New Media and Digital Culture
New Media
Web 2.0
20 Key Concepts
Wikinomics
Peering
Openness
Sharing
Acting Globally
Media Convergence
Social
Industrial
Textual
Technological
Interactivity
The Knowledge Economy
Hacking
Mobile Media
Globalization
Networks
Digital Economy/Digital Capitalism
Participation
The Digital Divide
Piracy
Digital Copyright/Creative Commons
Privacy and Surveillance
Cyberspace/Virtual Reality
Remediation
Creative Industries
Ubiquitous Computing
Convergence
User-Created Content/User-Led Innovation
Collective Intelligence
Web 2.0
Media Theories
Social Shaping of Technology
Technological Determinism
Technological artefacts and practices vary for different societies
This concept was described by Raymond Williams and David Edge(Williams and Edge 1996: 866)
Technology is a product of the social conditions and how it is used
Technology Lock In
The nature of technologies and the direction of change are not problematic or pre-determined
According to Marshall McLuhan technologies are an extension of our human capacity and they subtly transform the human enviroment
The Qwerty Keyboard became a staple because of the older keyboard formation being used in typewriters for so long. Brian Arthur(1999)
Technological change produces social and organizational change
Williams' approach draws attention to decisions made in the adoption of new media technologies and the groups that can make changes regarding how technology is adopted
Information Society
Originally Daniel Bell attempted to take a systematic approach at the social impact of new media technologies
Knowledge and information are becoming the strategic resource and transforming agent of the post-industrial society(Bell 1980: 531, 545)
Bell claimed that the rise of the services economy and the growth of computer-driven knowledge technologies were central to 'post-industrial society' or later called the 'information society'
The two issues that Bell claimed were bringing this about are the workforce shift away from agriculture and the growing role of knowledge and information
This has been challenged by people like Kumar and Mattleart
Network Society
Five Central Elements
The pervasive impacts of new ICTs through social activity
The theory of the network society has been championed by Manuel Castells who is a sociologist
The logic of networking being applied to all social processes and organisational forms
Information becoming the raw economic material which is both an input and output
Processes, organisational structures and institutional forms being flexible in order that changes can be made for uncertainty and unplanned changes
The growing convergence of specific technologies into a highly integrated system which affects all industries
According to Castells the world is becoming a global capitalist society where capitalist economic relations are pivotal
People such as Nicholas Garnham(2004) have argued that the media described by Castells encompasses a more diverse range of forms than he recognizes
Techno Economic Paradigms
Five main Identified paradigms
Long waves of capitalist development were identified by Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev who noted clusters of technological development that trigger the rise of new industries and socio-economic changes
The Age of Oil, The Automobile and Mass Production(1940s-80s)
The Age of Information and Telecommunications(1990s-present)
The Age of Steel, Electricity, and Heavy Engineering(1890s-1930s)
The Age of Steam and Railways(1840s-80s)
The Industrial Revolution(1780s-1830s)
Actor-Network Theory
Derived from French philosopher and social theorist Bruno Latour who helped develop an understanding between the relationship between technologies and society
Views a network as a concept that maps actors and interactions that enable new technologies to be created or used
Actors can be human and non-human when it comes to interactions
Perceives reality as constituted by the technical and symbolic activity of humans
Views digital networks as rendering the real world's network aspect visible by creating public complex social networks that combine people and machines
Networks
How Networks appear in economics
Networked Forms of Organization
The Relationship Between Market And Non-market Production
Network Externalities
Market participants affecting each other without being paid
Positive Externalities have been a strong driver of New Media
Metcalfe's Law(Named after Bob Metcalfe who invented Ethernet)- Membership of a network has a value to users that is a multiple of the number of other users(Shapiro and Varian 1999: 184).
