we were to do this task again, we would spend more time in finding a more dark and gloomy location to make our thriller even more frightening.
The genre of our opening was obviously 'thriller' and this allowed us to be creative with our narrative as there are a variety of sub-genres for thrillers, varying from mystery to psychological. Our thriller was a combination of a revenge and psychological.
For our research we decided to watch a numerous amount of thriller openings which had an apparent theme of revenge and psychology. We thought this was important as genre is a contract between producers and audience which 'disciplines' choices and 'reduces desires'. We thought that this was an important part of our research as our target audience preferred sub genres to contain the common clichés we see in modern film.
Steve Neale said that genre is to do with a circulation of expectations between industries, media texts and audiences. According to his theory, our thriller would have to feature generic or stereotypical characters and settings for our thriller opening to succeed. This is shown in our dark shots where the torture scene is happening. We found that from the existing thriller openings we had researched, we found that they were shot in the dark with minimal lighting. We replicated this by having our torture scene shot in the dark with minimal lighting in to make it look slightly frightening and mysterious.
We decided to use parallel editing to make our opening look fast paced by switching between the two story lines taking place. Although this concept was already common in some movies, we hadn't come across it in our research and our idea arised from watching thriller openings which featured 'flashback' editing.
However our thriller opening didn't feature the full conventions of a thriller opening as in one of our storylines from our parallel editing a man is walking in daylight. This may not be a generic convention of a psychological thriller as you'd most likely expect a man walking in the rain, in New York. However, because our character is walking in the daylight with apparently no danger around him, it creates an enigma code. Roland Barthes' enigma code generates and controls what and how much we know in a narrative and holds our interest. It's a puzzle waiting to be solved. In accordance to our opening, a certain element of mystery was raised, why was he captured? What did he do? Will he survive? We feel that we created an enigma code in our opening successfully as the feedback we got was generally good and a lot of questions were asked along the lines of 'what is going to happen next?'.
Genre is a contract between the producers and audiences which 'disciplines' choices and reduces desires. We felt that our opening displays and portrays our genre clearly as we have used generic conventions from our research. However, if we were to do this task again, we would spend more time in finding a more dark and gloomy location to make our thriller even more frightening.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
‘Media text rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives’ Explain how you used conventional or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.
I am going to discuss how my advanced portfolio portrayed our use of conventional and experimental devices. Our advanced portfolio was the music video cover of Rizzle Kicks - I'm 17.
Myself, Matthew and Josh began our research process by watching a variety of videos from the song's genre. As the song itself didn't have an original video, we decided to research into songs which was aimed at similar audiences to ours. As our chosen song's genre was a mixture of Indie mixed with Rap and Pop we found it challenging to find a huge amount of similar media as this genre mixed into one was fairly recent. We searched artists that were signed to Rizzle Kicks' record label in an attempt to find similar artists and were successful in doing so. This gave us an idea of how to film our music video and which conventions we needed to use. Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32 were a select few of the artists that we found who could be related to our artist. We also did various analysis of videos according to Andrew Goodwin's theory. From this we found that nearly all of modern videos now have a connection with the visuals and lyrics, which is a concept that Andrew Goodwin explains.
From this Matthew and myself decided to go through the lyrics in an attempt to come up with possible shots and ideas of a possible narrative to go with the lyrics of our song. The lyrics of our song were based around the lifestyle of a mature teenager varying from the ages of 15-21. Our song was about partying, under age drinking, having fun, and college life. As a result of this we decided to film scenes which featured the following, college life, partying, under age drinking and being mischievous to satisfy the typical stereotype of a 17 year old. This is evident in our final video as when Josh is performing the lyric 'when I walk into college with my headphones on..' we see our artist Josh wearing his headphones and walking into college. This bodes well with Andrew Goodwin's theory and how a key factor of a music video should have the lyrics match up to the visuals.
Our narrative in our video pleases the audience as our audience can relate to some of the scenes that are featured in our film. We piled out research into our target audience and into what they would like to see in a music video, and as we and our peers our in the perfect age range for our target audience this piece of research was invaluable. Many of our peers claimed that they would like to see a music video with quick editing as opposed to a slowly building one. Our scenes were cut to give our narrative that extra edge by being cut sooner, quicker and on the beat.
Our main character in the music video played by Josh or 'Iceburg' is used in our narrative to portray the teenage lifestyle that the average 17 year old goes through. Our narrative shows our artist drinking at a party partaking in a various amount of humorous shots ranging from a beer box over his head to him lying drunk. This shows our character being able to relate to some of our target audience as we found that people in our target audience's age range like to go out to drink and to come back drunk. Although this doesn't portray the most positive image to our artist, it does however give a sense of his character to us. We can infer that he likes to party and have fun according to our narrative shown in our music video.
From our advanced portfolio project it is evident how we used conventional forms of narrative in our music video as we followed some of Andrew Goodwin's points from his theory in the forms of matching the visuals to the lyrics. We also experimented in our narrative by portraying our character in a negative way by showing him drinking and being drunk, however, this view is challenged by the amount of 'fun' our character is having and our target audience as our research found that people in that age range can relate to these things.
