Week 6- Lecture

This weeks lecture focused immensely on the media and technology. Adam Muir explored the relationship between the two and the way they influence each other and the people who use them.


Adam went on to highlight both virtual communities and individual identities; two themes extremely prominent through earlier internet studies and the way the terms are used to describe people who use the internet and the way in which they do so. He elaborated by highlighting the way in which large amounts of people are not only forming relationships over the web, simply by sharing points of view and interests, but also creating idealised images of themselves for the virtual community to view. This idea of self-creating, I believe, has been shaped by the power of the media and the attraction of being able to be whatever you want over the internet.







Adam went on to also highlight the way in which people utilise the internet to come into contact with people who share similar interests to them, explaining that this is particularly popular in people who live in different geographic areas. He then goes on to discuss, however, that the focus on a group of people with a common interest has changed to an individual as the common thread, this trend is call ego-centric.......







The lecture explored the fall of web 1.0 and the rise of web 2.0 which changed the web entirely; emphasising the users personal experience rather than the groups of people who use the internet. Web 2.0 organises knowledge, for example tagging posts etc, focuses on user-generated content such as photos, images and text and allows open API, e.g. sharing data openly between services on the internet. Web 2.0 allows for ordinary people to contribute to the information shared in the form of social media such as web blogs, social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace) and content sharing communities (Youtube).

Adam also outlined the way in which Web 2.0 is somewhat of a free service for those utilising it and that those who are running the services are making little to nothing of a profit.

He explored the concepts of the attention economy; the people who want your attention, and the economy of accumulation; the people who gather the information about you. He then questions what it is they do witht this information and why. These questions link to this weeks tutespark.