COM257: Media History and Theory

The article, “Introduction” by Juul, discusses video games. He begins by discussing how video games are in a sense half-real. This is because video games are real in that they consist of real rules, and winning or losing the game is a real event. They are not real however, in that the player wins by slaying a dragon, and a dragon is not real but fictional. Juul discusses how this interaction between real and non-real worlds makes for an interesting game because the player has to follow real rules by also creating a fictional setting.

Juul then discusses the history of the video game. The very first video game was “Spacewar!” He discusses that instead of asking whether video games are old or new, but how video games are games, and what characteristics they take from non-electronic games, and how they are different from traditional game forms.

Juul uses one section to describe video games as rules. He says that rules provide the player with challenges. He talks about Emergence, which is the primordial game structure, where a game is specified as a small number of rules that combine and yield large numbers of game variations, each one requiring the players to design different strategies. Juul then talks about progression, which is the historically newer structure of video games in which the player has to perform predefined actions in order to complete each level or task.

Juul describes that a game consists of 6 basic things; 1) a rule-based formal system, 2) with variable and quantifiable outcomes, 3) where different outcomes are assigned different values, 4) where the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, 5) the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and 6) the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.

This made me think back to the class discussion we had about Myst. Myst was the first major video game to become very popular in the US. This videogame is a clear example of how the player must follow certain rules in order to complete levels, eventually getting to the end of the game. Also, it proves that each player can have a completely different experience while playing the exact same game, and that depending upon which rules you follow, the end results of the game can be totally different.

In the article “Popularizing the Internet,” Abbate discusses the popular new media form known as Internet. It took almost three decades for the Internet to become the popular form of communication that we see today. In the 80’s, the Internet only consisted of a few networks, nothing like what we see today. There is not one simple answer to the question “Who created the Internet?” This is a complex question because many groups claim to have created various parts of the system, including the Bush and Clinton administrations, the National Science Foundation, university administrators, service providers, etc. Along with almost all of the other new media forms we have discussed in previous classes, the Internet was also feared because some people felt that it would be a form of anarchy.

This article, beginning with “A Typology of Nonlinear Textuality” discusses text how text is used. It begins by defining the term nonlinearity as it is defined mathematically, not involving any inspiration from the modern physical sciences. The mathematical branch of topology is the theory of “those properties of geometric figures that remain unchanged even when under distortion, so long as no surfaces are torn.” Textual topography describes the formal structures that govern the sequence and accessibility of the script. Aarseth explains that in order for texts to be described in topological terms, they have to consist of a set of smaller units with connections between them. Aarseth then describes the things that are necessary in order for a text to be considered nonlinear. Topology is the difference between nonlinear and linear. Dynamics are the differences between the static and dynamic text. Determinability deals with the stability of the traversal function. Transiency concerns the relationship between time and scriptons. Maneuverability is just the accessibility of scriptons. And lastly, User-functionality concerns the ability of the user to change the ending.

In “The Readerless Text,” describes how linearity can be achieved. Aarseth describes nonlinearity existing in stories that could have two different endings, forcing the reader to choose. Aarseth mentions the most popular nonlinear text is I Ching or Book of Changes. It is made up of 64 symbols which are combinations of six whole or broken changing lines. This book is very popular because of its sense of ritual involved in throwing the coins, and because of the communication between the user and the book. Later on in the article, Aarseth discusses Adventure. He explains that Adventure leaves each user with a different experience. He compares Adventure to a book, and explains how each reader has to use his/her imagination to depict the setting and scenery of the game.

I found this article very interesting. I was able to directly connect the article, and what Aarseth was trying to get across, with my presentation topic “Myst.” In Myst, each player had to choose which path they wanted to go down. Depending upon whether or not they chose to believe one of the brothers, or go against the brothers and grab the green book, the user could walk away from the game with a totally different experience than another person who played the exact same game. This is interesting because it basically keeps the reader guessing, and wondering what would have happened if they would have chosen a different path. This makes them want to start the game over, and complete it with all of the available endings, thus feeling like they have fully conquered the game.

