We Media is changing society in the way that media is actually distributed and is becoming a democratic approach to sharing the news around the world and whatever news is wished to be shown without the Big Media limiting to what is heard, when it is heard, and how it is heard. This has come around through pressure groups wanting to change the way media was received and working within the public to voice their own opinion. Eventually a large popularity caught on and have been working further since to see the change that is now being achieved with a more (as I would say) 'community-based' approach.
David Gauntlett devised a theory of Media 2.0 to help explain how quickly We Media has come along. He explained that we are currently in a world where there are rapid changes in technology, how media is produced and how we choose to receive it – and it's down to us how we share it. However, technology has moved even further now to satisfy us and the news we like to hear. Internet 3.0. This is the use of cookies on our computers which tracks our commonly visited sites, what we watch, texts we expand and so much more. It then finds other data similar to the ones that have caught our attention and displays it to us for more usage. It's essentially a way of tailoring our very own internet to fit us like a perfect suit and this new advance can very much affect the way in which we see media.
Over the holidays I've not really been open to much news since I live in my bedroom and rarely come out unless it's something like eating. Anyway, despite the anti-social behaviour I have still managed to hear about a few mishaps and achievements around the world in various different ways.
The first story was about the Italy earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 that sadly destroyed Amatrice. I had heard this from a news organisation of BBC News and had only really been caught by the headline and then listened to a slight more information for a few minutes about the casualties, and how people were trying to be rescued before they moved onto another story. This is one of the stories I actually tried to keep up on as I was intrigued on how the reformation and saviour of the trapped people would go but coverage has slowly dropped off on the story. However, with this being breaking news at the time, it brought plenty of attention to the matter and could've indicated a potential cry for help to gain support from others to rescue the people in need or danger. Through receiving this news I see it to be accurate and trustworthy with it being broadcasted over national television to the country and publicised in various newspapers.
A second story was during the Olympics, showing that England had done their best ever whilst overseas winning 67 medals. I took an in depth look into this story with sport being a strong passion of mine; mainly football, but sport in general. The team had only targeted to achieve around 48 this year but managed to smash that goal and come 2nd place overall, putting China out of the chase by day 15. I believe that the dominant meaning of the story was to bring pride to the country and help to strengthen the image of the country as a whole and to gain support for a country so small compared to others to do so well and succeed together. The story had been broadcasted everywhere – radio, TV, newspapers, you name it. So I have lots of reasoning to trust the sources as multiple places have had the same story. It was also shows over a long period of time meaning that the information had to be consistently accurate to be trustworthy.
The third story I found was different to the other two and involved a boy getting 28 months to prison for sexting girls as young as 13. However, as a change to other ways like TV or popular news I accessed this through the use of We Media. I first discovered the news of friends talking about this on social media (Twitter in particular) but was unsure of where they got the information from. I then proceeded to share this with people on social media and target shared it with friends on various platforms – creating my very own form of We Media. I then later discovered the information to be reliable once the Big Media came into contact with it such at the Daily Mail releasing a news report on the subject. I believe it was provided to show child pornography in such a negative light and degrade others.
I believe that this is a strong example of We Media as the news had originally came from a social circle within Twitter with people that I shared similar interests with, in this case music, following each other and the boy in the report was well known within the social group and to see that he had been convicted was quickly shared around on Twitter meaning that the few thousand of the social circle were some of the very first to know and so beat the Big News to share it around. The fact of people following each other with shared interests on Twitter can additionally be an example of Internet 3.0 but with us manually adapting it, essentially without the use of cookies but us doing that part ourselves. We had managed to suit the internet, or webpage (Twitter), to ourselves by following what we see relevant within a social circle and with who we want to interact with.
In conclusion, I believe that the most important information or the big headlines are still dominated by the Big Media with We Media just following behind; despite there being personal footage and such sent into the Big Media to aid them in getting out the news as quickly as possible. However I feel that with much smaller stories within groups or pages created by Internet 3.0 that We Media thrives to produce a more personal story within a shorter space of time. Unfortunately I still feel that there is some sort of mistrust towards the accuracy of We Media due to the number of internet ‘trolls’ that often make up stories just for drama or people may accidentally get information incorrect which links back to my third story of me being sceptical at first until the Daily Mail mentioned it. Overall, I believe that We Media can grow into a much more dominant way to receive media and news over time – just not yet.
I enjoyed this, Ben. I also liked how you compared yourself to a hermit that only comes out of his of cave when he needs food.
ReplyDeleteA couple of questions I want to fire your way:
1) Do you believe it's a positive or negative thing that 'Internet 3.0' actively tailors our internet experience to our habits as news consumers? Why/why not?
2) Why do you feel that you can't trust the 'news' unless it comes from one of the 'Big Media'? Can you link this to the theorists Dan Gilmor and/or Andrew Keen?