Music in the Online Age

Steve Albini Article - Notes

Steve Albini Article Notes from GeorginaGilbey

 

Recording Connection Article Notes from GeorginaGilbey
 

Socialnomics Article Notes from GeorginaGilbey

Long Tail Theory

Graphs

Notes

Long Tail Theory - Chris Anderson, 2006

•  About sales of a product over time
• Highest point of a chart: very popular, all at once
  > e.g - TV Dr Who Christmas episode
• Slope: popularity decreases over time
  > goes down to a few purchases in a month / 1 view
• Online stores can make more money out of small volume sales of the millions of individual niche products, than out of their higher volume sales of a much smaller number of mainstream products.
• Online digital stores (e.g - iTunes) can stock millions of tracks on their servers. They can provide both mainstream products and a huge number of obscure/niche products.
  > Cater for the long tail of the market as well as mainstream

David Gauntlett

•  "Web 2.0 allows us to become producers as well as consumers of the internet."
• "Web 2.0 allows us to collaborate and participate with each other."
  > CCP - Creativity, Collaboration, Participation

Film in the Online Age

Case study: A Cure For Wellness 

Participation

The site for A Cure For Wellness (2017) offers a "treatment" and gives the options of water, earth and air to choose from. Clicking one of these redirects the viewer to a page where a voice-over guides them through a meditation based on one of these elemental forces. It matches the theme of the film being some sort of healing institution and the tab is labelled "There is a cure". Apart from being obviously synergetic, it allows the audience to interact with the film and the visuals, such as the one shown above, are very intriguing.

They also have a social media presence as they post frequent updates and try to persuade people to see the film, such as on Twitter:

They have a specific Twitter hashtag to allow people to interact with them or other fans of the film.

Creativity

The main site features spoof adverts of a similar calibre to that of those you may find on an untrustworthy website. They incorporate stills from the film and all feature the noun 'wellness' along with some form of direct address (e.g. "You are not well"), making them quite ominous in tone.

Henry Jenkins and Convergence Culture Reading

Fandoms

Henry Jenkins: Participatory culture

John Fiske: Three Types of Fan
Semiotic Productivity - analysing the text
Enunciative Productivity - Fans communicating with one another about a text (e.g online review sites, fan forums, Twitter hashtags...)
Textual Productivity - Fans creating media in response to the text (e.g - posters, fan-fiction, fanzines)
[Link: David Gauntlett]

Case Study: BBC's Sherlock (2010 - Present)

Semiotic Productivity:
Fans writing analysis and 'meta' about the show, referring to specific quotes to back up ideas and construct theories.




Enunciative Productivity:
Discussions on platforms such as Tumblr and Reddit about various plot points, theories, character developments, etc. Live Tweeting/Posting during new episodes.


Textual Productivity:
Fan art on Deviant Art, e.g. widely recognised John as a hedgehog, Sherlock as an otter.

David Gauntlett

Web 1.0 VS Web 2.0

The idea that Web 1.0 was solely about information being provided for the user with no interaction, and Web 2.0 is CCP (Collaborative, Creative, Participatory) with uploading, sharing, downloading and creating.

The phrase 'Web 2.0' was made by Tim O'Reilly. It is not a replacement for the web we know, but rather a way of using the systems in a 'new' way that brings people together creatively. Individuals can collaborate on projects instead of seeking to create and protect their own work, for example the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, where information is submitted by millions of users.
Gauntlett argues that people aren't represented by the media they use, Web 2.0 platforms allow them to make their own media to share with the world and choose how to represent themselves. It is more about people and less about 'the media'. Examples of this transformation include YouTube, Wikipedia, vlogging, etc. People can use platforms such as YouTube to entertain, present their daily lives, advocate for something, or present creative works and gain feedback (participatory culture).

Introduction

This blog is revision for the second exam topic, Contemporary Issues.

The Questions

Your answer is worth 50 marks and therefore half of the exam. It should take an hour to write.
In your answer you must refer to:
The past (15%)
The present (70%)
A prediction about the future (15%)
You must refer to a minimum of 2 media areas.

Last year's questions: (choose one)

•  "The impact of the internet on the media is revolutionary." Discuss.
•  Discuss the extent to which the consumption and distribution of media has been transformed by the internet.

Some ideas:

 -  TV: People's lives are no longer dictated by the TV schedule; platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc, allow for viewers to pick and choose when they want to consume media. YouTube also offers an interesting dynamic in that there is a 'channel' for every possible interest and viewers have the freedom to unsubscribe from them at any time. There are still some similarities between the two in terms of monetization and advertising, but overall viewers have a lot more freedom compared to the past. Could also discuss social impact - how often is it that families sit and watch TV together according to a schedule?

- News: Similarly, the way people consume news is ever-changing. The internet allows for news and communications to spread instantaneously all over the world. Consumers no longer have to leave the house and buy a physical print copy of a newspaper or even tune in at a specific time to see it on TV; all it takes is a quick online search. Social media presents even more opportunities for communicating as stories about what's 'trending' spread fast. Print media is becoming less popular and harder to support and the media is realizing this as they try to reach out to their audiences on plarforms such as Facebook with live videos, etc. Even magazines are making the move to digitalisation, as consumers can opt to read on devices such as iPads at their convenience (advertising may also be easier to incorporate, generating more revenue).