The Internet , Digital Media, and Media Convergence Chapter 2

Can You Hear Me Now? Good.

The Smart Phone: Media Convergence

Information Superhighway No technological limitations, compared to other media Used globally The Internet’s capabilities have made the distinctions of each traditional medium extinct

Developing the Internet 1960s- Began as a means of military communication 1990s- Eventually allowed two way-communication and mass communication 2000s- Multimedia source of information and entertainment, quickly being integrated into culture

The Birth of the Internet Original Internet: ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and nicknamed “The Net” Enabled military and academic researchers to communicate on a distributed network system Internet was primarily used by universities, government research labs, military and corporations involved in computer software

ARPANet

The Mainframe Computer of the 1960s

E-mail 1971 by Ray Tomlinson so that messages could be sent on ARPANet Tomlinson decided to use the “@” symbol to signify the location of the computer user

Transforming into a Mass Medium Two developments: The introduction of the World Wide Web (HTML) 2. The first Web browsers, Mosaic (1993) and Netscape (1994)

The World Wide Web Created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 Used HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to link and organize information and create Web pages

Web Browsers Mosaic (1993)- first Web browser (govt. funded) created by Marc Andreesen; could load text and graphics Netscape (1994)- Andreesen introduced first commercial browser Microsoft released its own Web browser, Internet Explorer in 1995 and quickly became the most popular Web browser Today: Firefox and Google’s Chrome are the top browsers, with IE, Apple’s Safari, and Opera as leading alternatives

Digital Communication Uses a series of binary numbers to reproduce an image, text or sound (Binary Code)

Search Engines Provide Organization Allow users to find content by keywords or queries Built on mathematic algorithms YAHOO! (1994) started as a directory Google (1998)—ranked page’s popularity in search and became an instant hit, remains most popular

The Second Generation Internet: The Web Goes….SOCIAL Social media: 1. Blogs 2. Collaborative projects (Wiki Web sites) 3. Content communities (YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr) 4. Social Networking Sites (MySpace, Facebook, Pinterest) 5. Virtual Game Worlds (MMORPGs)and Social Worlds (World of Warcraft, Second Life)

Convergence and Mobile Media Invention of Internet brought convergence and an array of functions to one place, unlike previous media, that had distinct functions The Personal Computer began the convergence age, but the notebook computer, smart phone, and tablet hastened it

The Mobile Phone and Convergence Mobile phones have been around since the 1970s, but the SMART PHONE proved the mobile phone was for more than just voice calls 2002: The Blackberry was introduced and allowed users to check e-mail 2007: Apple’s iPhone (combined the mp3 player, telephone and Internet into one device) --Apple introduced “The App Store”, which quickly became integrated into our culture (ex. “There’s an app for that”) 2008: First phone introduced on Google’s Android system 2010: Apple introduced the iPad, many tablets have followed

Ode to the Mobile Phone

Changing Relationship with the Internet Mobile devices and social media have altered our relationship with the Internet Two major trends: 1. Apple now makes 5 times the money in selling iProducts than selling computers 2. Facebook users keep increasing (1.23 billion in 2014) Result of these trends: A more closed Internet

Changing Economics of Media and the Internet The Digital Turn of Mass Media: Began with Shawn Fanning’s Napster (1999) All media industries have to rethink distributing content for the Digital Age and master quality too Some examples… Apple: Created iTunes and made billions, while shutting down many music distribution companies Amazon: started with books and quickly distributed eBooks, even inventing technology to read them (The Kindle)

The Next Era: Semantic Web The future of the World Wide Web will be a more meaningful experience Will place basic information of the Web into meaningful categories (family, friends, mutual interests, location) Best example is conversational voice recognition (Siri and Cortana)

The Digital Divide Refers to growing contrast between the “Information Haves” and “Information Have-Nots” Big gap in Internet access, especially between age and education Smart phones are narrowing this gap

Net Neutrality The idea that every Web Site and user has the right to the same Internet network speed and access 2010: FCC approved limited set of neutrality rules (both have been rejected twice by federal courts) Both fixed-line and mobile providers must disclose network mgmt practices and are prohibited from blocking sites or apps 2015: ISPs are now considered “common carriers” and are subject to Net Neutrality