ACCESS
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Can anyone “own” information?
Who has access to this information?
What are the barriers to entry?
What are the implications of media
concentration?
• How has the Internet changed ownership?
• From the Digital Divide to the Participation
Gap
Markets vs. the Public Sphere
A comparison of models
The Market Model
“society’s needs can best be met through
a relatively unregulated process of
exchange based on the dynamics of
supply and demand. This model treats
the media like all other goods and
services” (15).
The Public Sphere
“media are more than simply profit-making
components of large conglomerates.
Instead, they are our primary information
sources and storytellers” (20).
Are the media different than
Other Industries?
“Profit seeking and public service are not
either/or propositions. Instead, the civic
responsibilities of media have historically
been met within the framework of
commercial business…[in the 80s] that
delicate balance shifted even further in
favor of pursuing greater profits over
concern of public service” (31).
What is the Public Interest?
Market – Whatever the public is interested in
Sphere – Media responsibility to….
a. Promote diversity (Avoid homogenity)
b. Provide Substance (w/out Elitism)
“The media’s role in facilitating democracy
and encouraging citizenship has always
been in tension with its status as a profit
making industry…” (38)
Which side do you fall on?
Are these part of Mr. Media, or part of you?
2006 Most Visited Site, USA
2007 Most Visited Sites, US
1. Yahoo.com - Yahoo! Inc.
2. Google.com - Google Inc.
3. Myspace.com - News Corp.
4. MSN.com - Microsoft Corporation
5. ebay.com - eBay Inc.
6. YouTube.com - Google Inc.
7. Facebook.com - Facebook
8. wikipedia.org - Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc.
9. craiglist.org - craigslist, inc.
10. live.com - Microsoft Corporation
11Amazon.com - Amazon.com, Inc.
12. Blogger.com - Google Inc.
13. Go.com - The Walt Disney Co.
14. AOL.com - Time Warner
15. microsoft.com – Microsoft Co.
16. CNN.com - Time Warner
17. Comcast.net - Comcast Co.
18. IMDb.com - Amazon.com, Inc.
19. Flickr.com - Yahoo! Inc.
20. Photobucket.com - Photobucket,
Inc.
http://www.freepress.net/content/top20websites alexa, 2007
2009 Most Visited Sites, US
1. Google (6.79%)
2. Facebook (4.99%)
3. Yahoo! Mail (4.26%)
4. MySpace (3.06%)
5. Yahoo! (2.82%)
6. YouTube (1.76%)
7. Windows Live Mail (1.66%)
8. MSN (1.53%)
9. Yahoo! Search (1.43%)
10. eBay (1.10%)
11. Gmail (0.92%)
12. Bing (0.73%)
13. AOL Mail (0.57%)
14. AOL (0.55%)
15. Google Image Search (0.47%)
16. My Yahoo! (0.44%)
17. Wikipedia (0.43%)
18. Amazon.com (0.39%)
19. Yahoo! News (0.38%)
20. Craig's List (0.36%)
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/internetweblog/archives/2009/08/top_20_websites.html
Most Visted Sites, Globe
Internet is shifting our fundamental
Access to Information
“You” as information gatherers
http://video.winzy.com/play/1042416194030
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1114772555
Kevin Sites in Yahoo’s Hot Zone
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/
How are the major News Outlets
using this phenomenon?
• CNN – IReports
– http://www.cnn.com/exchange/
• Yahoo – YouWitness News
– http://news.yahoo.com/you-witness-news
• MSNBC – Citizen Journalism Report
– http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6639760/
• Neighborhood America
– http://www.neighborhoodamerica.com/
You as expressive….
“I think that understanding that there might
not be any difference between what
people are doing online and offline is
something really important”
(M. Zuckerberg, 2006)
Facebook facts
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Originated on February 4, 2004
Originator: Mark Zuckerberg
Microsoft owns 1.6% of Facebook (240m)
Estimated Total Worth – 15 Billion
More than 57 million active users
Sixth-most trafficked site in the United
States (comScore)
• More than 65 billion page views per month
• More than half of active users return daily
Changing Communication
“Facebook members invariably cite its
usefulness for keeping up with friends, but
clearly one of the reasons that the site is
so popular is that it enables users to forgo
the exertion that real relationships entail.”
(Me Media, 2006)
Zuckerberg on Facebook
What does facebook change about how
we think of:
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Access and Trust
Privacy
Expression of real selves
New forms of social interaction
You as Movers…
“When Social Media Become movers”
“The collapse of transaction costs makes it easier for
people to get together—so much easier, in fact, that it
is changing the world” (48)
Shifts in Access
“We now have communication tools that
are flexible enough to match our social
capabilities, and we are witnessing the rise
of new ways of coordinating action that
take advantage of that change” (20).
Shifting Information Flow
1. Sharing
2. Cooperation (Production)
3. Action (Collective)
“Ridiculously easy group-forming matters because
the desire to be part of a group that shares,
cooperates, or acts in concert is a basic human
instinct that has always been constrained by
transaction costs” (54).
New media and new Access are not
always strengthening diversity and
choice…
How do/should/will corporations respond
to trends in new media?
How does new media shift the access we
have to information?
– For better or for worse?