COM257: Media History and Theory

        This week’s article is entitled Mobile Telephone History and was written by Tom Farley, a freelance telecom writer.  Farley discusses the importance of the telephone and how it became dynamic and the most important communication tool of our lives.  The history of the telephone is discussed first in this article.  After World War II, the mobile telephone history began which was in the 1940s.  After this war the badly left civilian communication needs were able to be addressed.  Telephone and telegraph administrations and private telephone companies worked on providing Americans with landline telephones and services.  There were three reasons for this particular movement: 1) the United States was physically intact after the war, 2) Bell Telephone Laboratories had a large group of radio engineers and scientists to use, and 3) the Motorola corporation had grown significantly during World War II.  In 1946, Commercial Mobile telephony began and in 1947 the cellular radio concept was published.  Bell Laboratories’ D.H. Ring and W.R. Young communicated the true cellular radio system for mobile telephony.  All the cellular radio elements were: “a network of small geographical areas called cells, a base station transmitter in each, cell traffic controlled by a central switch, frequencies reused by different cells and so on.”  Mobiles may have been invented and used in the early 1940s, but it was only after 1995 when mobiles became low cost, rich in features, and used world wide.  In this article, Tom Farley eventually goes on to explain the first commercial cellular radio systems.  The Bell System made for the first time, the commercial cellular radio operational in 1969.  In this year the first all transistor mobile telephones appeared from a large manufacturer.  It was big, bulky and was place in a vehicle.  Also, the first commercial portable radiotelephones emerged during this time in the United States.  A Scandinavian wide mobile telephone network was planned during the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Nordic Mobile telephone group.  This group created a report in 1970 that said an analog cellular network would not be available until 1980.  Because of this the Nordic Mobile telephone group decided to just design a conventional, manual mobile telephone system.  Year after year, additional mobile telephone systems and networks were continuously made and in competition with each other. 

            Next, Tom Farley discussed the long journey to the analog cellular systems.  The Bahrain Telephone company began operating the first commercial cellular telephone system in May, 1978. In July, 1978 Advanced Mobile Phone Service began operating in two cities, Newark, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois.  The next year, 1979, INMARSAT was born.  INMARSAT was an international group that fostered and coordinated satellite telephony.  The American telephone and telegraph split apart on August 24, 1982.  Eventually Europe was introduced to analog cellular system.  It was introduced in 1981 when the Nordic Mobile Telephone System started working in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.  Farley said, “It was the first multinational cellular system” (Farley, p.29).  Analog services were used for sending voice and the signaling was done with different tones and data bursts.  An interesting fact Farley informed his readers on was that the United States began its first commercial cellular service in Chicago, Illinois on October 12, 1983.  The fist handheld cellular phone was the Motorola Dyna-TAC from the year 1983.  The only problem with the analog cellular system was that the systems could work fine by themselves but not together.  Mobile telephones were not able to operate in other cities besides their own.  Planning for an advanced roaming service began in the early 1980s. 

            Tom Farley talks about the rise of GSM and North America going digital next.  Europeans saw things differently from the Americans.  They decided to create a new technology in a new radio band because their cellular systems were not able to be accommodated by the existing telephone systems. This new creation and service was a cellular radio but fully digital and was called GSM.  Later the  North American cellular network adopted a digital standard, IS-54 in 1990.  IS-54 was capable of converting any of its analog voice channels to digital.  Digital services were provided in the places it could operate in and analog where it was not able to.  Farley also discussed a new cellular band and systems in America as well as the mid 1990s fundamental change.  This meant more wireless channels and carriers were allowed in America.  Many different types of mobile phones, handheld computers were introduced which had features like a keyboard, built in calculator and calendar programs.

            This article by Tom Farley was very interesting to me.  It gave me great information concerning the history of the mobile telephone.  The mobile telephone is very popular today and has greatly changed since it was first created.  More applications and networks now exist than before.  This is an example of new media developing from old media.  The mobile phone updated its system and allowed a more efficient way for people to communicate with each other.  I use a mobile phone every day.  I communicate with people through texting or actually talking with them.  The mobile telephone has turned into a computer system with the advanced features that have been added to them.          

