mioa

CASE STUDIES

for each case study you must briefly mention the HISTORICAL position; and look ahead to possible FUTURE development

BBC Iplayer

Historical:

• tele watching tied to schedules
• inability to personalise viewing
• was more of a shared experience (positive)
• intro of cable & satellite allowed more flexibility
• intro of omnibus too - gradual loss of 'shared experience'

Today:

• Web 2.0 - internet allows personalisation - watch what you want and when you want it
• boxee & seesaw
• can download and watch later (Iplayer)
• can collaborate with others & offer recommendations & suggestions of other programmes to watch (Boxee)
• has allowed BBC to diversify & reach wider market

Future:

• convergence key to future of online television
• could offer amateurs opportunity to upload own productions to be screened alongside professional material
• issues around legality and copyright

Social networking, facebook & Youtube

Youtube

Historical:

• video production limited to professionals
• very difficult for amateurs to get work to audience

Today:

• digital tech opened new doors & web 2.0 provided 'stage'
• prosumer is born!
• peer production common phenomenon

Future?

• will distance between amateur and professional continue to narrow with developments in technology?

Facebook

Historical:

• what did we do before Facebook?!
• communication via telephone, letter writing - socialising in person

Today:

• agent for social change
• mass collaboration
• facebook page a media product itself?

Future?

• will it all get a bit too much?
• some argue that facebook is responsible for change in the way people interract with each other & is affecting personal relationships

Avatar & LoveFilm

used to illustrate the long tail:

• Avatar eg of short head - big hit, large marketing budget, focus on getting money back quickly;
• LoveFilm - niche product - eg of long tail - vast capacity for storage of niche films viewable online

Still need to think about past & future of long tail products;

• historically niche products did not make much money nor find a wide fan base;
• present: internet has changed this

can also use grime music as eg of long tail

THEORIES

Digial natives, immigrants and dinosaurs - Marc Prensky

Convergence

Synergy

Wikinomics (Tapscott & Williams):

• the prosumer
• peer production
• social capital ('audience' can make gains, whether financial or not
• social development
• facebook as agent for social change

Personalisation v control

Mill v Plato

Henry Jenkins

• youtube & vimeo powerful distribution tools for amateurs
• participatory culture v commercial culture
• benefits and drawbacks for both

Web 2.0:

• personalisation
• collaboration, sometimes for social capital
• information sharing
• communities
• active interaction rather than passive consumption
• customisation

The long tail (Chris Anderson)

• originally an idea applied to economics & business
• adapted to apply to media 'products'
• idea that internet & digital online storage means that small niche products, such as obscure music & films, will in their lifetime earn as much as the big 'hit's or the short head of the long tail.

Where do you start?

Worth having a general paragraph on 'Media in the Online Age' up your sleeve covering:

What does the internet offer?

How are traditional media responding to this?

What is Web 2.0 and how this differs to Web 1.0

Media in the Online Age

• argues that those born into the era of the internet are natives & that those who were not can only be immigrants
• this idea should not be taken at face value!

Must understand the theories, remember who said what and be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each

David Gauntlet

Must revise case studies

must be able to use case studies to illustrate theory

Past

present

future

Media in the Online Age

Revision

Must revise theories

must be able to apply theory to case study