ž
ž COMM130: Mass Media &
Society
žThe internet industry: MODERN
CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES / The
Videogame Industry
žToday’s Outline
ž Overview of modern Internet
industry
ž Production, Distribution,
& Exhibition
ž Natural & contextual
search engines
ž Word-of-mouse marketing
ž Media literacy on the Web
ž Implications of web analytics
ž User-generated content
ž Socioeconomic impact of online
industry
žWorldwide Penetration
ž
Selling the Internet as an Innovative Industrial Medium
žImportance of New Medium
žSurge in Internet Users
žProduction & Distribution
ž Interactivity: consumers
respond to content created & delivered by browser over the globe (hence
www!)
ž “Information super-highway”
— Services/products via
broadband telecommunication networks
— Digital technology allows
“transportation” of massive loads of information through fiber optic cables,
3G, & wireless routes
— Ongoing debate: how to shape
or regulate these avenues
— Normalization: laissez
faire attitude toward conglomerates?
ž Languages: HTML, JAVA, PHP
ž E-mail, Mobile Web, and iLife
žDistributing Ads Online
ž Text & display ads by
email marketing companies
ž Interstitial ads: forced-viewing as
publisher’s site is loaded between the site’s page loadings
ž Spam
— Companies offer filtering
programs to exclude/minimize it
— Banner & pop-up (optional)
ads lead to banner-blindness
ž Google operates 2 kinds of
advertising services:
— AdWords: a search-based
contextual advertising program
— AdSense: an ad network
(collection of sites to sell ads on)
ž Mass customization: target ads
to individual users based on cookies that track a user’s “clickstream”
ž Data mining: storing &
retrieving info about users
žExhibition in the Web Industry
ž Internet access via internet
service providers (ISP)
— ISPs charge some sites for
exhibition due to bandwidth use
— Access fees to customers could
restrict societal liberties, a.k.a. “net neutrality controversy”
ž Uniform Resource Locators
(URLs): 2 parts:
— Domain name of the individual
or organization
— Top-level domain (TLD)
ž Domain names registered with
ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
ž Point of entry into most
portals:
Search
engine (more later)
žSearch Engines
ž Natural (Organic) Search
Optimization
— Search engine result listings
that appear due to their relevance to the search terms, vs. being ads
— Content, vs. directive, links
to direct online traffic
ž Contextual
— Ads designed to look like the
search results
— Google claims their users
click (organic) search results more often than related ads
— Worth billions of marketing $$
per year!
ž What’s the
difference? A middleman!
ž AdWords are the ads
— Google's proprietary
advertising service that produces text-only ads on the right side of its search
results page
— All revenues from ads that
show on Google go to Google; company bids for & pays each time its ad is clicked
(PPC)
ž AdSense is the syndication
program used for them
— Ads seen via AdSense program
are AdWords ads posted on 3rd party sites; but algorithm is
unrevealed
— Sites set up accounts with
Google and list ads from Google Adwords on the sites; hardly an exclusive club
žWord-of-Mouse
ž Buzz or Viral Marketing
— http://showdown.contagiousmedia.org
— www.contagionmarketing.com
— www.contagiousmedia.org
— www.buzzfeed.com
ž Social Contagion Behavior:
Online Retailing
— Endorsements via MySpace,
Facebook, Orkut…
— Key features common to these
networks:
○
Transparency: Scrapbook, walls etc. visible to ‘all’
○
Messages spread through trusted relational links
— “Sell” news (engagement),
achievements (educ., prof., etc.)
— Click-and-mortar: both online and offline
points of sale
žMedia Literacy Online
ž Digital convergence = at the
heart of distribution of digitalized content across blurred media boundaries
ž Power & dominance in media
conglomerates’ hands
ž Privacy ethics
— Will corporate &
government agencies use advancing digital technology to collect or misuse
private information?
— Advocates argue users have to
choose & agree for data on them to be stored, but marketers prefer the
opt-out method
ž Transactional databases store
information about users who make purchases on-line; pro-advertisers
ž Web Filters: selective blocks
ž Peer-to-Peer (P2P): connects
nodes (acting as servers & clients both) on a file-sharing network
žDigital Divides
ž Affluence of supply vs.
