My student number is: 2715439
My following essay relates to the third topic (essentially the challenges facing professionals due to the audience shift from consumption to production, and the subsequent offset of increased amateur content online that's free to watch).
The area of creativity chosen is: the online porn industry.
The refined genre of my essay is: original suggestive problem-solution academic essay.
References are numbered for ease of reading, while there is a reference list following the essay which follows referencing standards.
Essay:
Elderly people often find it hard to keep up with the changing times. Whether they are getting confused by this weird thing called ‘the internet’, or trying to understand why there is an ever increasing amount of people with a wire going from their bag or pocket, to both of their ears. But throughout these vast changes, there is one constant. Porn.
Porn is rather widespread nowadays. A 2009 report states that 25% of all search engine requests relate to porn, and that 35% of all peer-peer downloads are of a sexual nature.(1)(2) The basic fact is that porn is extremely prevalent on the internet, with usage higher than 65% in some age demographics.(3) Whereas porn is arguably the most used abbreviation in the English language, and porn, aka pornography, is defined as any material with a primary purpose to cause sexual arousal.(4) But while elderly people may struggle with certain technological concepts, there is a far greater struggle going on, and it relates to the porn industry, and digital media.
Humans have strong sexual drives, and with the current status of prostitution world wide (and tight cash flows), porn is often the answer.(5)(6) Frequently, this porn comprises of free amateur porn. You see, the widespread availability of video cameras and editing software, combined with the high market penetration of computers and the internet, has put the tools of production into the everyday person's hands. While creating films used to require large amounts of money, nowadays anyone can create videos, and fairly cheaply too. Most phones and laptops come with a camera these days, meaning one can easily record something, upload it to a video hosting website, and broadcast it to the world rather quickly. The ease in which amateurs can create content in a relatively short period of time causes problems for professionals. This essay will look at the challenges and problems facing the porn industry in relation to this problem. It will then go on and offer possible solutions, and ideas on how to combat these problems.
One issue is that amateurs are not only producing videos, but some of them are of a fairly good quality. Even worse for professionals is that the amateurs do it for free, and let people watch it for free. In the porn industry, this has resulted in an explosion of free porn, most of which is amateur. This increasing availability of free amateur porn has caused numerous problems for the professional porn industry. The first problem is that why would anyone pay for something that can be so easily acquired for free? Previously, if one had a demand for porn, they could go out and buy some. Nowadays however, if one has such a demand, they can go online and get it for free. So while porn sales used to be based upon people’s want for porn, it is now decided on people’s want for something they can’t get for free. Why some may buy porn due to their lack of awareness of free porn, this essay will assume that people only buy porn, because free porn is currently not fulfilling their porn needs.
This shift has caused major problems in the porn industry as professionals now have to offer not just porn, but unique or high quality porn, aka, something worthy of being bought. So professional porn makers have to try considerably harder to get sales. This could be anything form acquiring the services of the most attractive people as possible, or making a porn film shot in POV. The fact is that professional porn makers have to offer something of worth value. But there is another option that could work too.
Another option would be to market their professional porn with the free amateur porn in mind. Some simple marketing techniques could be employed to achieve this. First off, it would make sense to emphasize and explicitly state why the customer should buy this particular brand of porn, opposed to simply watching free porn. A statement of better production values and more attractive actors could work, or maybe even some guerrilla tactics such as heavily suggesting that free porn will give your computers viruses, whereas their ‘great pay porn’, won’t.
Another challenge facing the professional porn industry is the very strong possibility, and sheer realism that free amateur porn on the internet won’t go away any time soon. Thus it makes sense that a professional pornographer - or businessperson working for them - should try and combat this. One method is for their porn company to try and be very customer based, always uploading new porn and keeping things fresh to keep their customer. This method focuses on brand loyalty. But there is a more interesting idea that could work too.
As previously stated, a large challenge facing the professional porn industry is that it now has to offer something better, something worthy of being bought over free material. So an interesting idea would be for professional pornographers to offer a-grade porn for free. This new structure would work like television because revenue will be gained from advertisements, rather than the product itself. While internet advertisements might not offer much money, it just might in this environment. After all, people who watch porn are probably rather horny. Thus, advertisements advertising products of a sexual arena could thrive rather nicely. From shaming the porn watcher to try a penis enlargement remedy, or convincing him/her to buy something special for their loved one to make up for their large amount of porn watching. The possibilities are endless, especially if user accounts could be made where one states the city they live in. This opens opportunities for local adult shops and clubs, strippers, and women/men who might just pay their rent by using their body.
