The Big Question: Is multi-channel TV damaging the quality of Christmas programmes?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-big-question-is-multichannel-tv-damaging-the-quality-of-christmas-programmes-766453.html

This is a very interesting article, the most interesting one i have found during this research. the is that the multitude of channels and services has seen a depreciation of viewing satisfaction, using the Christmas period as a prime historical example of a time when family TV viewing was a huge occasion and many shows were shown, it has become less of a big deal, as instead of a concentration of viewings of a particular channel, multi media has dispersed this, hindered by the fact that there are in excess of 30% - 40% repeats being shown on TV compared to the quality original hyped programming particular to the Christmas period of yesteryear. The bottom line is money. Making original and memorable programming is a very expensive business, and commercial TV is dependent on advertising, so a more dispersed viewership across a multitude of channels and mediums means individual channels lose out on revenue from it, meaning they lack the funds necessary to fund new and original programming.

The basic take home message is that more is less.

So is Christmas TV a shadow of its former self?
Yes...
* Quite literally, nearly half of all the programmes on offer have been shown before
* Television is an industry in crisis, it's nave to expect the bold programming of the past
* With plenty of diverting content online, the TV set no longer dominates Christmas entertainment
No...
* We will still be watching shows in tens of millions, just not in the same room, and not just on TV sets
* Only a generation ago we were stuck with three channels, now many homes have hundreds to choose from
* What's not to like about being offered classic shows and more of them than ever before?

DSG is first to ditch analogue televisions

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/dsg-is-first-to-ditch-analogue-televisions-772385.html

• DSG International, owner of the Currys, PC World and Dixons chains, said it would no longer sell digital TVs in preparation for switch-over in 2012
• Only 10 per cent of the 2 million televisions the company has sold over the past year have been analogue sets.
• DSG said however that a third of all televisions sold in the UK are analogue, a statistic the retailer described as "inappropriate" given the impending analogue switch-off.
• Currys MD said: "We are concerned at the high volumes of analogue TVs still on sale in the UK and we favour early transition to a digital-only range. Digital provides a better deal for customers and reduces waste by removing the requirement for soon-to-be-obsolete analogue tuners in our television range and the unnecessary purchase of extra digital set-top boxes."
• The price of digital television sets has fallen dramatically over recent years, with a standard set costing as little as £150.

BBC iplayer risks overloading the internet

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3716781.ece

• BBC iPlayer is estimated to be worth approx £831 million
• Viewers are now watching more than one million BBC programmes online each week.
• iPlayer accounts for between 3 and 5 per cent of all internet traffic in Britain, with the first episode of The Apprentice watched more than 100,000 times via a computer, according to the BBC
• There were 17.2 million requests to watch programmes last month, an increase of 25 per cent on February.
• The BBC is trying to increase the scope of the service by making its iPlayer service available via the Nintendo Wii, allowing owners who are unable to stop playing in time for their favourite programmes to catch up with them later (approx 2.5 million homes own a Wii)
  

4OD Ad-funded shows

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/10/channel_4_to_make_us_shows_adf.html

• Channel 4 makes money through the advertising on its 4OD version of on demand telvesion.QUOTE: "The shows will be supported by pre-roll advertising and sponsorship packages.The first advertisers include Dulux, sponsor of Ugly Betty, L'Oreal, Tourism Australia and Bodyform."We want Channel 4 viewers to be able to see our shows in a format, time and platform to suit them and to make the process as simple as possible," said Jeff Ford, director of acquisitions and Film4."

BBc 'opens floodgates' to iplayer hackers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/13/digitalvideo.television·

• Anti-piracy breach allows unrestricted downloads· Corporation says it is working to close loophole
• hackers are able to get through the BBCs anti-piracy systems to gain access to programmes on iPlayer. This causes problems with copyright protection.
• "One of the hackers responsible said it took him only 12 minutes to find the loophole and make it work - but that such a simple hack potentially opened up every programme on iPlayer for unlimited downloading."The BBC accidentally opened the floodgates and gave the world DRM-free downloads," said one hacker with knowledge of the breach. "If only it were down to something other than poor design, decisions and ineptitude."Also, the decision to incorporate anti-piracy protections has angered some campaigners, who believe that British citizens should have unprotected access to shows for which they have already paid with their TV licence fee.