Faeben Fulford       

This week’s article is by Jull and it discusses gaming.  Jull starts off by explaining that video games are made up of two things: real rules and fictional worlds.  This is said because video games consist of rules, interacting players and a winner or loser which is all real.  However, the world and people or animals killed while playing the game are all not real but fictional.  The article gives an example of the game Legend of Zelda and how the rules are real but the world in which the game is played in is fictional.  Jull notes to his readers that by having fictional worlds, electronic video games are set apart from the traditional non electronic games.  This article states that the most important feature of video games is the interaction between game rules and game fiction.  Next in the article, Jull discusses the old and the new dealing with games.  Gaming has a very brief as well as long history.  The video game is more than forty years old and the first one was the 1961 Spacewar.  Video games have been a part of the popular culture for about thirty years.  Video games are considered continuations of a history of games that predate the new ones by millennia.  For example, the Egyptian board game created a long time ago called senet, represents and is the precursor of the recent games, backgammon and Parcheesi, that are often played on today’s computers.  Jull has discovered that video games should not be considered old or new but how they are created and from where.  He says they are created from non-electronic games and traditional game forms.  In this section, Jull also informs his readers of the reasons computers are used to play games.  Jull’s exact words were, “computers work as enables of games, letting us play old games in new ways, and allowing for new types of games that would previously not have been possible” (Jull, p.5).  The next section in this article is entitled Games as Rules.  In this section Jull explains how the rules of games give the players challenges that eventually cannot be overcome.  Playing a game is described in this section as a learning experience and an activity of improving skills.  Jull says there are two basic ways in which games are organized and present challenges for players.  The two ways are emergence and progression.  Emergence is a number of simple rules combining to form interesting variations and progression are separate challenges presented serially.  Jull continues his discussion of gaming by presenting another section in the article called Games as Fiction.  This section talks about the way video games create fictional worlds and how fiction plays different roles in different games and game genres.

            Jull goes on to discuss what a game is.  In this section the classic game model is explained and described using six features that all work on three different levels.  These levels are: the level of the game itself, as a set of rules; the level of the player’s relation to the game; and the level of the relation between the activity of playing the game and the rest of the world.  The six features that define what a game is are: a rule-based formal system; with variable and quantifiable outcomes; where different outcomes are assigned different values; where the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome; the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome; and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.  As shown, games are a well defined form but video games have modified and supplemented the classic game model; they are breaking the classic game model.  Next Jull discusses the study of video games.  It is said that the history of video games request and must have a history of non-electronic games also.  Many studies have been provided and explained including: games for other purposes, games for their own sake, etc.  Video games have a short history as well as an even shorter history of research.  Jull notes that the studies of video games have been full of disagreements and discussions with no clear outcomes.  But, although the discussions are unresolvable, they are focal points in the study of games.  Some of the most important conflicts listed and discussed about video games are: games versus players, rules versus fiction, games versus stories, games versus the broader culture, and game ontology versus game aesthetics.  After Jull discusses the conflicts of video games, he goes on to talk about fun in theory.  Rules in a game add meaning and form actions by setting up differences between moves and events that could potentially take place.  This section ask the question, why are video games fun?  One answer given is determined by the key quality factor of a game, its gameplay.  Even though it gives that as an answer, Jull also says games funness cannot be described in one sentence.  Jull believes that playing different games result in different types of enjoyment and depending on the players, the game gains its ratings and reasons for playing.  The next section in this article is the cultural status of games.  This section discusses how games are considered and perceived by many.  Jull says that, “Video games are notoriously considered lowbrow catalogues of geek and adolescent male culture” (Jull, p.20).  He also describes the way video games are focused on manipulating and moving objects.  The reasons video games are considered lowbrow are listed in this section.  One reason is because game players play with much interest and tend to send the wrong signals.  Video games are also considered dangerous.  For example, video games were considered the reason for the columbine high school shootings.  Games have unclear and double meanings.

            This article was very interesting and informed me on a lot about gaming.  Not only does the information relate to me and every other person, but it also relates to past theories and discussion we have had in class.  Video games are extremely popular and played a lot by individuals my age and younger.  Whenever I play a video game, the world I am in while playing is fictional but because I am playing a character in that world it is sometimes hard to realize and remember that it’s not real.  This can be a bad thing because people may not realize and be able to separate real life from fictional life.  Video games are addictive and can cause trouble in individual’s minds if they are not careful.  Video games are not necessarily considered new media but are forms of old media because they are derived and updated from old games.  

