Chris Anderson's Longtail Theory

The Longtail Theory is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a relatively small number of 'hits' (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.



















Examples of Longtail Theory:
The Long Tail has grown longer over time, with niche books accounting for a larger share of total sales. Their analysis suggest that by 2008, niche books account for 36.7% of Amazon’s sales and the consumer surplus generated by niche books has increased at least fivefold from 2000 to 2008.
Some of the most successful Internet businesses have leveraged the Long Tail as part of their businesses. Examples include eBay (auctions), Yahoo! and Google (web search), Amazon(retail) and iTunes Store (music and podcasts)

Cultural Inversion

Michael Wesch - 'Cultural Inversion'
-Alone but connected, networked communities.

Individualism and Community
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Myspace

FACEBOOK:
Only have the people you want added to your friends list and viewing your profile
Everyone has their own account - individualism
Can upload your own personal pictures and videos
Everyone can get involved with what you are talking about
Young people use it to communicate/arrange things with friends, whereas older people may use it to reconnect.
Personal - post what you are thinking

YOUTUBE:
Global
Annonomous
Video based of anything that person wants to
Own account
Very personal, feelings and thoughts are expressed, loss of privacy
No sense of development
Peoples opinions of the world
Younger people may use it to express thoughts

Independence and Relationships
- how do online relationships compare to real ones?
'social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it 'Ambient Awareness'.

Media in the Online Age

Metabusiness (David Weinburger 2009)
iTunes and YouTube
- YouTube always changes, no common content or understanding. Challenges commercial media and is exploited by it. For example; TalkTalk advert for X Factor. It contains user generated content as well as popular commercial forms.

Michael Wesch - Why YouTube?
- Loss of community
Networked individualism - connected but still individuals/alone.

Cultural Inversion - Robert Putnam
Express: Individuality, Independence, Commercialisation
Value: Community, Relationships, Authenticity (truth, originality)

Vlogs:
'Collapse of context' - can be consumed and remixed (mash up) and also vlogger is in a seemily in private but very public at the same time.
Consumption is not the end of a product, for example - Charlie, NumaNuma

Hyper self awareness:
- Anyone may be watching - but no one knows whos watching at anytime.
- Creates a 'mask of confidence' - freedom
- Allows people to express themselves, 'connection without constraint'.

Youtube:
1. Copycat item (Collapse of content)
2. An item that challenges commercial media (mash up)
3. An item that is produced by commercial media (eg. TalkTalk)
4. Participation

Media in the Online Age - Introduction

I have created a Media in the Online Age blog as a revision aid for my exam. As demanded by OCR, I have to look at two different types of media, the two I will be looking at are Film and Social Networking.

YouTube will be my main provider when looking into Media in the Online Age and would not exist without the internet. I will be investigating the ways that people use YouTube and examples of this.

Examples of the different types of YouTube videos: Mash Ups (Hitler), Copycat Videos(Nuama Nuama), Participation(Free Hugs), Commercial Media Exploiting YouTube(Talk Talk). This is an example of a copycat video, it is a remake of the original 'Charlie bit my finger, again'.

This is an example of a Commercial media exploiting YouTube advert, members of the public take part in the advert. Another well known example of this is the Talk Talk advert sponsoring X factor, where people recorded themselves singing and dancing.