Digital Media Cultures - Introduction to Cyberculture

So... The internet!
Yes, this lecture was all about the web; where it came from and where its going! I made a lot of notes from the lecture slides so bare with me on this one!

The internet is seen as one of the most significant developments in the media industry because it is not a single entity but rather a collection of global networks. It was initially developed by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was funded by the Pentagon. It began as a relatively free resource  that had no centralised form of control; however the internet is now dominated by commercial interests.
The internet is seen as redefining the relationship between the media and the user to one based on dialogue rather than passive consumption like the television. As we have previously spoken about; Marshall McLuhan's theory of a global village has become a reality through the internet itself. A web of networks that literally connects the whole world together.
For many people, the internet has not necessarily been seen as a democratic innovation, rather it has been colonised by commercial interests. In light of this we must assess the internet in relation to patterns of ownership, regulation and issues of access to the world wide web.

'The Digital Divide'

• Access to information is seen as unequal 
• The majority of internet “hosts” and service providers are owned by companies based in the industrialized world 
• Internet use in sub Saharan Africa is way lower than in the developed countries 
• Internet relies on existing telecommunications networks, these are not necessarily part of a (underdeveloped) country’s communication infrastructure 
• Specific content requires a high-bandwidth capability, USA leads the way in access to high-bandwidth capacity 
• The nature of internet use needs to be assessed more closely – inequality to access is more complex than simply quantifying access to the internet 
• Inequalities are further emphasized by the thorough commodification of the Internet and the shift toward it being a tool for consumer capitalism, rather than freedom of expression 
• Companies have now relocated themselves to cyberspace 
• In many ways it was this relocation that encouraged a greater need for reulation

'Regulating Cyberspace'

• Convergence within the communications industry has rendered much regulation as unsuitable in the control of the digital media 
• National state controlled legislation will have to be replaced by a more global approach to regulation 
• However with this comes the issue of how a country’s  approach to ethical factors that relate to media use, especially with the area of freedom of information, as well as how judicial law effect the way a country organises it’s media culture
• The ease of copying digital data, and its ability to be transferred from one to many at incredibly high speed has increased the need for regulation 
• Entertainment providers in particular, demand strict regulations to counter the threat of mass piracy 
• Peer2Peer sharing resulted in some landmark lawsuits e.g. Napster 
• How the internet will be regulated in the future is uncertain, however there is definitely a paradigm shift occurring now 

Speak Soon!