Our final presentation went very well. We managed to further integrate our academic resources into the presentation to provide context to what we were saying about Obama’s use of online social media. Finding academic resources that directly referenced Obama were difficult to find because his election to president was so recent, to combat this issue we decided to look beyond this to the wider issue of “Is the New Media Changing Politics?”. To do this we gathered thoughts from a few selected scholars to show the differing perspectives on the topic. The other main challenge we had with the final presentation was learning how to use the Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) software as none of us had used the program before. It was difficult to use initially because the only way we had to learn from was a few online video tutorials. After a few hours of trial-and-error we eventually got the hang of how the software worked learning it advantages over other presentation software and of course its limitations. I personally found it very rewarding to learn a new way to present information, rather than using the standard Microsoft PowerPoint format.
The presentations from other students in the class were also of a very high standard. I particularly liked the Film Voir presentation – The video presentation was funny but informative, the whole marketing campaign was well thought out (handing out cards with their website etc.), and creating a web of online networked linkages. The boys who did the presentation on Xbox were great too, and I liked their use of TinyChat as a presentation method, however it would have been better if we had a few microphones set so that we could ask questions. The presentation on YouTube and viral online video (Part 1 / Part 2) was really enjoyable with the video presentation filmed/edited in a very skilled fashion.
The class this week was supposed to be about Twitter and politics in Iran, However Jason decided to use the class as a opportunity to get feedback about the subject, and the Digital Communications specialisation overall. Most students appear to be enjoying the course content (myself included). One thing that I suggested was a clearer picture of the course structure, particularly with a lot of the blog post work. I suggested that blog questions should be assigned for each week so that we can start thinking about ideas as we are listening to the lectures. Other students thought that the unstructured approach allowed blog postings to be fluid and adaptable to interesting things we discover in class or relevant topics that are appropriate to a student’s individual interests.
Due to the Labour Day public holiday there were no classes this week.
I think the proposal presentation went fairly well. We got positive feedback about our presentation. They appeared to be interested with our ideas for the final project. The idea of concept mapping was a way of presenting our ideas showing connections between ideas, essentially creating a network of ideas. This is similar to the way that Obama created an online social network to spread his policy ideas. The main criticisms we got from the feedback was that we should provide more academic research to backup the ideas we had presented. The main focus of what we need to do for the final presentation is to further our research using academic resources, and to work on constructing our concept mind map using VUE.
This week we looked at the internet as being ‘glocalised’ – That is that the idea that the internet is both global and local at the same time. The most interesting thing I remember from this lecture is the PacNet mobile internet vans operating in India. I thought that it was a fascinating way to look at the different ways that people can access the web worldwide. For this week’s blog post I’ve decided to analyse the way that I use the internet glocally. To do this I used two Facebook applications to look at my Facebook friend network to show how my network is connected in both a local and global sense.
Friend Wheel
Firstly I used the ‘Friend Wheel’ application to look at the linkages between friends in my network. The application visually displays the linkages between each friend in your Facebook network and this gave me an idea of who-knows-who within my network. What I noticed looking at the friend wheel was that the people on the top end and left side of the wheel showed a lot of friend linkages, and this represented the majority of the wheel. What I also noticed that this section of the wheel is where the friends who lived geographically closest tended to be located, and also where my closest friends (mostly from school) were positioned as well. The section that showed the least amount of friend linkages were friends from smaller friendship networks (such as work and uni friends), acquaintances, and people whom I have met randomly online. To put this more simply, the areas with more friend connections were people I speak to more often (both online and face-to-face) and who live geographically near me. The areas with least friend were people I speak to least, and tended to be people to who lived overseas.
http://thomas-fletcher.com/friendwheel/showwheel.php?site=facebook&tempdir=0&server=alpha&name=Dane%20Cutler&filename=90000645&xmlwheel=1
Map Friends
The second application I used was ‘Map Friends’ which shows the location of friends in your Facebook network according their ‘current location’ profile information. The program collates this information from your friends profile pages and displays this information visually on an interactive GoogleMap. This was quite an interesting application to look at and showed some interesting information. As I assumed, there was a high density of markers along the Eastern Australia coast. Another thing that I noticed was a significant number of people in my network from North America, which I attribute to the Americans and Canadians I met while travelling throughout Europe. There were a few friends located in Africa, people I met while travelling and former work colleagues. I had one friend from school that now Lives in South America, and two friends I met at UOW who are Asian-born international students. Most surprising to me was the number of friends living in Europe, but as I looked closer I noticed that a number were friends from Australia who now are living in Europe for work or study while the rest were random people I had added online but rarely speak to.
