Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Substantial Paper: The Future of Global Media


           Global media has taken over out world, literally and figuratively. And it won’t stop there. If one looks at the proposed technological products and media of the future, it’s easy to see that we are entering an age where our real and virtual lives blur.  I feel that global media will become more instant, seamless, and convenient parts of our lives, as opposed to the opposite.
Looking at the media trends of the 20th century, the circulation of information in the developed world was confined to a few well defined standards. In the first half of the century, periodicals and radio dominated. A great example of this is Orson Welles’ 1940 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, which illustrated the impact that radio had on the public. Many people took this broadcast seriously, believing that the Earth was being invaded by aliens, causing a panic. Towards the middle, television took over. This is evidenced by the large American audience that viewed the first lunar landing in 1961. Only in the 1990s did the internet take precedence.
            Today in the United States, computers with broadband-internet are common, as well as internet-connected smartphones. The cellular phones have kept people thousands of miles away connected constantly; people no longer have to feel lonely. This instant access has allowed people to absorb, create, and share media like never before. Every major news company now has a website to update users as soon as new events happen, along with RSS feeds and podcasts. Twitter allows the same companies, along with individuals (famous or pedestrian), to update others in real time. Facebook and YouTube allow people to immortalize and share their photos and videos with others. Access to the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has exposed millions of people to virtually limitless un-biased information. Music, movies, and video games can now be consumed sans physical media in the form of downloads, both legally and illegally. The people of the past would be stupefied by the advancements in human technology.
            With all of this progress comes drawbacks, which may become amplified in the future if trends continue. The most obvious of which is an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. This is associated with the obesity epidemic in the United States. The documentary Digital Nation has analyzed this drawback along with a few others. The increasingly distracting environment for youth is one of them. As computers and mobile devices become more powerful, the amount of tasks that can be done at one with them increases. The documentary makes a strong argument that this multitasking is bad for us in multiple ways. It causes our youths to develop with shorter attention spans. The more tasks a person takes on at once, the less effective each individual task becomes. This makes something like texting while driving even more dangerous than drinking and driving. The ability to multitask seems so time-saving and convenient, even though it is not.
            Digital Nation also makes a compelling argument on the addictiveness of all this media around us. It goes into the lives of young South Koreans who are addicted to certain video games. Some stay up all day and night playing. This has led to a few deaths due to sleep, food, and water deprivation. These kids are sent to media-free camps for weeks, but still cannot shake the cravings to play. The fact that this compulsive behavior is a bigger problem than drug addiction in this country is a testament to how far media has come. This cultural and behavioral shift may occur all over the world as Matrix-like video games are developed, where anybody can lead a second life.
            In the short-term, we can look at some highly-publicized product prototypes to get some clues about our future. An extremely note-worthy piece of technology is Microsoft’s PixelSense (formally known as Surface).  It consists of a large multi-touch capacitive touchscreen computer being built into a family’s tabletop.  With this technology, multiple family members can consume and create media, or conduct business all at the same time. There is also object recognition when items are placed down on the table. The fact that all of this can be shared with one another adds a huge social dynamic to traditional family meetings. Consider the fact that sitting down at a table and eating dinner with your whole family has been in decline for decades (with the advent of television and TV dinners). With PixelSense, a family that eats together absorbs media together. Parents would be able to take a glimpse into their children’s lives, observing their interests. The same goes the other way around, where Jr. can get a taste of his father’s profession. I truly believe that technology will become an important staple in the homes of developed nations within the coming years. Soon people may be able to buy tabletop computers at Ikea!
            Another extraordinary piece of tech that will revolutionize our everyday lives with media is Google Glass. It is a small computer with a camera lens mounted on sunglasses frames. This allows it to serve as more than a Go Pro (a first person camcorder worn on your head), because it relay any video to Google’s video chat. This allows spectators to watch what you’re seeing in real time, which could be jogging, biking, or even skydiving. The real allure here is this technology’s potential. It is a gateway to augmented reality glasses, where the lenses double as a screen displaying information in real time. A slight gesture would allow you to Google any image; coupled with GPS information, any geographical landmark could be researched on the fly. It would greatly enhance anything that we’re doing at that moment. This is a huge boon for Google, who makes money off of ad revenue for searches and social networking. However, critics have stated that the use of this technology would lead to excess ads being pushed to your augmented reality glasses, along with a big brother scenario, which would have your point of view being watched at all times. Despite these worries about a dystopian future, I think that Google Glass will be another staple product in the future and will have a tremendous effect on global media. After all, Google’s long-standing model is "Don't be evil."