Myself, Matthew and Josh began our research process by watching a variety of videos from the song's genre. As the song itself didn't have an original video, we decided to research into songs which was aimed at similar audiences to ours. As our chosen song's genre was a mixture of Indie mixed with Rap and Pop we found it challenging to find a huge amount of similar media as this genre mixed into one was fairly recent. We searched artists that were signed to Rizzle Kicks' record label in an attempt to find similar artists and were successful in doing so. This gave us an idea of how to film our music video and which conventions we needed to use. Ed Sheeran and Wretch 32 were a select few of the artists that we found who could be related to our artist. We also did various analysis of videos according to Andrew Goodwin's theory. From this we found that nearly all of modern videos now have a connection with the visuals and lyrics, which is a concept that Andrew Goodwin explains.
From this Matthew and myself decided to go through the lyrics in an attempt to come up with possible shots and ideas of a possible narrative to go with the lyrics of our song. The lyrics of our song were based around the lifestyle of a mature teenager varying from the ages of 15-21. Our song was about partying, under age drinking, having fun, and college life. As a result of this we decided to film scenes which featured the following, college life, partying, under age drinking and being mischievous to satisfy the typical stereotype of a 17 year old. This is evident in our final video as when Josh is performing the lyric 'when I walk into college with my headphones on..' we see our artist Josh wearing his headphones and walking into college. This bodes well with Andrew Goodwin's theory and how a key factor of a music video should have the lyrics match up to the visuals.
Our narrative in our video pleases the audience as our audience can relate to some of the scenes that are featured in our film. We piled out research into our target audience and into what they would like to see in a music video, and as we and our peers our in the perfect age range for our target audience this piece of research was invaluable. Many of our peers claimed that they would like to see a music video with quick editing as opposed to a slowly building one. Our scenes were cut to give our narrative that extra edge by being cut sooner, quicker and on the beat.
Our main character in the music video played by Josh or 'Iceburg' is used in our narrative to portray the teenage lifestyle that the average 17 year old goes through. Our narrative shows our artist drinking at a party partaking in a various amount of humorous shots ranging from a beer box over his head to him lying drunk. This shows our character being able to relate to some of our target audience as we found that people in our target audience's age range like to go out to drink and to come back drunk. Although this doesn't portray the most positive image to our artist, it does however give a sense of his character to us. We can infer that he likes to party and have fun according to our narrative shown in our music video.
From our advanced portfolio project it is evident how we used conventional forms of narrative in our music video as we followed some of Andrew Goodwin's points from his theory in the forms of matching the visuals to the lyrics. We also experimented in our narrative by portraying our character in a negative way by showing him drinking and being drunk, however, this view is challenged by the amount of 'fun' our character is having and our target audience as our research found that people in that age range can relate to these things.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Presentation notes: "Web 2.0 - Participation or Hegemony?"
- Intro and Basic Notes:
--> Web 2.0. has been described as a medium which allows audiences to become producers of media texts. It requires web-based software, such as blogs, which audiences can use to produce and share their own work.
--> Yet, it can be argued that 'Web 2.0.' often referred to as 'We Media' democratises the media as anyone with a web connection can create and publish texts, (user generated content); we no longer have to rely upon professional or traditional 'old' media.
--> Some critics believe this had led to 'dumbing down' and 'culture of amateur' because anyone - regardless of ability can create texts.
--> With research into 'YouTube' people found that nowadays most clips were uploaded by fans rather than the traditional media companies themselves. In addition, YouTube allows users to create their own channels and is currently plugging channels by Rihanna, Beyonce and Katy Perry. Clearly, these artists are using the site as a promotional vehicle.
--> Additionally, Jean Burgess and Joshua Green concluded that there are 2 'YouTube's', they say it's a space where these 2 categories (traditional media and home video) co-exist and collide, but do not fully converge.
--> What they suggest appears to be happening is that 'YouTube' is now used more frequently as a commercial network for promotional and catch-up purposes that runs alongside and often dominates original, trivial 'user generated content.'
--> They also explain that even though we become used to watching television programmes on computers, mobile phones or music players, we still experience it as television.
- Co-opting the amateur:
--> Graeme Turner argues, "Even when ordinary people become celebrities through their own creative efforts, there is no neccessary transfer of media power: they remain within the system of celebrity native to, and controlled by, the mass media."
--> Some say that without the help of traditional media Charlie McDonnell (Charlie is so cool like) cannot excercise 'celebrity power'; he is defined as a celebrity in the terms of traditional media only.
- Conclusions:
--> Instead, today we can easily produce texts ourselves even if we seem to be more interested in mimicking traditional media by becoming YouTube celebrities, or watching music videos and/or television programmes by our favourite artists.
(Me and Yasmin did our notes together in class)
Monday, 12 March 2012
Online TV
Eastenders E20
Online spin off show E20 is a modern take on Eastenders. It features characters who are of a considerably younger age than the usual characters that feature on the original Eastenders. There's been a lot of popularity on it which has now reached its third series. The show is set in Albert Square just like Eastenders but it follows the lives of teenagers. It first aired on the 8th January 2010 in the motive to develop and nurture new talent, including actors, writers, composers, to target a younger audience and to drive people onto the internet.
