Cyberculture:The Web as Media
In commonplace use the term Internet refers to the physical structure and equipment that interlinks Personal Computers, Servers, telephone lines satellites and other equipment that we have been using. The "Web" is usually meant to refer to content- the sites we visit-and our case will create. The Web I would contend is now at the point where it can be seen as yet another form of mass media albeit a new and rapidly developing one. Just as in the years just after the last war the effects, nature and impact of television was neither widely understood nor recognised, so like it's preceding media, the future of the Web is unknown and possibly unknowable.
However one feature of content provision is closely mimicking the early development of Television. As you will discover, or may have already discovered, the Web is becoming increasingly commercially dominated. Corporations have quick to spot the commercial opportunities that the Web offers. Many Websites appear to be little more that clones of the television and Cinema advertisements we may have seen for a particular product. The television, music and film industries themselves are major users of the Web to promote their products often in support of the rest of their promotional activities. MTV , www.cartoon-network.com or www.pixar.com/ and many, many more represent a recognition by media organisation of the growing importance of the Web as an advertising medium.
Some commercial sites are of academic importance as a source of information. In our case one of the most important is www.guardian.co.uk. This site is particularly good for both the media industries in general and specifically the information communication technology industry. This site provides invaluable access to both an archive of issues and to the most up to date developments and debates. The paper version of this specialist supplement "Online" is included with the paper on Thursday of every week. Such is the growing significance of the ICT industry that all of the broad sheet or "quality" press now has a special section devoted to it. The industry even has it's own specialist magazines some which you find in this suite or in the library.
The main advantage of the Web over newspaper, television and radio advertising is the interactivity that the Web or more accurately the Internet offers. For the end user or consumer the advantages are just as obvious. When we visit a site to access specific information we can also interlink to related material in a way that no other media will allow.
When designing sites most good designers will include links to other sites that offer related information. Some sites do little else that offer a series of links to other areas of interest good examples of these "weblogs" can be found via the Guardian. .Search engines such as www.yahoo.co.uk or www.ask.co.uk actually owe there commercial viability to his feature. Put simply advertisers will sponsor sites that are likely to be seen by large audiences- and most end users start with a search unless there is a specific destinations for a particular access session.
In fact most Web "surfing" is not random so it follows that just as in other media at least half the promotional spend is wasted. Advertisers however continue to use the Web for a number of reasons. The Web is experiencing an astonishing growth rate, is the only genuinely global media, with a global audience, and it's audience itself is precisely the demographic advertisers want to reach. The typical netsurfer is under 45, in employment or higher education, without major commitments, and has a larger than average disposable income. Growing sectors of web users are also significant to advertisers- demographic groups such as the financially secure single person of retirement age -referred to as the "grey pound" and specific groups that cannot be easily targeted by conventional advertising. This last advantage is possibly the second most important justification for the ever growing commercial use of the Web.
"Virtual Communities" of all kinds, Scottish expatriates, golfers, teddy bear collectors, Trad jazz fans, and every conceivable special interest group can at least be potentially reached internationally by a relatively modest advertising budget in a way that no other media can do.
Of some significance now and of enormous future potential, is the notion of ecommerce. For the corporation using the Web to promote their products and services the usefulness of ecommerce is both a major advantage to the Web over other media and a potentially lucrative and efficient way of carrying out business.
Put simply the goods and services being promoted by a site can be purchased, and paid for by the consumer direct -with no other transaction taking place.
The best example of at integrated ecommerce approach is the growth in the sales of MP3 files direct over the Net. MP3 is a sound file format that offers quality very close to that of a CD. There are of course opportunities for even more lucrative but less legal uses of the Web. This form of music purchase is now so popular that the second most frequently three letter text string entered in search engines is MP3. (top of course is sex!)
The other similarity with the other media industries is an economic one. The ICT industry is consolidating at an alarming rate, indeed merger of CBS & Viacom includes both corporations substantial interests as Web content providers. The AOL Time Warner Corporation is the largest multi media conglomerate of all time and was created as Netscape diversified into service and content provision was then taken into the corporation. These developments tend to suggest that like the media ICT will soon be dominated small number of very large very diverse multinational corporations, just as all other media already are. The implications for the nature of cyberculture and the flow and control of information around the world will be is a key focus of the Module. Links to relevant media orientated sites are below, please explore and evaluate your progress on the WEBCT conference for this module.
Corporate Sites:
The BBC. - The UK "public service" broadcaster
The Telegraph & Argus - "Local news" from a subsidiary company of Newsquest.
CNN - A member of the Time Warner AOL Netscape multi media conglomerate
The International Herald Tribune - International "news" for US expatriates.
The Herald - The oldest continuously published newspaper in the English speaking world.
"Online" The new media section of the Guardian.
Satire & Anti Corporate sites;
Media Watch- A US based educational & activist site.
The Onion - "America's Finest News Sourcetm" - NOT.
Adbusters - The global corporate fascist state is no longer cool....
No loGo - ...and never really was.
Private Eve - The only national satirical magazine in the UK
|
|