Are the media becoming more democratic?

As technology advances and the world develops, the impact of this has a great effect on mass media as the way we consume media and the range of choice has expanded due to the new web 2.0. Some may argue through this evolution media itself has become more democratic, others take a more cynical perspective and argue that our human rights are being breached.

The media could be argued more democratic due to freedom of speech and the range of  new technology available. Nowadays , technology has advanced so much that even the people can record, produce and share footage across the web within minutes. Whereas in the past only big media companies known as "media gods" could record and distribute media through the expensive technology and big towers. However now due to devices of digital convergance such as mobile phones makes it easy to record and share footage on the web and social sites at an affordable price known as citezen journalism. David Gauntlett argues that the media is becoming more democratic because of this and the discovery of web 2.0. This allows people to share on websites such as youtube and widens the amount of videos and opinions you can search for. Also people can check online to view media when they want rather than waiting on the traditional media like news papers or tv.

On the other hand some argue that the media is not becoming more democratic but however is becoming more hegemonic. This is due to a passive audience of the media which dominate a social context.

The long tail

1. What is Chris Anderson’s theory of ‘the long tail’?
The long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution. 

Power law chart

2. What does the theory of ‘the long tail’ mean for the music industry and to other areas of the media such as online television?

3. What is Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams’ theory of Wikinomics? 

A term invented by Don Tapscott  to refer to the theory in practice of mass collaboration.

Task 2 - Piracy

Is piracy killing the music industry or are there other factors for the causes of the music industry declining?

Democracy

Whilst randomly surfing the internet and watching videos on youtube i stumbled upon this conversation which is an example of democracy on web 2.0 and even if comments are ethically wrong they still have freedom of speech.

He is also reffered to as a "troll"

David Gauntlett's ideas

1. According to Gauntlett, what was "the media" like in the past and what changes have now occurred?
The media use to dominate and descend news to us like "Gods" in the heavens down to the "little people" (us). Now anybody can distribute media through citizen journalism. Before you needed big cameras and sound technology also massive distributing towers. In contemporary society smart phones are used to capture and even distribute through websites such as youtube and wikipedia. Thus using web 2.0.

2. How far do you agree with Gauntlett?
I agree strongly on David Gauntlets theory as now people search online for the latest news and look at more than 1 perspective. Also they can find it literally when and where they want.  However, authors online may not have the same credibility as news corporations such as the BBC and the Guardian. Also only 20 % of all youtube viewers actually upload so that narrows down the number of perspectives drastically.



3. How might Gauntlett's ideas be applied to the music industry?
Before music good music technology was expensive but now decent equipment is cheap. therefore anybody can make and distribute music using the technology we have today and use the internet and websites such as youtube and myspace to distribute music like artists such as Lilly Allen and Justin Bieber were found on myspace and youtube and later on signed to record labels. Whereas before you had to be signed to a label to get any sort of recognition.