Each episode lasts between 3-16 minutes and is available now as an omnibus through the iPlayer, BBC3 and via the red button.
Santer conceived the idea of a "parallel universe show" with new characters, where the regular characters are in the background. Yorke sought to improve the portrayal of teenagers in EastEnders and to get younger people writing for it. The ideas came together and EastEnders: E20 was created in what Yorke described as "one of the quickest periods from idea to screen I've ever known." Regarding the decision to create an online drama, Yorke said, "People don't watch television at fixed times anymore, they use iPlayer [to] get it at their convenience and so it made sense to make a programme that [viewers] can specifically get at their convenience." The show's producer, Deborah Sathe, added, "Technology is changing and it's changing really quickly and I think it's really appropriate that the BBC is leading the way in offering online content." The first series was commissioned by multi-platform commissioning executive Rosie Allimonos.
Another incentive for the show was to get more people to use the Internet. Sathe stated that it was an opportunity for younger people to bring the older members of their families onto the internet, and Yorke hoped that it would bring people onto the internet who had not used it before. Simon Nelson, BBC Vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio, said that this was an opportunity for the BBC to develop its expertise in drama production by exploiting the creative potential of the Internet to create a new online drama where few have succeeded. EastEnders: E20 primarily operates as a standalone series but also cross-references storylines of the main soap. According to Santer, the series also explores the stories of the soap's anonymous bystanders. He said, "There are always other people [in EastEnders] milling round the market and houses that we never go into. There are four or five parallels you could do. It will be nice to see well-known characters through strangers' eyes. Ian Beale may show up and he is just a strange, irritating man. Or they might ask: 'Who is that moody girl in the market?' And it will be Stacey Slater."
The show started off with 1.7 million viewers, but by 19 February the episodes had 2.8 million with additional content pushing the total to 3.3 million views.
Online spin off show E20 is a modern take on Eastenders. It features characters who are of a considerably younger age than the usual characters that feature on the original Eastenders. There's been a lot of popularity on it which has now reached its third series. The show is set in Albert Square just like Eastenders but it follows the lives of teenagers. It first aired on the 8th January 2010 in the motive to develop and nurture new talent, including actors, writers, composers, to target a younger audience and to drive people onto the internet.
Each episode lasts between 3-16 minutes and is available now as an omnibus through the iPlayer, BBC3 and via the red button.
Santer conceived the idea of a "parallel universe show" with new characters, where the regular characters are in the background. Yorke sought to improve the portrayal of teenagers in EastEnders and to get younger people writing for it. The ideas came together and EastEnders: E20 was created in what Yorke described as "one of the quickest periods from idea to screen I've ever known." Regarding the decision to create an online drama, Yorke said, "People don't watch television at fixed times anymore, they use iPlayer [to] get it at their convenience and so it made sense to make a programme that [viewers] can specifically get at their convenience." The show's producer, Deborah Sathe, added, "Technology is changing and it's changing really quickly and I think it's really appropriate that the BBC is leading the way in offering online content." The first series was commissioned by multi-platform commissioning executive Rosie Allimonos.
Another incentive for the show was to get more people to use the Internet. Sathe stated that it was an opportunity for younger people to bring the older members of their families onto the internet, and Yorke hoped that it would bring people onto the internet who had not used it before. Simon Nelson, BBC Vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio, said that this was an opportunity for the BBC to develop its expertise in drama production by exploiting the creative potential of the Internet to create a new online drama where few have succeeded. EastEnders: E20 primarily operates as a standalone series but also cross-references storylines of the main soap. According to Santer, the series also explores the stories of the soap's anonymous bystanders. He said, "There are always other people [in EastEnders] milling round the market and houses that we never go into. There are four or five parallels you could do. It will be nice to see well-known characters through strangers' eyes. Ian Beale may show up and he is just a strange, irritating man. Or they might ask: 'Who is that moody girl in the market?' And it will be Stacey Slater."
The show started off with 1.7 million viewers, but by 19 February the episodes had 2.8 million with additional content pushing the total to 3.3 million views.
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer was launched on the 25th December 2007 after it had been on beta since October 2005. It offers all eight of BBC's channels to watch live from. You need to have a TV license to watch live from but you don't need to have a TV license to watch shows that have already been aired. As of May 2010 it was reaching up to 123 monthly and more recently of December 2011 it is reaching up to 187 million viewer requests. iPlayer has made their service available to a variety of platforms such as Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, the iPhone, Blackberries, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson phones. The BBC also have deals to embed with sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Delicious and Diggit. BBC iPlayer has changed viewing habits as people can now watch their favourite tv shows according to their own schedule. Due to the increase in popularity of the iPlayer it has encouraged other big channels such as ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to produce their own versions of the iPlayer respectively.