I found this application to be less convincing than the previous application tool I used. There are a few things that were distorted by this tool. Firstly that some pins on the map marked many people with the same location while others marked a single person. Secondly, some location were entered incorrectly in friends profile pages and therefore marked incorrectly on the map. Thirdly, it did not show how those people marked on the map were linked to each other.
Facebook: Global or Local?
Watch the clip below to show how the Facebook Network has grown glocally. Notice how certain ‘hotspots’ grow quickly in particular nations while other localities are left behind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L11F0s4ykW0&feature=related
Conclusion
After using these two applications I have found a bit more about how I used Facebook as a glocal network. I use the Facebook network mainly to keep speak to people who live geographically closest to me, while I use it less often to speak to people who live furthest away. However in saying this I think Facebook is a vital tool in easily keeping in contact with people overseas than other communication methods used in the past.
Digital Activism
Oxfam Australia – Sisters on the Planet campaign
“Oxfam Australia is part of a global movement of dedicated people working hard to fight poverty and injustice” (Oxfam Australia, 2009).The Oxfam Australia Sisters on the Planet campaign is asking people to support their efforts to tackle climate change. The campaign hopes to raise awareness of the ways that climate change is causing naturals disasters that have devastating effects on women’s living in developing countries. The language used in the campaign leads me to think that the campaign is speaking to women living in developed nations who want to help women living in developing nations. The overall message is that the sisters on the planet (i.e. women) should together find solutions to bring about change.
The campaign asks women to host an event between September 15 and 30. The aims of holding these events are to:
1. Spread the word about how climate change is affecting women in developing nations, and
2. Convince the Australian Government for stronger action on climate change in the lead up to UN climate meeting in Bangkok in October.
Women are asked to resister their events online, and will be sent out a registration pack including promotional material, event host T-shirt and DVD to assist with hosting their event. As of 13th September, 81 events have been registered from a target of 200. In addition to this there is also a section where you can find an event, both public and private, using a postcode search linked to Goggle Maps.
The campaign is using a range of online social media formats to help promote the campaign. The event DVD has been divided into six sections which have been posted to YouTube, and there is a link to share the event on Facebook. In addition event hosts and attendees are asked to add Oxfam Australia as a friend on Twitter, and to email their event photos to appear on Oxfam Australia’s Flickr page.
Sisters on the Planet Showreel from Oxfam Australia on Vimeo.
References:
- Oxfam Australia, 2009. Sisters on the Planet – Women tackling climate change – Campaigns | Oxfam Australia, date accessed 14/9/09, http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/climate-change/take-action/sisters-on-the-planet/
Global Media Organisations: Time Warner
Who- Ownership, management, employees
Ownership: Time Warner Inc. is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the code TWX (Hoovers, 2008).
Management:
*Chairman and CEO- Jeffrey L. (Jeff) Bewkes
*EVP and CFO- John K. Martin Jr.
*EVP Corporate Communications- Edward I. (Ed) Adler
*SVP Global Public Policy- Steve Vest
*VP Corporate Communications- Keith Cocozza
(Hoovers, 2008)
Employees: Approximately 38,000 worldwide as of March 2009 (Time Warner, 2009). A number of sources claim approximately 87,000 employees (OneSource, 2009; Hoovers, 2008; Wikipedia, 2009), with some reports higher.
What- Business, Assets, what are they selling
Business: Time Warner Inc. is the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate. The business is separated into five main divisions AOL LCC, HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, Time Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment, plus Time Warner Cable (separate from Time Warner Inc. – operates in North America only). (Time Warner, 2009)
Assets: A selection of important/relevant assets has been listed below.
