Web Theory

Web Theory= Web 2.0 by David Gauntlett

1.     The theory of Web 2.0 consists of many different ideas which are as follows,

·      Web 2.0 is another word for “harnessing collective intelligence”

·      Web 2.0 is different from Web 1.0 because Web 2.0 is now loaded with social and media sharing websites such as YouTube.

·      It allows people to create and widely distribute content made by themselves which can result in people communicating with each other, make friends and voice their own opinions.

·      It encourages creativity to be recognised throughout larger communities allowing society to florish with ability to share and create opinions and media.

·      However information received isn’t always divided equally no matter how much people get how much information resulting in democratization.

2.     A positive use of Web 2.0 is the use of online promotion to hype up movies. For example, movies nowadays can use not only their main website and featured trailers to promote their movies, but can also make Facebook pages, YouTube accounts, advertisements that are designed to play before videos on YouTube, Twitter accounts where the main directors, producers and actors can post about their feelings and statuses on the films.  This has changed from 15 years ago when IMDB was still in it’s infancy and the main way of seeing a trailer was either at the cinema, attached to a VHS, or promotional CD, or advertisements on TV. Although Trailers are still used on Blu-rays and DVDs and ads still play on the cinema and TV, technology has given way to loads more possibilities of promotion. Audiences are always looking for the best and cheapest option when it comes to movies and are more likely to go and see whatever is advertised as the best option to see the film.

Online piracy is major problem with Web 2.0 since people have become more widespread with their technology and media has developed online. In the past piracy used to refer to recording capable low quality VHS’s which were sold in black markets and car boot sales. Now with the capabilities of video-ripping software, the copyrighted movies can now be uploaded in higher quality by using ripping programs to get past the copyright protection locks on the DVD or Blu-ray. This is the main source of problems in the media industry as people need to pay money for their tickets in order to keep the movie industry thriving and piracy, if left unchecked could destroy the entire industry.

However Web 2.0’s freedom to communicate comes with a price especially in the social networking medium. For example, Cyber bullying, trolling and online hate campaigns has become a major problem as they can easily spread out far and wide and they also have the power to start potentially dangerous behavior e.g. cut yourself for Justin Bieber. Although bullying has existed for thousands of years, with the invention of Web 2.0 bullying has evolved along with communication and social networking changing actions from punching someone to creating insensitive websites or constant online harassment which doesn’t help the fact that today’s children has started to use the internet at a younger age and are usually unsupervised making them more vulnerable to harmful content. 

Easter Media Homework

Easter media homework from CPugh2005

Exam Question

Exam Question

Ever since home media was introduced in the early 80’s with the VHS and Laserdisc, cinema attendance has been falling significantly as more people would choose a night in to watch their favourite movies over and over again for free as opposed to having to travel and  to pay for one viewing. Although the film industry wasn’t as animous towards television as it had been in the 50’s, they cramped down hard on the newly established home entertainment market by intruding anti-copyright laws on VHS’s and DVDs. However ever since the Internet started to become mainstream since 1997 which allowed fandom’s of major movie frandises such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings to share their, and newer web 2.0 technologies and websites such as Itunes and Google Play have allowed people to download movies legally as opposed to actually buying them physically, The industry have been asking themselves this question: Is this time period the age where the consumer becomes the producer?

For example, there is a fan-made film based on the Lord of the Rings called Born of Hope that was completely funded by a fan named Kate Madison as an entry for a Tolkien Fan Film competition. Taking inspiration from the story of Aragorn’s childhood featured in the appendices’ from The Lord of the Rings and made in six years, This project is a good example of cultural production as  it was entirely produced by fans of the books and movies  rather than the crew at Weta workshop, transmedia as the crew have adapted previously existing source material from the books that was not covered in the Peter Jackson movies, and social and cultural convergence as Kate generated most of the budget for the movie by posting a trailer on YouTube and getting paid for it.

