Week 2 Topic 1 A and B

Right so here is the first part of topic one for this week, felt it was better to post them a couple at a time and therefore make it easier for people to read and comment on.

A) p. 2 With Windows Vista replacing XP and Office 2007 replacing Office 2003, (and so on), what is ‘upgrade culture’ all about? Is some new media change just consumerism thought up by big business?

'Upgrade Culture' is the constant changing of media technologies, leading to society always wanting to have the 'latest' and up to data thing, including software, phones, TVs, Computers and gaming systems, the list could go on and on. The constant need for this newness shows how much of a consumer society we live in and just how greedy the majority of society are. No one ever seems happy with the laptop, phone or camera they have, even if its the best around, you know there will be an updated and newer version within a few months even weeks. You hear people say 'you might as well wait there will be a new one out soon enough'.
I feel that windows office 2003, 2007, XP and Vista replacing one another is kind of an unnecessary occurrence. To me the previously mentioned software seem to be pretty much the same and do the same thing. Okay well there is a difference between office 2003 and Vista,but the lastet ones all seem to be the same. Why then do consumers still replace their version with the so called "Next one up" if their all pretty much the same?
Its the desire to have the best and latest product. I think a lot of it is just the companies marketing the same product as something new and different.

B) p. 3+ According to Lister et al., some commentators stress the ‘newness’ of new media, but others (such as Kevin Robins) can be seen to be saying that nothing fundamental has changed, because new media technology is another product of capitalism, and therefore will fit into and serve a pre-existing capitalist society and culture, rather than transform it in any fundamental sense. Any thoughts? Can we critique this position?

I can kind of agree with both of the above. Robins idea of how new is 'new media' is an important question to ask. Is the lastest phone, laptop that different from the last?
The conceptand basic technology for almost everything within 'New media' criteria is exactly the same as the first of that type of product. I'm not suggesting that techonology doens't change, of course there is changes to everything,but is anything totally, whole hearted new?
If you look at the first telephone, the main use is still exactly the same as now a days. You use a phone to call others and use it as a main communication device, has that changed?
I know that even house hold phones has new features now, such as text messaging or faxing, but you can't argue that the basic technology of being able to communicate with someone else who has a phone isn't the same.