            A Huffington Post article recently made some predictions on the future of media in the short-term. They feel that media devices will be wearable. Much like the latest iPod Nano, they’ll be designed to do most of the tasks your smartphone can do but be even more convenient. The biggest draw here is the fact that it can be a fashion statement and a status symbol. Just imagine a Rolex-Apple collaboration. The article says that people will shift to downloadable/streaming video instead of television (think Hulu and Netflix). Soon we may end up talking to ads, since they can personalize the product based on demographic (think Siri on the iPhone). All in all, this article has reassured me on my longstanding predictions that media will continue to become more convenient. 
            At this year’s E3 expo (a very important video game show), an innovative and exciting action-adventure video game was shown off. Its name is Watch Dogs and it centers around a future where media is king. The game’s plotline deals with the world’s increasing reliance on technology. Everything is interconnected and ran by supercomputers constantly, including city infrastructures. Information warfare is the main weapon in this game, where a simple button-press on an in-game cell phone can have a devastating effect on the city’s state around you. This can be used to your advantage as you manipulate your way through, hacking into the infrastructure and manipulating other people. The primary antagonist is an organization that runs the world’s supercomputers, monitoring and controlling everybody in the process. I find this dystopian future to be extremely intriguing. We may not be far off from this world ourselves. Needless to say, Watch Dogs is now highly anticipated, winning multiple Best of E3 awards.
            With the introduction of such an interesting new intellectual property like Watch Dogs, come some very valid worries. How much will our individual privacy suffer in the future? Many wonder if the government or corporations will be able to spy on us whenever they want to. If you have ever seen The Dark Knight, you’ll know that a violation of privacy happens towards its end. Batman is trying to hunt down the Joker but needs to utilize a feature in all of Wayne Industries’ cellular phones, which are unanimous in Gotham City. He uses the radiation that each phone puts out to paint a motion picture of the surroundings of every person, much like eco-location that dolphins use. Batman’s Chief Executive Officer of Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox cooperates with the city-wide tracking system, but isn’t happy about its invasion of privacy. He soon resigns from Wayne Enterprises due to the technology’s intrusiveness. The people of Gotham City were lucky that Bruce Wayne was so altruistic, we may not be so lucky with the private corporations of the future.
            Another extremely valid question that comes up is: Who owns the media? As the media’s presence in our lives increases exponentially, we might as well know who’s behind it all. Many analysts consider the concentration of media ownership to be a major threat to democracy. The Journalism.org article, “News Corp Split, Buffett's Bet Top Year of Big Media Ownership Changes,” analyzes the way that large media properties have changed hands in the past calendar year. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Company has become a major player in the newspaper industry, with the purchase of 63 newspapers from the failing Media General Company. This has restored faith in the ailing newspaper industry, even though many pundits still feel that it will die off in the coming decades. However, Gannett leads in daily newspaper circulation. Time Warner is the top magazine company based on total circulation. Clear Channel is the top radio company, with a total audience of 160 million. Yahoo is the top internet news company with over 39 million unique visitors every month. Comcast is the top network TV (based on morning and evening news viewership) and ethnic TV Company. News Corporation is the top cable news company (based on combined cable news viewership) and local TV company.
This last statistic is unsettling, because News Corporation is run by the conservative Rupert Murdoch. This media mogul’s company has been marred in controversy. His American news network, Fox News, has been constantly criticized for its promotion of conservative political positions and generally biased reporting. Historically, it has always endorsed Republican candidates and slandered the Democratic ones. As Obama’s health care reform was debated, Fox News often called it “government-run health insurance” to make it seem like socialization in the viewer’s eyes. It has been caught distorting facts and cropping quotes from opposing officials for the Republican Party’s gain. Pew Research conducted a 2009 poll that found that Fox News is viewed “as the most ideological television channel in America.”