BBC iPlayer have made changes to their service over the years. They renewed it to iPlayer 2.0 and the changes that were made on it were from user feedback. They increased the screen size by 25%. iPlayer 3.0 changed as it made deals with Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
BBC iPlayer have made changes to their service over the years. They renewed it to iPlayer 2.0 and the changes that were made on it were from user feedback. They increased the screen size by 25%. iPlayer 3.0 changed as it made deals with Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
Saturday, 10 March 2012
Theorist Quotes
Ev Williams - "Gives everyone a voice"
"Online world is part of the world. It has a role."
Jillian York - "Don't get all techno-utopian. Twitter's great for spreading news, but this revolution happened offline." (talking about the Tunisian Revolution)
"Would this revolution have happened if there were no facebook and twitter? I think this is a key question to ask. If the answer is 'yes', then the contribution that the internet has made was minor; there is no way around it."
Clay Shirky - "No one claims social media makes people angry enough to act (but) it helps angry people coordinate their actions."
Twitter provides a "ring side" seat for another major news event.
Jillian York - "Was it really social media sparkling the revolution?!"
"Somebody had to show the outside world what was happening"
Clay Shirky - "A revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new tools; it happens when it adopts new behaviours."
"Online world is part of the world. It has a role."
Jillian York - "Don't get all techno-utopian. Twitter's great for spreading news, but this revolution happened offline." (talking about the Tunisian Revolution)
"Would this revolution have happened if there were no facebook and twitter? I think this is a key question to ask. If the answer is 'yes', then the contribution that the internet has made was minor; there is no way around it."
Clay Shirky - "No one claims social media makes people angry enough to act (but) it helps angry people coordinate their actions."
Twitter provides a "ring side" seat for another major news event.
Jillian York - "Was it really social media sparkling the revolution?!"
"Somebody had to show the outside world what was happening"
Clay Shirky - "A revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new tools; it happens when it adopts new behaviours."
Friday, 9 March 2012
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Twitter Now Available in Right-to-Left Languages
Thanks to the efforts of 13,000 volunteers worldwide, Twitter is now available in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu, according to a company blog post. Twitter had been working on translating and localizing these right-to-left languages since January 25.
These languages posed unique challenges for Twitter. To overcome technical barriers, Twitter’s engineering team had to build a new set of special tools to ensure that these tweets, hashtags and numbers would behave as their counterparts in left-to-right languages.
Not only that, but some of these languages are spoken — and therefore will be tweeted — in locations where Twitter is officially blocked.
Twitter was a recognizable force in the Arab Spring — but given that there wasn’t yet an Arabic interface, most of the users who tweeted from those regions did so in non-native languages.
And Twitter’s numerous volunteer translators for these right-to-left languages —from Lebanese teenagers to Egyptian college students to IT professionals in Iran and Pakistan, among others — live in these areas as well. “Their efforts speak volumes about the lengths that people will go to make Twitter accessible and understandable for their communities,” the company said in its blog post.
Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu join Thai as the only right-to-left languages in Twitter’s translation center. Their incorporation means the service is now available in 28 languages.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Homework 5/3/12
1. Sum up Michael Wesch's main points about the web (or YouTube in particular) in one paragraph.
Michael Wesch believes that web 2.0 is about linking people in a way that they have never been linked before through videos and social networking sites. People can now interact through videos on YouTube and send video replies and make videos go viral. Wesch also believes that the media mediates human relationships. Also, the ease of the web is now evident as everyone can become a producer on YouTube and produce their own videos with amateur material.
2. Write down your understanding of the following terms used by Wesch: 'networked individualism', 'the invisible audience phenomenon', 'context collapse', and 'connection without constraint'.
Networked individualism is when the more the individual the more we long for a community and that now there are new forms of communities through the rise of web 2.0 which helps create a self understanding. For example when we talk to ourselves on a webcam, we are creating a community with views with people we don't know.
Context collapse - Is never knowing when you are going to be filmed as most people now have a phone with a camera that can shoot and record and upload instantly to the web.
Invisible Audience - Is when the phenomenon of not knowing who and when your video is being watched online.
Connection without constraint -
3. On the whole, do you agree with Wesch's ideas? Why?
I agree with Michael Wesch as everything around us is now based according to the internet. It is now easier for anyone to use and publish on the internet through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and the list goes on. This not only promotes democracy but it also helps communities come together. I can relate to this as an Arsenal fan as there are numerous amounts of fan blogs where us fans come together and post news and jokes related to our common interest. It is now easier to communicate with people across the world not only through written forms but through videos and music.
4. How might Wesch's ideas be applied to the music industry (at at least, the production of music)?
As YouTube is now so easy to access and to be able to upload our own footage through the most adequate of materials, it can enable music artists to promote their music online cheaply for those who can't afford professional microphones and recording studios. People now can be found and signed through YouTube just from a random search. Also due to the rise of social media, small artists can now promote their music via their twitter or facebooks to gain popularity. This is easy and free to do and many big artists use social networking sites to promote their music to their fans.
