Essay Writing Service

Having that said I dare bet that every Internet-user is or has been part of the Social Media community. Yes, even you. Because, admit it, have you ev

Television industry is emerging into new era in providing the better services to the customers. With the built around two-way interactive technologies, the digital television (DTV) infrastructure opens up new history in communication system. The two totally different worlds which were barely connected – television and the Internet – are now combining into an entirely new entity: which is interactive television. There are two specific terms which are commonly used to define the advanced television environment: interactive television and enhanced television. Throughout the whole text, we will use the term interactive television (ITV) to describe anything that allows a customer engages with the system by a remote control or keyboard usage in order to access the newest and advanced services. Also, interactive television (generally as ITV) defines as numerous number of techniques that allows the consumers to interact with the television contents. General purposes can be categorized into the following:

On-line chatting and do emailing

Stock market data, this includes personal investment portfolio performance in real time

Ability to select the desired movies for viewing purposes at home

News story selection and archive

Enhanced sports scores and statistics on selective basis

Purchase everything by on-line real-time, this includes groceries to software to electrical appliances without leaving house

A continuum from low interactivity (TV whether on/off, volume, changing channels) to moderate scale (movies-on-demand without changing channels) till high scale interactivity, for instances program viewer affects the show that being watched are represented by interactive television. It was obviously shown in any kind of real-time voting on the screen, in which viewers vote to make decisions that will subsequently affects how the shows continues.

TELEVISON PROVIDER IN MALAYSIA

There are numerous number of subscription providers available, with the different numbers of channels, special communication techniques for instance, program guide (EPG), high-definition (HD), video on demand (VOD), interactive television via the red button and coverage across Malaysia. These services are basically received by set-top boxes. However, households viewing TV from internet in Malaysia are not monitored and tracked by the government.

Figure 1: Service providers in Malaysia

MALAYIA TELEVISION CONTECTION AND COVERAGE

Driven by rapid change in delivery and content platforms, the Malaysian television market grows tremendously. Malaysians were largely depend on free to air (FTA) broadcasts without any significant cable infrastructure and relatively limited broadband access, until ASTRO TV service was introduced in 1996 back then. Satellite pay television is therefore concentrate in expanding its addition content and programming options. The pay media boasts until more than 100 channel beamed to some 2m consumers.

Even through there are tremendous growth in pay-media, FTA channels (which offered via satellite too) stay as the most popular stations in Malaysia market. According to 2007 Nielsen survey, 9.3% of respondents watched one out of six FTS channels the previous day. Government-owned Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) owns TV1 and TV2 while Media Prima works on the four channels remaining.

Right after MiTV made an unsuccessful attempt to emerge the market by using wireless internet protocol over ultra high frequency (UHF), it is retooling for new mobile broadband delivery system after the winning a 3G licence recently. The Government has also initiated several test programs for digital television broadcasts and by 2015, plans to phase out analogue transmissions as whole. Trial broadcasts were undergoing, and this involves a thousand households in Klang Valley from September 2006 till February 2007. Trial of digital transmissions received positive feedback from the consumers, this is according to Deputy Minister of Information, Chia Kwang Chye. More than 60 percent said that the quality of signal transmitted scaled from good to very good, more than 88 percent thought that the picture quality improved, and more than 70 percent said that sound quality was better. As part of the three years reconstructing process, RTM is assumed to be totally digitization by 2012. Every household in Malaysia, when once equipped with the necessary equipment(set top box or known as iDTV set), is expected to receive more than 19 channels, which seven of them fall under RTM and others for private broadcasters such as Media Prima which owns TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9. Besides simulating TV1 and TV2, RTM is also test-airing RTMi, Arena and Muzik Aktif on digital platform, by transmitting at UHF channel 44, modulated at 64QAM.