Rupert Murdoch’s other media property, the British News of the World tabloid, has been the center of a major scandal that led to its eventual shut down. The periodical was accused of phone hacking for years. This was eventually proven in 2011, when it was found out that the newspaper found and deleted the voicemail of missing teen Milly Dowler a decade ago, who was murdered soon after. This caused a huge public outcry and a withdrawal of advertising money. The shutdown of News of the World cost News Corp over £240 million.
Considering the fact that huge media conglomerates like this have tremendous influence in this capitalist country of ours, News Corporation is here to stay. Imagine a future like in Watch Dogs or the Dark Knight, where a corrupt organization like this has the power to keep tabs on your every move and can even sabotage them. It is a conspiracy theorist’s dream, but extremely valid nonetheless.
What will the global media landscape look like in the long-term? Many agree that media and technology will have an increasingly important part in each of our lives, becoming more immersive, seamless, and convenient. Let’s fast forward forty years, to 2050. Imagine a world like in the video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, where humans are biomechanically augmented to “enhance” their lives. Imagine having an internet-connected computer chip implanted in our brains. We would have instant access to anything the web has to offer at any time. It would be like Google Glass on a whole new level. Imagine children not knowing a time where they couldn’t check the current weather just by blinking. It would give us access to limitless amounts of information. What if we could change our lives like in the movie Total Recall? Where anybody could implant memories, turning them into something they’re not. What about The Matrix, where people could completely live a second, virtual life? One could just plug their brain into the virtual ecosystem and relive the day’s top stories in real time. This potential role-play could drive the market, making normally mundane people extraordinary.
Intel, the world’s largest semi-conductor company, believes that chips implanted in brains will control computers by 2020. They feel that users will soon tire of the traditional keyboard and mouse input on computers, even the more recent input of capacitive touch. They’ll also become even lazier than they are now; feeling that fishing a device out of their pockets is too inconvenient and slow. Brain waves are the key here, allowing people to “surf the web with the power of their thoughts.” The technology has come a long way; researchers say that they’ve been able to get a monkey to control a robot solely with brain waves. In my opinion this hybrid technology, comprised of synthetic and organic materials, is the next step for global media.
            The book, Feed by M.T. Anderson, describes a future where “television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies.” Certain websites have psychological effects on users, allowing for drug-like sensations. Privacy is a thing of the past. People are constantly encouraged by specifically catered advertisements in their heads to buy certain things. Companies don’t compete with ad space, but for brain space. Everybody is able to communicate instantly via M-chat, similar to instant messaging. Since this is brain to brain, it could be considered a form of telepathy. Pollution has damaged the planet to the point where technology has to control the weather. There is no longer sexual reproduction, women are fertilized artificially at clinics; designing their children into anything they want. The corporations hold most of the political power, which has caused the Global Alliance of nations to go to war with them. The story’s principle character, Titus, is a teenager who is completely inarticulate and speaks in a text/internet chat manner. He slowly realizes that he’s missing something intellectually in his life. He realizes that he needs to rebel against the system. I feel that this story is more than just science fiction and may be an accurate prediction of our technological future.
            Overall, the future of global media is a hard thing to predict, because it can go in so many different directions. However, it is safe to assume that media will become a more integral part of our daily lives. As media takes precedence, there are many opportunities for it to improve our lives. It can strengthen our health, our educational system, and our ability to get work done. Thanks to technological advancements, media will become even more convenient, seamless, and immersive than it is now. Upcoming technology like Microsoft PixelSense and Google Glass is a testament to that.  Media creations like Watch Dogs and Feed also predict our futures. They bring a possible dystopian future to our attention. A future where our lives are run by private companies and our privacy is non-existent. Now is the time to protect our individual rights and freedoms as the global media evolves, before it’s too late.

Works Cited
"The Dashboard." Media Ownership. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://stateofthemedia.org/media-ownership/>.
"Fox News Viewed as Most Ideological Network." Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://www.people-press.org/2009/10/29/fox-news-viewed-as-most-ideological-network/>.
