One of the key books that has informed my writing is Socialnomics by Eric Qualman. The book explores how social media is transforming the way we live and do business. It delves into how social media actually makes us more productive, how it can be used to market products and keep in contact with friends. It offers a real insight into the ever-developing online social landscape and it is interesting to deduce the opportunities and challenges it presents to both the individual and the business.
Another piece of literature I've particularly enjoyed is a book called Get Noticed by Marcus Taylor and Rob Lawrence. Marcus is a pal of mine anyway and it was a joy to read his new book - a great follow up to "The Musicians Guide To World Domination": a really insightful book into how up-and-coming musicians should go about promoting themselves in the music industry. One of the sections in The Musicians Guide actually talks about mailing lists and fan groups on social media so that is relevant to today's project.
Get Noticed, however, is totally relevant to my research on social media. The ethos of the book is to teach and inform readers how to get noticed in a world where 'who you know' plays a crucial role in getting anywhere. The chapter for getting noticed online was particularly helpful and I did pick up an incredibly useful statistic about how crucial human communication is, rather than communicating through a computer where you loose a massive amount of communicative power through body language.
Other reading materials that have influenced my viewpoint on media convergence include the new 'Creative Documentary' book by Wilma De Jong, Eric Knudsen and Jerry Rothwell. I learnt a great deal about technological convergence and how film-makers can harness new technology to produce excellent content in the digital age.
Slightly aside from the Media Convergence subject I have been enjoying a new book by Paul Hollins and Paul Chandler called Hang the DJ?, which, as a Radio Presenter, is a crucial read! It offers an insight into the potential pitfalls a presenter could make on air that can result in huge court cases and financial settlements. What comments could be considered libellous? What is acceptable on air conduct? It's a read that goes hand in hand with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, but having the real life examples of where thing's have gone wrong illustrates how crucial it is to know the game and play it faultlessly.
It's also interesting to read that book alongside the media convergence course, with:
- Technology convergence
- Economy convergence
- Audience convergence
- Content convergence
It doesn't matter how much advance is made in these areas, if something is said out of place, it could upset the whole balance.
For online research I've been actively searching the MediaGuardian website which is crammed full of the latest and biggest media stories. I like the Guardian's standpoint on these issues as well. Interestingly the comment section is useful to take a look at because it goes hand in hand with our studies on participatory audiences.
I've also been really captivated by the recent episodes of two podcasts, The Media Show from Radio 4 and RadioTalk from the Radio Academy. Both shows are extremely well produced and feature excellent guests, who's opinions on complex media and radio topics create a really engrossing listen.
All of the various resources I have mentioned above have really helped my studies into media convergence.
Louis.
Source material:
Qualman, E (2009.) Socialnomics. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Taylor, M., & Lawrence, R. (2011.) Get Noticed
de Jong, W., Knudsen, E., Rothwell, J. (2012.) Creative Documentary. Hawlow: Pearson Education Limited
Hollins, P,. & Chantlet, P. (2011) Hang The DJ?. Marston Gate: Amazon.co.uk, Ltd.,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media
http://www.radioacademy.org/podcasts/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/media
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