14. HOTLY TIPPED PRODUCT - IPHONE

The iPhone is three "amazing products" – mobile phone, widescreen iPod and breakthrough internet communications – in one. It is replacing the conventional mobile phone, with more features, a better music player, increased internet capabilities and more importantly a memory of 4GB or 8GB. It also has a 2MP camera, touchscreen, as well as Bluetooth and wi-fi capabilities. It is relevant to show the increasing demands of the audiences, and the converged devices which are now being produced. The technology involved, is internet, camera, phone, Bluetooth etc.

The phone interests a wide target audience from the ages of 14 – 35, however mainly males. Music lovers will like the fact that the phone has a relatively big memory so that can store a lot of songs on the phone, teenagers will also like that there is Bluetooth allowing them to effortlessly share their files with their friends, and business men will like the increased internet capabilities which allow them to constantly stay in touch. The phone offers a lot and is seen as a breakthrough in communication devices. The main thing that interests people are the inbuilt iPod capabilities, as a lot of people have ipods, and by converging this device with a phone, it makes life easier for the audience as they do not have to carry two devices – it is all in one.

The institution involved is Apple, who are producing a break through product, which is bound to be extremely popular with the audience, especially following the success in past years with the iPod. The fact that iPod chose to introduce the product several months earlier than its release date (June 2007) allows interest to be created, and thus when the product is eventually it will be in a lot of demand.

Regulation is a factor that needs to be taken into account here as music is often downloaded illegally. This is something which can not really be control, as there are too many people doing it to prosecute everyone. This means that everyone continues to do it. Quality is a factor, as the 2 MP camera is an example of what is being improved through the new technology. Convergence however is probably the key thing. With all of the advance features that the iPhone offers a lot of different technologies have been combined to provide the audience with this e.g. camera and iPod. Portability is a factor, as the point is that you can take the device with you and then do a lot of things with it, regardless of where you are, this is similar to miniaturisation, where even though the product has a lot more features, it is still relatively small considering. The phone is also an example of personalisation, as the things that people put on the phone can be personalised according to their interests for example different music.

10. VLOG – LONELYGIRL15

Lonely Girl 15’s You Tube “vlogs” have become a cult internet phenomenon since they first debuted in June 2006. When Lonely Girl 15 first started it was thought by all that she was Bree, a home schooled, American girl and her daily vlogs became compulsive viewing for millions. However, cynics believed that she was faking it, and a debate on the LG15 forum uncovered the truth that Bree was in fact New-Zealand actress Jessica Rose, the work of 3 wannabe script writers who wanted to tell a realistic fictional story. Despite all of this being revealed Lonely Girl 15 still continues to post blogs and her popularity is still huge. As well as being the most subscribed to vlog, she also won the biggest web hit award on VH1’s big in 2006 awards. Vlogs are replacing the conventional blogging on the internet by allowing the audience to share their thoughts through videos rather than just text. This is relevant to show the increase in internet use, the development in blogs, and how the big the development of a cult phenomenon can become amongst fans.

The main people who watch Lonely Girl 15 are female teenagers who feel that they can relate to Bree’s story. However since Lonely Girls 15s reveal many feel cheated and don’t watch her anymore however, this has also gained more exposure for her meaning even more people are interested in her “life”. They watch it as it allows them to act as a voyeur – they can get insight into a real persons life, and share her thoughts and feelings. They may also be able to relate to the situations she is in, as even though it has been discovered that the whole thing was made up, it was made to be as realistic as possible, allowing the audience to relate. They also use the bog to meet new people, who are interested in the same thing as them. Fansites such as lonely girl 15 can be created due to this interest in her life by some people. However, not everyone consumes Bree’s life in the same way. Whilst some are fans who are just interested in Bree’s blogging others take their interest further by joining the fan site and commenting within it.

The company behind the idea are involved, however the main institution involved is youtube, who act as a platform for Bree to display her videos to the world. The website has slightly helped to increase youtubes exposure, as fans of Bree who log on to see her videos, may then stay and explore other parts of the websites. The main technology involved is a high quality webcam, which allows the videos posted to be of a good quality for people to watch.

