Make sure that you know and use key terms - those involved in your industry and those that relate to new media technology:
here are some suggestions:
Convergence - technological convergence is the way we increasingly use hardware that does more than one thing - for example your mobile phone (or is it a camera/ mp3 player/ computer) - increasingly we want to do use mobile devices that allow us to do more than one thing, and that connect and sync with hardware in our homes.
This changes the way that we behave as an audience - for example it allows me to timeshift (key term) so that I can view or listen to media content when I want where I want. It allows me to make content - films, music or record a real event and publish it on the Internet quickly and cheaply - this turns the audience into prosumers (key term)rather than consumers of media.
We are increasingly taking part in 'augmented realities' (key term) this is the concept that we are given extra info about the real world that we are viewing by our hand held convergent device, e.g. I can be walking down the street and viewing where I am going on my GPS - looking at what shops have what offers, what music venues are playing what gigs, where I can get a wifi connection, whether I am near a film location, if it is night time I can even track the stars in the sky. See the Guardian Technology pages for more information on augmented realities - try to think what this may mean for the film industry. Will people make apps that suggest where a famous actor lived and then give you links to the films that they have been in - think about how convergent devices can be used as marketing and distribution tools and how we will be targeted to buy content.
The idea is that AR apps add more information to a real experience - consider why the audience would want this? For example at Wimbledon last year spectators could download an app (if they had an android powered phone) which was called Wimbledon Seer - if they held up the phone and pointed it at the courts - it displayed match data, where the refreshment stands where, whether a cafe had an exceptionally long line etc. Think about how this could be applied to all events within all industries e.g. the Oscars, Baftas, Reading Festival, Glastonbury - and how this could then be used to sell the audience content or if the content was free how you can make money from advertising.
There is an interesting article called The rise of the camera phone' in the Guardian Technology pages (accessible on the web) article date January 8th 09 which discusses how the camera phone, which only came of age in 2003 has changed the way that events are recorded and disseminated forever. In the article Stuart Jefferies looks at how the camera phone has changed among other things the way that we watch live performance. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/08/stuart-jeffries-camera-phones
Proliferation - The concept that in the digital age companies/ and audience produce a greater range of either hardware/software and content - this is due to the ability to produce content more cheaply (because of digitization) and also because we have an insatiable desire to want to do more and more with our hardware and software
Digital hardware - in terms of its ability to store huge amounts of data, transfer speeds for content and data, processing power (the ability to do things with data quickly) are improving so quickly that hardware becomes obsolete faster.
Consider how the proliferation of Film channels, Peer to peer networking sites, torrent sites, social networking sites - has affected the way your industry makes content, markets content and distributes content. How have their production practices and profits been affected by the proliferation of global digital audience markets? Consider the impact of the proliferation of the above on audiences - ON YOU!
Synergy - I got this definition from wiki - Synergy in the media*
In media economics, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and all its versions) throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate,[2] e.g. films, soundtracks or video games. Walt Disney pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey Mouse character in products and ads, and continued to market Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the film's sales. For example, the Spider-Man films had toys of webshooters and figures of the characters made, as well as posters and games. *for more re: Media Synergy see Linden Dalecki's article in Northwestern's Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (2008).
I would definitely read through the Linden Dalecki's article - you can access it on the Wiki page - just type in Synergy and go down to Media Synergy.
So synergy is about institutions working together for profit and mutual benefit.
For the film industry consider the importance of Awards e.g Baftas, Oscars.
Interactivity
This is the idea that we interact with Media texts and individualise our experience of them. Any websitefor a film is interactive as we engage with these texts based on our own personal choices. Increasingly all media forms allow us to comment on them and these comments may be shown or appear on ticker tape (on the news) or may even be read out. Since the advent of digital media it has become increasingly easy to engage with all media output and create our own media texts. Social networking may also be described as interactive as individuals continually post and comment on posts - you can tag photos - show films etc.
Consider how your industry is affected and benefits from interactivity. Consider how audiences engage with Stars and Celebrity through sites such as Twitter - and why celebrities Twitter at all - there is even an 'Oscars' for Twitter. You may want to think about the impact of TV programmes such as the X factor on the film industry - they are interactive in the way that they engage the audience in decisions and also appeal to a Mass audience, which is something fairly unique in the age of fragmented niche audiences.
This is the definition of Interactivity in the Media from Wikipedia -
Interactivity in new media
New media is an expanding term that encompasses all new technologies we have today. Interactivity is seen as a key association with new media as it basically sets apart the 'old' and new medias. Old media could only offer a sit-back type interaction, whereas new media is much more engaging to their audiences.
