Comments on: Week 2: Media convergence http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/ evolving ecological media culture(s) Sun, 19 May 2013 09:58:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: astonishingtutors.com http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-1352 astonishingtutors.com Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:19:31 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-1352 I thoroughly enjoy your blog posts and I consciously put into practice your concepts as they allow us to..

]]> By: Brittany Dahlberg http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-102 Brittany Dahlberg Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:14:25 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-102 The rise of the digital age in “Web 2.0″ has dramatically increased “public participation” in the media sphere by enabling normal, everyday global citizens a chance to seek out “realities” separate from that of media news networks. Media “convergence” has enabled people to access different types of information through a wide variety of media sectors, including Youtube, The Daily Show with John Stewart, film, etc. Because media consumers are now taking more media stewardship, the social web is now challenging mainstream news networks that are trying to silence “dissent.” People that are not high up in this political hierarchy are now able to access information from all different media outlets while simultaneously participating in the media sphere by constructing other forms of media on sites like Youtube. This participation has inherently led to a shift in political and social action because global citizens are not solely relying on news networks like Fox or NBC to construct reality for them. People are able to seek out their own truths and realities by sharing knowledge with each other on the social web. Because of “convergence” and “public participation” people are now discussing what “has been passed off as truth and what actually counts as truth.” Through sharing knowledge through “Web 2.0,” the “facts,” “scientific data,” and the “veracity” of political frontrunners is being questioned more than ever now. Because of this participation, the social landscape is changing because relying on communal global knowledge is now becoming just as or even more powerful than mainstream news outlets.

]]> By: Brittany Dahlberg http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-97 Brittany Dahlberg Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:00:59 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-97 How has the era of “convergence” and “public participation” helped transform political and social action in the modern age?

]]> By: Adam Johnson http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-80 Adam Johnson Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:08:51 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-80 Remembered this song from a long time ago. The lyrics seem relevant to our discussions on “sensory overload,” and also display curiosity towards strong media potentially altering our moods and ultimately mental health. Pretty interesting stuff back for 1983 in the west coast punk scene. I can sense a parallel between the resistance faced back then and the angst some of us feel today with Google algorithms and such.

WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS

song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Be7Xryos4
lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Subliminal-lyrics-Suicidal-Tendencies/FB1B0FC321F3F3FF48256C7E002CF1DD

]]> By: Sarah Soderbergh http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-78 Sarah Soderbergh Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:29:52 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-78 Just to follow up, an article in the New York Times today about musicians’ royalties from web-streaming slowing dramatically. The featured artist, a cellist, says she makes less than a penny per play.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/business/media/streaming-shakes-up-music-industrys-model-for-royalties.html?hp&_r=0

]]> By: Sarah Soderbergh http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-77 Sarah Soderbergh Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:26:14 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-77 In relation to the comments listed above, my personal take on the pros and cons regarding convergence were more directly linked to HOW we receive our information, and how that affects our important comments proceeding. For instance, Jenkins discussed how a film was screened via cell phones in India, giving the user a hand-held experience with the film. How does this affect our discussions of media? How does this look for the exploitation of information? Is piracy easier or harder to control depending on the medium with which the art is displayed? Also, is this considered free “information”, such as Aaron Swartz suggested? Although I am a supporter of important facts being transmitted to the public, have we considered the livelihoods at stake for those who are displaying their work as well?
This website gives the figures on loses into 2010, including monetary figures, through film piracy. I haven’t figured my own stance on the best solution, but if we are beginning the conversation of mass-media sharing, this could be a subject for discussion…
http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1001-Spring-2010/Internet-Issues-Piracy-Statistics.aspx

]]> By: Adam Johnson http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-76 Adam Johnson Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:22:18 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-76 Web 2.0 has driven this developing era of convergence and public participation to a place where ideas can be shared and critiqued freely and without legal consequence. Political discussion is easier now that “digital proof” can be hyper-linked right into a blog post and then shared with other users. No longer is the news feeding us information but now is rather sparking a discussion that can go on a much deeper level of thought. Boler suggests that users that consume on the internet are more likely to produce their own material for others, which in a sense combines these two ideas into a simple user of the internet.
Having faith in my generation, I believe that many of us young users of the internet see through corporate advertising and decide to shop wherever based on personal trains of thought and option weighing.

