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.