Archive for the ‘Media Impact’ Category
Teens Violent Behavior Developing Through Media
School violence affects parents of most teenagers. One of the factors that cause violent behavior among teenagers is TV viewing. There are various TV shows on both foreign and local channels that a teen wants to watch. However, not all are good for them.
The numbers of teens, who listen to violent music, watch violent movies and TV shows, and play violent video games are increasing day by day. All of these media may serve as factors that affect teenagers and cause them violent behaviors.
Another problem in our present times is that teens can have easy access to weapons, shows and many others that could affect their way of thinking. Now if a parent wants to watch over her child for the sake of saving him from developing a violent behavior, there are things that need to be observed.
When a teen wants to display violent behavior, then it is time to be aware. If he has some excessive fascination with violent video games and wants to show remorse while playing or might be the inability to feel mercy, these can also be considered as signs.
It is always important that parents supervise what the teenagers do. They should be aware of the fascinations their kids are having. Parents’ supervision could help save teens from becoming violent as they will be aware of their wants and activities. It is very important that you get to know the kind of world your teens are into.
Song lyrics and melodies, TV shows and movie themes are types of media that could input violence into teenagers’ mind. Now, the source has become easier to access through the internet. A teen wants to get hold of those sources because it’s hip or out of curiosity. This makes parents even more worried about what’s developing into them.
One of the best things parents should do is teach teens very well. They should be aware about what they should avoid watching or singing, etc. If they know the things that could produce violent behavior in them, they might be cautious about those stuffs. It will also bring good results if they will learn how to deal with the anger they experience. A teen wants to learn, definitely about this thing.
There are many teen oriented entertainment channels on TV that teenagers would enjoy watching. They help the youngsters to develop values on love, friendship, family relationship and others. These programs are highly recommended and they appropriate for teens. They are worth watching and unlike the other media that bring about violent effects, these are safe to watch. Not only those teens will enjoy watching them but parents too.
A teen wants to be hip but it is not impossible anyway to be on the update without those stuffs that could input violence into their inexperienced minds.
Television's Impact on Kids
Television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids’ lives. According to Kids’ Take on Media, a survey conducted in 2003 by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, watching TV is a daily pastime for 75 percent of Canadian children, both boys and girls from Grade 3 to Grade 10.
How much impact TV has on children depends on many factors: how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV.
To minimize the potential negative effects of television, it’s important to understand what the impact of television can be on children. Below you will find information on some areas of concern.
Violence
Over the past two decades, hundreds of studies have examined how violent programming on TV affects children and young people. While a direct “cause and effect” link is difficult to establish, there is a growing consensus that some children may be vulnerable to violent images and messages.
Researchers have identified three potential responses to media violence in children:
Increased fear—also known as the “mean and scary world” syndrome
Children, particularly girls, are much more likely than adults to be portrayed as victims of violence on TV, and this can make them more afraid of the world around them.
Desensitization to real-life violence
Some of the most violent TV shows are children’s cartoons, in which violence is portrayed as humorous—and realistic consequences of violence are seldom shown.
Increased aggressive behaviour
This can be especially true of young children, who are more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviour after viewing violent TV shows or movies.
Parents should also pay close attention to what their children see in the news since studies have shown that kids are more afraid of violence in news coverage than in any other media content. Fear based on real news events increases as children get older and are better able to distinguish fantasy from reality.
Effects on healthy child development
Television can affect learning and school performance if it cuts into the time kids need for activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. Most of children’s free time, especially during the early formative years, should be spent in activities such as playing, reading, exploring nature, learning about music or participating in sports.
TV viewing is a sedentary activity, and has been proven to be a significant factor in childhood obesity. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada almost one in four Canadian children, between seven and 12, is obese. Time spent in front of the TV is often at the expense of more active pastimes.
A Scientific American article entitled “Television Addiction” examined why children and adults may find it hard to turn their TVs off. According to researchers, viewers feel an instant sense of relaxation when they start to watch TV—but that feeling disappears just as quickly when the box is turned off. While people generally feel more energized after playing sports or engaging in hobbies, after watching TV they usually feel depleted of energy. According to the article “this is the irony of TV: people watch a great deal longer than they plan to, even though prolonged viewing is less rewarding.”
As well as encouraging a sedentary lifestyle, television can also contribute to childhood obesity by aggressively marketing junk food to young audiences. According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, most food advertising on children’s TV shows is for fast foods, candy and pre-sweetened cereals. Commercials for healthy food make up only 4 per cent of those shown.
lot of money goes into making ads that are successful in influencing consumer behaviour. McDonald’s, the largest food advertiser on TV, reportedly spent $500 million on their “We love to see you smile” ad campaign.
Sexual content
Kids today are bombarded with sexual messages and images in all media—television, magazines, advertisements, music, movies and the Internet. Parents are often concerned about whether these messages are healthy. While television can be a powerful tool for educating young people about the responsibilities and risks of sexual behaviour, such issues are seldom mentioned or dealt with in a meaningful way in programs containing sexual content.
According to a 2001 study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, entitled Sex on TV, three out of four prime time shows contain sexual references. Situation comedies top the list: 84 per cent contain sexual content. Of the shows with sexual content, only one in ten included references to safe sex, or the possible risks or responsibilities of sex. In shows that portrayed teens in sexual situations, only 17 per cent contained messages about safe and responsible sex.
IMPACTS OF MEDIA ON SOCIETY
By the beginning of this 21st century, where the standard of education just keeps on rising and where man wants to touch the boundaries of this sky to that here I am shocked to see the high level indulgence of media in human life today. It is effecting the human minds with a pretty rapid speed and its influence is now so mixed up in our blood and veins that as human life seems to be at a loss or incomplete with out the favor of it.
It is no doubt a highly debatable topic whether the role and impacts of media is positive and constructive towards our society or it is a slow and gradual poisoning of minds polluting agents for our lives.
As we all know that a society and specially our youth are directly influenced by media so in order to get the actual report I conducted a survey on “Impacts of Media On society” which helped me a lot to get a consensus and report on this topic.
A number of things constitute a society. In order to get more concise and accurate results I divided our survey with respect to three things:
According to age of individual According to the designation of individual Net results and views of people
MAIN POINTS OF THE SURVEY:
Positive impacts:
It has power to speak against wrong things and events of the society. A major source of awareness. Our world has become a global village with the courtesy of media. Exposes many corruption cases and injustices taking place in the society. Gives new ideas about the way of living, style, fashion and modernize our culture.
