Contemporary Media Issues

Introduction to Section B of the ExamPart Four

So what did we learn last time?We learnt what culture means.We learnt about different social groups,

audiences and fans.We learnt about the new social values and

cultural languages of Web 2.0.We learnt about ‘mash-ups’, ‘citizen

journalism’ ‘active audiences’ and ‘we-media’.

Introduction to Section B – Review of Part Three

This presentation will reveal…What the biggest media event of 2009

was.What the long tail means;If you live in a ‘global village’ orAre we all separated by a ‘digital divide’?

Introduction to Section B – Part Four

The cultural shift created by Web 2.0 is economic as well as creative…

John Hartley (2007), in his book ‘Creative Industries’ describes the move from a ‘demand-led’ market to a

‘social network’ market. Hartley describes these changes as a shift to ‘long-tail economics’.

This idea came suggests that businesses are increasingly realising that the best way to make

money is to sell less of more, to create more niche markets, to diversify.

This becomes the long tail theory of media production - the spread of small chunks of media

content at the opposite end of the body to the head, which is where the big institutions make hugely

popular media products like The Dark Knight (2008) or the final of the X Factor in 2009.

Long Tail Economics

So what was the biggest media event of 2009? Depends on how you define ‘biggest’.

Most viewed?

Most money?

More than 4.7 million copies of Modern Warfare 2, the sixth instalment in the hugely popular Call of Duty franchise, were sold on the first day alone, raking in £186 million in the US and Britain combined.Modern Warfare 2’s first day sales dwarf the best ever opening weekend takings for a film - the $158.4 million earned by The Dark Knight, which hit cinemas last July. The game has outperformed it’s nearest rival, Grand Theft Auto IV, which sold 3.6 million copies on the first day of its release in April 2008.

Long Tail Economics

Now think of a tiny scale event at the other end of the long tail?

Long Tail Economics

Long Tail Economics

Describing the implications of this long tail of media distribution, Hartley

suggests that the liberating potential of Web 2.0 might be as important as the emergence of mass literacy in the 17th

century or the introduction of mass public schooling a century ago.

So this part of your exam is about exploring theories like postmodernism, universal digital literacy, Web 2.0 and

the We-media phenomenon - 'one minute you're a fan, the next you're

signing autographs'...

We-media phenomenon…

Magibon

Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a

global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned…The new electronic

independence re-creates the worldin the image of a global village.

Marshall McLuhan (1964)

The world is fragmenting into niche audiences on a global scale.

How are ‘we-media’ stars examples of the ‘global village’?

Most watched TV show in the UK in 2009Britain’s Got Talent Final68% audience share – 18.2 million viewers120 million views on YouTube

So is Web 2.0 a ‘global village’? Hopefully you now think of the media as a range

of networks via which we can decide to participate, to whatever degree we like, in creative, communicative, collaborative and democratic activities, and not as a group of powerful institutions trying to influence us.

However, it is only the developed world that’s close to being like this as less than 20% of the world has any broadband connection at all

Academics call this difference the ‘digital divide’ (1996).

So has Web 2.0 changed everything?

Not quite!The most popular Web 2.0 sites are

owned by huge companies, so every moment of democratic We-media social networking makes money for the big corporations - the same ones that were making billions from Web 1.0.

Who owns Web 2.0?Google began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry Page, who was soon joined by Sergey Brin, when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California.

In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered look and to maximize page loading speed. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at 0.5 cents per click (about 2p).

In late 2006, Google bought the online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Who owns Web 2.0?

In 2006, Google and News Corporation entered into a $900 million agreement to provide search and advertising on the popular social networking site, MySpace .

News Corporation is the world's second-largest media conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company) and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009. It bought MySpace in July 2005 for $580 million.

MySpace was the most popular social networking site in June 2006, however it was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008.

Last.fm is a UK-based Internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It has 30 million active users based in over 200 countries. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired it for £140m.

Who owns Web 2.0?

CBS Interactive is an American company and division of the CBS Corporation .

CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television, with most of its operations in the United States. It owns familiar web brands CNET, mp3.com, download.com amongst others.

Who uses Web 2.0?

Bill Tancer – Hitwise – Social Networks (2007) A Hitwise report suggest that only 0.16% of YouTube

visitors upload video; 0.2% of Flickr visitors upload photos, Wikipedia is edited or expanded by only 4.59% of users. So most of us are using the Web 2.0 sites to read,

watch, play and listen and not to create and upload, which is how we were using 'old media‘.

And if Web 2.0 companies are owned by ‘old media’ institutions

Are we really in an age of unbounded creativity? Might it be more sensible to think of where we are now

as Web 1.5?

Corporate America wants to know what 18-24 year olds think is ‘cool’ because they are the prime targets for advertisers.

And sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook can sell the information they learn about you to advertisers. The principal

value of ‘social networking’ sites for corporate America is surveillance.

Toby Miller (2008)

So what have we learnt? We’ve learnt about cultural studies, social

groups and how broadband has changed the cultural landscape.

We’ve learnt about theories like ‘we-media’ and ‘the long tail’.

We’ve learnt about the ‘digital divide’, who owns Web 2.0 and why old media companies think social networking is so important.

Introduction to Section B – Review of Part Two

Short Essay on Web 2.0

Time for some writing:What are the wider issues surrounding

Web 2.0?Remember you’ve got to write about the

past, present and future – give examples – use theory to back up your ideas…