Scarcity of demand
— Rising volume of online
content: programs, users
— Wealth of info
poverty of attention & time
○
Overloaded info goes unnoticed
○
Challenges: tailoring & relevance
ž Telling apart myth vs. fact
— Evaluate quality/authenticity
based on:
○
Scope of Coverage
○
Authority/Credibility
○
Objectivity: unbiased?
○
Accuracy
○
Timeliness
— Identify fraud and phishing
○
Hoaxes, chain letters, identity theft, $cam$
ž Web Analytics
Google, Statcounter, Awstats (Hosting Service Control Panel)
žWeb Analytics
ž Google Analytics
— Assess ways to improve site’s
ROI by tracking behaviors key to its success & “stickiness” in funneling
targeted traffic
— Identify which initiatives are
cost-effective & how users respond
— Generate real-time data on
user location maps, visitor activity, keywords, popular pages, visit duration,
visitor demographics
— www.google.com/analytics/home/provision
ž StatCounter
— www.statcounter.com
ž Web Analytics
Google, Statcounter, Awstats
ž Google Analytics
žUser-Generated Content
ž Web 3.0: the Intelligent video Web
— Futuristic innovations of the Internet
beyond 2.0 that aren’t technically or practically feasible at this time, but
speculative
— E.g. Semantic Web, AI, open
identity, ubiquitous connectivity
ž Web 2.0: the Internet as a multimedia
platform
— 1 megabit of bandwidth (vs. 10
megabit for web 3.0)
— NOT an update to technical
specs, but to changes in ways software developers and end-users utilize the Web
○
Web-based communities & hosting services, social networking, video
sharing, wikis, blogs, folksonomies (user-gen. taxonomies)
○
Folksonomy = classification system from collaboratively creating &
managing tags to annotate & categorize content
žVirtual Worlds
ž Online Gaming (video games TBD
later)
— Worldwide competitors: forums,
walls-of-fame
— Industry thrives on the
convergence to new media
ž Second Life (& http://teen.secondlife.com!)
— Social construction: imagined
reality vs. representation
— Avatars: users’ customized
persona(s)
○
E.g. SitePal, YM, G-talk images
○
Empower you as the creator of online identity
○
3D modeling, true-currency transactions
○
Virtual property production/ownership/display
žSocial Networking
ž
You = biggest factor in Web 2.0
ž
(source: www.pixelpod.co.uk)
ž
Source: Awareness Social Media Marketing, Inc.
žSocioeconomic “So What”
ž Shopping, playing, romancing,
& learning less offline
ž Make $$ at click of a button
from comfort zone
ž Telecommuting: work-from-home
ž E-commerce, e-trade, e-rotica!
ž Online dating, matrimonial,
relationships
ž Open courseware (MIT web),
e-degrees
žDiscussion Topics
ž What are the implications of
convergence, i.e. the shift away from older media industries to the Web?
ž How does the Internet’s
potential massification (as a medium) change the way you live &
communicate?
ž Can you separate mass &
interpersonal (networked) processes online?
What do people “watch” online?
ž What policy roles can key
Internet institutions play w.r.t. regulation, surveillance, production,
homogenization?
ž Has rising media choice made
citizen motivation more vital? How have the apathetic turned to entertainment?
žReferences… Thanks!
ž Turow J & Tsui L,
Editors. The Hyperlinked Society:
Questioning Connections in the Digital Age. 2008. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan
Press.
— Finkelstein, Seth: “Google,
Links, & Popularity versus Authority”
— Hindman, Matthew: “What is
the Online Public Sphere Good For?”
ž Turow J. 2009. Media
Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: Routledge (Taylor &
Francis), Inc.
ž Juliussen, Egil &
Petska-Juliussen, Karen. Internet
Industry Almanac. 8th Ed.
www.c-i-a.com
ž Miniwatts Marketing Group: www.internetworldstats.com
ž Wikipedia. HTTP, HTML, RSS, URL, ISP, P2P. 2008
ž The Video Game Industry
•
The video game industry has rapidly matured over the last few decades,
in terms of both technological complexity and corporate structure.
ž The Video Game Industry
•
The video game industry has rapidly matured over the last few decades,
in terms of both technological complexity and corporate structure.
•
Today, video games rival motion pictures as the most lucrative media industry,
bringing in $13.5 billion in revenues in 2006.
ž The Video Game Industry
• The video game industry has
rapidly matured over the last few decades, in terms of both technological
complexity and corporate structure.
