Media convergence

BY JOSHUA HELENA M

BAPRM 42571

 In this instance is defined as the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content, and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularization of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space.

Many experts view this as simply being the tip of the iceberg, as all facets of institutional activity and social life such as business, government, art, journalism, health, and education are increasingly being carried out in these digital media spaces across a growing network of information and communication technology devices.

Also included in this topic is the basis of computer networks, wherein many different operating systems are able to communicate via different protocols. This could be a prelude to artificial intelligence networks on the Internet eventually leading to a powerful super intelligence via a technological singularity.

Convergent services, such as Smart TV, and others, tend to replace the older technologies and thus can disrupt markets. IP-based convergence is inevitable and will result in new service and new demand in the market. Generally, media convergence refers to the merging of both old and new media and can be seen as a product, a system or a process. Jenkins states that convergence is,

"the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they wanted

According to Jenkins, there are five areas of convergence: technological, economic, social or organic, cultural and global.

So media convergence is not just a technological shift or a technological process, it also includes shifts within the industrial, cultural, and social paradigms that encourage the consumer to seek out new information. Convergence, simply put, is how individual consumers interact with others on a social level and use various media platforms to create new experiences, new forms of media and content that connect us socially, and not just to other consumers, but to the corporate producers of media in ways that have not been as readily accessible in the past.

Advances in technology bring the ability for technological convergence that Rheingold believes can alter the "social-side effects," in that "the virtual, social and physical world are colliding, merging and coordinating, It was predicted in the late 1980s around the time that CD-ROM was becoming commonplace, that a digital revolution would take place, and that old media would be pushed to one side by new media. Broadcasting is increasingly being replaced by the Internet, enabling consumers all over the world the freedom to access their preferred media content more easily and at a more available rate than ever before.

Media convergence

BY JOSHUA HELENA M

BAPRM 42571

 In this instance is defined as the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content, and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularization of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space.

Many experts view this as simply being the tip of the iceberg, as all facets of institutional activity and social life such as business, government, art, journalism, health, and education are increasingly being carried out in these digital media spaces across a growing network of information and communication technology devices.

Also included in this topic is the basis of computer networks, wherein many different operating systems are able to communicate via different protocols. This could be a prelude to artificial intelligence networks on the Internet eventually leading to a powerful super intelligence via a technological singularity.

Convergent services, such as Smart TV, and others, tend to replace the older technologies and thus can disrupt markets. IP-based convergence is inevitable and will result in new service and new demand in the market. Generally, media convergence refers to the merging of both old and new media and can be seen as a product, a system or a process. Jenkins states that convergence is,

"the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they wanted

According to Jenkins, there are five areas of convergence: technological, economic, social or organic, cultural and global.

So media convergence is not just a technological shift or a technological process, it also includes shifts within the industrial, cultural, and social paradigms that encourage the consumer to seek out new information. Convergence, simply put, is how individual consumers interact with others on a social level and use various media platforms to create new experiences, new forms of media and content that connect us socially, and not just to other consumers, but to the corporate producers of media in ways that have not been as readily accessible in the past.

Advances in technology bring the ability for technological convergence that Rheingold believes can alter the "social-side effects," in that "the virtual, social and physical world are colliding, merging and coordinating, It was predicted in the late 1980s around the time that CD-ROM was becoming commonplace, that a digital revolution would take place, and that old media would be pushed to one side by new media. Broadcasting is increasingly being replaced by the Internet, enabling consumers all over the world the freedom to access their preferred media content more easily and at a more available rate than ever before.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

BY JOSHUA HELENA M

BAPRM 42571

 Creative industry refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries (especially in Europe (Hesmondhalgh 2002, p. 14)) or the creative economy (Howkins 2001), and most recently they have been denominated as the Orange Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean (Buitrago & Duque 2013)

Creative industries have been seen to become increasingly important to economic well-being, proponents suggesting that "human creativity is the ultimate economic resource," (Florida 2002, p. xiii) and that “the industries of the twenty-first century will depend increasingly on the generation of knowledge through creativity and innovation" (Landry & Bianchini 1995, p. 4)

 According to Caves (2000), creative industries are characterized by seven economic properties:

Nobody knows principle: Demand uncertainty exists because the consumers' reaction to a product are neither known beforehand, nor easily understood afterward.

