Internet and Society the Internet

Internet and Society

The Internet has greatly altered the culture in which we live, from creating global communication to exponentially increasing the quantity and availability of information. The challenge to the culture has been phenomenal, as the positive and negative changes are as diverse as the content of the web itself. To some degree it has changed the face of the culture so greatly that future shock is inevitable, possibly even in one generation of individuals living today. These changes include positive ones and negative ones and have even expanded the nature of crime, especially with regard to entertainment. (Nicholson, Shebar & Weinberg, 2000, p. 207) One particular area that has changed drastically within the context of the Internet is the entertainment industry.

In the pros list there is a significant increase in the availability of entertainment resources, as the industry can link information to consumers in mass quantity and also quickly reach the consumer with media advertisement and image and media representations of new products. Over the last 20 or so years the positive potential of the internet has proliferated the expansions of the services.

Yet, there is also a huge potential for cons, in the question. The music industry and the movie industry are forever changed by a completely new manner of piracy of materials that can significantly reduce revenue. Online gambling has created a situation of potential danger for those with dangerous gambling habits and video sharing of independent videos can open many web users up to exposure to illicit information they might otherwise have not been exposed to. Danger for unwanted exposure as well as a reduction in traditional means of revenue for the entertainment industries is only two of the most basic and serious potential negative changes to the entertainment industry that are a direct result of the Internet.

As the furor over Napster suggests, the opportunity to share music quickly and without charge has been greeted with more enthusiasm by listeners than by the music industry. Although the company's music- swapping software has only just been officially released, the service already has about 20 million regular users, and the tally is rising every day. Countless other people use Napster's brethren; the company is but the most prominent of many free-music services on the Internet. The result, in Metallica's opinion, is an outrageous pirate's bacchanalia-millions of pieces of music shuttling around the Net uncontrolled. The group filed suit, according to its drummer, Lars Ulrich, "to put Napster out of business." (Mann, 2000, p. 39)

As, is stated above music as well as video pirating has changed the manner in which people get music and therefore pay for the services of the industry. Though the initial bad reaction to the trend by the music industry, and other industries has been significant the overall effects have been less alarming. According to most experts people are exposing themselves to music via the web, either legally or illegally and then use it as a stepping off point to purchase music and videos through legitimate means, either via the internet or in stores.

At stake in the long run is the global agora: the universal library- movie theater-television-concert hall-museum on the Internet. The legal and social precedents set by Metallica v. Napster -- and half a dozen other e-music lawsuits-are likely to ramify into film and video as these, too, move online. When true electronic books, e-magazines, and e-newspapers become readily available, their rules of operation may well be shaped by the creation of the heavenly jukebox. Music, according to a National Research Council report released last November, is the "canary in the digital coal mine." (Mann, 2000, p. 39)

The initial response of the entertainment industry has been negative, in that the music and video industry responded to fears that demonstrated a lack of willingness to alter marketing and outlet options to electronic forms, as technology had not quite met the expansion, but now things are changing and technology has created a viable evolution in the industry to meet demands. Additionally issues like legitimate armature video sharing has created an opportunity, unlike any other where individuals can share and seek out novel video and music materials and the industry can recognize new talent.

Another issue in the entertainment industry as the Internet is concerned is internet gambling. An offering that has expanded the role of gambling exponentially into every wired home. Opportunities to gamble may seem dangerous to the conservative mind set, when so many people can get in serious trouble gambling away opportunity for entertainment and long shots. Also the internet gambling sites are available in every wired home, even where such activity is deemed illegal, putting users and owners at serious potential risk.