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Technology Facilitated Audience Empowerment. Gemma Downing, Harrison Neale, Craig Walker. Argue that, facilitated by technological developments, media power is increasingly shifting into the hands of the audience
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Technology Facilitated Audience Empowerment Gemma Downing, Harrison Neale, Craig Walker
Argue that, facilitated by technological developments, media power is increasingly shifting into the hands of the audience • Argue that the idea of technology-facilitated audience empowerment is a myth: power remains in the hands of media organisations
What is technology facilitated audience empowerment ? • Technology facilitated audience empowerment = New Media • Highly personalised, interactive • Subjective and fragmented. • PULL • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cKpvwlSGOI
New Technology Enables creativity • The evolution of the web 1.0 to web 2.0 has had a great impact on creativity • Provides new ways for people to share their ideas and get them recognized • Feedback on ideas can be gained much more easily • For example, Kickstarter
Kickstarter • Allows people to share the ideas and get funding for them • Allows the creation of media products without having to work with big media companies • Gives the creator much larger control over the creation of their products
User generated sites are provided by traditional media organisations • Youtube, Flickr and Wikipedia • McLuhan and Williams- Patterns of use and therefore power relations still exist • Frankfurt School- Constantly surrounded by media, so how can technology empower us?
Allows for better competitiveness against larger corporations • Cloud computing allows smaller companies to compete more effectively • Free software is now almost as effective as paid for software • Different free media outlets allow for small companies to get their work to consumers more easily • Indymedia (Devereux 2005)
Indymedia • A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues. (Indymedia, 2012) • Folllows in the footsteps of radical journalism (Atton 2002) • Gives ordinary people a voice on topics that big media organisations may not want to cover
Greater access to new developments • Larger profits to reinvest into research and development • For example, Facebooks purchase of Instagram • Was seen as a new social network, concern over rival bids (Kedrosky(BBC), 2012) • Bigger co orperationshave the power to act as they wish.
Final Thoughts • How is user generated content monitored? Should it be? • Does money equal power? • Can technology change the ever-present hierarchy of media? • Has a rise in technology allowed for bigger businesses to flourish? • How does new media affect your life?