SlideShare a Scribd company logo
1 of 18
Download to read offline
Video streaming on the web as
empowerment for video activist
Joana Andrade Ramalho Pinto
Reg No 00093170E
Final Essay
Tutor: Andy Cameron
MA Hypermedia Studies
University of Westminster
Fall 2001
2
Content
Introduction 3
New media audience and streaming narrative 5
Moving from broadcast to streaming 8
Streaming technologies 9
Alternative media 12
Brazil Network 15
Conclusion 17
Bibliography 18
3
Video streaming on the web as empowerment for video activist
Introduction
"In countries like Brazil, where an under-represented majority struggles to have
its voice heard, video activism has been fundamental in raising awareness about
many social problems." (Simões in Media Guardian 2001)
This essay will reflect upon the impact of new technologies on the
communication process and how that process is a reflection of the technologies
used in its creation, transmission, exchange and absorption (participation). In
particular, we will address the videos distributed via Internet by video activists
and NGOs.
The NGO Brazil Network is forging a way to publish their activist work through
the Internet, which is to denounce the unjust lives of different repressed
segments of Brazilian society. With a minimal technology system (a laptop
connected to the Internet) they are now uploading a video archive based on
streaming media technology.
What is new and exciting about streaming media is precisely that it is not
television or radio on a computer. Streaming is a way of combining; connecting
and condensing a variety of already established communication systems (such
as live transmissions, radio and video) with new technology (computer and
telecommunications network systems). This combination through new
technological objects (interfaces, software applications, streaming media
products) can create new social contexts that affect a given culture's sensory
experience of media.
History has shown that the introduction of new technologies provides an
opportunity for media producers to re-examine the content and form of the
message they wish to communicate. There is a sense in which the new can
‘revolutionise’ and innovate, creating a new aesthetic and new narrative forms.
4
The Internet has provided a unique moment for individuals separated by
geography, culture and social position to share information with each other.
Through its non-centralised democratic structure, the Internet encourages
individual self-expression, allowing ‘everyone’ to have an opportunity to put
forward their own point of view. This culture of self-expression may be referred to
as a DIY-culture, where everyone has an opportunity to communicate through
the new channels of communication, which are no longer limited to a special few,
but are now open to anyone with a computer and a modem to show their own
work.
Streaming media pushes this process one step further, providing individuals with
the tools of the professional media communicator to transmit their message.
Here the audience is no longer a passive mass, but is a participating group of
individuals each with the potential to not only enter into the discussion with words
and static images, but with audio and video footage.
“With the advent of the Net, this limited vision of media freedom is becoming an
anachronism. For the first time, ordinary people can be producers as well as
consumers of information. Marx's 'positive' concept of media freedom is now
pragmatic politics. Instead of making media for them, the state can help people
to make their own media. For instance, public service broadcasters can nurture
network communities and telecoms regulators can encourage infrastructure
investment.” (Barbrook 2000)
This paper will examine the differences between two models of communication
in our contemporary society: the already-established mass media and the new
media based on innovative technologies, considering their narratives and their
relationship to specific audiences. The essay will describe the streaming
technologies, as well as examine how those technologies impact upon the
message. Finally, the paper will present examples of alternative media producers
(activists), which are using streaming video to distribute their work and overcome
the broadcast corporation hegemony within the media.
5
New media audience and streaming narrative
“Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings
and effective motivations of hypnotic behaviour. The spectacle, as a tendency to make
one see the world by means of various specialized mediations (it can no longer be grasped
directly), naturally finds vision to be the privileged human sense which the sense of touch
was for other epochs; “(Debord 1967; 18)
The audience of New Media is different from the Mass Media. In a new media
organisation, the audience experience not only a sense of vision, but also
recuperates the “sense of touch”, where interactivity and participation of the
audience is fundamental for its existence. There is no more a collective mind as
in mass media, but a segmented and individualist society, the result of new
communication technologies focuses on diversification and specialised
information. Thus, the “audience becomes increasingly segmented by ideologies,
values, tastes and lifestyles.” (Castells 2000; 368)
The new technologies are changing the narrative; they are forcing the
communicators to capture, edit and present their works in different ways. As
Eisenstein noted during his experiments with montage in the early days of
moving picture, he ‘felt that a new society meant a new kind of vision; that the
way that people saw things must be altered; that it was insufficient to put new
material before old eyes.’ (Rush 1999) So, this new technology provides an
opportunity to develop a new media language, technique, and aesthetic where
the content is not dependent on the technological form, but is in fact the
embodiment of these new technologies.
Cable television, sometimes referred to as Community Television, was once
announced as the technology that would revitalise democratic communication. It
was seen as a means of providing diversity among the electronic media,
enabling two-way communication with a participatory audience. It was envisioned
as a form for creating an open space for local communities and alternative media
producers. Nowadays, only few stations works as alternative communities, which
are based in a one-to-many communication system more like radio. In fact, cable
television is now considered as a ‘narrowcasting’ system, providing specialised
channels for particular demographic audience profiles produced by traditional
media corporations and financed by advertising revenue. The major media
6
corporations have swallowed up the idealistic goal of a participatory
communications channel. The hope of two-way communication has probably
vanished, however it has created some new ‘media’ players (CNN, MTV, etc.),
providing opportunities for challenging, although in a limited way, the hegemony
of the existing media giants. This has created a potential amongst the audience
to explore different media messages, and indeed question existing media points
of view.
“In sum, the new media determine a segmented, differentiated audience that,
although massive in terms of numbers, is no longer a mass audience in terms of
simultaneity and uniformity of the messages it receives. The new media are no
longer mass media in the traditional sense of sending a limited number of
messages to a homogeneous mass audience. Because of the multiplicity of
messages and sources, the audience itself becomes more selective. The
targeted audience tends to choose its messages, so deepening its
segmentation, enhancing the individual relationship between senders and
receivers. “ (Sabbah in Castells 2000; 368)
This selective approach to information by the television audience has leaded the
media producers to diversify the subjects and the narratives of the programs they
produce. Where previously the programmes used established narrative formulas
now there is greater change, introducing more interactive formats. “The key
issue is that while mass media are a one-way communication system, the actual
process of communication is not, but depends on the interaction between the
sender and the receiver in the interpretation of the message.” (Castells 2000;
363)
But it was not only cable TV that provides the capacity to choose, VCRs (video
cassette recorders) and domestic video camera have provided an opportunity for
diversification of television offerings, amplifying alternative programming
opportunities and enabling the audience to re-schedule and record the
transmitted signal. With the reduction in prices of video cameras, video
technology is now within the reach of everyday consumers, thus reinforcing the
DIY media approach. “People started to tape their own events, from vacation to
family celebrations, thus producing their own images beyond the photo album.
For all the limits of self-production of images, is actually modified the one-way
flow of images and reintegrated life experience and the screen. In many
7
countries, from Andalusia to Southern India, local community video technology
allowed for the blossoming of rudimentary local broadcasting which mixed
diffusion of video films with local events and announcements, often on the
fringes of communications regulations.”(Castells 2000; 366)
The emergence of relatively inexpensive and easy to use video capturing
devices has allowed video markers to question the narrative structure and
aesthetic look of video. Through ‘innocent’ eyes, individuals who are not familiar
with the production values and formulas of the media moguls, new narrative
forms are possible. However, until the introduction of media streaming, although
it was relatively easy to make a video, it was impossible for that video to be
transmitted on a global scale.
There is a sense in which the interactive, non-linear nature of the Internet has
also changed the form and structure of these media it transmits. It is possible
that the traditional sense of narrative is disappearing, because many of these
technological tools enable a fragmented non-linear narrative to be constructed.
What in fact is being realised is that the narrative tradition is being re-invented on
the Net, in different ways, not only storytelling, but introducing again the notion of
plot. Not plot in the simple sense of structuring narrative in order to keep your
attention; but plot in relation to space, the actual selection of a journey through a
collection of media fragments interspaced across the Internet. Here, narrative is
defined as the links between the unfolding temporality of components individually
linked together by Internet users.
Like online documentation, streaming media combines a Web-based content
management application with a rich array of media elements. This juxtaposition
offers many advantages over traditional broadcasting. It creates entirely new
ways of using and watching video. Breaking video down into short segments,
which can be searched and randomly accessed, enabling customisation,
sharing, and ‘bookmarking’ of content by the ‘viewer’ rather than just the
‘producer’ of the message.
One of the most important questions, when considering the future of streaming
media, will be how the contexts of developing technologies can be assessed
(technological, commercial, social), and what range of mobility do those contexts
offer for instances of use critical and appropriation.
8
Moving from broadcast to streaming
