Rapid Growth In Australia

What explains the rapid growth of the internet? Why will it continue to grow at the same pace?
Currently Australia is has a growing population. There is one birth every 1.7 minutes, one death every 3.6 minutes, a gain of one migrant every 2.2 minutes , leading to an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 18 seconds deducting the amount of deaths occurring.
The media are systems or technology that assist and promote human communication (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler,2008). The media uses industrialized technology to produce messages that are to be relayed between people. Most media forms are designed to reach large audiences, when this is the case they are termed ‘mass media’. There are five main factors that determine
whether the media is used and adopted in certain situations (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler,2008). The first is Technological developments. Developments of new forms of media have effects on other forms of media.
For example, the inception of the social media sites of Facebook and twitter saw the use of a similar social media medium Myspace lose many users. The second is economics, in terms of the need to make money or profits. This need will always be present in society and supplying forms of media for communication can be economically rewarding. As new forms of media come into markets, old media forms will be exceedingly non profitable. Recently, because the internet is so easy to access, cheap and of vast content, old media forms such as newspapers and television have less value associated with their production. Third is human creativity, how people work to create new forms of media as a means of communication. This relates to both the invention of new media forms but also to the improvement of both old and new media forms. Fourth is social controls, implemented by people in power especially governments who try to control what is shown in the media. The last factor is audiences who choose what media to adopt and use therefore denoting whether a certain type of media will be successful or a failure. All of these factors determine what media is popular and being used. The media is
controlled by certain groups of people, the people that produce the media. They provide their personal take on events that happen in the world and choose how and what to communicate to the audience. In terms of internet news sites, these people include journalists, editors, directors and owners. Other forms of media such as online gaming are controlled by moderators, owners and technicians. Quite differently, social media sites have information about celebrities or friends which is provided by the person themselves (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler,2008).
New media is classified as any form of human communication system which utilizes computer-mediated communication and mobile telephony (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler,2008). The old media are traditional means of communication between people that have existed since before the advent of the new medium of the Internet. Types of media considered to be part of the old media are any type of television, movies, newspapers, magazines and other similar print media. New media includes forms of media such as mobile phone use, social media websites, news websites, torrent sites, online gaming and television shows available on the internet. The development of new forms of media cause other types of media to lose users, which has been the case over that last decade in terms of old and new media. Most types of new media are gaining users whilst old media use is falling. One example is in a study by Tower Systems which looked at over the counter sales of newspapers at newagencies in Australia, it was found that there has been a decline in over the counter sales by 2% in September / October of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. This is a common phenomenon around the world as people switch to online news site to get the news. Many newspapers have online versions of their papers which provide articles only for the site and articles which appear in the newspaper itself. As a country, we have embraced the use of online news services because they are easy to navigate, cheap and full of information. You can access these sites from home and never leave the house. The increased use of them can be put down to the fact that they make our life easier and less complicated. Where if you preferred a typical newspaper, you would have to drive to the store, pay $1.10, drive home and sift through the large pages to find interesting and relevant information. Online sites provide a less complicated alternative.
One of the most popular and addictive online games on the internet is 'World of Warcraft'. World of Warcraft is classified as a massively multiplayer online role playing game or a MMORPG. A MMORPG is a genre of computer game in which a very large number of players communicate together in a virtual world. A recent study by the Swedish youth organization has deemed World of Warcraft as the most addictive online game and has likened it to the cocaine of the gaming world. With more than 11.5 million monthly subscriptions in December 2008 according to creator Blizzard Entertainment, the popularity of this game and of this genre of new media doesn’t look like it will lose any followers. In fact, it may still gain more and more users.

The ageing of Australia's population, already evident in the current age structure, is expected to continue. This is the result of sustained low levels of fertility combined with increasing life expectancy at birth. The median age of Australia's population (36.8 years at 30 June 2007) is projected to increase to between 38.7 years and 40.7 years in 2026 (Series A and C respectively) and to between 41.9 years and 45.2 years in 2056 (Series A and C).

The age composition of Australia's population is projected to change considerably as a result of population ageing.
By 2056 there will be a greater proportion of people aged 65 years and over than at 30 June 2007, and a lower proportion of people aged under 15 years. In 2007 people aged 65 years and over made up 13% of Australia's population. This proportion is projected to increase to between 23% and 25% in 2056 (Series B and C respectively) and to between 25% and 28% in 2101 (Series B and C). The proportion of people aged under 15 years is projected to decrease from 19% in 2007 to between 15% and 18% in 2056 (Series C and A respectively) and to between 14% and 17% in 2101 (Series C and
A).

There were 344,100 people aged 85 years and over in Australia at 30 June 2007, making up 1.6% of the population. This group is projected to grow rapidly throughout the projection period, to between 4-7% by 2056, and to between 5-9% by the year 2101. Those 5% of the population in 2101 will have been born from 2015 onwards. By this time there will be nobody alive who was born without the internet being a major part of their lives.

Reading 13 O’Shaughnessy, M. and Stadler, J., media and society, 4th edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2008 ch.1, pp. 3-9.
Reading 14 O’Shaughnessy, M. and Stadler, J., media and society, 4th edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2008, ch 3, pp.31-60.