One aspect that I believe should have been covered is how digital
culture has affected marketing, specifically how there has been an
increasing trend towards marketing using new means of social media to
advertise.
Marketing now makes use of many different
types of electronics such as computers, mobiles, digital billboards,
game consoles etc. to connect with consumers. Internet marketing is one
of the main aspects of digital marketing. This has also advanced from
emailing to social networking in recent years.
Timmerman writes
how “the evolution of media is hard to ignore in an age where digital
marketing no longer means the traditional pull and push channels like
website updates and email marketing. Digital marketers today need to be
well versed in the latest technology channels and communication tools
which include mobile, tablets, internet TV and of course social media
outlets”.
List of some of the ways marketing has changed in recent years:
1.
Marketing and the tools it used are always changing to quickly that
essentially, marketing teams have now had to become research teams as
well. It is no longer just enough to attend marketing conferences once a
year as you will never be able to keep up this way.
2. Also, because the tools used are always changing, this means that initiatives have also had to change.
3. Businesses now have to accommodate changes in the use of social media (its increased used by consumers)
4. Marketing departments have now also had to become media and education departments.
5. How marketing money is spent has also changed.
It
is evident that marketing has changed extensively as technology has
advanced. More and more people today use social networking sites.
Whereas a few years ago advertising and marketing products on social
media websites may not have been the most effective way of reached target markets, in today’s day and age it is. Social
networking has allowed for communication, collaboration and interaction
like never before. Companies are now connecting to consumers via these
social networking sites and are starting to engage with them on a more
personal level. Robin Parduez notes how because of this consumers start
to think that companies care about their opinions and needs and how
“eventually, the budding rapport leads to interest in the company's
products / services and customer conversion”.
But it is not just in relation to social networking that marketing
has changed. Research has indicated that people are using a range of
different platforms e.g. iPads, television, mobiles, internet, all at
the same time. Parduez notes: “these devices make it possible for users
to stay connected over the Internet at all times, so marketing is also
adapting to tap into this growing mobile customer segment”.
It
has become a matter of urgency to market to the general public on as
many different platforms as possible. This has not only created new
opportunities for marketing, but it has also caused some challenges as
there is now much more to consider from a marketing strategy point of
view. All aspects now need to be covered, not just one or two.
Ethical hacking is popularly known as “white-hat” hacking. It is very
much the same as hacking in general as it involves the same tools and
techniques being used. However, there is one major difference – ethical
hacking is legal. Ethical hacking takes place with the permission of the
target and the task is to find out if a hacker can find any
vulnerabilities within the system that need to be addressed so that
maximum security is reached. Ethical hacking also allows for dealers to
legitimise their claims about how secure their products are.
But
is ethical hacking really ethical? I think it is very difficult to ever
understand the true intentions behind anyone’s actions, in the same way
that I think it is very difficult to ever understand the true
intentions of “ethical” hackers when they are hacking into weak systems.
I don’t think we ever really know what someone’s intentions are. I
mean, as a teacher teaching a student how to hack, how can you know that
student is learning how to hack for good reasons? You don’t, but you
just have to assume that they are which to me seems like a very big risk
because if a student uses the knowledge to commit crimes then it is not
benefitting society in any way, it is endangering it.
The
media are always coming across new stories about cyber crime and
hacking. A study has recently indicated that almost 90% of attacks
happen from the inside. This just proves how we can never be sure of
anyone’s intentions. It also shows how easy it is to break the trust of
those you work for and infiltrate an attack on your own company if it
doing so is more beneficial to you or serves your intentions better. In
allowing an “ethical” hacker to hack into your system, you may be
putting your trust in the enemy. I mean you never know, the ethical
hacker you have employed may find a weak point in your system, not
report it to you and use it against you for their own benefit in future
(usually financial benefit).
Technology is always
advancing. Hackers are always coming across new tools and techniques to
hack, but these very same tools and techniques, in the wrong hands, can
violate our basic rights to privacy. Jamil et al. (2011) sum up my
argument very well in the following statement:
“Technology
has continued to grow at a high rate over the years and continues to do
so; scholars are putting themselves in vulnerable positions by helping
individuals to hack. The mind is a very powerful tool that has no
control, the control will continue to grow proportionally with the
desire to get knowledge of something that is impossible to achieve in
its entity, but not forgotten in its entirety. Hackers will always find
ways of getting into systems, whether they are doing it for good or
bad”.
We all want to believe that ethical hackers have
the best intentions at heart, but the fact is we can never really know a
person’s true intentions. Furthermore, technology is always advancing
so that hackers will always find a way into a system if they are set on
doing so. It may take several years, but in the end anything is
possible. This means that our privacy will always be at risk.
Reference:
Jamil, D and Khan, M. ‘Is ethical hacking ethical?’, International
journal of engineering science and technology, Vol. 3, No. 5 (May,
2011), pp. 3758-3763.
Media fandom is a term that came about in the late 1970s and is used
to describe fans of stars from televisions shows and movies etc. It has
been further extended to describe fans of computer and video games as
well as science fiction. Moreover, it is now said that: “Media
fandom has expanded beyond its original intent. Many issues such as
community, space and identity are discussed and bring together many
Internet communities who share common interests. Creating new links
between cultural, media and Internet studies, media fandom began
discussing the class, gender, nationality and sexuality of many
television characters. It tries to understand and make meaning out of
those characters by maintaining and creating online community
relations”. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse have written a
noteworthy book on this matter entitles Fan fiction and fan communities
in the age of the internet. The essays in this book talk about fans of
Star Trek through to fans of Harry Potter and delve into the world of
fan fiction. These essays consider the purposes of online communities
for different fictional shows and stars and how they are created in the
first place. Furthermore, this book considers the ways in which
technological advancements have affected fan communities. One of
the most popular fan communities right now is for Game of Thrones –
admittedly even I love this show and am a big fan! Fan communities for
this programme have been created on Facebook, fanfiction and gamerhub.
This programme gets an average of 32,000 new fans a day!! Just take a look at the infograph bellow created by socialbakers:
Peter Lang has also written a noteworthy book titled Digital fandom:
new media studies. "Digital Fandom augments traditional studies of
popular media fandom with descriptions of the contemporary fan in a
converged media environment”. What this book does is show how changes in
the study of fandom “can be applied in a larger scale to the study of
new media in general, and formulates new conceptions of traditional
media theories”. Indeed, media fandom has changed considerably over recent years, advancing as a result of technological innovations. References: Chris
Taylor. ‘Game of Thrones' Social Media Fandom: Bigger Than Westeros?’
URL:
http://mashable.com/2013/04/04/game-of-thrones-social-media-fandom-as-big-as-westeros/ Questia. ‘Media Fandom’ URL: http://www.questia.com/library/communication/media-studies/media-fandom Google books. ‘Digital fandom: new media studies’ URL: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Digital_Fandom.html?id=9LdS5WwGOvwC&redir_esc=y