1. AOL LCC:
-AOL.com
-AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
-ICQ
-Weblogs, Inc.
-Bebo
-Netscape
-Amazon.com (Partial)
2. HBO (Home Box Office)
-HBO On Demand
- Cinemax On Demand
3. Turner Broadcasting System
-Adult Swim
-Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
-Boomerang
-Cartoon Network
-Turner Network Television (TNT)
-CNN
4. Time Inc.
-Fortune Magazine
-People Magazine
-Time Magazine
-Sports Illustrated
-Marie Claire
-Women’s Weekly
5. Warner Bros. Entertainment
-Warner Bros. Pictures International
-Warner Bros. Television Group (including Loony Tunes & Hanna-Barbera)
-Warner Bros. Home
-DC Comics (including Mad Magazine)
-Studio Facilities
-New Line Cinema
6. Time Warner Cable
-HBO
-CNN
What are they selling?:
Magazines, Films, Cable Television, Online Services, Music.
When- history (esp. recent history)
1898: Warner Bros. Established
1923: Time Magazine Launched
1963: Ted Turner takes over family billboard business
1970: Turner purchases Atlanta UHF television station, WJRJ, renaming it WTCG (Turner Communications Group)
1972: Time Inc. buys Home Box Office (HBO)
1976: Turner Broadcasting’s WTCG becomes cable television’s first Superstation as it is beamed via satellite to cable homes across the USA
1980: The first 24-hour, all-news network, CNN, is launched with 1.7 million subscribers
1986: Turner Broadcasting buys MGM library of movies and television shows
1989: Time Warner Inc. is formed after Time merges with Warner Communications
1991: The Internet bulletin-board system Quantum Computer Services changes name to America Online.
1992: America Online becomes a publicly traded company
1994: AOL reaches 1 million subscribers
1996: Telecommunications Act of 1996. Time Warner acquires Turner Broadcasting System
2000: AOL and Time Warner announce their $183 billion merger. The largest corporate merger in history is finalized in January of 2001. The world’s largest media and entertainment company changes name to AOL Time Warner
2005: Time Warner donated the maximum contribution of $250,000 to George W. Bush’s second presidential inauguration
(Columbia Journalism Review, 2009)
Where- where is business being conducted, where they own things, where are their outlets
Time Warner Inc. is headquartered in New York City. Time Warner is a global media corporation and thus conducts business worldwide, click here for an interactive map of operations.
Why- political influence to leverage change? mouthpiece? market positioning for a certain market niche?
“CNN’s multi-platform coverage of the 2008 election cycle culminated in record results for the Presidential Inauguration, with CNN/U.S. significantly out-delivering the cable news competition and CNN.com serving more than 26 million live video streams—five times its old record—making CNN.com’s coverage the largest online video event in Internet history. For the year, CNN.com remained the #1 news and information site on the Web and the CNN Political Ticker was the #1 political news blog.” (Time Warner, 2009)
In 2005 Time Warner donated the maximum contribution of $250,000 to George W. Bush’s second presidential inauguration (Columbia Journalism Review, 2009)
SWOT
Strengths:
-Leading market position
-Diversified product portfolio through five business segments: online, cable, filmed entertainment, network services, and publishing
-Strong brand equity
Weaknesses:
-Filmed entertainment division lagging behind other business units
-Heavily dependent on the US
-Sluggish revenue growth
Opportunities:
-Global expansion
-Alliance with Google
-New network launches
-Acquisitions
Threats:
-Online content growth from fragmented competitors
-Intense competitive environment
-Piracy
-FCC regulatory issues
(WikiSWOT.com)
References:
- Time Warner Inc., 2009. Hoover’s Company Records September 1 102518, accessed 14/9/09, http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/
- OneSource: Global Business Browser, 2009. Find a Company, Time Warner, accessed 14/9/09, http://globalbb.onesource.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/web/company/companylookup.aspx?searchtype=&homepagesearchphrase=time%20warner&txtViewCoSearchString=time%20warner
- Time Warner Inc., 2009. Time Warner: About Us, Fact Sheet, accessed 14/9/09, http://www.timewarner.com/corp/aboutus/fact_sheet.html
- Wikipedia, 2009. Time Warner, accessed 14/9/09, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner
- Columbia Journalism Review, 2009. Resources: Who Owns What, Time Warner, accessed 14/9/09, http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=timewarner