Survey shows darker picture for the TV channel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/15/television.digitalmedia

• Television remains people's favourite mass communications format but viewers are more loyal to a programme than a channel, according a survey of TV viewing around the world that will make worrying reading for traditional broadcasters.
• The vast majority of people watching more than three programmes a week watch them on more than three TV channels, according to a poll of 7,000 people across eight countries, including Britain and the United States. this "channel-hopping" trend showed that "consumers are more loyal to the content they want to watch rather than the branded distribution channel to which they may be accustomed".
• The survey showed 97% of respondents watched at least some TV in a typical week and a third watched eight or more programmes a week. But four in five respondents expressed "discontent" with watching broadcast and cable TV, citing annoyance at various features of traditional TV, including commercial breaks, not being able to rewind and not being able to watch programmes at their convenience, etc.
• At the same time, there was fresh evidence that discontented viewers were finding new ways to receive the programmes they like. One in three adults surveyed accessed programmes in a typical week via a device other than a traditional TV. That trend is more pronounced among younger viewers. In the US, for example, 46% of 18-24-year-olds watched shows on mobile devices.
• The under-35 group is also more likely to be familiar with on-demand services and is more willing to pay to download content
• television is rapidly shifting from its origins as a "clearly identifiable stand-alone medium".
• "People are experiencing new consumption opportunities and moving away from traditional, linear programming," he said. "Today's youth are more dissatisfied with the traditional television experience and increasingly excited by the availability of new choices."

Channel 4 and Global considering DAB link-up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/16/channel4.globalradio

• Channel 4 and Global Radio exploring how to combine their digital radio transmission services
• Global will inherit the first digital audio broadcasting - DAB - multiplex of digital stations with its takeover of GCap Media, Channel 4 leads the consortium that won the Ofcom licence to launch a second multiplex.
• However, Channel 4 is not expected to launch its DAB multiplex for a year and needs to organise the transmission infrastructure, while Global Radio may be looking to fill gaps in its digital radio broadcasting spectrum.
• Global Radio is also preoccupied with the acquisition of GCap Media, which includes taking on the Digital One DAB multiplex.
• Channel 4 and Global are looking at ways of combining the two DAB multiplexes, however, no formal talks have yet taken place and the BBC, also a major DAB player, may be involved in any eventual deal, the FT reported.
• Any deal to combine the two DAB multiplexes would be subject to Ofcom approval.

Baftas watched by 5.6 million

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/21/tvratings.television

• The Bafta television awards had their best audience for four years on Sunday April 20, as 5.6 million viewers tuned into BBC1's coverage.
• the event drew a 22% audience share between 8pm and 10pm, according to unofficial overnight ratings up on last year's 5 million viewers and 21% share, and the best since 2004, when 6.4 million watched on ITV1.
• Despite the strong ratings, ITV1 triumphed with the final part of the wartime detective drama Foyle's War, which averaged 7.3 million and 28% between 8pm and 10pm. This was up from 7.1 million viewers last week, when the controversially axed programme drew the same share.
• On Channel 4, the second part of Bear Grylls: Born Survivor drew 1.3 million viewers and a 5% share in the 8pm hour, the same as last week, with another 66,000 tuning in an hour later on the digital-only Channel 4 +1.
• Then at 9pm, the terrestrial premiere of romantic comedy The Wedding Date was watched by 2 million and 8%, adding 174,000 an hour later on Channel 4 +1.
• The terrestrial premiere of the Martin Scorsese movie The Aviator pulled in 1.8 million viewers and a 7% share for BBC2 between 8pm and 10.40pm.
• Earlier in the evening, the result of BBC1's talent contest I'd Do Anything gained 5.4 million viewers and a 23% share between 7.30pm and 8pm.
• ITV1's new gameshow, Beat the Star, in which members of the public pit themselves against celebrities in a variety of challenges, started with 5.1 million and 23% between 6.45pm and 8pm.
• Channel 4's satirical show Bremner, Bird and Fortune averaged 1.7 million and 8% from 7pm to 8pm, with another 23,000 on Channel 4 +1.
• Channel Five's best ratings of the night came for film repeat The Goonies, which averaged 2 million and 9% between 6pm and 8pm.Five documentary Extraordinary People: Half Man Half Tree brought 1.2 million and a 5% share to the network from 9pm.
• Headcases, ITV1's animated satirical show, saw its audience dip on its third outing from 4 million viewers to 2.8 million and a 13% share at 10pm.
• BBC1's news at 10pm attracted 6.6 million viewers and a 30% share.
• Match of the Day 2 at 10.20pm, continuing in its BBC1 berth for a second Sunday, featured highlights from Newcastle United's 2-0 win over Sunderland and scored 3.3 million and 22%.

Why the industry is getting so jumpy about Kangaroo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/21/bbc

• New spotware called kangaroo is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, Kangaroo is designed to be a sort of commercial iPlayer, establishing a presence in the fast-developing internet video-download market and thereby raising revenues by selling programmes to stream or download direct to consumers with a rumoured 10,000 hours of content.
• software said to be launched this year as early as june 2008
• However there was trouble from the start e.g the BBC Trust has yet to give its approval to it being launched. main issue: - the need to "avoid distorting the market"
• problems about the issues of the holders of the rights to the content that kangaroo will distribute - not just content from the three joint venture partners (BBC, ITV, C4) , but independant producers of content aswell who will need to be reassured that Kangaroo's deals are fully competitive with whatever anyone else might pay - BBC Worldwide are in charge of this
• other issues including ther interest of other players whose businesses are based on having access to BBC, ITV and Channel 4 programming; kangaroo will be controlling access to some 90% of UK-originated programming and with a direct interest - because it is a competing platform - in putting them out of business.
  
