Empowering the Little People

The idea that traditional forms of media are being slowly made obsolete due to the progression in digital technologies has been comprehensively examined throughout numerous tutorials this semester. However, I personally feel there will still be a place for the television, newspapers and other traditional platforms forms alike, in the new multifaceted media landscape. I contend that the digital revolution has not replaced traditional mediums but rather they exist simultaneously, complementing one other, creating an informed media environment.  Alas, audience numbers of traditional mediums may not be as large as they were before the digital revolution - there is no doubt that the digital revolution has impacted our conventional media consumption in a large way - but will the Internet and the digital platforms the Internet creates, consume our entire mediated communication system?

Citizen journalism – a very cool/scary phenomenon.

Why is it cool? I see it as empowering the little people. No longer do you have to be large, powerful corporation to put your thoughts out there, into the public sphere! Weblogs, Twitter, social networking sites and forums are fantastic resources for people to read and discover there own unbiased opinion on all sorts of issues, from the most controversial to the most trivial. If you search for it, you will find an abundance of information, debating each and every aspect of whatever it is you want to uncover.

Though I still feel credibility is a massive downfall. If every Tom, Dick and Harry can publish online, how are we to know that what he or she is publishing is correct? We don’t. This is why I feel digital platforms COMPLEMENT conventional platforms. For example, I found out about the Japan Tsunami through Facebook. I was intrigued, so I searched Google and found an abundance of informative, credible sources – mostly sites that were from a major media corporation (The Australian site for example) as it is widely acknowledged that big, powerful corporations have a the highest journalistic standards and integrity – although this is debatable - thus, social media did not fulfil my entire information seeking desires.

Yet, could there possibly be too much freedom? What if extreme activists start publishing their views, will they get a following? Will this result in riots? Revolt? Perhaps there does need to be some sort of censorship over the content available on the web in order to maintain ideological viewpoints. If ISP filtering is implemented, that will really throw a spanner in the works – so to speak… But that is a whole other blog topic!

There is no doubt that the media sphere is changing. Audiences are fragmented, actively searching for information, interacting online, providing feedback and creating their own content – all of which should most definitely be recognised as a major adjustment in terms of media consumption.  But to say that this will completely replace traditional forms of media, I feel, is a extreme statement. The Internet may attract higher numbers, especially as our generation ages, but there will always (at least for a long time to come) be a television blaring in the background of your morning breakfast routine or showcasing the football game through a projector at the pub on a Friday night, don’t you think?

To survive in e-commerce, harness, employ and celebrate the digital revolution.

The long tail concept has so many positive and negative ramifications. Is the birth of the Internet, and the long tail concept good or bad? The death of journalism as we know it is a scary thought for many of those university students majoring in a journalism, some say the increase of weblogs and citizen journalism threatens the credibility of this profession…

"...mass professionalization is an oxymoron; a professional class implies a minority of members" 

(Shirky, 2000)

However, this can be perceived as an exciting notion for those of us majoring in digital communications. As up and coming professionals, we must find a way to harness the shift in the corporate sphere by manipulating our knowledge, degree, and resume to take advantage of the digital revolution and position ourselves in alignment of the approaching opportunities.

The new retail frameworks made available through novel exercises such as electronic distribution, is fantastic for the convenient purchasing of music or e-books as these can be transformed into an entire digital experience. There is little to no delay between time of purchase and obtainment of product, even if you’re shopping at 2am – when traditional methods of shopping would be out of the question. Retailers must understand, employ and celebrate this new form of e-commerce or risk redundancy.

For other tangible items such as clothes and home wears, the Internet provides a much more competitive environment. There is an increase in price transparency… comparing products, brands and retailers is done with ease. Countless forums and blogs are available providing discussions on the best brands and products to buy to satisfy ones needs. For those of us that have a ‘here and now’ attitude, this may not be the best option as shipping time may take away from the excitement of the shopping experience.

Smaller, niche markets can find products appealing to there individual style with ease! This has led to the ‘boom of the indie’ as I like to say. Indie music, art, clothing and films have somewhat shifted the cultural hegemony which mass media once used to have complete dominance over. And from a marketing perspective, the Internet provides opportunities to target advertising efforts effectively and efficiently as new pull methods can be utilised. I feel Anderson's assertion…

"In the tyranny of physical space, an audience too thinly spread is the same as no audience at all" (Anderson, 2004)

… is no longer relevant in the digital age. 

Convergence - Should Authorities Be Worried?

Jenkins and Deuze outline how in the past we saw a model where a small number of (powerful) media companies were homogenizing culture through there dominance over the means of production and distribution of media content. There was a very clear line between the publics’ role as “consumers” and the medias role as the “producer.” The idea of the public being seen as producers of… or even participants within, the surrounding culture was absurd. Yet, as demonstrated by the image below, technology has developed and media resources expanded over the past several decades and we have seen how everyone – from commercial, amateur, governmental to activists – now have the opportunity to produce and distribute content which serves there own agenda, thus putting forward there own individual mark in the cultural frame (Jenkins, 2004, Deuze, 2007).

Along with this, we see a dramatically fragmented audience. We now have the opportunity to expose ourselves to the content we choose to be exposed to. This implicates the classic media model immensely. Do the traditional mass media forms still exert the power it once had? Does it still play a large role in shaping and framing our western worldviews? There is no doubt the Internet and its blended consumer/producer model lessens the enormous power mass media platforms once possessed.

Furthermore, the proposed ISP filtering could implicate this notion more so. If Australia was to implement Internet filtering, the country will become the first Western democracy to block access to online material through legislative mandate, positioning Australia at a similar standpoint to authoritarian regimes, reminiscent of China and Iran. The lack of transparency about what and why material will be blocked, combined with the filtering’s inevitable transfer of power to those who design and implement its technology, should be concerning factors for many Australian citizens. Although there is content on the Internet that is harmful and undesirable for many citizens, the legitimacy of this censorship is somewhat debatable. Are the authorities attempting to win back the power they had prior to the introduction of the Internet? 

Deuze, M 2007, “Convergence culture in the creative industries,” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 10, Issue 2, pp 243-263

Jenkins, H 2004, “The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence,” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 33-43