ems - summer i ’11 - t101 midterm exam review

MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW

The Media Life Perspective

• We live IN media not with it.• There is no life outside of media.• There is no way to make sense of yourself

outside of media.

• In the media life perspective, since we don’t have to worry about the distinction between biology and technology, we’re free to focus on determining what a good, responsible, beautiful media life looks like. – Mark Deuze

Pick your reality

Media Life: The point of it all

Some media life basics

society centric vs. media-centric explanations of media life

“Media are infrastructures with three components: the artifacts or devices used to communicate or convey information, the activities and practices in which people engage to communicate or share information, and the social arrangements or organizational forms that develop around those devices and practices.”

Natural user interfaces

In a media life: we are the media

Media using is media making: User Generated Content (UGC)

The audience (co-)creates and the industry responds

Crossmedia storytelling: telling the SAME STORY LINE across multiple media platforms

Transmedia storytelling: Each media platform contributes PART of the whole story line

Media use as “free labor”

Convergence Culture: An Industry Based on Emotional Capital

The media industry appeals to our emotions, draws us in and allows us to work for them while making us more loyal consumers/participants.

Internet Access by Race

Internet Access by Income

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

Lower income

Middle income

Higher income

Days of internet use per week

Internet Access by Age

Series10

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.618-29

30-39 40-49

50-59

60+

Days of internet use per week

key issues

motivational access

material access

usageaccess

skillsaccess

Participation gap

• The unequal access to opportunities, experiences, skills, and knowledge that prepares people for full participation in a media life.

•Social media help us create and manage those versions so someone else doesn’t do it for us

We create different versions of ourselves

•Gender is also part of our identity

What do our readings say about identity?

Barry Wellman – Sociologist of Social NetworksUniversity of Toronto

He studies the shift from group-centered relations to networked individualism.

Barry Wellman’s take home point:

Social closeness does not mean physical closeness.

Globalization

Globalization is about

-The interdependency of large corporations in different countries – outsourcing, etc.

-The rise of the corporation and decline of the state

- The increased exposure to other cultures – their language, news, traditions, fashion, media, etc.

Media make us more mobile today

Networked cars– safety or surveillance?

Through mobile media we become glass consumers

Our bodies & the things we carry on them are technologies of surveillance

4 types of media professionals

Networkers(Project) Managers

DIY'ersCreative Designers

digital nomads

“mobility allows us to roam with our economic and social structure carried with us in tiny

digital caravans. We’re seeing the enterprisation of our social lives, and the

socialisation of our enterprises.”

Dave Duarte (Tree Shaker), 2011

http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/

THE F-FACTOR“Consumers are increasingly tapping into their

networks of friends, fans, and followers, to discover, discuss and purchase goods and

services, in ever-more sophisticated ways.”trendwatching.com, 2011

Media companies: organizations or networks?

The Rise of Lifestyle Media: Successful media companies will become “marketplaces that let consumers search, research, share and configure their media experiences.”

To be good, these exchanges need to combine “a personalized media experience with a social context for participation.”

Instead of “exclusive ownership of content or distribution assets” (the stuff of old media), the media marketplaces will compete in their “knowledge of consumer activity”, which they will use both to interact more intimately with consumers and to match them better to advertising that is unobtrusive and helpful (itself a novelty), and thus lucrative.”

The Economist Reading:

The slides that follow contain questions from in-class reading comprehension exercises & discussion topics. Please study these and use them as a study guide. You may see similar questions on the exam.

Questions:

• In what ways do the lines between technologies and the body disappear when we think about media?

• How you think media shape our understanding of the world?

Reading Comprehension Question:

From the Jenkins/Deuze reading, is convergence culture generally more of a centralizing or decentralizing force in the media industry?

decentralizing

Discussion questions:

Name five different “players” who actively participate in the convergence culture (today’s media industry) that Jenkins and Deuze describe.

•Drawing on what you heard in Henry Jenkins’ talk, how do you think participatory culture in today’s media environment impacts the creativity of everyday people? Are the kinds of creativity he talks about useful for things other than just recreation and entertainment today?

In groups of 3 answer the following reading comprehension questions:

•According to Jenkins, does convergence mean that all old technologies will be replaced by new ones? If so, why? If not, why not?

Media don’t die

Participation in labor force and political citizenship

Networked Individualism Activity (For reading response credit): Take out a piece of paper. Write down short answers to the following

questions and share them with a partner: You live away from your family right now. How do you connect with them

and maintain your relationships with family members through new media? What is the funniest thing a family member of yours does through social media (texting, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, fantasy sports, Words with Friends, etc.)

In what ways does the participation gap and/or gendered use of

technologies play a role in the maintenance of those relationships? Do you think your family life is more or less fulfilling because of the way

you use communication technologies to connect with one another? Why?

According to Florida, what is the difference between a “Creative City” and a “Nerdistan?”

Nerdistans are bland, uninteresting places with acre upon acre of identical office complexes, row after row of asphalt parking lots, freeways clogged with cars, cookie-cutter housing developments, and strip-malls sprawling in every direction.

How does the creative class connect to the media life perspective?

The key idea in a media life is that reality can be created by youas an individual (the reality of what work you do where and how you live your life, and the kind of person you are). Working in the creative class means life, work and play become indistinguishable. The creative class lives, works and plays in media.

This notion is not new; what is new, is that we now see this asan individual’s responsibility instead of something we do togetheras a society.

“you get large by allowing the many and small to gather on your lawn.” Provide examples of companies who abide by this philosophy.

Ebay, yahoo, google, facebook, wikipedia, etsy, youtube, digg, Reddit, etc.

The Economist Reading:

Reading Comprehension Question:

Is Google a media company? Why or why not? What do you think? Talk to your neighbor and write down what you think on a piece of paper.

In groups answer this question:

In the Economist article the author talks about the difference in How Yahoo and Google choose content that appears on their siteWhat are the differences and which approach do you thinkWorks or will work better in the future. What are the advantages And disadvantages to each approach?