3. Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time.

The Digital Media World: Amateurs VS Professionals

The movie and music industries are two of the hardest industries to break into and get careers in however, as digital media continues to be developed it puts the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user, making it easier to produce content and get discovered. According to an online journal by Tom Abba, 2006 it is now easy for computer amateurs to create, produce and publish their own content on the internet. It is also easier with the help of digital media for them to be discovered by people through the use of the sites creative commons, YouTube, MySpace, Face book and fanfilm.com ect. Professionals in the digital media industry are starting to become concerned with the free flow of free digital media software on the internet and to add to their worries illegal software and software that is governed by creative commons is now making it harder for them to sell their content to the public.

 

According to the online journal by Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide, 2007; digital media, music and cinema is a new chapter in the complex history of interactions between amateur music and filmmakers and the commercial media. In today’s technological world it has become easy for everyday computer users to create and produce their own content with the use of software downloaded from the internet. Music amateurs are now able to use software such as VB- audio software, Voxenge software, Ps-pausioware and Audacity 1.3Beta ect, to mix, edit, overdub, and synthesise ect, their own musical content. While amateur moviemakers are able to film and edit their filmed movie content using editing sites such as windows media. By learning how to use these do it yourself websites, amateurs now can make their own digital content with out professional help. So where does that leave ‘professionals’ and highly skilled artists such as recording studio workers, music producers, publishes and people who create the original professional software?

 
According to an online journal at knowledge.wharton published by Wharton university, 2008, a tug of war over the future of media is brewing between so called user- generated content including amateurs who produce blogs, videos, audio for product and professional journalists, movie makers and record companies along with the deep pocketed companies that back them. Since amateurs are learning to make their own digital media content, professionals are now finding it hard to find jobs as there is less need for them in the industry. Professionals such as recording studios, record dealists, publishes, film crew and film producers have therefore lost business and have had to according to this online journal by Metalib.unilinc,2007, come up with product differentiation and market segmentation to compete.

 
Now that digital media amateurs have learnt how to create and produce their own content, they are now looking for cheaper and faster ways to do so. On the internet amateurs can now download software for free using both sites under creative common laws and illicit software downloaded illegally. In accordance to what this online journal published by pool.com states, by just typing in the software name or description that you are looking for it is easy to see just how easy it is to come by. So now it is not only the professionals that help create and produce content externally from the internet that are affected but also the professionals that make the professional software internally on the internet. Professionals that create and publish professional content on the internet are now losing money as amateurs are finding ways to download the exact or very similar working software for free. According to this site about digital media by Broadband2.com, 2008, software is found everywhere on the internet, in fact most people around the world have either used or viewed some form of this free software at some time or place before. These professionals went to university to become qualified to create and produce musical and film content and now they are not being able to find jobs as it seems that everyone can now do it for themselves. Professionals now have to compete between themselves and make their content cheaper and more technologically advanced. One advantage that professionals do however hold over amateurs at the moment is the quality of their software. Software that is downloaded free off the internet is often not of the same quality as the professional which will often result in dodgier amateur made content. Although this is currently the situation, as technology advances into the future, the software on the internet will continue to improve and soon will be as effective and efficient.

 
In today’s technological culture amateur artists are able to get their music and movies viewed by uploading them on the internet rather than having to sign deals with professionals in the industry. A site that discusses this topic is content.ebscohost which states that user-generated content now encompasses discussion boards, blogs and social networking outlets such as MySpace, YouTube, face book and word press ect that rank new items based on popularity and consumer review aggregators, photo sharing networks and other sites that offer the opportunity for consumers to share their knowledge and familiarity with a product or experience. Today amateurs are able to upload their content onto these sites and as the content becomes more frequently viewed, they gain popularity and can break into the artist industry. YouTube which was created by three starting out amateurs itself has grown in great proportions in the last couple of years and now has literally thousands of music and filmed videos being viewed everyday. Everyone around the world is able to comment or view uploads and if they really like them they can even share them with friends and family. According to an About YouTube website Susan Boyle, a late contestant on Britain’s got talent, is a YouTube talent star. The video of her stunning the judges and audience online has 2.2 million hits and certainly helped her to become one of the most famous and popular contestants on the show. According to the website Gibson all access, people are able to find and listening to unsigned musicians and bands on YouTube which helps the band or musician get discovered.

 
So where does this leave professionals such as music managers, agents, record dealist, publishers and other industry workers who help amateurs break into these industries for a living? At the moment it is having minimal effect on professionals as the majority of the world’s population still wants to become famous in some way however these network sites are continually becoming more popular and eventually people will start avoiding getting professional training and help all together and just upload their work on YouTube and gain fans that way.