Michael Wesch believes that web 2.0 is about linking people in a way that they have never been linked before through videos and social networking sites. People can now interact through videos on YouTube and send video replies and make videos go viral. Wesch also believes that the media mediates human relationships. Also, the ease of the web is now evident as everyone can become a producer on YouTube and produce their own videos with amateur material.
2. Write down your understanding of the following terms used by Wesch: 'networked individualism', 'the invisible audience phenomenon', 'context collapse', and 'connection without constraint'.
Networked individualism is when the more the individual the more we long for a community and that now there are new forms of communities through the rise of web 2.0 which helps create a self understanding. For example when we talk to ourselves on a webcam, we are creating a community with views with people we don't know.
Context collapse - Is never knowing when you are going to be filmed as most people now have a phone with a camera that can shoot and record and upload instantly to the web.
Invisible Audience - Is when the phenomenon of not knowing who and when your video is being watched online.
Connection without constraint -
3. On the whole, do you agree with Wesch's ideas? Why?
I agree with Michael Wesch as everything around us is now based according to the internet. It is now easier for anyone to use and publish on the internet through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and the list goes on. This not only promotes democracy but it also helps communities come together. I can relate to this as an Arsenal fan as there are numerous amounts of fan blogs where us fans come together and post news and jokes related to our common interest. It is now easier to communicate with people across the world not only through written forms but through videos and music.
4. How might Wesch's ideas be applied to the music industry (at at least, the production of music)?
As YouTube is now so easy to access and to be able to upload our own footage through the most adequate of materials, it can enable music artists to promote their music online cheaply for those who can't afford professional microphones and recording studios. People now can be found and signed through YouTube just from a random search. Also due to the rise of social media, small artists can now promote their music via their twitter or facebooks to gain popularity. This is easy and free to do and many big artists use social networking sites to promote their music to their fans.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
How might the influence of new media be said to strengthen or weaken the public sphere?
New Media has strengthened the public sphere by enabling people to upload and access footage, images and written accounts. This has been made easier as there is now a greater access to the internet and possession of mobile phones. These functions now strengthen the public sphere as people are now able to produce their own media quick and easy with what are seen as items which all people have in modern day society. This also promotes democracy as all people are now expected to have a say.
An example of this can be seen in the Syrian uprising as new media allowed the uprising to be viewed across the world simply by uploading footage from mobile phone devices and, in some cases, small cameras using 3G to upload. This helps to strengthen the public sphere because without new media we wouldn't have been as informed over the Syrian uprising as the Syrian government has banned journalists and also turned the internet connection in the across the majority of the country for a day. Without new media we wouldn't be informed as well as we are today and the news wouldn't be of as easy access as it is now due to citizen journalism and digital convergence in mobile phones which now have the capability to access news sites via apps on smartphones.
Another strength that we media provides to the public sphere is that is is highly accessible and cheap. With the internet and mobile phones becoming to cheap nowadays, it's making the access to new media easier for all kinds of people. This is apparent also in the Syrian uprising as the videos of protests were mainly shot on mobile phones which were then uploaded via 3G or an internet connection from a computer onto social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. This is also helped by convergent devices. All phones are now equipped with a camera and an internet connection with adequate speeds. This makes it easier for people all over to produce and upload their own footage to sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Apps are now promoting synergy as the leading app stores have come together with social networking sites to provide apps which make it easier to post status', pictures and videos, all helping us gain access to information quicker via new media. This strengthens the public sphere as we are provided with information through the ease of accessibility to new media. However, some may say that not all were informed with such knowledge as many won't have the technology to view content online due to not being able to afford an internet connection or view content from a mobile phone simply because they do not own one.
On the other hand, some may claim that there are downsides to the rise in new media. A reason for this can be the impact of anonymity. A specific example of this was when Tom Macmaster, an Edinburgh student pretended to be a young Arab lesbian blogger. This shows that anyone can create an online identity which doesn't reflect themselves. This may also be a problem if people pretend to be other people creating confusion amongst peers. This is seen as a problem as it is ethically wrong and can lead to consequences. This is evident in the Tom Macmaster case as there was an outrage from twitter and blogger uses as they didn't accept his apology for when he finally revealed his true identity. Although Tom was trying to promote a serious issue which may be seen as a good thing, many think he went about it in the wrong way. He apologised, however followers did not accept his apology.
Although there are positives and negatives of new media ranging from anonymity issues to the ease of access. The positives seem to outweigh the negative aspects as the news can now be posted by anyone making it easier and quicker for people to be informed of the latest knowledge, we now don't have to rely on the radio to have our say, we can have our say in a matter of seconds by typing in a tweet in your phone and sending it to the internet for the world to see instantly. This also promotes democracy as everyone is now expected to have a say and there is much more room for debate, online through social and new media.
An example of this can be seen in the Syrian uprising as new media allowed the uprising to be viewed across the world simply by uploading footage from mobile phone devices and, in some cases, small cameras using 3G to upload. This helps to strengthen the public sphere because without new media we wouldn't have been as informed over the Syrian uprising as the Syrian government has banned journalists and also turned the internet connection in the across the majority of the country for a day. Without new media we wouldn't be informed as well as we are today and the news wouldn't be of as easy access as it is now due to citizen journalism and digital convergence in mobile phones which now have the capability to access news sites via apps on smartphones.
