narcissism

How is the online age making us more narcissistic (self-obsessed)?

As noted elsewhere, we live in a very narcissistic (self-centred) age where advertisers clamour for our attention. In many media industries in the online age, the only possible way to survive is by courting the attentions of the advertisers. For example, the print industry may well decide not to get most of their money from charging readers for copies and instead focus on making use of internet advertising and recommendation engines ('smart searches that find products for you based on your internet profile).

We are 'performance artists'. Our identity is the source of constant fascination from media producers who seek to find out what we want and will buy or 'buy into'.

As our world is so image-conscious, many of us are now automatically aware of how to react to a video camera without learning 'video presentation skills'. This has the negative effect of making us 'hyper-aware' so that we will often behave as we are expected to as opposed to how we naturally feel. Therefore, a media event will be accompanied by the best reaction we can think of that accompanies our made-up identity.

What makes the internet open?

facebook.

Helps people connect

The internet accelerates the effects of globalisation.

Because of forums that allow people with similar interests can come together to express their thoughts from different parts of the world. Also it helps people accept and interact with different cultures by finding out about them from real people and not known stereotypes.

The web is helping to reinvent warfare.

The web can be used for attacks on people and countries, they can attack countries servers and stop them from accessing information or using their banking systems.

No one controls the web.

The internet cannot be controlled as there are no regulations for content. People can access anything and create anything. As people can steal content from other people and change it, but also from governments and share with other people. e.g.. Wikileaks.

The internet puts the common man in the driving seat.

The internet allows anyone to access it and can make internet sensations or celebrities out of regular people, something that is quite common on youtube.

how is watching youtube different to watching tv?

youtube and TV similarities
video
can show tv programs that are dubbed down and changed to fit youtube
can show films
show most videos

youtube differences
more personal
more opinionated
can write comments about the video that the creator will see
can use less 'pc' terminology and ideas
focuses on a certain genre and audience
more interactive
easier to access
advertisements surrounding youtube
free to produce
easier to produce


TV differences
More commercial
shows advertisement breaks
more of a larger audience
shows different genres
more controlled
more 'pc'
censored
costs to produce

Viral Video Presentation

Main Points- taken from http://boyeseysblog.blogspot.com/

• Capitalises on proliferation (of technology)
• Uses the consumers to promote so that it is peer-to-peer marketing that is, to some extent, invisible to the consumer.
• Can capitalise on references to or themes within a movie as appetisers that ‘prepare a market’ for the content
• Can adopt slogans that are spread around and create curiosity before delivering the final source e.g. The Dark Knight
• Original viral videos contained some small reference to the product even though the video itself was ‘just a cool vid’ e.g. ‘My dad’s got restless legs’
• This phenomenon is related to ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising, ‘buzz marketing’ and ‘stealth marketing’ and can be used to create a perfect storm (see Obama’s campaign ad)
• Popular phrases that are ‘user-generated’ by the consumers are popularised by marketing forces and used to sell e.g. Dancing Baby’s “All you base are belong to us”.
• They often violate copyright laws through their very nature as they use trademarks, symbols, characters, ideas and put them into new contexts whether as mash-ups or in some other form.
• ‘Hyper-real’ cinematic styles capitalise on the success of viral videos by making themselves appear amateurish (and therefore genuine) to some degree.
• Can be used in positive ways to raise awareness about issues e.g. District 9’s ‘humans only’ phone-boxes’ called to mind the racism of old South Africa in segregating 'the whites and the blacks'.

Commercialization and Authenticity
Taken from http://boyeseysblog.blogspot.com/

Test the statement: We express commercialization but we value authenticity.

Two points can help to express this:

• One is that a report was published last year that concluded that schoolchildren in the US know up to 1000 company logos but don’t know as much as 10 of their own native flora (plants).

• The second is that, with the arrival of electronic imaging and digital technology, it is possible for almost anything to be copied and that often the copy is better than the fake. This gives rise to the idea of a simulacra (a copy of something that does not exist), meaning that the copy is something that we have known has existed all along but that we have not expressed it sufficiently yet.

How does youtube and the online age help to express this point of Wesch's theory?
Youtube and the online age express the point of Weschs theory because of the freedom of speech and ideas on youtube and online, Wesch proves that the idea of the new online age is that anyone anywhere no matter what interest or ideas they have they can find someone with the same ideas on their certain subject. Also that his idea of how you truly do not know who you are talking to on chat sites. And that on youtube the opinions the speaker is expressing could be dubbed and change which is a negative. However it shows that the online age has added a level of freedom of speech and the idea of individualism in the certain people on their ideas because they can truly express their opinions.

Research Possibilities

· Consider how authenticity came to be so valued - is it now a rare commodity? How do commercial media products express this renewed desire for authenticity?

· Debate how vlogging on youtube can be seen as more authentic than other forms of social networking.

· Consider how hyper-reality affects the way that we behave i.e. we are so aware of the media that we automatically assume the manner of presenters and TV celebrities.

· Debate whether mash-ups are a tribute or a menace? Do some mash-ups actually come across as more authentic than the originals?

· Try to find out how many youtube videos are inspired by actual media products compared to those that are trends derived from the community.

· Is youtube special in that it allows us to be ‘prosumers’ more so than ever?What examples can you find of ‘prosumers’ on youtube?

· Youtube has been described as a ‘meta-business’ (meaning there is no ‘physical product’). Does this add to or reduce its authenticity?

· Do you think the only way of defining youtube’s effect on people is by looking at how it is used?

· Even though youtube has been described as giving rise to ‘vernacular creativity’, is it just going to be exploited by being ‘tapped into’ and used by business? Can youtube ever escape commercialisation? In order to escape it, must it forever evolve into new forms?

· The cinema business has recently found a renewed interest in realism. What methods make sure that some movies appear real to us?

· Seek out definitions of hyper-reality. Discuss how something can seen to be “more real than reality.”

· Does youtube help to democratise the internet by giving people room to express themselves and thereby gain more power?

· Explore how big an impact that user generated content has had on commercial businesses and how active modern audiences are. This has been defined by the theorist Tim O’Reilly as a ‘bottom up’ strategy.

Independence and Relationships

With the internet they can be certain cults and specialist groups that people can join. For cults a websites called suicide girls where people in japan can join and kill themselves at the same time. For specialist groups people who like a certain subject like the TV show The Pacific where someone who likes it and doesn't know anyone who likes it they could go on the internet and find people to talk about it too. Also websites like facebook can bring people together from all over the world to contact and create special internet relationships which websites like myspace and Facebook can do. Also when you have websites like blogger and tumblr which allow you to blog your thoughts and ideas which people can look at and read it brings the world together in one community of information and friendship. Also some people believe it is easier to be closer to someone on the internet where you have always have a way of connecting to the person. However without people on the online media are very important, if many people did not use the internet for social network like facebook and youtube it would become less effective and people would not have the full freedom to contact their friends which will lose the personal effect in which it does have with a large amount of people using the social network system. we express commercialism but value authenticity