Week 5 Activity 2

The course introduces us to Marshall McLuhan, a commentator from the 1960s who coined the phrase " the medium is the message" and "the global village".

What is McLuhan talking about when he speaks about participation?

• People want to be involved and have influence on what appears in the media
• The TV audience acts as a producer
• Instant replays in TV - audience participation in the game - "let us replay the action and observe how this particular effect was attained."
• In the US Football games were halted to watch replays and adverts.
• People expect to participate in every walk of life. In learning children expect to participate not just consume - AM moving to PM again. They want to view the processes, not just the end product.

How does participation using the internet and the Web differ from broadcast media such as TV?

The web, in partciular web 2.o tools allow the audience to truly particpate in the creation of knowledge. Individuals contribute to blogs, wikis, social networking sharing information and knowledge to help others form their opinions. They are involved in the process and participate at all levels.

As Anthony posted what he felt to be the key differences.

. interactive - feedback is given to the user which should/could engage them more effectively;
. selective - the user decides what they want to see/hear (not being spoon fed);
. uncontrolled - a tv programme has a beginning and an end and no possibility of deviation; Web2 is anarchic;
. uncensored - the freedom of authorship encourages freedom of content
. immediate - Web2 is now, not scheduled for some time in the future (or past)
. choice - all of the above give the participant the freedom to do as they wish

Berry, A. (2009) H800 les6 09 Week 5 10 March 2009 11:19

And Sharon gave an example of how the internet really will make the audience into producers, unlike TV.

With the internet, there is the potential to create media and so become a producer....
it creates something that is far beyond what the original producer intended.

Clark, S. (2009) H800 les6 09 Week 5 10 March 2009 13:46

And Mike writes an intersting case for why we're not doing anything new, just a new medium

Obviously, web technology provides far more opportunity for dialogue, but I am
not sure what is really new here. People have been talking to each other for
millenia. The technology is very useful as we can now communicate across the
world rather than just face to face, but we are still cimmunicating in much the
same way (talking and writing) as we ever were.

Gilbert, M. (2009) H800 les6 09 Week 5 11 March 2009 00:37

And Jonathan Campbell helped me understand how audience participation in Big Brother, for example, is still no where near to the type of participation that can happen with Web 2.

Internet participation allows you to not only create the content but to also decide how to interact with it and with the others who are involved. And because the broadcast media offers limited ways to participate then the feedback will
generally be limited to those areas. Internet feedback can be more like a
dialogue without the limitations of topic or time.
The broadcast media offer the avenues of participation and you are limited to using them (vote for this participant or watch this match anytime) but the internet allows you to create the way you want to participate.

Campbell, J. (2009) H800 les6 09 Week 5 11 March 2009 09:50

Tanya McEvoy from another tutor group wrote
" Nowadays you can, pause, rewind, fast forward, change the speed in which the images are delivered to your screen. In some cases the viewer has less control. The BBC have been accused of 'sugar-coating' events and news reports in an attempt to control the medium. Certain programs are denied air-time due to specific content that the government deem inappropriate for the British public.
However, on the Internet, there is no such control. In fact, viewers are able to produce and reproduce material as they see fit, which has consequently lead to serious conflicts with copyright laws. Web 2.0 applications such as YouTube have allowed the average person to actively produce and publish their own medium for the world to see."

McEvoy, T. (2009) Forum: H800 sc2367 Wk5 Act2. 10 March 2009 11:09