Greene, Richard Allen, Laura Smith-Spark, and Dan Rivers. "Murdoch Flies in as Scandal Closes News of the World." CNN. Cable News Network, 10 July 2011. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/10/uk.phonehacking/>.
"Intel: Chips in Brains Will Control Computers by 2020." Computerworld. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141180/Intel_Chips_in_brains_will_control_computers_by_2020?taxonomyId=11>.
Kanalley, Craig. "10 Predictions For The Future Of Media." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 05 Oct. 2011. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/predictions-future-of-media_n_996196.html>.
"News Corp Split, Buffett's Bet Top Year of Big Media Ownership Changes." Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://www.journalism.org/commentary_backgrounder/who_owns_news_media_database_summary_findings/>.
SAP. "The Future of Social and Mass Media: Wilber, Wang, and Weigend Weigh-In." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2011/09/22/the-future-of-social-and-mass-media-wilber-wang-and-weigend-weigh-in/>.
"VentureBeat | News About Tech, Money and Innovation." You Are the Network in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2012. <http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/04/e3-2012-you-are-the-network-in-ubisofts-watch-dogs/>. 

Response #2: Comparing Trends: Twitter vs. The News


                Twitter is a widely used form of social media, where people can post statuses in 140 characters or less (known as tweets). Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has become one of the most popular and successful social networking services. It has over 140 million users and is the 8th most popular website in the world. It has had a tremendous impact on the way information is circulated, because tweets can reach a wide audience almost instantly. Twitter has changed its initial motto from “What are you doing now?” to “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” Analyzing the hashtags (#) of Twitter gives us an accurate depiction of its most popular trends. Things start to get interesting when one compares the trending topics on Twitter with national and world news headlines (from a reputable source, such as the New York Times and CNN). There are many differences and parallelisms between the two forms of media.  
            Looking at the news networks and newspapers, these more traditional forms of media have headlines that are more serious in nature.  As of June 23rd, headlines are mostly centered around the constant tension and unrest in the Middle East. The world section of the New York Times has articles on the state of democracy in Libya and Egypt, the residual effects of the Arab Spring. Articles such as “Libya Democracy Clashes With Fervor for Jihad” and “In Egypt, Declaration of Winner in Presidential Contest Is Said to Be Near” speak of these nations’ futures with uncertainty. Both the New York Times and CNN world sections have articles on the recent turmoil in Syria, caused by President al-Assad’s oppression. The CNN article, “Top Turkish officials in meetings after Syria downs Turkish jet,” analyzes the potential international crisis that has been brewing between these two independent nations.  There’s also a focus on China, with articles on the Chinese dissident, Ai Weiwei, and China’s space program eventually surpassing NASA.
            On the national scale, there’s a wider variety of topics that are more relevant in the lives of American citizens. Both outlets have articles on Obama’s and Romney’s Presidential campaigns. There is an article on whether or not Obama-care will be stopped by the Supreme Court. Another passage states that Penn State pedophile Jerry Sandusky is on suicide watch following his sentencing. On the lighter side, there’s a few articles covering the Miami Heat’s win in the 2012 NBA Finals.
            Based on the preceding news topics and headlines, we can see that legacy media news outlets focus their headlines on fairly serious topics.
            According to a long term study done by Pear Analytics, only 4% of tweets on Twitter are news-based. Regardless of that seemingly low number, many news outlets release headlines on Twitter, and many people rely on Twitter for news. A Journalism.org article stated that while the majority of top stories on legacy media were dedicated towards the Economy, the majority of news on Twitter was based on Middle Eastern unrest.
            Based on the preceding news topics and headlines, it is safe to assume that these articles are presented in an un-biased manner. In my opinion, the agenda of the legacy media is easier to identify than Twitter’s. There is a constant worry about an escalation of violence in the Middle East, a region that the United States polices. Along with the explosive growth of China, the objective here may be to strike fear into the hearts of the public, indirectly controlling them. The actions of Obama and Romney are being scrutinized due to the upcoming elections. The media’s increased focus on the President every four years is often criticized because it causes the executive politician in office to expedite the political agenda, getting things done as fast as possible while keeping their reputations as positive as possible. In my opinion, it is a shame that certain topics like campaign politics control all of the limelight from the more pressing issues.
