Discussion:
Twitter – the positive and negative effects of people being able to spread a message instantaneously.
Twitter’s impact on the film industry:
Positive – it enables producers to start creating hype around a movie long before its released, hopefully increasing box office profits
Negative – it enables people to write negative comments about a movie immediately after a premiere which may decrease box office profits
Twitter’s impact on the sports industry in the USA:
Positive – players twittering throughout the game may make people feel closer to the ‘action’
Negative – players twittering throughout the game may be linked to match fixing, the governing bodies of certain sports institutions are considering banning this practice to prevent that situation
Government 2:
Positive – it allows people to have more power and a greater voice in government decisions
Breif discussion of the lecture and chapter 15:
The lecture focused on power, particularly in terms of media, and how it functions through laws.
It defined power as:
1. A productive network
2. Not inherently good or bad, relationship that produces an effect
3. Has the ability to shape
The lecture also looked at power through a pluralist and hegemonic perspective.
Our class discussion also briefly examined Michel Foucault’s ‘The History of Sexuality,’ Volume 1, 1976.
Foucault uses Victorian constraints on sexuality as a means of settng up an argument of power being represented through citizens and media – Foucault relates power to productivity
Information surrounding the exam was discussed which can be found on the wiki. The policies discussed throughout the semester were recapped.
Policy Documents
Guidelines for the Classification of films and computer games
– ratings are based on the amount of sex and violence contained in the media product
– it is compulsory for all media products to be rated
– issues surrounding the policy – the ratings are supposed to represent the social values of society but, they do not always meet everyones’ expectations
ABC code of practice
– issues – how can you see the ABC as a governmental technology?
– issues – surrounding its policy requirement of – presenting the nation to itself
The SBS charter
– culture
– diversity
– issues – surrounding bringing the channel into a modern context and issues surrounding the multicultural requirements of the policy
– does it cause segregation?
– there is a struggle between government policy and representation of the community
– Why has public broadcasting changed? What is it about government owned media that made it change?
DCITA Review of the Regulations Content Delivered over convergent devices in April 2006
– issues – surrounding who can control the content
– issues – who is going to download the content?
– issues – surrounding payment – who is getting charged for material?
Other policies that were discussed throughout the semester:
ABC Charter
Connecting diversity report for SBS
The government’s ‘Clean Feed Regulations’
Broadcast inquiry report
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