The fact is that while there are rather large challenges the professional porn industry is facing, there is also a rather large amount of solutions. As it can clearly be seen now, most the challenges have arisen due to the shift from audiences consuming what they were given, to producing material. This amateur production, and subsequent uploading of the material online to be viewed by others for free is problematic for the porn industry, and this essay has looked at that. First at the challenge that the professional porn industry now has to offer a product which warrants money expenditure in an environment which is thriving with free material. This shift was looked at, as well as the subsequent challenges that it causes. Such as the necessity to convince potential customers to buy porn rather than simply receive it for free, and some possible methods that this can be achieved.
Overall however, it is a difficult – and rather precarious - time for the industry, with some even suggesting that the whole industry is doomed.(7) But while these challenges remain, one must remember that humans essentially have a proclivity for porn. Hence, the need for porn is there, and the need will thrive years to come. So the overriding question is: will this need be satisfied by amateurs, or professionals?
After all, society is increasingly becoming a place where one frequently doesn’t pay for digital content, while amateur content is on the rise. Fan fiction is a great example of this shift outside the porn industry.(8) This shift can either be opposed, or responded to in a submissive manner. Either way, it all will be decided on how the industry handles the challenges mentioned in this essay.
Reference List
1 - HealthyMind.com (n.d.) Internet Pornography Statistics: 2003
http://www.healthymind.com/s-porn-stats.html
2 - Ropelato, J. (2006) Internet Pornography Statistics
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html
3 - Featherstone 2005
Featherstone, L. (2005). You, me and porn make three. Psychology Today, 38(5), 82-87.
4 - Dictionary.com (n.d.) Pornography definition
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pornography
5 and 6 -
Legislation
Prostitution Act 1992 (ACT)
Prostitution Regulation Act 2004 (VIC)
7 - Goldstein 2009
Goldstein, D. (2009). XXX: Is the Porn Industry Doomed? The American Prospect, May 15 2009
8 - FanFiction.com (n.d.)
www.fanfiction.com
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Introduction: General Overview.
For my blog, I went for this green layout. I really like it. I did try and change it, but it looked so bad, I thought I'd pretty much keep it the same. I did however add numerous things. I added a Last.fm widget on the side, as well as a visitor counter by country widget. I also moved my 'Followers' down to the bottom, and removed the tag listing. It was their, but I stop tagging my posts, so I got rid of it.
More importantly, I added a nice little introduction to the top of the page, and added photos of me to the top of the sidebar. Nice... ay? I also added a component which let you rate my posts. At the bottom of every post you can see it, such as below. One can rate my posts, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars. Another widget added was the youtube bar on the right. It shows videos from a New Zealand filmaker who has over 20,000 subscribers on youtube. I like his videos.
The last thing I added, which I assume you can tell by now, is a Blog Two overview at the top of my blog. This is not a blog post, but a separate component of my blog. I thought this would make it much easier to navigate my blog.
More importantly, I added a nice little introduction to the top of the page, and added photos of me to the top of the sidebar. Nice... ay? I also added a component which let you rate my posts. At the bottom of every post you can see it, such as below. One can rate my posts, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars. Another widget added was the youtube bar on the right. It shows videos from a New Zealand filmaker who has over 20,000 subscribers on youtube. I like his videos.
The last thing I added, which I assume you can tell by now, is a Blog Two overview at the top of my blog. This is not a blog post, but a separate component of my blog. I thought this would make it much easier to navigate my blog.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
General Thoughts on Blogger.com
Just thought I'd do some extra work and give my thoughts about Blogger.com
Blogger.com could be greatly improved.
Reasons?
1. The window in which I have to type my blog posts in is too small, This small windows really needs to be bigger.
2. My blog's margins are too narrow. In fact, all the blogs seem to have rather slim area where the posts show on the blog page. While this does make it easier to read, it could really would be better if it was wider.
