The Hand-y-down society

Frankfurt School

The world around us changes day in day out. Many new and innovation forms of technology surpassing anything we previously had. This allows us to see a new world that we wouldn’t normally see. As a result of this, a vacuum has formed around different classes. This was more noticeable in the 1930s as very few households had what we regard as essential forms of media e.g. radio. The Frankfurt school found this out, as a result many people and theories have wondered why this is the case. Why people on lower-income become somewhat less informed of the world around us.

One key point of the Frankfurt school was the fact that society can act almost like a hand-y-down between siblings. But instead of person belongings it was mass media. A prime example of this was in the early 20^th century where upper class and some of the middle class had a radio or as they knew it a wireless. On the device you would get a small yet useful array of daily stations which provide you with news, music, plays and classical music just to name a few. As can be seen this is a massive leap forward to what we now know as modern mass media. However, this rise in modern media did has some consequences on the lower and middle class families. This is partly a result of big boom in people living in cities instead of living in the countryside. Or more commonly know as the industrial revolution. This massive revolution had completely changed the way in which the whole world worked. Now people were living within feet of each other instead of the big open air countryside. This then lead to the improvements of mass media by making it cheaper and more accessible to everyone.

So why would we say that the world around us acts like a hand-y-down. Well it’s partly due to the way in which our society is structured however it’s mostly due to the way in which we consume mass media and how quickly it can change around us. This results in the higher, well paid get the latest and most expensive device out there while compare that to a low-income family who wouldn’t get it straight away. As a result, you could say that may low income families are less educated due to now being able to fund such changes however this is not always the case since, after all we are humans and we are best at adapting to new environment’s and challenges.

Tony Basten

The revolution will be broadcast

As we go about our day to day lives we often forget the power we have in our hands. Or so we think we do. Without a doubt social media can have a massive effect on the way in which we can affect peoples life. Whether its for the great good or just pure evil. This all depends on how you as a person want to react with the world around you.

As many of you will remember in the early 2010s the Arab spring started, changing many countries and changing so many different lives. But why did this happen. More importantly can it happen to a country like England or even America. The truth is yes it can. As we saw with the occupy wall-street, a large group of normal Americans decide that they wanted change. And to a point they did. But not on the say scale as Syria or Egypt.

But what is stopping a political change within these countries. Well no one really knows. Majority of people agree with their elected government and only a handful disagree. So for a large scale revolution you would need the majority of your country behind you. You would also need some form of a hierarchy to replace the once acting government. Its no good if you kick out your government and leave a void in which can be taken over and leave to complete collapse.

But how would this effect the social media side. Well it would most likely start off as a social media campaign which would later on be evolve into a full on revolution. The same thing which happened in Egypt in 2011. Since 1 in every 7 people have at least one form of social media, it will be hard for the government to change the minds of everyone who is involved. As proven in turkey a few years ago were they effective switched off the internet. This wasnt the case because the was a way round the block that many people exploited.

Overall social media has a massive impact on the way in which we live our lives. From talking to a few friends about changing the world to a full on revolution. Without a doubt it is the most powerful tool we have to express ourselves as well as sharing our points of view. Even if its a cat chasing a laser.

Cover it yourself, copyright on covering music

As we change the way in which we interact with the world around us, may find it hard to get noticed within this new digital age. However thanks to the power of the internet and more importantly YouTube. People are able to become more noticeable. Take for instance Justin Bieber who shot to fame after uploading videos of him covering songs. But surprisingly what he did is actually illegal. Well it is but it depends on who you ask. Most blogs and news centres say it is illegal however there isn’t anything really written down about it.

But why is it consider illegal to cover a song. After all nearly all YouTubers do it to show their passion for their music as well as their love for the musician. However record companies don’t see it that way, they see it as a breach of copyright which could lead to a court order. So what can we do to prevent this from happening? Well it will only be possible when record companies acknowledge that the YouTubers are doing it to show off their skills and their love for their music. Not to be used for making money.

Despite all this it is very rare for someone to be penalised against a record company for covering a song. This is because of the amount of YouTubers and YouTube videos covering music. To attack one person isn’t fair unless you target all of them at the same time. If YouTube did do this and took down all the song covered videos they would loss so much of its audience which would result in the site closing down. So financially it wouldn’t be suitable for them to do that. So in all it will be hard for YouTube to copyright every single YouTubers who covered at least one song. If they did do it, in effect they would be shooting themselves in the foot. Instead of focusing on covering songs, they should focuses on people who are downloading music off YouTube instead of buying it. This should be the focus as you are effectively stealing.

Overall copyright with music in YouTube is such a hard area to cover since it has so many politics involved which would result in the downfall of YouTube.

Link:http://newmediarockstars.com/2013/08/worried-your-cover-song-on-youtube-is-illegal-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-it/

Is our private life really private anymore

With social media taking over our lives, it’s even harder nowadays to keep our private lives private. With all aspects of lives covered by one form of social media. It’s even hard to be an individual and to have a private live with the rise of social media.