The momentous is happening. We are at the first spark, the first dawn, of what is
a fusion between the Internet and Broadcast Media. But we have in a sense,
very little understanding of what the implications are, what it actually means.
The flexibility that streaming media offers is one of the principle advantages it
has over television broadcasts. Thus it is as pertinent for cultural activists and
artists to consider how these new technologies may significantly change what is
meant by performance, art or theatre. This capacity of a technology to extend
outside itself is certainly not specific just to Web technology (we already have
CD-ROM, video, radio, as precedents), but it is indicative of an important phase
in developing media technology.
In November 2000 an article in InternetNews by John Townley, reported that in a
study conducted by MeasureCast, Inc./Harris Interactive, 67 percent of the online
population was familiar with streaming media.
T.W. Rabbit of PCWORLD reported in October 2000 that a study conducted by the
National Association of Broadcasters revealed that "…in the average American home
(without a broadband Internet connection), a resident typically spends 33 percent of his or
her "media time" with television, followed by radio at 28 percent; the Internet trails at 11
percent. But in a home with broadband access, the study finds, a person typically spends
21 percent of her or his "media time" online, close to the 24 percent of the time spent
watching television and 21 percent listening to radio." (Dorey)
This comparison indicates that as Internet users with broadband connections
increase, less time will be spent in front of the television and more time on the
Internet. The difference between Internet media streaming and television
broadcasting is that eventually there will be unlimited choice. At the same time,
the broadcast industry will be going all-digital. Digital broadcasting and high-
definition television are just around the corner. Television programs will be able
to carry additional text and graphics encoded within their digital signals.
The development of peer-to-peer (P2P) computing system, will allow direct
exchanging information (files) between computers. Based on a decentralised
architectural system its simplistic form it is usually structured as one-to-one
9
communication. Because the heavy data transfers are at the users edge
(decentralised) of the network, the congestion is minimized reducing the load on
the servers. With lowered congestion and automatic organization, scalability
becomes less complicated and highly facilitated by the architecture, performing
fast transfer of large data. For media industry this will represent the in between
Internet and TV Broadcasting.
However digital television will never be the same as the Internet. The advantage
of the Internet, of course, is that it's worldwide, and so has the potential to
become a global broadcasting medium. And since it's interactive, it can become
a global multi-casting system. A user will be able to communicate with people all
over the world, either on a one-to-one basis or with a whole group of people
spread around the globe.
Streaming technologies
Advances in computing and networking technology means that it is now feasible
to deliver sound and video across the Internet. Streaming is the process of
sending these media over a network for viewing in real time. The source material
can originate from a live source, such as a video camera, a webcast, an audio
feed from a radio station, or the source can be a pre-edited movie stored on the
network server. The different between streaming media and traditional media
over the Internet, is that with streaming media, the whole file does not need to be
downloaded before it begins to play. Hence, the Internet user can begin to listen
to or watch the video/audio file whilst that file is still being transmitted.
Given a good a network connection streaming video works well, enabling video
to be received in almost real time, however there are still many users with old
computers and slow network connections, who can not appreciate this
experience, and hence care must to be taken to ensure that streaming
technology is not used inappropriately for a particular target audience.
Indeed even with a good network connection there may still exist some
problems. Firstly, there is the nature of the Internet and its use of IP means that
a broadcast is competing with other data transmissions, and hence there is no
way of guaranteeing sufficient bandwidth to ensure an uninterrupted broadcast.
10
Servers streaming content to diverse groups of clients distributed across the
Internet are ineffective in terms of both server load and network congestion.
Also, users require particular software players to receive the streaming signals,
and many users have difficulty in setting up their machines with these players.
When a user is streaming a completed movie stored on a hard disk (video-on-
demand streaming), the audience has random access to the entire stream and
can jump anywhere within it. The on-demand media content is controlled by the
user (client), the user can select a pre-recorded stream and also freely choose
when to view it. The file will be stored on the user’s computer in full, which
means no loss of information. After downloading the user can control the video
stream - pausing, jumping ahead/back, restarting, etc – just as with a traditional
video recorder. The ‘on-demand’ technique diverges from the broadcast system
where content is controlled and scheduled by the server. Here, content is only
made available for viewing at selected times. The viewer can only watch the
stream as it is being transmitted without any control over it, just as with a
television or radio broadcasts. Broadcast content can be scheduled to come
from an archived file or can be live and information can be lost during the
streaming, depending on the quality of the connection.
This technology can use a unicast stream, a single link from the video server
down to the user, permitting access to either on-demand or broadcast content. A
single video server is able to handle many simultaneous unicast links to different
users accessing the same or different content but if the server has many
accesses at the same time it cause network congestion. Unicast is the
predominant form of streaming for global access.
However there is an alternative technology, multicast. Here, live or stored audio
and video is distributed to large audiences with minimum network congestion
because of multicast networking technology. Multicast allows a single media
stream to be played simultaneously by multiple users, drastically reducing
bandwidth use. However, multicast only offers the user the opportunity to join a
live or scheduled broadcast. The user has no control over the stream and cannot
stop or restart the transmission. With true live events, the stream functions more
or less as the web version of a TV or radio broadcast; users can turn it on or off
and switch to another channel.
11
Broadcast streaming, uses multicast technology, allowing users to maintain
control over the distribution and copyright of their media. Anyone using ‘on-
demand’ can download a movie, alter it, and redistribute it themselves, but it’s
much harder to redistribute the contents of a broadcast stream. When the
audience saves the streaming movie, all the user is saving is the URL of the
stream and some user settings. The actual data, the movie, is never copied.
These two alternative technologies are creating a ‘war’, similar to that of the two
competing browsers, Netscape and Explorer. And like browsers, the players are
not content just to be tools, they want to be gateways, directing the user to actual
content. The three most popular streaming players, which are all free online, are
RealNetworks' RealPlayer, Apple's QuickTime or Microsoft's Media Player.
Patricia Jacobus of CNET wrote in January that according to a Jupiter Media Metrix
report, RealNetworks had maintained an edge over rival Microsoft in media streaming
technology. "In November 2000, about 28 percent of consumers who use computers in
U.S. homes chose RealNetworks' RealPlayer to watch videos or listen to music online.
That same month, 22 percent used Microsoft's Windows Media Player 6 or 7. Apple's
QuickTime was used by 4 percent," she reported.
Although these technologies have made huge leaps forward in providing access
to video and audio files, it is important to note that these technologies are also
changing the aesthetic concept of the media they are communicating.
“The tactical media can only be fully effective if it is also aesthetically-formally-
sensorially tactical as well. This means that, alongside an investigation into
creating new distribution or broadcasting models, there must also be a
concurrent investigation into the potential challenges, critiques, and experiments
which are embodied and materialized in a given media”. (Thacker 1999)
Content producers need to be aware of the tremendous compression ratios that
are common in this field. Part of visual information is lost and picture sizes have
to be small. Limiting camera movement as well as good lighting, simple
backgrounds and close ups of subject material are all important considerations
during the capturing of video. It is these present technical limitations, which are
causing video makers to create new aesthetic styles.
12
Without entering too much into these discussions concerning the technology and
how it is creating a new aesthetic, this paper will focus on who is using streaming
media, how they are using it and why.
Alternative media
Until recently, the centralisation of media technologies in public and private
commercial systems has made large-scale production projects by marginalized
political groups infeasible. Academics and activists alike have overlooked the
efforts of progressive organisations to utilize the television medium for the
production and distribution of radical media. Groups who want to challenge
existing power structures, empower diverse communities and classes, and
enable communities to speak to each other are faced with a lack of theoretical
models and practical information regarding the use of television.
“During the Fordist epoch, the Left almost forgot this libertarian definition of free
speech. For technical and economic reasons, ordinary people appeared to be
incapable of making their own media. Instead, the Left supported public service
broadcasting so its leaders could gain access to the airwaves. Free speech was
restricted to elected politicians.” (Barbrook 2000)
But the larger the audience, the more powerful are the decision-makers in the
media organisations and the less effective are the mechanisms for participation.
Participatory democracy is virtually impossible in a medium where a small
number of owners and editors produce a product for a much larger audience.
“The very scale of the media limits opportunities for participation and increases
the power of key figures. The way in which this power is used depends on the
relation of the media to the most powerful groups in society. In liberal
democracies, governments and corporations, and media corporations in
particular, exercise the greatest power over the media. The large scale of the
mass media is what makes it possible for this power to be exercised so
effectively” (Martin 1998).
The aim should be to provide an alternative to the mass media by establishing a
communication system that is more participatory. Social and cultural
13
information for marginal groups can then exploit the possibilities of digital
