What We Have Learnt In The Lectures So Far..

Hello all!

As you know, I have just started University and am into my 3rd week of studying JOUR1111. I have already learnt so much from this course as the lectures have been both interesting and informative. In the first lecture, the course and assessment work was outlined to the class and what was expected when taking this particular subject.

      In the second lecture, many points were covered such as Web Iterations and Old Media. We also discussed what  media platforms were and how they were essentially derived from the industrial paradigm, developed in late 19^th century. Examples of these instruments of mass communication, targeting large audiences within their own specific markets are newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Also discussed WEB 1.0 and how it is advertising friendly, full of content, surrounded with ads, an  extension of offline media and uses print and television. Its focus is on big co-operations and companies. 

n    Next, WEB 2.0 (new media) was analysed and what it incorporates. This included the social web and how it is interactive, user generated, and utilises social networking. For example, facebook, skype, myspace, youtube, foursquare. Prod users and Produsage was defined as modes of production led by users or involve users as producers and is a Hybrid between a user and producer. Users are always able to be producers of content.

WEB 3.0 (semantic web) was discussed and what it involves such as: Making sense of information and multi-layered questions aka Meta Tagging (which is a special HTML tag that provides information about a Web Page and provides information on who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about etc.) The focus is on individuals. The term hyperlocalisation was defined as news specifically for the individual's interests.  

·       Specific Content Delivery was mentioned during the lecture and the pluses and minuses associated with it such as advertising specifics and ignorance and lack of general knowledge (ethnocentricity) an example of this is America. 

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The final topic talked about was web news. Questions were asked such as is entitlement the death of journalism? Web news is cheap and available and it is time to pay for this! However, can Rupert Murdoch save Journalism with a monetising strategy? And will people pay for something they believe they are entitled to continue to have free? What we need is a subscription model (eg original newspapers) due to the  reluctance to pay online. More questions were thought about such as: Is changing perceptions all in the business model? Will people pay for quality journalism if you can value-add? Everyone knows that the future is NOW! Technology is changing rapidly. Also, membership was also talked about during the lecture and the privileges associated with it. Nowadays, there are apps for news online such as mobile devices. Finally, the paywall was discussed and examples such as the Brisbane Times were given for newspapers not going behind the paywall.