Negative impacts:
TV shows and dramas are copying western culture and leaving a very wrong impact and immaterialist culture upon the minds of especially young generation. The accessibility to Internet and messaging services has given an un-restricted freedom causing bad cases in the society. Its focus is always on the exaggeration of any event regardless of the indulgence of wrong propaganda creating panic in the society. News channels creating frustration by making hype of anything.
MY RESULTS:
I concluded the result with respect to three basis. Let’s have a look on them.
ACCORDING TO AGE:
When I concluded the survey report with respect to age of individuals following result was found:
?
In 18-25 years old people:
51% believes that it depends upon the usage of it. 40.5% believes that its impacts are destructive 8.6% people with a very small ratio believes that media is playing a constructive and positive role.
In 26-40 years old people:
29.4% believes that it depends upon how the person uses it 47% people votes for the negative impacts of it 23.5% people agree with the significant and positive role of it.
In 41-60 years old people:
18.18% says that it totally depends upon the usage of it 9.09% says that its role is not appropriate or is leading towards destruction 72.72% people say that the media is doing a good job and is very positive.
CONCLUSION:
Our youth is not so much inclined towards the favor of media and majority says that it depends upon how individual use it and if one wants to get benefit from it he can on other hand if one want to ruin itself through different ways media would become a source of his destruction but here I noticed a strange behavior when we move upward in the age of people it is noticed that there are more people who are in favor of media and consider it a blessing of science as I found that more than 72% of the people ranging from 41-60 years are in favor of media.
ACCORDING TO DESIGNATION:
When I concluded the survey report with respect to the designation of individuals following result was found:
STUDENTS’ OPINION:
51% says that it depends upon the usage of it. 39% says that it is playing a negative role and is a major source of social disorganization in the society. 10% students with a small ratio are in the favor of media and say that it is playing a good and marvelous role in the society.
TEACHERS’ AND PROFESSORS’ OPINION:
42.85% says that it depends upon the person as se can take benefit from it and in the same time he can go for the wrong thing and bear severe loss. 28.5% says that the media’s impacts are positive on the society and is doing a good job. 28.5%, with the similar ratio of positive vote of media says that it’s just trying to make more and more money regardless of the fact that they are creating panic and chaos in the society.
WORKING CLASS:
31% believes that the impact and role of media is not good or bad itself but varies from person to person and largely depends upon how an individual uses it. 38% says that they are providing wrong values and customs to our society and specially youth and largely focuses on the negative aspect of every picture. 31% believes that it is doing a tremendous job and is a major factor behind the concept of global village of the world.
CONCLUSION:
Majority of the teachers and professors of our society says that a person itself is responsible for the impacts of anything as if he chooses the right path to follow it will definitely lead him towards success but if he chooses wrong path he will face the destruction but some of them believes on the positive role of it and some consider it simply a violating agent of society.
Our working class is not in favor of media and consider that they are just adding wrong concepts and values to our lives and in order to compete other channels even our news are producing violence by creating the hype of any news but some also believes that they are a major source of information and connecting the people all around the world and some believes that the influence and effect of media depends upon the user of it.
OVERALL RESULT:
When I calculated the overall result of our survey, following result was found:
37% people with highest ratio says that the impacts of media are neutral as if the person is intended to get benefits from it, media is helpful and will support the person and the same media can lead a person towards destruction if he uses it for wrong sake and in a wrong way. These days, where mobile messaging service is used to protest against wrong demand of government or any wrong deed so in the meanwhile it is also used to create wrong propaganda in the society and for torturing the people on the name of Islam by wrong messages.
34% people with second highest ratio say that the impacts are negative as it is promoting other cultures and violating our youth. Media is just showing the negative aspect of every thing showing only the problems not giving the solutions to these problems and producing a state of anarchy in the society.
29% people with least ratio agree to the significance of media and consider it is playing a responsible and fair role in the society and helps the people in so many ways like it gives information to large amount of public and keeps them updated and reveals so many cases of corruption of many reputable persons specially electronic media which causes many illiterate people to get informed about all the circumstances happening in the society.
MY POINT OF VIEW
The media yields great power but do not forget that ‘great power means great responsibility’. This should always be remembered, but these days in the mad race of ‘Breaking News’, the media is sometimes losing its focus and distorting media ethics.
The role of media has become very important in shaping present day socie
ty. The print and the electronic media have become a part of one’s daily life. Undoubtedly, media has attained the role of a powerful organ in virtually all spheres of society. In this given scenario, media should have a great responsibility as media without accountability can become a dangerous instrument and can harm the society irreparably. It is said that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Corruption not in literal sense but presenting news in a twisted manner that suits the channel and misguides the masses in general is also a sort of corruption.
There are numerous advantages of media but there must be some sort of restrictions, which are to be followed by it.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY:
We must protest against the wrong propaganda of media. Instead of blaming others we have to educate our people what is good and bad and what are their circumstances. Encourage the positive activities of media. Must try to promote our norms and values in society. Face the problem and find the solution rather than ignoring it. Restrictions to use are not the solution of problem as it creates more curiosity among the people however actual guidance is needed in order to analyze good or bad by her own-self.
Impact of newspaper advertising
Newspaper advertising works on the fundamental of building trust and confidence with the readers. According to Webwindows, a leading media agency in the UK, your choice of the newspaper, and the content and design of the advertisement should be such that it wins over the trust of the reader at the first go. Webwindows supports it case by stating that recent studies all point to the fact that a well drafted classified advertisement placed in the right newspaper opens up the doors to success. According to Webwindows, newspapers over a period have built a strong level of trust and confidence in the people which is unmatched by any other form of media. Webwindows further states that while online media has its use, for advertising newspaper is the best medium. Webwindows feels that online media can be used for making purchases simply because it gives the customers the opportunity to shop at any time of the day or night from the comforts of their homes. To advertise, Webwindows recommends people should use the offline media.
According to Webwindows people read newspapers for relaxation and when they do that, they love to browse through advertisements and if for nothing else but for the sake of curiosity. So even if they don’t want to buy a product at a particular point of time, Webwindows says that they encircle the ad or keep it for future reference. This according to Webwindows is the power of newspaper advertising. It is precisely because of this Webwindows is dedicated to serve online companies and provide them result-oriented and cost effective advertisement strategies. UK’s leading media agency, Webwindows, offers specialized services in ad design and placement strategies. Webwindows has a signature page, the Webwindows page that appears as a colored weekend supplement in seven newspapers and magazines of UK which helps online companies reach to a large readership base of 5 million readers.
