Henry Jenkins

1. What are Henry Jenkins’ ideas about how the media landscape is changing?

Spectatorial culture is giving way to participatory culture. Average citizens now have the tools to tell their own stories, rather than just the big bosses having the apparatus to produce media and tell stories. This is also apparent as tales which in the 20th Century were just told by big industries who had the rights to them, whereas now tales are re-told by anyone who can create videos on YouTube and other such websites.

2. What is ‘convergence culture’?

This refers to how media can be played across numerous channels and platforms now such as the internet and different websites, and all the different tools for viewing such as a phone, tablet or computer. The Wikinomics idea that we all contribute to create information rather than just using an individual source.

3. How are Jenkins’ ideas similar to those of David Gauntlett and Michael Wesch?

Jenkins' ideas are similar to Gauntlett's as they both note how citizens have the power to tell their own stories now and to contribute to a collective source of news, rather than just 'media Gods' contributing. Wesch's ideas could also be seen as similar to Jenkins' as he notes how the internet can be a forum for everyone to contribute and re-create tales with their own videos.

4. How might we disagree with Jenkins’ utopian ideas about the media? (Answering this question may require some independent thought – be very afraid.)

It could be argued that although everyone now has the power to produce and tell stories, it is still only the major industries who have a wide enough audience to have their views heard and taken notice of, because they are still seen as the dominating and most reliable providers of news and entertainment.

Discuss the extent to which the distribution and consumption of media has been transformed by the internet (50)

The internet has played a major role in revolutionising the music and entertainment industry since coming to prominence, and continues to change the way products are consumed and distributed.

The long tail theory suggests that the internet has significantly changed consumer habits as there is a more fragmented audience now whom are actively choosing what they want to listen to. This creates more niche markets and means that labels can now benefit more from signing many artists of different genres, than focusing on one mainstream artist and the coinciding mass audience. This means that the soncumer market is no longer dominated by only a few major artists as it was before the internet.

The internet has not only altered consumption, but distribution as well. Web 2.0 has offered a new forum for people to share and listen to music, through websites such as YouTube and Soundcloud. Gauntlett would note how anyone has the power to produce and share music for free now, whereas before it was only 'media Gods' such as labels whom held distribution power. This also gives the audience power to dictate the sound and direction of musical content rather than just established musicians. Wesch used the term 'prosumer' to describe consumers who also produce their own material on websites such as YouTube where everyone can take part in the two-way activity of producing and listening. This shows how the industry has transformed as it is not simply a case of there being producers and consumers, but there is now a middle ground where people can do both. Some people however suggest that this activity is exaggerated as in actual fact, some statistics suggest that 80% of the videos are produced by the same 20% of people, rather than it being a case of everyone equally contributing and consuming in a kind of 'Wikinomics' culture.

The term 'Wikinomics' was used by Tapscott and Williams to describe the culture of everyone contributing to build something completely (in this case a website such as YouTube, or indeed Wikipedia; the site which inspired the term). Not only do online communities help to create websites and forums, but also they can guide the direction of the consumer market. This is seen with YouTube features such as 'recommended videos'; a section which suggests more videos a user might like, based on what they have already watched. Curators also perform a similar function, as they wade through all the amateur to professional material which crops up online, and provide reviews and suggestions of which ones have real talent; as an obvious weakness of the simple nature of producing music now, is that even un-talented people have the same resources to upload their material. This is a more advanced version of the consumer industry we saw pre-internet when only mainstream professional music was reviewed, mostly in magazines which consumers had to pay for.

The internet has clearly aided distribution as it has become easy for people to consume music without even leaving their house, thanks to inventions such as online downloading on services such as iTunes. Although this is very practical there are negative implications; such as the fact that this has lead to high-street music shops losing profits, and some becoming extinct. The more high profile negative issue which has arisen here however is the way that music can be illegally distributed through torrents and other illegal downloading methods; which evade any method of payment to the creators or distributors of the music. This online piracy is the main reason cited for decreasing profits being made by artists, and is rapidly transforming the way artists make profits; with much more emphasis now on touring and other promotions rather than album sales.

Overall the internet has revolutionised the industry in every way possible in terms of consumption and distribution. Some of this revolution has had a negative affect on the industry; such as piracy, whereas some areas such as the easy nature of uploading material, has had a positive impact, as it is now much easier for amateur talent to be scouted, recognised or even signed. A recent example of a band being signed due to their online performances is the carribean band; Cover Drive.

1B Audience Essay (Improved)

For my advanced portfolio, my group and I created a music video for the song 'I'm 17' by Rizzle Kicks. Our video is designed to appeal to a niche audience, of a specific age (late teens) and a stereotypically rebellious subculture. Musically, our video is designed to attract indie audiences as well as urban audiences as the song is a rap over an indie instrumental (originally by Arctic Monkeys). In terms of gender, our video is more orientated towards males, as they can better relate to the role and behaviour of the protagonist, as well as the fact that the music is sung by a male.

