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/>.
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