3. Putting images into my blogs is just ridiculously annoying. The photo always goes all the way to the top, meaning I have to drag it back down, and put it in the place I want.
4. It's really not a good thing, that I've started typing my posts in blogger not using the 'Compose' way, but just typing test straight into the 'Edit HTML' section. That's how annoying I find the normal section.
5. There is quite a few just general annoying things.
6. While some of the other programs have annoyed me to. The most annoying thing I find is the slow iReport website. People in my tute have uploaded videos to the site at least 2 weeks ago, and they still are 'still on their way to iReport.com'. It's rather annoying. Mine isn't working yet either.
Blogger.com could be greatly improved.
Reasons?
1. The window in which I have to type my blog posts in is too small, This small windows really needs to be bigger.
2. My blog's margins are too narrow. In fact, all the blogs seem to have rather slim area where the posts show on the blog page. While this does make it easier to read, it could really would be better if it was wider.
3. Putting images into my blogs is just ridiculously annoying. The photo always goes all the way to the top, meaning I have to drag it back down, and put it in the place I want.
4. It's really not a good thing, that I've started typing my posts in blogger not using the 'Compose' way, but just typing test straight into the 'Edit HTML' section. That's how annoying I find the normal section.
5. There is quite a few just general annoying things.
6. While some of the other programs have annoyed me to. The most annoying thing I find is the slow iReport website. People in my tute have uploaded videos to the site at least 2 weeks ago, and they still are 'still on their way to iReport.com'. It's rather annoying. Mine isn't working yet either.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
My artwork.
So for 3% on my blog. I have to include some form of art. I wasn't sure if by art you meant like painting/drawing, or art as a whole (music, film, etc). But the NCT blog said "some form of art that you have created."
Therefore it make sense that a short film is some form of art.
Thus, I have attached two things. My short film, Vito, a comedic, yet serious, spocial drama. Even tho the film is rather artsy, weird and obscure. The fact remains that it still is a great piece, especially the amazing narration and ending.
Vito - A Short Film
Okay next up is my second piece of art. I love this one too. This one is a mockumentary about school students in their spare period at school. I absolutely love this one too. Although some of the camerawork and acting isn't so good. I love the screenplay, good work me there. ahaha :).
This film taught me a lot about film. It was the second short film I did, which was in 2007 by the way. Damn I look young. But yeah... I learnt a lot from this, from framing to the fact that the intro should have been shorter, the cold open better shot, and that I should have opened with an exterior shot. And that's just some of the things I learnt. Some of the lines that were integral to the story got out too, which ruined the whole film. But if you like BSG then you would like this. What you think?
Therefore it make sense that a short film is some form of art.
Thus, I have attached two things. My short film, Vito, a comedic, yet serious, spocial drama. Even tho the film is rather artsy, weird and obscure. The fact remains that it still is a great piece, especially the amazing narration and ending.
Vito - A Short Film
Okay next up is my second piece of art. I love this one too. This one is a mockumentary about school students in their spare period at school. I absolutely love this one too. Although some of the camerawork and acting isn't so good. I love the screenplay, good work me there. ahaha :).
This film taught me a lot about film. It was the second short film I did, which was in 2007 by the way. Damn I look young. But yeah... I learnt a lot from this, from framing to the fact that the intro should have been shorter, the cold open better shot, and that I should have opened with an exterior shot. And that's just some of the things I learnt. Some of the lines that were integral to the story got out too, which ruined the whole film. But if you like BSG then you would like this. What you think?
Monday, September 21, 2009
Week 8 - Political tasks
Politics and New Communications is the topic this week.
First off.
1. 'Sign an e-petition'
I signed an e-petition at Queensland Parliament websiste here.
I signed petition 1266-09 named Parking for Skilled Stadium at Robina.
It was related to parking bans near the Gold Coast Titan's home ground.
2. 'Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.'
I responded to Antony Green's Election Blog at abc.net website here. The subject related to signs placed around new road developments and so forth. I signed the post as 'Zie (NCT09)' and put my blog as the website. I just sent my comment in, and as of writing is currently waiting to be approved by an administrator.
3. 'What is Barak Obama up to today?'
Well, first of all it's Barack Obama, it was spelt incorrectly on the NCT09 blog, I did comment on the blog post tho, which seemed to be the first comment on the entire blog. So go me!