Lonely girl 15’s blog is a good example of interactivity. As well as allowing Jessica Rose to post her life on the internet, people can comment on this as well as subscribe to her videos in order to receive updates when they are updated. This is also an example of persoanlisation, as she has edited the colours of the page in order to suit her tastes and included the websites that are of nterest to her on it. Qulaity has also improved, as the webcam quality we receive here is different to the old webcams, that had a much poorer quality. The website is also a key example of democratisation. The fact that Jessica Rose was easily able to set up her own vlog, and then post videos on it shows how easy it is for anyone to get in on the act and join the internet revolution. Reach is also apparent as people all over the world can access lonely giril 15’s blog by logging on to youtube. This has allowed for a world wide fanbase to be set up. However regulation, was a factor in the blogs, as Bree used to play RIAA controlled music in the background such as Nelly, however, she soon moved on to using music that could be used legally , largely under the creative common licence such as CC Mixter, due to refgulation rules.

8. BLOG – OHNOTHEYDIDNT

Ohnotheydidnt is a livejournal community where celebrity gossip is posted. In order to post and comment you have to join the community by having a livejournal, however this is free to do. If you don’t want to do this, you can just read the community for free regardless. The community is updated on a regular basis by people from all other the world, and it shows how much people can talk about things that interest them, and how the internet has allowed for niche communities such as this to be set up. The technology involved is the internet as this is an internet community.
The main people who use this blog are females aged 15-25 who are interested in celebrity gossip. Although the majority of these people come from America, as it is accessible from all over the world it means there are also plenty of members from the UK and Canada. This is because they are the age most interested in celebrity gossip; particularly in their downfalls as it lets them feel better about themselves and in some cases can be humorous. The site is constantly updated so the audience always know what’s going on. This very different to how it used to be. Before gossip lovers depending on magazines to update them with what was going on and had to be content with one fixed opinion weekly. Now, they can visit many websites, get plenty of different opinions, at regular opportunities, as well as with the increased feature of embedded video, for example Hilary Duff on Loose Women. There is also the chat feature, allowing you to have instant conversations with anyone all over the world, who is currently on the ohnotheydidnt page. This allows you to instantly discuss your views with people who are interested in the same thing as you.

The livejournal its self is simply laid out with the headline at the top which has 4 links incorporated into it – info, for more information on the community itself for example number of members (48,783 members and counting ), chat, where using “gabbly” you can have online instant messenger chats with anyone in the world who is on ohnotheydidnt at that moment in time, join, which leads you to a link to join the website in order to post and finally email, which gives you the sites email address (weeatcelebs@gmail.com). Underneath is the gossip, ranked chronologically, with the most recent first.

Livejournal is the main institution involved, as they provide the hosting site for the blog its self. In general though not many institutions are involved as it is a blog, which members of the public contribute to and there are no adverts. The gossip posted is about everyone and anyone, so in theory a company could start a gossip trail, ending up with their product on the site however this is quite unlikely.

This blog is an example of interactivity as the people who are involved can edit and post their own input on the website, immediacy as it is done through the internet, personalisation as the media is for a specific group of people – those interested in celebrity gossip and flexibility as the media can be accessed 24 hours a day. Democratisation can be seen as anyone can join in, as long as they have a livejournal putting in any news stories they may have seen, as well as commenting on other people’s stories, and so can convergence due to the fact that videos can be placed on the site. Diversification can also be seen, as the site is made for a niche audience who have a special interest in gossip. Reach can be seen as the site is on the internet, and anyone can access it from all over the world – since the 17th of September 2005, 44, 544, 377 people had visited the site (figure taken on 17/04/07), as well as fragmentation through the specialist subject being discussed on the website. Finally regulation, or the lack of, can be seen as anything can be posted, and this includes water marked images from sites such as Getty Images, for example Paris and Nicole on the set of the simple life.