Bowie and Media in the Online Age

We are going to discover the arguments for and against the internet. It ahs contributed to society in a number of positive ways and yet there is a dark side to the internet.  We will explore arguments and theorists on both sides of this debate and develop our own opinions.

Begin by listing the pro's and cons of the internet.

Two issues from todays news to get us thinking...

We will start with a modern icon who foresaw the impact of the internet on the media and society. A visionary and a genius he is a good person to quote when contextualising your thesis.

Here he is talking to Jeremy Paxman

Use this article from The Guardian and other sources to find a quote to identify what he said about the internet.


Has this proved to be visionary?

Here is a less durable artist moaning about how musicians don't make monay from the internet.

We discussed how Bowie predicted that the internet would be an 'alien life form'  'exhilarating and terrifying' and that the potential was unimaginable. He stated that twenty years ago we were only seeing the 'tip of the iceberg'. his comments were very prophetic and his vision and hope that this could allow creativity to blossom shows the intuition and foresight of this artist.  He talks about the internet being 'subversive, chaotic and that we are living in fran=gmentation and the internet can both bring us together and allow us to find our niche interstes and share with like minded people.

Collaboration is cited as a key positive of the internet and Bowie talks about the state of content changing and the user and provider working in a symbiotic relationship.  User generated content has become common as we uploasd as well as download.  In Web 1.0 we only watched or read, now we interact providing many outlets for cretaivity.

Bowie talks about this opportuity to interact and share  and add your won interpretation being ' the grey space in the middle'.  We can see this coming to fruition in Facebook and social media as well as trolling and memes. Mash-ups are a good example of this.

He does say that, 'monopolies do not have a monopoly,' with the internet.  However, since the interview have new gatekeepers evolved who are controlling and manipulating users.  Apple, Google and Facebook are the obvious new gatekeepers with power to monopolise the control of content and platforms.     Do they abuse these positions of power?

We also discussed the need to contextualise the past and to understand how traditional media was consumed by audiences sin a very different way.  The idea of television regularly reaching audiences of 15 million + is largely a thing of the past as channels proliferate and content can be accessed on demand.  Bowie paints a picture of the 1970's when there was limited choice and society was more structured.  Media was forced upon you by gatekeepers and studios.  The internet has revolutionised the way we can access the media and choice is unlimited.