New media [Fourth Edition]

This is the fourth edition of New Media: An Introduction, with the previous editions being published by Oxford University Press in 2002, 2005 and 2008. As the first edition of the book published in the 2010s, every chapter has been comprehensively revised, and there are new chapters on: • Online News and the Future of Journalism (Chapter 7) • New Media and the Transformation of Higher Education (Chapter 10) • Online Activism and Networked Politics (Chapter 12). It has retained popular features of the third edition, including the twenty key concepts in new media (Chapter 2) and illustrative case studies to assist with teaching new media. The case studies in the book cover: the global internet; Wikipedia; transmedia storytelling; Media Studies 2.0; the games industry and exploitation; video games and violence; WikiLeaks; the innovator’s dilemma; massive open online courses (MOOCs); Creative Commons; the Barack Obama Presidential campaigns; and the Arab Spring. Several major changes in the media environment since the publication of the third edition stand out. Of particular importance has been the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which draw out even more strongly the features of the internet as networked and participatory media, with a range of implications across the economy, society and culture. In addition, the political implications of new media have become more apparent with a range of social media-based political campaigns, from Barack Obama’s successful Presidential election campaigns to the Occupy movements and the Arab Spring. At the same time, the subsequent developments of politics in these and other cases has drawn attention to the limitations of thinking about the politics or the public sphere in technologically determinist ways. When the first edition of New Media was published in 2002, the concept of new media was seen as being largely about the internet as it was accessed from personal computers. The subsequent decade has seen a proliferation of platforms and devices: we now access media in all forms from our phones and other mobile platforms, therefore we seen television and the internet increasingly converging, and we see a growing uncoupling of digital media content and delivery platforms. While this has a range of implications for media law and policy, from convergent media policy to copyright reform, governments and policy-makers are struggling to adapt to such seismic shifts from mass communications media to convergent social media. The internet is no longer primarily a Western-based medium. Two-thirds of the world’s internet users are now outside of Europe and North America; three-quarters of internet users use languages other than English; and three-quarters of the world’s mobile cellular phone subscriptions are in developing nations. It is also apparent that conducting discussions about how to develop new media technologies and discussions about their cultural and creative content can no longer be separated. Discussions of broadband strategies and the knowledge economy need to be increasingly joined with those concerning the creative industries and the creative economy.

Identifying the Events That Connect Social Media Users : Charting Follower Accession on Twitter

Twitter is the focus of much research attention, both in traditional academic circles and in commercial market and media research, as analytics give increasing insight into the performance of the platform in areas as diverse as political communication, crisis management, television audiencing and other industries. While methods for tracking Twitter keywords and hashtags have developed apace and are well documented, the make-up of the Twitter user base and its evolution over time have been less understood to date. Recent research efforts have taken advantage of functionality provided by Twitter's Application Programming Interface to develop methodologies to extract information that allows us to understand the growth of Twitter, its geographic spread and the processes by which particular Twitter users have attracted followers. From politicians to sporting teams, and from YouTube personalities to reality television stars, this technique enables us to gain an understanding of what prompts users to follow others on Twitter. This article outlines how we came upon this approach, describes the method we adopted to produce accession graphs and discusses their use in Twitter research. It also addresses the wider ethical implications of social network analytics, particularly in the context of a detailed study of the Twitter user base.

Amateur Media : Social, Cultural and Legal Perspectives

The rise of Web 2.0 has pushed the amateur to the forefront of public discourse, public policy and media scholarship. Typically non-salaried, non-specialist and untrained in media production, amateur producers are now seen as key drivers of the creative economy. But how do the activities of citizen journalists, fan fiction writers and bedroom musicians connect with longer traditions of extra-institutional media production? This edited collection provides a much-needed interdisciplinary contextualisation of amateur media before and after Web 2.0. Surveying the institutional, economic and legal construction of the amateur media producer via a series of case studies, it features contributions from experts in the fields of law, economics and media studies based in the UK, Europe and Singapore. Each section of the book contains a detailed case study on a selected topic, followed by two further pieces providing additional analysis and commentary. Using an extraordinary array of case studies and examples, from YouTube to online games, from subtitling communities to reality TV, the book is neither a celebration of amateur production nor a denunciation of the demise of professional media industries. Rather, this book presents a critical dialogue across law and the humanities, exploring the dynamic tensions and interdependencies between amateur and professional creative production. This book will appeal to both academics and students of intellectual property and media law, as well as to scholars and students of economics, media, cultural and internet studies.