• Another potential issue is whether Kangaroo could drastically reduce BBC revenues from DVD sales and cause havoc with other players who currently pay lots of money to license BBC content, plus Kangaroo is being referred to the Office of Fair Trading.
• Negotiating an agreement between the shareholders is also proving troublesome, as ownership is split three ways but the parties bring different amounts of content (hardly any, in Channel 4's case), and arrangements for revenue-sharing will be complicated
• Finally, there are branding issues as each partner seeks to maintain its own position in the traditional world of broadcast TV. And here, perhaps, lies the biggest question of all about Kangaroo. Are these players, necessarily so concerned about defending what's left of their "old media" legacy, really capable of leading the way in the new media marketplace?

Digital TV for a tenner from Tesco

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/29/supermarkets.digitaltvradio

• Tesco is going to be selling the UK's cheapest digital set-top box, a Techwood device which offers around 40 free-to-air digital terrestrial channels and numerous radio stations for £10 , aiming to outdo its high street rivals by half the price of the current cheapest box.
• Small margins on the sales of digital TV set-top boxes mean the product is likely to be a loss leader for the high street giant, but Tesco claims the move is designed to prepare consumers for digital switchover.
• "We know that many of our customers aren't ready for the change in the way their TV programmes are transmitted, so to get them prepared for the switchover from analogue to digital, we're offering this digital TV technology at the lowest price ever," said a spokesman for Tesco.
• "We've seen the cheapest digital box go from £100 to £10 in just five years, and this is further proof that going digital needn't be expensive," said Ford Ennals, the chief executive of Digital UK.
  "We're now working with Tesco and the other supermarkets to help them provide switchover information in their stores."
  According to Ofcom, 80.5% of UK households now receive digital TV through their main TV set.

BT pulls the plug on mobile TV service

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bt-pulls-the-plug-on-mobile-tv-service-459215.html

• BT who provided the bandwith decided to end Virgin Mobile's Mobile TV service less than a year after it was launched, raising further questions about the appetite consumers have for watching television content on the small screen.
• BT, had expected to sign up other mobile phone companies to launch similar products.
• In the past, delivering TV content to mobile phones was seen as a key growth driver for operators but a lack of appropriate handsets and a divergence over what system is best for delivering TV on to mobile phones has hampered progress in deploying the service.
• Operators such as 3, Vodafone and Orange launched a limited service available to subscribtion customers to their handsets over the3G network.
• Virgin launched its TV service spending £2.5m on advertising that featured former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson. The service was based on a standard that utilised digital radio spectrum, meaning only a limited number of channels could be offered to consumers.
• It was also only available to consumers with the "Lobster" 'phone, as this is the only one they produced with the capability, but it proved unsucessful.
• O2 and Nokia backed a rival delivery method called DVB-H that can carry up to 16 channels and last week the European Commission backed that standard. A third standard, developed by Qualcomm, has proved more popular with US mobile phone companies and is being tested by BSkyB.
• Bruce Renny, a spokesman for the free mobile TV provider ROK Entertainment, said that consumers do not want to pay a subscription to receive TV content they can get for free at home. "Simply broadcasting linear TV to mobiles is not the answer," he said.
  

Virgin in Freeview deal with ITV

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/virgin-in-freeview-deal-with-itv-462968.html

ITV may sell or lease some of its capacity on Freeview, the free-to-air digital TV platform, to Virgin Media. The move follows the dropping of ITV Play channel and the launch of ITV2+1.
It is believed the broadcaster is now focusing on the consolidation and improvement of its existing channels. Virgin will launch Virgin 1 in the autumn (2007) but only has Freeview capacity from 8am to 6pm. It wants to broadcast for 24 hours

6ft by 150 inches - and that's just the TV

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/6ft-by-150-inches--and-thats-just-the-tv-768862.html

• The world's biggest plasma television has been unveiled - a 150-inch (3.75m) Panasonic widescreen TV, which stands 6ft tall, will enable viewers to watch everything in life-size.
• Because of its huge size, the screen can only be comfortably watched from a distance of at least 30ft, making it too big to install in most family living rooms.
• There is an expected price tag of 50,000, so this TV will be beyond the spending power of most consumers.
• The screen, dubbed the "Life Panel", was the star attraction on the opening day of the world's biggest consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronic Society International trade fair.
• The television trumps the previous record size television Sony's 108-inch model by 42 inches.
• Environmental campaigners were less than impressed, claiming it will guzzle up to 3,000 watts of electricity.
• It is not yet clear when the televisions will be available in the UK, but they will go on sale in the US this year.