Figure 2: Digital TV set-top box

HISTORY OF INTERACTIVE TELEVISION IN MALAYSIA

In Malaysia, development of technology received considerable attention during the Mahathir Era from the year of 1982 till 2003. In order to transform Malaysia into a fully developed country by early of the year 2020, Vision 2020 was developed. Due to this, a mega project known as the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was launched in 1996. In conjunction with this mega project, Malaysia’s satellite television was first introduced in 1996, which is ASTRO. ASTRO utilized Direct to User Service (D.T.U) and is broadcast as high powered KU Band transmission using the transponder of the MEASAT. Currently, the subscription based service is currently operating from Bukit Jalil. This service can be received by utilizing a fixed 60 cm diameter dish antenna and a decoder. Signals are encoded and encrypted prior to transmission, in order to form a conditional access subscriber service, and therefore allow the access only for subscribers with decoder and authorized smartcard.

Figure 3: Astro logo (1996-2003)

Figure 4: Both old (bottom) and new (top) Astro satellite dish or mini-dish.

INTERACTIVE SERVICES BY PROVIDERS IN MALAYSIA

ASTRO has then initiated more sophisticated viewing experience for the customers. This is known as interactive and multimedia services through the convergence and divergence of the existing ‘old’ and ‘new’ media technologies. Recently, there are various interactive TV and multimedia services that include games, video on demand (pay preview), chatting, stock link, Short Messaging System (SMS), internet banking and icon download which were not available previously.

Short Messaging System (SMS) through television programs is one of the most successful interactive services that were achieved thus far in Malaysia television industry. SMS technology was utilized by ASTRO in the year of 2003 as the introduction of Akademi Fantasia, a local musical program that copied from Mexico. Maxis was chosen as the sole service provider for the interactive activity via the program. Maxis, Malaysia’s leading Telecommunications Company, which also partly owned by ASTRO. Throughout Akademi Fantasia, for the first time ever television audiences were allowed to send in their votes to decide on the winner of the competition.

In year of 2000, interactive SMS technology was become a joint venture project between Microsoft and ASTRO. Microsoft had made an equity investment in ASTRO in order to helping and developing interactive internet and content in ASTRO. This has proven a critical success as it attracted more audience to tune-in into their channel. This was shown as in the first season of Akademi Fantasia in 2003, it was raked in RM 2.5 million profits through the votes made by audience.

Figure 5: SMS transactions of interactive service by ASTRO

This trend has also influenced other television stations in Malaysia, such as RTM, TV 3, 8tv, ntv7, and tv9 to use interactive technology to attract more viewers, and therefore increasing revenue. Since then, both imported and locally produced television programs, utilized SMS interactive activities, for instances, reality TV shows, musicals, dramas, and even local television news. There is also live radio broadcast, with kind of live, in-studio programming, coupled with an on-screen chat room that the users could interact with via SMS. To top it off also, there is a large chunk of screen for mobile ringtones and wallpapers.

In mobile content, with the burgeoning penetration of new generation of mobile phone, there is more demand for better entertainment content drives the growth of it. ASTRO provides customers new experience with the streaming of 2.5G video and the launch of 3G services. Besides CNBC and HITZ.TV, when 3G launches, ASTRO offers CNN, Cartoon Network, highlights of hit shows as well as exclusive English Premier League matches to mobile handsets. In addition, STK WAP technology provides a platform for SMS content and services for example cinema information and movie bookings, other info-on-demand and gaming. This service generated 36 million SMS transactions in 2004.

Mobile games on TV debuted on ASTRO @PLAY in March 2004, was the first initiative in Malaysia. This therefore made great contribution to SMS activity through games while @15 and HIT. TV, which is the SMS-TV chat channels contributed strongly to the ITV business, with roughly around 8.3 million chat messages chalked for the year.

TV 9 is a free-to-air private owned television station in Malaysia, which is owned fully by Media Prima Berhad. Interactive television feature is introduced by TV9, which allows audiences to interact and communicate via Short Messaging System (SMS) while music video displaying. The element is available from 11 am until noon and from midnight till 1 in the morning. This is consequently in the year of 2004, TV9 announced its strategic partnershio with WAP Portal Sdn Bhd and Mobileway-Inphomatch, the leading provider of global mobile messaging interoperability and added value for mobile information services, in subsequently to deliver interactive mobile applications for its new SMS-MMS segment, known as Mobile9. The project is launched on 15 August 2007, where audiences can involve themselves in interactive activities on Mobile9, for instances like chatting, contests, downloading via SMS, polling and sharing their MMS pictures while watching TV programs. “Channel 9 is continuously exploring the best alternative to make sure that the right customer experience for our products and services. We want to offer customers the best services which are relevant, exciting and will definitely enhance their lifestyle,” said by Encik Abdul Aziz Hamdan, the Chief Executive Officer, Channel 9. Broadcasting of TV9 under (Ultra High) Frequency. The UHF channel is 42 in Klang Valley, and with weaker transmission at 33 in certain area of Klang valley. TV9 is available on Malaysia satellite provider ASTRO via Channel 119.