n*(n-1)=n2-n
Increasing the size of the network can have a effect on the perceived value tenfold the increase in size
Growing significance in non-market or social production is associated with the rise of information, knowledge, and culture to the center of economic relations
Networks and Social Production
According to Yochai Benkler there has been a rise of a networked information economy
A main characteristic of these networks is that Decentralized individual action plays a much greater role than before
Benkler identifies three sub conditions that have lead to the rise in the networked information economy
The existence of the internet itself has given a major boost to all non-market forms of production and distribution of information
There is a rise of peer production of information, knowledge, and culture through large-scale cooperative efforts
The rise of information, knowledge, and creative industries themselves
Social production might have the most impact in areas of economic life that share core characteristics with industries connected to information, knowledge, communications, culture, and creativity
Social Network Media and Social Capital
3 Types of Social Capital
bridging social capital
linking social capital
bonding social capital
Social Networking Sites(SNS)
Social Capital is Enhanced Across Three Dimmenions(Petter Bae Brandtzaeg 2012)
SNS users tend to have more acquaintances offline than non-users
SNS played a positive role in developing and maintaining bridging social capital
Active SNS use tends to lead to more face-to-face interactions with close friends
Brandtzaeg found that very active SNS users may experience greater loneliness than non-users which is similar to a thesis by Sherry Turkle that claimed that technology removing the possibility of being alone can isolate us even though we think we are connected
The Public Sphere
Jurgen Habermas defines the public sphere as a realm of social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed and access is guaranteed to all citizens
Habermas found three forces that helped open up a public discourse spheres
The rise of commerce and private business(Johnson 2012: 21)
A winding back of the feudal powers of the church and the nobility and the emergence of modern nation-states with legal powers
The rise of a literary-cultural public sphere that included journalism and arts(Johnson 2012: 21)
Dahlgren(2005) says that the internet has opened up democratic discourse to a wider range of citizens by enabling to develop multiple heterogeneous communicative forums and practices
Dahlgren view differs from the singular, public sphere of Habermas
Habermas thinks that the internet has not widely contributed to deliberative democracy but instead creates a large number of isolated spheres
Video Games
Games Industry
Video Games and Violence
Game Distributors
Game Retailers
Game Publishers
Game Consumers
Game Developers
The concern is with hardcore gamers
Generally people agree that a link between behavioral patterns and media violence
John Murray(2008) argues there are three significant classes of effects that sustained violent media causes
Desensitisation
Fear
Aggression
The results of many studies have had results that deviate too much to prove a clear link between violent behavior and video game/media violence
Gamers
Hardcore gamers are predominantly male
Most gamers are older than 18
Adult women now make up a greater portion of gamers than younger boys
One-third of gamers play games on their smartphones
Game Features
Valorisation of outcomes
Player effort
Variable, quantifiable outcomes
Player-attached outcome
Rules
Negotiable consequences
Higher Education
Top Destination Countries for Education(UNESCO 2012b)
UK
Australia
US
France
Four trends that are changing higher education
Development of cross-border teaching programs
The growing importance of international sources of research funding and international research collaboration
Growing reliance upon international enrollments for funding
Cross-border accreditation of programs
Broad public good aspects of higher education
Universities as scholarly institutions where the nature of the public good is understood deeply and can be debated in free enviroments
Universities as institutions that contribute to the public sphere
Support for the education of individuals and for research that leads to the generation of new knowledge
Massive Open Online Courses(Moocs)
4 Myths and Paradoxes(Daniel 2012a)
Some people criticize MOOCs for being devoid of local context and possibly displacing initiatives of foreign countries with United States material
MOOCs can not qualify for academic credit and lead to problems
MOOCs often rely on crude teaching models based on repetition and basic testing
Completion rates for MOOCs are currently extremely low
According to Daniel there is a paradox where MOOCS want to make knowledge more common property but also want to find a way to generate money at the same time
MOOCs are often lead by high-profile international professors and production teams
However prestigious universities will not let MOOCs drain on their budget for traditional learning
Can allow disabled or international students to join in high profile lectures which can expand a professor's reach or a universities brand's reach
Some people worry that academic institutions might come to resemble the entities they serve; colleges could be turned into big businesses(Miller 2003: 902)
The Internet
Nicholas Carr worries that the internet will make us more distracted and we will lose the ability to have a deep mental focus(Does the Internet Make You Dumber?)
According to Clay Shirky it is natural for new media to create garbage because not every part of new media culture is a treasure or intellectual material that we keep(Does the Internet Make You Smarter?)
According to William Poundstone the internet does not make us smarter or dumber but it makes us not aware of what we don't know(The Internet Isn't Making Us Dumber- It's Making Us More 'Meta-Ignorant')
Alan Lightman noted that the tech connected society that is being created can make us more connected to ourselves and others but also disconnected from the world immediately around them(The Accidental Universe)
SNS and media can remove boredom which reduces our creativity(Note to Self- The Case for Boredom)