            Looking at a new Twitter account I made (I have not followed anybody, altering my trends) on June 23rd, the global trends are much more sports and pop culture based. Hashtags with the words Laurent Blanc, Lionel Messi, Hackney Weekend, Greyson Michael Chance and Swedish House Mafia dominate. The only politically related hashtag is one containing Elena Valenciano, a former Spanish parliament member and a member of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s party. Laurent Blanc and Lionel Messi are both professional footballers (French and Argentine respectively); which is relevant due to the Eurocup taking place. Hackney Weekend is a major British music festival taking place soon. Greyson Michael Chance is a young boy on YouTube who covers famous songs. Swedish House Mafia is an electronic music group, who made headlines when they announced that they would be breaking up at the end of their next tour. The most popular U.S. Twitter trends are mostly meaningless conversation topics (#stillup, #OFTrivia, #SomethingIgetalot etc.). Not surprisingly, Hashtag Syria is on the list.
            In my opinion, Twitter’s agenda is the same as any other social media entity’s, to get people to act as social as possible. This drives Twitter’s revenue. Compared to Legacy Media, the user demographic is completely different. There is a much younger generation utilizing Twitter than the generation utilizing newspapers. As a result, pop culture and sports come into play much more as Twitter’s trending hashtags.  However, traditional news entities still see the value in Twitter as evidenced above. They realize that it can help generate traffic to their websites by posting headlines and article links. People can see these topics immediately on pretty much any current mobile device. This allows for emergency messages from news groups and other entities (like FEMA) to be relayed instantly to the public. Twitter is also credited for adding to the validity of the news, due to “crowdsourcing.” This means that a person can read about the same topic from many people and not have to rely on a Google algorithm or a single potentially biased news source. 
            Overall, the agendas of legacy media and Twitter are very different but also similar in a few ways. Legacy media stands to inform the public, but it ends up scaring it and putting too much emphasis on certain topics. More biased forms may try to indirectly control people. The purpose of Twitter is to get people to communicate, by sharing their opinions and experiences. The more traffic it receives, the more it can sell promoted tweets and trends to private companies. Both forms of media are common in the way they make money, through traffic (be it the website visitors, paper circulations, or TV ratings), which allows them to sell advertisements. I believe that Twitter is here to stay and will continue to innovate for years to come.

Works Cited
CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.CNN.com/US/>.
CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.CNN.com/WORLD/>.
"How Mainstream Media Outlets Use Twitter." Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.journalism.org/node/27311>.
"Keiths.blog." Twitter vs. News : How Twitter Is Chaging the News. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.keithrozario.com/2011/07/twitter-vs-news-how-they-reported-the-oslo-bombing.html>.
The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/index.html>.
The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 24 June 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/index.html>.
Twitter Study - August 2009. Pear Analytics, n.d. Web. <http://www.pearanalytics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Twitter-Study-August-2009.pdf>. 

Discussion #6: My Life With Media


From an early age, back when I used to sit up close to the TV and watch, I have been enamored with media. Currently I spend most of my time on my desktop computer, surfing the web. I subscribe to many RSS news feeds that supply me with information. 5 years ago, I would spend a large portion of my time playing video games and watching TV. While I still enjoy those activities, I tend to spend most of my time on Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook. To me it’s a perfect trifecta, one that quenches my curiosities and allows me to goof off. While I have found it difficult at times to balance my real life and digital life (usually with respect to schoolwork), it has never taken a huge toll on me. My family used to wonder why I spent so much time with different forms of media, but now they all do so themselves. My friends were usually right there with me absorbing the same media. My time on Wikipedia and YouTube has done the most to widen my horizons, changing my perception of other cultures, religions, the opposite sex, other ideologies, and other professions. I no longer read books during my free time, just Wikipedia pages. I have read so many articles and watched so many videos that no topic remains untouched by me. The opportunities for education have been my favorite part of media adoption; it has probably had the greatest effect on my development.