Has new media democratised the production of media texts by shifting the control of media content away from large media institutions? Has new media changed the way media texts are consumed and what are the social implications for this? Has new media technology provided new cross-cultural, global media texts that communicate across national and social boundaries? How active or interactive are consumers of new media and how significant is this in terms of power? How has new/digital media impacted on traditional media productions and consumption? To what extent does new media escape some of the constraints of censorship that traditional media encounters?

1. The Impact of New Media

2. CONTENTS
• Has new media democratised the production of media texts by shifting the
control of media content away from large media institutions?
• Has new media changed the way media texts are consumed and what are the
social implications for this?
• Has new media technology provided new cross-cultural, global media texts
that communicate across national and social boundaries?
• How active or interactive are consumers of new media and how significant
is this in terms of power?
• How has new/digital media impacted on traditional media productions and
consumption?
• To what extent does new media escape some of the constraints of censorship
that traditional media encounters?

3. The Digital
Revolution
Video and
DVD
Portable
camcorders
Home
computer
& games
consoles
Cable,
satellite &
digital TV
Mobile phones &
their convergence
with other media
photography &
video
The world
wide web
Email
MP3
podcasts webcams
blogs
Social networking

4. •Has new media democratised
the production of media texts
by shifting the control of media
content away from large media
institutions?

5. Alternative Media Forms
• New media technologies facilitate small-scale media
productions.
• This provides for alternative views that challenge dominant
ideologies/values of society.
The Royal Commission on the Press (1977) defined
alternative media as:
• Dealing with the opinion of small minorities
• Expressing attitudes hostile to widely held beliefs
• Espousing views or dealing with subjects not given regular
coverage by publications generally available at newsagents.

6. Look at the homepages of the three websites below.
In what ways do they provide an alternative media
space for those wanting to challenge dominant
ideologies in contemporary society?

7. Alternative media forms
• Some critical perspectives suggest that alternative media are run in a more
egalitarian & democratic way.
• They reduce the cost of media production.
• New media texts can challenge the consumerist norms of a capitalist society.
• They may create ideological disruption & disturbance in relation to values
and ideas about areas such as gender/sexuality, religion etc.
• Alternative websites provide ‘citizen journalism’ – allowing ordinary people
to give their own alternative versions of dominant news stories.
• In doing so, they politicise the repression of events & information produced
in mainstream news, drawing attention to its selectivity.
• However, ‘citizen journalists’ are not necessarily restrained by professional or
institutional codes of conduct.

8. •Has new media changed the way
media texts are consumed?
•What are the social implications
for this?

9. Web 2.0
• A second generation of web based material which
facilitates mobile broadband and wireless
connections.
• Web based communities such as social networking
sites and wikis.
• These facilitate collaboration and sharing of user
generated content.
• Posting comments on websites, uploading videos,
photos and music and commenting on others’
contributions.

10. Web 2.0
• Web 2.0’s emphasis was on...
• Interactivity
• User participation
• Dynamic content – content that is not fixed but shifting,
changing and constantly reconstructed.
• Freedom – for audiences and individuals to produce, consume
& engage with a wide range of new texts.
• To allow audiences to produce their own content.
• MySpace, Friends Reunited, Facebook, YouTube

11. •Has new media technology
provided new cross-cultural,
global media texts that
communicate across
national and social
boundaries?

12. Globalisation
•An important factor in the age of communication when the
global sales of film, TV and media products, along with the
internet, bring people in developing countries into direct contact
with Western media products.
•Distribution is facilitated by satellite and the internet, enabling
communications to travel from one side of the globe to the other
instantaneously.
•It enables events that are taking place in distant countries to be
presented to us on our TVs and the internet live (9/11 coverage)

13. Globalisation
• According to Giddens (2003) we live in a ‘runaway
world’ where cultures, economies and politics
appear to merge across national boundaries.
• Significantly, TV consumption merges, so that TV
programmes such as Friends, Sex and the City,
Grey’s Anatomy etc and channels such as MTV and
CNN are watched all over the world.

