Task 2

Task 2

The development of new and digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

Firstly, audiences have access to cheaper technology and so this enables more consumption and provides the consumers to become producers of their own media. For example, websites such as www.youtube.com allow the user to upload their own productions and view others as long as it does not infringe copyright laws. So this has made it much easier to consumer media worldwide over the internet using web 2.0. However, net neutrality is still not available to all and therefore this challenges democracy- the fairness and equality of all. And so, although the technology is available to the citizens the actual content, how and what they are supplied by the internet providers vary, meaning that audiences have become more powerful than the past, but they are not the most powerful in terms of consumption and production.

Similarly, user generated content has flourished in recent years and has lead to the vast increase of citizen journalism where citizens produce media. For example, the ‘rodney king’ video tape available on www.youtube.com, shows a black citizen in America being beaten by white police officer. If it was not for the recording by a fellow citizen then this illegal and unconstitutional act would have gone unnoticed. And it is for this reason that citizens and their media provided on the internet strengthens democracy, and therefore the development of new and digital media has bettered the world. Additionally, the vast changes in technology and worldwide advances have allowed citizens of all backgrounds and classes to provide and consume media. This has been due to new devices that allow citizens to record, phone, email, watch television and search the ‘web’ at the same time anywhere. For example, the apple iphone, blackberry mobiles and htc mobile phones are internet enabled and produced with cameras over 5 megapixels. But, despite a larger variety of technology available it still does not acknowledge the fact that these mobile phones are still expensive, with their recommended retail price at around £495. Also, certain laptops produced by apple are purchased at £900+. On the whole this increases interactivity within a community formed by users and increases a sense of an internet family worldwide; making the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production of their own media.

On the other hand, regulations and ownership of certain music, images and videos used by the citizens in their own productions are removed by certain websites as it infringes copyright laws. It is for this reason that citizens are not yet powerful enough to publish media of their own if they sample other artists track without permission. Although this does mean plagiarism, the media industry should have certain regulations that lessen the consequences of imprisonment and heavy fines and are slightly more liberal with the use of certain samples in the use generated content. And so, this means that the audience is powerful in terms of consumption but not in terms of production.

In conclusion, the productions by citizens maybe of an amateur quality and therefore may only target a minority audience and so they are not powerful enough to disturb the worldwide media industry. But new technology means that user generated content is widely available on the internet and as a result this strengthens democracy and therefore also strengthens the media industry as a whole.