Faeben Fulford

            This week’s article entitled What is Web 2.0 was written by Tim O’Reilly.  It defines Web 2.0 and describes design patterns and business models for the next generation of software.  O’Reilly informs his readers that in autumn of 2001 when the dot-com collapsed, it was considered the turning point for the web.  He goes on to explain why this idea was made.  Forst he explains how the concept of “Web 2.0” began with a conference between O’Reilly and MediaLive international where they held a brainstorming session.  O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty realized the web had become more important than it ever was and had new applications and sites even along with the crash of the dot-com.  This triggered the birth of the web 2.0 conference.  O’Reilly then discusses how much controversy and disagreement there was about what web 2.0 means.  Some people saw it as “a meaningless marketing buzzword” and some saw it as “the new conventional wisdom.”  This article defines web 2.0 as the network as platform that spans all connected devices.  The Web 2.0 applications make the most of the advantages of their platform by continuously updating their software, consuming and remaking data from a variety of sources, allowing others to remix their data, creating an “architecture of participation,” and delivering rich user experiences.  This article by Tim O’Reilly, is divided into sections of principles to help the reader understand better.  These seven principles are entitled: The web as platform, Harnessing collective intelligence, Data is the next intel inside, End of the software release cycle, lightweight programming models, software above the level of a single device, and Rich user experience.

            The first section principle called The Web as platform discusses more information of Web 2.0 can be viewed as a set of principles and practices that demonstrate those principles at a variety of distances from that core.  O’Reilly discussed the first Web 2.0 conference held in October 2004 which listed a set of principles.  The first of the principles made was “The web as platform.” DoublClick and Akamai were pioneers in keeping and treating the web as a platform.  Netscape vs. Google, DoubleClick vs. Overture and AdSense, and Akamai vs. BitTorrent were all discusses and explained in detail in this section and how they were pioneers.  The next section, Harnessing collective intelligence, talks about the power of the web to harness collective intelligence was the central principle behind the success of the giants.  It discusses hyperlinking and how it’s the houndation of the web and yahoo being the first great internet success story.  Google is also mentioned and how its breakthrough in search made it the undisputed search market leader.  Amazon, ebay, Wikipedia, and others are listed and described in this section.  Blogging and the wisdom of crowds were talked about also in this section.  O’Reilly said that blogging was one of the most highly touted features of the web 2.0 era.  Rich Skrenta says that the organization of a blog “seems like a trivial difference, but it drives an entirely different delivery, advertising and value chain” (O’Reilly, p.24).  RSS is also discussed and said to be “the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web since early hackers realized that CGI could be used to create database-blocked websites” (O’Reilly, p.24). 

              The third principle in this article is entitled Data is the next Intel Inside.  It starts off by explaining and giving examples that all important internet application to date is and has been backed by a soecialized database.  The question, who owns the data, is answered in this section also.  Control over the database leads to market control and outsized financial returns.  O’Reilly states that they are expecting the rise of proprietary databases to result in a free Data movement within the next decade.  The next section, End of the software release cycle, discusses how the internet era software is delivered as a service which leads to fundamental changes in the business model of a company.  Some of these changes are, Operations must become a core competency and users much be treated as co-developers.  The fifth section is called Lightweight programming models.  O’Reilly informed his readers that large companies created extremely reliable programming environments for given applications once web services became au courant.  The web began to succeed because it got rid of hypertext theory and got a simple pragmatism for ideal design, RSS.  RSS has become “the single most widely deployed web service because of its simplicity, while the complex corporate web services stacks have yet to achieve development” (O’Reilly, p.31).  Amazon.com’s two forms of web services were given, one was adhering to the formalisms of the SOAP web services stack and the other is providing XML data over HTTP in a lightweight approach.  This section goes on to discuss the availability of mapping-related web services from GIS vendors such as ESRI, MapQuest and Microsoft MapPoint.  The only problem was the simplicity of Google maps left the data for the taking and hackers were eventually able to find ways to creatively re-use the data.  Many lessons are listed in this section dealing with it.  Some are: support lightweight programming models that have loosely coupled systems, think syndication instead of coordination, and design for “hackability” and remixability.

