Convergence Culture. 

1. What is the author's understanding of convergence culture?

Is the flow between multiple media platforms. In this article by Henry Jenkins, it says “n the world of media convergence, every important story gets told, every brand gets sold, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms.” It is the way consumers understand a brand or product based off little bits and pieces they have gathered through the media.

      2. What is creative engagement? AND 3. How are the participators engaging? 

The way I understood it, creative engagement has been caused because of the way consumers react to the media. They have learned something are in return are going to act. For example, Henry described the way consumers react to popular shows like American Idol and Survivor. These shows are fan based - viewers must get involved. For Survivor, viewers are so hooked they need to know what will happen next week so they try and find out, which can lead to spoilers. With American Idol, viewers are no longer watching commercials so they have had to improvise advertising. They do so but extreme product placement and sponsors - like CocaCola or Ford. It’s all because of a reaction to a medium. Which has now lead to participation which is creative engagement. 

What can the government about illegal downloads?

The government has been aware of pirating movies and music since the beginning of the internet. Even though there are “warnings” against pirating, people are still doing it. People are more afraid of downloading a virus unto their computer than they are of what the government could do. If the government wants to get Americans to stop downloading music or movies for free they are going to take larger steps in order for a change to occur. 

One idea is to create heavier punishments. Like I said before, when people are downloading music or movies from the internet, they are more worried about downloading a virus than what the government could do. If the government was able to monitor more, and give people a warning and charge them a fee, people would be scared. They might even be scared out of downloading forever. 

Another idea is convicting people through an emotional message. We talked in class about how people become emotionally attached. When they do feel emotional connected they will share a link or become involved in whatever message they see. The government could create a video or ad campaign that has a touching message. If you are going to make a video or campaign have a celebrity or multiple celebrities endorsing this idea with their personal stories. People are going to respect a popular artist or actor more than an average person telling them not to illegally downloading.

And lastly, give consumers want they want. Don’t price music or movie at a high price. The government should promote apps like Spotify, where you can download any song and unlimited downloads with a small fee each month. I feel much better about spending a little money a money on that than spending $1.29 per song on iTunes or downloading illegally. Artists should be encouraged by the government to put their money on Spotify because they still make money from it. For example, my friends are passing around the new Taylor Swift album that they have all copied from one friend because Taylor took all of her music off Spotify. Give people another option to buying a cd or downloading illegally. 

0. Privacy-enhanced personalization.

Privacy-enhanced personalization according to this article by Alfred Kobsa is defined as "aim[ing] to reconcile the goals and methods of user modeling and personalization with privacy considerations, and to strive for best possible personalization within the boundaries set by privacy." Currently it is very hard for internet users to make educated decisions on whether or not they should give information to a site. There is always a dilemma on if you as a consumer can trust to give important information away. 

According to this article there are four factors that help internet users trust a site. Those four factors are a positive past experience, the overall design and operation of a Web site (if it looks credible), the reputation of the web site operator, and the physical Presence of a privacy statement on the site. If you can trust a website based on those things, internet users are more likely to give out credit card information or social security numbers. 

There are several types of users out there. Those include "privacy fundamentalists" who show concern about giving away information so they unwilling to do so. "Privacy unconcerned" show very little concern or anxiety about the way they are viewed online or what information they give away. Lastly, "privacy pragmatists" are concerned about giving out information but will do so if they feel like they can trust the website. 

On the internet people can be whoever they want to be. It's hard to trust a website based of just the things you see if you don't personally know the person or organization so my question is... will we every truly know if our personal information is remaining private?

 

 

   

New Media and Technology

http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.wncln.wncln.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=f8818902-454a-45e9-9b74-e4d98756f468%40sessionmgr110&vid=0&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=98477971

 

I found a very interesting article “SOCIAL MEDIA AND CHANGING COMMUNICATION PATTERNS” by Dr. Kiran Bala through the Appalachian Library online. This article uses information based on new media’s impact on our entire world, but mostly focusing on India. It also discuss the U.S.A and the UK. Our world is drastically changing and at a rapid pace. In return we as a whole are struggling with interpersonal communication and are consumed with internet communication.

This section of the article really stuck out to me because we really are consumers of the virtual word who unable to communicate face to face and are raising future generations to be media obsessed. It states “But due to over obsession of update in virtual world is leading to ‘not communication’ in real world. Most of the time netizens are so much engrossed in their virtual communication they hardly find time to talk to those near and dear one who are present in their physical surroundings. In the world of over communication we are moving away from the real world and living a virtual world of fake identities and intimacies. Those who are not really using them due to lack of knowledge, access or disinterest find themselves alienated.”

Every area of life is changing because of new media and new technology - politics, education, communication, relationships, consumerism, and every day life. This article brings a lot of information to light and calls out what kind of world, our world is becoming.

Blog Assignment #2

After reading over the options, I think Reed’s law is the one I agree with most. In our society today, a main focus in our lives is keeping up with our image and appearance on social media. We have even become a culture so concerned with social media that we forget how to have real relationships, face to face. 

There is so much power in social media - the people we follow us inspire us and affect our behaviors. We are heavily influenced by them. And with Reed’s Law it means that the power of a social network is seen in the increase and constant growth of people on social media. Social media is always changing and is always growing. 

Because of the power social media has it is an effective tool for advertisers. It is great for building brand awareness and introducing new products. Social media is also a place people receive information - I learn lots of things from my social media sites. Instead of checking the news, young kids are know going to social media for up to date news and for information. We have grown up in a world where information is literally at our fingertips. Because of this, Reed’s law, social media networks can help exponentially grow the size of networks, is the one I agree with the most. 

Technology changes every day so I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like in 5 years. I do think it will be even faster that we can imagine and will such an ingrained part of our daily lives. I think something even greater than a phone will be our main way of communicating. I think social media networks we use today will no longer be the “must haves” but I think new ones will be created taking away even more of our privacy. I still think that social media will be a heavy influence in our lives and on the Internet overall. 

Why We Blog...

    From April to June of 2003, four students took an in-depth look at why people blog by conducting interviews and observing twenty-three people from the Stanford University area. Their objective was to identify motivations for blogging and see what content they were posting. 

    In their research, they discovered five motivations for blogging. Those five include - “blogs to ‘document’ my life meaning they blogged to record life events and activities they were involved in. Maybe they have moved away from their friends and family and want them to stay in touch or to keep people update on sicknesses and treatments. This text gave the example of Don, who kept people up to date with his wife’s illness via blogs. For some people, it’s easier to each a mass amount of people through blogs instead of emails. The second conclusion they made was “blogs as commentary” meaning bloggers found their voices and were able to express their ideas and opinions freely on a blog. It can be an outlet for people to say what they want. Thirdly, “blogs as catharsis” which is a lot like number two. They found people were using blogs as an outlet for their feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Lara, a interviewee stated that blogs were a way she could work out her own issues. Blogs allow people to have a audience to speak too maybe without them knowing a single person in that audience. The fourth thing they found was that blogs serve as a muse - meaning people were able to thinking because they were writing. This helps people process what is going on in their world - they are just speaking things, they are processing it through writing which in turn allows for an audience to shape the writing and for reuse of posts. The last one of the five things they learned from their research was that blogs are motivated as community forums. People want to hear the opinions of people in their communities as well as the creative abilities of their communities members. 

   What they found was that blogs contents are very diverse and is a versatile medium. It’s a growing form of communication and is a major use on the internet.

First Post.