How does the media engage you? How do you engage with the media?

Major changes in the move from old to media and the impacted on – access, audience, production, consumption, media institutions, economics

One of the significant new media changes has been the move from a observer to participant in the web. While Jenkins (2009a) states that participatory culture is not the same as O'Reilly's Web 2.0, Web 2.0 has made participation in web media accessible to a much wider audience. The term 'new media' goes beyond the media itself to accessibility; when something becomes accessible/usable by a diverse group of people it makes itself new.  Digital cameras have been around for many years, but good cameras mainly used by professional photographers due to affordability.  Functional digital camera can now be bought for under $100, which makes this media available to an exceptionally broad group of people.  But, what makes this more than just camera technology is the ability to then link in with software.  The availability of open source software for image editing (GIMP) and tools for video editing give the consumer the ability to become producer and participator.  In addition to this, the Web as a platform for delivering an array of tools for users to express themselves:  Flickr, Product reviews, Blogs (Wordpress, Blogger, Livejournal), Forums, personal websites, video publication (Youtube, Vimeo), video production (PrimaryAccess), fanfiction, social media (Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Twitter), reference (wikis) and gaming (Second Life, Eve Online).

In addition to this, software (and hardware) has become more affordable to the home user - as a student I can buy a package of website creation, image and video production/editing and software for $500 instead of its commercial price of $4000.

Jenkins

• Agency and structure -
• Media reform
• Fear - privacy, intrusion, safety.  Interesting separation of sexual fear - boys just as much targets, so why is that not mentioned?  "develop strategies for decreasing the role of ignorance and fear in public debates about new media"
• The speed with which we can communicate with one another, quickly spread the word when we want comrades to rise up, is immediate.  Ask columnists who are the target of vitriol from the cultural warriors Jenkins talks about. On Monday night ABC aired an Australian Story on David Hicks and followed online many and diverse comments from the general online public about his actions.  Behind a pseudonym people can be pretty horrible.  (Although, pseudonyms have their place too).
• Wisdom of the crowd, collective intelligence, citizenly engagement - people pooling their knowledge and self-governing.
• Mapping of social networks in cyperspace
• Redefining web practices - fair use.  Youtomb does acknowledge that some videos that may be Fair Use will be innocent victims of its automated program.  So, the key is in educating users about their rights.  I think there'll be a shift in this over time - the instinct to take something you receive or see online at face value can be rewired to question and be given the tools to work out how they find out whether they need to be concerned.  I'm reminded of the 'fear' emails about muggings in shopping centres that get mass forwarded; however, if they'd done a quick search they'd have found that it's been doing the rounds for a long time and there is little evidence to support that something happened, not to mention the gaps in the science of the incident.

My Use of media

It can be hard to engage sometimes.  I was discussing distraction with a friend and how easy it is to get distracted with continuous access to the internet.  It has become second nature to instantly go and check something as we think of it; to grab a computer, tablet or smartphone and check something as we are watching tv.  It takes particular concentration now to resist the urge to do that, not just on computer but attending to everyday things, such as tasks around the home.  So what do I use?

Web - reading blogs/shopping/researching, social networking - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Bookmarking - Delicious, email, Skype, mobile phone - calls, sms, browsing, tv - digital hard drive to watch what I want when I want to, digital radio, itunes (ipod), ipad, the Saturday newspaper (The Age) and maybe some online news each day (ABC for real news and Adelaide 'Tiser for local).  I'm contactable and online most of the day, most of the time.


References
Jenkins, Henry. 2009a. Critical Information Studies For a Participatory Culture (Part One). accessed on Sept 4. http://henryjenkins.org/2009/04/what_went_wrong_with_web_20_cr.html
Jenkins, Henry. 2009b.  Critical Information Studies For a Participatory Culture (Part Two). accessed on Sept 4.  http://henryjenkins.org/2009/04/what_went_wrong_with_web_20_cr_1.html 
O'Reilly, Tim. 2005.  What is Web 2.0. Accessed on Sept 10.  http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=1