Script

 Introduction 
We have been asked to talk about the internet and how it has affected the production of media products such as music and video games in contrast to how they were before internet had a large effect on the way they are produced and consumed.

so how has the online media developed?

From the beginning of the internet to present, it has been transforming and developing all the time, from 1960 where the development of internetworking, where multiple separate networks could be joined together into a network of networks. The development of online media started to advance in the mid 1990’s, where it had a big impact on culture and commerce. There was a development in instant communication such as email, instant messaging, voice calls over the internet, video calls/streaming , blogging, social networking and online shopping. “Leadbetter believes that the internet is the home of mass innovation because it is home to a mass of conversations and conversation is how ideas and creativity evolve. The internet allows people to socialise and get recognition for their ideas and knowledge”. As of the 31 of March 2011, the estimated total number of Internet users was 2.095 billion (30.2% of the world population).

Music Industry – Because of the development of online media retailers of all sizes are feeling the effects of falling CD sales on their business. Smaller retailers complain that the disadvantages they face in competition with the internet is being made worse by the availability of downloaded music, legally and illegally, with the use of peering/torrent downloading. Music can now be streamed free online and shared on nearly all social networks, which can help the promotion of artists and record labels. For example online music productions have evolved throughout the years and a good example of this is SBTV (Youtube Channel) showing the use of online music video streaming and content sharing. SBTV was founded in 2006 and since then has gone from strength to strength and is now the leading youth broadcaster and new media broadcaster. SBTV isn't the only music video channel and Youtube isn't the only video-sharing website, however it is now the leading video-sharing website and because of this Channels on Youtube such as SBTV can be view by millions of people and as a result of this its means more money for Google and more coverage for the channels - more popular the channel more advertising and marketing opportunities, meaning higher money intake. Because of this the development of advertising online has increased a lot compared to advertising on music videos shown on tv - its a lot cheaper online.

Video Games – With the continuous advancement of online gaming and the rise of mass collaboration means that now developers and gamers have the power to interact and communicate through-out online media such as games or game forums. Tanya Byron focuses on the impact that the development of media online has on the young people and adults. Tanya Bryon discusses ‘generational digital divide’ where the younger generation are more advanced than adults/parents. As a result of this parents are being over protective through fear of what they don’t understand. For example the content that in now shared through games as they are now a lot more realistic and can influence the gamers actions and thoughts in real life. Such as the game ‘Grand Theft Auto’ which has lead to children copying things from the game and being violent or vandalising.


Developers can provide extra content to enhance the game and can fix bugs easily without having to send out a whole new update manually. In turn consumers can choose what content you have on the game.


In many cases, there is a large amount of information available about a title even before it is out. Take Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an example: before its release you could find out every character, stage and item. On top of that, every gamer has a dozen different reviews for a game at his or her disposal at the click of a button. Long gone are the days when you need to buy a gaming magazine to find out about upcoming games, or just guess as to whether or not a game will be good. Nor do we need to ring a premium rate number or buy a guide to complete a game, with online walkthroughs available for almost every game.


Global leaderboards and rankings, and the possibilities of game-streaming services such as OnLive allow access to games from multiple locations and increased competitiveness.

What has been the impact of the internet on media production? 

Music

The internet has increased media production as it has allowed consumers to create their own music and post it online for others to listen to whereas before people had to be signed by a music company to be able to get their music to the nation.

Artists can use online software to produce music instead of having to have a proper recording studio they can use basic computer equipment to produce high quality tracks. A good fact to know is that in 1999 the profit in the music industry from people buying CD's was $14.6 billion dollars. 10 years down the line in 2009, that figure had dropped by more than half to $6.3 billion dollars. This is because of the amount of illegal free downloading on sites such as Limewire. This figure on its own proves how much the internet has effected the music industry an will continue to in years to come because of the different programmes and software the internet provides. The volume of unauthorised downloads continues to represent about 90% of the market, according to online download tracker BigChampagne Media Measurement. The music industry has tried to keep up by licensing ringtones, licensing music on popular Internet radio stations like MySpace Music and Pandora and licensing music videos on YouTube. Digital licensing revenue reached $84 million in 2009, and it is expected to grow substantially in the coming year.