Another strength that we media provides to the public sphere is that is is highly accessible and cheap. With the internet and mobile phones becoming to cheap nowadays, it's making the access to new media easier for all kinds of people. This is apparent also in the Syrian uprising as the videos of protests were mainly shot on mobile phones which were then uploaded via 3G or an internet connection from a computer onto social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. This is also helped by convergent devices. All phones are now equipped with a camera and an internet connection with adequate speeds. This makes it easier for people all over to produce and upload their own footage to sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Apps are now promoting synergy as the leading app stores have come together with social networking sites to provide apps which make it easier to post status', pictures and videos, all helping us gain access to information quicker via new media. This strengthens the public sphere as we are provided with information through the ease of accessibility to new media. However, some may say that not all were informed with such knowledge as many won't have the technology to view content online due to not being able to afford an internet connection or view content from a mobile phone simply because they do not own one.
On the other hand, some may claim that there are downsides to the rise in new media. A reason for this can be the impact of anonymity. A specific example of this was when Tom Macmaster, an Edinburgh student pretended to be a young Arab lesbian blogger. This shows that anyone can create an online identity which doesn't reflect themselves. This may also be a problem if people pretend to be other people creating confusion amongst peers. This is seen as a problem as it is ethically wrong and can lead to consequences. This is evident in the Tom Macmaster case as there was an outrage from twitter and blogger uses as they didn't accept his apology for when he finally revealed his true identity. Although Tom was trying to promote a serious issue which may be seen as a good thing, many think he went about it in the wrong way. He apologised, however followers did not accept his apology.
Although there are positives and negatives of new media ranging from anonymity issues to the ease of access. The positives seem to outweigh the negative aspects as the news can now be posted by anyone making it easier and quicker for people to be informed of the latest knowledge, we now don't have to rely on the radio to have our say, we can have our say in a matter of seconds by typing in a tweet in your phone and sending it to the internet for the world to see instantly. This also promotes democracy as everyone is now expected to have a say and there is much more room for debate, online through social and new media.
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Media Questions
Long Tail Theory:
Long Tail - The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a "normal" or Gaussian distribution. A long tail distortion will arise with the inclusion of some unusually high (or low) values which increase (decrease) the mean, skewing the distribution to the right (or left).
Anderson described the effects of the Long Tail on current and future business models beginning with a series of speeches in early 2004 and with the publication of a Wired magazine article in October 2004.
Anderson argues that products in low demand or that have a low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. Anderson cites earlier research by Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith, that showed that a significant portion of Amazon.com's sales come from obscure books that are not available in brick-and-mortar stores. The Long Tail is a potential market and, as the examples illustrate, the distribution and sales channel opportunities created by the Internet often enable businesses to tap that market successfully.
An Amazon employee described the Long Tail as follows: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday."
Anderson has explained the term as a reference to the tail of a demand curve. The term has since been rederived from an XY graph that is created when charting popularity to inventory. In the graph shown above, Amazon's book sales or Netflix's movie rentals would be represented along the vertical axis, while the book or movie ranks are along the horizontal axis. The total volume of low popularity items exceeds the volume of high popularity items.
Some of the most successful Internet businesses have used the Long Tail as part of their business strategy. Examples include eBay (auctions), Yahoo! and Google (web search),Amazon (retail), and iTunes Store (music and podcasts), amongst the major companies, along with smaller Internet companies like Audible (audio books) and Netflix (video rental).
In 2008, a sales analysis of an unnamed UK digital music service by economist Will Page and high-tech entrepreneur Andrew Bud found that sales exhibited a log-normal distribution rather than a power law; they reported that 80% of the music tracks available sold no copies at all over a one-year period. Anderson responded by stating that the study's findings are difficult to assess without access to its data.
Wikinomics:
Wikinomics - How mass collaboration changes everything
According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference. This can be incentivized by a reward system, though it is not required.
Long Tail - The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a "normal" or Gaussian distribution. A long tail distortion will arise with the inclusion of some unusually high (or low) values which increase (decrease) the mean, skewing the distribution to the right (or left).
Anderson described the effects of the Long Tail on current and future business models beginning with a series of speeches in early 2004 and with the publication of a Wired magazine article in October 2004.
Anderson argues that products in low demand or that have a low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. Anderson cites earlier research by Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith, that showed that a significant portion of Amazon.com's sales come from obscure books that are not available in brick-and-mortar stores. The Long Tail is a potential market and, as the examples illustrate, the distribution and sales channel opportunities created by the Internet often enable businesses to tap that market successfully.
An Amazon employee described the Long Tail as follows: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday."
Anderson has explained the term as a reference to the tail of a demand curve. The term has since been rederived from an XY graph that is created when charting popularity to inventory. In the graph shown above, Amazon's book sales or Netflix's movie rentals would be represented along the vertical axis, while the book or movie ranks are along the horizontal axis. The total volume of low popularity items exceeds the volume of high popularity items.