narrow-casting models to send out their messages, potentially world wide.
Grassroots initiatives have fragmented into islands of NGO-nets while, at
same time, becoming increasingly professional in orientation and visible in
the media. The true DIY style of this movement, enables alternative outlets to be
created, where video activists, Internet hackers, radio pirates, digital
photographers and text reporters can create forums for the ignored and the
marginalised.
Undercurrents is an English video activist organisation aimed at empowering
individuals to report the news you don't see on the news. The group has noted
that for news storied to be ‘acceptable’, they must not only adhere to the
‘production values’ (technical and journalistic) of the traditional media, but must
also be innovative so as to capture the interest of the wider public.
The group was formed in London in1993, during the protests against the building
of the M11 motorway link. They began by producing short alternative news video
programmes using domestic Hi8 video cameras, and selling the video tapes to
schools and interested parties all over the World. Since then, the group has seen
the importance of educating video markers so as to more effectively
communicate their alternative news. Paul O’Connor one member of the
Undercurrents, sums up to Media Guardian the work of the group to date, “within
that time we have trained hundreds of environmental and social justice
campaigners to use the camcorder as a tool for change. From Belfast to
Brighton, video activists are now editing on laptops and producing their own
news.”
Within the last twelve months, the Undercurrents team has been preparing for
the wider introduction of broadband technology allowing Internet users to access
video at a reasonable cost and quality. They are setting up beyondtv.org as a
touring/internet hosting area for activists' films. The latest in alternative news can
be viewed or downloaded for free from their website. They also produce Internet
and video training programs, which have created many new media activists that,
need an outlet for their campaign work. Taking the idea that the Internet can
provide this at a very low cost, it is possible to educate and empower groups by
working with them as partners to give them skills to express themselves by
14
creative use of new technology. “Beyondtv.org will allow you to post text, images
and details of audio reports and video up to the Website. If you have nowhere to
host your audio and video - we'll help you find somewhere. The most important
difference is, we'll be able to offer partners training and technical support” says
O’Connor. “With the help of our training partners, we help people to shoot and
edit video and put this on the web. We also train groups and individuals how to
create effective campaign web sites.” (O’Connor 2000)
Originally Undercurrents set up to empower the 17 million people who send their
donation fees each month to Greenpeace or WWF or any large NGO to take
action themselves rather than paying others to take action on their behalf. Paul
O’Connor continues by saying “The videos we distribute show a wide cross
section of people involved in stopping destructive practises carried out by
governments, industries, and individuals. We focus on the positive side such as
empowerment, education, results, and actions of individuals in each video. Our
audience has now expanded to schools, universities, campaigners worldwide,
journalists, as well as the general audience through terrestrial TV and the
Internet worldwide. But I think that a focused smaller audience has more impact
and potential that any mass audience.” (Alt-World 2001)
O’ Connor notes that ”the greatest power of all these corporations lies in the fact
that they can produce a movie and distribute it through their own cinema chain,
promote it through their own TV networks, play the soundtrack on their own radio
stations and sell merchandising spin offs at their own amusement parks. A movie
becomes a book, a CD, then a TV series, a Broadway musical, a video game,
and even an amusement ride.” (Alt-World 2001)
It has taken a decade for broadcasters to recognise the direct-action movement
as an important political force. Grassroots reporting is perhaps finally gaining
acceptance within the mainstream. In August 2001, Channel 4 broadcasted the
pilot of a unique programme, which according to its producers offered "a radical
new approach to current affairs and politics inspired by video activists". Alt-World
featured stories by video activists in Brazil, Australia, the United States, Serbia
and Britain.
15
Brazil Network
Following the initiatives of Undercurrents and the production process based upon
the DIY-culture, many other projects and groups have been pushing streaming
video technology as a means of communicating their believes. One such
example is Brazil Network. Brazil Network is a Non-Governmental Organization
based in London, which was established in the early 1990s. It’s a group of
members and volunteers coordinated by the documentary film-maker/director
Nina Simões.
Following the collapse of the military regime in 1985 and instigation of a new
Constitution, Brazil became a democratic country. This transition has lead to a
number of social changes and challenges. These changes are reflected in many
different ways, from the thousands of landless peasants (MST) who demand
fertile land, which are unused yet owned by a small proportion of the population.
Rappers in shantytowns who are forging a new black consciousness though their
militant music. Native Indians, the first dwellers of Brazilian lands, who are
demanding back their ancestral land, and fighting for their right to preserve their
culture inheritance and not become absorbed into a globalised culture. Left-wing
activists from the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) who have
won local elections and are promoting new forms of participatory politics.
Environmentalists who are campaigning - and taking direct action - against
genetically modified crops.
“This is the 'other Brazil' that is fighting to create a vibrant, ethnically and
culturally diverse, egalitarian society. By creating a network of information,
contacts and activities, we aim both to make these experiences more widely
understood and to build a common movement in which people around the world
can learn from, and support, each other. “ (Simões 2001)
Nina Simões worked as a video activist at Undercurrants shooting protests of
MST the landless peasants movement in Brazil. Lately made a new video ‘The
other 500 years of Brazil’, which was shot in April 2000 in Cabrália, in South of
Bahia, during the demonstrations against the so called ‘Discovery’ of Brazil. Due
to a lack of funding the project is still unfinished, but today, the internet offers a
chance for alternative projects like this one, to be presented to a wider audience,
according to Nina: “avoiding the narrow mindedness of the commissioning
16
editors which are censoring and manipulating a closer look into the problems of
our world”. The convergence of new technologies is giving new possibilities to
reveal stories not covered by the broadcast media.
Brazil Network is now launching a web page with a video archive that consists on
giving a voice and showing the faces of the unheard people living in remote
areas of Brazil. “Now they have a chance to denounce the problems surrounding
their reality and show how they are getting organized to defend their rights”
(Simões 2001). The video archive will include small statements from
representatives of different native indian tribes, scenes from the fight between
the indians and the police during the celebration in Cabrália, some footage
presenting the indian culture and also about the march of the MST across the
country demanding land to work.
Technology to enabling these issues to be discussed via the Internet through on-
demand streaming media allied with a complementary text providing context
insight into the wider political issues. On-demand streaming is been used to
guarantee the quality of the audio and video images, making it possible to have
larger file sizes with a slow connection speed. This format also enables viewers
to randomly interact with the videos, permitting them to download the files and
swap them with other users over the Internet. The production of the videos is
simple and allows information to be easily and quickly updated, this is very
important considering that Brazil Network only has a laptop to support this
innovative technological venture.
The practice of DIY-culture is perhaps the only real solution for smalls NGOs
such as Brazil Network, where resources are at a minimum, and work is
conducted by volunteers. The Brazil Network survives from donations of its
members; the creation of the video archive is a means of communicating the
objectives of the group and to encourage other individuals to invest in the
project.
17
Conclusion
New technology in the form of streaming media is still in its infancy, in terms of
actual technology and use of that technology as an interactive media. Yet it has,
and is proving to be a vehicle for video directors to communicate about issues,
which is outside of the mass media agenda. This is not to say however that
traditional media moguls are not using this technology, for they are; yet they are
using it in much the same way that they use traditional media. However, it is
perhaps in the hands of individuals who do not have direct access to the
traditional media, that the most interesting work is being created. It is interesting
to note that with a simple technological system based on a computer, a modem
and a camcorder, an individual can create a ‘news channel’ and disseminate that
information to a global audience.
Marginal groups in culture and society are generally not well equipped to
deal with this new situation and they are certainly no matches for the highly
professional commercial media conglomerates. But they are finding the
way around believing that Internet provides a global platform for ‘free speech’,
empower all individuals with an opportunity to change the one-way
communication process.
There is a sense in which this ‘new’ media is still looking for an aesthetic style
and a narrative form, yet in searching for this form and style it is not only creating
itself; but it is challenging the hegemony of traditional media corporations.
18
Bibliography
Alt-World (Aug 2001) ‘Breaking the News’ <www.channel4.com/alt-world>
BARBROOK, Richard. (2000) ‘The Regulation of Liberty: free speech, free trade
and free gifts on the Net’
<http://piglet.ex.ac.uk/mail/cybersociety.2000/0544.html>
CASTELLS, Manuel (2000) ‘The Rise of the Network Society’, Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers Ltd.
DEBORD, Guy (1970) ‘Society of the Spectacle’, London: Black & Red
DOREY, Shannon ‘Streaming Media’
<http://www.the-surfs-up.com/news/news4p1.html>
MARTIN, Brian (1998) ‘Beyond mass media’.
<http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/98il/il02.html>
MEDIA GUARDIAN (Aug 2001) “Good evening, here is the real news”
<http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,539282,00.html>
O’CONNOR, Paul (2001) ‘Beyond TV’ <www.beyondtv.org>
RUSH, Michael. (1999) ‘New Media in Late 20
th
-Century Art’, London: Thames &
Hudson
SIMÕES, Nina (2000) ‘The Other Brazil’ <www.brazilnetwork.org>
THACKER Eugene (March 1999) 'Appropriate Technology: Artificial Products,
Mediation, and Streaming Media’<http://www.voyd.com/ttlg/textual/thacktxt.html>

