Case Study #5

Who are the primary target audience now and has this changed?  Who was it before and how do you know?

Different social media sites appeal to different age groups, so this suggests that primary target audiences will differ. 

• 18-24 year old = primary audience
• 18-24's will use it more than any other groups of people because they will most likely have a mobile version of Twitter, so they can tweet on the go. 
• The audience hasn't really changed, Twitter is used by everyone but mainly used with 18-24

• 25-34 year old = primary audience
• The target audience has changed from 0-17 18-24 because they have moved to Twitter
• 25-34 year old's are now using it more because they reunite with old friends etc...

This infographic explains the statistics with the biggest social media sites right now:

Case study #4

Is the size of the audience any different now than before the impact of new and digital media (or has the pattern of usage changed)?

This info-graphic displays that people aged 0-17 and 35-44 in 2008 are more likely to use social media on sites like Bebo, Myspace and FriendFeed. However, since it's 2013 times have changed and on top of table is Twitter and Facebook which appeals more to 16-24 year olds. 

MySpace was the most visited social network site in 2005-2008 but it got overtaken by Facebook in April 2008. 

Facebook took over Myspace and has been the most dominant social networking site since 2008. September 2012, Facebook had announced that they have reached 1 billion active users. In 2010, this was the Facebook's users by age:  

Now there is some competition with Facebook and Twitter. Even though Facebook is the most used social networking site, Twitter is slowly creeping behind. Twitter started in 2006 and rapidly grew in 2012 with over 500 million users. 
Social network demographics (2012):



Social media was once considered a trend and has now become the way of life. In 2012, there were many events that happened via social media. For example, in March Kony 2012 brought up a lot of views and raise awareness about the warzone in Uganda. They reached 87 million views on YouTube and everyone around the world knew about this. This shows social media has a huge impact on spreading news, it's easy and cheap to do... most of the time it's free. The table below shows the impact of social media

Case Study - #2

Has new and digital media had an impact upon ownership and control of the media institution(s) involved in your case study area?  Explain in detail any impact and what exactly has changed.

Social media/networks play a big part in the impact of ownership and control of media institutions. Firstly, the use of UGC is a factor as it has created audience to become producers as well as consumers. UGC is User generated content, so this refers to citizen journalism so audience can now use sites like YouTube to give that firsthand experience. The use of UGC is slowly putting journalism out of the business. Similarly with social sites like Twitter, Twitter is known for its 24hr rolling news where users constantly update things that may be happening right now, right there. Its a very easy way to get news around, so sites like this are slowly putting newspapers out of business. Audiences are now reliant on social media for source of information, also people now use online to communicate more. 

Social media can be dangerous as it creates 'internet warriors' and 'twitter famous' people, these people rely on the sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube too often. To be labelled as a 'internet warrior' means that an individual to be brave behind the screen and constantly insult people. Twitter famous relates to the amount of followers you have and how good your tweets are, in today's society, many people inspire to be twitter famous as they actually believe it will get them far in life. To conclude, social networks can be very addictive.

What impact has there been on the way in which the audience now consume the media products/ texts involved in your case study?  How does it differ from what went before?  Consider (SHEP)

There has been a tremendous impact on the way the audience now consume media products. People now turn to YouTube in hopes of becoming a star because it's quick way to get recognition and become famous. An example of a YouTube sensation is Justin Bieber, he was found on YouTube by Usher and was quickly signed by him and currently Justin Bieber is making millions and he's only 19. So sites like YouTube to make dreams reality and audiences are now consuming media differently as they are more likely to get involved in media without even knowing. Using sites like Twitter, they are informing everyone with what they are doing but if something happens, for example: a fight with Chris Brown and Frank Ocean many people will take to Twitter to discuss and voice their opinions. This is different to 5 years ago, where audiences didnt use social networks so much, MSN was the main source of communication but now that has died and Microsoft have now bought Skype.

Economically, audience have consumed media texts differently because everything is available online for example, people can now do shopping online, online banking etc... so money has been saved by using the internet but regarding social media, everything is free and audiences cant resist freebies. An example of a freebie via social networks is the news, where they can get 24hr rolling news, also games are free on social media etc. 

Lessons the tech world learned in 2012

What is it about?

This article gives the reader 9 lessons that the 'tech world' learned in 2012. 

LESSON 1 Tweet in haste, repent at leisure, 

LESSON 2 Valuing technology companies remains an inexact science,

LESSON 3 Raspberries come in unexpected flavours,

LESSON 4 The iPad isn't a magic bullet for publishers after all
LESSON 5 Why Facebook should not have a seat at the United Nations

LESSON 6 Book publishers have finally realised that they are the main course in Amazon's lunch menu

LESSON 7 Just because governance of the internet is too important to be left to the United Nations doesn't mean that it doesn't need governance

LESSON 8 If you want privacy keep off the net. Or at least encrypt your stuff

LESSON 9 The future's mobile and that's not necessarily good news

What do I think?

I think there are a lot of lessons

Why power has two meanings on the internet

What is it about?

• Back in 1906, an Italian engineer turned economist named Vilfredo Pareto made a startling discovery: 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.
• In the 1940s, an American engineer named Joseph Juran noticed that 80% of the quality problems in industrial mass-production systems seemed to come from 20% of the possible causes. 
•  Pareto Principle was really just a special case of a more general phenomenon, namely the fact that in many areas of life there is no such thing as a typical or average case.
• we see the distribution of which Pareto's Principle is a special example: a small number of people/sites/words/etc account for most of the action, with a "long tail" getting very little of it.
• Instead of most websites having an "average" number of inbound links, a very small number of sites (the Googles, Facebooks and Amazons of this world) have colossal numbers of links, while millions of sites have to make do with only a few.
• Mathematicians call this kind of pattern a "power law" distribution

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/06/power-laws-internet-john-naughton

Case Study

Write here what your case study will involve.  Remember it should be about the impact of new and digital media on.....

Explain why you have chosen this topic and why you think this will be a rich area for study.
I have chosen this topic because it's very relevant to the 21st century. Social media is everywhere and I think it's only right to study it. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have changed our lives dramatically as we are almost dependant on these sites. There is a lot to talk about regarding social networking, like UGC, the fact that individuals play games on social sites instead of actual games sites, people communicate more on sites then on the phone. Also these sites are easy accessible. So these are the reasons why I find it important and a rich area to study. 

Identify at least three media texts/ products that you will use as your primary sources of evidence to demonstrate the impact of new and digital media in your topic area

Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Google

Black Mirror

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/01/charlie-brooker-dark-side-gadget-addiction-black-mirror



Black Mirror: What is the message?

Black Mirror has many messages but it definitely shows how society is being based through desensitisation of content. Nowadays there is less privacy and less censorship so that means that audience are loosing their values and their ability to interact with others through sites such as Twitter. Using Twitter, means that people can use it to spread information quickly but this also lacks censorship because as soon as something is on the internet it can be spread instantly. We are now living in adystopia due to technology instead of utopia. New and digital media is now taking over traditional media through the use of smart phones, interactivity of social networking and UGC. Moreover it presents political affairs in a satire way to show the debasing of society who only watched the events that mock people or entertain themselves. It also shows the strong belief that society has on Rolling 24 hour news to present the real news , as internet news could be untrue and false rumours therefore many rely on broadcasting services to present the truth.