Individual Topical Review Report Outline

The Effect of the Internet and Social Media on Media Consumption and Distribution

Sim Jia Hui, Daniel (daniel.sim.2013@economics.smu.edu.sg), 1st Year Economics Student, Singapore Management University

Executive Summary

The advent of the Internet and in recent times, social media has dramatically changed the way media is consumed and distributed, as much as the invention of the Printing Press has revolutionised the spread of information, I would argue. Social media has empowered consumers to become media producers and distributors much more easily. Media, and consequently ideas and knowledge are more freely accessible. Yet, it spells trouble for media production firms and advertising companies that depend on the traditional means of media distribution.

1 Introduction

Since the past, until very recently, the consumption of media has followed the traditional pattern: Producers would create content for consumers. Technology has greatly empowered the means of distribution of producers, from the invention of the Printing Press, to the Radio and Television, and finally, the Internet.

This paper seeks to explain how the proliferation of Social Media has transformed the media consumption pattern into one of user-generated content, freely available to almost anybody connected to the Internet. The transformation is by no means complete since traditional content such as: Newspapers, Hollywood movies and television programmes are obviously still around. However, this paper will also cover the effects (both positive and negative) that the Internet and Social Media has had on these traditional media giants. Also, it will cover the political ramifications, as well as future considerations for us to take note of, as Social Media becomes ever more pervasive in our lives.

2 Historical Perspective

2.1 Wireless Technology

Radio

• Popular in the 20th Century, as it could reach a greater audience much faster, unifying them into a single audience as opposed to print media.
• Radio was a dominant form of media during WWII in the USA (1), as it could provide news of the war faster, which was of particular concern to people whose relatives were fighting in the war

King George VI's speech on radio declaring Britain's involvement in WWII (1939)(2011, January 02). King George VI addresses the nation by radio on 4 September 1939, the day after Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jan/02/the-kings-speech-george-vi

Television

• Defined the 20th century and capturing major happenings in the world (2), and broadcasting to people who had access to it, such as the Apollo 11 Moon Landing of July 1st, 1969
• Responsible for a whole new media platform of TV news, entertainment TV series, as well as making sports viewable to more people

2.2 The Internet

• Commissioned for use by the USA Department of Defence (ARPANET) during the Cold War
• The late 20th century saw the gradual proliferation of the Internet with the creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee
• More people were getting connected to the Internet, and faster and faster speeds: Dial-up Internet gave way to Broadband, and to Fibre Optic Internet today
• More advanced devices are also connected to the Internet in recent years, such as Smartphones and Tablets, instead of just personal computers (see Section 3.3)

2.3 Social Media

• Facebook (launched by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4th, 2006) and Twitter (launched by Jack Dorsey in 2006), both iconic examples of social media, greatly improved and revolutionised the way people network, interact and share memories, photographs and videos together.
• Facebook showed rapid growth from just 1 million users in 2004 to 1.11 billion users in 2013 (3)
• Shows how in a relative short period of time (less than a decade), social media has already become integral in our lives
• Twitter is a factor in citizen journalism (see Section 3.2)
• YouTube was launched in 2005 as a video sharing website and has grown phenomenally
• One of the key drivers of change in media consumption and distribution (see Section 3.1)

3 Current Situation

3.1 YouTube

YouTube's slogan is: "Broadcast Yourself", and is designed as a website for anybody and anyone to upload their own videos for people to view, rate and comment
Logo of the week [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://cdhills.com/Site/LogooftheWeekArchives_2.html

• Massive video sharing website, with more than 1 billion unique visitors each month (4).
• YouTube challenges the traditional media distribution and consumption pattern as viewers need not pay any money to view video content and such video content is readily available 24/7
• YouTube videos are not heavily bogged down by advertisements so producers are not able to earn profits from the traditional advertisements
• Subject of much contention when copyrighted videos such as Movies and TV series get uploaded onto YouTube without the copyright holders' permission
• Instead of going against YouTube, there are media companies that collaborate with YouTube, such as VEVO, which provides sites such as YouTube with music video content
• YouTube Partner Programme: YouTube users who upload their content can benefit by being able to earn money from their content