14. Cultural Imperialism
• The USA dominates world media with 85% of the global film market and 68%
of the television market.
• A cultural-imperialism perspective argues therefore that American values and
ideologies are imposed upon the rest of the world through media texts.
• Putnam (1997) suggests that the US government prioritised media for support
as an important export industry that promotes both US values and US goods.
• In 2007, Apple computers were not just advertised in trailers preceding films
but also through product placement in films such as ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’,
‘Night at the Museum’ and ‘Transformers’.

16. Challenge to cultural imperialism…
The success of the Indian film & TV
industries that have taken advantage of the
Asian Diaspora
India’s biggest media
conglomerate – Zee
TV (now available
on 4 continents)

17. •How active or interactive are
consumers of new media and how
significant is this in terms of power?
•How has new/digital media impacted
on traditional media productions and
consumption?

18. Social Networking - Facebook
• Launched 2004
• Has taken social networking to another level.
• Turned it into an interactive platform
• Allows its page creators to interact with other online users..
• But also, play games, raise funds, organise events, post videos
etc etc.
• In America – myhomeworkNOW.com accounts are being linked
with facebook accounts.
• Students will be able to see school announcements, alerts, and
classroom assignments directly through their facebook account.

19. •How has new/digital media
impacted on traditional
media productions and
consumption?

20. Technological Determinist argument
• Technology influences and dictates the nature of society.
• The impact of new/digital media is so profound that is has changed the
historical, social, economical and political context of the society in which it
was produced.
• Castells (1999) emphasises that the contemporary internet society is focused
around networks and flows of information that disregard the constraints of
time and space.
• Eg. Social network sites provide a network over which information flows
between groups of friends.
• The information flows without friends actually meeting.
• The social networking website provides an imagined community of
participants who are not restrained by time and space.
• Similarly, players in an online internet game are not restricted to players
who live near them, but can play with people in other countries, unregulated
by time restraints.

21. On the other hand…
• Technological determinist arguments are often challenged.
• MacKay (2001) stresses the importance of the way in which
technology is utilised & incorporated into society.
• E.g.. The way in which the personal computer and internet have
been incorporated into home and family life.
• Although internet and social networking phenomenon offer
global interaction, they often have a strong local focus.
• Myspace still has regional networks
• However…

22. Facebook
• Mark Zuckerberg, 2009
• “the site is growing beyond regional networks and networks will no longer be part of the
privacy settings.”
• “As Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members
and we've concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy.”
• “The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a
simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your
friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.”
• “We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who
sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we'll also be
fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by
combining some settings.”

23. The BBC iplayer
• An internet radio television service
• Went live December 2007, updated 2008 and again in 2010
• The next generation iplayer (Sept 2010) brings integration with various social
networking sites to the TV on-demand service.
• Deals with Facebook, Twitter, and Bebo are already in place, with more likely
to follow.
• iPlayer users will be asked to integrate their accounts with the BBC Online
site.
• Then every time they sign in and use the iPlayer, they will also be connected to
the social networks they use.
• This will enable the BBC to see what they and their friends are watching or
listening to.

24. 3View
Virgin media
Fetch TV
BT Vision
Freesat
Freeview
Wii
Playstation 3
X-box 360
Mobile phones

25. Iplayer controversy
• The BBC iplayer and its website are funded by money
obtained from TV owner’s licence fees
• Some argue that this gives them an unfair advantage over
commercial producers of online material who have to
seek advertising to fund themselves.
• The BBC – “web content must be free from advertising in
order to be consistent with our public service remit.”
• Others argue it is unfair that television users are paying
for content that web-users can access for free.

26. •To what extent does new media
escape some of the constraints of
censorship that traditional media
encounters?

27. Censorship
• GossipReport on the internet
• Changing media landscape – what was once private
is now in the public sphere of the internet
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Privacy & censorship
• The above three sites operate different levels of
control