Production and consumption of
Digital media
Voorbeeld vragen examen:
1. E.g., Explain what makes media industries specific and atypical? Apply these characteristics
to a digital media organization of your choice.
2. E.g., Describe the phenomenon of platforms as new gatekeepers and explain the upsides and
downsides based on an example (i.e., a platform) of your choice.
Introduction
Digital media
- Digital media devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops)
- Digital media types (e.g., newspaper, TV, podcasts, social media apps, virtual and augmented
reality)
- Digital media formats (e.g., GIFs, mp4 but also stories, reels etc.)
Digital media businesses:
- Legacy media going online (e.g., New York Times)
- Digital-born media (e.g., Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Vice)
- Online platforms (e.g., Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Spotify)
,The value chain
- Media companies form mutual sequences of essential links
o Not all companies do all 3
- Each link comprises a specific activity and adds value as such
- The (vertical) value chain is the most basic form:
Relevance of Digital Media
- Digital media businesses produce, aggregate and distribute
o different content (e.g., news, music videos, TV shows, documentaries)
• They don’t only produce news
o for different purposes (e.g., entertainment, relaxation, information,
orientation/advice, integration of society members)
- We see that other platform are being
used for news
- Facebook is decreasing in relevance
- The smartphone in increasing in
importance for news
- The smartphone in increasing in
importance for news
- Older people want to learn more and
see more use for the news
,Conclusion
- Current Status:
o Digital media businesses è legacy media, digital-born media, online platforms
o Digital media businesses produce, aggregate and distribute news (among other
content)
o Most people è side door access to news
o The smartphone is the most important digital device for news use
o Social media platforms are a key gateway to news use, but the popularity of
platforms varies across countries and generations
o Social media are the most important source for news among young people – number
of news avoiders increases
- How did we get here? è Technological Innovation
Technological innovation
- Latin innovare: to change
- Innovation changes (All these points are changing)
o Media products and services
o Processes of production and distribution of media
o the ownership and financing of media
o the roles of users
o ideas of media (Storsul & Krumsvik, 2013)
Types of Innovation
- Dichotomy of innovation Christensen (1997)
o Incremental innovations: small changes of products or processes
• small changes that doesn’t challenge the market
o Disruptive innovations: radical innovations that have far-reaching consequences
• has an influence on the daily lives of people
• Internet can be seen as the most disruptive innovation
Evolution of Media Formats and Media Types
- World Wide Web created in 1991 è origins date back to 1957 “Space race” between the
U.S.A and the U.S.S.R
- Eisenhower è Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
o DARPA to fund research to make it possible that researcher across the VS could
connect with each other, so innovation got boosted
- Attack-proof electronic infrastructure for research results
- Instant, electronic human communication across time and space è however, with limited
users
- Hypertext was developed è link World Wide Web (www) released by CERN to the world in
1993
, - Internet was difficult to navigate and boring
- Internet adoption emerged slowly è tipping point mid 1990s
- Rate of adoption skyrocketed past any previous media innovation
- Next tipping point in 1995: search machine by Yahoo!
o The possible to send images made the internet more attractive
o Yahoo now they could search for specific information
- The Internet diffused into the global society in a big way
o At some point the adoption of a new innovation was overestimated
- Today usage expands on a yearly basis è the Internet has come to serve as a media outlet
for an overwhelming majority
Two “generations”of Internet: Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Evolution because role and functions of user are changing
It also enabled other disrupted innovations
It is about the user change not the innovation change is important
- Web 2.0 development accompanied and supported by proliferation of diverse mobile
equipment
- Apple’s iPhone 2007 and later iPad 2010
- 2011 the sales of smartphones first exceeded the number of PCs sold
- Simultaneous increase in mobile data service ‘s bandwidth
New media types based on new technological media formats, e.g.:
- Interactive media (users can take part)
o in games on social media platforms
- Virtual reality (explorable, digital environments)
o using a avatar
- Augmented reality (integration of real and digital environments)
o Real and fake together in the real world