Post on 23-Dec-2015
Ethnography
• Is literally the study of people and cultures.
• Digital ethnography is the study of cultures and people in the new digital age.
• Theorist Michael Wesch explores this idea and used Youtube as a case study.
The machine is us/ing us
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE&spfreload=10
Benefits of new media
• Digital text is flexible, moveable and can link (hypertext)
• Early websites were written in HTML and the producer of the text needed to know complex coding.
• It was very rigid/static.
• A blog is born every half second.
• Millions of people broadcast themselves and even have their own ‘channel’.
• Websites can mash data together making them more user friendly, intuitive, responsive and accessible.
However…
• We are having to organise all of this data.
• We are teaching the machine each time that we link text and ideas.
• We are sharing our data, our images, our likes, our dislikes. These can all be accessed through the web. It can be used against us. (Through marketing)
• Web 2.0 is linking people- which is good…
• But comes with a price…
Wesch says…
• “The computer is us/ing us”
• We need to rethink;
• Privacy
• Governance
• Identity
• Copyright
• Authorship
• Ethics
• Privacy
How many examples can you think of where New Digital Media has been responsible for breaching these ‘rights’?
A few examples…
• Edward Snowden- Whistleblower- US spying on people though webcams and Internet.
• Julien Assange- Wikileaks
• Facebook breaching privacy rights of users. Following their ‘Likes’
• Piratebay- torrents- websites
• Instagram selling your photos!
• Sony Hacking scandal- The interview and North Korea..
Democracy
• When we think about democracy, we think about freedom of speech, individual liberty and expression.
• But how far does new digital media provide opportunities for democratic space and equality? Are we free to participate equally or are dominant ideologies continually forced upon us?
Benefits…
• New media technologies facilitate small-scale media productions.
• This provides for alternative views that challenge dominant ideologies/values of society.
• Key word: Egalitarian (equalism) Each person has equal rights, values, worth. Reiforces democratic perspectives.
The Royal Commission on the Press (1977) defined alternative media as:
• Dealing with the opinion of small minorities
• Expressing attitudes hostile to widely held beliefs
• Espousing views or dealing with subjects not given regular coverage by publications generally available at newsagents.
Challenging dominant ideologies
• Answer:
• Look through the websites below.
• How has New Media allowed for opportunities to challenge dominant ideology?
• ADBUSTERS
• Liveleak
• The TREWS
• McSpotlight
• Can you find any other media websites that challenge dominant ideology?
What benefits are there to democratic space and NDM?
• Some critical perspectives suggest that alternative media are run in a more egalitarian & democratic way.
• They reduce the cost of media production.
• New media texts can challenge the consumerist norms of a capitalist society.
• They may create ideological disruption & disturbance in relation to values and ideas about areas such as gender/sexuality, religion etc.
• Alternative websites provide ‘citizen journalism’ – allowing ordinary people to give their own alternative versions of dominant news stories.
• In doing so, they politicise the repression of events & information produced in mainstream news, drawing attention to its selectivity.
• However, ‘citizen journalists’ are not necessarily restrained by professional or institutional codes of conduct.
Look at the following websites
• http://www.38degrees.org.uk/
• https://www.change.org/
• In what ways are they supporting democratic free speech?
• In what ways are they challenging dominant political ideology?
• What issues/ negative impacts might we consider from these websites? Include theory and terminology where possible.
• Are there any websites that might have an adverse affect on society due to its opposing ideologies?
Murdoch VS the BBC
• Rupert Murdoch and BSkyB • “BSkyB is too powerful and threatens to "dwarf" the BBC and its
competitors.”
• “News Corp, in effect controlled by the Murdoch family, now enjoys unprecedented industry power in the UK. News Corp owns 39% of Sky and is in the process of buying the part of the broadcaster it does not already own.”
• "a concentration of cross-media ownership that would not be allowed
in the United States or Australia". • Murdoch sees the iPad as a potential lifesaver in terms of
its reach among the young and its ability to attract subscriptions.
• http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/aug/27/bbc-mark-thompson-murdoch-mactaggart
Further Research • So far we have looked at;
• The changing role of the BBC
• Michale Wesch- the machine is us/ing us (Digital ethnography)
• Globalisation and new media
• Non-mainstream media (including sites that ‘challenge’ dominant ideology and promote democratic values of free speech.
• Media theory and terminology sheets
Read the following article and answer the questions
• http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2015/feb/20/will-cash-strapped-newspapers-be-tempted-to-get-cosier-with-advertisers
• New digital media has impacted news in many ways. Fundamentally, it has impacted on the sales of traditional print newspapers as well as the readership figures.
According to the article…
• What corrupt practices have print newspapers had to do to ensure they do not experience financial difficulties?
• Why do you think the financial impact on the Sun newspaper has been less significant than others? (Consider ownership and how it has used NDM)
• Are there any media terms, theories or similar issues that we could relate to this article?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-cookies
• What are cookies? How do they affect audiences?
• What are the benefits and disadvantages?
• Why do you think the BBC defends the use of cookies? How could Althusser’s theory be used to challenge the BBC’s defence of cookies?
Homework Question
• New and digital media offer a wide range of competing ideas and opinions from experts and journalists to bloggers and social networkers, making it harder for audiences to know who to trust.
• In such an environment, how does the audience know who to trust?
• 48 marks