Video games

Consumers can download extra products for their games and updates to fix errors

and can also produce their own games in the form of apps and post them on the apple store and android market for others to play and download. this means they can make a large amount of money from a very simplistic game created in someone's bedroom that the social gamer can play for example angry birds.
Free creativity of being allowed to post your own created games encourages small companies or people at home to make their own games and broadcast them but is hard to control what content is released.
Long Tail Theory
The long tail theory was founded by Chris Anderson back in 2004 and he talks about how different the music industry has changed dramatically due to the internet use around the world. One of the opening facts he used was that due to internet use, was that 40% of the music market online was music that was not available to buy in stores which is astonishing      . Also one of the things he says during the opening of the presentation was 'a few had alot and alot had a few'. This quote sums up what the presentation is all about as he talks about music and refers to the gaming industry and how big blockbusters games or albums that come out onto the market, may bring in the same amount of money as a few niche albums or films which is amazing. Chris mentioned that due to the internet use and different places we can purchase and download software, that in the modern day we can focus on specific things we want instead of putting up with the majority which was always the way in the 20th century.To sum up, the presentation was all about letting the public know that due to internet, music and gaming markets have become so much more open and now you can buy sometimes un - known products as well as the big blockbusters.  

To what extent has convergence transformed the media?
Wikinomics is mass colaboration in business.

The online age has created people called digital natives, these are people who have grown up with technology which seems natural to them. This has also left them feeling alienated by web 2.0.

Music

Convergence has transformed the music industry as it means music is not sold exclusively for things like CD players or iPods you can buy it on phones and other devices.

Can listen to music anywhere using devices with internet streaming.

Peering is the free sharing of music on the internet its good for businesses as cuts distribution costs to almost zero but bad for artists as consumers can take it without paying and also their intellectual property is not protected.


Free creativity of being allowed to post your own music encourages small artists but is hard to control.


democracy of peering is controlled by the public over the internet.


Clay Shirky social activism
People used social media in the form of facebook pages to stop x factor getting the christmas number 1 by encouraging people to buy the Rage Against The Machine song ''Killing in the name'' in december 2009 defeating Simon Cowell in his 4 year reign over the xmas chart beating the winner of the x factor Joe McElderry.

Video games

Instant access through streaming don’t have to go out to a store to buy a game disk.

Watch dvds on games consoles.

How is consumer behaviour and audience response transformed by online media, in relation to the past?


Charles Leadbetter-We think
The internet allows more people than ever to collaborate, participate and share ideas and information.


It is good for democracy as it gives more people a voice and the ability to organise themselves, freedom through creativity and equality by allowing knowledge to be set free.


Participation can cause a cacophony- chaos\


Problems between producers and consumers of consumers uploading products illegally (piracy) reduces freedom of consumers as the businesses restrict what content can be uploaded through fines and court cases.


Video Games
Social behaviour - Because of so much online media being available now, the generation of today have been brought up with access to this everyday and because of this, social activities outside of the internet world have become scarce which means kids today do not exercise as much.
World Interactions - online gaming has evolved so much that you can now play and chat to people all around the world. 
Online chats whilst gaming - interaction between gamers have provoked bad and good behaviour. e.g racism, nationalism - cyber friends/penpals, job opportunities. 
Online chats/blogs for interaction between consumer and producer - Because of this the improvement in gaming will and has advanced as producers can talk to consumers and view consumers thoughts on products and ideas. Because of this producers can gt the very best ideas for final products and can improve and fix products that have already been produced. 
Lots of competition online, which is good and bad for the producer. Its become alot more easier to create games online either for free or cheaply. Free app builders and torrent downloads makes it easier for any user to create a game that the can share online. Because it's so easy the market for online game has become a huge competition between the producers and consumers as they can create they're own games. Why buy them, when you can create them? 
Free gaming - bad for production companies. Instead of buying games to play at home on a console or downloading an app for 70p etc. They can now either torrent games and copy onto a disk for free or have a range of free app downloads with very similar competitive content. Because of this production company don't turnover as much money as they would of before. 
Music industry
Since the internet came, the music industry has never been the same in a good way. For example, the first reason why it is so good is that people can listen to any artist or genre of music whether it is a new song or a new artist and then leave comments to let them know if they were good, bad and also where they could improve. All this is good for the artist because it gives you positive criticism and stuff to work on for the next time you write a song or film a video.


this is a participatory culture like stated by the theorist Henry jenkins who says fans of games and music use digital technology to respond to their favourite products and producers can engage with their audiences.

Clay Shirky

Advances in online communications and social media allows ideas and information to be shared with much more ease than previously allowing for mass collaboration as groups of individuals can come together virtually.

David Gauntlett
everyday creativity--we find happiness through making and sharing our own media products online.