Some of the most successful Internet businesses have used the Long Tail as part of their business strategy. Examples include eBay (auctions), Yahoo! and Google (web search),Amazon (retail), and iTunes Store (music and podcasts), amongst the major companies, along with smaller Internet companies like Audible (audio books) and Netflix (video rental).
In 2008, a sales analysis of an unnamed UK digital music service by economist Will Page and high-tech entrepreneur Andrew Bud found that sales exhibited a log-normal distribution rather than a power law; they reported that 80% of the music tracks available sold no copies at all over a one-year period. Anderson responded by stating that the study's findings are difficult to assess without access to its data.
Wikinomics:
Wikinomics - How mass collaboration changes everything
According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference. This can be incentivized by a reward system, though it is not required.
Monday, 6 February 2012
David Gauntlett - Task One
1. According to Gauntlett, what was "the media" like in the past and what changes have now occurred?
People sitting around a radio set reading the Radio times wondering what's going to be on and when or people queuing for a movie showing. People relied on time heavily where the media was usually scheduled by the Media Institutions. These days we ourselves produce the media ourselves using small and cheap devices like laptops and mobiles where we share it via YouTube where the work of many thousand directors is seen by huge amounts of people. Before the 'Media Gods' who were the newspapers and record companies handed down from on high to us 'the little people'. Now websites like YouTube, Wikipedia and Myspace where the information is provided by us and is then distributed by us to the rest of the world. This is helped by Web 2.0 where people share things via social media.
2. How far do you agree with Gauntlett?
I agree with David Gauntlett to an extent as he claims that the media is now provided by everyone, not only the 'Media Gods' through the internet. This is evident as we have sites such as YouTube and Twitter that allow us to produce information and footage through devices such as mobile phones and laptops and upload it to the internet for the benefit of other people.
3. How might Gauntlett's ideas be applied to the music industry?
David Gauntlett's ideas may be applied to the music industry by saying that any one can now distribute their music as we now provide the media. It is now easier for upcoming artists to now produce and promote music from the comfort of their own room. Nowadays, it is much easier to film and record music than before. Artists only need an adequate camera with a microphone and an internet connection. These artists can upload their music through social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Although this may not be the widespread promotion that an artist would need to go big, this is still an example of us providing the information to the 'Media Gods'. Some artists may get lucky and get their song or music to go viral which could attract major record labels. However, it can be argued that even with such little equipment, it may not be enough to promote or produce music to wider scales. Some small artists may not have a clear microphone or camera which wouldn't attract viewers/listeners, while artists with state of the art equipment with eye catching editing may attract more fans.
People sitting around a radio set reading the Radio times wondering what's going to be on and when or people queuing for a movie showing. People relied on time heavily where the media was usually scheduled by the Media Institutions. These days we ourselves produce the media ourselves using small and cheap devices like laptops and mobiles where we share it via YouTube where the work of many thousand directors is seen by huge amounts of people. Before the 'Media Gods' who were the newspapers and record companies handed down from on high to us 'the little people'. Now websites like YouTube, Wikipedia and Myspace where the information is provided by us and is then distributed by us to the rest of the world. This is helped by Web 2.0 where people share things via social media.
2. How far do you agree with Gauntlett?
I agree with David Gauntlett to an extent as he claims that the media is now provided by everyone, not only the 'Media Gods' through the internet. This is evident as we have sites such as YouTube and Twitter that allow us to produce information and footage through devices such as mobile phones and laptops and upload it to the internet for the benefit of other people.
3. How might Gauntlett's ideas be applied to the music industry?
David Gauntlett's ideas may be applied to the music industry by saying that any one can now distribute their music as we now provide the media. It is now easier for upcoming artists to now produce and promote music from the comfort of their own room. Nowadays, it is much easier to film and record music than before. Artists only need an adequate camera with a microphone and an internet connection. These artists can upload their music through social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Although this may not be the widespread promotion that an artist would need to go big, this is still an example of us providing the information to the 'Media Gods'. Some artists may get lucky and get their song or music to go viral which could attract major record labels. However, it can be argued that even with such little equipment, it may not be enough to promote or produce music to wider scales. Some small artists may not have a clear microphone or camera which wouldn't attract viewers/listeners, while artists with state of the art equipment with eye catching editing may attract more fans.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Media Lens Website Article
In what way do you think some of these examples of the use of We Media are democratic?
The internet and the blogosphere give great opportunity in the development of progressive journalism ideals in both the UK and globally. Stuart Allan praises the bloggers and the "extraordinary contribution made by ordinary citizens offering their first hand reports, digital photographs, camcorder video footage, mobile telephone snapshots or audio clips". The internet and blogosphere only become interesting when they serve to challenge the mainstream as crucial elements in progressive social and political movements.
This shows that We Media is democratic because we decide what goes up on the internet from first hand reports such as mobile phone footage and images etc. and that the internet becomes interesting when we as an active audience decide to post things which will interest the other internet users in their community, causing it to spread and therefore making it democratic.
