Media, Computers and Society Kathy E. Gill 8 November 2004

Overview Discussion Leaders Papers More diffusion theory

Discussion – Peer Group 1 Tina M Conley Michael D Gorman Piper Ross

Papers Grammar, etc Colloquial Language Citations Notes

Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation Use the tools built-into your word processor! General rule: punctuation is “ inside ” quotation marks (exception, semi-colon) If you don ’ t know how to spell- check or grammar-check, please see me after class

Colloquial Language Avoid it! Examples: nowadays (colloquial/slang) – use today, now, presently, currently stats (an abbreviation/slang) – use statistics It ’ s been a long time since … (not concrete) – give dates Not exhaustive list, just common examples

Citations (1/2) Why do we include citations in academic papers? (discuss)

Citations (2/2) Document sources, for credit (ie, not plagarized) Allow other scholars who follow you to replicate your work Thus, citations must be specific

Notes, types 1.Cite authority for statements in the text: facts, opinions or direct quotations 2.Make cross-references 3.Comment on discussion 4.Make acknowledgements

Notes, how Numerical order, beginning with 1 Arabic numbers Superscript or parens

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (1/3) Media is a plural noun; medium is singular. Ditto data (datum). It’s not 1990’s or 90’s or 90s … it’s 1990s (see Chicago Manual of Style) Spell out numbers smaller than 10 (newspaper style) or 100 (academic style)

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (2/3) Don’t start sentences with a number; re-write Active tense is preferred over passive Use notes for detail, definitions, explanations Explain why (tie opinions, explanations to theory)

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (3/3) Web sources should be reasonably authoritative (ie, named author or established publisher) Cite should include the date visited Follow standard format for journals, magazine articles and add the URL

Secondary Research These papers are primarily examples of secondary research (some of you are conducting surveys and interviews that would qualify as primary research, but it is not required)

Synthesis Content should be more than a mere collection of citations Instead, the writing should reflect a synthesis of what you have learned from the sources

Recommended from Jessica Assembling a List of Works Cited In Your Paper, Compares APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian Citing Sources Within Your Paper, Compares APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian Citation Style Guides for Internet and Electronic Sources, fm fm

Recommended from Kathy General guides The Elements of Style (Strunk & White) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian) Specific guides (pick one) The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6 th ed (MLA, Gibaldi) Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5 th ed (APA) Chicago Manual of Style, 15 th ed (for the detail- oriented, includes MLA)

Papers – Requirements Remember - the three papers must include at least 15 citations from scholarly books or journals Papers are evaluated on quality of analysis, focus, and clarity of presentation All work must be original You must reference theory (explain “ why ” )

Diffusion Revisited Rogers (recap) Bass Stages of Development

Rogers (1995) Identified four main elements of an innovation-diffusion process Innovation Social system Time Communications channels

Bass model (1969) dx/dt=a*x*(1-x/K)+b*(K-x) x: cumulative number of adopters at time t, K: population of potential adopters in the social system, a: internal influence factors, and, b: external influence factors.

External influences (Bass 1969) Vertical channel(s) of communication Centralized channel(s) of communication A structured channel(s) of communication A formal channel(s) of communication

Internal influences (Bass 1969) Horizontal channels of communication Decentralized channels of communication Unstructured, informal channels of communication

Stages of Technological Development Innovation Imitation Competition Standardization

Innovation Characterized by high uncertainty, trial-and- error problem solving, make-shift production Bioengineering Nanotechnology ??

Imitation Characterized by decreasing uncertainty as new firms enter sector and develop variants on basic innovation Solar-collector technology Early PC days MPEG Players? ??

Competition R&D leads to process improvements, smaller firms find it harder to enter industry, competition weeds out those who do not make improvements Semi-conductors RAM Hard drives?

Standardization “Ideal” product has been found/created, R&D focuses on preserving lifecycle; shift to price competition Pocket calculators PCs today?

Computing and Networks Technology Impacts History

Computing technology advances at exponential rates Memory capacity quadruples every 3 years Processor speed doubles every 3 years Number of hosts doubles every year Chip transistor densities double every 18 months at constant prices (Moore’s Law)

Computers and Networks Facilitate Concentration of knowledge and control Distribution of knowledge and control Have the power to Amass and analyze enormous volumes of data Process data at enormous rates for real systems and simulations

Computers and Networks Challenge: Constitutional definitions Social structures Lifestyle options None more challenging than “the Net”

Internet History Rand Corporation Plan for dealing with military and government communications… in the event of a “NUCLEAR WAR”

National Network with No Central Authority

Supervening Social Necessity? Discuss (social, political, economic …)

ARPANET (Rand, MIT, UCLA) 1969 : 1st node on the Internet 1971 : 15 nodes 1982 : TCP/IP

Picking Up Speed 1987 : Apple’s Hypertext 1991 : Tim Berners-Lee at European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva conceived the World Wide Web 1993 : National Center for Supercomputing Applications [NCSA] - University of Illinois created a WWW browser named Mosiac

Faster... faster... faster April 94 : Mosaic Communications [Clark & Andreesen] Oct 94 : Netscape Beta Released Nov 94 : Mosaic Co ==> Netscape Aug 9, 1995 : Netscape IPO

Internet Hosts 1971 : : : 1, : 313, : 3,864, : 9,472, : 171,638, t_countries t_countries

What is a Host (aka Server)? A computer running software that allows it to provide (serve) documents via the WWW. The computer is assigned an IP address and connected to the InternetIP address Internet Somewhat analogous to the “printer” of a print document.

Parts of a Society Education Transportation Private Sector Business Government Entertainment Housing Currency (banking) Jobs Space Medicine Anything else?

The Net and Society In recent years this one area has affected society more than any other How? What are the issues?