Unit 6: Social media and globalisation

Crowdfunding platforms like ( https://www.kickstarter.com/ ) are allowing creative users to gain funding to start projects that they would never be able to do previously. Examples of kick starter campaigns: Sound of his horn is a film that has been crowdfunded by kickstarter. The pledged goal was £5000 and they managed to raise £5750. Leather travel shoes that don't fold or crease is a project that can be seen on kickstarter and has a pledged goal of £10,000. It has currently reached 108,940. Finally,  Crowdsourcing is a sourcing model in which individuals or organisations obtain personnel for projects and to collaborate on projects. An example of this is LinkedIn.

Rheingold (1991) foresaw the sharing of technology, software, ideas and content and termed the phrase electronic agora. This describes the online meeting places (forums and chatrooms) where people can discuss topics, ideas and ways to achieve collaboration of projects. An example of online forums: Social media (Instagram, Youtube, Reddit), Gamespot, Quora (https://www.quora.com), Stack overflow (https://stackoverflow.com) 

The global village is the where everyone around the world is interconnected by online platforms. 

Web-utopianism - The belief that communication and online technologies help bring about a more decentralised, democratic and libertarian society.  Decentralisation - Taking power out of smaller places David Gauntlet  is web utopian and believes that geographical boundaries are non-existent thanks to social media and connectivity.  Digital trendsetting (influencers, vloggers, Twitter, Instagram)- KSI, Zoella, Pearce Morgan, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock). Collaborative production (Cloud9)-  Online UGC content- YouTube Video games (eSports)- Call of duty, Warzone Virtual environments (Second life)- Tutorials (YouTube)- PS5 unboxing

Theorist Marshall McLuhan in his book the 'understanding media: the extensions of man' (1964) suggested that one day we would live in a 'global village' where, we would be more interconnected with one and another. This in turn would bring about a tribal mentality, focusing on 'in and out groups'- in a political context this can be seen as discriminatory and having negative connotations.  Due to social media, the tribal mentality is shown as people troll and bully others.  Global Village: Positives: A positive to the global village theory is that people can communicate and connect across the world. Also, people can post their creations on the internet for people across the world for there to see so this can result in other cultures combining. Finally, the global village keeps people aware of the issues world wide so they can raise awareness in their own country to try and help. Negatives: A negative to the global village is that they are trolls that bully other...

Cross platform marketing is where companies advertise products across products multiple media platforms such as TV and social media. The theory of Wikinomics belongs to Tapscott and Williams (2006) Wikinomics is important as it has changed the global economy as normal people can make and distribute products online and make money.

The media product I will be analysing is Skyfall, a James Bond film released in 2012.  Skyfall is a James Bond film that was released in July, 2012. The genre is action so the target audience for the film will be a male, mainstream audience as the James Bond films are popular and well known. Additionally, boys seem to prefer action films over girls as the protagonist is often male so they can try and imagine them as the hero. The purpose of the film is to try and entertain its audience through fast pace, thrilling fighting. There is also a plot to the film for the audience to follow so they can better understand the story throughout the film. The production company for Skyfall is Eon Production, they have produced many other James Bond films and continued the franchise with the addition of Skyfall. Skyfall was distributed across the world as it is part of well known, global franchise. It can be accessed on many services for example Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. This makes it easy fo...

Soundcloud is a platform powered by a global audience of artists and listeners. It helps aspiring artists grow their careers as it it allows users to experience new music. You can also collaborate with other artists in different countries  A consumer who is setting themselves a platform to be a professional so they can start making money. This links to the wikinomics theory by Tapscott and Williams.  Globalisation links to social media as people in other countries can access posts and media from other people in different countries so they can see the variety of cultures from around the world. Also, you can collaborate with other people around the globe so it can spread ideas to other countries. This is called culture imperialism.