The third subscription based TV station in Malaysia, FineTV, utilizes an a- la- carte approach, which is a total interactive approach (video-on-demand), allows viewers to design their own television program or scheduling. Recently, FineTV is offering 18 television channels from serial drama, reality tv show, education, music video, game show, sports and cartoon are available upon viewers’ selection or request.

RED BUTTON TECHNOLOGY BY ASTRO

Interactive advertising can be done available via one-way or broadcast television, in the form of either red or green button advertising. For more inner explanation, red button advertising will be relied more on content delivered via broadcast, by pressing the red button on the remote control by the customers, they are able to find out more specific advert. Satellite service Sky in United Kingdom and ASTRO in Malaysia provides the service of Red Button Advertising. Meantime, green button advertising enables viewers to book advert by using remote control, this is followed by the viewing of a clip inside the broadcast stream, in order to record them on their PVR. With that expanded advert (which could be the program length), is then able to be viewed by the consumer with full leisure. Furthermore, the interactive Red Button is another first product in Malaysia market also, was launched in June 2004 with over 10,000 hours of extended programming introduced over subsequent months. Important features of its activity included live vote updates for AF over Astro Ria and ASTRO @15 channels, ITV advertising for Coca Cola and DHL, distribution of mobile downloads and Summer Olympics.

In May 2005 also, ASTRO launched their broadband portal, ASTRO. Tv, starting off with two channels on demand and favourite content: Akademi Fantasia 3 and English soccer, over the internet. With paying certain amount of subscription fee, a broadband users can watch live concert via webcast, enhanced video feed on AF3 daily developments, archived materials and auditions from earlier AF seasons. Besides, another separated GoalTv for sport channel, also provides streaming of trivia, commentary, analysis and matches on the top English soccer teams in order to delight the avid sports fan. The Star featured that in order to accommodate more “live” BPL coverage, a new sport channel, which is known that Astro SuperSport 3 (Ch 817) had been introduced. Due to this features, subscribers are able to watch al least eight live matches per week. And for a limited period also, iPhone users are able to download Astro’s B. player application to watch games for free.

Lister. M et. al (2003:20) defined that interactive means more powerful sense of consumer engagement with media text, individualized media usage, a more independent relation for the source of knowledge and greater user choice in selection.

Video on demand concept was initiated by ASTRO which allows customers to make selection from its pay per view package that consists of blockbuster and sporting events. Mitv also provides similar mode, where Mitv is the second subscription based television. The concept is known as ‘Affordable Transaction’, offers video on demand, games-on-demand, e-learning-on-demand and music-on-demand for its subscribers.

CONCLUSION

There does not need much explanation why ITV is gaining momentum – and will continue its trend as new technologies take control. This is due to the backbone for ITV growth comes from both the market strength of the Internet. In addition to that , with the rapid growth of digital video technology that took place in the cable, satellite, and terrestrial broadcasting industries, the world is now prepare for the creation of an ITV segment which meet the requirement of tests of sound economic principles. This is therefore introduced to mass customer market to a whole new range of opportunities. Interactive television in Malaysia depends on the implementation of digital terrestrial television. Despite RTM’s trial was a success, there is an uncertainty in the growth of the digital terrestrial television transition, significantly after the end of Abdullah Badawi’s tenure as Prime Minister.

 

er watched a video on YouTube? … So I thought.

Social Media is however more than just YouTube. The experience goes much further than simply watching movies on the internet and that is exactly what captivates me. How can one kind of Media become so huge in such a short time? How is it possible that both companies and private-individuals use the same medium on different ways? And, more importantly, why is it that Social Media is still expanding instead of fading away like most of the hypes we know? Let it be clear; Social Media is one big, important and yet complicated format which we know little about. Time to dig a little deeper!

