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Media in the Online Age

Theorists

Chris Anderson is an editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine Theory of the Long Tail states that culture is moving

away from mainstream products and toward niche markets

Without the constraints of physical shelf, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream

Traditional retail economics dictate that stores only stock the likely hits, because shelf space is expensive. But online retailers, Amazon and iTunes, can stock virtually everything, and the number of available niche products outnumber the hits by several orders of magnitude. Those millions of niches are the Long Tail, which had been largely neglected until recently in favour of the Short Head of hits

E.G.  video not available on broadcast TV on any given day can be found online and on subscription, and songs not played on radio, or found on shop floor are ready to download from software such as iTunes

Chris Anderson – Long Tail Theoryhttp://www.longtail.com/about.html

The theory of the long tail can be applied to most industries, although it applies to the film and television industry especially. For example, films sold in shops will be limited to what is popular, while a wider range of titles – both mainstream and niche – will be available on other services such as subscription services Netflix. Anderson states that culture has changed to embrace niche products more, making their availability more important.

The Long Tail can also be applied to the gaming industry. The Long Tail Theory shows how physical sales have lessened as more games are introduced because these are available online for download. The internet enables the availability of more titles, so consumers often go online for more variety. Therefore, there will be less physical sales, and more sales on digital distributors such as Steam.

The Long Tail theory is very relevant to most, if not all, industries as it shows how culture is now more susceptible to niche products as they are more readily available due to the proliferation of the internet. This has enabled people to search online for the titles that they want, taking away the restrictions of shelf space in stores.

Internet is revolutionary – changed the way we think and consider knowledge

Theory explains how digital technologies enable new forms of collaborative creativity and innovation

The Web allows ideas to be tested more quickly and effectively

The web allows people to publish, share and therefore connect and collaborate

The web platform encourages mass creativity and as the web enables them to become prosumers by sharing and publishing.

‘We Think’ theory explores the changes the web has on the world as it has created an online culture; states the web would be good for democracy, freedom and equality as it gives people a voice, the opportunity to be creative and has an open access to knowledge

Charles Leadbetter – We Thinkhttp://charlesleadbeater.net/2010/01/we-think/

‘We Think’ can be applied to the gaming industry as this industry has a huge online community. Many web users share and publish content in relation to popular games, and this creates an international community amongst the players. Not only are audiences consumers, but they become prosumers as professional gamers publish video tutorials.

This also applies to the news industry because it shows how key ideas within the theory support citizen journalists; the internet encourages mass creativity as it allows users to share and publish. This relates particularly to blogs, where citizen journalists are likely to publish work.

This theory is relevant to a range of industries as it shows how the internet has had a revolutionary effect on consumers. It has changed the way we think and consume knowledge by giving a platform that carries all the information, and encourages us to be creative by connecting and collaborating with it.

Theory refers to commerce and business throughout the online age and how the web enables mass collaboration - A new kind of business is emerging—one that opens its doors to the world, co-innovates with everyone (especially customers), shares resources that were previously closely guarded, harnesses the power of mass collaboration, and behaves not as a multinational but as something new: a truly global firm.

Wikinomics has 5 main ideas:- Peering: free sharing of material on the web is good for business –

distribution at no costs, however it has a negative effect on those trying to protect ideas.

- Free Creativity: a positive and natural effect of a free market as Web 2.0 enables the consumer to become a prosumer.

- Democratised: Through peering and free creativity, ‘We Media’ journalism is produced by consumers.

- Thinking Globally: the effects of globalisation enable collaboration, and the monitoring of businesses to stay globally competitive. It also creates a global community; a virtual place of culture and where national boundaries are reduced.

- Perfect Storm: any media company operating without use of Web 2.0 will not likely succeed; businesses must think of its market internationally.

Tapscott & Williams – Wikinomicshttp://www.wikinomics.com/book/IntroAndOne.pdfhttps://prezi.com/dpg6hgb2zbnf/wikinomics-tapscott-and-williams/

This theory can be applied to the music industry. Upcoming artists often rely on ‘peering’ to become popular as they often use YouTube to enable the sharing of their material. YouTube enables audiences to view music for free, and allows them to share the material on social media and through links/embedding the video on a blog. This is free, and enables the video to become more popular, benefitting the artists.

