Consider the effects so far, and possible effects in the future, on media institutions involved in your case study (media production).

Facebook:

By 2025 Facebook estimates to have around 3.8 Billion users. This shows that possible effects in the future, such as new developments in technology means, that Facebook will have more to offer e.g. serve customers, enhance experience and offer more options and choices. Historically, Facebook has faced criticism for its opaque and often convoluted privacy policies. It is stated that, although Facebook is currently the leading social networking site, it will face strong competition from other new developments. For example, Google+ at the moment is not as big and successful compared to Twitter and Facebook, but in the future, it is more likley that people will maybe lose interest in Facebook and Twitter, and thus turn to Google+ because of its new developments of features.

Twitter:

Twitter will fuse with other technologies such as GPS (Global position system) on mobile phones, so that people will find themselves communicating with others not just based on topics of interest, or personal links of some kind, but based on where they are sitting or standing right now.Twitter is very similar to Google in approach:  very simple home page with few options. Expect Twitter to concentrate first on rapid growth, before trying to work out how to make money from the service.  Expect Google to watch Twitter with huge interest.


Google+ Growth Prospects

In August 2011, Google+ already had more than 25 million users, as per the data collected by analytics firm comScore, making Google+ the fastest growing website in history.

Research trends show that the network, which was launched in late June 2011, is currently growing at a rate of one million users per day.

Do these buoyant initial reports indicate that Google+ is going to dominate the social networking sector very soon? That would be a premature conclusion to draw. When comparing the rapid initial growth of Google+ against the relatively gradual initial growth path of other social networks such as Facebook and Myspace, it must be remembered that now social networking has already come of age. Users are increasingly more willing to jump onto social networks, which should explain the rapid initial advances of Google+.

Another factor in favor of Google+ is its massive existing user base that gives it a major head start. It provides the plugged-in generation the opportunity to make a digital fresh start.

How have the audience responded to the changes? Is there more customer choice? Is there evidence of a more pluralistic model? What evidence do you have to support this?

Audience choice/response


Facebook:


Facebook apps for iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and iPads. 


These apps give audiences more choices as they are able to access social networking whenever they want and it doesn't matter where they are. These apps allow audiences to gain greater freedom and even enjoy high levels of autonomy from the state. Audiences are allowed to 'select, accomodate and reject' whatever they want, which shows that there is a wide variety of customer choice.


The impact of new and digital media on Facebook, means that audiences can now communicate to one another, not only through messaging and writing on one's wall, but also with the new Webcam which allows audiences to speak to their friends who are online. This shows that new media has allowed us to have more of a choice.




THE LIFE OF FACEBOOK - HOW WE ENGAGE AND RESPOND








Twitter:


Again, twitter apps are available through, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, iPads


Costumer choice: On Twitter, there is a range of ways in which audiences respond to changes. For example, the photo sharing bucket e.g. Instragram allows audiences/users to share across the world etc.

Google+

Apps for:

BlackBerry

iPhone

HTC

iPad

Android

Social networking sites are examples of the 'PP' argument, which states that the media allows a flourishing of hundreds of opinions. This shows that, audiences have access to a greater variety of views and values, because the media allows us to enjoy an important degree of autonomy and freedom from the state. Thus, our freedom is not interfered with. These new developments in new technologies is simply responding to audience demands, and so that they are constantly engaged.

For example, Twitter has recently changed its layout, which suggests that they are responding to audience demands, and also so that their social networking site does not lose its audience. Similarly, Facebook has just recently introduced a 'Timeline' which allows audiences to put down their important dates and go back to the journey of when they first joined and look at the posts that they sent etc. Google+ however, allows us to record ourselves, send out videos, chat all day long, connect and search. This enables us to be able to maximise our own freedom and be able to discover new things. The way in which audiences have responded to these changes has encouraged owners to develop their social networking sites even further, and thus have more options, in order to keep up with the changing world and technology.

It's open for a wide range of political views and values. Allows new opinions to be heard. This is all part of the culture of 'instant opinion' that we live in.

Who are the primary target audience now and has this changed? Who was it before and how do you know?

Text: 
Facebook


Current target audience:
13-34 year olds


Original target audience:
18-24 year olds
________________________


Text:
Twitter


Current target audience:
18-34 year olds


Original target audience:
25-44 year olds
_______________________


Text:
Google+


Current target audience:
13+


Original target audience:
18+

Is the size of the audience any different now than before the impact of new and digital media (or has the pattern of usage changed)?

Audience (before and after the impact of new and digital media)

The audience that used social networking in the past is pretty much the same audience that use it today. It has been popular amongst 18-29 year olds since its beginning. From 2005-2006, the use of social networking sites among young adult internet users aged 19-29 jumped from 9% to 49%. Since then, users aged fewer than 30 have continued to use social networking sites compared to every other adult age group. As of May 2011, over eight in ten internet users’ ages 18-29 use social networking sites (83%) compared with seven in ten 30-34 year olds (70%), half of 50-64 year olds (51%), and a third of those aged 65 and older (33%).

