The development of
new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumptions
and production. Discuss the arguments for and against the view.
The development of new and digital media can be argued that
it has allowed the audience to become more powerful in the way in which they
are able to provide and produce materials through digital media. the development
of new and digital media has now allowed
audience to now have interaction within creating media and also having their
say about the subject such as the their point of view of the news. Also due to
the increase of development within new and digital media it allows the audience
views to be valued as they are able to create a fan base. This would mostly be
conducted through social media, one in four people around the world use social
media. This then allows the audience to be given the power by others around the
world who notice them on social media.
Marxism would believe that the media have dumbed down their
output and construct texts simply to generate mass audience. News corporation
make a revenue of $33 billion, the reason I believe that they are so successful
within the newspaper industry is due to the changes they make in order to keep
their readers. The red top newspapers such as The Sun are able to appeal to its
audience as it presents its content it such a way which provides the audiences
with what they want to read. This would related to Stuart halls theory of
preferred reading as News Corporation would present their text in such a way
which allows the reader to engage within the text. I then believe that the big
companies such as news corporation are still more powerful than the audience as
they are able to adopt in which they are able to manipulate the audience into
believing what they want them too.
The Great Leveller is a documentary by Alek’s Krotoski which
focuses on the virtual revolution and change within the internet over the
years. The documentary was filmed in 2012. One of the quotes which was from
Bill Gates as he stated, Internet had become the way to communicate, it has
become a brain. The internet is now the place in which people communicate with
one another whether they are from the other side of the world or standing in
the same building. 5 million people use dating websites, this statistic shows
us that more and more people are not starting to look for relationships and
marriages through the internet. According to my perspective, one of the ways
which I believe the audience is more powerful due to the change in new and
digital media is the way in which the audience are able to communicate with one
another for example, a normal person could go onto to a dating website and
search what he is looking for in someone else this then allows someone to find
the match of their choice.
Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation quoted that “The Internet
had given the readers much more power… the world is changing and newspaper have
to adapt.” Due to the change and development of the internet it is now showing
that the big name companied are having to make the change in order to keep up
with the public. Due to the change in new and digital media news can now be
present by anyone and be shared fasting then newspapers are able too. An
ordinary person is now can now be at the scene of the crime faster than a news
reporter and record the incident and post it up online on a social media site.
Whereas a newspaper would have to wait for the next day until they are able to
publish their story to the world, by the time they are able to do this the
story would then have become old news. The way in which the newspaper have
showed their adaptation towards the change within the shift of power and the
internet is, that these newspapers have created online websites which are free
to the users. The reason for this change is due to the public being able to
provide the same content instantly and free to their viewers. However the
public knowing the information is free on websites such as the guardian they
are more likely to trust that source rather than an ordinary person.
According to Murdoch the change of
power has now shifted as one example of this is the user generated content. One
example of this is the Rodney King story where he was brutally assaulted by the
police as they chased him as he knew he was going back to prison. He was hit 53
times resulting in him being left severely injured. This piece of user
generated content shows a sign of realism as the incident was recorded by an
ordinary person on his camcorder which was then published online. This then had
more of an impact on society then if the story was to be published by an actual
reporter as, the footage was able to shows the actually event that had taken
place this then had more of an impact as the video had trended worldwide
through social media. The reason it was so popular instantly is because the
footage was trusted by the audience as they knew no part of the story was
hidden as it was all present to them from the recording. This then shows the
shift in power as ordinary people can now make their own news story and be able
to post them faster than an actual news reporter could. This is because once an
ordinary person is able to record an incident and then within seconds from
their smartphone, the story is then able to go viral.
Another way which the newspapers have adapted in order to
change of new and digital media. The daily mail have used the Us Vs Them
campaign as a way in which to attract viewers. The campaign is about how the
daily mail hate everyone as from the tittle is states that it is the daily mail
Vs the rest. The
reason this website will be a positive for the daily mail as it will allow them
to generate a larger audience. For example The Us Vs Them is expected to reach
views of 3 million users during October. This would then benefit the Daily Mail
as it would allow them to increase the amount of users they
will receive as once one person has completed the questionnaire they
would then tell a friend about it. This is due to the Daily mail allowing the
audience to share their answers on Facebook and Twitter. This then allows the
audiences fans/friends on their social media site to be able to come across
this and then take the survey themselves. The
daily mail have taken advantage over the increasingly growing social media as,
by allowing the audience to publish their result on social media the daily mail
are allowing the audience to protest against or for them saying whether they
are hated by the daily mail or not. My perspective from here is that this shows
that the audience are still not in control as major companies such as daily
mail are able to change within the times and allow themselves to generate to
views then they would of before, by using the audiences help with or without
them realising they are helping the daily mail gain viewers.
Wikipedia is a page where
articles are posted about famous people providing the public with information
about them such as their birthday to their background. 65 million people use
Wikipedia and 14 million people post articles on the site. It is a website
which is made for ordinary people as it is free to use. It is argued that Wikipedia
is inaccurate, as anyone is able to edit pages and change information about an
organisation or individual. This is due to anyone being allowed access to
Wikipedia pages and being able to change the information which is present for a
company or individual. Critics may believe that Wikipedia articles are able to
be posted by anyone therefore they are not reliable however, Wikipedia articles
are verified by other accounts and users of Wikipedia to ensure the information
is correct otherwise the information would then be deleted. Wikipedia is one of
the most powering tool for the ordinary people as they are able to post
information to over 65 million people. Also when someone is in need of
information about an individual the first place they would be taken to would be
Wikipedia.
In conclusion I believe that the change in new and digital
media has now allowed audience’s to become more empowered due to the change in
new and digital, one of these changings highly involved the increase of the use
of social media, as this also relates to user generated content as this allows
the audience to be able to create something and post it online allowing the
audience to get noticed and get a fan base.