 
Overall the worlds technological world continues to grow as people keep becoming more technologically able and self efficient largely due to the content found on the internet these days which places amateurs in direct competition with professionals and skilled artists. Software is becoming easier and easier to find and use on the internet and amateurs are basically becoming professionals at creating internet content without having to go to university to gain a career in it. The quality at which amateurs are able to produce content will continue to better as society is starting to learn to use technology at a younger age, technology is becoming easier to use and our world is starting to revolve around technology itself. As technology continues to advance in society job descriptions for professionals will continually adapt to these changes and the demands for some professionals will minimize.

References:
-Brown, Andrew, Music, Media and Making:Humanising digital media in music education, 1999, viewed 23 October, 2009
http://ijm.sagepub.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/cgi/content/abstract/os-33/1/10

-Cashmere, Paul, Susan Boyle: The youtube Sensation, 2009, viewed 20 October 2009
http://www.undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=8060

-Film Criticism in the Age of the internet: a critical Symposium, 2008, viewed 22 October 2009
http://content.ebscohost.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pdf9/pdf/2008/CIN/01Sep08/34000942.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=34000942&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80SeqLA4zdnyOLCmrlGeqK5Sr6a4SLKWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGprk%2Bzp69JuePfgeyx%2BEu3q64A&D=anh

-Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where old and new Media collide, 2007, viewed 21 October, 2009
Http://book.google.com.au/books?isbn=0814742815

-Knowledge@Wharton, The Experts vs. the Amateurs: A Tug of War over the future of Media, 2008, viewed 20 October 2009
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articlepdf/1921.pdf?CFID=10687303&CFTOKEN=42440652&jsessionid=a830d3d89fb6f2c59e5d2e2f4b63b3a68257

-Mastin, Troy, The future of Digital Media, 2007, viewed 20 October, 2009
http://www.broadband2.com/futureofdigitalmedia.asp

-Pool.com, 2009, viewed 20 October 2009
www.pool.org.au/…/amateur_hour_the_ages_newspaper_!2_section_cover_story_august_2009

- Shoemaker-Galloway, Jace, Using Youtube to broadcast self, 2009, Viewed 22 October 2009
http://internet.suite101.com/articled.cfm/use_youtube_to_broadcast_yourself

-Tom Abba, Convergence: the international Journal of research into New Media Technologies,2006, viewed 21 October, 2009
Http://con.sagepub/libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/cgi/reprint/12/1/115

-Turner, Jason, Working together to save music, 2009, viewed 20 October 2009
http://metalib.unilinc.edu.au.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/V/VPF64PVN1X6JE5PYUD193HRBKQ2BY4E9P3J6I4G3G38D2RGQU7-03009?func=meta-3&short-format=002&set_number=003958&set_entry=000005&format=999

Overall Blogging experience

Ok so im sitting here in front of my laptop slightly hungover and sleep deprived, like most sunday mornings and trying to think of something to write about in this blog. The truth is i find the whole keeping a blog thing time consuming and brain straining. Other communication technologies such as facebook and msn are easy to use at anytime, even when hungover or tired or when I should be doing other things such as assignments, which is not always a good thing Words come naturally to me on these sites as i am interacting with friends rather than complete strangers. Overall using a blog on worpress in this subect has been a learning experience and it has helped me to remember what the weeks lectures were about. Would i use it again however if it wasnt for assessment? Most probably not, my life is unfortunately way too busy. Doing an assessment that would involve keeping my facebook page update however would not be a problem at all as facebook is a fun way to interact and communicate with friends..:p

lecture 9

This week we had a guest lecturer Jason Nelson, an american expert in digital poet/electronic literature icons. He spoke Cyberutopia, the utopean world and the dot.com crash and boom. He covered various sites that attempt of form a cyberutopia/ utopean world. These sites include; Vampire Rave, Antiwikipedia and even Will Farrells site, i think its name was ‘Funny or Die” or something. Jason also spoke about the dot.com boom and dot com crash. Archive.com shows how sites have evolved, failed and been bought by other site on the internet over time. Jason Nelson also showed us some of  the games hes been working on, they were really creative but weird, really weird i didnt quite understand them. Overall Jason Nelson was very insightful however i think i would have understood hes jokes better if i was also an computer expert. :p

Week seven’s tute task:)

As we all know, or if you listen to the news you would know that on the 7th of December this year, world leaders from around the world are meeting in Copenhagen to come to a global agreement to try and prevent/ slow down climate change.  Australia is a continent that if global warming increases will be greatly effected by it. As and Australia and a citerzen of the world i believe that we should be doing everything remotely possible to prevent climate change and save our beautiful environment. This video was made using content from creative commons and audio which i produced. The aim of the video is to spread awarness of global warming and to make viewers want to prevent and put presure on the world leader to try and prevent global warming and climate change.

Week 8 tute task

What opportunities can you find for political participation via the internet. How many of the following can you acheive while sticking to you political beliefs?

