World Wide Web

The Internet may not be in its infancy but it’s still relatively new. Restrictions exist but they’re few and far between and nearly everything is still free. Aside from the initial access fees, television stayed relatively free for it’s lifetime because it was Tran missive and the opportunity for interaction simply wasn’t there. The alarming number of people responding to the web 2.0 phenomena, participating freely within this realm of citizen media, corporations are watching hungrily thinking of ways to profit from this robust, untapped market.

The television writers strike was in indicator that big business is well aware of the large market online, and is no doubt planning ways to charge for services that we’ve long taken for granted as free. The question is, if Blogs suddenly cost money to start, does this barrier to entry (that could be very real for some) have a large enough impact on social media to taint the entire market? It may seem like a drop in the bucket, but if this is just the beginning it’ll be difficult to tell where this new co modification of the Internet could lead. 

Broadcast Yourself

Just like anything else, the music industry seems to operate in cycles. Talent was discovered and promoted by a record label and distributed through certain media outlets. But, with recent events in globalization, such as mergers of large media companies and higher levels of media convergence, the game changed. The era of the “boy bands” and “girl bands” seemed to epitomize the 90’s. Massive media outlets would assemble a team of hand picked girls and boys, write their songs, synthesize the music, and spend millions on promotion. Music became a blatant commodity to be bought, sold, and synthesized in a lab. And because the conglomerates controlled the airwaves, it was nearly impossible for emerging talents to get their songs played.

One of the great conquests of the web 2.0 movements was the invention of You Tube. Artists could now be recognized and with a loyal core around the world, everyday people were becoming over night celebrities all on their own. Sure in some cases raw talent wasn’t necessarily a factor, but the sheer power of You Tube (a free participatory service) is astounding. Especially in the case of “Soulja Boy”, a remixed 50-cent beat, a catchy dance, and next thing you know they’re climbing the charts. Maybe there’s hope for the little guy after all. 

Word of Mouth to Word of Mouse?

Many critics of the rapidly expanding horizons of social media would have you believe that the increased interaction of people across emerging forms of media (often facilitated by the internet) blogs, face book, chat rooms, and instant messenger etc.results in a certain disconnect with “reality” (with a definition of reality being limited of course to physical interactions).

 

These criticisms certainly raise questions regarding what defining elements need to be present when defining what a relationship really is. Is a relationship really just restricted to physical interactions? Is a tangible conversation more “real” than one held over the net? Certainly attention needs to be paid to the certain social nuances present in a face-to-face conversation, but has enough attention been paid to the potential for freedom of expression that often accompanies the anonymity present in many forms of Internet communications. People are able to express themselves anonymously on line without fear of ramifications that may otherwise occur in their physical “realities”. Surely this kind of freedom isn’t without a price (especially when it lends itself to cyber bullying or certain predatory actions that may occur over social media) but what new frontier has come without new risks?

 

Fearful technological determinists may be imagining a “Matrix” type future in which human beings live in physical isolation, (never to see the light of day), however, to ignore the emerging trends in social forms of media fails to consider the potential for this landmark evolutionary step for human communication.