]]> By: Jesse Fox-Ham http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-75 Jesse Fox-Ham Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:37:56 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-75 If one feels that they are being looked at as an opponent and that is something they oppose, how is one strategy being supported over the other?

]]> By: Jesse Fox-Ham http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-74 Jesse Fox-Ham Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:32:32 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-74 With the religious deity(s) of technological advancements aside, good & bad seem to be the root of many issues involving progressions within the decision-making, cooperation, convergence, and even divergence from political conflict. To digress from the diction and its semantics that keep us from going forward, however, what can be highlighted from the snapshot of the meeting of the minds at the places where these decisions and attempted convergences are being made remains a separation of departments: academics, businessmen, consumers, producers, and to simplify, as Eric Alterman states: “actors” to be studied. So we are studying the actors as we are part of the play, metaphysically strained to form an opinion of the opinions being massively produced. Forming a thought along this pathway, convergence, its counterparts and less or more parts on a counter that its various black boxes will take up, to be good or bad, does not feel like an accurate way to form discussion. With cyberspace seems to come an ease of taking part in a reality away from the physical, but, wherever all of these companies exist, omnipresent as Jesus past, the fact is that they exist. The inevitability of working together, therefore, is a necessary reality to take into account. Their separate entities form one technological future. It would be ill-minded and disadvantageous for the public taking part and the companies providing their service to disown any aspect of the ever-changing, fast-pace life-force forming and being formed by us all. Because it’s there. So are we. Within and without each other with that Beatles song available for me to provide right here: “ “ if I wanted to. I don’t feel like it right now, however. And that is a real point as well. What the corporations desire they will perform, whether the public is informed or not. And it will affect popular consciousness that is a requirement to deal with when part of society, which, in America, is unavoidable, especially in relation to this discourse. Alas, convergence will happen on various spectrums and to avoid this reality is to pretend these technologies are not effecting individual to global society in a world wide web already acting on its own accord. There will be many curtain calls on various stages, with many grey tones of color involved in its material, but the awareness of the curtain in common all are sharing must be open to discussion, which, by nature, is convergence. Though in a world where war is the preferred discourse for problem-solving, that may be the government-funded source of conflict resolution the companies’ will gain capitol off of most popularly.

]]> By: Joe Mullen http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/2013/01/23/week-2-media-convergence/#comment-73 Joe Mullen Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:08:29 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/e2mc/?p=85#comment-73 It seems like the easy answer, but I think convergence is definitely good for both the average person and for corporations. The modern internet/Web 2.0 has made global public discourse easier than ever, but it’s also, as you mentioned, given Google the ability to collect data on us so they can market to us better. If Net Neutrality legislation does establish a two-tiered system for the internet, we’d be seeing the scales tip in favor of corporations in a significant way. Social media has been used in political revolutions, but now ads follow us everywhere on our smartphones. For example, twitter is a powerful and enjoyable tool, but in order for it to be profitable I have to see “sponsored” tweets promoting some new Subway sandwich at the top of my feed fairly regularly. There is capacity for both good and evil in this realm, but it can be hard to define as new media develops and changes at such a fast rate.
Interesting observation on the note of MIT, having seen the institution and their studies featured in a TV special about technology dependence, “Digital Nation,” and in the writings of Sherry Turkle (an employee of MIT). Hadn’t considered the connection before.
Also, did Figures 0.6 and 0.7 in Boler’s piece remind anyone else of the awesome (and fairly relevant, albeit dated) John Carpenter movie They Live? http://thewolfmancometh.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/they-live-billboards-messages-john-carpenter.jpg

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