RSSMedia's NMT Blog

There's clearly a bit of a theme developing in my recent posts: TV is doomed. Well, TV as we know it anyway. Plans for the BBC's iPlayer seem to be progressing and ITV, Sky, C4 and Five are all offering downloads of some programmes. All this surely brings into question the chances of SkyHD taking off in the way that Sky Digital did; portability seems to win out over image quality (although the image quality of many downloads is impressive). And, to use some jargon: on-demand downloads are taking audience fragmentation to its furthest extent. It also (as I explored last year, so use the archive links on the right) brings into question the concept of scheduling.

Labels: TV

The popularity of MMORPGs (Wikipedia definition) continues to increase, and there's much you could investgate in the context of NMTs. They allow all sorts of uses, like social interaction, creativity, media consumption (the BBC's plans for a children's online environment are worth a look) and entertainment. To many, the freedom to be who you want to be, through the creation of an avatar, is what's so appealing. Don't like being a thirty-something teacher in the Midlands? Then become a teenage girl and live a life of non-stop partying. Or change your nationality, or personality, or even your species. The point is, you can become just about anything.

There's a fair amount of suspicion of videogames in general amongst those sections of society that aren't involved - even though these groups are often more relaxed about the far more passive experiencve of TV viewing. To be fair, though, there are some disturbing aspects to what happens when people are allowed to recreate themselves as they wish in a virtual world. The Sims Online used to have an unofficial online newspaper, the Alphaville Herald, which reported on all kinds of subversions of the game including evidence of organised crime, and brothels catering to virtually all sexual preferences. The site has now become the Second Life Herald, and it continue to report on the goings on of the more risqué areas of Second Life. It also includes interviews with characters / users and could provide you with lots of useful insights into the motivations of users.

The Register has a column today by a Second Life user which points to a more worrying aspect: the lack of racial variation in the so-called perfect world of Second Life. If you look at the whole column it provides some useful explanations for the lack of black inhabitants. This sort of consideration of the influence of social background on NMT usage patterns is important as it will allow you to write about issues relating to NMTs in a more sophisticated manner.

Labels: social networking, videogames

Apple's iTV, basically a set top box which will allow video files from an iPod to be played on an HD TV, is further proof that internet distribution (in this case via iTunes) of TV and film content is the future. It's convergent technology (combining two or more technologies), high quality and on-demand, all favoured by audiences.

All isn't rosy in the TV downloading garden, though, if some of the comments on the digitalspy.co.uk forums are true. Even after uninstalling the software needed to use the Channel 4 4OD service, your internet connection will continue to be used as part of 4OD's peer-to-peer network. And if people complain about the current TV licence fee, they're not going to be pleased about the fairly high price when buying per-programme. What's going to take some getting used to is having to use different players for different channels - surely an integrated solution like Apple's iTV will prove attractive, if the content available through iTunes is strong enough.

Labels: convergence, internet, p2p, TV

There's a great article today at wired.com about video, especially video cameras in the hands of the masses. Video might be forty years old, but the recent proliferation of cheap, high quality digital video devices - including camcorders but also cameraphones, webcams and still cameras with video capabilities - means the technology is still very relevant to your studies. When 'ordinary' people are given the freedom to create and share, amazing things can happen - just look at YouTube.

The Wired article describes video as "the peoples' medium", and other than on the use of the apostrophe it's difficult to disagree. As you read the article remember that you should be looking for examples of how technology alters the media experience of audiences and institutions; as you'll see as this terms' work progresses, where NMTs are concerned, the division between the two groups is getting harder to define given the rise of the productive/creative/truly interactive audience.

Labels: democratisation, video

YouTube has been in the news quite a bit recently, what with facilitating the release of the first four hours of season 6 of 24 and episodes of The Simpsons before they were aired on TV. Today's news is perhaps more important in terms of your exam: people adding content to YouTube will get paid - perhaps only a few pence / cents, but the principle is a significant one. For example, News Corp. didn't buy MySpace so a load of school kids could comment each other whilst at school; there's loads of money to made out of it (or at least there ought to be, they just need to figure out how). Shouldn't the people creating the content - however embarrassing some of it may be - get some of the rewards?

No doubt in future posts I'll have a go at leading you through the debate on the role of amateurs in mainstream media so watch this space.

Labels: social networking

With Channel4 and the BBC both advancing steadily into internet distribution of TV content, and with YouTube continuing to provide the moving-image entertainment required by a whole generation, and with the BBC's plans for a virtual world in the style of Second Life (complete with 'TV' programmes), you'd be forgiven for thinking TV as we know it is doomed. And if Joost, a new peer-to-peer TV delivery system takes off, living room layouts all over the world (okay, the western world) will have to be reconsidered... Given that the creators of Joost were involved with KaZaA - which you've probably herd of - and Skype - which you have definitely heard of - it's got more than a good chance of changing the world.

It's true that in the digital world audiences are becoming more and more fragmented; by definition, personalised content can't be delivered to huge audiences, after all. To suggest that TV is not going to last is a fairly daft thing to propose, though. 30% of homes are still watching terrestrial TV, and official statistics suggest in early 2006 almost half of homes didn't have internet access. What do these people do with their time?

Labels: internet, TV

Apparently the copy protection on HD-DVD has been cracked, in theory allowing the copying of 'certain titles'; surely no one is surprised? As technology advances it seems institutions are keener than ever to protect their revenues, often pursued despite the threat of alienating consumers (as Sony discovered in 2005). The region coding on DVDs and copy-protected content, often using DRM (digital rights management) technology, are highly disputed technologies: if you buy a CD the music is open to manipulation by you (copying, lending, remixing, for example), and many feel justified by this perhaps because of the physical ownership the CD format represents. Technically it's illegal, but who's really going to care if you remix a few songs for your own use? The music industry, if the use of ever-tighter security technologies are anything to go by. However, formats like WMA and AAC both allow the tight control of the uses of the music bought by consumers, in ways such as how many copies can be made, what devices can play the music and even how long the music will be playable.

A question you need to consider (even though there's no easy answer, as always): just because this type of control is possible, is it a good idea? Clearly there will be strong arguments on both sides, and you need to contemplate them given the twin focus of this unit - audience and institutions.

Labels: consumers vs institutions, DRM

The run up to the new media exam has already started in class and online, with L6 students having set up blogs. For the past three years I've researched alongside students (blogging for the last two), guiding them as to what they should be looking out for and encouraging them to stick with their own research, and this year will be no exception.

My original plan was to set up a new blog on our server (we got full control over the hosting of the site last June) but then Blogger came out of beta and I fancied giving it a go. And it's easier than moving everything.

Here's the but>>> But, I've got loads on the go at the moment and I know I need some motivation so here's a promise to my L6 class: I'll post everyday (or the equivalent) between now and the exams. Question is, keen L6 class, will you match it?

Labels: rash promises