This document defines key terms related to the online age and citizen/democratic media: 1. Blogs, casual gaming, citizen journalism, the cloud, convergence, democratic media, the long tail, net neutrality, peer-to-peer, social marketing, streaming, synergy, top-down/bottom-up news, trending, viral marketing, and Web 2.0 are defined and described. 2. Key concepts include how blogs have become important to online journalism, how the cloud allows storage and access to content, and how convergence means that devices are no longer limited to one type of media. 3. Democratic media, the long tail, net neutrality, and top-

1. G325 Section B Glossary (Online Age and We Media)
Blog
From ‘web log’, meaning a website updated regularly and chronologically by
the author giving their views and opinions. Blogs have now become an
important part of online journalism, The Huffington Post blog sold in early
2011 for $315 million.
Casual Gaming
This refers to games played online without a console, either on a PC or phone.
Casual gamers do not fit the normal stereotype of gamers, most are female.
Despite the name casual games can involve lots of financial and time
commitment, Farmville for example.
Citizen Journalism
When members of the public engage in journalism. Examples include
providing pictures or film of events to news organisations or reporting events
in blogs. A key part of democratic media.
The Cloud
Cloud storage allows users to store data on a company’s servers rather than
their own hardrives. This has now evolved into a service where games can be
played from the Cloud (Onlive or Steam) or music can be stored and played
from the Cloud (Amazon Music, Google Music or iCloud).
Convergence
Devices are no longer used for just one thing, new media technologies are not
limited by how they can be consumed or distributed. Convergence means PCs
now play music, iPods can play games and phones are internet devices.
Sometimes institutions plan convergence (the iPhone) but sometimes it’s the
consumers who start it, Nook readers used as tablets for example.

2. Democratic media
The media used to be controlled by large institutions that had the money and
power to print, publish and broadcast. Home computing and cheap media
production means that anyone can be a journalist, film maker or broadcaster,
making the media democratic. Blogs, video services, easy app development
and podcasts make it easy to produce user generated content.
Long tail
Chris Anderson defined the Long Tail as an economic state where products
have a longer sales pattern when they don’t rely on shop storage because
they’re either downloadable (iTunes for example) or they’re sold online
(Amazon). An Amazon employee described the Long Tail as “We sold more
books today that didn’t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books
that did sell yesterday.” The long tail is important for niche items. Anita
Elberse criticised the Long Tail by claiming that it’s still mainstream and mass
market products that dominate internet sales.
Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is the principle requiring Internet providers to act as common
carriers and not discriminate among content or users — for example, by
providing degraded service to rich-media sites, by throttling file-sharing
services, by penalizing customers who watch or download a lot of videos or by
blocking Internet applications and content from competitors
Peer to peer
A system where content is shared between users across a network. Peer to
peer can be used for illegal downloads with a central hub like the Pirate Bay
linking users to other users’ content.

3. Social Marketing
Marketing and advertising that reaches potential consumers via social
networking website, such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. They appear at the
edges of users’ profiles and can be targeted based on keywords in their profiles
to match their stated interests or recent activities.
Streaming
Delivery and distribution of media content over an internet connection direct
to your device without being saved. Youtube and Spotify are both streaming
services. Onlive is an example of a streaming games service.
Synergy
Synergy is the working together of two different institutions, often relying on
each other’s expertise and reputation. Synergy has been around for a long
time now but in the online age it’s evolved into something more pervasive;
Vevo on Youtube, Facebook and Spotify are to work together in Europe and
Fifa 12 will feature more affiliates than ever before (Real Madrid and Everton
used the trailer to launch their 11/12 season kits).
Top down/bottom up news
Top down news focuses on news that focuses on groups in power;
governments and business for example. Twitter and blogs now allow news to
be ‘bottom up’. The revolution in Syria is a good example; traditional media
has been gagged there so news focuses on individuals because it’s being
reported by them.

4. Trending
Happens when a topic is widely discussed on microblogs like Twitter.
Trending allows a subject to become big news without pushing from an
established news agency. Think about Ryan Giggs, the traditional media
couldn’t discuss him but it was trended on Twitter.
Viral marketing
A marketing strategy that encourages the audience to pass on the marketing
material themselves. Examples include short films and clips sent by email.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web development and web design that
facilitates interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered
design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It is understood to be a
democratic forum, a flat arena in which all users may contribute and speak.