The Key Issues for Audiences and Institutions

Having listened to a very informative podcast on various concepts and terminology to do with media, i have a greater understanding of them. Here are the concepts and what i found:

Digitality: a binary system of enconding, a series of 0’s or 1’s using an on and off electrical pulse. It is a small code used in compuers and now television and radio.

Interactivity: Streaming of inforation through air / isdn cable (broadband) / phone line. It uses compression so that more information can be transferred at one time. We can interact with everyone, the information can go both ways so that we can easily converse. We can now upload and download music, images, videos etc.

Hypertextuality: Text is no longer linear. We can change the order that we use any media, jump scenes like on a dvd (different to a vhs). Jump from different media, sound to video etc. We can also jump out of somebodies media, into someone elses.

Dispersal: how information is shared. Market size and use effects how it is shared. Access users have, maybe on a wide network, would increase the profit.

Virtuality: linking with the real world, representational. Mimicking our world.

Convergance: This is a big issue in media! New technologies converge/merge into one form. For example, Mp3 players that can show photos on. Camcorders with a hard-drive to make it easier to edit. Mobiles with web (WAP) , pictures, videos, email etc. Convergance, before, was exceptionally hard purely because of the size that converged items would be. Size of the gadgets as they converge, get a lot smaller nowadays.

In the final section of the podcast, it asks questions of the concepts.

Audience: How do we use it? Do we actually use it? Does it change the way we use it? Did we use it before? Has it changed from a newer version? Has it developed form consumer demand or has it been led by the industry? Have they (the industry) influenced us? Who has actually got access? Does the global village cover the whole world!? Who’s disenfranchised (Who’s not getting the internet?) How do they get the audience to keep buying new things?


Regulation and Control: Who’s doin the controlling? Should there be any control? What do they do about copyright issues? (proxy servers) Implications of control? What is the impact on producers? Does the fact that downloading is easier, cheaper take money from the producers?
Impact on the government?


Ownership: Who owns the technology? (Brand names?) Do certain brands close out the market ( Nintendo Wii / Xbox360/ Sony PS3, console manufacturing) Do brand names affect sales?

The questions are food for thought and i shall be investigating them...