New and Digital Media: End of Unit

Plan

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.