3.2 Citizen Journalism

• The Internet has allowed blogs to flourish, which can cover a range of topics, including news and political commentary
• Blogs contribute to the rise of Citizen Journalism, allowing people to easily create and publish articles which are then easily accessible for almost anybody to see
• Such blogs pose direct challenge to the traditional news media companies that rely on newspaper sales and advertisement to make money
• The freedom of blogs mean that it is now easier to read about alternative views on the same issue, making suppression of information more difficult (see Section 3.7)
• Notable blogs include: The Huffington Post
• Microblogging has also seen increasing popularity, most notably through Twitter
• Most people use Twitter on their mobile devices
• Perfect in sharing and disseminating information, in this case, the news and latest happenings at an extremely rapid rate, by the people "on the ground"

3.3 Consumer Gadgets

• The spread of more and more advanced consumer gadgets that can connect people to the Internet mean that Social Media will become ever more pervasive in everyday life
• The first iPhone was announced in 2007 by Steve Jobs, kicking off the smartphone arms race
• The Galaxy Gear smartwatch was just announced in early September 2013 by Samsung and Google Glass may be released in 2014
• Together with increased mobile data networks (4G/LTE) in many countries such as Singapore, people can tune in to their Twitter feed or watch videos on YouTube that much easier
• Better gadgets mean that people can make high definition videos even without using a camcorder (just by using their mobile phones), making it that much easier to produce content

3. 4 Internet Talent 

• Social Media has levelled the playing field for amateur content producers: singers, filmmakers, educators (see Section 4.1)
• Amateur content producers can become very popular in a short amount of time at very little cost, without the traditional process of seeking distribution companies to make their content available to the masses

3.5 Internet Radio

• Internet Radio allows the traditional radio to be stretched across geographic boundaries
• People can have access to Internet Radio stations from any part of the world (TuneIn)
• Traditional radio stations also broadcast online as well now
• Amateur radio stations and purely Internet radio stations also see their emergence

3.6 Internet Piracy

• The Internet has allowed consumers to illegally download copyrighted media, thereby allowing them to consume without paying
• Media companies lose a large amount of earnings from Internet Piracy

3.7 Political Concerns

• With news and information being made easily accessible and free to people with microblogging (Twitter), and largely out of the reach of government control it is easier for people to stir political unrest
• Iran's 2009 Presidential Election protests were heavily influenced by Twitter (5)
• Twitter is banned in countries such as China, for fear of it being used to stir unrest

4 Future Considerations

4-1 Education

• Education can be a very viable industry to be transformed and enhanced by the Internet and Social Media
• Digital Aristotle: an Internet tutor that uses the many educational videos on the Internet (YouTube), and adapts based on students' learning styles (6)

4-2 Filter Bubbles

• Our search results will be more and more tailored to our preferences based on search engines’ algorithms
• We may end up unwittingly trapped in filter bubbles where we are not exposed to content that broaden our perspectives (7)

5 Conclusions

• The Internet and Social Media has transformed the landscape of media and the relationship between the producer and consumer
• Consumers stand to benefit since more content is freely available to them
• Yet, with more uncensored and un-verifiable user-generated content, consumers need to be wary of false or hoax news reports or contents that can be easily circulated around social media
• Though it is highly unlikely or impossible that all media consumption be brought online and through social media, traditional content producers (such as film companies) need to remain open to new ideas and change (collaborating with social media instead of fighting against it)

References

1. Radio 1900-2000. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/27629/themes/media/mdtradio.html
2. Anthony, A. (2013, September 07). A history of television, the technology that seduced the world – and me. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/07/history-television-seduced-the-world
3. Number of active users at facebook over the years. (2013, May 01). Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/number-active-users-facebook-over-230449748.html
4. Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html
5. Grossman, L. (2009, June 17). Iran's protests: Twitter, the medium of the movement. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1905125,00.html
6. Grey, C. (Producer) (2012). Digital aristotle: The future of education [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vsCAM17O-M
7. Pariser, E. (2011). Eli pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s