More Related Content

What's hot

Week 5 Presentation on Deuze
Week 5 Presentation on DeuzeWeek 5 Presentation on Deuze
Week 5 Presentation on Deuzesgie6824
 
Web 2 0 theories
Web 2 0 theories Web 2 0 theories
Web 2 0 theories DB3igs
 
What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...
What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...
What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...Howard Greenstein
 
Media convergence
Media convergenceMedia convergence
Media convergenceIIvankovic
 
New Media & Multimedia
New Media & MultimediaNew Media & Multimedia
New Media & MultimediaChun-Hsien Lee
 
P2 media theories explained
P2 media theories explainedP2 media theories explained
P2 media theories explainedMedia Studies
 
Communities In Network Society
Communities In Network SocietyCommunities In Network Society
Communities In Network SocietyRemi Otani
 
Mass communication
Mass communicationMass communication
Mass communicationZeeshan Awan
 
Jenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergence
Jenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergenceJenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergence
Jenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergencemacchiato924
 
Citilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci finalCitilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci finalArtur Serra
 
Media 2.0 v After the Media
Media 2.0 v After the Media Media 2.0 v After the Media
Media 2.0 v After the Media Julian McDougall
 
Network Society: A Presentation to the CMI Guernsey
Network Society: A Presentation to the CMI GuernseyNetwork Society: A Presentation to the CMI Guernsey
Network Society: A Presentation to the CMI Guernseyguernseywebdesign
 
Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...
Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...
Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...USAC Program
 
The impact of_new_media_(1)
The impact of_new_media_(1)The impact of_new_media_(1)
The impact of_new_media_(1)Ankit Jain
 

What's hot (18)

Week 5 Presentation on Deuze
Week 5 Presentation on DeuzeWeek 5 Presentation on Deuze
Week 5 Presentation on Deuze
 
Media Convergence
Media ConvergenceMedia Convergence
Media Convergence
 
Web 2 0 theories
Web 2 0 theories Web 2 0 theories
Web 2 0 theories
 
What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...
What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...
What Old Media can teach New Media: Media Convergence & Integration, Social M...
 
Weekone
WeekoneWeekone
Weekone
 
Media convergence
Media convergenceMedia convergence
Media convergence
 
What is convergence culture
What is convergence cultureWhat is convergence culture
What is convergence culture
 
New Media & Multimedia
New Media & MultimediaNew Media & Multimedia
New Media & Multimedia
 
P2 media theories explained
P2 media theories explainedP2 media theories explained
P2 media theories explained
 
Communities In Network Society
Communities In Network SocietyCommunities In Network Society
Communities In Network Society
 
Mass communication
Mass communicationMass communication
Mass communication
 
Jenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergence
Jenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergenceJenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergence
Jenkins henry the cultural logic of media convergence
 
Citilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci finalCitilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci final
 
Media 2.0 v After the Media
Media 2.0 v After the Media Media 2.0 v After the Media
Media 2.0 v After the Media
 
Old Media vs. New Media
Old Media vs. New MediaOld Media vs. New Media
Old Media vs. New Media
 
Network Society: A Presentation to the CMI Guernsey
Network Society: A Presentation to the CMI GuernseyNetwork Society: A Presentation to the CMI Guernsey
Network Society: A Presentation to the CMI Guernsey
 
Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...
Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...
Active citizens and journalists using open data to innovate the information s...
 
The impact of_new_media_(1)
The impact of_new_media_(1)The impact of_new_media_(1)
The impact of_new_media_(1)
 

Viewers also liked

Aula 3 estrutura do sistema nervoso
Aula 3   estrutura do sistema nervosoAula 3   estrutura do sistema nervoso
Aula 3 estrutura do sistema nervosoBilly Nascimento
 
Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)
Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)
Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)Fernando S. S. Barbosa
 
âNgelo machado neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...
âNgelo machado   neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...âNgelo machado   neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...
âNgelo machado neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...minete
 
Anatomia do sistema nervoso i
Anatomia do sistema nervoso iAnatomia do sistema nervoso i
Anatomia do sistema nervoso iKárita Botelho
 
Psicomotricidade e Dificuldade de Aprendizagem
Psicomotricidade e Dificuldade de AprendizagemPsicomotricidade e Dificuldade de Aprendizagem
Psicomotricidade e Dificuldade de AprendizagemInstituto Consciência GO
 
PSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOS
PSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOSPSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOS
PSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOSLatife Frota
 
Anatomia - Sistema Nervoso
Anatomia - Sistema NervosoAnatomia - Sistema Nervoso
Anatomia - Sistema NervosoPedro Miguel
 
Filogénese e Ontogénese
Filogénese e OntogéneseFilogénese e Ontogénese
Filogénese e OntogéneseJorge Barbosa
 

Viewers also liked (16)

Aula 3 estrutura do sistema nervoso
Aula 3   estrutura do sistema nervosoAula 3   estrutura do sistema nervoso
Aula 3 estrutura do sistema nervoso
 
Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)
Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)
Psicomotricidade - Aula 1 (29/05/2013)
 
âNgelo machado neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...
âNgelo machado   neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...âNgelo machado   neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...
âNgelo machado neuroanatomia - alguns aspectos da filogênese do sistema ner...
 
