Introduction  Digital media  Corporate influences  Web 2.0  Social networks   Uses and gratifications of digital media  Private/public blurring  Learning outcome 2: Gain a basic understanding of the three core areas in Media and Cultural Studies (New media)  Content analysis––could simply be a comparison of websites, or Facebook and advertising etc.  Or comparing different .

1 Digital Media  Digital ◦ All media forms represented numerically  Web made up of billions of web pages  Key dimensions of digital media ◦ Automation e.g. updates ◦ Variability e.g. Amazon personalised ◦ Transcoding e.g. cultural expression extended into digital media  Quantum Computers

2 Networks

 Networks of digital media content and users  Some networks still few to many (e.g. TV broadcasts)  Internet – network of networks  Castells – network society (Cyberculture theorist)  Networks may still have unequal concentrations of power  Finance, capital, images, ideas – flow through networks

3 Examples of Networks

4 Mediated communication

 Layers of mediated communication ◦ Physical: devices used to communicate e.g. phones ◦ Logical: software, algorithms, communications standards which enable connectivity ◦ Content: messages, ideas, information, entertainment, , songs, images we share  Hackers – used to mean elegant solutions to problems  Hacktivism = activism+hacking

5 Internet Dial up connection 1965 - Pentagon Arpanet 1969

1970s Email CC function led to group contacts

1980s non-military/non-scientific networks

1991 Tim Berners-Lee hypertext includes images

1993 web browsers marketed

Launch of Google (1998)

Launch of Smart Phones (2000)

Launch of Wikipedia (2001)

Media technologies develop /convergence (ongoing) 6 Social Networks

 Social networking tools ◦ Creating a profile ◦ Adding contacts ◦ Interacting with contacts within a network  Our interactions are more/less visible to others  Users on Facebook build up presentation of self

7 media

 Basic elements integrated into wide range of online projects  E.g. YouTube, Spotify  Social media in the world  Brazil – (now )  Cyworld – Korea  – Japan  Hong Kong – social network for dead people

8 Facebook

Launched 2004 February

Expanded to public 2006

12 million users by 2006

50 million users 2007

150 million users 2009

350 million users end of 2009

800 million users 2014

Over 1 billion users 2017

9 Media 2.0

 Web 2.0 to distinguish it from web 1.0

 Often refers to participatory culture e.g. blogging, photo sharing etc.

 But corporate emphasis of 2.0

 We are the web but we’re not getting paid for our part in building it!

 Web 3.0 – the intelligent web

10 11 Who owns the data

 Facebook users are not customers  The users are the product  Broadcast model (old media) one way  Two way (email, text messages etc.) but participants not present and time differences occur  Facebook mixes message one to one, with messages to the wider audience (to someone but no one in particular)  Whom are the messages for? 12 Friends on Facebook

 Users whom I connect with  Head of MI6 wife’s Facebook  Personal/public more blurred (postmodernity)  Job applicants asked to log into profiles  Journalists – ethical issues in using Facebook information?  But now also , , , etc.

13 Uses and Gratifications

14 Traditional Uses and Gratifications

 What are cognitive needs? ◦ Acquiring information  What are affective needs? ◦ Emptions, pleasures, aesthetic needs (pleasure through beauty)  What are personal integrative needs? ◦ Strengthening credibility, confidence, status  What are social integrative needs? ◦ Strengthening contacts and family  What are tension release needs ◦ Escape and diversion  What is gratification ◦ pleasure especially when gained from the satisfaction of a desire.

15 Uses and Gratifications digital media

Internet gratifications

Information seeking

Interpersonal utility

Entertainment

Pass time convenience

16 Uses and Gratifications digital media

Twitter gratifications Sharing Entertainment Social interaction Self-documentation Pass time Connection Convenience Self-expression

17 Summary

 Digital media - binary code privileged  Corporate influences that still dominate web 2.0  Web 2.0 as opposed to web 1.0 (but more complex) and even Web3.0  Social networks everywhere!  Facebook - we are the products  Uses and gratifications applied to social media  Private/public blurring – your newsfeed could be published as news! Watch out!

18 References

• Curran, J, Fenton, N. and Freedman, D. (2012) Misunderstanding the Internet. Oxon, Routledge. • Flew, T. (2008) New Media: An Introduction. Oxford, Oxford University Press. • Hassan, R. and Thomas, J. (eds) (2006) The New Media Theory Reader, New York, Open University Press. • Longhurst, B. (2008) Introducing Cultural Studies. Harlow, Pearson Longman. • Meikle, G. and Young, S. (2012) Media Convergence. Networked digital media in Everyday Life. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.  Sundar, S, & Limperos, A (2013), 'Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratifications for New Media', Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 57, 4, pp. 504-525 • Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013) ‘Why people use social media: A uses and gratifications approach’, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), pp. 362–369

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