The internet and the blogosphere give great opportunity in the development of progressive journalism ideals in both the UK and globally. Stuart Allan praises the bloggers and the "extraordinary contribution made by ordinary citizens offering their first hand reports, digital photographs, camcorder video footage, mobile telephone snapshots or audio clips". The internet and blogosphere only become interesting when they serve to challenge the mainstream as crucial elements in progressive social and political movements.
This shows that We Media is democratic because we decide what goes up on the internet from first hand reports such as mobile phone footage and images etc. and that the internet becomes interesting when we as an active audience decide to post things which will interest the other internet users in their community, causing it to spread and therefore making it democratic.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Assess the claim that the media is becoming more democratic? (London Riots)
London awoke today to more smashed and burned streets after a third night of violence. As looters took to the streets of Hackney, Peckham and Croydon, services such as Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger and even the PlayStation Network were once again in the spotlight, with a rumour spreading across social networks that BlackBerry Messenger would be shut down.
Through a combination of Chinese whispers and the social media echo chamber, folks watching at home began to spread the rumour that BlackBerry Messenger would be turned off between 7pm and 6am.
That tactic sounds familiar. Oh that's right, the dictatorship in Egypt did it, turning off phone networks and Internet access to stop protestors co-ordinating during the Arab Spring revolutions. Many Twitter users also called for the use of rubber bullets and water cannon, and even martial law as the mindless violence continued.
Before yesterday's trouble flared, the UK BlackBerry account tweeted, "We feel for those impacted by this weekend's riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can." However, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has confirmed this is only a rumour.
BlackBerry Messenging has been described as a "shadow social network", but RIM has pointed out that, "As in all markets around the world where BlackBerry is available, we co-operate with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory officials.
"Similar to other technology providers in the UK we comply with The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and co-operate fully with the Home Office and UK police forces." That legislation allows police to access private messages if they are related to the commission of a crime.
Dog and bone
If BBM is a "shadow social network", then so are text messages and email. Some Tweeters revealed that young people were discussing the riots over the PlayStation Network.
Heck, Cockney rhyming slang began as a way of talking without police being able to understand what was being discussed -- if we turn off BBM should we also ban titfers and barnets and apples and pears?
As always, the tools of communication are just that, and we should be careful not to overstate their use. One of the great strengths of online and digital communication is also one of its biggest weaknesses: it's instant, which allows for bang up to date reporting of what's happening, and such positive uses as today's #riotcleanup hashtag. But it can also lead to people posting inflammatory or ill-informed messages without thinking them through or checking their source.
A spokesman for Mobile Youth, a think tank researching phone use among the young, told the BBC, "Once someone starts posting on a BBM group or Twitter, a lot of young people try to follow the trend... they might talk about it or use the same hashtag which makes it sound like there is a lot more volume."
So tweet responsibly, folks.
Have you received inflammatory messages on BBM, PSN or other social networks? Do you think authorities should have the right to turn off communications when trouble flares? Tell us your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
What is Citizen Journalism?
Put very simply, citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do - report information. That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it's basically all about communicating information of some kind.
The other main feature of citizen journalism is that it's usually found online. In fact, the emergence of the Internet - with blogs, podcasts, streaming video and other Web-related innovations - is what has made citizen journalism possible.
The Internet gave average people the ability to transmit information globally. That was a power once reserved for only the very largest media corporations and news agencies.
The other main feature of citizen journalism is that it's usually found online. In fact, the emergence of the Internet - with blogs, podcasts, streaming video and other Web-related innovations - is what has made citizen journalism possible.
The Internet gave average people the ability to transmit information globally. That was a power once reserved for only the very largest media corporations and news agencies.
Semi-Independent Citizen Journalism
This involves citizens contributing, in one form or another, to existing professional news sites. Some examples:- Readers posting their comments alongside stories done by professional reporters - essentially a 21st-century version of the letter to the editor. A growing number of news websites allow readers to post comments. In an effort to prevent obscene or objectionable messages, many websites require that readers register in order to post.
- Readers adding their information to articles done by professional journalists. For instance, a reporter may do an article about disparities in gas prices around town. When the story appears online, readers can post information about gas prices in areas not covered in the original story, and even offer tips on where to buy cheaper gas.
- Readers actively working with professional reporters in putting together a story. A reporter might ask that readers with expertise in a particular area send him or her information on that topic, or even do some of their own reporting. That information is then incorporated into the final story.
- Reader blogs that are incorporated into professional news websites. That can includes blogs in which readers critique how the news organization is performing.
- Blogs in which individuals can report on events in their communities or offer commentary on the issues of the day.
- Websites run by an individual or a group of people that report on news events in the local community. Some have editors and screen content, others do not. Some even have print editions.
- A slight variation on this theme would be Wikinews, a site similar to Wikipedia, in which anyone can post and edit stories.
- Hybrid sites in which professional and citizen journalists work together.
- Websites run by an individual or a group of people that report on news events in the local community. Some have editors and screen content, others do not. Some even have print editions.
- Blogs in which individuals can report on events in their communities or offer commentary on the issues of the day.
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