Mapas mentais: Psicomotricidade - IAVM
Mapas mentais: Psicomotricidade - IAVMMapas mentais: Psicomotricidade - IAVM
Mapas mentais: Psicomotricidade - IAVM
 
Genética
GenéticaGenética
Genética
 
Psicologia B
Psicologia  BPsicologia  B
Psicologia B
 
Anatomia do sistema nervoso i
Anatomia do sistema nervoso iAnatomia do sistema nervoso i
Anatomia do sistema nervoso i
 
Tema 1 genética
Tema 1   genéticaTema 1   genética
Tema 1 genética
 
Psicomotricidade e Dificuldade de Aprendizagem
Psicomotricidade e Dificuldade de AprendizagemPsicomotricidade e Dificuldade de Aprendizagem
Psicomotricidade e Dificuldade de Aprendizagem
 
Genética 013 ff
Genética 013 ffGenética 013 ff
Genética 013 ff
 
Filogenese do Sistema Nervoso
Filogenese do Sistema NervosoFilogenese do Sistema Nervoso
Filogenese do Sistema Nervoso
 
PSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOS
PSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOSPSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOS
PSICOMOTRICIDADE E SEUS DISTÚRBIOS
 
Anatomia - Sistema Nervoso
Anatomia - Sistema NervosoAnatomia - Sistema Nervoso
Anatomia - Sistema Nervoso
 
Filogénese e Ontogénese
Filogénese e OntogéneseFilogénese e Ontogénese
Filogénese e Ontogénese
 
Introdução a Neuroanatomia e Neurofisiologia
Introdução a Neuroanatomia e NeurofisiologiaIntrodução a Neuroanatomia e Neurofisiologia
Introdução a Neuroanatomia e Neurofisiologia
 
Neurofisiologia 1
Neurofisiologia 1Neurofisiologia 1
Neurofisiologia 1
 

Similar to Video streaming on the web as empowerment for video activist

Lecture1 nm context
Lecture1 nm contextLecture1 nm context
Lecture1 nm contextalex bal
 
Key concepts in_new_media
Key concepts in_new_mediaKey concepts in_new_media
Key concepts in_new_mediakamal Alyafay
 
KCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence Culture
KCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence CultureKCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence Culture
KCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence CultureAxel Bruns
 
New Media and New Technologies.pptx
New Media and New Technologies.pptxNew Media and New Technologies.pptx
New Media and New Technologies.pptxAAlam8
 
Convergence Culture
Convergence CultureConvergence Culture
Convergence Cultureveredpnueli
 
Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New Medi
Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New MediHenry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New Medi
Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New MediSusanaFurman449
 
Social media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generatedSocial media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generatedAlexander Decker
 
Social media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generatedSocial media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generatedAlexander Decker
 
What is media convergence?
What is media convergence?What is media convergence?
What is media convergence?Peta Milan
 
Citilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci finalCitilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci finalArtur Serra
 
Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0
Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0
Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0is20090
 
Media Kill Anthropology
Media Kill AnthropologyMedia Kill Anthropology
Media Kill AnthropologyDeep Jones
 
Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012
Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012
Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012alex bal
 

Similar to Video streaming on the web as empowerment for video activist (20)

Lecture1 nm context
Lecture1 nm contextLecture1 nm context
Lecture1 nm context
 
Key concepts in_new_media
Key concepts in_new_mediaKey concepts in_new_media
Key concepts in_new_media
 
KCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence Culture
KCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence CultureKCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence Culture
KCB201 Week 3 Slidecast: Convergence Culture
 
New Media and New Technologies.pptx
New Media and New Technologies.pptxNew Media and New Technologies.pptx
New Media and New Technologies.pptx
 
Convergence Culture
Convergence CultureConvergence Culture
Convergence Culture
 
Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New Medi
Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New MediHenry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New Medi
Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture Where Old and New Medi
 
Media theory
Media theory Media theory
Media theory
 
The Internet And New Media
The Internet And New MediaThe Internet And New Media
The Internet And New Media
 
Social media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generatedSocial media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generated
 
Social media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generatedSocial media enlarging the space for user generated
Social media enlarging the space for user generated
 
What is media convergence?
What is media convergence?What is media convergence?
What is media convergence?
 
How Social Media Has Changed Our Lives Essay
How Social Media Has Changed Our Lives EssayHow Social Media Has Changed Our Lives Essay
How Social Media Has Changed Our Lives Essay
 
Citilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci finalCitilabs paper-jci final
Citilabs paper-jci final
 
Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0
Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0
Economic, Social & Political Impact of Web 2.0
 
The Language Of New Media By Lev Manovich Essay
The Language Of New Media By Lev Manovich EssayThe Language Of New Media By Lev Manovich Essay
The Language Of New Media By Lev Manovich Essay
 
News mosaic
News mosaicNews mosaic
News mosaic
 
Characteristics Of New Media
Characteristics Of New MediaCharacteristics Of New Media
Characteristics Of New Media
 
Media Kill Anthropology
Media Kill AnthropologyMedia Kill Anthropology
Media Kill Anthropology
 
Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012
Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012
Lecture2 newmediacontext 2012
 
Sport events and new media
Sport events and new mediaSport events and new media
Sport events and new media
 

