Initial Blog Entry

What is meant by web 2.0?

The phrase web 2.0 relates to websites that you are able to interactive, most websites are not web 2.0 this is because all you can do is view them not do anything to interactive them. A web 2.0 site can be interactive with this can include being able to post comments on what people say and being able to interact with other people, a example of a web 2.0 site is a blog this is because whatever someone posts can then be commented on by anyone around the world.

What do the words ‘meditation’, ’proliferation’ and ‘saturation’ mean in a media context?

Meditation- this is the way that media uses text to portray something so that it can change our opinion on something, this could encourage us to do something for instance if we were to see something bad about a politician in a newspaper that was written in a way to reflect them in a bad light it may make the public not want to vote for them in a election, through this you can see how much a media can effect a country.

Proliferation- this is when something grows suddenly in interest within the media that it goes world wide, for instance the royal wedding was so widely used throughout the media it could be seen throughout the world in all forms of media such as a gossip magazine may cover what the bride is wearing where as a newpaper may cover what effect the wedding may have on the countries economy

Saturation- this is when the media is constantly trying to get new and up to date stories, this can be seen on all forms of media, for instance a newspaper is often released daily meaning they are constantly needing to find new news stories, the internet is always updating so if you are not keeping up to date on your website you will often lose out to other websites.

What is meant by ‘the media’

The media can simply be described as large access to information that is available to everyone the media will often try to reach a very wide range of target audience that is related to the type of media they are producing, for instance a gossip magazine like OK will try to get as many stories about celebrities and what they are doing in order to appeal to there target audience who will want to read about resent going on with celebrities, where as a  music magazine such as NME will try to get stories on bands and artists that are popular at the moment this is so that they appeal to there target audience of young people that listen to modern music.

Media products are ‘shared’, what does this mean?

The statement that media products are shared is because anyone around the world can access it no matter who they are, the way they access it changes obviously depending on where they live, for example people in the uk that want to read about what is happening in there country can just pick up a newspaper but people who want to read about a different country would find it hard to get a newspaper from that country so may need to read about what is happening in the country on the internet.

Why is the media so strictly regulated in countries like Burma, China and Ethiopia?

Media is often controlled in these countries because there governments see it as a way of controlling the public’s opinions, views and beliefs. This means that if one of the governments felt that a piece of media badly reflected what was going on in the country they would not allow that piece of media to be seen by the public.

What is meant by media convergence?

Convergence in the context of media is when the media all over the world concentrate on one piece of news, this is in all forms of media as well from gossip magazines, to forums on the internet, to the newspapers. Again I use the example of the royal wedding this is because not just one section of media in one country concentrated on the story nearly all the media around the world concentrated on it from gossip magazines looking at what the bride will be wearing to forums discussing whether the monarchy is a good thing for our country.

Why is the media important in today’s society?

The media is very important in today’s society because they it has so much control over the world, you can see this by the fact that of one magazine represents someone in a bad light everyone that reads that magazine will think of them as a bad person but if the way they had represented that person was not completely correct then there views could completely change.