Now. http://www.whatisbarackdoing.com/ told me what Barack is up to today. No, he is not going on The Jay Leno show like our Krudd would. But today, He "released a groundbreaking strategy to spur long-term high-wage job growth, in part, by "laying the groundwork and ground rules to best tap our innovative potential." Source.
So that sounds swell.
4. 'Find out who your Local, State and Federal representatives are.'
My local one is the Mayor of Gold Coast: (Mayor CR) Ron Clarke
State is: (MP) Peter Lawlor
Federal is: Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff)
5. Local member last spoke in Parliament...?
As of time of posting, Peter Lawlor's last speech in parliament was on September 4, 2009. The issue was Responsible Gambling.
6. Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
Using the 'Contact Peter' section of Peter Lawlor's website, I sent Peter my thoughts on his speech, and the Responsible Gambling issue. Click here for the Contact Peter section of the site.
Clean feed and Lecture followup:
I really struggled with the lecture this week, and thus the lecture notes weren't much help either. I found none of them particularly interesting, some were just outright confusing, while some seemed rather arbitrary and pointless. From Plato's confusing fire cave wall thing, to Stockwell calling me a hacker, it was annoying. For not only was I confused, but I felt inadequate that I was hacker, and yet still can't work out why ever time I add an image to my blog, it goes up to the top of the post, meaning I have to move it down. Apparently I'm a hacker, yet I can't even do some of the simplistic tasks, thank you Stephen Stockwell for making me feel completely inadequate.
As for the Clean Feed. I think it's fairly stupid. Honestly, I don't think pornography harms children very much. If they are feeling low self esteem about their sexual parts, it informs them, if they are lonely, it helps them, and as for teenagers, well, how much angrier would teenagers be without porn? I imagine that porn helps relieve stress and calm down hundreds of thousands of teens worldwide. So why ruin this for them? And then.... I see angry people all the time, I wonder how many more angry people I would see, and how much more rage their would be, without porn.
If you are going to censor anything, censor bestiality porn, images of pre-pubescent kids of a sexual nature (child porn), and Chris Crocker. That is three things I think should be censored. But apart from those immoral things (to which I believe are), censorship shouldn't be taken to the extremes of banning porn. I like film/television ratings however, because I know what to expect, but I watched my first R movie when I was about 14 - Kill Bill Vol. 1 - and it did not affect me for the bad. So there are mostly stupid in restricting ages. The same for what content can air on television at what time. I generally dislike that.
First off.
1. 'Sign an e-petition'
I signed an e-petition at Queensland Parliament websiste here.
I signed petition 1266-09 named Parking for Skilled Stadium at Robina.
It was related to parking bans near the Gold Coast Titan's home ground.
2. 'Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.'
I responded to Antony Green's Election Blog at abc.net website here. The subject related to signs placed around new road developments and so forth. I signed the post as 'Zie (NCT09)' and put my blog as the website. I just sent my comment in, and as of writing is currently waiting to be approved by an administrator.
3. 'What is Barak Obama up to today?'
Well, first of all it's Barack Obama, it was spelt incorrectly on the NCT09 blog, I did comment on the blog post tho, which seemed to be the first comment on the entire blog. So go me!
Now. http://www.whatisbarackdoing.com/ told me what Barack is up to today. No, he is not going on The Jay Leno show like our Krudd would. But today, He "released a groundbreaking strategy to spur long-term high-wage job growth, in part, by "laying the groundwork and ground rules to best tap our innovative potential." Source.
So that sounds swell.
4. 'Find out who your Local, State and Federal representatives are.'
My local one is the Mayor of Gold Coast: (Mayor CR) Ron Clarke
State is: (MP) Peter Lawlor
Federal is: Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff)
5. Local member last spoke in Parliament...?
As of time of posting, Peter Lawlor's last speech in parliament was on September 4, 2009. The issue was Responsible Gambling.
6. Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
Using the 'Contact Peter' section of Peter Lawlor's website, I sent Peter my thoughts on his speech, and the Responsible Gambling issue. Click here for the Contact Peter section of the site.