During the second part of this article, Briggs and Burke discuss the age of television. So many people had already adapted to the sound broadcasting technique brought about by the radio that they were not sure how or if the television would be able to make its way into society. The TV was first displayed to the public at the New York World Fair in 1939. However, broadcasting did not begin until 1941 with the start of the war. A lot of people believed that the television would only be popular to the wealthy because they would be the only ones who could afford to buy televisions, but this was obviously false, and the number of television sets went from 178,000 to 20 million in less than a decade.

In “Information, Education, and Entertainment,” Briggs and Burke talk about broadcasting. They begin by discussing “sound broadcasting” as apposing to visual broadcasting. The article focuses on the radio, and it impacts on some of the technology we see today. The radio was popular during the war, and Ed Murrow was one of the greatest radio broadcasters of this time period, along with Macleish, and Orson Welles. Orson Wells made a rather famous broadcast about martians landing on the earth that generated a widespread panic. This shows how many people listened to the radio at the time, and trusted everything that they heard, much like people to today with the television. Radio was able to get “real news” to the Europeans even after the Nazis took control of the broadcasting stations. This made the radio more beneficial than the newspapers because the press was heavily restricted and anything that was sent out had to be approved. The radio led to a “war of words” that occurred between 1939 and 1945 and many people used their ability to speak to such a large amount of people as a weapon, as seen when we look at the tactics used by Adolf Hitler.

Like today, there were a variety of radio types available. Wired radio was favored because it could be controlled, and people could keep other countries radio out. Many people believe that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was able to win his election through his use of the radio to talk with his fellow citizens. Because Roosevelt suffered from Polio, he was not able to walk very well, and the radio allowed him to make speeches to the American people from the comfort of his own home. He called these “fireside chats” in order to make his listeners feel as though he was sitting with them in their homes.

In Britain, the government was able to control the broadcasting for a while, while in the US and other countries broadcasting was controlled by the networks. While some countries used the radio for entertainment purposes, others like the Soviet Union did no such thing. Also, Americans used a rating system to rate the broadcast in order to determine what should stay on the air and what shouldn’t.

This article made me think about the differences in radio then, and the radio we see today. While radio is still a form of news, it is now mainly used for entertainment purposes. Also, it is almost impossible to listen to a radio station for more than 10 minutes at a time without being interrupted by hundreds of commercials. I wonder if the radio stations would become more popular again if they moved away from advertisements, and back to storytelling. This also made me think back to the concept of new vs. old media. At the time, the radio was a form of new media that allowed people to have access to information that they may not be able to find in the newspapers at that time due to press restrictions. Now the radio would be considered an old new media form, and while it still exists I would say that it is not anywhere near as popular with today’s society as it was during that time period.

In “Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph,” Carey discusses the effects of the telegraph on society. He notes that the first instance in which Boston joined industrial America was the opening of the Boston and Albany Railroad. This brought about telegraphic messages that could be carried from Baltimore all the way to Washington. He notes that little research has been done about the telegraph and how it has effected today’s society. Carey thinks that it is unfortunate that the telegraphed was not researched more thoroughly because it was dominated by the first great industrial monopoly, because the telegraph was the first product of the electrical goods industry, and because the telegraph brought about changes in language, ordinary knowledge, and of the very structures of awareness.

Carey goes on to describe the two ways in which a relationship is formed between the telegraph and ideology. The first that he focuses on is the relationship between the telegraphs and monopoly capitalism. He explains that this basically means that the telegraph, at the time, was a form of new media that changed the means of production so that it demanded a new body of law, economic theory, political arrangements, organizational structures, management techniques, and scientific rationales. Before the invention of the telegraph, relationships between businesses were personal, face-to-face relationships. The second connection Cary makes between the telegraph and ideology rides in the popular imagery that accompanied the latter’s introduction. Many people feared that the telegraph would be the “noiseless tenant of the wilderness” because it consisted of a lot of texts about religious aspiration. Electricity was the key to the telegraph, and many people feared this new invention, and though that it may be the “swift winged messenger of destruction.”

Carey then goes on to discuss the effects of the telegraph on journalism. The telegraph got rid of the need for a person to provide letters that announced and described in detail the event that was to take place. The telegraph allowed for the condensing of articles in order to save money. He also notes that the telegraph also altered the literary style present at the time. The telegraph also opened up a whole new world of journalism in which detail and analysis was not expectable, and only the clear-cut facts were needed.