Technologies such as DVDs and digital TV are classic examples of interactive media devices, where a user can control what they watch and when. However, the Internet has become the prime model of an interactive system. Users can become fully immersed in their experiences by viewing material, commenting it and then actively contributing to it. McMillan states that interactivity can occur at many different levels and degrees of engagement and that it is important to differentiate between these levels. Use-to-user interaction via the internet; para-social interaction, where new forms of media are generated online; and user-to-system interactivity which is the way devices can be engaged with by a user.
Lev Manovich (2001) also makes a clear definition of what interactivity means for the user. He refers to 'open interactivity' as actions such as computer programming and developing media systems, whereas 'closed interactivity' is merely where the elements of access are determined by the user.
Virtuality
Really we need to start to think about the range of realities that we can now occupy - and if you click on the page below this one you will find a diagram that looks at the concepts of augmented realities, augmented virtuality and the idea of immersive virtuality.
Think about how your industry is affected now or in the future by virtual and augemented spaces. For the Film Industry this could be the impact semi virtual spaces such as Facebook, My Space with their ability to 'virally' market and seed through the use of teaser trailers, performance clips. Is it possible that in the future we will be part of films and make choices about the narrative through an Avatar (virtual self) the same way that we do in games.
An idea that comes from that Guardian article 'The Rise of the Mobile Phone' is the idea that we increasingly live in these network spaces because of the breakdown other ties between us - see this extract below:
"Another great thinker, the Leeds-based sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, wrote in his book Liquid Love that, in a modern world in which those purportedly fixed and durable ties of family, class, religion, marriage have melted away, we look for something else to hold us together. Hence, no doubt, the rise of social networking sites – and hence, too, the feverish snapping with camera-phones to take images that can validate our existence to our Twitter followers, our speed-dial intimates, our online "friends". It's a new Cartesian cogito: I photograph, therefore I am (and don't my uploaded images glam up my Facebook profile a treat?). Maybe Marcuse was wrong: we're not so much in thrall to technology, as using it for an unanticipated emancipatory project.
Compression
This is the reason why we can store, send, make digital texts so easily - through algorithms like MP3/4 or Quick Time etc we are able to store and send digital texts legally or illegally.
Connectivity
Connectvity through web 2.0 (broadband), bluetooth, data stick, ethernet, the 3G network is leading to an 'always on ' state for most members of the audience. We may be watching the premiere, filming it, posting it on youtube, twittering about it, telling everyone on facebook that we are at the premiere/ cinema etc etc.
Connection speeds have improved to the point that your computer is increasingly convergent as you can stream TV/Film or download. For Institutions the battle is how to make your web behaviours legal, and how they can make money from this - it may be paying for content or allowing you free access if you are forced to watch advertising (ITV player does this). This 'always on' audience will proliferate as larger numbers have access to the 3G network and free internet on their mobile devices.
Encryption
This is the way Institutions seek to control what we do with digital media texts by locking them by placing code on them.
Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to try to impose limitations on the usage of digital content and devices. I got the following information about DRM from Wiki it is worth looking at the whole wiki page as it discusses DRM in the Music Industry and the Film Industry.
"It is also, sometimes, disparagingly described as Digital Restrictions Management. The term is used to describe any technology which inhibits uses (legitimate or otherwise) of digital content that were not desired or foreseen by the content provider.
Digital rights management is being used by companies such as Sony, Apple Inc., Microsoft, Aol and the BBC.
The use of digital rights management is controversial. Proponents argue it is needed by copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work, either to maintain artistic integrity[1] or to ensure continued revenue streams.[2] Some opponents, such as the Free Software Foundation, maintain that the use of the word "rights" is misleading and suggest that people instead use the term digital restrictions management.
Their position is essentially that copyright holders are restricting the use of material in ways that are beyond the scope of existing copyright laws, and should not be covered by future laws.[3] The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other opponents, also consider DRM systems to be anti-competitive practices.[4)
In practice, all widely-used DRM systems are eventually defeated or circumvented.[5] Completely restricting the copying of audio and visual material is impossible due to the inevitable analog hole."
You need to be up to date with the new Internet Piracy Bill (see the piracy post on this blog). Look at the impact of the Pirate Party and the imprisoning of the founders of Pirate Bay. You need to consider the fact that it is the petitioning of the Music and Film Industry that has caused governments around the world to look at how they can legislate copyright law in the Digital age.
