Cover Work

Task 1

Characteristics of new media

Digitally = binary, 10101, on or off, all programs based on binary, a huge amount of info can be dealt with in the tiny code.

Interactively = new ways of streaming info, compress, receive through isdn cables, satellites through the air, the way its compressed multiple strands of info can go via one feed, limited amount of bandwidth, interact with other users, yes and no, reply to it and response, feed goes both ways, upload and download

Hypertextuality = this is to do with organise with texts, no longer linear, jump to wherever you like, like DVD instead of video tape, your able to jump from one text to another, the owner can no longer control which order you jump to, or whether you’ll jump out of theirs to other texts.

Dispersal = how the info can be and is shared, market share and size of market, how the producers target users to access their market

Virtualality = how real something is, some virtual worlds are representational, what is real? Who’s doing this and why?

Convergence = this is a big issue, new tech are converging into one, mp3 players show photos, video on phone etc. debate is where it will go next, how things converge, its also related to size, size of gadgets once converged.

Audience = How does the audience use the tech? Does it change the way they use it? Does it change the way information before it was accessed this way? Was it changed due to consumer demand or led by the industry? Who has got access to these things? Who’s not getting it and being cut from the market?

Regulation and control = Is there any control over the use? Who’s doing the controlling? Should there be any control? Copyright issues! Is it realistically possible to control things? What difference does it make if everyone copies songs etc. What impact is there for government? Communities online etc.

Ownership = Who owns the tech? And does it make a difference? How they use there money and brand, games console manufacturing. How does it affect the way they sell it to the audience?

Case studies = Internet, email, computing, mobiles, mp3 players, games consoles, sat TV, digital radios and iMacs.

Task 2

1. Who is Chris De Wolfe and what does he say is the future for social networking? What impact will portable hardware have on this area of technology?

Chris De Wolfe is the co-founder of internet social networking site Myspace. Online communities are evolving all the time and are laying groundwork for new a social web which will be more personal, portable and more collaborative. Expectations are on the fact that new media is increasingly becoming more portable and this includes social networking.

With more people accessing social networking sites on their mobile and companies making this easier to do, the online and offline world are becoming evermore blurred at the edges.

2. Who is Chad Hurley and what does he say is his company's goal? Is he a positive or negative technological determinist?

Chad Hurley is the co-founder of internet video hosting website Youtube. Youtube’s goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as possible. This new video content will be available on any screen whether it be in your living room or in your pocket, and will bring together all the diverse media which matters to you, from videos of family and friends to news, music, sports, cooking and more.

He is a positive technological determinist as he states that in the coming years more and more people will be able to use this technology and this will help bring more information to be accessible to all sorts of users no matter where you are and what you’re doing.

3. What does Maurice Levy say is the challenge for advertisers and what is 'liquid media' compared to 'linear media'?

The challenge for advertisers is to think and act creatively to engage the audience in what they are advertising. People no longer want to stop their programs and watch the advert break and so the advertisers have to find incredibly creative solutions to interact with the audience and engage them in genuine and honest ways.

Linear media is fast giving way to liquid media where you can move seamlessly in and out of different settings. No more prescribed times eg. 6 o’ clock news, it is becoming more seamless and more multitasking is taking place.

4. What parallels does Norvig draw between Edison inventing electricity and the development of online technology in terms of searching for information?

Peter Norvig is the director of research at Google. Peter compares the future of media technology to Edison inventing electricity because he says that you expect to electricity on demand in every room of every building you visit. The same will be able to be said for media technology in the future. Possibly having wireless internet in every room ready to be assessed by anyone, or on demand TV shows ranging from being on your TV, to your computer or even your phone.

5. What are the issues for the developing world? How is this evidence of a 'digital divide'?

The biggest issue for the developing world is of course the cost of such technologies for the end user. The price of a personal computer is more than the average wages of someone working in a village. The end users aren’t able to afford the media technology as opposed to the more developed countries which technology has now become easily affordable to the average person.

Obviously people living in the developing world aren’t always going to be able to have free access to electricity, so are not going to have the sort of access to mobile phones, computers and the internet like people living in more developed countries. This means they won’t be able to have the advantage and benefit of the vast amount of data proved by such media technologies as the internet.

Task 3 - Moral Panics and Concerns with Online Technology

Growing concern in the area of online networking sites, for example “Myspace”, are that anyone on the internet can browse to your Myspace page and look at your email address, physical address, phone number etc. This leads to cases of fraud and in extreme, identify theft or paedophilia. Users of such websites should be careful when giving out personal information as they don’t know who they could be giving it to.

Technology is taking over our lives. It’s changing the way we access information, talk to friends and family and our day to day lives. But, unfortunately it’s not all good. Obesity and desertion are common “side-effects” of the over use of computers. Instead of going to meet up with friends or playing out many people will sit at their computers doing no exercise or seeing people in the real world.

New social networking and other media technologies are becoming more accessible, portable and interactive than ever before. You can browse the internet on most phones now and chat with friends and family across the world using MSN, AIM etc. It is bringing us closer together than ever before and really creating a virtual “you” with a virtual address online, by Myspace, for example, having such fluid rules when customizing pages that you can personalise it to be your “virtual home” where friends can leave comments and chat.

Censorship and control over such media technologies as online MMORPG Second Life are a large concern. Although a lot of users use this virtual world responsibly there are groups of people, who use this technology for far worse things some of which are illegal. For example child paedophilia groups have been set up secretly in Second Life and due to the size of Second Life there are just not enough people to police it.

The video below goes into more detail about Second Life’s “Dark Side”.