Since some people have been becoming more familiar with posting videos online to sites such as Youtube and Megaupload, people have learnt to use special cd ripping software such as Bid torrent and Adobe Flash to atacully take and copy several clips of a dvd or Blu-ray onto the program and then either splicing the clips together to make a fan-made music video with an example being the Cool z ’Dan’ music and movie videos that put the characters of the Warner Bros movie Cat’s Don’t Dance into other movies and music videos through the power of editing. This software can also be used to create informative videos which the uploader can speak over the video clip with the use of a microphone or in some cases the uploading software can aslo be used to put whole movies and tv shows onto the interent, which unfortally don’t stay on the website for too long as soon as someone working for the movie companies find out about the posted movies availbe online for free, they will immeditally send a resquest to take it down or be banned from Youtube.

In conclusion I that the statement about the consumer becoming the producer is true because of the freedom mainstream audiences are allowed to have more freedom to newer web 2.0 technologies to create their own media.

Film Industry & Fandom

Fandom is a term used to describe a community of people who are connected to or like a popular frandise such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc... These people can range from fan-fiction writers, artists, historians and even video game players.

Cultural production is when these fans share and create their own versions of films due to web.2.0 technologies which can be posted on Youtube where people can watch it. An Example

Wreck It Ralph

Facts and Figures

• Distributor - Walt Disney Pictures
• Producer- Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Director- Rich Moore
• Writers- Phil Johnston And Jennifer Lee
• Stars: John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, 
• Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family
• Budget: $165 million
• Box Office Gross: $436,356,000
• Opening Weekend- Worldwide total of $49 million 

Promotion

• Official website: www.godisney.com/wreck-it-ralph
• Main Trailer: 

Cast

John C Reilly as Wreck-it Ralph

Sarah Silverman as  Vanellope von Schweetz

Jack McBrayer as Fix-it Felix 

Jane Lynch as Sergeant Calhoun

Alan Tudyk as King Candy/Turbo

Promotional Marketing Campaign Overview

• The marketing campaign started with the release of the first teaser trailer which debuted on June 6th 2012 in front of screenings of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rock of Ages which was also shown at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
• The Twiiter page for the movie went offically online on October 2012: ttps://twitter.com/WreckItRalph

• Disney released on the official website in October 2012, a browser based flash online game versions of the fictional Fix-it Felix Jr, Sugar Rush and Hero's Duty games that are featured in the movie which were also made available for download for IOS and Android mobile devices.

• The second theatrical trailer debuted in front of  showings of Finding Nemo 3D and Frankenweenie on September 12th 2012.

• The marketing campaign released posters of the characythers of the film posing  with actual video game chanracthers such as M Bison, Qbert, Clyde the Pac-man Ghost  and Sonic the Hedgehog to promote the fact that these characters make cameo appearances throughout the film.

• The film was released with a short film attached to it called Paperman which was a black and white 7 minute short film about a man trying to use paper planes to get the attentions of a girl, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

• The official soundtrack was made available for download on the  Itunes website on October 30th 2012 featuring original songs by Owl City, Skillrex and Buckner and Garcia with the score by Henry Jackman.

• A video game tie-in was brought to the Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS which allows players to play as Wreck-it Ralph and Fix-it Felix and travel around Game Central Station to prevent another cybug invasion. Later on this year Ralph and Vanellope will appear as playable characters in the upcoming Disney Infinity game which will be a Disney version of the popular Skylanders video game series.

Reception

• Wreck it Ralph currently has an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 72/100 at Metacritic making the reviews as a whole to be mostly positive.

• The films box office gross of $436,356,000 makes it the 5th highest grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film behind The Lion King, Tangled, Aladdin and Tarzan.

undrstanding Media Theory

Understanding Media Theory describes the ways in which our means of communication determine what and who we are, how we behave, what we do and do not think about, how our feelings develop and are limited, and who we can and cannot reach. It offers an explanation for practically everything we think, do and experience in the world. This explosive body of thought has been developed by various authors around the world over the past fifty years, but there has been no synthesis of their ideas until now. Understanding Media Theory provides one. Rather than summarizing the work of previous authors, Arjen Mulder makes media theory understandable by discussing all its important concepts, approaches and areas of interest through concrete examples and experiences. The book therefore remains clear and accessible, even when addressing complex subjects such as the history of the use of language, artistic methods, and the unconscious ways in which we allow ourselves to be influenced by media in the information society

Music Industry Review