Friday, August 31, 2012

Media convergence. James Stubbs Grigoriou 42797411



Digital convergence and the death of M in MTV

“Welcome to convergence culture, where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways” (Jenkins, 2006 p 16).
How has this change in power effected music videos?


 Consumers now have delivery and producing technologies in the  palm of their hand.
Source http://www.gfkrt.com/imperia/md/images/rt/news_events/onlinenewsletter/090626

Intro. Convergence and communication models. 

The world is in an unprecedented state of media convergence. We are more connected now than ever before in our history. This has caused a fundamental shift in the media model we to communicate with.
source <a>http://athenabridge.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/
exploring-a-model-for-peer-to-peer-learning/</a> 
This shift is the change between a broadcast model to a network model. The very important difference is that the broadcast model is good at attracting a large audience with almost complete one way communication, whereas the network model creates a system of communication that is more two way, which blurs the lines of consumer and producer (Meikle & Young, 2012 p, 68). The reason for this is the digitalization of technology, that is, the switch from analogue to digital technology. This essay will look at this change from broadcast to network, from analogue to digital, through the spectre of music videos. Firstly, the focus is on what these shifts are and how they occurred, then how these shifts in media paradigms have killed traditional music video tv, and the growth of youtube as the dominant delivery technology for music videos.

What are the implications of the change to a network model?

"One major difference between media industries today, and their predecessors is the proliferation of delivery modes and media platforms" (Dwyer, 2010, p 12). What Dwyer is saying, and his argument is persuasive, is that we have options now. The change from analogue to digital, has made technology more available to more people at a more affordable rate. If we look at the raw numbers of internet users from 1995 to 2012, the number has increased from 0.4% of the population to a whopping 32.7% (IWS, 2012). This is an unprecedented growth for technology. It is easy to understand why digitalization occurred. It had the distinct advantage over old media in being able to be perfectly replicated without suffering analogue degradation. The greatest consequence of the change from a broadcast model is the shift of power in producing media. When we had analogue media, it was much harder for consumers to create and distribute their own media, as the distribution and production of media was in the control of a handful of corporations (Dwyer, 2010, p3).  Now it is different as the line between consumer and producer has blurred. As Jenkins terms it, 'we are no longer a passive media spectators, but are now part of a participatory culture, media producers and consumers are no longer separate rolls they are now just participants'(Jenkins, 2006 p16). The consumer has more power than ever before; to use the very wise words of Kozinet "Online, consumers evaluate quality together. They negotiate consumption standards ......Orginizations of consumers can make successful demands on markets that individual consumers can not” (Kozinet in Jenkins 2006, p 80). This power is due to the new media. But what does this mean for old media? This is where the death of M (music) in MTV comes in to play.


The above clip gives a brief summary of the changing face of MTV. MTV was launched August 1st 1981 as America's first music video channel (McFarland, 2001, The Seattle Times). As seen in the video, it shifted its focus in the late 90s to reality television and not focused as much on music videos. This shift is best explained in the quotation following: "by the middle of the decade, outlets for videos dried up, and budgets for them shrunk, only for the art to be revitalized by the internet, the are of the viral video, the fanmade video, and the ubiquity of youtube" (Plagenhoef, Pitchfork, 2012) . We know music videos didn't die and the reason for this is summed up by Jenkins: “History teaches us that old media never die – and they don’t even necessarily fade away. What dies are simply the tools we use to access media content” (2006, p 13). So what did happen to music videos?

Impact of convergence on music videos.

“Metcalfe's law..... this principle states that the value of a communications network increases proportionately to the square of the number of people that are connected to it.” (Meikle & Young, 2012, p 63)

 The effect of convergence on the music industry is two fold. Firstly it has divided the audience; it basically pulled the curtain on massive music television events, creating a time shift where people could record and watch programs later. So if the big record companies aren't getting the ratings and subsequently advertising revenue they used to, they will try to find a new medium to present their product. For example, Erskine in Orgad talks about MTV offering mobile tv music products as an alternative to normal programming, believing music videos are perfect for 'snack size portions' (Erskine in Orgad, 2009, p 197). Record industries are now launching music videos and artists on Youtube. It no longer takes a million dollars to launch an artist any more. Artists are being discovered on Facebook, Myspace and Youtube. You may not have of heard of them but Ark Music Factory is a company which writes and produces hits for 13 to 17 year olds; the company flies 'kids'  over to Los Angeles, writes them a song and launches it on Youtube. You may not realise it, but you have no doubt heard one of these songs: Friday by Rebecca Black (Meline, Citysound, 2012).This leads to the second way in which media convergence has changed the production of music videos, that is, by creating internet celebrities and by allowing consumers to become producers. The song Friday is an apt example of this change, as the parody video of Friday by Brock Baker has at the moment  more views than the original video (this doesn't however take into account that the original was pulled off Youtube for a brief period of time due to legal reasons).
If we look at the top 10 youtube videos of all time (as of the 2nd of August 2012),  out of the top 10 videos 9 are music videos. This statistic is evidence that Youtube has taken MTV's 'throne'. If we look at the number one most watched Youtube video of all time, Justin Bieber's baby. This video has over 700 million views. As well as being reigning 'king', he is also one of the founding members of the youtube music video wave. Beiber was discovered from a Youtube video and was subsequently signed by Usher. Beiber's original video now has over 40 million views. It is also worth mentioning two other categories which have arisen: they are the music parody, which although initially gained popularity through Weird Al Yankovic, has resurged with the group Lonely Island. Their videos constantly get over the 20 million mark. The other category is 'the talent show contestants'. The most famous of this category is Susan Boyle with her original video 'I Dreamed A Dream' gaining over 100 million views. These cases of trans media success are especially interesting as these internet celebrities, such as Susan Boyle, started out on television and then went viral on the internet.

Conclusion

The M in MTV might not be dying but it has definitely left the building. Media convergence has not only changed the delivery technologies for music videos but it has also greatly impacted on both what kinds of music videos are produced and how they are produced.

References

Reading list

 Erskine., T 2006 in Orgad, Shani (2009) 'Mobile TV : Old and new in the construction of an emergent technology' Convergence, vol 15 no 2 pp 197 - 214

 Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture, New York University Press, pp 25-150
Kozinet 2004 in Jenkins, H Convergence culture: where old and new media collide
 New York University Press, c2006. P 10-80


Course reader

 Dwyer. T. (2010) Media Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berkshire. pp 1-23

 Jenkins, H (2006) Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide, N.Y University Press, pp 1-24

 Other Sources

 Meikle, Graham & young, Sherman (2012) Ch 3 'From Broadcast to Social Media' in Media convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp 59-78.

Websites


Macmanus, R, Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time, August 2nd 2012, Viewed 28th August
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_youtube_videos_of_all_time.php

Internet world stats. Updated 27th July. Viewed 28th August.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm


Meline, G,City sound Inortia, Updated 11th March 2011, viewed 28th August.
http://citysound.bohemian.com/tag/rebecca-black/




Plagenhoef, S, Pitchfork, 
The Top 50 Music Videos of the 2000s August 31, 2009 viewed August 28th

Videos

The death of MTV, MTV4people uploaded 24th September 2009 viewed 28th August.

I just had sex, Lonely Island, 18th December 2010, viewed 28th August 2012.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o 








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