‘For media audiences the internet has changed everything’

The Internet was created during the cold war as an information network within a country; in the UK for businesses and in France for scientific research. But it was most notably used in the USA and Russia for the military and intelligence purposes. The internet hit the public in the mid 90’s, as it was when the internet first became affordable. When the public started using the internet, businesses started seeing opportunities, such as; Amazon. As time went on and we came in to the year 2000’s we started to see the growth of social networking sites. By 2006 there were several successful social networking sites that were being accessed on a daily basis by millions. The majority of these sites are being used by people under the age of 35, however you do see all ages using them. The internet has helped build a global networking that enables people to communicate at any time, as it is now as easy to get in touch with someone the other side of the world, rather than someone across the street. In the last 10 years we have seen what some call as ‘Web 2.0’, this is the way that media is being used in our era. What I mean by this is that media used to be big newspapers, television channels, magazines, etc. however, since social networking has become very popular, this is where the majority of people will find out what is happening in the world. The first thing that a lot of people do will be to check the social networking site, before even getting out of bed in most circumstances, and this is how such a large amount of people are relying on social networking to keep them in touch with what is going on in the world. So, we have developed from ‘Web 1.0’, which was us being the audience of media, to know what we call, ‘Web 2.0’ which is us creating the media. The term ‘Web 2.0” was created by a man called, ‘David Gaunlett’, he says that, “the media is no longer a stable entity that can be taught about or studied coherently in such a broad way. It is too big, too fluid, too complex – too different”. Gauntlett argues that people don’t get ‘ represented’ by the media anymore, Instead they use web 2.0 platforms to make their own media, share it with the world and thus represent themselves. Another man that has had a huge influence in the term, ‘Web 2.0’, is ‘Michael Wesch’, he is an anthropologist, and he has been talking about how we are becoming the web, and taking over from other forms of media. However, also does say though about how we all believe what we see on the internet, even though we don’t know who is was published by. Another example of a way in which the inter has changed lives is, with the circumstance in Libya, when there were families praying after there were 1000 Libyans gunned down in cold blood by gadafis men in 1996, the Libyan people never forgot this and have a day in remembrance of people that had lost their lives. There was a family who’s father had died in the massacre, and they felt very strongly about this day and had a large hatetrid for Gaddafi. However, the next day the family came home to find out the Gadafi had arrested the families lawyer. This caused lots of upsets as this lawyer was not only the families lawyer but the majority of the cities, so there were hundreds of people starting to take to the streets to protest against this, and as hours went by they got closer to the headquarters where the lawyer was being held. When the protesters gathered outside, they realised that there wasn’t just hundreds anymore, there were thousands of people supporting them, they gathered around the gates, and one of gadafis men came out to warn all the protesters that if they didn’t return to their homes they would all get shot, which caused an even bigger uproar and people began to attack the headquarters from every angle. Later that day they finally broke through the gates and had burnt the building down to the ground. However, whilst all of this was happening a large amount of the protesters were not only fighting, but they were also streaming the scenes straight to the web on their mobile phones. The other side of internet that has seen a massive growth in is the online TV industry. The internet has also seen organisations set up micro-series, which is a very short series of episodes; a micro series is intended to promote a product while engaging viewers with entertaining conent. Not very long, are advertised on other social networking sites, e.g. bebo and youtube, etc. Over the past decade the TV industry has changed massively, if there is something you want to watch, or catch up on its easy to find instantly. TV ratings have decreased in viewers due to the creation of ‘BBC Iplayer’, ‘ITVplayer’, ‘4OD’, and there are many more. An example; ‘Lonelygirl15’, which began on youtube in June 200, this was about a ‘real’ 16 year old girl video blogger with the eponymous username. At first this was all very real, and there were millions of people tuning in because they felt they had the same problem, however as time went on people started to realise it was a fake. Another example of a micro series would be; an online set up called E20, this is an Eastenders spin off, which is set up by the bbc. The E20 is a website that is set up by the bbc that is trying to put younger amateur actors, and directors in work experience by setting up a micro series. You can only watch the E20 episodes online. Online TV has had a huge impact on many lives, as it has allowed people to live their lives more effectively, due to people tuning in online at any point to catch up with their favourite television shows.