Task of the Day

Hi again,

For today's task we were given a bunch of questions that we had to answer. I missed out on asking the lecture if he wanted us to perform any research on the topics so from a consensus of the people left in the room I went for the personal experiences approach.

Questions:

Given the conventional wisdom that traditional media are still the dominant form for getting "news" out to the world, do you think the internet will effect the audience for those old media?

I think that the traditional media will find that the going to have to adapt to the new technologies as they become more and more common. Already we are seeing newspaper providers, host the contents of their newspapers free online, they are still manufacturing the news in it's physical form of the traditional newspaper for those people who still want to have something they can hold onto and take with them to places that do not have access to computers, but they recognize that some people desire the information in purely electronic form.

I feel that this will cause a decline in the patronage of the traditional media forms, the content providers have moved their operations to where the people require it, which is online. An added advantage to the new media forms is the ability to update online content on a timely basis where the traditional media is usually a once a day occurrence.

In conclusion I believe that while the advent of new media will detract from the traditional forms of media, there will still remain a requirement for content providers to distribute hard copies to people who may be lodites, (technologically illiterate), when it comes to technology or just want to be able to catch up on the news away from a computer desk.

Check out the local IndyMedia website. What kind of news is there, and do you think a website like that has a place in your life?

From looking around both the local and international website of IndyMedia it appears that the site is dedicated to news article about community activism and the proliferation of the topics that are not being given mass media attention. The articles look to be based heavily on the political process and informing people of what's going on in the world around them. Unfortunately it appears that the Melbourne chapter of the association has closed down to work out what it is they are trying to achieve with the website, however they have left the site active and the archives accessible. There are some interesting articles about the plans to make nuclear power the prime source of electricity in Australia, another article focused on the protests that took place outside the G8 summit over in Germany.

For myself, I try to get my news from several different sources, I guess this is a kind of personal fact checking that I like to do, having found some rather glaring omissions from the local mass media news outlets over the past several years I grew very disenchanted by the commercial outlets. After having read a few articles on the site, they appear to be well written with only a slight political bias and quality photos. So yes, I think I will add this to the list of sites if frequent to get my news, as it has an interesting local focus, but more importantly the site covers things that do not appear readily in the commercial outlets.

Do you think the internet is (was?) an effective tool for politicians to reach out to their intended audience?

I think that the internet is an effective tool for politicians to reach a particular audience. It has been my experience that there is almost what you'd called a sub-culture developing around those who use the internet on a frequent basis and those who do not use it at all or only a very small amount. What this means is that while posting videos and political advertising on the web is an effective way to reach the people who frequent those sites, the problem is that there are so many different web sites out there that the issue is choosing which one to host on.

Therefore audience you reach will be restricted to the kind of people who visit that kind of site. To gain the maximum benefit for their advertising dollar I personally feel that they would be much better off spending their advertising budgets on mass media outlets, but try to find the most popular sites and post your message on those sites.


What do you think about blogs as a way for people to get information out? What about their role as political commentary?

I believe that using blogs is a great way to disseminate information. It is a cheap, efficient way to host information which may or may not have mass media coverage, or information that is specialized. As an example, my mother has recently got into making quilts, it turns out there are hundreds of people out there in blogger land who take great pride in writing tutorials on how to make particular designs, or different methods of sewing, etc.

If those people hadn't taken the time to sit down and write those articles, my mother would have had to find the information some other way, either by paying for it or just simply doing without. This has created a sort of mini-community of quilters who spend their time designing quilt ideas and sharing them with others, they have absolutely no intention of ever making the design, they just gain enjoyment of sharing the design itself, this has lead to design competitions within the community for both people who actually sew the quilts and those who just design the quilts using software.

For myself I have found blogs to be an invaluable tool for finding information about a particular problem with my car. There are surprising quite a few blogger's out there who are more than happy to assist you with a problem, all you have to do is ask. While you will come across a few people who have what I call 'tech arrogance' (they took the time to find out for themselves, so why shouldn't you, kind of attitude), the general feeling I found is a happy and helpful one.

The role of blogs as a political commentary is I think a valid one, it allows us to read the thoughts of many different people so that we can get a more holistic view of the public sentiment. The anonymity that the internet supposedly provides is a very warm blanket for a lot of people who fear reprisals for stating their views. As was demonstrated in one of the course readings, Reporters without Borders(2005) 'A Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents', in some countries making comments on the political process can be a very dangerous pass time, blogs allow these people to get their message out to the world while circumventing the laws of their country.

So in conclusion I would say that blogs are an excellent medium for disseminating information not readily available to the general public and as a tool for making political commentaries.

Well that's it for another day, hope to see you all tomorrow.