HOW MODERN TECHNOLOGIES HAVE CHANGED SOCIETY

Over the years, technology has developed dramatically and because of it, it has allowed us to experience media aspects on different

devices. From using analogues, film and print magazines to digital technology. From the 1980s onward, media technologies have gone

through a phase of digitisation. Digitalisation has brought major changes to how and the way media industries are structured and

operate. For example big media industries such as Sony have moved to conglomerates where they don’t just sell one specific product but

many more making them worldwide to the society.

Convergence refers to technology coming together, for example mobile phones have cameras, internet and an MP3 player all attached together, because data is all digital it can be delivered and accessed through the

same hardware. Big media companies now cross advertise their products and all digital media works through the same

code. Newspaper production has become computer based and the news is distributed not only on paper, but also digitally on the internet. Satellite television is completely digitalised in many countries which is something that the UK has more recently experienced as we now no

longer have any analogue TV due to the digital switch over. Not only that but but Apple has become huge over these past years and now many of

their devices have got everything that’s needed for example, music, internet, games, shopping apps, etc.

“ But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple

should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the

apple of this business

- Steve Jobs

Synergy refers to the process of creating ideas and concepts which go across different media platforms which then cross fertilise and advertise each other, for example franchises like Batman that isn’t only a

film, but has comics, games, costumes, toys etc.

Now we have these advanced technologies, it is a lot easier for us to create something on multiple platforms. Society is becoming more digitalised, therefore the texts

we read and the products we receive are accessed so much easier and a lot quicker.

Having these advanced technologies to use for my project made everything so easy. Our whole

portfolio of coursework can be accessed online, all in one place. And it can all be created digitally.

Gauntlett suggests that old media may have had some good content, but its top-down structure meant that

audiences learned to be consumers. “we sat around while unprecedented destruction of our natural world has

taken place.” This does suggest that audiences of traditional media learnt to be passive. He calls it a “sit

back and be told” attitude.

DAVID GAUNTLETT

HENRY JENKINS

Jenkins is particularly interested in the idea of Media Convergence. New and digital media have created a world where all media forms converge. He tells the story of ‘Bert is Evil’, where a kid in the US used his bedroom PC to make a joke image of Bert from Sesame

Street with Osama Bin Laden. This joke was accidentally used in an anti-American campaign and ended up broadcast on CNN. There are many stories like this where grass roots production and big

Media business have overlapped and converged. This convergence means that consumers are more directly involved in the production

of media than ever before.

MARSHALL MCLUHAN

NEW MEDIAGlobal Village‘cold media’

OLD MEDIAThe Gutenberg Galaxy

‘hot media’

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGEWE HAVE EXTENDED OUR CENTRAL

NERVOUS SYSTEM IN A GLOBAL EMBRACE

Marshall McLuhan predicted the global village, one world interconnected by an electronic nervous system, making it part of our popular culture before it

actually happened.

Marshall McLuhan was the first person to popularise the concept of a global village and to consider its social effects. His

insights were revolutionary at the time, and fundamentally changed how everyone has thought about media, technology,

and communications ever since. McLuhan chose the insightful phrase "global village" to highlight his observation that an

electronic nervous system (the media) was rapidly integrating the planet - events in one part of the world could be experienced from other parts in real-time, which is what human experience

was like when we lived in small villages.

McLuhan's second best known insight is summarised in the expression "the medium is the message", which means that the qualities of a medium have as much effect as the information it transmits. For example, reading a description of a scene in a

newspaper has a very different effect on someone than hearing about it, or seeing a picture of it, or watching a black and white video, or

watching a colour video. McLuhan was particularly fascinated by the medium of television, calling it a "cool" medium, noting its soporific

effect on viewers. He took great satisfaction years later when medical studies showed that TV does in fact cause people to settle into passive brain wave patterns. One wonders what McLuhan would make of the

internet, the most powerful medium we have yet invented.

The rapid rate at which technology is developing with new and improved technologies being developed everyday will take it’s effect on society. We’re are in a very technical age with many products we have to depend upon like mobile phones, the internet, television and radio, etc. Our economy will improve to an

extent but the consumer might fall out as the cost of making a product will have to result in high prices for new technologies thus reducing the market for it until it falls down in price depending on the quantity sold, the consumer will have his/her work cut out for himself/herself. A lot of stuff can be bought over the internet and that will become more apparent with companies cashing in on this advertising their products for cheaper on the internet. The fact is, it is up to the media industries to keep up to date with new methods and technologies to

expand or keep going making a profit while doing this.