This was an interesting article because it made me think back to my COM 250 class. When describing the forms of old media which helped develop modern society as we know it, my teacher merely mentioned the telegraph, and then skipped right to describing the telephone in vivid detail. I find it interesting that there is such a lack of information available on the telegraph due to the lack of research that was done on it, because the telegraph had such a huge impact on society. As several other old and new media technologies we have discussed in class, there were a lot of hesitations that people had about the telegraph, but there were also a lot of benefits that the telegraph brought about as well.

“Printing and the Rupture of Classification,” by Michael Hobart and Zachary Schiffman begins by introducing their readers to the pessimistic mind of Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne had been surrounded by death throughout his entire life, and used his despair and agony to write a collection of journal entries he called Essays that described his life and the misery he felt. He created a library full of thousands of books including his Essays and other books written by his diseased friends. This library was his save haven where he could escape from the misery of his real life. Hobart and Schiffman realize the importance of printing to Montaigne’s achievements by saying “Of course, the quality of Montaigne’s thought cannot simply b e reduced to the quantity of books available to him; but it is hard to imagine that the Essays, or the mind of its author, could have existed before the full flowering of printing.

As the article continues, Hobart and Schiffman discuss the importance of print, and the effect that it had on “those who experienced the first age of printing.” There was an immense impact on those who were around when printing was first developed. They were exposed to an abundance of books with information and stories that they had never heard before. This was overwhelming to many people. However, after people started excepting print, it “transformed the intellectual landscape.” Printing was the forum of the Reformation, it enabled religious dissent to inspire a mass movement. It also made able countless advances in fields from anatomy to zoology.

As mentioned before, along with its immense amount of information, print brought about several contradictory and diverse information that people had not yet been exposed to. Most of the information of this specific time period came from medieval works that included theologies, cosmologies, natural philosophies, romances, etc. This exposed the medieval views to a larger population that was more critical. This caused a lot of confusion because it undercut the traditional classificatory means of information management.

In Rhetoric and the Rise of Commonplace Thought, the authors discuss the rhetorical tradition, and the importance of rhetoric in the world before mass media when communication took place in face to face venues. Aristotle resolved the rivalry between philosophy rhetoric by stating that philosophy concerns matters of truth, and rhetoric concerns those of probability. He describes rhetoric as the gray areas in life where the truth cannot be determined with certainty.

I agree with many of my classmates that this article was refreshing compared to the technical concepts we have been reading about. It provided a new perspective of the printing press I had never thought of. I never realized that this abundance of information probably came to a shock to a lot of people, and that it caused a lot of controversy. This reminds me of a discussion we had in my COM 250 class about the importance and impact of the printing press. Print changed the way people were able to express themselves. It provided the opportunity for things to be documented, and it allowed people to write down their thoughts and feelings and express them to others. Print has had an immense effect on the way that we communicate today.

This article talks about the experiences people have with spatial forms that are full of dynamic multimedia information. Manovich uses the term “augmented space” to describe the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information, meduia in the form and localized for each user. He begins by describing places that this dynamic multimedia information is displayed all around people such as Hong Kong and Tokyo where entire buildings are covered with electronic screens so that people can see information as it comes into the media.

Manovich wants to look at how people are effected by being exposed to this constantly dynamic multimedia information especially in our computer controlled society today. He narrows his discussion down to three technological applications that dynamically deliver dynamic data to, or extract data from, physical space; Surveillance, cellspace, and electronic displays. Cellspace is physical space that is filled with data that can be retrieved by a user via a personal communication device. An example of this is a GPS. He describes video/computer displays as displays that present information to passers-by. Manovich considers how these technologies effect our concept of space, and the effect they have on our lives. He talks about the connections that can be made between surveillance and monitoring. Manovich uses the example of a person sending information to another person via a cell phone, without ever even knowing where the person is located.

Manovich lists 15 paradigms in all, including examples of technologies of the future and technologies that already exist. Each of these paradigms overlay the physical space with dynamic data in their own way. Manovich goes into greater detail about “augmented space” and how it was derived from the term “augmented reality” which is basically the opposite of virtual reality. Augmented reality is when the user worlds on actual things in actual space. Manovich talks about the issues that can be brought about from the virtual reality that we see today, and how the connection of virtually almost everyone through space can be problematic if the power is abused.

