Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big Businesses or individuals?

Big businesses benefit from a digitally networked society as they can target their product at a specific audience which they know will be interested in the product.

What is the network effect?

Network effect describes the phenomenon how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use that good or services. The internet is an example of the network effect.

What is the feedback loop theory?

Feed back loops provide information to an organisation about system successes and problems. Success results in a positive feed back loop

What is the Dunbar number?

Dunbar’s Number is a suggestive limit to a number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.

Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

• networks rely on others to interact with them (network theory) in order to work and to sell their product.
• Big Business attracts different kinds of individuals via an attractive product. then, it collects marketing data and sells it to companies
• individuals may benefit a little but not that much

Q: How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour. Write out an answer in your own words.

• big business collects data about visitors and sells this data to companies who wish to use targeted ads
• loop theory

What is the network effect?

Network Effects describes the phenomenon how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use that good or service

‘Feedback loop theory’

A feedback loop is a concept found in systems theory. Feedback loops provide information to an organization about system successes and problems. Success results in a positive feedback loop and problems create a negative feedback loop

What is the Dunbar number?

Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.

• What is the network effect? (Theodore Vail) –  It’s the effect described in economics and business that an additional user of goods or services has on the value of that product to others. When a network effect is present, the value of a product or service increases according to the number of others using it. Can’t function unless there are other connections.
• Can you remember what ‘feedback loop theory’? (Norbert Wiener) 21 mins into video – Provides information to an organisation about system successes and problems. If a feedback loop is positive then there are ‘success results’, but if not then there is a ‘negative feedback loop’ if there are problems. Predicting behaviour.
• What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar) – This is the supposed cognitive limit to the maximum number of stable relationships one person can have. It’s said that this number is 150.

• Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’ – Big businesses benefit from a digitally networked society as it allows for them to reach a very wide audience and many different people can see something that has been uploaded onto the internet. It also partly benefits individuals because it means that they can explore the internet and social media platforms with hardly any consequences. Facebook is a good example as it allows users to interact with multiple different people and friend as many people as they want. Although the Dunbar number is present at 150 people there is no limit and people can explore however much or as little as they want. Facebook would benefit from this as the app would be growing.
• How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour. Write out an answer in your own words –

What is the network effect?

Network Effect describes the phenomenon how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use that good or service. Certain products only have value if a large number of people are using them. This phenomenon was first described by Theodore Vail in 1908.

‘Feedback theory loop’ Norbert Wiener.

A feedback loop is a concept found in systems theory. Feedback loops provide information to an organization about system successes and problems. Success results in a positive feedback loop and problems create a negative feedback loop.

What is the Dunbar number?

Robin Dunbar is a very smart man. An anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, Dunbar’s fame largely focuses around a single number. 150. The theory of Dunbar’s Number posits that 150 is the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships.

Theodore Vail- network effect- the value of goods/ services only increases as more people use it.

Norbert Wiener- feedback loop theory- prediction of behavior based on our own digital habits.

Robin Dunbar- Dunbar number- maximum number of people within a network which is 150.

Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

I would say big businesses benefit more as they can predict individuals behavior to tailor ads towards them, therefore they are benefiting as more people will buy there products. Also dunbars number shows that individuals can only have relationships with 150 people therefore being able to connect with hundreds of people have no real benefit to there lives.

Re-cap Questions

• What is the network effect?
• the network effect is when the product becomes more valuable when people are connected to it. eg facebook
• (Theodore Vail)
• Can you remember what ‘feedback loop theory’?
• in order to effectively hit the target, a plan to entice the user must be focused on prediction not present
• (Norbert Wiener) 21 mins into video
• What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar)
• 150

ted talk

To what extent is Teen Vogue constructed to respond to the demands of various interested groups?

In your response you should consider groups which have influence online, for example consumers, advertisers and competitors.

• 150 is the Dunbar number and suggests that that is the stable number of social interactions that people have with others.
• Companies like Teen Vogue are a subsidiary of the conglomerate Conde Nast and they sell on their users data.
• Teen Vogue makes money because it asks companies to pay them to sell them data to help them attain an audience.
• Teen Vogue appeals to their teenage girl target audience by using colloquial language and covering different sectors that stereotypical appeal to teenage girls, such as fashion and beauty and through the use of social media influences that the target audience might recognize.
• Teen Vogue will appeal to their target audience as they are available on the internet, which will appeal to their target audience as stereotypical teenagers like to use the internet and are “glued to their phone screens”
• Teen Vogue uses very informal and colloquial language in order to appeal to their target audience by building a relationship with the target audience through using language that they are familiar with and language that they will be able to understand (ie slang words)

Key Words associated with New Media

Table to contrast ‘New’ vs ‘Old’ Media: Do you agree?