Freeview's sales surge by 64 per cent to all-time high

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/freeviews-sales-surge-by-64-per-cent-to-alltime-high-794064.html

• The digital terrestrial television service Freeview's sales hit an all-time high last year, with the 9.7 million products rising 64 per cent on the previous 12 months.
• Alongside the set-top box, Freeview's multiple digital terrestrial channels are also accessible through next-generation television sets and through dtv transmitters built into home computers.
• More than half the homes in Britain now have Freeview
• The figures however may be misleading, as about 5 million of the 9.7 million sales were receivers bundled into new TV sets, with DVB recievers built in, so customers may be buying Freeview by default rather than by design.
• The coming year will be the company's Playback digital recorder, which enables users to pause, rewind or record live television, a feature already synonomous with existing Sky+ set ups
• But though 85 per cent of homes are now digital, Gartner's media analyst Adam Daum said: "What Freeview really needs to do is expand more into analogue households because the signs are that is slowing dramatically."

Channel 4 posts first operating loss since 1992

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/international/news/e3i2ebcd68bdc5ad9af0e554f20d45ab5e6

• The government funded Channel 4 broadcsters posted an operating loss Wednesday of 7.8 million pounds ($15.5 million) during 2007 for its core channel, its first annual deficit since 1992.programming costs increased more rapidly than revenues, by £20.8 million to £536.5 million compared to £515.7 million in 2006.


• But there was some good news with Channel 4's digital TV channel offerings collectively in the black for the first time.The bouquet of digital offerings, including E4 and More4, posted an operating profit of 16.2 million pounds ($32.2 million) in 2007, a turnaround from the loss of 17.6 million pounds the previous year.
• Such performance helped the Channel 4 Group to return a pre-tax profit of 1.6 million pounds ($3.2million) in 2007, a slump from the 21.3 million pounds recorded in 2006.Group turnover was flat during 2007 with the 48.1 million pounds ($95.8 million) increase in advertising revenue balancing falling revenues from rights and other sources.
• Falling revenues came on the back of factors including reduced income from premium rate telephone services as a result of problems with phone-in competitions on shows including "Richard & Judy" and "Deal or No Deal."Channel 4 is aiming to replicate its success in digital TV on new digital media platforms.Channel 4's New Media division grew revenues by 44% to 26.7 million pounds ($53.1 million) from 18.5 million pounds in 2006 but recorded an operating loss of 15.4 million pounds ($36.1 million), more than the 6 million pounds the year before.The further losses came largely as a result of start-up investment in its video on demand service, 4oD

BBB warns of scams on digital TV switch

http://www.suntimes.com/business/currency/910098,CST-FIN-wallet23.article

• The Better Business Bureau of Chicago & Northern Illinois is warning consumers to be on the watch for HDTV scam artists as consumers prepare for television stations' switchover from analog to digital signals.
• Television stations will begin broadcasting a digital TV signal Feb. 17, 2009.
• Viewers will need a digital television or a converter box to receive that signal.
• There is a difference between a high-definition television and a digital television, and consumers should beware if someone tries to sell them a device that turns their analog TV into an HDTV. No such device exists.

Ofcom reveals 2012 Freeview shortfalls

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/26/digitaltvradio.television

• Ofcom has revealed that by the digital switchover in 2012, when the government has promised 100% digital signal, up to a quater of houses in wales and northern ireland and a fith in northern england will not be able to recieve the signal, when they could recieve analogue signal before.
  
• This is because of "mountainous terrain interfering with terrestrial transmitter reception in some areas and the need to avoid the signal overlapping with the Republic of Ireland ." and other reigons like France, Belgium and The Netherlands.
• Ofcom said "There are simply not enough frequencies available to allow all the multiplexes to be available across the whole UK - we have to accept limitations in some areas, as do other countries,"
  
• "It is very expensive to build a transmission network that covers 98.5% of population,"
  

  "The commercial networks can achieve coverage of around 90% at lower cost, by using only 80 major transmitter sites." is their excuse.
  

Freeview HD services to launch next year

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/digitaltvradio.television

• from early next year there will be 4 HD channels on digital terrestrial (freeview) broadcast, co-inciding with the 'digital switchover'
• viewers will have to upgrade their hardware however (as it uses mpeg-4 compression technology superior to mpeg-2 found in normal sets)
• 1 channel has already been allocated to the BBC; the other 3 are to be bought by other potential broadcast companies

• "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to upgrade digital terrestrial television," said the Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards.

  "It offers benefits for broadcasters - who will be able to launch new services without using any new spectrum - and viewers - who will have access to new channels and services on free to air."