Art for art’s sake: Workers care about originality, technical professional skill, harmony, etc. of creative goods and are willing to settle for lower wages than offered by 'humdrum' jobs.

Motley crew principle: For relatively complex creative products (e.g., films), the production requires diversely skilled inputs. Each skilled input must be present and perform at some minimum level to produce a valuable outcome.

Infinite variety: Products are differentiated by quality and uniqueness; each product is a distinct combination of inputs leading to infinite variety options (e.g., works of creative writing, whether poetry, novel, screenplays or otherwise).

A list/B list: Skills are vertically differentiated. Artists are ranked on their skills, originality, and proficiency in creative processes and/or products. Small differences in skills and talent may yield huge differences in (financial) success.

Time flies: When coordinating complex projects with diversely skilled inputs, time is of the essence.

Some creative products have durability aspects that invoke copyright protection, allowing a creator or performer to collect rents.

The properties described by Caves have been criticized for being too rigid (Towse, 2000). Not all creative workers are purely driven by 'art for art's sake'. The 'ars longa' property also holds for certain noncreative products (i.e., licensed products). The 'time flies' property also holds for large construction projects. Creative industries are therefore not unique, but they score generally higher on these properties relative to non-creative industries.

Globally, Creative Industries excluding software and general scientific research and development are said to have accounted for around 4% of the world's economic output in 1999, which is the last year for which comprehensive figures are currently available. Estimates of the output corresponding to scientific Research and Development suggest that an additional 4-9% might be attributable to the sector if its definition is extended to include such activities, though the figures vary significantly between different countries.

Taking the UK as an example, in the context of other sectors, the creative industries make a far more significant contribution to output than hospitality or utilities and deliver four times the output due to agriculture, fisheries and forestry. In terms of employment and depending on the definition of activities included, the sector is a major employer of between 4-6% of the UK's working population, though this is still significantly less than employment due to traditional areas of work such as retail and manufacturing.

Within the creative industries sector and again taking the UK as an example, the three largest sub-sectors are design, publishing, and television and radio. Together these account for around 75% of revenues and 50% of employment.

The complex supply chains in the creative industries sometimes make it challenging to calculate accurate figures for the gross value added by each sub-sector. This is particularly the case for the service-focused sub-sectors such as advertising, whereas it is more straightforward in product-focused sub-sectors such as crafts. Not surprisingly, perhaps, competition in product-focused areas tends to be more intense with a tendency to drive the production end of the supply chain to become a commodity business.

Real time marketing

Real Time Marketing is marketing that is based on up to date events. Instead of creating a marketing plan in advance and executing it according to a fixed schedule, real time marketing is creating a strategy focused on current, relevant trends and immediate feedback from customers. The goal of real time marketing is to connect consumers with the product or service that they need now, in the moment. Other industries that are affected by real-time marketing include online news and entertainment publications, reacting and responding to news as it happens. This includes updated stories on the website and “Breaking News” emails and texts to subscribers.

Why is Real Time Marketing important?

With developments in social media, real time marketing efforts are more effective than ever. With Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social sites, businesses can gather up-to-date information on their target audience. Within minutes, they can convert that info into a marketing message to be shared. Everybody wants to be a part of the latest trend or newest fad. When companies strategically structure their advertisements to reflect a current event or craze, their product or service may become more appealing to consumers.Today’s consumers are all about instant gratification, so by tailoring a relevant marketing message to consumers in a time of need, they are more likely to buy a product or service because they will recognize the immediate utility that they can receive from it. 