Webwindows feels that newspapers provide you just the right platform to advertise your products and services and make a strong presence among the readers. Newspapers have a large readership and it is the preferred medium of acquainting oneself with information. Therefore Webwindows feels that newspapers have a great power to build brand awareness. Newspapers, according to Webwindows, can help you introduce your company in a positive light by making a prompt impact and a long lasting effect.
According to Webwindows, newspapers have the greatest impact because of the following reasons:
Experts say the greater the exposure of the advertisement, the longer is the period of its impact among the readers. Therefore Webwindows feels if an advertisement stays in the memory of a consumer for a longer time, chances are quite probable that he might opt for purchasing or availing your services as and when required. This counts for higher sales and brand awareness. A newspaper reader is so involved in his reading that sometimes the content in the advertisements creates an emotional impact on him. It is this power of being able to evoke an emotional response with the reader that goes in favour of newspaper advertising. In other media, especially online media, people get perturbed by the distractions in the form of pop-ups and other advertisement forms that keep flashing on and off the screen. In fact Webwindows points out that instead of having any favourable impact, these ads serve to distract the readers. However newspapers, point out Webwindows, involves a focused reading where there are no disturbing and unwanted flashes of advertisements. As there is no distance between the reader and the story it seems that the reader actually undergoes all the emotions in the story himself, leading to increase in the trust factor. Taking advantage of this trust quotient, advertisers cash on newspapers to send their messages loud and clear among the readers.
It has been proved time and again that that the level of trust and confidence associated with the newspapers are much more than any other media. Basing their strategies on the same principal, Webwindows provide integrated and the most effective ad composition and placement strategies that assists businesses to develop a positive relationship with the readers. In fact Webwindows has a dedicated page, the Webwindows page that appears in seven leading newspapers in the UK. The advantage of advertising in the Webwindows page is that your ad is read by over five million people per week and these are the people who are looking to buy products and services online. The Webwindows page is extremely popular with the readers who now know that this is the best place to look for online companies offering products and services they are looking for. As already pointed out, the Webwindows page appears in seven leading newspapers. The Webwindows executives can guide you as to which newspaper would best meet your requirements.
What Are The Most Used Social Media Marketing Sites?
When you do business online there are many different social media sites that you will need to use to market your business. Social marketing is one of the more effective marketing methods available online.
Not only can this advertising at the drive more visitors to your website you can also keep you in touch with potential business contacts. Many people use these sites to help them build a better relationship with their customers.
By using the different media sites effectively you will be able to use them to build your business to success. Some of the top media sites include:
1. Squidoo – This is a very big site that is used by many online business owners because it is very effective. Plus it is free to get started no matter what business you are promoting.
You can even build more than one Squidoo lens about your business using different angles. That is a very effective way to use this media site to build your business. This will help people start seeing you as an expert in your niche.
2. Facebook – This is another very popular site that you want to use for your marketing. Many people use Facebook for personal reasons but also for business building.
It is always a good idea to remember that you need to learn how to use these sites effectively. If you don’t learn how to use them from the beginning then you will always struggle to get good results.
The smart way to use this site and any other is to educate yourself about them and then put into action what you have learned. This will provide the maximum results for your business building.
3. YouTube – This is a social site that everyone has heard of before. Because it works this site is being used by many Internet marketers were building their online business.
You can use on a video on the site to promote your business and people love videos because it benefits them without all the work of reading. You certainly want to be using this site for successfully building your business.
These are not all of the social media sites that can be found and used online to build your business but they are the biggest ones and most effective. Always remember that social marketing is one of the most effective methods available so you definitely want to take the time to learn how to use it successfully.
Social-media Impact: Balancing Metrics and Insight for Advertising Success
Brands can benefit from advertising in social-media space. The approaches offer a means to engage consumers, enhance brand reputation and image, build positive brand attitudes, improve organic search rankings, and drive traffic to brand locations, both on- and off-line. The steps in any advertising campaign will begin with setting campaign objectives and end with assessing the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics to determine the degree of success in accomplishing the stated objectives and to inform the next campaign. The challenge is to develop a set of measures to assess success and plan for future strategies and tactics.
At this stage of development, social-media advertising lacks the standard metrics that have served as a primary advantage for online advertising. Online advertising as a form of direct-response advertising has measurability built into its very existence. Advertisers can measure reach (the number of people exposed to the message) and frequency (the average number of times someone is exposed), and analyze site stickiness (the ability of a site to draw repeat visits and to keep people on a site) and the relative pull of creative presentations (a comparison of the ability for different creative executions to generate response). They can also monitor clickthroughs (the number of people exposed who click on an online ad or link), sales conversions (the number of people who click- through who then purchase product), and viewthroughs (the number of people who are exposed and do not clickthrough but later visit the brand’s Web site). These metrics are applicable to the use of display advertising in social spaces. If L’Oreal buys display ads on Facebook, all of these metrics are available to gauge effectiveness.
However, for the more innovative approaches available, metrics like number of unique visitors, page views, frequency of visits, average visit length, and clickthrough rates are either totally inappropriate or irrelevant, or simply fail to capture information about the objectives of a social-media advertising campaign. Our tendency is to count — count impressions, visitors, friends, posts, players. There is a place for numbers. For instance, knowing the number of community members involved in brand-related conversations can serve as an indicator of exposure, and the number of message threads and lines of text within a thread can serve as proxies of conversation depth. However, counting does not capture the essence of the interaction consumers had with the brand, the degree of engagement felt during and after the interaction, or the effects of the interaction, exposure to brand messages, and brand engagement on measures like brand likability, brand image, brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand affiliation, congruency, and purchase intent. Jeep may have 8,500 MySpace friends, but the number does nothing to tell us how the friends feel about Jeep. An ARG may boast millions of players, but the sheer quantity of players does not reveal the success of the strategy. To measure outcomes of social advertising, organizations must balance quantitative metrics with qualitative insights.
The Measurement Process
The appropriate approaches to measurement will vary depending upon the campaign’s objectives and the social-media strategies and tactics used. However, these are the basic steps any measurement program should include.