Sign an e-petition-Police in London wear funny hats.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/dickhat/sign/

What is Barack Obama up to today?
Barack Obama is at the UN.

Find out who your local, state, federal representinves are.
Local: Carolyn Male
State:Anna Bligh
Federal: Kevin Rudd

When was the last time your local representive spoke in parliament?Carolyn Male last spoke in parliament on the 5th of august about Appropriation Bills: estimates committee B
(hmm sounds interesting, not)

Adams question: What do you think of the Australian Government’s plans to Censor the internet?
I understand that its probably an attemp to censor illicit programs for children however the internet is supposed to be a free software so that people can reasearch whatever they want. Once they censor some programs people will keep complaining and soon the whole internet will be under some kind of censorship. Instead of censoring the internet wouldnt it be better if parents just keep an eye on wat their children are doing while on the computer.

What place does censorship have in a democracy?
none, democracy only works if people are able to have free speech and are able to deliberate and discuss all content in the internet world.

Lecture 8- Cyberpolitics and eDemocracy

This weeks lecture was about distinguishing between cyberpolitics and eDemocracy.Cyberpolitics refers to the politics that exists predominately on the internet, it includes the actual powers that control the internet content and the commments made about politics in blogs, forums and even games. Demoncracy refers to the internet intervention in and contribution to real world politics. eDemoncracy covers anything from poilitical debates, political campaigns and critisism for politics on the internet.
The lecture also covered the battle between free speech and censorship on the internet. The key attributes of democracy are deliberation and discussion while the ability to convince and be convinced are the give and take that makes democracy work. All of this requires the access to free speech. So isn’t censorships of free speech on the internet ruining democracy.
The final topic of the lecture was hackers and cyberpunks, hey there cyberpunks lol. computer hackers are people who seek to free content on the internet while cyberpunks are science fiction genre, based in possibilities inherent in computer genetics, body modifications and corporate developments in the near future.
I found almost everything in this lecture interesting because there were alot of terms used that i have never heard before; actually the majority of the lecture i have never heard about before.

The Cyberpunk according to google- wow!!!

lecture 7- Community, Collaboration and choice

This weeks lecture was about the differences between propriety software, free software and creative commons. Propriety software also known as closed source software are programs that you ultimately have to pay to access; some examples of this type of software include microsoft windows, word, itunes, mac and photoshop pro. On the other hand theres free software, also known as opened source software, which as its name suggests is free to download and use. It allows people to access it without the restriction of copywrite laws. opened source, free software include programs such as; Mozilla firefox, youtube and limewire basic. Open sourced software create problems for propriety software companies that seel there software as of couse people are going to prefer to download the free software that costs nothing and does that same stuff.
Creative commons is a non profit organisation that allows produces of content to govern and refine the the copywrite laws by which their work is able to be use by other people. Creative Commons can cover any artwork, poems, pictures, movies and songs found on the internet.
In the lecture i found the part about creative commons very interesting as i didnt know that you could make up you own copywrite laws about how your produced content is able to be used on the internet. I dislike the current strict copywrite rules and believe that everything on the internet these days should be governed by Creative commons instead of copywrite.

Week 6 tute task

This video tells the story of my year 12 Biology excursion to Heron Island. The only reason i chose to do biology in year 12 was because i knew i would have a chance to go on this trip. Heron island is situated in the heart of the Great Barrier reef, it is such a Beautiful place and i cant wait to go back there someday. The audio i chose to go with this video came about by accident, i was searching for my favourite band muse and this song came up. It reminds me soo much of Heron island so i thought it would be approprate and besides i kinda like it

Week 6 lecture- Video production and consumption

This weeks lecture was about the latest technological advances and how we are able to consume and produce content using communication technologies such as television, internet, MP3 players and mobile phones.
In todays socio culture we are able to access media content in so many ways and new technologies are constantly being invented to improve and make it easier. In the past consumers were traditionally passive receivers of content but today we are able to create new indentities through the consumption and production of media content which i believe is quite exciting.
As an owner of a iphone i enjoy being able to consume and watch TV shows on the train on the way to uni, it makes the trip that much less boring.
In the lecture we also looked at how people can produce content on their mobile phone. It was really entertaining to watch the fan films and film edits people have created using their mobile phones. Although some of them were really dodgy, their were a few really good ones such as the Mary Poppins mash up which was made into a horror film.
Overall i found this lecture very interesting and entertaining as i didnt know that there was a site for fan films and i didnt know that media content could be consumed and produced in so many ways.

Week 5′s lecture :)

Week 5′s lecture was all about how people use the internet for anything from socialising , creating new identities, uploading, downloading and sharing files. i found that as a current user of the internet that i knew most of the stuff that was talked about however i learnt about it in greater detail.