MAS110 – Digital Media Convergence Online Essay
In recent years with the arrival and wide distribution of
technologies such as computers, internet and multi-function cellular phones,
the term new media, or ‘digital media’ (Barkat, Hart, Salazar 2009) as
preferred by theorists of the media field have opened the world up to a variety
of, in some cases, never before seen ideas of media production and consumption.
(Sheehan, Morrison 2009) In other cases, some of the developments in new media
have borrowed their ideas from traditional, or ‘old media’ and transformed and
converged the generic concepts to accommodate for these innovative technologies,
(Dwyer 2010) transitioning the way we perceive and utilise media.
In what has become a dominant aspect of the new media paradigm, the coming together of pre-existing media forms, such as music, games, film, television, telecommunications and news and the technologies we utilise to engage in these systems of media have changed from clearly separate devices into one multidimensional form. (Barkat, Hart, Salazar 2009) We have departed from our former dependence on broadcast and entertainment models such as television, radio and newspaper in the ‘broadcast era’ of the 1970’s and 1980’s (Barkat, Hart, Salazar 2009) and are now beginning to rely on the internet and our mobile phones in order to gain access to this information. This process of unification and technological adaptation has been coined ‘media convergence’ (Dwyer 2010).
One of the most influential and controversial additions to
the global media spectrum in the ‘post-broadcasting era’ is Youtube. Developed
by three men who were originally employees at Paypal, the aim was to produce a
way of easily uploading and accessing video content, which was previously
deemed hard to find. This idea took off with millions of video uploads in no
time and within a year, search engine giant Google bought Youtube for one and a
half billion US dollars and today it has become one of the most accessed
websites ever. (Lister, Dovey, Giddings, Grant, Kelly 2009) Its tagline,
“Broadcast Yourself” invites users to post their own content online and when a
video receives enough views or ‘hits’, the creator of the video content can
become well-known. Never before has media attention been so easily accessible
for the public. Although it has now also become a useful tool for the
television, advertising and music industries as a free means of testing new
content before taking the risk of investing large amounts of money into expensive
advertising through conventional media strategies.
Another major impact of the introduction of websites like
Youtube and significant influences on media technological convergence (Dwyer
2010) such as multi-function cellular phones is the demand for more condensed
formatting of video content. As it is only possible to upload a 10-minute video
and media viewing on cell phones is often time-consuming to download and
expensive, there is now a high demand for condensed content. This demand has
created a new market in the media industry and has given way for what are now
commonly known as ‘mobisodes’ for mobile media on cell phones and ‘webisodes’
on the world wide web. (Pierce 2005)
A well-known example of amateur filmed and produced video
content, which has gone ‘viral’ since its upload to Youtube, is the teen comedy
‘webisode’ series titled “Smosh”. Two young teenagers, Anthony Padilla and Ian
Hecox, the co-creators of the series created a parody of the theme song from
the famous anime television program, “Pokemon”. The video gained wide attention
amongst younger viewers who demanded more from the duo and Smosh was formed as
a consistent sketch-comedy series. Webisodes such as Smosh demonstrate how
amateur film can become as well known as professionally produced film in the
new media paradigm.
Ian and Anthony’s Smosh creation has since become one of the
most popular and most viewed Youtube channels ever.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/98Alrg4pFXs?list=PLBEB83B4BC030E183&hl=en_US" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is a recent episodes of “=3” by creator Ray William
Johnson which has also become the most subscribed channel on Youtube ever.
Quite recently, the world-renowned lollapalooza festival
streamed live footage of popular artists such as Coldplay and Foo Fighters directly
to Youtube. Although we have grown accustomed to live footage on our television
sets, the idea of live-streaming over websites such as Youtube is still quite
an innovative feature. Millions of fans of the popular acts were able to tune
in and get the live experience online.
This song is called “The Pretender”, one of the many songs
the popular band Foo Fighters performed at Lollapalooza in 2011 streamed live
on Youtube.
Media convergence covers a broad range of transformation and
adaptation in the media industry. It describes the coming together of different
forms of media such as music, film, television, telecommunications, news, games
among other types of media as well as advancement in technology that empower us
to gain access to a wide variety of media through the one device such as
internet and multi-function cellular phones. Although the extent of transition
in media is uncertain and unpredictable, it is safe to say that we have come a
long way from the 1970’s and 1980’s in the ‘broadcast era’ and will continue to
embark on dramatic changes in our perceptions and utilisation of media in the
future as technology continues to advance and society continues to gain new
wants and needs. (1001 Words)
References
·
Barkat, I, Hart, C & Salazar, JF 2009, Screen Media Arts: An Introduction to
Concepts & Practices, Oxford University Press: Australia & New
Zealand, pp. 357-364.
·
Dwyer, T 2010, Media Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berkshire, pp. 1-23, MAS110
Introduction to Digital Media Production Course Reader Semester 2 2012,
Macquarie University.
· Sheehan,
K, Morrison, D 2009 “Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the
advertising agency in a changing world” in First
Monday vol 14 no 3, http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121, Accessed from recommended readings.
·
Lister, M, Dovey, J, Giddings, S, Grant, I,
Kelly, K 2009, New Media: A Critical
Introduction, 2nd edn, Turner, G, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, pp.
237-258.
·
Pierce, J 2005, “The Fourth Screen” in Off The Air: Screenrights Newsletter, accessed
06/02/2007, ‘http://www.joemiale.com/press/screenrights_01.pdf’.
·
2012, “Youtube-broadcast-yourself-logo-1”,
accessed 23/08/12, ”http://www.google.com/imgres?q=youtube+broadcast+yourself&num=10&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1267&bih=680&tbm=isch&tbnid=_nUNsnrpE7WbmM:&imgrefurl=http://stopcryingyourheartoutnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/noel-gallagher-official-youtube-channel.html&docid=xewZHNq6vFW7HM&w=300&h=200&ei=_INXTuDuLajdmAWl2PSODA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=609&vpy=324&dur=875&hovh=160&hovw=240&tx=181&ty=107&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=131&tbnw=197&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0
·
User: Andii2000 2007, “Smosh – Pokemon Theme Song”, accessed 23/08/2012, ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOX3OmUhQoo’.
·
User: RayWilliamJohnson 2011, “Not A Wedding”, accessed 25/08/2012, ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M67JAPsoWy0’.
·
User: Lollapalooza 2011, “Foo Fighters – The Pretender”, accessed 23/08/2012, ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvbRRpfrtZY’.
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