• 
  

NMT

I have decided to study the digital T.V area for the NMT topic.

Questions p12

1. Endism is the idea that when new ideas come along, older ones are replaced

2. A media ecosystem is a system in which living organisms interact with one another and with their sorroundings and an ecosystem is always in a state of continuous ferment. Essentially, it is the collection of media sources found in our environment.

3. Narrowcasting television is T.V in which specialist content is aimed at subscription-based audiences and distributed via digital channels. i.e the media's way of aiming to get more money.

4. The web is enormous, but it's just one kind of traffic that runs on the internet's tracks and signalling. The internet is more than one kind of traffic running and signalling.

5. Push media is the media that can be consumed easily by everyone. e.g on TV channels one to five (terrestrial) as they are available to all. The opposite, pull media, is when the audience is consuming media which they have demanded. i.e digital t.v channels inculding HD etc..

6. Blogging gives people a way of sharing their ideas without having their intellectual merit judged. i.e they can post their ideas without as much or little alias as they like i.e with their name or annonymously, so theyare not under pressure.

Digital Technology and the Film Industry

Production - Digital technology has seen huge advances to the film industry. Films can be shot straight onto a Hard Drive rather than using a reel of film which is first of all MUCH cheaper (An average length feature film print costs around £700), also HardDrivess are smaller so they cost less to transport, and can hold much more footage than rolls of film. This allows more creativity in shooting a film as the low cost enables experimentation. Digital tehnology has opened more opertunities in post production aswell. This means that colours, lighting etc can be edited. It also introduces the possibilty of CGI which enables imaginative scenes that would be impossible to shoot profilmically.

Distribution - Delivery of film reels etc to cinemas has been a costly process in the past and the use of digital technology would irradicate this, enabling cinemas to download the encrypted film directly. Also, digital technology has introduced DVDs, a more appealing non-linear way of experiencing a film; there are often special features like deleted scenes, subtitles in several languages and interactive content. However, due to the publics increasing access to advanced technology, piracy is becoming more common, lowering cinema ticket sales because people are seeing the films before they are shown for example on illegal vidoe hosting sites on the internet. Hollywood claims piracy has cost it $6bn (£3.2bn), digitising films means that copies are easily made and distributed illegally which is a big threat to the industry.

Exhibition - A projection of a 35mm film roll picks up any imperfection in the frames like dust or scratches, impairing the visual experience whereas a projection of a film shot digitally gives a crystal clear picture, just as the director intended on any scale, from your ipod nano scrento a cinema. Advances in technology have introduced home cinema systems to the general public. This could be a threat to cinemas as one of the last deterrences of viewing DVDs or pirated films was the idea of the "cinema experience" beating any alternative, as this high definition, big screen, high sound quality is being brought into peoples front rooms, they are less likely to pay for it elsewhere. However, digital projectors in cinemas will bring a wide range of new oppertunities as they will be able to project anything with a digital input- from a youtube video to multiplayer gaming, possibly turning the cinema into a universal entertainment centre

Media Definitions

Key Terms from podcast and NMT Booklet

Digitality-The way in which software and programs are now formatted,using a serious of on/off electrical pulses and binary style code,with a make up of '0's and '1's. it is used in programming electrical appliances and computer formatting.
Interactivity-The way in which information is now compressed into smaller and fuller amounts of information so it can be transported and transfered more easily. Used in such electrical functions as television,cable television and sky,as well as ISDN modems for internet,with smaller compressed chunks it allows for information in a smaller bandwidth,more information in one feed.
Hypertextuality-This is the idea of having information and programs formatted in the linear form. the information isn't on one continuous long loop,its small snippets of information that can be seen and perceived in any order,such as chapters on a dvd,you can choose as and when where as on a standard VHS you hav to watch as a whole. this also applies for web linking,skipping chunks of information to access new ideas.
Dispersal-How the market is larger by using technology for both communication and purchasing/selling of goods.
Virtuality-This is the concept of how new technologies allow whole new worlds and groups of people to expand ideas using new sources of media.
Convergents-This is the idea of how new media technologies are merging and converging their ideas. for example how phones are now able to access the internet,work as mp3 players and have a camera. Another example of a piece of hardware that combines multiple technologies are games consoles, which now can include blu-ray dvd players, large hard drives, internet access, cameras and CD/Audio playign and recording.
Audience-this is who and how the new media technologies are being bought and advertised. It is said that you can reach world wide using the internet and share with all,but people form 3rd world countries wont have a computer or the internet so its not truly worldwide. Who actually has access,its not everybody,the media makes out everyone has it.
Regulation and Control-is there control over the new technologies such as copyright such as downloading illegal music and using proxy sites to avoid computer restrictions. by copying and sharing music the price of cds are allot cheaper to compete with the market.
Ownership-Does this make a difference is Microsoft or sony own the media technology,such as apple dominating the mp3 market. with the 3 new consoles on the market from 3 mainstream companies it means competition arises.

