Week 2 - A, B and C

a) p. 2 With Windows Vista replacing XP and Office 2007 replacing Office 2003, (and so on), what is ‘upgrade culture’ all about? Is some new media change just consumerism thought up by big business? upgrading culture is basically representing the rapid pace of change within the media. the example of office 2003 and office 2007 is a perfect example of. because consumers who use technology have expectations the 'newessed' is always going to be the most popular, however theres always going to be a 'newessed'. i do think that big businesses have an impact on the consumers ideas about new media.

b) p. 3+ According to Lister et al., some commentators stress the ‘newness’ of new media, but others (such as Kevin Robins) can be seen to be saying that nothing fundamental has changed, because new media technology is another product of capitalism, and therefore will fit into and serve a pre-existing capitalist society and culture, rather than transform it in any fundamental sense. Any thoughts? Can we critique this position? i can understand and see the points of view from both Lister et and K Robins. robins is right when says that new media will 'fit into and serve a pre-existing society and culture' because we already use new media and are expecting the new. it will probably fit into the pre-existing because almost anything new is a upgrade of something old and this would not transform the current situation a great deal. however for some societys that have not had certain technologies before this would not be an upgrade it would be a transformation in their society and culture.

c) p.11 Are new media a source of ‘progress’ in the sense that they enhance things we do in spheres of social activity – business, education, shopping, democracy etc? Could we say that such a proposition involves an ‘ideology of progress’? new media is another way of representing 'the most recent', 'the most modernist' and ' the cutting edge'. if we use the technology that is being advanced/ progressed then yes i agree that our social activities will be advanced - if we want them to be. e-mails, mobiles, MSN, social networks and blogs etc are communication technologies that are undergoing progress all the time to advance them for social activity. so id have to agree that new media are a source of progess that enhance our social activity sphere.

ive wrote this once... then my comp died so my answers are now only short as i had to do them again.
D, E and F coming soon.