This article is interesting because it defines the pros and cons of living in such a technologically advanced society. It poses the question, “How much is too much”? The thought of worldwide surveillance cameras is almost as frightening as the thought of never being able to escape. These days, it is possible for almost anyone to get in touch with you whether it be via email, cellphone, text messaging, etc. This is a good and bad thing because it makes escaping from the world virtually impossible on those days when you just want to be left alone. While it is beneficial to be able to contact your professors at all times and vice versa, it has to be somewhat exhausting for them to meet the demands of answering emails to students constantly so as to not cause a panic.

In “Technologies,” Kellerman discusses personal mobilities by focusing on the progressing relationships among space-transcending technologies, self-operated by users, and their socio-spatial aspects. He begins by describing personal mobility technologies which essentially speed up the world. He names several transportation technologies such as trains automobiles, and electricity but focuses on private vehicles and their environments. He defines these as auto-centred transport systems, which provide for spatial, physical, and autonomous mobility of people.

To explain his objective, Kellerman compares the spheres and aspects of automobility to the spheres and aspects of walking. He compares these using the individual experiences vs. societal experiences vs. space. During walking, Kellerman describes the individual as walking with no site but with a destination. He says that the walker values freedom and pleasure and gets these from walking. He says walking is used in urban societies for soliciting, cruising, shopping, etc. and in rural values for the love of nature. As far as society is concerned, walking is used for socializing, citizenship, democracy, street parties, demonstrations etc. He describes space as walking to space and space to walking, where walking to space is writing, speaking, vitalization, while space to walking is a decrease in walking space. Kellerman then describes the spheres of automobility also dealing with the individual, the society, and space. Automobility for individuals means speed, flexibility, power, dependence on maintenance professionals and the oil industry, traveling to more places than one could on foot, etc. For a society automobility means physical mobility as a democratic right. Automobility also brings about less one on one interaction with your local town. As far as space, automobility brings about extensive land-use, segregation, dispersed location of production. It also means that you can keep in contact with people that live nowhere near you. This however brings about several environmental problems such as pollution, depletion of the ozone layer, noise, etc. Kellerman compares the two in order to show the declining use of walking as a means of transporation, and the increasing dependency of our society to rely on automobility,

Kellerman goes on to describe several other technologies in great detail. Kellerman focuses mainly on the Internet and how it is an extremely fast form of mobility. You can find virtually any information in a matter of seconds, as opposed to looking it up the old fashioned way and taking longer. He uses the terms “internetness” and “wirelessness” to describe norms that exists in our society today. Individuals rely on being able to get wireless access to the internet virtually anywhere these days.

This article focuses on new technologies and the progression of our society further and further away from our old ways of life. He discusses automobility and the advantages and disadvantages it has had on space, individuals, and society. This article showed how technologically advanced we have become. This has helped us expand spatially and has given us power as individuals.

Manovichs "The Forms: The Database," is immensely about a collection of documents and navigable space. Manovich describes a tour that he takes through Razorfish Studios, one of the top designers for the virtual world. During this tour, Manovich notes the file cabinets, desks, etc. that are used as traditional methods of organization. This leads up to Manovich describing the two forms of a collection of documents and navigable space; the database, and a virtual interactive 3D space. Manovich says that the first form, a database is used for storing anything from financial records to movie clips. The second form, a virtual interactive 3D space involves computer games, rides, computer animation, etc. Manovich describes the differences between databases now compared to tradition organization methods. A database allows people to access, sort, and re-organize millions of records in literally a matter of minutes.

Manovich then begins to describe how the database form is the most commonly used in new media. He lists several examples of new media in the form of a database such as multimedia encyclopedias, and CD-ROM titles which are collections of recipes, quotations, and photographs. Perhaps the place where databases are the most prominent is on the internet. A Web page itself is made up of a list of text, images, video clips, and links. All a person has to do is simply click on a link, and it automatically takes you to another page full of another collection of information. Search engines are also a great example of a database. A search engine is just a collection of links to other sites. A search engine is a great way for people to find information. By simply typing in a few key words, you can find virtually any piece of information you need on the internet. Although Manovich strongly emphasizes the importance of databases in new media, he recognizes that of course not all new media objects are recognizably databases. For example, computer games consists of a series of algorithms that the player must complete to win.