Video streaming on the web as empowerment for video activist

  • 1. Video streaming on the web as empowerment for video activist Joana Andrade Ramalho Pinto Reg No 00093170E Final Essay Tutor: Andy Cameron MA Hypermedia Studies University of Westminster Fall 2001
  • 2. 2 Content Introduction 3 New media audience and streaming narrative 5 Moving from broadcast to streaming 8 Streaming technologies 9 Alternative media 12 Brazil Network 15 Conclusion 17 Bibliography 18
  • 3. 3 Video streaming on the web as empowerment for video activist Introduction "In countries like Brazil, where an under-represented majority struggles to have its voice heard, video activism has been fundamental in raising awareness about many social problems." (Simões in Media Guardian 2001) This essay will reflect upon the impact of new technologies on the communication process and how that process is a reflection of the technologies used in its creation, transmission, exchange and absorption (participation). In particular, we will address the videos distributed via Internet by video activists and NGOs. The NGO Brazil Network is forging a way to publish their activist work through the Internet, which is to denounce the unjust lives of different repressed segments of Brazilian society. With a minimal technology system (a laptop connected to the Internet) they are now uploading a video archive based on streaming media technology. What is new and exciting about streaming media is precisely that it is not television or radio on a computer. Streaming is a way of combining; connecting and condensing a variety of already established communication systems (such as live transmissions, radio and video) with new technology (computer and telecommunications network systems). This combination through new technological objects (interfaces, software applications, streaming media products) can create new social contexts that affect a given culture's sensory experience of media. History has shown that the introduction of new technologies provides an opportunity for media producers to re-examine the content and form of the message they wish to communicate. There is a sense in which the new can ‘revolutionise’ and innovate, creating a new aesthetic and new narrative forms.
  • 4. 4 The Internet has provided a unique moment for individuals separated by geography, culture and social position to share information with each other. Through its non-centralised democratic structure, the Internet encourages individual self-expression, allowing ‘everyone’ to have an opportunity to put forward their own point of view. This culture of self-expression may be referred to as a DIY-culture, where everyone has an opportunity to communicate through the new channels of communication, which are no longer limited to a special few, but are now open to anyone with a computer and a modem to show their own work. Streaming media pushes this process one step further, providing individuals with the tools of the professional media communicator to transmit their message. Here the audience is no longer a passive mass, but is a participating group of individuals each with the potential to not only enter into the discussion with words and static images, but with audio and video footage. “With the advent of the Net, this limited vision of media freedom is becoming an anachronism. For the first time, ordinary people can be producers as well as consumers of information. Marx's 'positive' concept of media freedom is now pragmatic politics. Instead of making media for them, the state can help people to make their own media. For instance, public service broadcasters can nurture network communities and telecoms regulators can encourage infrastructure investment.” (Barbrook 2000) This paper will examine the differences between two models of communication in our contemporary society: the already-established mass media and the new media based on innovative technologies, considering their narratives and their relationship to specific audiences. The essay will describe the streaming technologies, as well as examine how those technologies impact upon the message. Finally, the paper will present examples of alternative media producers (activists), which are using streaming video to distribute their work and overcome the broadcast corporation hegemony within the media.
  • 5. 5 New media audience and streaming narrative “Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings and effective motivations of hypnotic behaviour. The spectacle, as a tendency to make one see the world by means of various specialized mediations (it can no longer be grasped directly), naturally finds vision to be the privileged human sense which the sense of touch was for other epochs; “(Debord 1967; 18) The audience of New Media is different from the Mass Media. In a new media organisation, the audience experience not only a sense of vision, but also recuperates the “sense of touch”, where interactivity and participation of the audience is fundamental for its existence. There is no more a collective mind as in mass media, but a segmented and individualist society, the result of new communication technologies focuses on diversification and specialised information. Thus, the “audience becomes increasingly segmented by ideologies, values, tastes and lifestyles.” (Castells 2000; 368) The new technologies are changing the narrative; they are forcing the communicators to capture, edit and present their works in different ways. As Eisenstein noted during his experiments with montage in the early days of moving picture, he ‘felt that a new society meant a new kind of vision; that the way that people saw things must be altered; that it was insufficient to put new material before old eyes.’ (Rush 1999) So, this new technology provides an opportunity to develop a new media language, technique, and aesthetic where the content is not dependent on the technological form, but is in fact the embodiment of these new technologies. Cable television, sometimes referred to as Community Television, was once announced as the technology that would revitalise democratic communication. It was seen as a means of providing diversity among the electronic media, enabling two-way communication with a participatory audience. It was envisioned as a form for creating an open space for local communities and alternative media producers. Nowadays, only few stations works as alternative communities, which are based in a one-to-many communication system more like radio. In fact, cable television is now considered as a ‘narrowcasting’ system, providing specialised channels for particular demographic audience profiles produced by traditional media corporations and financed by advertising revenue. The major media
  • 6. 6 corporations have swallowed up the idealistic goal of a participatory communications channel. The hope of two-way communication has probably vanished, however it has created some new ‘media’ players (CNN, MTV, etc.), providing opportunities for challenging, although in a limited way, the hegemony of the existing media giants. This has created a potential amongst the audience to explore different media messages, and indeed question existing media points of view. “In sum, the new media determine a segmented, differentiated audience that, although massive in terms of numbers, is no longer a mass audience in terms of simultaneity and uniformity of the messages it receives. The new media are no longer mass media in the traditional sense of sending a limited number of messages to a homogeneous mass audience. Because of the multiplicity of messages and sources, the audience itself becomes more selective. The targeted audience tends to choose its messages, so deepening its segmentation, enhancing the individual relationship between senders and receivers. “ (Sabbah in Castells 2000; 368) This selective approach to information by the television audience has leaded the media producers to diversify the subjects and the narratives of the programs they produce. Where previously the programmes used established narrative formulas now there is greater change, introducing more interactive formats. “The key issue is that while mass media are a one-way communication system, the actual process of communication is not, but depends on the interaction between the sender and the receiver in the interpretation of the message.” (Castells 2000; 363) But it was not only cable TV that provides the capacity to choose, VCRs (video cassette recorders) and domestic video camera have provided an opportunity for diversification of television offerings, amplifying alternative programming opportunities and enabling the audience to re-schedule and record the transmitted signal. With the reduction in prices of video cameras, video technology is now within the reach of everyday consumers, thus reinforcing the DIY media approach. “People started to tape their own events, from vacation to family celebrations, thus producing their own images beyond the photo album. For all the limits of self-production of images, is actually modified the one-way flow of images and reintegrated life experience and the screen. In many
  • 7. 7 countries, from Andalusia to Southern India, local community video technology allowed for the blossoming of rudimentary local broadcasting which mixed diffusion of video films with local events and announcements, often on the fringes of communications regulations.”(Castells 2000; 366) The emergence of relatively inexpensive and easy to use video capturing devices has allowed video markers to question the narrative structure and aesthetic look of video. Through ‘innocent’ eyes, individuals who are not familiar with the production values and formulas of the media moguls, new narrative forms are possible. However, until the introduction of media streaming, although it was relatively easy to make a video, it was impossible for that video to be transmitted on a global scale. There is a sense in which the interactive, non-linear nature of the Internet has also changed the form and structure of these media it transmits. It is possible that the traditional sense of narrative is disappearing, because many of these technological tools enable a fragmented non-linear narrative to be constructed. What in fact is being realised is that the narrative tradition is being re-invented on the Net, in different ways, not only storytelling, but introducing again the notion of plot. Not plot in the simple sense of structuring narrative in order to keep your attention; but plot in relation to space, the actual selection of a journey through a collection of media fragments interspaced across the Internet. Here, narrative is defined as the links between the unfolding temporality of components individually linked together by Internet users. Like online documentation, streaming media combines a Web-based content management application with a rich array of media elements. This juxtaposition offers many advantages over traditional broadcasting. It creates entirely new ways of using and watching video. Breaking video down into short segments, which can be searched and randomly accessed, enabling customisation, sharing, and ‘bookmarking’ of content by the ‘viewer’ rather than just the ‘producer’ of the message. One of the most important questions, when considering the future of streaming media, will be how the contexts of developing technologies can be assessed (technological, commercial, social), and what range of mobility do those contexts offer for instances of use critical and appropriation.