First I’ll start with discussing the definition of Social Media thoroughly. Only when knowing EXACTLY what it is, we’ll be able to understand what makes it so interesting and vital.

Secondly, I’ll be digging a bit in the history of Social Media. How did this new medium come to be? Did it just appear out of nowhere or did it take a while before it caught the eyes of the public?

Third, I’m going to investigate who use Social Media and why? I’ll split this question in two sub-questions for you; Social Media used by private-individuals and Social Media used by businesses.

Knowing what Social Media is, how it came to be and who use it and why, I’ll be able to think of the influence Social Media has on our society. Is social media really that important, or do technophobias have nothing to fear?

After concluding whether Social Media has a big or small influence on our society, I’ll look whether I can confirm this conclusion by looking how much is invested in the world of Social Media.

Finally, I’ll be speculating about the future of Social Media. Will Social Media become vital for every company, or will it just fade away as hype?

Welcome to the complicated yet most interesting world of Social Media.

Index

1 What is social media?

1.1 Social media as definition

1.2 Social media characteristics

2 How did social media come to exist?

2.2 social mediums that came out

2.3 how social media became popular

3 Who use social media and why?

3.1 private-individuals

3.2 businesses

4 How much is invested in social media?

5 What influence do social media have on our society?

5.1 influence on the human behaviour

5.2 influence on politics

5.3 influence on marketing

6 How will social media develop?

6.1 social media statistics of 2010

6.2 social media in the near future

6.3 social media in the far future

7 Sources

What is Social Media?

1.1 Social media as definition

“Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content”. — Kaplan and Michael Heanlin in Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media, business horizons (2010).

In other words, social media is a new medium (it was, arguably, introduced in the second half of the 20th century), that allows people to globally interact through the media. It is a collective term for all the internet-applications that enable us to share and discuss information, not only in the form of text, but also through sound and video.

But since social media is a collective term, you probably won’t take my brief description for granted. You want to know the different forms that social media has and where they are to be found on the web.

Take a seat. This may take a while.

So, social media knows six different forms; communication, collaboration, multimedia, review and opinions, entertainment and brand monitoring. I will discuss each and every one of them.

Communication is currently the biggest form of social media. Three very important aspects of communication are; blogs, micro blogs and social networks. You’ve probably heard of them.

Blogs are websites, or parts of websites, where people can write articles, columns, reviews, etc. Blogs are usually aimed at a specific subject. Basically, there are two types of blogs; commercial blogs and non-commercial blogs. Commercial blogs are mainly used by companies (d’oh) for a variety of reasons (for instance; promoting their product or getting to know the customer), but also by people who like to write, professionally, about certain subjects.

Non-commercial blogs are mainly used by private-individuals, like you and me. These blogs usually define themselves as ‘blogs written due to boredom’. Usually, I said.

A couple of known blogs are; WordPress, Bloggers.com and Open-Diary.

Micro blogs are basically the same as normal blogs only they are much smaller. Micro blogs contain fewer characters and aren’t always aimed at a specific subject. Micro blogs are an excellent way for companies to make small announcements. Just like normal’ blogs, there are two different kinds of users (businesses and private-individuals, remember?) using the micro blogs. Known micro blogs are Twitter, Tumblr and FML (Fuck My Life).

Social networks is arguably the most important component of social media (thank you, Facebook!). A social network is a big networking site where people can communicate with each other and share information. In a social network you represent yourself using a profile picture and by writing down a biography. That way, it is easy to locate people with the same interests which can result in an online friendship. The problem that this feature however brings is that the accessibility of social networks can also be seen as an invitation for perverts. Social networks are an easy way for perverts to hide their true identity and gain the trust of good-willed girls. And for that very reason, I don’t blame parents for worrying sick when their children are uploading new photos on Facebook or other social networks. Undoubtedly, social networks are something to be careful with.

Luckily, social networks, just like any other form of media, mostly support the option to set your private status to ‘friends only’, or to restrict certain areas of your Facebook for unwanted visitors. It’s a great way to make your photos pervert-free.