Step 1: Review the objectives set for the campaign.
Step 2: Map the components of the social-media strategy used in the campaign.
Step 3: Determine the criteria that will be used to assess the achievement of objectives, and the tools necessary to measure the criteria.
Step 4: Establish a baseline or benchmark with which one can compare accomplishments.
Step 5: Analyze the effectiveness of the campaign components given the outcomes measured and propose changes appropriate for moving forward.
Step 6: Keep measuring.
Reviewing Objectives
Step 1, reviewing the campaign objectives, assumes that the objectives were set prior to pursuing advertising opportunities in social media. Not all brands set formal objectives. Some are simply experimenting with social media, and for them the experience of executing a campaign using emerging platforms is sufficient. For most brands, though, failing to set clear objectives is a mistake. When it comes to assessing success, if there are no objectives, how do you know if where you ended up is where you wanted to be? The specific objectives identified can vary dramatically from brand to brand but usually encompass three overarching issues: (1) motivating some action like visits to a Web site or sales, (2) affecting brand knowledge and attitudes, and (3) accomplishing the first two with fewer resources than might be required with other advertising and promotional methods.
Mapping the Campaign
Step 2 calls for mapping all of the social-media aspects of the advertising campaign. This activity results in a visual representation of the tactics used and how they may interact. Mapping is a technique advocated by Chris Brogan on his blog (http://chrisbrogan.com). In a post entitled “Measuring Social Media Efforts,” he explains that maps can be crude, simple drawings but even a rough sketch can be valuable as brands seek to measure accomplishments in the social-media space. A map would display the types of branded messages produced and distributed (e.g., written vehicles like blog posts and white papers, ads in the form of display ads or rich media video, and podcasts) and invitations for consumer engagement with the brand (e.g., games, consumer-generated advertising contests and promotions, and interactive brand experiences) as well as the online location for these materials. It should also include online locations where content relating to the brand may be distributed by others. For instance, are there viral videos on YouTube that highlight the brand? Are there product reviews on sites like Epinions.com? Are there MySpace pages with brand icons and information posted? Are there bloggers writing about the brand? Are members of delicious tagging the brand’s Web site, and are Digg members voting for branded content?
Once all the sources of brand information are identified, the map should sketch out the chain of touch points possible. A touch point is simply a contact point between the brand and the consumer. Mini Cooper “touches” a consumer when someone visits the dealer showroom, visits the Mini Web site or one of its microsites, receives brochures and other promotional material from the company, or brings a car in for service. These are all brand-controlled touch points, but many touch points that the brand does not control do exist, especially online. In addition to the consumer-generated content that relates to the brand, there may be conversational touch points going on. Are people reading the blog postings (or even responding to blog posts) that mention the brand? Are people watching videos posted on sites like YouTube? Are they voting for content on Digg? In other words, is the media (whether brand-generated or consumer-generated) being consumed by those it reaches and is it being “fortified” (as in CFM)? Ultimately, the map should show four levels of contact: (1) brand-generated content, (2) consumer-generated content, (3) consumer-fortified content, and (4) exposures to content consumers.
Choosing Criteria and Tools of Measurement
In step 3, the criteria for assessing effectiveness are determined, and the tools necessary for measurement are selected. The objectives and the map should direct the identification of criteria, as well as the best tools. For example, imagine that Secret deodorant seeks to develop brand awareness for two new products, Secret Clinical Strength deodorant and Secret Scent Expressions body spray. It al
so wants to drive traffic to the product Web sites and increase sales of these products. Lastly, it wants to reinforce Secret’s image of celebrating women, their strength and their secrets. The brand enters the social-media space with an advertising campaign, which also includes traditional media components, called Because You’re Hot. The campaign, by Leo Burnett Chicago, plays on the definition of “hot” to connect to the efficacy of the Secret brand benefit while recognizing characteristics that make a woman hot (being strong). The Secret Web site and two microsites, http://www.becauseyourehot.com and http://www.sparklebodyspray.com, would be sketched on a social-media map, along with other tactics like the Rihanna’s Secret MySpace profile (which features Secret Body Spray as a sponsor). Visitors to the Scent Expressions microsite are encouraged to participate in a quiz to identify their ideal scent, and those visiting the Because You’re Hot site can vote on what’s hottest using Secret’s Hot-o-Meter. Secret also runs a promotion in MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach, encouraging women to “share their secrets.” Secret could expand the social-media aspects of the campaign by frosting a blog with contributions from a slate of strong female celebrities, having a virtual dance party with a Jennifer Lopez avatar (to tie in to the dance contest featured in the traditional media component of the campaign) in Second Life, and inviting women to develop videos that capture the essence of the slogan, Because You’re Hot. These videos could then be hosted on a Secret channel on YouTube. These are some of the brand-generated messages and invitations for participation in the campaign. Consumers are generating content about Secret. Technorati lists blogs, posts, and videos that mention both products. YouTube also includes videos tagged with Secret deodorant and Secret Scent Expressions. Internet users have opportunities for exposure and can fortify the messages with comments and product reviews.
What criteria and tools then should Secret use to evaluate success of these techniques? Secret’s objectives emphasized a desire to (1) build awareness of its new products, (2) drive visits to its Web sites, (3) drive sales, and (4) strengthen the Secret brand image. Objective 2 is easily addressed with traditional Web site metrics and measurement tools. The Secret sites can track hits, page views, and unique visitors; the sites enable registration, which can also be tracked. Organic search engine rankings can also be assessed for the brand name and its slogans. Secret is not performing well on organic search. The word secret generates a third-place spot for the Secret brand; the word deodorant places Secret in sixth place. Searches with the slogans “Because You’re Hot” and “Share Your Secret” result in third-place listings.
Awareness can be suggested with the Web site traffic and traffic to other branded components. For instance, Rihanna’s Secret MySpace profile boasts over 24,000 friends, some of whom have fortified the profile with comments. It can also be suggested with brand mentions in other online space. Secret might ask, “Is the brand being talked about? If so, how much, and where?” The criteria for answering these questions are straightforward. One simply needs to identify evidence of the brand in online conversations and publications, get a count of those occurrences, and note the source of the material. The tools necessary for this could include a virtual version of a clipping service to determine what is being said about the brand and the brand’s competition online. This can be an in-house project, or outsourced to companies like CyberAlert, which can then monitor specific publications or the entire Internet for brand mentions. Collecting brand mentions in house can be accomplished with tools like Google Alerts. These tools can provide a count of mentions, and the sources, but they should be combined with other tools to determine whether the communication was positive, negative, or neutral for the brand.