Wikinomics can also be applied to the gaming industry. Many games are produced with free play which encourages free creativity, as players can create what they like. This has resulted in the emergence of professional gamers who have become prosumers as they produce video tutorials. For example, this can be seen within Minecraft.

This theory is very relevant to media in the online age as the proliferation of the internet and web 2.0 has enabled both businesses and the audience to benefit. Peering gives businesses a form of free distribution, while the materials are seen more by audiences, and therefore popularised.

Dan Gilmore published this theory in his book ‘We Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People’ in 2004

Key ideas within the theory look at how news was being produced by ordinary people. This changed the way we saw the news as it was not only produced by ‘Big Media’ who held control of who produced and shared media. Audiences were becoming citizen journalists; becoming a prosumer.

Gillmor views the web as a catalyst to challenge this established hegemony.

Gillmor states that those reporting are the ‘former audience’ as news blogs are a new form of people’s journalism

Therefore, the internet has allowed the freedom of citizen journalists; where its viewing would have previously been restricted by Big Media, it is now available to view almost anywhere.

Dan Gilmore – We Mediahttp://www.authorama.com/we-the-media-1.html

This theory can be applied to the news industry. The thoery states that control of the media has changed due to web 2.0 enabling consumers to produce, and share their own news reports. As a result, audiences have become citizen journalists. This allows the news to be shared with different opinions, and in a range of views. Plus, the proliferation of the internet has also allowed news to be found online. However, this has a negative effect on other forms of news, such as newspapers, as they have become somewhat obsolete since the news can be accessed faster, and for free online.

I feel that the relevance of this theory is limited to the newspaper industries due to it having a main focus on the audience becoming citizen journalists. In saying this, the theory does have a key point in regards to the internet not being able to restrict content.

Paywalls restrict the content of a webpage without a paid subscription – few readers were willing to pay, and this turned digital distribution of news into a niche business.

The London Times and Sunday Times attempted this in 2010, although it quickly failed

Freely available content grew ten-thousand-fold, while buyers didn’t – newspaper producers insist that readers will have to pay for content, as they would pay for the physical copy

“I worry that we’re entering a world where the truth becomes what other people have paid for me to read because journalists have no other way to finance an honest service.” This shows that content being accessed for free has comprised the integrity of the news due to problem it causes for the finances of papers.

Clay Shirky – Newspapers, Paywalls and Core Users

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/01/newspapers-paywalls-and-core-users/ http://hiltmon.com/blog/2012/01/16/newspapers-paywalls-and-core-users/ http://tagteam.harvard.edu/hub_feeds/3027/feed_items/145

This shows how the internet is having a negative effect on the news industry. The internet has enabled news content to be accessed for free, and this has had an effect on how the papers are financed. To get around this, papers attempted to implement a paywall charge, however this was ineffective. Readers didn’t want to pay for content, and this turned the online newspaper into a niche product.

I feel this idea is relevant to range of industries, because while it relates directly to the newspaper industry, the fundamental idea can also be applied to others. For example, the idea shows that audiences accessing content for free has a negative effect on the industry, and this applied to piracy. This hurts many all of the industries, including film, television, music and gaming because it deprives the business of money. Although illegal, all materials are vulnerable to piracy as the internet makes it too easy to download content for free. In particular, this effects the music and film industry as these products are in high demand amongst the audience.

The theory focuses on how web 2.0 has changed society, e.g:

Web 2.0 enables us to interact with people globally – created online communities

Changed methods of communications as physical distance is no longer a problem

Michael Wesch – The machine is changing us

This theory by Michael Wesch can be applied to the gaming industry as a side effect of the games is a massive online community of players. This demonstrates the theorists point of how the web 2.0 has created online communities of people communicating internationally. This is also an example of how the proliferation of the internet has changed the way we communicate. This online community are open to a range of communication methods, for example they can talk whilst playing games, using a head piece, they have forums, and can even comment under videos made by others. This demonstrates how web 2.0 has altered the way that society interacts, and communicates. Although there are many benefits to this, such as it enables players to communicate internationally therefore taking away the restriction of distance, it can also leave people vulnerable to others.

I feel that this theory is less relevant to the industries themselves, and apply more the audiences and how they react to said industries. This is because the key ideas of the theory focus on changes the internet has had on society, and communications within it.