MAC301robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk

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From analogue to digital Convergence The smartphone wars Discussion point

One bad Apple?Crisis in communications

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Dominance of the smartphone

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Dominance of the smartphone Uptake in tablet devices New multimedia gaming devices

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‘The global media system is better understood as one that advances corporate and commercial interests and values and denigrates or ignores that which cannot be incorporated into its mission’(McChesney, 2003: 266).

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Production

Distribution

Consumption

Publishing Radio Television Press

Vertical integration

Horizontal integration

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Increased tendency in recent years to encode visuals, sound and print in binary digital terms

All of our media platforms are pushing towards digital platforms

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Google’s market cap (October 2009): $174.3 billion Google’s market cap (November 2010): $197.6

billion Google’s market cap (March 2012): $196.7 billion

Source: Yahoo Finance

Convenient for content owners to manipulate/edit digital data

Push comes from consolidation in large media entities

Digital distribution is a lot cheaper than physical distribution

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1. Consolidation of industry Eg Sony = music, movies, games,

hardware, software, etc

2. Diffusion across platforms Eg Lost = TV show, DVD sales, video

game, mobile phone series, fan sites, merchandise, etc

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‘A word that describes technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes in the way media circulates within our culture. Some common ideas referred by the term include the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, the search for new structures of media financing that fall at the interstices between old and new media, and migratory behaviour of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kind of entertainment experiences they want’ Jenkins, 2006: 282

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‘Once upon a time .. companies that published newspapers, magazines, and books did very little else; their involvement with other media was slight’ Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983: 23

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‘convergence does not mean stability or unity. It operates as a constant force for unification but always in dynamic tension with change…. There is no immutable law of growing convergence; the process of change is more complicated than that’ Ithiel de Sola Pool, 1983: 53-4

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Source: Reuters

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Digital compression allows for more efficient use of bandwidth

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The ‘Jesus phone’?- Campbell & La Pastina, 2010

Touted as ‘revolutionary’ convergence device

Steve Jobs, Mac World expo, 2007

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8sPVfFXC6AY

Complaint to ASA (August 2008)http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/

Public/TF_ADJ_44891.htm

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OknElEusVhM

Complaint to ASA (November 2008)http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/

adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_45381.htm November 2008-12-08

Trust in corporations? 32

Days after June 2010 iPhone 4 launch Gizmodo publishes blog post about faulty signal

Flooded with complaints

How should you deal with such a PR disaster?

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1. Apologize and take full responsibility?

2. Announce a huge media event and prime expectations?

3. Begrudgingly offer a give-away late in the day?

4. Attack your competitors?

5. Expose the entire industries failings?

6. Call the issue AntennaGate?34

Environmental concerns

Supply chain problems

Foxconn suicides

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TrT1gzQHsI4

Access to 2 million+ tunes from Sony, Warner, Universal

Annual cost approx £300

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TrT1gzQHsI4

Access to 2 million+ tunes from Sony, Warner, Universal

Annual cost approx £300

Binned in January 2011

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Increasing competition from Apple and Android

Business focused on non-smartphones BBC clip

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2007: revenue of €51bn2007: profit of €7bn

2008: revenue of €50.7bn2008: profit of 3.7bn

2009: revenue of €40.9bn2009: profit of €260m

2010: Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo replaced by Microsoft’s Stephen Elop2010: Symbian OS to be replaced by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile

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October 2011 – huge network outage

Faulty router to blame Lack of email service for

corporate users Unsure about the backup

solution which threatened to do more damage

How to deal with this?

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Mike Lazardis video apology

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Dec 2011: Blackberry Playbooks written down by $485 million

Jan 2012: Mike Lazardis & Jim Balsillie resign

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