Importance of web 2.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&feature=channel

Convergence

The iPhone, Blackberry or computer becomes a two-way communications module with access to the internet, email, social networking sites, TV channels, films, radio, and the whole digital community of the internet.

Will new media replace old media?• The rise of the digital revolution led people to assume that the

invention of new media was going to take over the existence of old media, therefore providing ‘convergence’ with a more specific and powerful meaning. However, some theorists such as George Gilder disagree with this view, stating:

• “The computer industry is converging with the television industry in the same sense that the automobile converged with the horse, the TV converged with the nickelodeon, the word-processing program converged with the typewriter, the CAD program converged with the drafting board, and digital desktop publishing converged with the linotype machine and the letterpress” (quoted by Henry Jenkins: Convergence Culture, New York University Press 2008).

We still use old media

We still watch on average over 4 hours a week of broadcast television; we still write and post letters although we write many less letters than we used to; we still make ordinary telephone calls we still read books and go to libraries.

What has happened is that we are using and interacting with both types of media.

We sit on the sofa and watch television while commenting on the programme via Twitter on our mobile phones, or laptops. We all use the internet, and use a computer to type messages, letters and do our homework. Yet we love to send birthday cards and greetings cards and receive the goods we have purchased on eBay via snail mail. Convergence gives us all the benefits of a multimedia world.

Effects of Convergence

• The most significant cultural effect for everybody is an individual’s access to the huge range, incredible variety and sheer scale of world wide knowledge available on the internet.

• Other effects are economic and social as convergence drives small businesses, gives consumers greater choice, offers online video gaming and gambling, shopping, online leisure activities such as films, sport and ebooks, and allows many people to work from home.

“imagine a world where there are two kinds of media power: one comes through media concentration, where any message gains authority simply by being broadcast on network television; the other comes through grassroots intermediaries, where a message gains visibility only if it is deemed relevant to a loose network of diverse publics” (Jenkins: 2006).

We are now all able to both consume and produce texts, images, video and audio while on the move using our mobile phones, or at home on our computers, or on the new hybrid TV sets. As individuals we can become personally involved with anything that is ‘out there’. It may be news events that we influence by sending a picture to a newspaper or blog, or our friend’s lives or a comment on Twitter.

Democratisation of the media

• As a citizen in a democracy we have a small but important input into which form of government is in power. Ideas, information, political manifestos, pictures, opinions reach the electorate via the gatekeepers of the news media. Some people argue this means that citizens are denied ‘untainted news’.

• The democratisation inherent in new media means that content and information, from news stories to videos to music, become important and relevant because of the collective vote of the internet community. There are no gate keepers such as news editors or magazine editors selecting the stories for us.

Democratisation of the media means all content on the web has the same opportunity for exposure or discovery by an audience as every other piece of content. For example, an outspoken blog, or a school podcast, has the same chance of reaching an audience as an article in The Times newspaper or a government online site. This is not just a one way process

Democratisation of the media means that anyone and everyone can have a say - via a blog or forum - in what is thought to be important, interesting or relevant or entertaining. There is almost no censorship, other than the laws of the country, and no filtering from unknown voices or institutions. It is the raw data from the people to the people.

Citizen Journalism

Citizen Journalism• With Citizen Journalism (CJ) the user becomes the

producer. It is especially evident during natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake (2010).

• This picture was posted on the US independent news site The Huffington Post.

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake-photos-video_n_421155.html

• The site carries an exhortation to participate:• ‘Send us a photo from the destruction with a

description of the image and where it was taken.’

You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU&feature=related

(23.00)

UGC

• User Generated Content (UGC)• Some commentators thought that

CJ and User Generated Content (UGC) could take over newsrooms - would become more interesting than traditional edited news. Interestingly by mid 2010 this had not happened. With a mobile phone anyone can take a reasonable picture and email it directly to a newspaper or broadcaster.

Discussion

• Is the Huffington Post any more independent than a traditional news site run by a large media corporation? Would you trust this, and other apparently independent sites like it, more than a Public Service website such as BBC co.uk? list the pros and cons for independent news sites.