• Today, video games rival
motion pictures as the most lucrative media industry, bringing in $13.5 billion
in revenues in 2006.
• Many video games now feature
complex characters, settings, and patterns of action, and look more and more
like interactive movies – driving trends in Hollywood, rather than the other
way around?
ž The History of Video Games
ž Originally developed in university
laboratories on mainframe computers, as well as by the U.S. military for
simulation training
ž Also roots in electronic pinball
machines
ž The modern video game industry
began in 1972 with Atari’s Pong – the first widely popular video game, coin-operated,
played in public places such as bars and pizza parlors
ž Video game arcades rose
in popularity by the late 1970’s, fueled by the success of innovative Japanese
arcade games: Space Invaders (1978, Taito), Pac-Man (1980, Namco), Donkey Kong
(1981, Nintendo)
ž After the market failure of
the Atari 5200 and other home consoles caused an industry crisis, the Nintendo
Entertainment System resurrected the home console market beginning
in 1985
ž History of Video Games cont’d
ž Also in the 1980’s: computer
games became a major selling-point for the new home computers: Commodore
64, Apple 2e, IBM PC, etc. More sophisticated games began to be developed with
PC technology: simulation, role-playing adventure, strategy, etc.
ž In the 1990’s, home console
gaming became big business. Media giant Sony entered the market in
1994 with Playstation, and became the dominant industry player for years. Microsoft,
another global conglomerate, entered the market in 2001
ž The 2000’s saw the increasing
importance of online gaming: MMPORGS, Multiplayer online
“clans,” (ex. Halo) casual internet
games (ex. Scrabulous, poker/online gambling, etc.)
ž The contemporary video game
industry
Two intertwined business:
ž hardware
ž software
ž Video Game Hardware
ž Home Consoles (Xbox 360, Playstation 3,
Nintendo Wii)
ž Handheld Consoles (Nintendo DS, Sony PSP)
ž Coin-Operated Arcade Machines – still around! Often feature
more intense physical experiences (Dance Dance Revolution, race cars, etc.)
ž Personal Computers
CD
games - typically for “hard-core” audience, but losing market share to console
games
Online
games - typically casual games, older and more female audience?
ž Mobile phones – an increasingly important
part of the video game industry – typically casual games, downloadable content
ž Internet TV – a small but fast-growing
sector - casual games sent directly to
TV from digital cable and satellite companies
ž Video Game Software
Production:
A distinction between software publisher and developer
ž Publisher – Comes up with a marketable
concept, puts up the money, positions the game in the marketplace with
advertising/promotion
ž Developer – Paid by the publisher to
handle the technical production of the games – involves highly specialized
labor (writing code, etc.)
ž Most games are made by third
party publishers, but console makers (ex. Nintendo, Microsoft) also publish
games exclusively for their systems, hoping to make a “killer-app” (ex.
Microsoft’s “Halo” for XBOX)
ž Some big companies handle both
publishing and developing (ex. EA)
ž Video Game Distribution and
Exhibition
Distribution:
ž Often handled by major
publishers, sometimes by independent firms
ž Can involve getting CDs or
cartridges into stores, internet distribution to computers or mobile phones,
cable and satellite TV distribution through subscription, etc.
Exhibition:
ž Console and PC games sold by
major retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy), video game specialty stores (Gamestop, EB
Games), online
retailers (Amazon)
ž Casual online games can be
downloaded through internet services for a low price, or may be accessible for
free (w/ ads!)
ž Advertising in Video Games
ž Advertisers are desperate to
reach young men, who have seemingly left TV for video games.
ž Advergaming: Creating custom games (ex.
Burger King), or embedded ads (ex. ads placed in Second Life)
ž Dynamic in-game advertising: sending customized, targeted
ads into games as their played, changing ads based on game setting and level
ž Video Games and Society:
Concerns About Sex and Violence
ž Entertainment Software Ratings
Board (ESRB) founded
in 1994 by the video game industry under intense government pressure to limit
children’s exposure to harmful content – followed controversies about
graphically violent games such as Doom and Mortal Combat
Recent controversies:
ž Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: pulled
from U.S. retail stores after sex scene was discovered
ž Manhunt 2: banned in UK, Ireland &
Italy due to extreme violence
ž Video games continue to be at
the center of the debate about the potential effects of media on children –
continuing interest within U.S. Congress