  • 8. 8 Moving from broadcast to streaming The momentous is happening. We are at the first spark, the first dawn, of what is a fusion between the Internet and Broadcast Media. But we have in a sense, very little understanding of what the implications are, what it actually means. The flexibility that streaming media offers is one of the principle advantages it has over television broadcasts. Thus it is as pertinent for cultural activists and artists to consider how these new technologies may significantly change what is meant by performance, art or theatre. This capacity of a technology to extend outside itself is certainly not specific just to Web technology (we already have CD-ROM, video, radio, as precedents), but it is indicative of an important phase in developing media technology. In November 2000 an article in InternetNews by John Townley, reported that in a study conducted by MeasureCast, Inc./Harris Interactive, 67 percent of the online population was familiar with streaming media. T.W. Rabbit of PCWORLD reported in October 2000 that a study conducted by the National Association of Broadcasters revealed that "…in the average American home (without a broadband Internet connection), a resident typically spends 33 percent of his or her "media time" with television, followed by radio at 28 percent; the Internet trails at 11 percent. But in a home with broadband access, the study finds, a person typically spends 21 percent of her or his "media time" online, close to the 24 percent of the time spent watching television and 21 percent listening to radio." (Dorey) This comparison indicates that as Internet users with broadband connections increase, less time will be spent in front of the television and more time on the Internet. The difference between Internet media streaming and television broadcasting is that eventually there will be unlimited choice. At the same time, the broadcast industry will be going all-digital. Digital broadcasting and high- definition television are just around the corner. Television programs will be able to carry additional text and graphics encoded within their digital signals. The development of peer-to-peer (P2P) computing system, will allow direct exchanging information (files) between computers. Based on a decentralised architectural system its simplistic form it is usually structured as one-to-one
  • 9. 9 communication. Because the heavy data transfers are at the users edge (decentralised) of the network, the congestion is minimized reducing the load on the servers. With lowered congestion and automatic organization, scalability becomes less complicated and highly facilitated by the architecture, performing fast transfer of large data. For media industry this will represent the in between Internet and TV Broadcasting. However digital television will never be the same as the Internet. The advantage of the Internet, of course, is that it's worldwide, and so has the potential to become a global broadcasting medium. And since it's interactive, it can become a global multi-casting system. A user will be able to communicate with people all over the world, either on a one-to-one basis or with a whole group of people spread around the globe. Streaming technologies Advances in computing and networking technology means that it is now feasible to deliver sound and video across the Internet. Streaming is the process of sending these media over a network for viewing in real time. The source material can originate from a live source, such as a video camera, a webcast, an audio feed from a radio station, or the source can be a pre-edited movie stored on the network server. The different between streaming media and traditional media over the Internet, is that with streaming media, the whole file does not need to be downloaded before it begins to play. Hence, the Internet user can begin to listen to or watch the video/audio file whilst that file is still being transmitted. Given a good a network connection streaming video works well, enabling video to be received in almost real time, however there are still many users with old computers and slow network connections, who can not appreciate this experience, and hence care must to be taken to ensure that streaming technology is not used inappropriately for a particular target audience. Indeed even with a good network connection there may still exist some problems. Firstly, there is the nature of the Internet and its use of IP means that a broadcast is competing with other data transmissions, and hence there is no way of guaranteeing sufficient bandwidth to ensure an uninterrupted broadcast.
  • 10. 10 Servers streaming content to diverse groups of clients distributed across the Internet are ineffective in terms of both server load and network congestion. Also, users require particular software players to receive the streaming signals, and many users have difficulty in setting up their machines with these players. When a user is streaming a completed movie stored on a hard disk (video-on- demand streaming), the audience has random access to the entire stream and can jump anywhere within it. The on-demand media content is controlled by the user (client), the user can select a pre-recorded stream and also freely choose when to view it. The file will be stored on the user’s computer in full, which means no loss of information. After downloading the user can control the video stream - pausing, jumping ahead/back, restarting, etc – just as with a traditional video recorder. The ‘on-demand’ technique diverges from the broadcast system where content is controlled and scheduled by the server. Here, content is only made available for viewing at selected times. The viewer can only watch the stream as it is being transmitted without any control over it, just as with a television or radio broadcasts. Broadcast content can be scheduled to come from an archived file or can be live and information can be lost during the streaming, depending on the quality of the connection. This technology can use a unicast stream, a single link from the video server down to the user, permitting access to either on-demand or broadcast content. A single video server is able to handle many simultaneous unicast links to different users accessing the same or different content but if the server has many accesses at the same time it cause network congestion. Unicast is the predominant form of streaming for global access. However there is an alternative technology, multicast. Here, live or stored audio and video is distributed to large audiences with minimum network congestion because of multicast networking technology. Multicast allows a single media stream to be played simultaneously by multiple users, drastically reducing bandwidth use. However, multicast only offers the user the opportunity to join a live or scheduled broadcast. The user has no control over the stream and cannot stop or restart the transmission. With true live events, the stream functions more or less as the web version of a TV or radio broadcast; users can turn it on or off and switch to another channel.
  • 11. 11 Broadcast streaming, uses multicast technology, allowing users to maintain control over the distribution and copyright of their media. Anyone using ‘on- demand’ can download a movie, alter it, and redistribute it themselves, but it’s much harder to redistribute the contents of a broadcast stream. When the audience saves the streaming movie, all the user is saving is the URL of the stream and some user settings. The actual data, the movie, is never copied. These two alternative technologies are creating a ‘war’, similar to that of the two competing browsers, Netscape and Explorer. And like browsers, the players are not content just to be tools, they want to be gateways, directing the user to actual content. The three most popular streaming players, which are all free online, are RealNetworks' RealPlayer, Apple's QuickTime or Microsoft's Media Player. Patricia Jacobus of CNET wrote in January that according to a Jupiter Media Metrix report, RealNetworks had maintained an edge over rival Microsoft in media streaming technology. "In November 2000, about 28 percent of consumers who use computers in U.S. homes chose RealNetworks' RealPlayer to watch videos or listen to music online. That same month, 22 percent used Microsoft's Windows Media Player 6 or 7. Apple's QuickTime was used by 4 percent," she reported. Although these technologies have made huge leaps forward in providing access to video and audio files, it is important to note that these technologies are also changing the aesthetic concept of the media they are communicating. “The tactical media can only be fully effective if it is also aesthetically-formally- sensorially tactical as well. This means that, alongside an investigation into creating new distribution or broadcasting models, there must also be a concurrent investigation into the potential challenges, critiques, and experiments which are embodied and materialized in a given media”. (Thacker 1999) Content producers need to be aware of the tremendous compression ratios that are common in this field. Part of visual information is lost and picture sizes have to be small. Limiting camera movement as well as good lighting, simple backgrounds and close ups of subject material are all important considerations during the capturing of video. It is these present technical limitations, which are causing video makers to create new aesthetic styles.
  • 12. 12 Without entering too much into these discussions concerning the technology and how it is creating a new aesthetic, this paper will focus on who is using streaming media, how they are using it and why. Alternative media Until recently, the centralisation of media technologies in public and private commercial systems has made large-scale production projects by marginalized political groups infeasible. Academics and activists alike have overlooked the efforts of progressive organisations to utilize the television medium for the production and distribution of radical media. Groups who want to challenge existing power structures, empower diverse communities and classes, and enable communities to speak to each other are faced with a lack of theoretical models and practical information regarding the use of television. “During the Fordist epoch, the Left almost forgot this libertarian definition of free speech. For technical and economic reasons, ordinary people appeared to be incapable of making their own media. Instead, the Left supported public service broadcasting so its leaders could gain access to the airwaves. Free speech was restricted to elected politicians.” (Barbrook 2000) But the larger the audience, the more powerful are the decision-makers in the media organisations and the less effective are the mechanisms for participation. Participatory democracy is virtually impossible in a medium where a small number of owners and editors produce a product for a much larger audience. “The very scale of the media limits opportunities for participation and increases the power of key figures. The way in which this power is used depends on the relation of the media to the most powerful groups in society. In liberal democracies, governments and corporations, and media corporations in particular, exercise the greatest power over the media. The large scale of the mass media is what makes it possible for this power to be exercised so effectively” (Martin 1998). The aim should be to provide an alternative to the mass media by establishing a communication system that is more participatory. Social and cultural
