Transcript Internet and New Technologies

Chapter 2
The Internet, Digital Media,
and Media Convergence
Online Image Library
Go to
www.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture
to access the Media & Culture, 9th Edition
Online Image Library.
The library contains all your favorite images from
Media & Culture, 9th edition!
Smartphones and Media
Convergence
Along with computers, digital
music players, and a new
generation of touchscreen devices
like the iPad, smartphones are
part of the general shift to media
convergence in media devices
over the past decade.
The Birth of the Internet

ARPAnet
Created by the Department of
Defense to enable researchers to
share computer processing time
 E-mail improved communication.
 Each computer hub had similar
status and power.
 No master switch to shut it down

Figure 2.1: Distributed
Networks
The Net Widens

Entrepreneurial stage


Early 1970s to late 1980s
Microprocessors
Signaled the Net’s marketability
 Allowed for the first personal computers


Fiber-optic cable

Became the standard for transmitting
communication data rapidly
The World Begins to Browse

World Wide Web


HTML (hypertext markup
language)


Developed by Tim Berners-Lee at
CERN in the late 1980s
Allows computers to communicate
Web browsers

Allow users to navigate the Web
Users Link in through Telephone
and Cable Wires

Internet Service Providers (ISP)
Connect users to their proprietary
Web system
 Broadband connections have
largely replaced dial-up ISP
services.
 Major ISPs

 Verizon,
Time Warner Cable,
CenturyLink, Charter, and Cox
People Embrace Digital
Communication

Digital communication
Image, text, or sound is converted
into electronic symbols, which are
transported and reassembled as a
precise reproduction.
 Includes e-mail and instant
messaging

Search Engines Organize the Web

Search engines



Automated route to finding content on
the Internet
Built on mathematic algorithms rather
than manually entered data
Google became a major success largely
due to its new algorithm based on a
page’s popularity.
What Are Social Media?



Venues for social interaction
Virtual communities that are
multiplatform, participatory, and
digital… truly democratic
Platforms that enable the interactive
Web by engaging users to participate
in, comment on, and create content
as a means of communicating
Types of Social Media
Blogs
 Collaborative projects


Wiki Web sites
Content communities
 Social networking sites
 Virtual game worlds and virtual
social worlds

Social Media and Democracy

Tools for democracy and for
undermining repressive regimes
Arab Spring protests
 Occupy Wall Street movement
 Increasing mass communication
and exposure to the outside world
in China

Media Convergence on Our PCs

Media converges on computers

Users can access:
 Movies
(Netflix and Hulu)
 Music (iTunes and Spotify)
 Books (Amazon and Google)
 Games
 Newspapers and magazines

Services such as Skype and iChat
can replace telephones
Media Convergence on Our TVs

Examples
Internet-ready TVs
 Video game consoles such as Xbox,
Wii, and PS3
 Set-top boxes such as Apple TV,
Google TV, Roku, and Boxee


Consumers use multiple avenues
to access media content.
Mobile Devices Propel
Convergence

Smartphones and tablet
computers can be used for:
Texting
 Listening to music
 Watching movies
 Reading books and magazines
 Connecting to the Internet
 Playing games

The Impact of Media Convergence
and Mobile Media


Media consumption is mobile and
flexible.
Merging of media onto one device
blurs distinctions between what used
to be separate media


Formats are morphing
We can experience media in multiple
manners simultaneously
Our Changing Relationship with
the Internet

Two noteworthy trends



Apple makes more than five times as
much money selling iPhones, iPads, and
iPods as it does selling computers.
Number of Facebook users continues to
increase
We now inhabit a closed Internet or
walled garden.
The Changing Economics of Media
and the Internet

Apple established the new media
economics.


Provided a market for music on iTunes in
exchange for a 30-percent cut of the
revenue
Amazon

Followed suit, creating the Kindle and
selling e-books for a cut of the revenue
The Next Era: The Semantic Web

Semantic Web


Will place the basic information of
the Web into meaningful categories
Apple iPhone’s Siri

Uses conversational voice
recognition to answer questions,
find locations, and interact with
various iPhone functionalities
Ownership and Control of the
Internet

Connected to three issues
Security of personal and private
information
 Appropriateness of online materials
 Accessibility and openness of the
Internet

Ownership: Controlling the Internet

Companies dominating the
Internet by the end of the 1990s


Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, and Google
Leading companies in today’s
converged world

Google, Facebook, Amazon, and
Apple
What Google Owns
Web
▪ Web Search
▪ Google Chrome
• iGoogle
Specialized Search
• Google Blog Search
▪ Google Patent Search
▪ Google Finance
▪ Google Alerts
▪ Google Custom Search
▪ Google Product Search
▪ Google Scholar
▪ Google Trends
Media
▪ YouTube
▪ Google Images
▪ Google Videos
▪ Google Play
▪ Google News
▪ Picasa
Social
• Google +
▪ Knol
• Reader
• Groups
• Orkut
• Blogger
• Google Talk
Geo
▪ Google Latitude
▪ Google Earth
▪ Google Maps
▪ Panoramio
• Google Offers
• SketchUp
Mobile
• Google Mobile
• Android
• Motorola Mobility
Home & Office
▪ Gmail
▪ Google Sites
▪ Google Translate
▪ Google Docs
▪ Google Calendar
▪ Google Voice
▪ Google Wallet
Advertising
• Adwords and AdWords
Express
• Adsense
• Google Mobile Ads
• Google Analytics
• Google Display Network
• Google Video Ads
• Google TV ads
• FeedBurner
Targeted Advertising and Data
Mining
Advertising is part of social
networking sites, e-mail, and IM
 Modern marketing relies on data
mining

E-commerce
 Cookies
 Spyware
 Opt-in, opt-out policies

Security: The Challenge to Keep
Personal Information Private

Whenever you use the Internet,
you give away personal
information.
Government surveillance of online
activity allowed by PATRIOT Act
 Identity theft results in about $3.4
billion each year in the United
States.

 One
form of identity theft is phishing.
Appropriateness: What Should Be
Online?

Children’s Internet Protection
Act of 2003


Requires public schools and
libraries to use filtering software to
limit minors’ exposure to
inappropriate Internet content
Many want the Web to be
completely unregulated.
Access: The Fight to Prevent a
Digital Divide

Digital divide
Refers to the growing contrast
between “information haves” and
“information have-nots.”
 Smartphones are helping to narrow
the gap.
 Still a big gap between the United
States and the rest of the world

Net Neutrality: Maintaining an
Open Internet

Net neutrality
Refers to the principle that every
Web site and every user has the
right to the same Internet network
speed and access
 Major telephone and cable
companies want to offer faster
connections and priority for those
willing to pay higher rates.

Alternative Voices on the Internet

Open-source software


Developed by independent
programmers who openly share
their ideas and source codes
Internet Archive

Aims to provide all citizens with
universal access to more than 85
billion archived Web pages
The Internet and Democracy

Commercialism
May be the biggest threat to the
Internet’s democratic potential
 Internet’s potential for widespread
use by all could be partially
preempted by narrower
commercial interests.

The Internet and Democracy
(cont.)

Inexpensive digital production
and social media distribution
allow greater participation than
any traditional medium.

May just be communicating to
those who already share the same
feelings and opinions