- WikiSWOT, 2009. Media » Time Warner SWOT Analysis, accessed 14/9/09, http://www.wikiswot.com/SWOT/10_Media/Time_Warner.html
- Teleprison, 2009. Media Monopolies, accessed 14/9/09, http://teleprison.com/mediamonopoly.html
Industry Careers
*Job Title: FOXTEL New Media Marketing Coordinator (NOR0569)
*Location: Ryde, New South Wales (FOXTEL’s TV Centre, “FTC”)
*Job Type: Full-Time – Permanent
*Employer: FOXTEL
*Job Posted: 1/9/09
*Applications Close: 8/9/09
*Job Description: The position involves managing relationships with clients and coordinating marketing content for FOXTEL’s New Media division (FOXTEL website, online advertising, interactive TV advertising etc.). It position requires applicants to be able to act as an intermediary to process information between clients and FOXTEL marketing department.
*Experience: At least two years experience in a related field of marketing and/or new media
*Qualifications: A bachelor’s degree in marketing and/or media is recommended
Above is a summary of a job position advertised with FOXTEL. FOXTEL is “Australia’s leading subscription television provider and is connected to almost 1.6 million homes on cable and satellite through retail and wholesale distribution” (FOXTEL, 2009). The positions would be great for Bachelor of Communications and Media Studies (BCMS) students like me who are majoring in both Digital Communication and Advertising & Marketing. The job position combines skills learnt from both specialisations into a single position.
While I was searching through the careers section of the FOXTEL website there were number of positions advertised across both of FOXTEL’s locations – the Sydney head office, and the Melbourne customer sales and service centre. The types of positions with FOXTEL varied business roles in management and marketing, to technical and engineering roles. There were also a number of positions advertised as full-time contract and full-time temporary, reflecting on the trends we discussed in class, as well as full-time permanent positions. There were very few part-time positions and no internships advertised.
References:
o https://foxtel.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl
o http://www.foxtel.com.au/about-foxtel/what-we-do/default.htm
o http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=foxtel&sll=-33.786526,151.129455&sspn=0.000498,0.001206&ie=UTF8&radius=0.03&filter=0&rq=1&ev=p&ll=-33.786354,151.129429&spn=0,359.998794&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=-33.786448,151.129445&panoid=SygT5bW6UZR8agWLX-oWzQ&cbp=12,262.11„0,-17.12
LCD Manufacturing
I wanted to investigate manufacturers of LCD displays for my week four blog. On my search I came across a company named Orient Display, a company producing LCD screens and technology for various applications. Some of these applications include portable devices such mobile phones, mp3 players, cameras, and GPSs as well television/computer screens – pretty much anything that could contain an LCD display they have a solution for. The website claims that they are to be able to produce 480,000 square metres of LCD panel and 2,000,000 pieces of LCD module per year. Orient Display is a based in North America with offices in Canada and the USA, and its factory located in Shenzhen, China. The website focus’ heavily on their China production boasting factory features such cheap labour force (employing 40 engineers and 860 skill workers) and advanced management (the website even has a factory tour link). Perhaps the most interesting feature they highlight, in relation to this weeks lecture, is the factory’s “convenient transportation, just a bridge away from Hong Kong” (Orient Display Ltd, 2009). I think this is referring to the ease to access to Hong Kong’s busy container port so that goods can be transported quickly and efficiently worldwide. According to the Hong Kong Port Development Council the port of Hong Kong port is one of the busiest and “one of the world’s most efficient container ports by handling 24.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The port of Hong Kong is a major hub port in the global supply chain with 450 container liner services per week to over 500 destinations worldwide” (Hong Kong Port Development Council, 2009). According to Orient Display they can complete Custom LCD Sampling in 2-4 weeks, Custom Module Sampling in 3-5 weeks, LCD Panel Production in 3-4 weeks, and Module Production in 4-6 weeks (Orient Display Ltd, 2009). This means that in potentially as little as 12 weeks a product can be sampled and produced, then container shipped from Hong Kong. The process is very quick.