Personalisation a characteristic of many NMTs is their ability to offer users a personalised experience. For example, Sky+ allows users to personalise their viewing schedule including the ability to pause live TV and automatically record their favourite programmes. Ipods and the Itunes store allow music to be more personalised than ever, with users enjoying the ability to buy just the tracks they want from an album and then listen to them anywhere.

Linear/ Non-Linear Linear experiences are those that move in a straight line from start to finish. Watching a film at the cinema is a very linear experience in that you start watching at the beginning of the film and and finish watching it when it ends. Interactive TV allows the audience to experience programmes in a number of ways by offering features such as an alternative voiceover, extra video footage or explanatory text. When used, each individual will have a unique experience of the programme depending on when he or she presses the red button. the viewing experience therefore can be described as non-linear.

Regulatory Bodies: The Press

About the PCC

• The PCC (Press Complaints Commission) is an organisation that deals with complaints from members of the public about topics and issues that arise in the press particularly things like the editorial content of newspapers and magazines.
• Their main aim is to resolve the complaints as quickly as they can. As well as dealing with complaints, the PCC deals with a substantial number of calls from members of the public about their service and the code.

History

• During the 1980s, a small number of publications failed in the view of many to observe the basic ethics of journalism. This reinforced a belief among many members of Parliament that the press council was not a sufficiently effective body. Some of them believed that it would be preferable to enact a law of privacy and right of reply as well as to set up a statutory press council wielding enforceable legal sanctions.In June 1990 Calcutt's report was published. Rather than suggesting new statutory controls, it recommended the setting up of a new press complaints comission in place of the Press council. This new comission would have 18months to demonstrate“that non-statutory self-regulation can be made to work effectively. This is a stiff test for the press. If it fails, we recommend that a statutory system for handling complaints should be introduced.”In 1995 the Government recognised the achievements of the PCC in making effective press self- regulation in its white paper- "Privacy and Media Intrusion". And in 2003 a house of commons select committee concluded that “overall, standards of press behaviour, the Code and the performance of the Press Complaints Commission have improved over the last decade”. To date, the Commission has handled well over 30,000 complaints.

Example of a past Adjudication

- A married couple, FHM Magazine

A married couple complained to the Press Complaints Commission through solicitors that a photograph of their daughter, featured in the April 2007 edition of FHM, had been published without consent and intruded into her privacy in breach of Clause 3 (Privacy) and Clause 6 (Children) of the Code of Practice.
The complaint was upheld.
A topless photograph of the complainants’ daughter had been published in a gallery of mobile phone snapshots provided by the magazine’s readers. The complainants’ solicitors said that the photograph was taken in 2005 when their daughter was 14. The publication of the photograph – which had been published without any form of consent – represented a serious intrusion into the girl’s privacy and had had a significant effect on her emotionally and at school.
The magazine said that it received approximately 1,200 photographs for publication each week from or on behalf of women posing topless or in lingerie. It was extremely surprised to learn that the photograph was taken when the complainants’ daughter was 14 years old as she certainly appeared to be older. It had no reason to believe that the image was taken without her consent. The magazine had been informed that the complainants’ daughter was in a cohabiting relationship with the person who submitted the photograph and, in those circumstances, no further enquiries about the image were made. Nonetheless, the magazine – which had introduced new measures to ensure that the situation would not occur again – confirmed that the image would not be republished or syndicated and offered to write a private letter of apology to the complainant.

Decision: Upheld

Adjudication: The publication of a topless photograph of the complainants’ daughter without consent represented a serious intrusion into her private life. This would have been the case regardless of how old she was, but the Commission was particularly concerned about the impact on the girl in light of her youth. The magazine had clearly not taken any sort of adequate care to establish the provenance of the photograph and whether it was right to publish it. It should have been much quicker to recognise the damage that publication would have caused the girl, and offered to publish an apology or take other steps to remedy the situation to the satisfaction of the complainant. Failure to respond in a swift and proportionate manner aggravated what was a significant breach of the Code.