It is important to note that real-time marketing is both a technology and a marketing tool. Companies gather customer intelligence data such as online searches, demographics, shopping history, and what topics or products the customer clicks on while surfing the net. Once gathered, this information is used to create ads that appear nearly instantly to the customer and are directly related to the customer’s interests and preferences. This consumer intelligence data includes anything from emails to blog posts to podcasts, website visits, online searches and instant messaging. All of this information helps companies predict customer trends and choices, allowing them to create instant marketing messages that appeal to specific customer preferences. In addition, real-time marketing messages encourage consumers to spend both more time and money with that company. Part of a real-time marketing plan could include an “opt-in” feature on the company website for customers to join a membership or club. Members of this club might receive special text messages and emails with breaking news, important information, and exclusive offers.

Social media networks are also an important element in real-time marketing deployment. A social media manager can create a business profile page on sites such as Twitter and Facebook and then send an email or text to customers, encouraging them to “Like” or “Follow” the business. Once a following is established, the social media manager posts regular updates, news and special offers on their pages.

Conclusion, A marketing manager should understands how to design and execute strategic real-time marketing plans as well as traditional marketing campaigns. In addition, a marketing manager must have the ability to perform and understand both quantitative and qualitative research and data in order to gather and use this information to create real-time marketing advertising.

   By Segesela Blandina

    BAPRM 42663

Role of media in modern society

There are many different ways in which people communicate such as, through the phone, through personal encounters, and by attending work place, school, seminars etc. Though media is not the only communication medium used to dispense the flow of information, its importance in developed countries is worth mentioning as it has been the main source to inform people on political issues or current affairs as well as being as the main source of entertainment. The flow of information from one geographical location to another has increased in speed considerably with the advent in digitally enabled communication devices. Different network channels over cable or satellite TV, newspapers and radio channels are emerging at a very rapid pace providing the people with a medium to connect themselves with the outside world. Print media has always been a dominant medium throughout the decades in the western civilization, but it is the emergence of the television which has become the backbone of the global commercial development. Television contains the ability to produce multimedia content and thus has the immense power to change an individual's perception of reality. It is of no wonder that in order to believe in something, one has to have complete faith in the source of information. This source of information could be ranging from one person to any academic institution. However in today's connected society it is the media, which has become the main source of information The role media is playing as being the main source of information is a controversial issue. It is being debated what are the media functions in a society and what are its impact on an individual. The term media is a general term which is not restricted to a particular entity but in order to understand the term "commercial media", the US provides the best platform for critically analyzing the role of media in a society. Regardless of what type of sources of media are analyzed from newspapers to network channels, media's role in society is to reflect the interests of the elites and those who possess the power in a capitalist society like United States in order to maintain the status quo of a politically stable society.

Since the early 1980s the national media industries experienced a dramatic restructuring, the trend of deregulation and privatization in the media industry gave birth to "commercial media market". The control of the media saw a shift into the hands of private ownership from public ownership. "Public ownership is devoted to providing communications as a public service. On the other hand private ownership is devoted to providing communications for profit. The role of public sphere has played a very important role towards the formation of a democratic society providing "places and forums where issues of importance to a political community are discussed and debated, and where information is presented that is essential to citizen participation in community life. BBC is a good example which symbolizes the best of public broadcasting until 1996 when the channel decided that it's survival depends on commercial programming.

