The Internet , Digital Media, and Media Convergence Chapter 2

The Digital Turn has hastened media incorporation into our culture.

Information Superhighway Has no technological limitations, compared to other media Used globally The Internet’s capabilities have made the distinctions of each traditional medium extinct (Newspapers now show videos online, radio stations write news articles…)

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 integrated into our culture

The Birth of the Internet Original Internet called ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and nicknamed “The Net” Enabled military and academic researchers to communicate on a distributed network system The Internet in this development stage was primarily a tool for universities, government research labs, military and computer software companies to exchange e-mail and post information

ARPANet

The Mainframe Computer of the 1960s

The Net Widens The first sign of the Internet’s marketability came in 1971 with the introduction of microprocessors: mini circuits that process and store electronic signals With microprocessors, manufacturers were eventually able to produce the first personal computers (PC)

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

Commercializing the Internet Two developments in the 1990s helped transform the Internet into a mass medium, leading to commercialization 1. The introduction of the World Wide Web and 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 Organized information in an easy-to-use, nonlinear manner

Web Browsers Brought the Web to Mass Audiences Mosaic (1993)- first Web browser (govt. funded) created by Marc Andreesen; magazine-style layout, first Window-based browser to 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 and Internet Explorer has been replaced by Microsoft Edge

Digital Communication Image, text or sound converted into electronic signals as a series of binary numbers (ones and zeros) and then reassembled as a reproduction of the image, text or sound.

Search Engines Provide Organization Allow users to find content by keywords or queries; based on mathematical algorithms YAHOO! (1994): Jerry Yang and David Filo created a Web page to organize their favorite Web sites into categories (only about 22,000 Web sites in 1994) Google (1998): ranked page’s popularity based on how many pages were linked to it; became an instant hit -remains most popular (as of 2015), with 70% of all Internet searches

The Second Generation Internet: The Web Goes….SOCIAL Social media: 1. Blogs (Blogger) 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)

The Smart Phone: Ultimate Media Convergence

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 desktop personal computer began the convergence age, but the notebook computer, smart phone, and tablet hastened it Convergence is now happening with TVs (smart TVs), video game consoles, and set-top devices such as Roku

Mobile Devices 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; allowed users to check e-mail and Internet 2007: Apple’s iPhone (combined the mp3 player, telephone and Internet into one device) 2008: Apple’s“The App Store”, which quickly became integrated into our culture (ex. “There’s an app for that”) **Now more than 1.4 million apps 2008: First phone introduced on Google’s Android system, now 53.3% of smart phone market 2010: Apple introduced the iPad; Apple’s fastest-growing product (25 million/year)

Ode to the First Generation Mobile Phone

Changing Relationship with the Internet Mobile devices and social media have altered our relationship with the Internet; we now interact with media on our time Two noteworthy trends: 1. Apple now makes 6 times the money in selling iProducts than computers 2. Facebook users keep increasing (2.27 billion worldwide in 2018) Result of these trends: A more “closed” Internet (Apps) Amazon and Apple have become top digital distributors of media

Changing Economics of Media and the Internet The Digital Turn: 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 Digital Turn The recent period (last decade) of rapid media inventions incorporated into our culture, converging various media functions and allowing us to consume a lot of information Has made us more fragmented (Have our own individual experiences with media) yet connected (Shared experiences on social media with a “#” and telling anyone what we like, what we are doing, etc. on social media) Mass media are more integrated into our lives than ever before

Open vs. Closed Internet Open: Google and the Web browser Can search for anything, the entire World Wide Web is at your fingertips Closed: Apps More organized, detailed (Siri and Cortana)

The Next Era: Semantic Web The future of the World Wide Web will be a more meaningful (organized) 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 (About 89% of U.S. households are on the Internet) Smart phones are narrowing this gap (35% in 2011 to 77% in 2018)

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 2017: FCC repealed net neutrality rules requiring ISPs to treat all Web traffic equally