Communication however doesn’t only consist of these three aspects, but also contains location-based social networks, events, information aggregators and online advocacy and fundraising.

Location-based social networks are social networks that aim at geography. People can indicate where they are, when they are there and why they are there, which will all be shown on a big map. That way you will be able to see where your friends are and you to notify them about your current location.

The events section looks, in one way, very much like the location-based networks. It also relies on a map, only in this case the map indicates where and when events are held, together with more additional information such as who are performing, what kind of an event it is and the ticket fee. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date about your favorite artists and to not miss any appealing shows.

Social media is used by more than 50% of the American population, and for that very reason it should come to no surprise that there are lots of different sites with reference to social media and they are all very crowded. Amongst the common social media users there are celebrities, publishers and developers writing their thoughts down and making announcements. Social media is a huge center of information and it didn’t take long till ‘information aggregators’ were introduced to the market. Information aggregators are sites with big, huge dashboards that gather information from all social networks.

The last part that communication knows is advocacy and fundraising. I believe A&F is a rather peculiar element of communication, because it’s usually integrated in other social media (mostly social networks). The main goal of A&F companies is to raise as much money as they can for charity. They do this by advertising on other sites and by striking up partnerships. Especially live broadcasting sites such as BlogTV and Stickam attract A&F companies.

Where communication specializes in a belonging community, collaboration is recognized for its involvement with other sites; sites that fall under the ‘collaboration’ category usually gather information from other sources.

The six aspects of collaboration are; wikis, social bookmarking, social news, social navigation, content management systems and document managing and editing tools.

Wikis are a perfect example of sites gathering information from other sources. Take a look at the end of a Wikipedia page and you are high likely to see a list full or sources. For instance, when looking up ‘social media’ the most famous wiki; Wikipedia, gives me this;

Wikis are generally known for their reliability because they make use of the ‘knowledge management system’, meaning that every user can contribute to the site by creating and editing articles. That results in a huge database.

Another social database that collaboration knows is social bookmarking. Social bookmarking collects links of all kinds of sites and then categorizes them. Users are able to rate (or as I like to call it; ‘digg’) and share the links. That way people can easily find good, reliable sites that fit their interests.

Known social bookmark sites are; Stumbleupon, Delicious and Google Reader.

Social News looks a bit like social bookmarking; it also works with a rating system. Unlike professional news sites however, people write their own news on social news sites. Readers have the ability to vote on articles; deciding what is important and what isn’t. Social news sites are obviously a magnet for information aggregators. For them it’s like killing two birds with one stone; social news sites contain a lot of information and the community already picks their favorite articles.

Known social news sites are Digg, Newvine and Reddit.

Social navigation, content management systems and document managing and editing tools are the lesser known social media components of collaboration, which comes quite a bit to my surprise because social navigation and content management systems can actually come in quite handy.

Social navigation, for instance, provides information about the public transport, and content management systems is a software-application that simplifies the complicated ‘code-language’ of the internet for common users like you and me.

In the case of social navigation, I’m guessing that mobile phones and global positioning systems are preferred by today’s customers because these are more frequently used in vehicles.

I don’t blame Document managing and editing tools for being little popular though. They are online (free) writing tools and also allow users to share their documents with the Interwebs, but why would anyone want to share their articles randomly with these tools on the internet? Most of the articles that are published on the internet are published not through document managing and editing tools but through own websites. The documents are usually written in Word.

Multimedia is a term you have probably already heard of. It is generally favored by the youth. Multimedia can be divided in five aspects; photography and art sharing, video sharing, live casting, music and audio sharing and presentation sharing.

It’s very common for multimedia sites to be used for other kinds of social media. Think of it; multimedia sites are perfect databases to store your pictures and videos because they can easily be linked in your articles thanks to embedded codes.

Though the names already give away where the aspects actually function for, I have decided to explain them anyhow. As you probably have already noticed, I like being as thorough as possible.

Photography and art sharing are, as the name already says, sites where people can share pictures. They serve as a great way for people to save (and optionally; share) their photos and find other photos. Since (mainly) blogs don’t have a lot of space, photography and art sharing sites are very popular places for bloggers to upload their pictures on. They won’t be bothered with the limited space problem and won’t risk the chance of having the original photo removed so that only a dead link will remain.

