While there are actual revolutions happening all over the world, social networking has mainly been used to keep up with celebrity news etc. the term "religion is the opium of the masses" refers to the public being occupied with religion, so that it stops anyone thinking about empowering themselves. The same can be said about social networking sites and news stations, as subjects like "Britain's got talent" are put before important political and social news, and it could be argued that people are developing an ignorance towards the world around them due to glamorous advertising of celebrities.

A good example of this is the newspaper "the sun" which has these headlines this week:

BIN LADEN UNARMED - Just like the thousands he killed in 9/11

BULGER KILLER IS EXPOSED - Internet claim on Venables id

and then of course......

THE BETS FACTOR - Cowell roulette show could pay out 7 million in a week

Production (Who makes media)

Distribution (How it reaches it's audiences)

Consumption (who are the audience and how do they consume media?)

Question will be on the change/revolution from old to new media

2 types of media (Film + internet)

Online age example questions

1. "The impact of the internet on the media is revolutionary" discuss

2. Discuss the extent to which the distribution and consumption of media have been transformed by the internet.

3. What difference has the internet made to media production and consumption?

4. How important to change in the media is the idea of convergence?

long tail theory

The long tail theory was written by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of "Wired Magazine", as an article in Wired, and then published as a book in 2006. Long Tail Theory is a way to describe the way niche marketing works over the Internet. Traditionally records, books, movies, and other items were geared towards creating "hits." Stores could only afford to carry the most popular items because they needed enough people in an area to buy their goods in order to recoup their overhead expenses. The Internet changes that. It allows people to find less popular items and subjects. It turns out that there's profit in those "misses," too. Amazon can sell obscure books, Netflix can rent obscure movies, and iTunes can sell obscure songs. That's all possible because the Internet has taken geographic location out of the equation.
An example of Long Tail is Netflix. A regular video shop, like Blockbuster, has about 3,000 movies in stock, whereas Netflix has over 40,000. about 600 titles make up 80% of Blockbuster's sales, and one of its 3000 sales will only sell once of twice a month, however, with Netflix having 40,000 titles, then if they only sell once or twice a month then they'd add up to many more overall sales. Every day, 98 percent of Netflix's inventory are in circulation with customers.

More money can be made by internet sites, as they can afford to keep more films/games/music etc, because they are not using up literal space, just internet space, which there is plenty of. Because the sites can afford to keep these old/lesser known titles on sale, they are constantly making a small percentage off them, while actual high street shops are not.

Collapse of context - Michael Wesch

When we are interacting with another person, or people, face to face we are constantly evaluating the situation consciously, and subconsciously for what people might say or do, and what the best action would be to suit the situation. we are constantly, as humans, taking note of the physical surroundings, often performing herculean social calculations almost unconsciously in the micro-second gaps of conversation or even occasionally in a more conscious and deliberate manner even as the conversation continues to buzz along. As people we are exceptionally good at sizing up situations such as social interactions, and even evaluation our own appearance, actions and the way we present ourselves and engage in the conversation. it is how we understand if the other person is happy, sad or angry at what we say, and how we present ourselves into these moods. Though some peoples context may be harder to read than others, understanding these contexts is vital to maintaining the conversation and not taking something the wrong way. Erving Goffman presented his own theorys on social context in 1959, in where he describes the "line" he must create in order to present himself to others. he also describes a process he calls "face work", which is the idea that, in a social interaction, his facial expressions are constantly being examined and negotiated. All in all every single facial expression can be taken in differently by the other person, and are all important to the way one presents himself. And the way someone presents themselves depends a great deal on context.

Michael Wesch's theory is that when a person is presented with a webcam for the first time, many of them are unsure of what to say, and these first time vloggers are presented, not with a lack of context, but with a total context collapse. when they look into that little glass eye they are totally unable to see the faces of any of the millions of people who may see them when they say what they want to say. this is what is meant by context collapse, as the people who see them could take it in any context, so they are unable to present their "line", as Goffman would put it, and present themselves in any certain way, as there is no social situation to evaluate. This can be very confusing, and make it very hard to know what to say into a webcam. He must address anybody, everybody, and maybe even nobody all at once.

Wikinomics

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaberation, or peer production, and open-source technology such as wikis to be successful. Tapscott and Williams have released a followup to Wikinomics, entitled "Macrowikinomics, rebooting business and the world", which was released on September 28, 2010.

According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is all based around four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem, instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowd sourcing, to reflect this difference.

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specializes in the study of contemporary media audiences, everyday digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression. He graduated from the University of York in Sociology in 1992. He then took his PhD and taught at the University of Leeds from 1993 to 2002. He was then appointed Professor of Media and Audiences at Bournemouth University. In 2006 he joined the School of Media and Communications. Gauntlett's critique of media 'effects' studies sparked controversy in 1995. He slammed the effects model saying the following things:

- The model tackles social problems backwards

- It treats children as inadequate

- Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology

- Inadequately defines its own objects of study

- Often based on artificial studies

- Often based on studies with misapplied methodology

- Selective in its criticism of media depictions of violence

- Assumes superiority to the masses

- Makes no attempt to understand the meanings of the media

- Not grounded in theory

Since then he has published a number of books and research on the role of popular media in people's lives. In particular he has focused on the way in which digital media is changing the experience of media in general. Since the late 1990's, he has produced the website Theory.org.uk. In 2007, Gauntlett published a notable article about Media Studies 2.0.

In 2008 Gauntlett proposed 'the Make and Connect Agenda', an attempt to rethink audience studies in the context of media users as producers, as well as consumers of media material. This argues that there is a shift from a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture' to a 'making-and-doing culture', and that harnessing creativity in both Web 2.0 and in other everyday creative activities will play a role in tackling environmental problems. These ideas are developed further in 'Making is Connecting'.