The day the music died blog entry/quiz

MONDAY DEC. 10TH, 2008
T. JACOBSEN
COM155

THE DAY MUSIC DIED BLOG ENTRY/QUIZ

1. The author of this article, Andrew Keen, believes the there are “grave” consequences as a result of today’s participatory “Web 2.0”, such as threatening our values, economy, and creativity.

Describe in detail 3 of the American “institutions” (values, economic institutions, etc) that Keen feels are threatened in this chapter, and explain why he feels this way.

The first American institution that is being threatened is the movie industry. They are being affected by piracy. Today, people are downloading free movies and there are amateur sites that allow access towards the viewing of films. The movie business lost 6.1 billion dollars last year because of the piracy on the internet.

The second American institution that is being threatened is the television stations. People are finding ways to view their shows at different times, without commercials, and they are capable of rewinding live television. Consumers are buying DVR and TiVo. They are capable of downloading television shows off of the internet. Advertisement has been declining because of this.

The third American institution that is being threatened is the traditional newspapers and magazines. The “death of printed text.” People are using the internet as their main source for news. It is cheap and easier to access which hurts the newspapers and magazines. They have to shrink their size of newspapers and they are lacking their normal amount of advertisements in them. Young adults especially are almost all drawn towards the internet instead of the newspapers. They newspapers are still making money off of the older adults that are used to the traditional newspapers, but over time, it will be very difficult to continue their use, especially with advertisement.

Close each section by agreeing with or refuting his arguments. You can use examples from the reading or from other online sources.

I agree with Andrew when he talks about the movie industry being threatened. There has been a significant loss of money for the movies, especially the major movies due to the piracy of movies on the internet, but I believe that they need to find ways to adjust with the technology as it changes. The movie industry will have a difficult time preventing all piracy to end. They need to accept it and adjust to it. They should find ways to enable the movie business to be online. If they had a way to sell their movies or show their movies online by using a form of cost or charge, they would increase their revenue.

Since people are being able to find ways to download televisions shows and they use other technology like TiVo and DVR shows that technology is improving. The television shows should find ways to air their shows online as well as on TV. I do agree with Andrew about television shows though. I believe that people are finding it easier to pirate television shows then movies. There will be a lack of advertisement on television unless they incorporate advertisement into their actually show. If they do not find a way to merge advertisement into television shows, television will be affected greatly by the internet and advertisement will be forced to move all of their money towards being online where consumers are.

I do believe that printed text is dead. I believe that it is just an old fashion form of news and with technology these days’ people are not buying them. People have access to the news through their cell phones, through their computers, through their televisions, and through word of mouth, that it almost seems unnecessary to buy a newspaper. Advertisers are shifting their money towards online from newspapers as well because that is where consumers are. They do not want to be involved with something that is old fashion and nobody uses anymore. Technology will always be improving and certain things will end up being useless, such as newspapers. I feel that newspapers should migrate to the internet or else they will fall as a business. I know personally that I do use a newspaper title for my news, but online. I use USA Today.com. I disagree with Andrew when talks about magazines. I believe that magazines will always be considerably popular. Each magazine has something interesting that keeps people involved. They are not always necessarily news, so people use magazines for their own interest. I feel that people will always be reading magazines and advertisement will always be necessary in them.

2. In this article, the author makes a reference to Sir Thomas Moore’s satirical novel from 1515, Utopia. Explain what the idea of “the sheep are devouring men” means and explain how Keen relates this to the Web 2.0 world. Please use an example from the reading or another source to illustrate your answer.

“The sheep are devouring men” is another way of saying that the internet is taking over people’s interest and killing many American institutions. The internet is fast, efficient, accurate, and cheap. It is exactly what every American wants, especially during this time period because of the weakness of the economy. The internet is taking over old traditional companies and making others go bankrupt. Andrew Keen mentions on page 154, Mr. Wolff’s idea that “God is dead.” This meaning that the power house that the New York Times is, is only a small part for this story. He believes that our economy will see garage bands as our main source for music, and movies and television from glorified you tube videos. I agree with him, but he has to understand that the glorified youtube videos will be just as entertaining and may even be cheaper than the actual movies put out today. The movie industry will move towards the youtube videos and will be making money. The idea that sheep are devouring men is true. The internet is taking over, but it is only beneficial in the end.