Solo3

Solo3 is and evening of solo works collaboratively created by Jenny Roche and choreographers John Jasperse (US), Jodi Melnick (US) and Liz Roche (Ireland). It was commissioned by the Dublin Dance Festival 2008 for the culmination of Jenny Roche's residency as an artist with the festival. The three works address the role of the dancer as co-creator within choreographic practice and further examine how the dancer can inhabit multiple embodiments across various choreographies leading to a plurality of selfhood in line with post-modern and poststructuralist notions of subjectivity (Deleuze and Guattari 1987). Furthermore, the oscillation of real and imagined subjectivities in performance (Emilyn Claid 2006) and the interplay of intercorporeal and intersubjective relations between choreographer and dancer (Sally Gardner 2007) are highlighted in these works.

Boundary swaying

This practice-led research is positioned within my ongoing enquiry into the dancer’s experience and role within the creative process. Gins and Arakawa (1997) and Keane (2007) speak to the unsatisfactory reliance on discipline boundaries, to describe the dynamic lived-experience of interaction. This theorising is of application to this project, which examines creative agency through the lens of Arakawa and Gins’ language prompt, boundary-swaying. In this project the boundaries of movement creator, performer and director overlap and blur through the use of improvisation and multiple cameras. All contributors are invested creatively and compositionally in the ensuing dynamic collaboration, wearing many hats, ‘conceiver, creative thinker, teacher and learner’ (McKechnie 2005, 93; Stevens & McKechnie 2005, 250). This project asked the question, how can the work of Arakawa and Gins to agitate, disrupt, and transform the modus operandi of creative practice between choreographer and practice, dancer and practice and choreographer and dancer? The use of Arakawa and Gins’ philosophy and language prompts within this project stimulated and positively influenced the established creative relationship of researcher and choreographer/artist in the following ways: • Foregrounded the dancers tacit knowledge, first-hand experience, know-how and embodied savviness; • Promoted artistic collaboration, illuminating new creative possibilities, choices and innovation; • Facilitated the distribution of creative authority and agency. This creative work was presented as part of the AG3 ONLINE: the Third International Arakawa and Gins - Architecture and Philosophy Conference. The work was vetted for inclusion by an international panel of examiners.

Experience has no shadow

This research is situated in the field of practice-led research investigating embodied perspectives on the performance of dance making. In the stock of choreographic literature, the celebrated ‘creativity’ label is associated predominantly with the choreographer and is discussed in terms of product rather than process (Lussier-Ley and Durand-Bush 2009; Hennessey 2003). A reliance on the mystery of inspiration or choreographic genius (Penty 1998) for the production of ‘great’ dance works does not acknowledge the complex and timely process common in the creation of dance (Mace and Ward 2002) nor provide a true representation of the creative contributors (Farrer 2014). The failure to attribute creative impulses and skills to dancers is reminiscent of a time when they were thought of only as instruments in the creative process not active participants and collaborators (Jowitt 2001a; H’Doubler 1957). This project asked the question, to what end do dancers contribute to choreography and how is this contribution valued and recognised? Dancers are integral to the creative process. The research found that the scope of a dancers’ creative involvement in the development of a new work is dependent on: the individual choreographers approach to creating movement; the relationship between dancer and choreographer, and dancer and fellow company members; and the dancers collaborative skills and interpretive skills, versatility, and initiative. Recognition and attribution of dancers’ creative input is dependent on a choreographer’s viewpoint, generosity, and prior creative experiences. The work was created as a part of the Ausdance Queensland 2010 Bell Tower III Choreographic Residency program. Applicants were peer reviewed and vetted by a panel of local and national dance producers. The creative work was presented at the Judith Wright Centre for Live Arts. The project was funded by Ausdance Queensland and Arts Queensland. https://es-es.facebook.com/events/106661226023025/?hc_location=stream

Skin graft

This work was choreographed for Expressions Dance Company as part of their inaugurals season The Dance Makers Season to launch the work of the company’s new artistic director, Natalie Weir. It was also toured throughout North Queensland.

