To begin with I guess we should explain what WE-media is. We-media is the form of media which lets anybody broadcast or share the news that they feel is important to them and the wider public. Websites like youtube allow people to share any content (within reason) with as many people as they want.
The two specific media areas we have decided to study are social networking and films/video. Social networking has been transformed by the concept of We-media. Social networking by its very name is a concept which attempts to gather everybody in and unite them through the internet- Facebook is at the front line of social networking with an estimated 'population' of 600 million! We-media is reporting and showing news/events and of course social networking has been galvanised by this and has helped to galvanise we-media. Both concepts 'bounce off' each other to improve individual and aspects.
Films and videos is the second media group we have studied. Just like social networking, films and videos are now easily shared by using the concept of WE-media. Youtube lets anybody with an internet connection view videos that have been uploaded from all around the world. Videos and feature films (broken up in some cases into parts) are accessible to anyone by just searching the internet- there are sites dedicated to showing episodes of 'South Park' and 'the Simpsons' (amongst others).
Contemporary media theories and practice answers are the final 2 parts in this script.
Henry Jenkins theory about participatory culture applies heavily to WeMedia as a culture and especially to social networking and video. Henry Jenkins argues that participatory "Fan cultures" have been around long before the web but the web has served to expand those already existing and also create new ones.
This applies to WeMedia because it doesn't only apply to "fan cultures". It can apply to any group of people who express themselves through the web. For instance online forums, Facebook and Facebook groups, wikipages, youtube videos and video responses to those videos or of course fan cultures.
This also allows almost anyone access to almost any collective culture. For example movie making was previously only accessible to those with a large budget and support from producers.
In 2004 Mark Zukerberg and some friends of his independently founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard university. This social networking phenomena now houses the information of 600 million people and allows people to find, add, message, chat to, upload pictures of and play games with All of their friend, relatives and basically anyone that they have ever met.
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