   By Mbogo Tausi

   BAPRM 42611

emergence of new media

Modern advertising

The emergence of digital media has created some very fundamental and important changes in the goals for advertising today. Digital technologies have empowered advertising in unique ways and provided a wide range of new possibilities for two-way communication and measurement. These changes should fundamentally redefine expectations for advertising in the digital age.
Capture interest and attention
Advertising is, of course, a specific communication strategy designed to shape consumer action towards, or opinions about, particular products or services. Advertising, like every other communication strategy, will not and cannot work unless it finds an audience and actually delivers its message. We live in an increasingly crowded media environment. The average consumer is exposed to thousands of different advertising messages every week. Many of those messages are repeated with a frequency that deadens the senses. Even finding the right potential customer and placing the advertising message in front of him or her does not guarantee interest or focus on what the ad message is trying to communicate.
The new media consumers have been taught that they are in charge of what, where, when, and why they will pay attention to an ad message. Nevertheless, capturing interest and focusing attention remains the prerequisite for a successful advertisement.
Reaching the customer where they are, where they spend their time, and where their attention is already focused requires advertising to consider many more simultaneous channel and platform executions than ever before.
Mobile, advergaming, social networks, and interactive sweepstakes are all gaining new currency as ad channels. These channels have increased appeal where the target market is a younger demographic, generally more web-savvy, more web connected, and more prone to multi-tasking. However, they are also more aware of their prerogatives to control the when, where, what, how and why they will consent to view an advertisement.
Intrusion, lack of express or implied "permission," and violation of online "etiquette" are all new or heightened sensitivities of the digital media user that have to be carefully observed when using these new channels to deliver ads.
Integrated advertising strategies and cross-promotional concepts that focus on placing advertising messages in multiple channels are increasingly being recognized as essential for success. Also, advertisers are learning to pool their resources to interest and capture the attention of a consumer with combination messages that build on the brand equity and interest in two or more products or services.
The power of promotions to cut through clutter and capture interest and attention is also beginning to blur the line between advertising and promotional marketing strategies. Increasingly, these two separate budgets are being considered as part of one single integrated strategy, with digital technologies and media being used more and more in concert with more traditional media approaches and media channels.
This trend will undoubtedly continue to increase as the battle for interest and attention is waged by competitive brands through new media channels and promotional concepts, since consumers  brought up online -- do not necessarily consider advertisements a mandatory part of their media. 
By Msele Musa
BAPRM42626

E-LEARNING

ADVANTAGES OF E-LEARNING

Digitization has changed the ways of learning that is called e-learning. This allows people to learn various courses online instead of staying in classes. For companies looking to incorporate a new training program it is very crucial to use e-learning. Many organizations are turning to e-learning to save money, time and energy. Digitization has led to use existing courses and resources in new or different ways. Apart from that it has enhanced e-learning opportunities to many scholars in every part of the world.

The following are some of advantages or benefits that company can gain for implementing an online training that are e-learning;

Easier access to information

E-learning materials are stored online, so employees can access important recourses anytime they encounter a question or difficult situation without consulting a lecturer or supervisor. This means that compared to previous years that only hand-written notes taken from lecturer during the training session, this was not more effective way of retain information. Also information can be retrieved just before it is required, rather than being learned once in a classroom.

Personalized learning

Even though the course materials are consistent for all users, e-learning allows each individual learner to control the pace of the course. Because of the flexibility e-learning provides, users can take the course in an environment more conducive to their learning style. E-learning helps companies to create a higher quality, more effective training experience for employees, all at more affordable costs.

Cost effective

E-learning training system reduces many costs that would normally be associated with classroom training including travel, learning materials, venue and catering. In past years, updating and reproducing learning material would be costly and timely. When learning through technology the training is less expensive, thus the moving of learning experience online helps an organization with both of those concerns.

Improves performance and productivity

Mostly in organizations people or employees look for opportunities to grow. Online training allows employees to get new knowledge pertaining to their industry. Employees can improve productivity and use their own time more efficiently, as they no longer need to travel or fight rush-hour traffic to get to a class Employees while learning their online courses it makes them to be better and grow well in their professionalism which enhances and improve performances and productivity of the company. Apart from that e-learning makes people within an organization to participate their online courses at any time from any location including at home or during down time at work hence this could not affect the performance of an organization.

Convenience and flexibility

E-learning means no boundaries. This means that employees have the ability to participate in online courses from anywhere with an internet connection. Internet connection is what is required for a person to access e-learning. This eliminates a lot of energy spent coordinating where and when a course will take place. E-learning gives both management and employees more flexibility with getting important training completed just-in-time as requirements change.

BY SHAYO ISSAH