References:
- Orient Display, 2009. LCD Manufacturer in Shenzhen, China: About Us, date accessed 13/9/09, http://www.orientdisplay.com/lcd-manufacturer.html
- Hong Kong Port Development Council, 2009. Home, date accessed 13/9/09, http://www.pdc.gov.hk/eng/home/index.htm
Vodafone and the Global Communications Network
For this week’s blog I’ve decided to look at Vodafone, and their global communications network. Vodafone Group describes itself as “the world’s leading mobile telecommunications company” (Vodafone, 2009). The group has 315 million customers (at 30th June 2009). The company has a number of subsidiaries and joint venture with other telecommunications businesses worldwide. The company describes itself as this: “Mobile is always at the heart of what we do, but now we are moving into integrated mobile and PC communication services. We are doing that in two ways – wirelessly through 3G and HSDPA (High-Speed Download Packet Access), but also using fixed line broadband services like DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).” (Vodafone, 2009)
The links below show Vodafone Group’s subsidiaries, partner markets, and affiliates in each of the global regions.
As you can probably see by the above links, the network is quite large spanning many countries worldwide. The image below, in comparison, shows Vodafone Australia’s capabilities for International roaming on post pay plans.
As you will notice the network of available roaming countries is even larger than the formal Vodafone network. Take particular note of South America, a continent where Vodafone has few formal arrangements, and the difference between Vodafone’s roaming network compared to the formal Vodafone network. I think this really exemplifies the saturation of mobile communication networks globally.
References:
Reflections on Readings
The Gutenberg Galaxy
I’m not really sure that I fully understood the point being made by McLuhan in this chapter. Perhaps it was his reference to Shakespeare’s King Lear, a text with which I am unfamiliar. Regardless, this is what I understood from the reading. He uses King Lear as an example of the “modern idea of delegation of authority from centre to margins” (p.11) and as a “presentation of the new strategy of culture and power as it affects the state, the family, and the individual psyche” (p.11). King Lear according to McLuhan is about “people translating themselves out of a world of roles into a world of jobs” (p.13) as left by people of the period transitioning from medieval times to the Renaissance. McLuhan continues by describing the “process of separation and reduction of functions [which] had certainly reached a critical point by the early seventeenth century when King Lear appeared” (p.17). He distinguishes between African and European cultures through the way that they use their senses to communicate – Africans using their ears in “a world of sound” (p.19), and Europeans using their eyes in a “visual world” (p.19).
This New Economy
The Kevin Kelly reading on the new economy was a much easier read than the McLuhan reading. In the reading Kelly attempts to show how a new economy is being shaped through technology. He describes the potential opportunities for those who choose to “play by the new rules” and how those who ignore the rules might fail. He defines this new economy by three characteristics: “It is global. It favours intangible things – ideas, information, and relationships. And it is intensely interlinked”. He premises that the world of intangibles (media, software, and services) will soon command the world of the reality (atoms, objects, steel, and oil). In this way communication becomes the economy, not just a sector of the economy, and “the old economies will continue to operate profitably within the deep cortex of the new economy”. I think of the new economy as a convergence of the old and new – the old labour industries and the new information industries who will work together to achieve economic gains in an efficient and practicable manner.
References:
- McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962, 10-21.
- Kelly, Kevin. ‘The New Economy’. New Rules for the new Economy. 1999, http://www.kk.org/newrules/newrules-intro.html, accessed 14/7/2009
No blog post required this week.
![At the Eiffel Tower, Paris [July 2009]](http://28.media.tumblr.com/riHIYeDzoqzy3x1elCcuZ9sso1_500.jpg)
