In the last ten years, we have moved into a new age of participatory media. The advent of online social media - often referred to as Web 2.0 - has bought about a much broader media revolution. This includes blogs and online forums which provide opportunities for ordinary people to have their say, and to speak back to those in power. For example, it's a GREAT way for bands and their fans to interact, and allows their audience to express opinions about what they like and what they would like to see to improved.
Through social networking sites we can represent ourselves and connect with other people in new ways; while online sharing sites like Youtube allow people to distribute their own media content to global audiences. The most active participants in the creative world of Media 2.0 are the 'usual suspects' - people who are already privileged in other areas of their lives.
Age profile is another popular category of online participation. While younger people initially drove the uptake of social networking sites, for example , older people are not the fastest-growing group of subscribers. The same is true of mobile communications; while the micro-blogging service 'Twitter' is largely dominated by middle-aged people. Young people are sometimes the 'early adopters', but the idea that they are a uniquely 'digital generation' - and that there is a kind of technological generation gap - is rapidly becoming outdated.
Who's making Money?
Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite...now it's the people who are taking control!
The two richest and most profitable global media corporations are now Google and Facebook. Both are increasingly diversifying from their initial business - as a search engine and a social networking site - into a whole range of other media and branded products and services.
Who's doing the work?
Much of the marketing is itself 'user-generated' and 'interactive'. This is the most obvious case of viral marketing, where consumers are effectively recruited to distribute commercial messages on behalf of companies.
Fan Websites
Fan Websites which have been very much celebrated by enthusiasts for Media 2.0. Some argue that fan websites are about consumers taking back control of the media, making their own meanings from existing media texts, and leading towards a more democratic media environment.
Is it really liberating or empowering ordinary people to take control of the media?
I personally feel that the success of web 2.0 has definitely benefited small bands, much like GoldBloom, as ordinary people/obsessive fans have been over taken the power of being able to interact and to personally contact the bands though successful social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook. This has allowed the bands to interact with their fans, which is boosting the bands success as their fans are getting to know them as individuals as well as musicians, they are more likely to feel like they have to now go and see their live tours, visit their websites, buy their merchandise and buy their music.
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