11/11/11

So although this blog is about media convergence theres no reason we cannot use it as a platform for other things that have a tedious link with it.
Theres a lot of chatter on twitter today and excitement about it being 11/11/11 and that's all well and good. However in such a society where we are all constantly changing and looking forward we sometimes forget to look back. what it has been good to see this year is that Armistice day is taking a for front in the social media platform and really giving respect to the soldiers past and present that it deserves. As im writing this blog entry #ArmisticeDay is the top trend on twitter and various groups i am a member of on facebook are sending out remembrance messages to masses of followers. This really shows the beauty of new media technologies and media convergence allowing something that began years ago at the end of the first world war and through the ability to produce the media as we have first by print, then radio, then tv and now across many different mobile and static platforms that are still growing people who may have seen the symbol of the poppy and may not have known quite what it was all about are now being educated through modern mediums.

Multi platform media institutions are also owed alot by the FA (football Association) earlier this week FIFA announced that it would not be allowing the English football team to wear a poppy on its shirt during the match against Spain tomorrow. As a result of the ability to have news so fast and on demand uproar spread across not only the sporting community but politicians and even royalty, because as a result of social media they could see how much it had angered the general public causing Prince William himself to write a letter to FIFA appealing against their decision, which has been subsequently over turned.

The final thing  I would like to mention on this little rant links back to the lecture we had this Thursday with Yuwei on remixes, this is a great remix i have stumbled across today on a favourite site of mine on www.break.com
It is a monologue from a Charlie Chaplin film released in 1940 called The Great Dictator a film where a Jewish Barber (Chaplin) is mistaken for Adolf Hitler. Now your probably wondering why im even mentioning this apart from the tedious war based link to Armistice Day. The reason is i feel this remix shows that although there are many extremely funny remixes (which will undoubtedly be posted through future posts on this blog) this piece shows how even old pieces of writing, film and audio can still be relevant in the modern day (if not more relevant now) and if by keeping them alive by someone on the internet taking footage and audio and mixing it together can keep gems like this in the public memory and make people think, then our convergent media culture maybe isn't quite as bad as some would like to make it out to be.

http://www.break.com/index/one-of-the-greatest-speeches-ever-made-2218472

our minds are so complex they need several maps

75 years of tv! (what has media convergence ever done for us)

It is worth also mentioning that the BBC has just had the 75th anniversary of then worlds first high definition broadcast (news story below)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15554368
time line of emergence of broadcasting as we know it on the bbc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/keyfacts/stories/keydates.shtml
now apart from this just being an interesting fact, and something quite impressive it serves a purpose when discussing the attitudes of a modern day audience and how they have changed over time.
when the BBC was first launched there was no competition from other companies for view figures, arguably giving the BBC the most passive of audiences. The BBC decided what they wanted the audience to see and showed it to them. After the television act became law in 1954 it allowed space for a competitor to the BBC programming in the form of a commercial station, ITV started broadcasting in September 1955 as a result the audience were then able to make a choice of what they could view. This choice then inevitably was widened by the introduction of channels 4 and 5, and the introduction of Sky.
However although there was more choice and networks were having to work harder to increase viewing figures as an audience we were still very much under their grip. they chose how and when programmes were to be distributed and all we could do is to watch when told.
Now due to changes in new media technologies such as Tivo and sky plus we have the option to record several programmes at once and store many more hours of television than would have been practical on video. But it hasn't stopped there due to societies ever growing need and market push to have instant gratification, wherever whenever on demand programming was introduced allowing people to watch the programmes they want whenever they want, but also allowing companies to track viewing figures, viewing trends and also maximise advertising revenue buy featuring adverts in their on demand viewing.

All in all we've come pretty far in 75 years!

tuesday meeting

so me (tom) and Anthony had another really successful meeting yesterday, made some real progress with regards to our presentation on media convergence. really getting to grips with why it is becoming so important for distributors and content creators to embrace media convergence and multi plat for media to keep up with the ever changing public demand for information and news as it happens. as well as trying to keep on top of trends emerging due to new media technologies.
we also discussed the concept of audience becoming less passive and how this will impact on programme creation and distribution in the future. something we have seen growing very steadily for some time but since the arrival of "on demand" services online has really taken off.
we also put together a good structure for the pod cast that we will hopefully be recording in the next few weeks, and came up with some new ideas for our essay.

Altogether pretty pleased with our progress so far!