Media in the Online Age

Revision

Exam

• 2 questions to choose from for this topic• 1 hour spent on the question• Link your points to two forms of media (film

and TV)• Relate to Theory• Express your own opinion!• Focus on the contemporary with brief relation

to the past and a prediction for the future.

Theories we looked at:

1. Henry Jenkins – Participatory Culture“Everyone is a producer of Media, the desire to

create and share is great and we can now communicate across geographical barriers”

E.g. YouTube – we can all create and upload videos, we can all comment on them and join in.

So we are able to 1. Expand communities 2. Extend opportunities 3.Exchange knowledge.

Theories we looked at:

• 2. Chris Anderson – The Long TailLots of small grossing films One large grossing blockbuster

If you add up all the revenue from Niche market films the profit can be greater than or equal to the profit from one blockbuster or best selling product.

Pre broadband Niche products were hard to find and expensive to buy, now online shopping/sharing makes it easy to cater for everyone's taste.

Theories we looked at:

• Jeff Howe – Crowd SourcingThis is when someone puts their intent out onto

the internet and then gets free support/information/ideas/labour from other people on the internet.

e.g. OkGo – put their idea on ‘Mindshare’ and were able to make their music video from all the free equipment and labour people offered.

Theories we looked at:

• Globalisation (no name needed)• Trade barriers are lessened so large media

organisations (Google) become global players as they reach wider audiences.

• This replaces/pushes out home grown organisations.

• Most global companies come from the west and carry the west’s messages and values.

• People begin to adopt this dominating culture which results in Cultural Homogenisation.

Other things we discussed

• Exhibition – illegal downloads and YouTube as first place for information, we are no longer willing to wait for the real product.

• Critical versus Popular review – which holds more weight in today’s society (the importance of speed)

• Targeted marketing – cookies on your computer trace what films you have looked at and then adverts pop up to suggest what you might like.

• Prosumers – people creating their own films or TV shows and streaming them online for free.

Examples we looked at

• Charlie McDonnell - Makes a living off his YouTube videos on his channel Charlieiscoollike (Prosumer)

• UltraCulture - Charlie Lyne’s film blog (popular review)

• Born of Hope - The Lady who made her own prequel to lord of the rings

• Vimeo – Similar to YouTube but just for films. • The Misfits and Little Miss Sunshine websites – To

contrast exhibition methods.• 24 hour news – you looked at your own examples.

Example Questions:

• 1. What impact has the internet had on media production, distribution and exhibition?

• 2. In the last few years what have been the most significant developments in how individuals use the internet?

These questions are very different – don’t just dump all you knowledge on the paper – select the appropriate information for

the question.