Paragraph 1 - Benefits of the internet.
- Many benefits such as online shopping and banking
- Helps get in contact with old friends through social networking sites
- Helps gather information regarding history
- Easy access to the news
- Easy access to research
- Watch movies and music videos online (on-demand)
- Set up businesses (Ebay, Amazon)
- Can help people on political sides - Arab Spring
- Could store personal information on the Cloud.
Paragraph 2 - Problems attached to the internet
- Become liable to internet fraud
- Easy for someone to find you
- Could be difficult for someone older to use
- Not enough restrictions for children, easy access to explicit sites
- Person could become easily confused through ad's that pop up
- Internet killing culture
- Easy to make up information on the Internet
- Many may see problems with online privacy
Paragraph 3 - Theorists regarding New & Digital media.
- Hegemony in New & Digital Media
- Pareto's Law - Minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers.
- Andrew Keen - How today's media is killing our culture
- Sherry Turkle - Alone Together
Paragraph 4 - Own opinion
How the Internet has been a revolution, has helped many people and became the foreground to new and digital media, "The most important medium of the twentieth century" (Briggs & Burke).
Concerns about technology have been on-going
throughout the years, but there has always been concerns in terms of new technology, many people still have problems with
regards to new and digital media. As people get
older, they begin to disregard new technology and do not use it as much. This may be due to a fear within people in regards with new
technology and they do not use it as much as young people do. New and Digital
media is an idea that change is being brought into the landscape of media for example social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter.
Due to the revolutionary creation of the Internet, there are many
benefits of the Internet. Benefits that can help on day to day experiences and
could potentially help things become easier. Things such as online shopping,
online shopping helps internet users buy things online and then receive them
through the post, this also helps the producer as it allows people to set up their
own personal businesses for example websites such as ‘EBay’ and ‘Amazon’. This
is seen as very helpful to individuals as it lets them buy things cheaper
online and have them delivered to their own doorstep. The internet could also be
used to bring justice to an individual for example the ‘Ian Tomlinson’ case,
due to the video going viral, the police officer was summoned to court and new
and digital media gave a case for the defence to fight, it also shows how the
internet through new and digital has power to even go to the crown court and
try and get justice for one person. Furthermore, online petitions have also
come into play with the introduction of the internet, over the past few years
people have been using online petitions which has helped them fight against
something they see unjustified. Recently in the American comedy show; ‘Family
Guy’, Seth Macfarlene choose to get rid of an important character, Brian
Griffin, Brian was killed off in a road accident and Seth Macfarlene received major
backlash on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, thus
resulting into people signing an online petition for the return of Brian Griffin,
and by successfully doing so, Brian Griffin returned as a character on the hit
comedy show Family Guy, thus proving that even though they may be concerns
about new technology, it can be a major benefit for the majority of the public.
On the contrary though, every good thing has a bad side and this
could also be in the case of the Internet, there is many problems attached to
the internet, from becoming a victim for internet fraud, to becoming a victim
to an internet joke. Recently, Microsoft introduced its latest instalment in
the Xbox generation, the Xbox One was released and people were told that you
are not able to play Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, but some people played a
prank on Twitter and put a picture up that showed a way where your Xbox One
would let you play Xbox 360 games, and all you would have to do is follow the
recommended steps but this would go on to destroy your console with the effects
being permanent. This could be seen as one of the many problems with the
internet. Another problem could be with the easy access to Pornography and the
access to Child Pornography too, recently Ian Watkins was jailed for 35 years
due to his access of Child Pornography and the easy access he had to this
proves one of the major problems with the internet.
The hegemonic view on new and digital media, is that it is an
improvement and it is a good thing, there are many benefits regarding the
internet, many benefits such as helping get in contact with old friends through
social networking sites to having easy access to the news, and hegemony shows
that new and digital media has power, power to make a difference, as proven
before it took a viral video to the crown court, and New and digital media alters the way people behave and
challenges ideologies of certain things and it puts the power of dictatorship
to the audiences hands. It allows people to comment on videos or articles that
they agree or do not agree with. The comments allow on-line users to
show their views and people can be encouraged to get their views across. However
Andrew Keen who wrote ‘How today’s media is killing our culture’ spoke about
how the internet has resulted into people losing social lives, and their
addiction to the internet is worrying, recently many people became addicted to
the game Candy Crush Saga and people becoming addicted to online games such as
World of War Craft.
The Internet has been a revolution
and has helped many people over the years, it is also the foreground to new and
digital media, Briggs and Burke said that the internet is “The most important
medium of the twentieth century” It has made a lot of difference throughout the
years and even though it has many negatives in my opinion, I believe that the
internet and new and digital media has become a revolutionary concept and
reformed how we see things nowadays, we now have easy access to on demand news
and everything is on demand for us, the internet helps us have easy access to
our bank accounts and even lets us store personal information on the Cloud, so
even though people have concerns about the internet, I still believe that the
positives overcome the negatives.
