topic 2 week 1 c

The internet has had huge implications on society, and transformed the way we live our lives in a similar way to the television. The internet drives the way we live in terms of the velocity of receiving information, being able to communicate with ease, and accessing any information at any given time. The Internet creates new ways for citizens to communicate, congregate, and share information of a social nature. It is obvious that the Internet has and will continue to change the way we live. How it is changed, and how it will continue to change our lives, is the reason for so many debates around the topic. There was and continues to be much hype surrounding the net and what you are able to do with it. Everyone and anything with access uses the internet for any given reason, from stock markets, to social interaction, to finding out the latest news stories. It has been publicised that some users become so obssesed with the internet that it becomes their life, and they spend their lives on there. This vision of 'utopia' that the internet has seems to be a growing trend. However, moralistically, many parents feel their children are exposed to things that aren't suitable, such as pornography and violence. The execution of Saddam Hussein was even broadcast live on the internet, which sparked huge public debate. Recently, the police used the internet to track gun owners and drug users through sites like facebook and youtube. It has been said on the BBC Website today that all homes will have broadband in them by 2012. This shows how the internet is continuing to develop, adapt and increase its stranglehold on contemporary society.

topic 2 week 1 b

His views will appear very dated and old today, as the radiois not the dominant force in media it once was. His views, however, are very applicable to other forms of media today. Some may argue that Tony Blair and Labour may never have got into power without television broadcasts edited into soundbites. Goebbels almost seems fascinated by the radio, which highlights its importance and impact it had a the time. Technology of this kind was still at an early stage.

I feel that radio still has an important part in society today. It is most used by people in their cars while travelling, or those in a workplace where it is suitable to have a radio station playing. Radio becomes most effective in these scenarios in terms of entertaining, informing, in terms of news and agendas, and updating road users of traffic information and alerts.

I use radio to listen to live sport in the absence of a tv, and when im at work out of university. It serves as a reliable medium, which has reinvented itself since the start of DAB, Digital Radio, which offers listeners more variety and aims at more niche audiences. Also, having worked on Siren FM in Lincoln for part of last year, radio has served as the most consistent medium in my life.

topic 2 week 1 a

Goebbels was a vital part of the Nazi Party, its leading propagandist. He controlled the press and the arts, including the Film Industry. Goebbels beleived that through radio that he was able to construct an opinion and belief into the masses, which has been a continuous political ideology.

"The November Regime was not able to understand the full significance of the radio. Even those who claimed to have awakened the people and gotten them involved in practical politics were without exception almost blind to the possibilities of this modern method of influencing the masses." This shows how radio was under valued by previous leaders and Goebbels intended to use it to greater effect. "Only reluctantly did they think of using radio for political purposes."

He even says that it would not have been possible to gain power without having the radio. He identifies certain communication possibilities as he hopes that through these, the radio will maintain itself as a popular mdium for many years to come, or even "the test of history."

week 2 new media and previous media

The development of New Media is dependant on our previous knowledge, as through knowing and utilising previous media forms, like analogue tv, we are therefore then encouraged and likely to use the newer forms, like digital tv. This gives us a positive attitude to accept new media forms. Our ideologies and values are also subject to this 'accepting' new forms. Mainly, new forms are embraced and seen as positive, but the rise of text talk has left alot of people angry and annoyed, that young people in particular, are prevented from learning how to speak and write properly.

week 2 new media

Neuman (cited in Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 322) argues that New Media:
.Will alter the meaning of geographic distance.
.Allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication.
.Provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication.
.Provide opportunities for interactive communication.
.Allow forms of communication that were previously separate to overlap and interconnect.

I agree with this outlook, as all of the above are true and are happening within new forms of media today. There are new internet sites created all the time with an aim to connect people and encourage/promote interaction. Even on tv, there are new channels, such as Rabbit, which allow people to text in and meet potential partners (this channel is really weird by the way!). The last point Neuman makes about overlapping and interconnecting is poignant in relation to Rabbit as people can text and communicate through the tv, two mediums that were previously possible, but have overlapped. Through developments like Broadband and the i phone, connection with friends, family and the world is possible in seemingly no time at all.

week 2 what is new about new media

I am unconvinced that there is necessarily a 'new' media, as everything develops or evolves from something else. For example, Laptops from computers, dvds from vhs tapes, and digital tv from analogue. I beleive that instead of new media and mediums, there is in fact the evolution of technology and consumer demands that cause things to be labelled new media. A more suitable term maybe 'new formats of media'. As media forms grow old, they blend into a new format, such as newspapers, which due to less readership, merge into the internet format, and journalists double up as 'talking heads' on tv shows and tv news.

A web site is a collection of web pages images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the internet. Some websites require a subscription to access some or all of their content. Examples of subscription sites include many business sites, parts of many news sites, academic journals sites, gaming sites, message boards, Web-based E-mail, and social networking websites. The pages of a website can usually be accessed from a common root URL called the homepage.

Messenger Service is a network-based system notification service included in some versions of Microsoft Windows. This service, although it has a similar name, is not related in any way to the .NET Messenger Service or the Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger instant messaging clients.

A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to the system using a terminal program. Once a user logged in, they could perform functions such as downloading or uploading software and data, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. Many BBSes also offered online games, in which users could compete with each other, and BBSes with multiple phone lines often offered chat rooms, allowing users to meet each other.

Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email or eMail, is any method of creating, transmitting or storing text between people. While, originally, e-mail consisted only of text messages, virtually any media format can be sent today, including attachments of audio and video clips.

The internet has become a vital communication tool for me, as well as a resource for research and data. I find it very useful, and as a beneficial alternative to mobile phones, which prove exspensive in comparison. I will break each communication form into small definitions, and what purpose they serve.

In carrying out research for my blog, it has occured to me that the internet and the web are classed as different things. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is both hardware and software that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.

The internet provides the world with perhaps the biggest form of communication. The Internet carries various information resources and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web. I often use the social networking websites, like facebook. This provides me with regular contact with friends from work, university and back home. Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have created a new form of socialization and interaction. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of items to their personal pages, to indicate common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to find a large circle of existing acquaintances, especially if a site allows users to utilize their real names, and to allow communication among large existing groups of people.

My First Blog

Hi, this is my first blog. Ever. After 20 years of living. I am currently unsure of what to say, or where I am going with this, but I look forward to embracing my blog with knowledge and opinion. I hope that my blogging 'skills' will improve and develop as time passes.