Next Secret might ask, “How many people are exposed to these third-party messages?” To assess the impact of these brand mentions across the Web, one can turn to companies that measure the size of a site’s audience. Media Metrix, Nielsen Net/Ratings, and comscore offer measurement services that include hits, unique visitors, and page views for sites. It will need to consider all the locations of postings mentioning the brand and the audiences for each location.
Secret, in our example, also set out to strengthen its image. Its image can be influenced by what the target audience thinks and feels about the branding for the campaign. Are young women engaged with quick games like the Hot-o-Meter? Is the association strategy using Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez as celebrity endorsers effective? Do they feel that the Scent Expressions quiz and scent recommendations enable Secret as a brand to symbolize their own self images? The campaign itself will influence the brand’s image. Secret may use primary research in the form of surveys and focus groups to answer these questions.
A key to social media is that the consumer-generated content and consumer-fortified content can also influence image. The viral nature of brand-relevant communication is why social media is both an opportunity and a threat for advertisers. To determine the relative influence and nature of that influence on a brand, one must consider the source of content, the relative authority of that source, and the content itself. Katie Delahaye Paine advocates a list of criteria for assessing the influence of blog postings about a brand. It is easily applicable to all forms of social publicity, including mentions in news media (on- and off-line), online comments — whether a blog posting, responses to blog postings, or comments about videos — profiles, photos, message board postings, and online product reviews.
The above is an excerpt from the book Advertising 2.0
by Tracy L. Tuten
Published by Praeger; September 2008;$24.95US; 978-0-313-35296-6
Copyright © 2008 Tracy L. Tuten
Media and Influence on Women's Body Image
It has become obvious now that the media advertises and promotes a very unhealthy trend of extreme dieting and other bad eating habits to women. Most of media sources put on their covers images of skinny emancipated females.
Doing this they influence the subconscious mind of the masses. And women continue to spend their money trying to achieve this unattainable look they constantly see in media advertising.
To try and solve this problem let’s answer the next questions.
What is body image?
What kind of trends in the media industry are we noticing now?
How do the media influence our perception of body image?
What could be the reasons behind this?
What are the consequences of this kind of trend?
What are some real suggestions on how to improve your body image?
Your body image is how you perceive, think and feel about your body. This may have no bearing at all on your actual appearance. For instance, it is common in Western nations for women to believe they are larger and fatter than they really are. Only one in five women is satisfied with their body weight.
Nearly half of all normal weight women overestimate their size and shape. A distorted body image can lead to self-destructive behavior, like dieting or eating disorders. Approximately nine out of 10 young Australian women have dieted at least once in their lives.
So, the basic trend in the media industry at the moment is to promote slim, even skinny unnatural looking women’s bodies as being beautiful.
Women of all ages but especially young women look at magazines, TV, movies and other media products full of images that show skinny women’s bodies. And these are perceived by the subconscious mind of young women as being a role model to follow and aspire to be like. Achieving this skinny look does not come naturally; it inevitably leads to practicing some kind of dieting, excessive exercising or abnormal eating behaviors.
Twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman—but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less. Advertisers believe that thin models sell products.
When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a heavy-set model on its cover, it received a truckload of letters from grateful readers praising the move. But its advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring bone-thin models.
What could be the reason behind all this? Why has this fashion trend occurred now? Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger than any of the models?
The reasons for this according to some analysts, is an economic one. By presenting an ideal look which is difficult to achieve and maintain the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth $100 billion (U.S.) a year. This is a lot of money and certainly worth their while to continue to foster emancipated women as being the norm.
And the consequences of this trend are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet pills or other diet supplies.
On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.
The level of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are increasing rapidly every year. It is estimated that around 5 per cent of women and 1 percent of men have an eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia or binge eating some time in their life.
And about 15 per cent of all young women have significantly distorted eating attitudes and behavior that can lead to developing anorexia or bulimia in the near future.
So, what would be some real suggestions on how to improve your body image without resorting to unhealthy eating habits?
The First one is to change your goal from weight loss to just improving your health. Second, is to focus more the internal beauty like improving your self-esteem, self-confidence and internal strengths of your character.
Get informed by reading up on body image issues and self-improvement books. And give yourself a break from women’s magazines and the mass media advertising for a while if you feel you maybe prone to this kind of false perceptions.
To sum up, the media does impact on women’s body image significantly and it can affect women’s physical and mental health in a negative way.
And the only way to stop these negative effects coming from the media is to teach women not to judge themselves by the beauty industry’s standards and learn not to compare themselves to the cover girls. And also it is important to promote a healthy life style with emphasis on internal beauty like improving self-esteem and self-confidence. Not on being a stick like model.
The Ecological and Political Impact of Colonialism in the Third World During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Introduction
Colonialism is a system in which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries ; or a system of rule which assumes the right of one people to impose their will upon another (Brett, 1973). During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rich, powerful states, including Britain and other European countries, owned third world colonies. ‘Third world’ originally referred to countries that did not belong to the democratic, industrialised countries of the West (the First World) or the state-socialist, industrialising, Soviet Bloc countries (the Second World) (Chilton, 2004). This essay uses specific third world examples to summarise the main impacts of nineteenth and twentieth century colonialism, when colonial powers reached their peak. It focuses on European colonialism in Africa and India.
One view of development is that, at the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility and material well being (Rodney, 1972), which European colonial powers achieved through economic growth, by exploiting the natural and human resources of their colonies. Europe and Africa confronted each other in respective states of development and underdevelopment, the latter term being defined by Europeans in relation to the lack of African progress in the techniques required to sustain an advanced materialistic culture (Brett, 1973).
It can be argued that colonialism had some positive effects. For example, the British instigated irrigation networks in India: by the 1890s nearly 44,000 miles of canals and distributaries irrigated a quarter of India’s total crop area, increasing agricultural output. But this too had some negative effects, including waterlogging and salination of the canals and greater prevalence of malaria with more mosquito breeding areas (Arnold, 1996).
Colonialism was also supposedly beneficial because it provided infrastructure for economic development and some social services. However, this essay argues that the impacts of colonialism were overwhelmingly negative and infrastructure was provided solely to enable the colonial power to exploit the natural resources and workforce of the colony.