Video sharing basically have the same principal as P&As only do they specialize in videos except for pictures. Especially Youtube is a very important component of the video sharing aspect. Video sharing is used by both private-individuals and businesses. Private-individuals use video sharing mainly as entertainment, but also as outlet or gateway to show their own talents.

Businesses use video sharing for promotion by uploading videos about their brand (mostly funny commercials or trailers).

Remarkable is that most live casting users are also pretty popular on video sharing sites such as Youtube. Many famous Youtubers (like Davedays, Shanedawson, Zushoo, Creepjeepers) are featured on Stickam and BlogTV (two of the biggest live casting sites). Apart from their scripted shows they sometimes like to just randomly entertain fans on liveshows.

Live casting is also often used as live streaming device for important shows. If people can’t attend certain events for any reason, they will be able to follow it live at home.

Music and audio sharing is an aspect of collaboration that specializes in sounds. On these sites, users are able to customize their own playlists and check out other playlists. It is a popular concept for radio broadcasts because their audience are most likely music fans and appeal to this market.

Presentation sharing is mainly used by companies. Sharing presentations is a great way to take information up in an interactive way. Especially for teachers, presentation sharing can come in handy. It’s a great way to reach the modern generation of students and still educational.

Despite the fact that most people write reviews and opinions on blogs, there are still a couple of sites fully dedicated to the reviews and opinions category. The R&O category has but three aspects; product reviews, business reviews and community question & answer.

Let’s start with the beginning; product reviews are sites where the community can give their opinion on certain products. It’s a really nice way for people to know what product to buy and what not. Business reviews are practically the same as product reviews, only they don’t contain the opinion about products, but about companies. Is the service any good? Are they reliable? Etc.

The problem with business and product reviews however, is that questions HAVE to be business/product related meaning that if you have any other questions, you have nowhere to turn. That’s where the community question and answer comes in. Community Q&A sites are sites where people can ask whatever they want and the community will answer. Yahoo!Answers is a well-known Q&A site.

As I’ve already said, entertainment is very popular with today’s generation. The entertainment category consists of; media and entertainment platforms, virtual worlds and game sharing.

Media and entertainment platforms is probably the least popular form of social media from all kinds of social media we have, because they play mostly ‘behind the scenes’. They are used by older companies who aren’t yet integrated in the modern society and allow them to digitalize their products/marketing strategies.

Virtual Worlds on the other hand are pretty popular and used by a large amount of youngster. Virtual Worlds are basically online games like World of Warcraft, the Sims Online and Second Life. Players are able to create an imaginative character and play in a fictional world, where they can meet other people.

But hold on a minute, you might think. If online games are part of the virtual worlds, then why is there another subcategory named shared games?

That is, because shared games support browser-based games instead of downloadable programs. Shared games are usually simple flash-games, made by the community, and all playable on one big site. Virtual games, on the other hand, are usually huge, downloadable, professional games and its creators will dedicate themselves towards one game.

At last, we have arrived at the last category; brand monitoring. Brand monitoring knows only one form, which is social media measurement. Social media measurement is an indicator that provides information about the internet traffic. Companies use it in order to get a good insight in their costumers; where are they from, how old are they and what are their interests?

It’s a great way to get to know the customer I think.

So, that was chapter 1.1; the definition of social media and honestly, I wonder whether you still know what content managing systems are without looking it back up. It’s a whole lot of information, I admit, but necessary information all the same. All I have done now is given you a good idea of what social media is and what we count under social media.

I have written a quick conveniently arranged table about paragraph 1.1 for you below. You are welcome.

Social Media

Communication

Blogs, Microblogs, Social Networking,

Location-based social networks, events, information aggregators, online advocacy and fundraising

Collaboration

Wikis, social bookmarking, social news,

Social navigation, Content Management Systems, Document Managing and Editing Tools

Multimedia

Photography and art sharing, video sharing,

Livecasting, music and audio sharing, presentation sharing

Reviews and Opinions

Community Question and Answers,

product reviews, business reviews

Entertainment

Virtual worlds,

Media and entertainment platforms, Game sharing

Brand Monitoring

Social Media Measurement

Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.