Media Magazine - questions

The fourth estate is the press, one of the four estates proposed by Edmund Burke in the 18th Centuary (amongst parliament, religion and the courts) He said it is 'the most important estate of all'
I think new media technology is mainly responsible for the decline of newspaper consumption. The fact that most news we want is available online at the touch of a button is one reason, another is that newspapers just dont have the same appeal as they once did. Before the rapid incline of digital technology, the only way for people to find out things such as weather, sport results etc was through a newspaper (teletext was present albeit limited) but now, all of this information is available online or on a 24hour satellite Tv station at will.
Nick lacey says "maybe the internet is already the cyberspace of the fourth estate"?
I believe this to mean that new media technologies such as internet and sattelite tv 'the new media' in general has come to replace 'the press' as the fourth estate in this modern age.

coursewrok evaluation

I am happy with my 'A' grade, being the best available grade you can get. I believe that i earned this grade and whilst my behaviour or effort hasnt been of A-quality all the way through the course at times, I produced the goods when it counted. I invested in a copy of adobe photoshop at home which allowed me to put in the extra hours and perfect my work. I worked onthe write up nearly non-stop until it was completely right, and some sections I had to edit four or five times before it was good enough to submit. I am finding the film analysis work harder than the coursework however, as especially if i havnt seen the film i question and only having a few viewings, i havne nothing to write. il get good though.

re: 'All this online sharing has to stop'

• The IFPI - the International Federation of Phonographic Industries - is the global music industry organisation
• On Thursday it published its digital music report 2008. It said that "the spread of unlicensed music on ISP networks is choking revenues to record companies and investment in artists, despite a healthy increase in digital sales in 2007, up approximately 40% on the previous year".
• They suggested to sort it out by disconnecting infringers and the use of filtering technologies. They believe that this is the most effective way copyright theft can be controlled
• People copy and paste entire articles from online newspapers to blog sites or to their own computer and they don't pay a thing. Then they read them or "share" them with other people who they might not even have met.
• This is choking our investment in new journalism.
• In the past 10 years, hundreds - probably thousands - of journalists have been thrown out of jobs as newspapers and magazines have downsized.
• Pornography; there used to be tons of top-shelf magazines e.g playboy, escort, men only, back-door sluts 9, all earning a comfortable living.Then the internet came along and at a stroke destroyed their business model.
• Now there are loads of internet sites where you can get free amateur pornography - exactly the same sort of stuff that people used to pay for.
• British band Radiohead have bridged a revolutionary gap in releasing their latest (2007) album 'in rainbows' (which is a great album) in that they sold it not in the shops, but on their website available to download for with a voluntry donation. The average price was interestingly $2, which paints a picture on the price people place on the true value of music...

Re: 'Copying music legally in the digital age'

• Owners of digital music players will be acting lawfully when they transfer music from their computer to a digital player or copy a CD for their own use, under proposed amendments to bring copyright law into the digital age
• Consumers who have been technically 'breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988' by copying tracks from CDs to their PC or digital player, or making an extra copy to play in the car, will now be able to do so for private use. Record labels accept that consumers should not be punished for shifting music from one format to another, but some are concerned it will increase the perception that music can be freely copied with impunity.
• The proposals suggest a new exemption for parodies of copyrighted works, while changes for libraries would allow for the copying of broadcasts for preservation purposes. Consumers would not be allowed to sell or give away the original once they had copied it.
• Music Rights, which represents composers and songwriters, said any changes to the law must be "tightly drawn". Legal experts said it made sense to tidy up a law that had been proved impractical and unworkable, but said it could have harmful consequences for a record industry that has been brought to its knees by digital piracy in recent years

Apple Iphone

The apple iPhone has been described as 'revolutionary' by critics for it's release. The apple iphone sports a host of features, creating the most complete media platform in the form of a personal hand held device do date. It has bridged the gap between mp3/personal audio player, mobile phone, and personal computer to create a fully functional product.
The reason the Ipone is 'so good' is that it has features that other models after an 'all in one' product
that actually work - e.g web pages are viewed as they appear on a personal computer; the GUI of the music platform is identical to that of an ipod/itunes, and the phone is fully functional and interface counter intuitive, thanks to the touch-screen and other such handy features. Other phones e.g the Nokia N95 have followed suit and produced an 'all in one' platform also.
A problem I can see for apple is their contract with 02, giving it a total monopoly of the market (UK) this will pose a great obstacle for most of the potential customers in the market for a 'phone more than anything, as many will already be established usuers of other networks. Will their gamble pay off? lets wait and see.

task 3: moral panics and concerns with online technology

Increasingly in the past 5 years or so, there has been a rapid change in the way we use the internet. It has become more open and interactive, with access to nearly anything we want at the touch of a button. The younger generation have become 'media-savvy', and often people who should by rights moderate what they can view i.e, parents and teachers, are oblivious to what young people have access to and are often powerless to stop it despite their best efforts. A lax in internet browsing security has led to a generation who have developed views that could be unhealthy in the mind of others. Young people can freely access pornography, misleading information about drugs and weapons, and excessive violence which could numb them to the dangers of the world. Young people can be engaged in an uncensored and potentially environment form the comfort of their own bedroom due to communities such as myspace, and MMORPG games such as second life. This in particular has the potential to access a whole adult underworld, the 'red light district' and everything that this brings.