The main ecological impacts of colonialism relate to:
Land and forests: through deforestation and cash cropping;
Extraction and mining: through changes to the landscape and economic systems;
Introduction of animal and human diseases by colonial settlers.
The main political impacts relate to:
Destruction of local institutions;
Coercive and repressive state rule;
Development of artificial national boundaries;
Displacement of local populations
The examples will show that the impacts are intertwined. Political ecology assumes that politics and environment are thoroughly connected (Bryant, 1998), and the conclusion will draw together the key points.
Ecological impacts
Deforestation and Cash Cropping:
British colonialism exploited timber for Britain’s industrial revolution. Timber was used for shipbuilding, to fuel steam engines in industry and transportation, and to make railroad sleepers for India’s growing colonial rail network; by 1910 there were more than 32,000 miles of [rail] track (Arnold and Guha, 1995). Forests had to be cleared for the railways, which in turn enabled timber exploitation in deeper areas. Cleared areas were converted to agricultural land for revenue. Ecologically, deforestation resulted in soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, problems of salination, rising water tables; abandoned wells; drying or siltation of drainage channels, and the spread of malaria (Gadgil and Guha, 1992).
In the pre-colonial era, under the Mughals, it was non-timber products such as pepper, cardamom and ivory that were collected through centralised state control. Under the British, emphasis shifted to ‘scientific management’ of timber species such as teak, pine and deodar (Gadgil and Guha, 1992; Bawa 1992). At the same time as imperial foresters sought to eliminate competitor species to favoured tree species, they attempted to restrict alternative forest practices that might ‘interfere with official timber extraction and regeneration operations – shifting cultivation usually being a favoured target’ (Gadgil and Guha, 1992).
In Madagascar, French colonialism from 1896 created deforestation, pushing coffee cultivation over traditional rice harvesting, when it became apparent that [French] producers were able to generate large profits from the latter. This resulted in rice shortages, as early as 1911 . The net effect was an increase in shifting cultivation as people tried to grow rice to feed themselves and coffee as a cash crop. Forests were increasingly fragmented and either destroyed by burning or clear-cutting (Ward, 2002). The state prohibited shifting cultivation in 1909, imposing “rational forest resource management “, to reduce deforestation and allocate land for rice, but then opened up the island’s forests to logging concessions in 1921(1), increasing deforestation and illegal felling of trees. A combination of these detrimental government policies meant that “roughly 70% of the primary forest was destroyed in the 30 years between 1895 and 1925(1)”.
As a result of colonial policies, Madagascar became an importer of food. Local people were displaced and the state gained control over resources. Coffee plantations were notable for having erosion rates nearly twice as high as subsistence plots. Fertile land was cleared and replaced with a persistent monoculture, unsuitable for nearly all plant and animal inhabitants of the previous forest (Ward, 2002).
In Nigeria, the British forced local people to export palm oil to Britain, for use as a lubricant for railways, to make soap, cooking fat and pharmaceutical products. In 1900, palm oil constituted 89% of Nigeria’s total export (Aghalino, 2000). The subsequent decline of the industry due to competition from rubber and cocoa and palm oil from other colonies, undermined livelihoods.
Extraction and Mining:
Diamond mining in South Africa was lucrative for Europe. The colony provided a slave-type labour force to dig out diamonds, while value-added steps, such as cutting and polishing the diamonds, were conducted by a minority of whites in South Africa and in Europe (Rodney, 1972). Mining was harsh work and separated families, leaving women and children unsupported in government reservations. Appropriation of the lands of indigenous peoples resulted in massive displacements of people (Frick, 2002). Major ecological impacts included large-scale destruction of lands causing erosion, siltation, deforestation, desertification and flattening of mountains. Mining also caused pollution of soils and rivers with toxic chemicals used in the industry, as well as air pollution from the dust of bulldozing and transportation .
Diseases (human and animal):
The nineteenth century introduction of steam power enabled shipment of live cattle by rail and sea in numbers previously impossible (Daszak et al., 2000). In Africa, rinderpest, a European livestock disease, killed off between 90% and 95% of all cattle in Africa between 1889 and the early 1900s, also killing other grazing animals. African tribes dependent on livestock lost their livelihoods. By one estimate two thirds of the Masaai population in Tanzania died as a result of rinderpest (Nelson, 2002).
The absence of grazing animals also resulted in growth of grassland vegetation, changing landscapes to better suit the tsetse fly. In Uganda, an estimated 200,000 people died between 1902 and 1906 from sleeping sickness spread by new hordes of tsetse flies (Nelson, 2002). In South Africa, livestock diseases were accompanied by a lung sickness epizootic, which hit in the mid-nineteenth century (Ross, 1999). Colonial settlers also broug
ht smallpox, to which Africans had no natural immunity (Nelson, 2002). Diseases, both animal and human, caused the death and impoverishment of local people.
Political Impacts
Destruction of Local Institutions:
In many cases, pre-colonial societies had acquired skills and basic capital, and were developing in their own way. India, for example, was a major player in the world export market for textiles, but lost most of its domestic and export market under British colonialism. Britain raised its protective duty against Indian textiles to a massive 85% in 1813, with major impact on the Indian market. In 1815, the total
value of Indian cotton goods exported to Britain amounted to £1.3 million in value, falling to a mere £100,000 by 1832. Through protectionism and the establishment of the exploitative (British) East India Trading Company, Britain destroyed the Indian textile market and developed its own prosperous textile industry (2).
While India produced about 25% of world industrial output in 1750, this figure fell to only 2% by 1900. This de-industrialisation, which can be defined as movement of labour out of manufacturing and into agriculture, was accompanied by the creation of a poorer, more rural society in India (Clingingsmith and Williamson, 2004). In 1810, 40% of Indians lived in towns, by 1900 only 10 percent did (D’Amato, 2003). Contrary to myths about colonialism being a time of ‘heroic progress through Westernisation,’ the actual narrative [now] should be one of recovery (Cronon, 1983).
Artificial National Borders:
By 1914, frontiers of the African States, which were to emerge at independence in the 1960s had already been laid down on European maps (Clapham, N.D.). Borders restricted pastoral communities and created conflicts among ethnic groups. By one estimate, belonging to Asiwaju (1985), no less than 177 African cultural or ethnic groups are partitioned across borders, representing on average 43% of their country’s population (Englebert, 2001).
