Modern technologies have changed society in several ways: 1) Media can now be experienced on different devices digitally rather than just analog formats. 2) Technologies have converged so that devices like phones now have cameras, internet, music players built in. 3) Big media companies have become conglomerates that sell many products across different platforms rather than just one product. Society is becoming more digital as media is accessed online and on different devices rather than just traditional formats.

1. HOW MODERN
TECHNOLOGIES HAVE
CHANGED SOCIETY

2. Over the years, technology has developed dramatically and because
of it, it has allowed us to experience media aspects on different
devices. From using analogues, film and print magazines to digital
technology. From the 1980s onward, media technologies have gone
through a phase of digitisation. Digitalisation has brought major
changes to how and the way media industries are structured and
operate. For example big media industries such as Sony have moved
to conglomerates where they don’t just sell one specific product but
many more making them worldwide to the society.

3. Convergence refers to technology coming together, for example mobile
phones have cameras, internet and an MP3 player all attached together,
because data is all digital it can be delivered and accessed through the
same hardware. Big media companies now cross advertise their
products and all digital media works through the same
code. Newspaper production has become computer based and the
news is distributed not only on paper, but also digitally on the internet.
Satellite television is completely digitalised in many countries which is
something that the UK has more recently experienced as we now no
longer have any analogue TV due to the digital switch over. Not only that
but but Apple has become huge over these past years and now many of
their devices have got everything that’s needed for example, music,
internet, games, shopping apps, etc.

4. “ But Apple really beats to a different
drummer. I used to say that Apple
should be the Sony of this business, but
in reality, I think Apple should be the
apple of this business
- Steve Jobs

5. Synergy refers to the process of creating ideas and
concepts which go across different media platforms
which then cross fertilise and advertise each other,
for example franchises like Batman that isn’t only a
film, but has comics, games, costumes, toys etc.

6. Now we have these advanced technologies, it is a lot
easier for us to create something on multiple platforms.
Society is becoming more digitalised, therefore the texts
we read and the products we receive are accessed so
much easier and a lot quicker.

7. Having these advanced technologies to use for my
project made everything so easy. Our whole
portfolio of coursework can be accessed online,
all in one place. And it can all be created digitally.

8. Gauntlett suggests that old media may have had some
good content, but its top-down structure meant that
audiences learned to be consumers. “we sat around
while unprecedented destruction of our natural world has
taken place.” This does suggest that audiences of
traditional media learnt to be passive. He calls it a “sit
back and be told” attitude.
DAVID GAUNTLETT

9. HENRY JENKINS
Jenkins is particularly interested in the idea of Media Convergence.
New and digital media have created a world where all media forms
converge. He tells the story of ‘Bert is Evil’, where a kid in the US
used his bedroom PC to make a joke image of Bert from Sesame
Street with Osama Bin Laden. This joke was accidentally used in an
anti-American campaign and ended up broadcast on CNN. There
are many stories like this where grass roots production and big
Media business have overlapped and converged. This convergence
means that consumers are more directly involved in the production
of media than ever before.

11. MARSHALL MCLUHAN
NEW MEDIA
Global Village
‘cold media’
OLD MEDIA
The Gutenberg Galaxy
‘hot media’
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
WE HAVE EXTENDED OUR CENTRAL
NERVOUS SYSTEM IN A GLOBAL EMBRACE

12. Marshall McLuhan predicted the global
village, one world interconnected by an
electronic nervous system, making it
part of our popular culture before it
actually happened.

13. Marshall McLuhan was the first person to popularise the
concept of a global village and to consider its social effects. His
insights were revolutionary at the time, and fundamentally
changed how everyone has thought about media, technology,
and communications ever since. McLuhan chose the insightful
phrase "global village" to highlight his observation that an
electronic nervous system (the media) was rapidly integrating
the planet - events in one part of the world could be experienced
from other parts in real-time, which is what human experience
was like when we lived in small villages.

14. McLuhan's second best known insight is summarised in the
expression "the medium is the message", which means that the
qualities of a medium have as much effect as the information it
transmits. For example, reading a description of a scene in a
newspaper has a very different effect on someone than hearing about
it, or seeing a picture of it, or watching a black and white video, or
watching a colour video. McLuhan was particularly fascinated by the
medium of television, calling it a "cool" medium, noting its soporific
effect on viewers. He took great satisfaction years later when medical
studies showed that TV does in fact cause people to settle into passive
brain wave patterns. One wonders what McLuhan would make of the
internet, the most powerful medium we have yet invented.

15. The rapid rate at which technology is developing with new and improved
technologies being developed everyday will take it’s effect on society. We’re are
in a very technical age with many products we have to depend upon like mobile
phones, the internet, television and radio, etc. Our economy will improve to an
extent but the consumer might fall out as the cost of making a product will
have to result in high prices for new technologies thus reducing the market for
it until it falls down in price depending on the quantity sold, the consumer will
have his/her work cut out for himself/herself. A lot of stuff can be bought over
the internet and that will become more apparent with companies cashing in on
this advertising their products for cheaper on the internet. The fact is, it is up to
the media industries to keep up to date with new methods and technologies to
expand or keep going making a profit while doing this.