Jan 2008 work

I did this a while ago but did not publish by mistake

Task - 1


The podcast was informative in that it provided me with a number of exciting new words, which I will now summarise;

Digitality-
The way in which software and programs are now formatted,using a serious of on/off electrical pulses and binary style code,with a make up of '0's and '1's. it is used in programming electrical appliances and computer formatting.
Interactivity-
The way in which information is now compressed into smaller and fuller amounts of information so it can be transported and transfered more easily. Used in such electrical functions as television,cable television and sky,as well as ISDN modems for internet,with smaller compressed chunks it allows for information in a smaller bandwidth,more information in one feed.
Hypertextuality-
This is the idea of having information and programs formatted in the linear form. the information isn't on one continuous long loop,its small snippets of information that can be seen and perceived in any order,such as chapters on a dvd,you can choose as and when where as on a standard VHS you hav to watch as a whole. this also applies for web linking,skipping chunks of information to access new ideas.
Dispersal-
How the market is larger by using technology for both communication and purchasing/selling of goods.
Virtuality-
This is the concept of how new technologies allow whole new worlds and groups of people to expand ideas using new sources of media.
Convergents-
This is the idea of how new media technologies are merging and converging there ideas. for example how phones are now able to access the internet,work as mp3 players and although have a camera.DVD players now have there own hard drives. the sizes that gadgets can now store and hold is becoming larger.
Audience-
this is who and how the new media technologies are being bought and advertised. It is said that you can reach world wide using the internet and share with all,but people form 3rd world countries wont have a computer or the internet so its not truly worldwide. Who actually has access,its not everybody,the media makes out everyone has it.
Regulation and Control-
is there control over the new technologies such as copyright such as downloading illegal music and using proxy sites to avoid computer restrictions. by copying and sharing music the price of cds are allot cheaper to compete with the market.
Ownership-
Does this make a difference is Microsoft or sony own the media technology,such as apple dominating the mp3 market. with the 3 new consoles on the market from 3 mainstream companies it means competition arises.

Task - 2

1. Who is Chris De Wolfe and what does he say is the future for social networking? What impact will portable hardware have on this area of technology?

• Chris De Wolfe - CEO & co-founder of MySpace

• He expects “aspects of all socially-based sites to become increasingly portable”

• He also says that social networking is becoming “infinitely more personal, more portable, and more collaborative”

• “half of our future traffic will come from non-PC users”

• Lowering the barrier to entry for a new generation of developers will lead to a more collaborative and dynamic web and directly affect the tools and feature sets available on socially-based sites

• Applications and features will become more fluid

• The future of the social web will “harness the savvy of the masses” to produce more relevant and meaningful social experiences

2. Who is Chad Hurley and what does he say is his company's goal? Is he a positive or negative technological determinist?

• Chad Hurley - CEO & co-founder of YouTube

• “Our goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as placing a phone call”

• In five years, video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication

• users will be at the centre of their video experience, you will have more access to more information, and the world will be a smaller place

3. What does Maurice Levy say is the challenge for advertisers and what is 'liquid media' compared to 'linear media'?

“online advertising will depend more than ever on the one element which has always been at the heart of impactful advertising, both analogue and digital: creativity”
People are no longer willing to put up with interruptions for a commercial break during their entertainment experience,
Linear media (Prescribed time) is fast giving way to liquid media (multitasking time), where you can move seamlessly in and out of different settings

4. What parallels does Norvig draw between Edison inventing electricity and the development of online technology in terms of searching for information?

Norvig suggests that in the same way electricity has evolved from a light bulb to becoming a staple of our modern lives, that online information searching will also evolve to the point that our computers will “proactively” provide us with additional information to what we need.

5. What are the issues for the developing world? How is this evidence of a 'digital divide'?
“Penetration to rural communities will continue to be limited due to the lack of infrastructure, and the cost of a personal computer is typically more than what the average person in a village can afford” – the developing countries are still a distance away from wide spread access to technology; hinders development

web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the term used to describe the new usage of the internet as opposed to web 1.0. As technology has changed, so has social usuage and rapid, rapid expansion has led to a whole new way we use the internet. Web 2.0 is typically more user-interactive, due to people having much more powerful and usable PCs. Videos, social networking, interactive java/flash games and apps, and online games such as MMORPGs (e.g world of warcraft, Counterstrike and Second Life).
The definition, according to According to Tim O'Reilly: (wikipedia.org) is

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Interactivity has become a much bigger part of the way we use the internet; we now comment on youtube vidoes and chatting to people on formus about pretty much anything without a second thought.

A problem with this rapid expansion is that there is no limit to the things we can do within reason and this could lead to adverse consequences as people with 'contreversial' ideas can now freely distribute theie thoughts to the world i.e a much larger proportion of people from an almost annonymous position.

As computers get ever powerful and capable, i think we may at some stage enter a new era of internet usage: web 3.0 (or 2.1 whatever) and this may hold other potentially useful or advese consequences for the world.