In Sudan northern Muslim Arabic speakers had regarded southern non-Muslims as sources of slaves. The creation of Sudan enclosed the two groups, exacerbating conflicts and causing civil war . In other countries there have been conflicts over resources in boundary areas. For example, armed clashes between Burkina and Mali in 1971 and 1985 over the Agacher Strip, which was rumoured to hold oil (Englebert, 2001). There are claims over Ethiopian and Kenyan territory inhabited by ethnic Somalis (Boyd, 1979). Thus, colonialism, through the establishment of inappropriate borders, created (ongoing) political instability.
Coercive Colonial State Rule:
Colonial states exploited local people by imposing high taxes. The average tax burden in India, for example, was twice that of contemporary England, although average income there was 15 times greater at that point in time. The burden of taxation was not counterbalanced by expenditure on infrastructure or human development (Murshed, 2003).
Conclusion
The examples from the third world have shown interconnectedness between political and ecological impacts. For example, Indian colonial railways enabled widespread deforestation and increased disease transmission; for example, the spread of bubonic plague in the 1890s and influenza in 1918-19 (Arnold, 1996). These ecological impacts displaced and killed indigenous peoples and gave the state control over resources, enabling further exploitation to serve a political agenda.
The legacy of colonialism remains. In India for example, the state organised system of ‘scientific forestry,’ established under British rule, has remained unchallenged since independence in 1947, serving the political and economic interests of colonial and postcolonial regimes alike (Bryant, 1997), taking resources away from local people.
The dependency created by colonialism continues. In the 1980s neo-liberal structural adjustment programmes pushed ‘free’ trade on third world countries, based on the idea that markets work best. Trade is unequal. Richer countries subsidise their own producers and supply chains make small-scale producers compete to sell low price produce to richer countries, who capitalise on the value added (Vorley, 2003).
Colonialism was a period of monopoly capitalism, driven by major resource exploitation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as colonial powers industrialised. Europe established plantations to grow cash crops, mines, and transport systems to facilitate the extraction of resources; rails and roadways were designed for commodity export, and not for economic interconnectedness and development within colonies. People were forced by taxes and coercion to work in colonial enterprises in
which they were overworked and underfed; agriculture suffered, food production declined, and hunger, famines, and disease followed. (Podur, 2002)
Many global inequalities can be traced to colonialism. In addition to unequal trade, the creation of borders and states created conflict between ethnic groups, and an unstable third world political system. The scale of unsustainable environmental exploitation could not be controlled by newly industrial nations who were in many cases economically weak. Third world countries have less capacity to cope with resultant environmental problems, but the scale of ecological impact, stemming from colonial practices and exploitation, affect the whole of humanity. Ex-colonial powers can never abrogate their responsibility for what the world has become.
References
Journals/Books:
Aghalino, SO (2000) British Colonial Policies and the Oil Palm Industry in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, 1900-1960. African Study Monographs, 21 (1) January, p. 23
Arnold, D (1996) The Problem of Nature; Environment, Culture and European Expansion, New Perspectives on the Past. Blackwell Publishers Limited, p. 178
Arnold D and Guha R (1995) Nature, Culture and Imperialism: Essays on the Environmental history of South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press
Bawa, KS (1992) Colonialism, Rural Poverty and the Use of Forest Resources. Conservation Biology, Volume 6, (3), p. 477,488
Bryant, R.L (1997) Beyond the Impasse: The Power of Political Ecology in Third World Environmental Research. Area 29, 1-15
-(1998) Power, Knowledge and Political Ecology in the Third World: A Review. Progress in Physical Geography 22, 1, p. 79-80, 85
Boyd, JB JR (1979) African Boundary Conflict: An Empirical study. African Studies Review, 22, p. 1-14
Brett EA (1973) Colonialism and Underdevelopment in East Africa; The Politics of Economic Change 1919-1939. Heinemann Educational Books Limited. Preface, p. 291
Chilton, S (2004) POL 3570: Third World and Development: what is the Third World available at http://www.d.umn.edu/~schilton/3570/Lectures/3570.WhatIsThirdWorld.html
Accessed 7 February 2005
Clapham, C (N.D.) Boundaries and Indemnities in Post-Cold War Africa: Territoriality and Statehood in Tropical Africa, p. 981-983
Clingingsmith, D and Williamson, JG (2004) Indian De-industrialisation Under the Mughals and the British, p. 3
D’Amato, P (2003) The Meaning of Marxism: Bringing Back the Old Days of Empire, Socialist Worker Online, May 16, p. 9
Daszak, P., Cunningham, AA., Hyatt AD. (2000) Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife – Threats to Biodiversity and Human Health. Wildlife Ecology Review. Science Volume 287, 21 January available at www.sciencemag.org
Accessed 7 February 05
Englebert, P., Tarango, S., Carter, M. (2001) Dismemberment and Suffocation: A Contribution to the Debate on African Boundaries, p. 3-6
Frick, C (2002) Direct Foreign Investment and the Environment: African Mining Sector. OECD Global Forum on International Investment, Conference on Foreign Direct Investment and the Environment, Lessons from the Mining Sector, 7-8 February, p.1
5
Gadgil, M and Guha, R (1992) This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. London: Routledge
Murshed, SM (2003) Marginalisation in an Era of Globalisation, July 2nd, p. 4
Nelson, RH (2002) Environmental Colonialism: “Saving” Africa from Africans. Paper prepared for presentation at the Inter Region Economic Network Conference, “Conservation and Sustainable Development” in Nairobi, Kenya and for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 25, 2002.
Podur, J (2002) History Handbook Non-Reformist Reparations for Africa: Repairing the Damage available at http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/february02podur.htm Accessed 7 February 2005
Rodney, W (1972) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, Tanzania Publishing House, p. 9,18,21,162,224
Vorley, B (2003) Corporate Concentration from Farmer to Consumer. UK Food Group/IIED.
