Tuesday, February 06, 2007
My(chance-to-break-into-the-industry)Space
How does £1 million sound for your next film's budget? MySpace is running a competition to find the UK's hidden directing talent. Aside from being a great chance, it could be seen as a good example of the ways in which NMTs are capable of facilitating greater creativity and collaboration. Whilst there's no guarantee of quality, the volume of moving image work now being produced thanks to low cost production technologies indicates an eagerness on the part of people to create as well as consume media.
Labels: democratisation, internet, social networking
Friday, February 02, 2007
(No)You(Don't )Tube
YouTube is a great idea, and clearly there's enormous potential for the sort of delivery methods and user-interaction in evidence. But, what sounds too good to be true often is: some, in this case Viacom, think YouTube (and parent-company Google) are breaking copyright laws, or at least turning a blind eye to the activities of users. As we saw with the original Napster, if people want something they'll go about getting it, and if it's not offered legitimately then that's too bad. The music industry took years to catch up; will the TV people make the same mistakes by attempting to stifle something there's an enormous appetite for? You'd think a royalties deal would be a sensible approach...
Labels: consumers vs institutions, internet, social networking
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Who do you want to be?
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.
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
Saturday, January 27, 2007
It Could Be You(Tube)
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.
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
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