Auto-tune, and why we shouldn't be surprised that Britney can't sing

Put Britney Spears into a YouTube search and the third auto-fill on the list is “Britney Spears without Autotune”. Auto-Tune has become the music industry equivalent of doping in the Tour de France circa 2005; we know everyone’s doing it, but we still have a sense of surprise and outrage when it becomes public. In the last week or so a video has surfaced of the pop singer Britney Spears – with examples of her vocal before and after processing. Whether or not the “before” version is actually the raw material for the “after” version is difficult to say. What’s not difficult to say is that the “before” vocal is distinctly lacking in a demonstrable ability to sing in tune.

Idol

Donna Hewitt (composer/vocalist/emic designer), Avril Huddy (choreographer/dancer) and Vanessa Mafé (dancer). Donna is performing with her invention called the eMic (extended mic-stand interface controller). The work explores the use of gesture to control live sound processing during the performance. The work was choreographed by Avril Huddy.

Uninhabited

"A young couple go to a remote and deserted coral island for a camping holiday, only to find that the island is inhabited by a ghost seeking retribution for a past outrage. - Written by Bill Bennett " "Synopsis: Based on actual events…. Harry and Beth want a different kind of holiday. So they charter a boat to drop them off on a remote coral island on the Great Barrier Reef. The island is idyllic – surrounded by a wide reef, covered in palms and full of birds and other wildlife, small and totally deserted. Or is it? The young lovers soon come to believe there is someone else on the island. Things go missing from their camp – and then they discover someone else’s footprints in the sand. What they didn’t realise was that the island has a ghost – a young girl who had died in shocking circumstances some eighty years earlier. The ghost at first plays mischievously with the young couple, but then turns malevolent. And their idyllic island holiday becomes a nightmare."

Wrecking ball: could big tech firms ruin the Spotify party?

YouTube is contemplating the launch of a new music service. But how would such a service fare against established music services like Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora? All these services are referred to as “access-based music services”. They offer music listeners access to millions of songs they can listen to as much as they want for free (with advertising and only basic functionality) or for a monthly subscription fee (without advertising)...

The new supply chains : the Multichannel Networks

Digital innovation is transforming the media and entertainment industries. The professionalization of YouTube’s platform is paradigmatic of that change. The 100 original channel initiative launched in late 2011 was designed to transform YouTube’s brand through production of a high volume of quality premium video content that would more deeply engage its audience base and in the process attract big advertisers. An unanticipated by-product has been the rapid growth of a wave of aspiring next-generation digital media companies from within the YouTube ecosystem. Fuelled by early venture capital some have ambitious goals to become global media corporations in the online video space. A number of larger MCNs (Multi-Channel Networks) - BigFrame, Machinima, Fullscreen, AwesomenessTV, Maker Studios , Revision3 and DanceOn - have attracted interest from media incumbents like Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, Discovery, Bertlesmann, Comcast and AMC, and two larger MCNs Alloy and Break Media have merged. This indicates that a shakeout is underway in these new online supply chains, after rapid initial growth. The higher profile MCNs seek to rapidly develop scale economies in online distribution and facilitate audience growth for their member channels, helping channels optimize monetization, develop sustainable business models and to facilitate producer-collaboration within a growing online community of like-minded content creators. Some MCNs already attract far larger online audiences than any national TV network. The speed with which these developments have occurred is reminiscent of the 1910s, when Hollywood studios first emerged and within only a few years replaced the incumbent film studios as the dominant force within the film industry.