Ward, BC (2002) Land Use, Environment, and Social Change in Madagascar, June 5, p. 9-12
Websites:
(1) http://honors.rit.edu/~ray/seniorseminar/index.php/Colonialism Accessed 1 February 2005
(2)
http://www.angelfire.com/mac/egmatthews/worldinfo/problems/disputed.html Accessed 7 February 2005
(3)
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/mining-cn.htm
Accessed 7 February 2005
(4)
http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/85/general.html#colonization Source: WRM’s bulletin No. 66, January 2003 Accessed 7 February 2005
Effects of Mass Media on Young Generation
How do the media influence young people in today’s society? Our society still seems confused about what to think about children and young people. It seems to be gripped with a fear of children, blaming them for much of society’s ills: crime, vandalism, drugs, drink, sex, teenage pregnancy. The list goes on. But if these theories are true, where do these rebellious attitudes stem from? The obvious answer would be from the upbringing of children, but in my opinion the media also plays a substantial role in the attitudes, behavior and physical aspects of youth today, in particularly that of young women. We are constantly being bombarded with advertising, opinions, images and stories which appear to be forcing us to conform to a specific image of how we are supposed to be, whether it be slim, more intelligent or prettier.
Media strongly affects youth culture. The media executives are quick to defend their role in youth violence and bullying while selling millions of dollars in ads focused on youth. TV producers, network executives, motion picture companies and others in the media deny any impact of their programs on the attitudes and actions of youth. Meanwhile they continue to spend millions on special effects and marketing geared to increase appeal to youth markets. While corporations spend millions on market research and advertising to create products and campaigns targeted at a youth demographic, they still deny their ability to influence youth. If this were true to fact, would NIKE continue spending millions every year on product development, marketing and advertising? Would McDonalds still be using cartoon like characters to sell hamburgers? Would music labels be increasing the level of violence and sexual content in the music geared towards the youth audience? Would liquor companies be using youth oriented activities in their advertising? Of course it works on influencing youth and its ideals advertising would not be a multi-billion dollar a year business. If it had no influence, M-TV would not have consultant on staff spending huge amounts of money to ensure them keeping up with youth culture.
We’ve all heard it before. Blame it on TV or other means of media. If a child bludgeons another child to death with a wrench or shoots a classmate, it is the violent TV programs that they watch which are to blame, not the parents or the supervisors who are supposed to be there to make sure their kids do the right thing. How far is it true that the media is responsible for trivializing death and violence, thus causing the children of America to go out on shooting rampages, or kids in Britain to murder innocent toddlers? First let us look at the way the media portrays death. Death has always been a taboo subject. People do not usually sit around talking about death, especially to children. It may be for that reason that children do not really understand the concept of dying. We constantly see instances in cartoons where a character is killed, but in the next scene, that same character is alive and well again. The fact is that they do not actually die. Characters like Warner Bros. Wild E Coyote never die.
As clichéd as it may sound, it has been rightly said all things have their good as well as bad effects. In the similar conduct media also has its good as well as bad influence on youth. Well these were the negative influence of media on youth. Now we focus on the affirmative aspects of media.
Media plays a very important role in creating awareness. There are certain issues which remain untouched among youngsters as they feel guarded concerning it. Media helps in providing information regarding such topics. There are many such topics that are highlighted by the media. The current one that can be talked about is the quota system in colleges. Media created awareness that how injustice was being done with deserving candidates due to reservations in colleges. There was procession taken out by students in order to object regarding this bias discrimination.
One other such issue is the debate carried on regarding sex education. Media was trying to highlight both the aspects of the matter that whether sex education must be allowed in schools or not. There were a group of people who were all for it and there were people who considered it a taboo. Even though we are heading towards westernization, our roots still remain Indian. And that is the reason why we fell anxious discussing such issues with young ones. But if we think practically then there are so many instances where children head the wrong way just in the anxiety of knowing certain issues. So, the only acceptable approach in which we can guard our child from choosing the wrong path is by talking to them and educating them about the issues that need to be learnt at the right instance.
Media being one of the important means to reach out to the masses and influence their thinking and decision making, only to the positive media cannot attract attention of the masses, and to gain viewer ship, negative media has to be incorporated to balance out and attract the masses, but a line has to be drawn between the positive and the negative media in the interest of the younger generation.
Streaming Video – Its Impact on Websites
A streaming video website continuously delivers and publishes video and associated audio content on the webpage. The end user is able to view the media contents in real time without having to download the media file. Streaming video refers to the mechanism of the distribution of medium and not the media itself
Streaming videos on computers, as a concept had emerged around 1970s. However, due to inadequate technical capabilities and high cost of resources the advancements were a little staggered. Today, with techniques like true streaming and HTTP streaming, more websites are taking advantage of video streaming. When designing a streaming video website , one needs to understand that the concept of having streaming videos basically lies on two factors – video file format and the streaming technique:
‘Windows Media’, ‘Quicktime’, ‘RealMedia’, ‘MPEG’, ‘Flash objects’ are some of the file formats that can be used for streaming videos. The choice of a file format is very crucial as the website might cater to a wide spectrum of users across geographies. Thus it is necessary to understand the type of internet bandwidth, hardware and software resources so that all the users are facilitated with the information that your website wants to provide.
Other factor important in video streaming is the streaming method itself. ‘Downloading’ is the most basic and simple method, where the video file is downloaded to some temporary folder and is then played in the media player installed on that computer. The other method is ‘streaming’ in which the waiting time is ideally negligible. The video is displayed as and when it gets downloaded. However, certain amount of buffering can take place depending on the speed of the internet connection.
Streaming video is widely used in real time broadcast of live events. This is also referred to as webcast or netcast. Streaming video websites use special types of streaming servers. It is possible to have your own server setup or have it purchased from several providers. You need a robust web server with streaming software installed on it. Some of the video streaming software available includes ‘Macromedia Communication Server’, ‘Apple Quicktime Streaming Server’, ‘Helix Universal Server’, and so on. Apart from these resources, a conversion software is also required that will convert the video file to required format which can be easily published and broadcasted on the internet. ‘Final Cut Pro’ and ‘Adobe Premiere’ are some of the widely used conversion tools. Video streaming is also governed by various protocols that bring under consideration technical performance, quality issues, reliability, cost factors, and legal and social issues. Multicast, Peer-to-Peer, IP Multicast, Unicast, User Datagram Protocol, and Real-time Transport Protocol are some of the protocols that are considered when
Video streaming websites need to consider the cost factor before making a decision on having a streaming video broadcast. Make sure that video streaming is absolutely necessary for your business, as having a video streaming website with live broadcast is really a costly affair. The transfer of data, specially multimedia is very expensive and usually charged in terms of gigabytes.