I think that this section of Manovich’s book was designed to explore the importance of databases not only to new media, but to old media as well. Databases have been used as a means for organization in many obvious forms such as CD-ROMs and search engines, but databases are also used in computer games and other not so obvious media forms. I used the examples that Manovich to help me come up with some examples of my own. The first thing that came to mind for me were the web sites that many people access frequently these days, Facebook and/or Myspace. These are essentially huge databases that make it easy for people to find each other online. This was interesting to me because I have never considered either web site a database, and it is actually somewhat scary when you think about someone having access to a database of information about so many people.

In “The Interface,” Manovich begins by introducing Ridley Scott, the director of Blade Runner who created the commercial which introduced Macintosh. Manovich describes this as a significant moment in time because both Macintosh and Blade Runner offered two opposing views of what the future made hold. Blade Runner offered the idea of both futurism and decay, computer technology and fetishism, retro-styling and urbanism. On the contrary, Macintosh focused on the Graphical User Interface which consisted of people communicating via white boxes in which text can be added. The main difference between the two futuristic visions of Macintosh and Blade Runner is that in the Macintosh vision, decay was not acceptable, and there were lines drawn between humans and computers. Manovich goes on to describes these particular lines using the term human-computer interface (HCI). He explains that HCI is basically the interaction that takes place between the user and the computer.

In “The Language of Cultural Interfaces,” Manovich explains that the term HCI was created when the computer was used mainly for work, and now the computer has changed so dramatically that it is less of a tool for work and more of a universal media machine in which all media can be stored, distributed, and accessed. Manovich uses the term human-computer-cultural interface to describe how computers allow us to share and view cultural data. These cultural interfaces are used in the development of Web sites, DVD titles, online magazines and newspapers, CD-ROMs, etc. Manovich makes obvious the differences in cultural interfaces now versus those of the 1990s by describing the most well-known CD-ROM, Myst. The CD-ROM began essentially like a movie in that the credits rolled, followed by a set of instructions, and then a game where pictures of an island continue to pop up, along with text explaining how you should make your next move. This particular CD-ROM would be considered ancient in today’s rapidly developing society, but it uses the same basic concept as many of the new media we see today.

“The Interface” made me remember a lot of the old computer games I used to play when my family got our first computer. One that stood out in my mind was an Arthur reading game I had as a child. I thought about this as I read about the Myst because Arthur also consisted of games in which messages constantly popped up to explain how to continue on in the game. Also, “The Interface” brought about even more evidence to the suggestion that our society revolves around human-computer interfaces, and that we rely on these interfaces to keep us informed and in contact with others.

In “What is New Media?,” Manovich immediately makes known the common misconceptions that many people have about what media really is. He realizes that the majority of society hears the words new media and immediately thinks about CD-ROMs, DVDs, computers, etc. However, throughout the article he explains that there is much more to new media. He disputes the belief that new media simply refers to the use of a computer for distribution and exhibition instead of production. He emphasizes his point by using the example that it does not make sense for a digital photo to be considered new media simply because it must be put on a CD-ROM and viewed on a computer before printing, while the same photo printed in a book is not considered new media. The article goes on to describe Manovich‘s idea of what new media consists of. He narrows it down and lists the 5 principles of new media: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding. Manovich suggests that all new media, unlike old media, can be described mathematically, and that it is subject to algorithmic manipulation. He states that new media consists of elements that are made into larger objects. The example he talks about is how tiny pixels are put together to make one large picture. Manovich describes automation as the ability of the media to essentially create itself, i.e. human creativity is not always necessarily needed. He also describes that new media offers variability for example by allowing individuals to create a web page that describes that particular individual. Manovich also defines transcoding as basically the computerization of the media.

While reading this article I couldn’t help but think about what life was like before new media. It really made me realize that all of these new media forms have not been around for very long, and several have been created after I was born. The media is such an immense part of society now, it makes me wonder what would happen to the world if these media forms suddenly became unavailable to our society. I cannot help but think that there would be a widespread panic. The article also made me look at media in a different way, and look deeper at what it all entails. I hadn’t ever really considered that it takes a combination of numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding to form new media. I also found Manovich’s depiction between new and old media very enlightening and it helped me distinguish between the two.