Henry Jenkins - Media Convergence

Can you explain the concept of media convergence?
- the information system is converged
- shaped by the integration of the media industry - same company owns interest in all media platforms
- shaped by teenagers wanting the media when and where they want it

You argue that convergence is a cultural rather than a technological process?
- social and cultural change precedes and races ahead of technological change
- if consumers view media over "enormous" difficulties then we can predict much more precisely the technical needs that are going to occur
- technology amplifies the trends of the culture

What do you mean by the term "participatory culture" and how will it affect the way we learn, communicate and do business?
- everyone is potentially a producer of media as well as a consumer.
- people have struggled with sharing their ideas with each other because of geographical distance
- success of the Obama campaign was based on participatory culture

Can you address the issue of collective intelligence and its role in media, culture and business?
- collective intelligence came from Pierre Lévy
- whatever a member knows the network knows

Pierre Lévy

how online media has changed consumer behaviour and audience response over time.

TV

The way we consume tv has changed drastically over the past years.
The democratisation of media is part of web 2.0 which means anybody can use any type of media. It is also alot easier to access - a new era of online media.

web 1.0 was newspapers and tv and this alone has restricted viewings for consumers. you could only have what was presented to you and you had no choice in the matter therefore we had no comparisons. Web 2.0 is contemporary media and this is alot to do with internet. This has made some media forms alot more accessible. giving us more choice and variety of what we want. This is made more accessible with programs such as bbc i player , itv player, 4od etc. these websites contain catchup programmes, series' of all programmes shown and can allow us to pick and choose what we would like to watch. This also allowed us to produce and distribute our own media in greater numbers and have greater autonomy.

Tv democratisation is a massive change in the world of media. Things such as Sky, sky plus, sky hd, virgin media, ntl etc. have emerged giving us much more freedom just from our television in our homes. You can access libraries of programmes and stop pause rewind etc. You can record something on your televison if you miss it without using any sort of disc or tape. Online tv is increasingly popular due to its free and easy access you can make choices. this is also media convergence the way that tv has converged with certain channels advertising advertising their online content.

The Uses and gratifications theory states that the audience is not passive and easily effected by the media text. Suggesting the audience is Naive and gullable to the ideologies shown in certain media texts and taking these and using them in their collective identitys. Back to the uses and gratifications theory, it states that the audience is not passive, but an active audience, being able to see through what the text is representing and assessing the situation represented in the text ourselves , not always agreeiing with the media. For example on television when we see programs such as skins we do not immediately think somethings a good idea because they do.  We will look at their choices and learn from them maybe, or maybe not , depending on  the individual.

Chris Andersons 'The Long Tail Theory'. Has shed light on the niches and the internet has changed this subject alot allowing us to have more access to less popular niche programmes/channels. There are many online channels and libraries of such media where you can find such specialised products that you can find exactly what you want down to animals, wild animals, vets, weddings, brides, reality tv, game shows, whatever you could possibly want you could find and more and more people are realising this making niche products more popular. Whereas channels such as bbc1 get millions of views niche channels collaborated together generate a similar amount of views.

Internet protocol televisioin (IPTV)

The official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is as follows:
"IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability."
 
Another official and more detailed definition of IPTV is the one given by Alliance fore telecommunications industry solutions (ATIS) IPTV Exploratory Group on 2005:
"IPTV is defined as the secure and reliable delivery to subscribers of entertainment video and related services. These services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand (VOD) and interactive tv (iTV). These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio, video and control signals. In contrast to video over the public Internet, with IPTV deployments, network security and performance are tightly managed to ensure a superior entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers, advertisers and customers alike."

A system where internet television services are delivered using the architecture and networking methods of internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network infrastructure. e.g.  the internet and broadband internet access networks instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequency broadcast, satellite signal, and cable television (CATV) formats IPTV services may be classified into three main groups:

• live television  with or without interactivity related to the current TV show;
• time-shifted programming: catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning);
• video on demand (VOD): browse a catalog of videos, not related to TV programming.

IPTV is distinguished from general Internet-based or web-based multimedia services by its on-going standardization process and preferential deployment scenarios in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top boxes or other customer-premises equipment.



