But what about Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube? They are the new media empire that debuted recently, hence, the new alpha dogs in the 21st century. Media empires have changed drastically in response to the time and space compression of globalised technologies. For example, nowadays businesses use the social media to help promote their marketing and management strategies. Facebook & YouTube have contributed alot to companies around the world, by guiding them achieving their goals & objectives necessary.
But what are the major differences in 'old', 'new' and 'social' media, you might ask? Well, all in all, old and new media are converging. Old media is slow, isolated and imposing. New media is fast, simple and offers greater diversity of ideas & viewpoints. While with social media, the opportunity and access are unlimited and diverse. This proves how media changes over the years and us as users have to be able to adapt to it otherwise we will get left behind. Disney, Murdoch, Hearst are few examples of new media great empires. Seems to me, that today it's a bit harder to imagine if the social media empire would be able to climb such height.
But they are trending. They are getting there. They're more stronger than ever. In the next decade or so, things would drastically change, as how things are with media, in general. Contestants such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Vox, AOL, are the big dogs in this battle to claim the throne of social media empire. It's hard to name who would win, but then again, it's hard to say who will not. Technology has contributed lots of its power to each of these companies, but it's a matter of who will distribute them and uses it to their great advantage. Everything is never as it seems, they say. Well, we might just have to wait and see as time will tell soon enough.
Photo Source:
(1) http://www.wayneming.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Building-A-Social-Media-Empire-In-5-Steps.png
(2) http://fasthorseinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/old-vs-new-media.jpg
References:
Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, 'Globalization: consensus and controversies', Globalization and culture: global melange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp. 7-21.
I found this post really interesting and I wish there was more of it! Would you agree, however, that in this social environment even if one of these entities you have named were to 'claim the throne' it would be for a shorter period of time in relation to past empires due to the 24/7 pace and advancing technologies? It would have been really good to include some journal articles or research into comparing these old and new media empires as you have made some interesting points. For example, its true how Facebook and YouTube etc. have contributed to businesses but how does this compare with the power that news corporations hold? So much to think about!
ReplyDeleteWow you got me good there, Laura! I do agree that if one of the new social media would 'claim the throne' it would certainly be a shorter period of time due to 24/7 pace and advancing technologies. You have made a great point by comparing the power of news corporations to Facebook or YouTube. Definitely something that I'll keep in mind for future references and topics! Your comment is greatly appreciated! Thank you.
DeleteI would first like to point out that I found this post very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI like how you went into detail about why and how the media empires have changed drastically in response to the time and space compression of globalized technologies. I found the examples you used such as how nowadays businesses use the social media to help promote their marketing and management strategies very amusing. I also enjoyed the second picture of statistics and I found it very helpful, I think it really pinpointed how the media empires have changed.
I look forward to your next post.
It’s really interesting that you brought up the alpha dogs of the 20th century and then the alpha dogs of the 21st century. I think it’s really interesting because there is a massive difference between the types of companies they are, the 20th century alphas are all sort of large scale companies that are aiming more for the creation and distribution of products whereas all the 21st century alpha dogs are all online social media websites that place more value on distributing content online! I think it’s also worth mentioning that just shy of a decade ago Myspace was one of the top dogs but now is virtually unheard of to the younger generations.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the graph, it’s an informative visual device to have!