Five areas of study

1. Technology
What is my chosen technology, who is it marketed to? What has this technology allowed audiences and institutions to do that previously they could not do? Is the media new or old? What company is making the changes, and for what price?

Convergence - The process in which multiple technologies form together to form a new product i.e. VCR/DVD/CD players.

Digitisation - the material, whether picture, text or film can be reproduced by computers digitally in a very long sequence of 0's and 1's. This means the information can be sent digitally through computerised systems, for instance Sky+, and becase the square wave can only be a 0 or a 1, no where in between, there is barely any interference.

Linear/Non Linear - a linear experience is one that starts, goes in a straight line until it finishes e.g. a film at the cinema, you start watching at the start of the film and stop watching at the end of the film. Non linear is different, when someone uses interactive television, they can choose a variety of different extras e.g. alternative voiceover, extra video footage or explanitory text. this will give the viewer a unique experience to that narrative, and is controlled when they hit the red button. This experience then can be described as non linear.

2.Institutions
Institutions have a primary target to increase profit, but how are media institutions converging media interests to maximise profit? How do they create marketing campaigns to launch their new products? Do they listen to audience demands or do they have to educate their users?

3. Audience
What are audiences doing with their new media technologies? How are traditional experiences of the media changing? What are audiences not doing so that they can spend more time interacting with new media technologies? What advantages are there for the consumer? You will carry out audience research, asking opinions and investigating consumption patterns.

Interactivity – encourages the audience to be less passive and to engage with the media rather than just consuming e.g. red button on Sky. NOTE: non linear experience.

Democratisation – the ability to communicate your opinions and ideas, or share your creative output e.g. blogging.

Personalisation – the ability to offer users a personalised experience e.g. Sky+ allows users to pause live television and record their favourite programmes.

4. Issues
Does new media technologies encourage illegal activity (i.e. Limewire) or increased spending, or harm children? Will people lose jobs, affecting the labour market throughout the world? Are new media technologies creating any moral panics?

5. The Future
If the technology is extended, what could happen? How could media practices be different in future, based on the potential of current technologies?

Googlezon, the downfall of media

click here to see the 'googlezon' video


The short video in the link above shows a possible representation of the media if the hype continues about blogging on the internet and user created news.

The film suggests that the creation of Amazon, the extremely popular online store created in 1991 is at the very roots to this sensation. The automated response to what you buy and the suggestions that it gives you for new products starts the individually based responses in computers. Then in 1998 google comes along as the worlds biggest search engine that can link anyone to te site they are looking for in a matter of seconds.

When blogger was set up, many people rushed to post everything about their lives for everyone else to see, their interests, hobbies etc.

It suggests that Google and Amazon will combine into a company called "googlezon" that will practically destroy traditional media in an attempt to combat the monopoly power of Microsoft. With users posting up to date news about anything on Blogger (bought by Google), it creates a very mediated news coverage, with everyones political, moral and social bias shining through in their blog posts. In an effort to fight Googlezon, Microsoft makes "newsbotster" to introduce competition to google news. Googlezon news can email selective news straight to the user depending upon their interests, what they want to know about, and advertise products to them on a purely individual basis using Amazons suggestion alger rhythm which helps capatalism and consumerism survive. Eventually when Epic arrives, all democratisation of media is lost, as there is no choice between different stories, papers etc, where today we have many different newspapers with different political allegiances, (i.e. Gordon Browns latest budget hailed by the Sun but slated by the Mail) there will be none of that.

The New York Times made one final stand against Googlezon, sueing them for copyright violations, taking the case to the supreme court. However Googlezon would be found in favour. Shortly after, The New York Times would be taken offline, providing a print only service to the elite and the elderly.


This film adresses these issues related to new media technologies:

1. "E news" - is it economically sound, let alone ethical to allow a computer to dictate the news to us, will they miss out important moral issues within the story. The delivered product is by an automated system, how reliable is this? Can we be left in the dark if there are for instance power cuts or server break-downs?

2. Copyright Laws - Where does the law apply? No longer is it a case of black and white, but a murky area of grey where large monopolies can bully the smaller firms. Will there even be any laws concerning the use of other peoples materials, and who will they stand for?

3. Privacy - With the automated response system, analysing your hobbies, interests and so forth, even sites and web pages you have previously visited, do we really want to be looking over our shoulders everytime we visit a site? It aboloshes the traditional view that what happens in ones home is their own business.