I think IPTV has changed tv alot because it has made things alot more available to people making some shows perhaps more popular because people are being able to fit them into their schedule instead of having to wait till its shown on television.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/01_january/14/iplayer.shtml - this shows how popular things such as iplayer are.

Who stands to benefit the most?

Tv producers and other people involved in the production of shows such as distributors and advertisers etc. stand to benefit from iptv because it brings in more viewings bringing in more money for the show it also increases its popularity which brings in even more viewings. However viewers have alot more freedom now scheduling there own shows but it only goes that far, it depends where your standing both are benefited in different ways. 

I think that Producers and benefit the most from this.

'We Think'

Charles Leadbeater is the author of the book 'We think'

On Charles' site the headline says

Welcome to We-think: mass innovation, not mass production

We think is about how the web is changing all the time and its effecting and changing other things in our world it has become more accessible. The website states 'Ideas take life when they are shared'. The site talks about how the internet creates tools for creating and innovation. The website also states that the web should be good for democracy by giving more people a voice and the ability to organise themselves. Basically stating that the internet opens up oppurtunities for people who would nor perhaps have the chance to let themselves be known without the internet. It also describes the internet as almost an endless book a search engine for every subject you could think of and information in which you can take in and learn about all sorts of subjects, places, jobs, people, useful information about opening times rules regulations, laws, applications, how to's/tutorials release dates videos and previews etc.

They also talk about the negative parts of the internet such as lack of privacy, things such as blogs and people being heard can create arguments and frequent disagreements.

Everywhere we turn there will be struggles between people who want to freely share - music, films, ideas, information - and those who want to control this activity, either corporations who want to make money or governments who fear debate and democracy. This conflict between the rising surge of mass collaboration and attempts to retain top down control will be one of the defining battles of our time, from Communist China, to Microsoft's battle with open source and the music industry's desperate rearguard action against the web.

Long Tail Theory

Niche channel- The Africa Channel- Average daily reach- 10
                       - Men and Movies- 23
                       - Wedding TV- 42
Mainstream Channel- BBC1- Average daily reach- 30,343
                                 - ITV 1- 21,910
                                 - E4- 3,423

The long tail theory says that because of internet and web 2.0, niche channels have become more popular and more accesible to the public therefore resulting in higher viewings fo nich channels making them almost equivilent in popularity to mainstream channels because there will always be someone who wants to watch them.
However, here, the long tailed theory has not been proven. All of the minstream channels have significantly higher weekly viewings compared to the Niche channels. so we think that sometimes the theory can be proven with less popular mainstream channels and some Niche channels have a  higher viewing because their subjects are perhaps more of a wider range, more entertaining equaling in popularity.

Niche channel- Comedy Central- 873
Mainstream Channel- Sky 2- 1,153
^ the difference here is not quite so large.

Copyright

What is the role of the copyright and trademarks act?
they regulate all types of media, including television and films.

what is the role of Ofcom?
ofcom are an "independant regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries"
they will be monitoring the use of illegal downloads and enforcing consequences for those people.

How do you think downloading tv programmes and films for free have effected the tv and film industries?
the money that would be spent on buying the films, or the television episodes in shops, is then not being spent because the downloading is free. the industries are then losing out on money.

do you agree with the new copyright proposal on downloading set out by ofcom? why?
i dont agree that this is a good system to enforce, because the people that only download for personal use shouldnt be punished. those that plan on distributing their illegal downloads and recieving a profit for it should be caught and fined.

downloads.

- Downloading a particular TV show for personal use is ok.

I think that downloading a TV programme for personal use is ok, this is illegal, although because of its simplicity it doesn't seem as though your commiting a crime. however this is an ongoing problem, as the industries will be plumiting due to the money that is now not being spent on the music.

Media in the online age.

to what extent would you say online film reviews are postmodern?
 online reviews are intertextual. They often refer to other films made by the same director for example 127 hours review refers to Danny Boyles previous work such as slum dog millionaire. This is also the case with actors for example James Franco was a key box office draw, who appealed to fans of previous movies he starred.