Having so much of your own personal life within social media can indeed be a bad thing. As many people are able to upload and use your information to create a copy of you or a fake account. Why do people do this, well no one really knows. I might be because of someone wanting to cause harm to the user or just because they want to. Admittedly there is no way in which you are able to overcome this. This is due to the nature of social media and the effect it has on people.

With the amount we share on our day to day lives is incredible. On average nearly half of the whole world’s population has at least one social media account. With Facebook being the biggest social media site with over 1.5 billion monthly users. So for many people, with the amount of contain being share, without every though getting share. Are our private lives private, well to a point no.? We share so much about it on-line we don’t have a private like we use to.

Links:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-private-your-social-media

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/kadie-regan/2015-08-10/10-amazing-social-media-growth-stats-2015

http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-17-amazing-facebook-stats/

The art of the community

As many people will be surprised i am a very big fan of art, mainly computer generated imagery such as motion graphics and 3d. This side of art and media isn’t very well know due to the level of skill and imagination one will need to create such images. With so many people who work on this area and get paid for it, there is only one place a person can share this and that is the on-line art site deviant.

Although this sight does attract the more qwerty style of art, it does has a lot more within it. It is a place where people are able to show off the latest drawings or paintings, as well as show off their level of modelling and the skill level of many photographers. It also allows people to post a for of blogs that their followers or as they are know watchers can find out about their latest projects.

So why is this an important on-line community, well it allows people who have a hobby, or a passion or a career in the different forms of art can express themselves. They are also able to collaborations with other people who share the same passion. Overall this community can help create and inspire so much imagination or ideas and is one of the most important on-line community out there.

Twitch, the online commuinty for online gamers in an online world

As a gamer myself, i find nothing more entertaining then watching people on YouTube play games and cock up. Despite this not being to everyone taste, it has a large following. To the point where you are able to share live game play with people across the world. This is the world of twitch, a sight with millions of users and followers. A place where you are able to share you gaming passion with other people across the world.

So with this how is anyone able to interact with people and more importantly how can it impact the audience. Well twitch is a form of social media that many gamers go too to watch their favourite gamers. Gamers such as Syndicate, nerd3 have become some of the most successful gamers out there due to this website. This is due to interaction with the audience.

The way in which you are able to interact with your audience is via a live stream chat on the side of the screen. During this you are able to send a live message to the person your watching live or talk to other games, get a better interaction compare to another social media site.

Twitch as a whole is able to do so much more then just watching people play games. Its a place for anyone with a small interest in gaming can come along and share in the passion.

Social media convergence

With social media being the most popular tool we have to keep in contact with friends and family. You might find it hard to believe but social media is in fact a form of media convergence. It is surprising as you wouldn’t of thought it would be a form of media convergence. There are many different formats which are used to make and create a social media site. One format which is more important then any other is that of the internet. Without this key convergence we wouldn’t have any form of social media.  The second key convergence we used for social media is a bit of a tricky one as it takes in many different factors. Formats such as photo sharing, address book, ones own thoughts. The list goes on and on.

Because of this wide selection of convergence used to make a social media site, it is one of if not the best example of a successful media convergence. With the number of different social media sites out there, you often have to use different forms of convergence to make it for example instagram is photo based with the internet while tumbler uses your own personal thoughts as well as the internet.  The image below shows the many different typs of social media sites out there.

Could on-line resources be the end of library’s

Is the internet destroying out library. Well to a point yes it is. With the internet we are able to get an abundant  at our finger tips. However before hand we would of gone to the library and research for you topic. Although this method was often a lot longer and required you to find a library. It was often more useful as you don’t get distracted by pictures of cats then compared to the internet.  As I’m writing this I’m looking up american food diners . This is a prime example to how easy you can get distracted while doing work. But why are library’s dying out. Well its mostly due to my generation and the invention of smartphones.   Because of this we’re are able to keep up to-date with everything going on around us as well as discover new and exciting stories. So how can we story more library’s disappearing. Well when it comes to doing research we should use library’s as a starting point to when we do work. Although this will be tricky we will soon adapt to it. After all us humans are used to adapting to the world around us.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/13/the-end-of-the-library/

how the mighty can fall. History of the internet

Social media is the most important tool we use everyday. However what happens when it decides to close down or goes out of fashion. Sites such as bebo and myspace have fallen out of fashion. Why is this. Well this is partly due to the trend and style each generation goes for. To us bebo and myspace seem old school. However without these sites the world of social media would be very different. In mid 2000s bebo became the most popular site in the country with almost 11 million users. However this was shadowed by the much bigger facebook with almost 57 million users. Due to this many social media sites struggled to keep hold of their users. As a result many sites such as bebo, myspace and msn closed towards the end of the 2010s. This is due to either not having a successful marketing or just lack of interest by their users. Because of this Facebook has become the biggest social media site when back in 2012 it had 1 billion montly users. With no sign of stopping. Bebo could learn a thing or two from its young rival.