  • 13. 13 information for marginal groups can then exploit the possibilities of digital narrow-casting models to send out their messages, potentially world wide. Grassroots initiatives have fragmented into islands of NGO-nets while, at same time, becoming increasingly professional in orientation and visible in the media. The true DIY style of this movement, enables alternative outlets to be created, where video activists, Internet hackers, radio pirates, digital photographers and text reporters can create forums for the ignored and the marginalised. Undercurrents is an English video activist organisation aimed at empowering individuals to report the news you don't see on the news. The group has noted that for news storied to be ‘acceptable’, they must not only adhere to the ‘production values’ (technical and journalistic) of the traditional media, but must also be innovative so as to capture the interest of the wider public. The group was formed in London in1993, during the protests against the building of the M11 motorway link. They began by producing short alternative news video programmes using domestic Hi8 video cameras, and selling the video tapes to schools and interested parties all over the World. Since then, the group has seen the importance of educating video markers so as to more effectively communicate their alternative news. Paul O’Connor one member of the Undercurrents, sums up to Media Guardian the work of the group to date, “within that time we have trained hundreds of environmental and social justice campaigners to use the camcorder as a tool for change. From Belfast to Brighton, video activists are now editing on laptops and producing their own news.” Within the last twelve months, the Undercurrents team has been preparing for the wider introduction of broadband technology allowing Internet users to access video at a reasonable cost and quality. They are setting up beyondtv.org as a touring/internet hosting area for activists' films. The latest in alternative news can be viewed or downloaded for free from their website. They also produce Internet and video training programs, which have created many new media activists that, need an outlet for their campaign work. Taking the idea that the Internet can provide this at a very low cost, it is possible to educate and empower groups by working with them as partners to give them skills to express themselves by
  • 14. 14 creative use of new technology. “Beyondtv.org will allow you to post text, images and details of audio reports and video up to the Website. If you have nowhere to host your audio and video - we'll help you find somewhere. The most important difference is, we'll be able to offer partners training and technical support” says O’Connor. “With the help of our training partners, we help people to shoot and edit video and put this on the web. We also train groups and individuals how to create effective campaign web sites.” (O’Connor 2000) Originally Undercurrents set up to empower the 17 million people who send their donation fees each month to Greenpeace or WWF or any large NGO to take action themselves rather than paying others to take action on their behalf. Paul O’Connor continues by saying “The videos we distribute show a wide cross section of people involved in stopping destructive practises carried out by governments, industries, and individuals. We focus on the positive side such as empowerment, education, results, and actions of individuals in each video. Our audience has now expanded to schools, universities, campaigners worldwide, journalists, as well as the general audience through terrestrial TV and the Internet worldwide. But I think that a focused smaller audience has more impact and potential that any mass audience.” (Alt-World 2001) O’ Connor notes that ”the greatest power of all these corporations lies in the fact that they can produce a movie and distribute it through their own cinema chain, promote it through their own TV networks, play the soundtrack on their own radio stations and sell merchandising spin offs at their own amusement parks. A movie becomes a book, a CD, then a TV series, a Broadway musical, a video game, and even an amusement ride.” (Alt-World 2001) It has taken a decade for broadcasters to recognise the direct-action movement as an important political force. Grassroots reporting is perhaps finally gaining acceptance within the mainstream. In August 2001, Channel 4 broadcasted the pilot of a unique programme, which according to its producers offered "a radical new approach to current affairs and politics inspired by video activists". Alt-World featured stories by video activists in Brazil, Australia, the United States, Serbia and Britain.
  • 15. 15 Brazil Network Following the initiatives of Undercurrents and the production process based upon the DIY-culture, many other projects and groups have been pushing streaming video technology as a means of communicating their believes. One such example is Brazil Network. Brazil Network is a Non-Governmental Organization based in London, which was established in the early 1990s. It’s a group of members and volunteers coordinated by the documentary film-maker/director Nina Simões. Following the collapse of the military regime in 1985 and instigation of a new Constitution, Brazil became a democratic country. This transition has lead to a number of social changes and challenges. These changes are reflected in many different ways, from the thousands of landless peasants (MST) who demand fertile land, which are unused yet owned by a small proportion of the population. Rappers in shantytowns who are forging a new black consciousness though their militant music. Native Indians, the first dwellers of Brazilian lands, who are demanding back their ancestral land, and fighting for their right to preserve their culture inheritance and not become absorbed into a globalised culture. Left-wing activists from the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) who have won local elections and are promoting new forms of participatory politics. Environmentalists who are campaigning - and taking direct action - against genetically modified crops. “This is the 'other Brazil' that is fighting to create a vibrant, ethnically and culturally diverse, egalitarian society. By creating a network of information, contacts and activities, we aim both to make these experiences more widely understood and to build a common movement in which people around the world can learn from, and support, each other. “ (Simões 2001) Nina Simões worked as a video activist at Undercurrants shooting protests of MST the landless peasants movement in Brazil. Lately made a new video ‘The other 500 years of Brazil’, which was shot in April 2000 in Cabrália, in South of Bahia, during the demonstrations against the so called ‘Discovery’ of Brazil. Due to a lack of funding the project is still unfinished, but today, the internet offers a chance for alternative projects like this one, to be presented to a wider audience, according to Nina: “avoiding the narrow mindedness of the commissioning
  • 16. 16 editors which are censoring and manipulating a closer look into the problems of our world”. The convergence of new technologies is giving new possibilities to reveal stories not covered by the broadcast media. Brazil Network is now launching a web page with a video archive that consists on giving a voice and showing the faces of the unheard people living in remote areas of Brazil. “Now they have a chance to denounce the problems surrounding their reality and show how they are getting organized to defend their rights” (Simões 2001). The video archive will include small statements from representatives of different native indian tribes, scenes from the fight between the indians and the police during the celebration in Cabrália, some footage presenting the indian culture and also about the march of the MST across the country demanding land to work. Technology to enabling these issues to be discussed via the Internet through on- demand streaming media allied with a complementary text providing context insight into the wider political issues. On-demand streaming is been used to guarantee the quality of the audio and video images, making it possible to have larger file sizes with a slow connection speed. This format also enables viewers to randomly interact with the videos, permitting them to download the files and swap them with other users over the Internet. The production of the videos is simple and allows information to be easily and quickly updated, this is very important considering that Brazil Network only has a laptop to support this innovative technological venture. The practice of DIY-culture is perhaps the only real solution for smalls NGOs such as Brazil Network, where resources are at a minimum, and work is conducted by volunteers. The Brazil Network survives from donations of its members; the creation of the video archive is a means of communicating the objectives of the group and to encourage other individuals to invest in the project.
  • 17. 17 Conclusion New technology in the form of streaming media is still in its infancy, in terms of actual technology and use of that technology as an interactive media. Yet it has, and is proving to be a vehicle for video directors to communicate about issues, which is outside of the mass media agenda. This is not to say however that traditional media moguls are not using this technology, for they are; yet they are using it in much the same way that they use traditional media. However, it is perhaps in the hands of individuals who do not have direct access to the traditional media, that the most interesting work is being created. It is interesting to note that with a simple technological system based on a computer, a modem and a camcorder, an individual can create a ‘news channel’ and disseminate that information to a global audience. Marginal groups in culture and society are generally not well equipped to deal with this new situation and they are certainly no matches for the highly professional commercial media conglomerates. But they are finding the way around believing that Internet provides a global platform for ‘free speech’, empower all individuals with an opportunity to change the one-way communication process. There is a sense in which this ‘new’ media is still looking for an aesthetic style and a narrative form, yet in searching for this form and style it is not only creating itself; but it is challenging the hegemony of traditional media corporations.
  • 18. 18 Bibliography Alt-World (Aug 2001) ‘Breaking the News’ <www.channel4.com/alt-world> BARBROOK, Richard. (2000) ‘The Regulation of Liberty: free speech, free trade and free gifts on the Net’ <http://piglet.ex.ac.uk/mail/cybersociety.2000/0544.html> CASTELLS, Manuel (2000) ‘The Rise of the Network Society’, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. DEBORD, Guy (1970) ‘Society of the Spectacle’, London: Black & Red DOREY, Shannon ‘Streaming Media’ <http://www.the-surfs-up.com/news/news4p1.html> MARTIN, Brian (1998) ‘Beyond mass media’. <http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/98il/il02.html> MEDIA GUARDIAN (Aug 2001) “Good evening, here is the real news” <http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,539282,00.html> O’CONNOR, Paul (2001) ‘Beyond TV’ <www.beyondtv.org> RUSH, Michael. (1999) ‘New Media in Late 20 th -Century Art’, London: Thames & Hudson SIMÕES, Nina (2000) ‘The Other Brazil’ <www.brazilnetwork.org> THACKER Eugene (March 1999) 'Appropriate Technology: Artificial Products, Mediation, and Streaming Media’<http://www.voyd.com/ttlg/textual/thacktxt.html>