However, Facebook is the only social networking sites with no generational limits. It attacts users of all ages, from Grandparents to teenagers. A recent study by Forrester found that the number of U.S. adults who use social networking sites, 96% of them are on Facebook. Which goes to show that the audience who use social networking sites has changed dramatically over the years. 98% of both the members of the Golden generation (aged 67 and up) and Gen Z’ers (aged 18-22 who use social networking sites are on Facebook. And no age group dipped below the 95% mark. Facebook beats the other social networking sites by a long-shot, too. ‘LinkedIn’ the next most popular site, claims only 28% of the U.S. adult online population. Its membership follows more of a bell curve, with the working-age population more likely to be on the site — not surprisingly, since it’s designed for networking and employment.


However, there are quite a few concerns about social networking sites. Some argue that social networking hinders real life social experiences. Though, statistics show that only 3% of users' Facebook friends have never met in person. While 89% of all Facebook friends have met in person more than once. Thus, you could argue that social networking does not really hinder life experiences.

Twitter
Twitter, the third most used social network, is most popular among younger users, and membership drops off incrementally for older audiences. 38% of Gen Z’ers, the youngest category, use Twitter — while less than half of that uses LinkedIn.


However, Pew found that Twitter usage has doubled for most age groups. Among those 25 to 34, Twitter use grew to 19% in May from 9% last November. Tweeters in the 25-44 age group increased to 14% from 8% over the same period. And looking at a wider age bracket, the number of people 30-49 who joined Twitter jumped to 14% in May from 7% in November.  When Twitter first launched, only teenagers were on it aged 17-19. However, today statistics show that twitter usage grew from 4% in 2010 to 6% in 2011 in the age category of 65 and over. 


Google+
When Google+ was first launched, the age restrictions was 18 and over only. However, this has dropped to the age of 13, as owners have realised that young adults contribute greatly to social networking sites and without them there won't be enough money being produced for their company. That is how audience pattern for Google+ has changed so far. However, with the impact of new and digital media, we are now able to access greater views and values, consisting of a variety of different choices, that allow us to prosper and develop.

CENSORSHIP - Thailand backs Twitter censorship policy!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/30/thailand-backs-twitter-censorship-policy

LINK TO CENSORSHIP WHEN WRITING ESSAY) - EXAMPLE, FOLLOWED BY CHINA. (USE QUOTES FROM WHAT IS HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW)

Thailand has become the first government to publicly endorse Twitter's controversial decision to censor messages in certain countries.

Twitter announced last week it would permit country-specific censorship of content that could violate local laws, prompting debate worldwide over freedom of speech.

In Thailand, where censorship laws are already heavily enforced, the information and communication technology minister, Jeerawan Boonperm, called Twitter's decision a "welcome development" and said the ministry already received "good co-operation" from internet companies such as Google and Facebook.

The Thai government would soon be contacting Twitter to "discuss ways in which they can collaborate", she told the Bangkok Post.

In China, the state-run Global Times also endorsed the new rules in an article on Monday: "It is impossible to have boundless freedom, even on the internet and even in countries that make freedom their main selling point," it said.

Twitter is blocked in China, but many users access the site by accessing external networks.
According to the regulations, a tweet from Thailand could be blocked at the request of an individual, a company, or the government. However, while it will be invisible to users in Thailand, the tweet can still be seen by users in other countries.

Thailand has some of the toughest censorship laws in the world, ranking it 153 out of 178 in Reporters Without Borders' 2011 Press Freedom Index. Thailand's lese-majeste regulations inhibit defamatory, insulting or threatening comments about the royal family, which are punishable by up to 15 years in prison, but under Thailand's 2007 computer crimes act prosecutors have been able to increase sentences.
Last year, a 61-year-old Thai national was jailed for 20 years for sending defamatory text messages about the monarchy, while a Thai-US citizen received a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for translating a banned biography of the king.

While the information ministry has blocked thousands of websites in recent years – mostly related to online gambling, pornography and lese-majeste cases – Monday's endorsement comes at a time of heightened tension over censorship rules.

A lese-majeste monitoring centre was opened in December and is manned 24 hours a day by staff trawling the net for offensive material. Facebook users already face potential jail time if they click "like" or "share" on any sites deemed offensive to the monarchy, while anyone sending a link, forwarding or revisiting websites with lese-majeste content also need beware, authorities have said.

Despite open and repeated calls for relaxed censorship laws, Yingluck Shinawatra last week said the monarchy should be respected and vowed to "protect the institution, not exploit it".

Thailand's endorsement on Monday could have profound ramifications across the region, said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch Thailand, while it already "adds more damage to an already worrying trend in Thailand".

"Twitter gives space to different opinions and views, and that is so important in a restricted society – it gives people a chance to speak up," he said. "But if this censorship is welcomed by Thailand, then other countries, with worse records for human rights and freedom of speech, will find that they have an ally."

"If more and more companies follow the lead of Google and Twitter, as seems quite likely, it could represent the beginning of the end of the truly global Internet,' says Techdirt"

Is it time to leave Facebook?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/05/time-to-leave-facebook-debate

“There are more than two billion global internet users...we aim to connect with them all”

Facebook has been said to be "A great way of getting the latest news developments"

Elizabeth Day, Observer writer and author of the MediaGuardian said:

"What I value the most about Facebook is the ability to keep in touch with friends, wherever in the world they may find themselves"


We think it's important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do. I will try to outline our approach in this letter.

At Facebook, we're inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television — by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice. They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized. They brought us closer together.

Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they're thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.

There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.
We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other.

Even if our mission sounds big, it starts small — with the relationship between two people.
Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness.

At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people's capacity to build and maintain relationships.