Clean feed and Lecture followup:
I really struggled with the lecture this week, and thus the lecture notes weren't much help either. I found none of them particularly interesting, some were just outright confusing, while some seemed rather arbitrary and pointless. From Plato's confusing fire cave wall thing, to Stockwell calling me a hacker, it was annoying. For not only was I confused, but I felt inadequate that I was hacker, and yet still can't work out why ever time I add an image to my blog, it goes up to the top of the post, meaning I have to move it down. Apparently I'm a hacker, yet I can't even do some of the simplistic tasks, thank you Stephen Stockwell for making me feel completely inadequate.
As for the Clean Feed. I think it's fairly stupid. Honestly, I don't think pornography harms children very much. If they are feeling low self esteem about their sexual parts, it informs them, if they are lonely, it helps them, and as for teenagers, well, how much angrier would teenagers be without porn? I imagine that porn helps relieve stress and calm down hundreds of thousands of teens worldwide. So why ruin this for them? And then.... I see angry people all the time, I wonder how many more angry people I would see, and how much more rage their would be, without porn.
If you are going to censor anything, censor bestiality porn, images of pre-pubescent kids of a sexual nature (child porn), and Chris Crocker. That is three things I think should be censored. But apart from those immoral things (to which I believe are), censorship shouldn't be taken to the extremes of banning porn. I like film/television ratings however, because I know what to expect, but I watched my first R movie when I was about 14 - Kill Bill Vol. 1 - and it did not affect me for the bad. So there are mostly stupid in restricting ages. The same for what content can air on television at what time. I generally dislike that.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Lecture 8
This lecture was really really confusing. Stephen Stockwell is a good writer, but as far as speaking goes, he's not very good. He has major problems with phrasing, and getting his ideas across. I know some of my friends in the lecture theater also had this problem, but I think they were going to lie on their blog and say how great he was. As I've said in previous posts, I don't telling lies. So I'm just being truthful.
Hopefully my inability to understand him won't stop me from getting good marks in this blog. I've worked very hard this semester, especially in this subject, but the mere fact is that I could not understand almost anything he said. Maybe I just have poor comprehension skills when it comes to people speaking like he does, it probably also doesn't help that I hardly understood what he was even trying to say after reading the lecture notes. Overall this lecture just confused me, and I hope I don't get marked down for this. I tried hard, but I failed. I've accepted this, and tried going the further mile in my other tasks, and doing extra work to not only make up for some shortfalls, but also make my blog really really good.
Hopefully my inability to understand him won't stop me from getting good marks in this blog. I've worked very hard this semester, especially in this subject, but the mere fact is that I could not understand almost anything he said. Maybe I just have poor comprehension skills when it comes to people speaking like he does, it probably also doesn't help that I hardly understood what he was even trying to say after reading the lecture notes. Overall this lecture just confused me, and I hope I don't get marked down for this. I tried hard, but I failed. I've accepted this, and tried going the further mile in my other tasks, and doing extra work to not only make up for some shortfalls, but also make my blog really really good.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
iReport
I thought that with my iReport video I would go meta, and make it tounge-in-cheek with meta-humour. I think I did a great job, with good framing and lighting. I love this sort of video, as opposed to an alien attack or something like that. The video on blogger is below.
Edit: I tried uploading the video to iReport at the time of posting, but it failed.
Therefore, I have tried again and have posted the link to the video on iReport just below. I have noticed however that the videos can take a very long time to finish processing. It makes me think that by the time its processed, the news has become olds.
EDIT:
Second edit, but it worked! Some people were having to wait weeks for it to work. But my worked straight away! Yay for me. Still annoying it didn't work all those weeks ago.
Oh... And I also made it so at the start of my video, iReport says 'Discretion Advised' because it may contain disturbing images. Mainly.... Me. :)
Direct link here. But posted above too.
Edit: I tried uploading the video to iReport at the time of posting, but it failed.
Therefore, I have tried again and have posted the link to the video on iReport just below. I have noticed however that the videos can take a very long time to finish processing. It makes me think that by the time its processed, the news has become olds.
EDIT:
Second edit, but it worked! Some people were having to wait weeks for it to work. But my worked straight away! Yay for me. Still annoying it didn't work all those weeks ago.
Oh... And I also made it so at the start of my video, iReport says 'Discretion Advised' because it may contain disturbing images. Mainly.... Me. :)
Direct link here. But posted above too.
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