In the planning stages of our video we took inspiration from acts we consider to be similar to Rizzle Kicks. These included Ed Sheeran, The Streets and Wretch 32 as they are urban UK acts with a more alternative, fun and less agressive twist than most. We found that these artists managed to produce creative videos on low budgets, shot in similarly suburban settings, such as The Streets' 'Fit But You Know It' video and Wretch 32's 'Unorthodox' video. Similar settings to these which we used included the shots of our artist dancing and bopping as he goes down the street, and sitting outside a row of shops while rapping and looking away from the camera. We inferred that using similar settings would clearly define the genre and attract the desired audience as they relate to the visuals for being similar to visuals associated with other artists in this genre. Ang (1991) and Hartley (1987) noted that the audience is in the interest of the institution and it is therefore important for them to be able to visualise and cater for this audience when researching and planning.

Our audience not only played a key part in the pre-production but also during production. We used our audience as a reference for how well we were performing our task of appealing to them with our video. We did this by gaining feedback from our peers after creating our initial rough cut of our video. This allowed our audience to have an input on what they liked about the video, what they felt did not work, and what else they would like to see. We kept note of feedback on our blogs and then edited and reworked our video to fit the criteria of the feedback received, making the changes clear with each new version of the video we posted. An example of something we changed based on audience feedback at the halfway stage, is we included more camera interaction in the second half of the video, as the audience felt it added personality.

Another important element to think about is how the audience will interpret and react to what our video portrays. In our video we used shots of the artist underage drinking as we believe that teenagers will relate to this, and others will find it humorous. However this was a risk as if viewers have an oppositional reading they will see this as a message which encourages and condones underage drinking. To try and restrict the extent that the message could be interpreted in this way we limited the number of shots featuring this behaviour and tried to make them more humorous than serious and realistic. This humour is also a key gratification of our video, as it adds to the repeatability of the video, with our audience being more likely to watch it again in order to see the one or two specific humorous moments again, rather than if there were not any funny scenes included, or if the video was a strict narrative. These aforementioned more humorous and light-hearted scenes include the ones of our artist interacting with the camera, and the ones of him appearing drunk in the house while drinking beer.

It would be fair to say in hindsight that our video was built around our audience, and they were therefore an active audience, as their stereotypes and needs were catered for by our media, rather than us creating messages and feeding them to a specific audience.

Curation Video

1. According to this video, what was the music industry like in the 90s and how has it changed more recently?

In the 90's companies such as MTV and radio stations were extremely influential. Range of music was increasing and the industry was very competitive. The industry now allows more small independent labels to be successful and more acts to be found; mainly through the internet. The web allows musicians to take their careers into their own destiny.

2. What are curators (such as Pitchfork and Hypemachine)? What is their role? Why are they important?

 

Curators review music and their aim is to sort through the vast quantities of music and differentiate the good from the bad. Curators are important to guide consumers and let them know what is good and what is real.

 

3. How can you link what this video says about creativity (in video-making, in particular) to David Gauntlett's ideas and to the theory of the long tail?

 

Young amateurs have more creative freedom creating their videos as the ideas are their own and not influenced by others. The fact that they work in small groups help this as there are less range of ideas to incorporate, making the video more radical and less mainstream. This relates to the idea of the long tail as there are more radical individual acts appealing to niche audiences, rather than acts which are designed to appeal to a mass audience. There is now more room on the shelf with the new forms of distribution and creation; and more choice as a result.

1B Essay: Audience

For my advanced portfolio, my group and I created a music video for the song 'I'm 17' by Rizzle Kicks. Our video is designed to appeal to a niche audience, of a specific age (late teens) and a stereotypically rebellious subculture. Musically, our video is designed to attract indie audiences as well as urban audiences as the song is a rap over an indie instrumental (originally by Arctic Monkeys).

In the planning stages of our video we took inspiration from acts we consider to be similar to Rizzle Kicks. These included Ed Sheeran, The Streets and Wretch 32 as they are urban UK acts with a more alternative, fun and less agressive twist than most. We found that these artists managed to produce creative videos on low budgets, shot in similarly suburban settings, such as The Streets' 'Fit But You Know It' video and Wretch 32's 'Unorthodox' video. We inferred that using similar settings would clearly define the genre and attract the desired audience as they relate to the visuals for being similar to visuals associated with other artists in this genre. Ang (1991) and Hartley (1987) noted that the audience is in the interest of the institution and it is therefore important for them to be able to visualise and cater for this audience when researching and planning.

Our audience not only played a key part in the pre-production but also during production. We used our audience as a reference for how well we were performing our task of appealing to them with our video. We did this by gaining feedback from our peers after creating our initial rough cut of our video. This allowed our audience to have an input on what they liked about the video, what they felt did not work, and what else they would like to see. We kept note of feedback on our blogs and then edited and reworked our video to fit the criteria of the feedback recieved, making the changes clear with each new version of the video we posted.

Another important element to think about is how the audience will interpret and react to what our video portrays. In our video we used shots of the artist underage drinking as we believe that teenagers will relate to this, and others will find it humorous. However this was a risk as if viewers have an oppositional reading they will see this as a message which encourages and condones underage drinking. To try and restrict the extent that the message could be interpreted in this way we limited the number of shots featuring this behaviour and tried to make them more humorous than serious and realistic. This humour is also a key gratification of our video, as it adds to the repeatability of the video, with our audience being more likely to watch it again in order to see the one or two specific humorous moments again, rather than if there were not any funny scenes included, or if the video was a strict narrative.

It would be fair to say in hindsight that our video was built around our audience, and they were therefore an active audience, as their stereotypes and needs were catered for by our media, rather than us creating messages and feeding them to a specific audience.