            The next principle in this article is entitled, Software above the level of a single divice.  O’Reilly discusses how web 2.0 is no longer limited to the PC platform.  The “2.0-ness” of the Web 2.0 gives an insight of how to design applications and services for the new platform.  iTunes is the best example of this principle, O’Reilly believes.  iTunes and TiVo show many core principles of Web 2.0.  Rich user experiences is the next section of this article.  When introduced Gmail, the potential of the web hit the mainstream to deliver full sale applications.  These are web based applications that contained rich user interfaces and PC equivalent interactivity.  More new rich web reimplementation’s of PC applications and truly novel applications are expected to be seen in the next few years.  After O’Reilly explains and describes the seven principles, he concludes his article by summarizing his beliefs of what the core competencies of web 2.0 companies are.  These competencies are: services, control over unique, trusting users as co-developers, harnessing collective intelligence, leveraging the long tail through customer self-service, software above the level of a single device, and lightweight user interfaces.

            The article, “What is Web 2.0” by Tim O’Reilly was very informative and interesting.  The information learned by reading this article is great to know, especially since it’s the history of some of the technologies we use constantly in this society.  The users, meaning us, make the internet grow.  I personally use the internet more than once a day and every day, so I along with others affect the growth of the network and amount of files accessible to other users.  This article is also related to some discussions and other reading we read in class.  Technologies that can be considered interfaces and new media are listed throughout this article.        

Faeben Fulford

       This week’s reading is entitled, Popularizing the Internet by Abbate.  This article explores the use of the internet over the years and how it was transformed from a research tool into a popular medium.  Abbate begins by discussing how the internet was viewed and used in the early 1980s and 1990s.  In order for the internet to have become a popular form of communication, much work and transformations were required through the years of 1980s and early 1990s.  During these years the internet developed more networks, computers, and users.  Not only were individuals in the military able to control it, but eventually civilians gained control and it was much more accessible to the general public.  When the World Wide Web was created people were then able to understand and get use to the possibilities of information gathering, social interaction, entertainment, and self-expression which it offered.  The creator of the internet is unknown because no single person or agent actually came up with it.  The internet gained part of its success through its modularity which made it possible to change parts of the network without disrupting the whole.  It also became successful by its robustness and scalability.  Abbate continues to discuss how the internet was transformed into a popular medium.  The article has different sections where the author explains the internet’s growth and reorientation toward civilian research and the role of the National Science Foundation in further expanding it.  Abbate also discusses the technical, managerial, and political issues that existed and formed by the internet’s continuous expansion as well as how the internet became a global network. 

            The first section deals with the expansion of civilian participation.  Throughout the 1980s, the internet moved more toward academic research than military involvement.  New groups began to have access to the ARPANET that were not a part of the community of ARPA.  The community involved with computer scientists initiated the first steps in increasing civilian participation with the internet.  Proposals were made in order for the public to be more involved with the internet.  The first proposal would have used public X.25 networks, but it was denied by the NSF.  Another proposal was made for a composite network that would link sites by combining leased connections from the commercial Telenet network and the ARPANET.  The internet’s access was broadened tremendously from the network created by the computer scientists.  The next section Abbate put in his article is entitled, Growth at the Periphery.  It discusses another way civilian researchers gained access to the internet.  They were able to do it by local-area networks at their universities.  These networks came from a computing revolution of the late 1970s and 1980s when there was a rise of small, locally controlled computers.  Abbate said that because single-user computers in universities and businesses began growing in popularity, a demand for local area networks to connect them became a demand.  Abbate then goes on to another section called, What’s in a Name?  This section discusses the need for central coordination in some functions of the internet to prevent chaos.  Abbate said the most important function needed a uniform and comprehensive system of host names and addresses that would uniquely identify each computer.  The Domain Name System was created and designed by Paul Mockapetris at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute.  This system was adopted by the internet in the mid 1980s.  The Domain Name System’s goal was to distribute the task of maintaining host information in order to make it more manageable.  The system eliminated the need to distribute large files containing host tables across the network at frequent intervals.  The next section discusses the input of the National Science Foundation.  The next section discusses the input of the National Science Foundation.  Throughout the 1980s the NSF built large networks of its own and became greatly involved in the operation of the internet.  The networking of the NSF expanded the size and scope of the internet, opened up access to every interested university, and eventually brought the internet under civilian control.  Abbate then went on to discuss the end of the ARPANET, its backbone network.  By the late 1980s it was almost 20 years old and it no longer had the capacity to serve the escalating number of users of the internet system. 

            Privatization was the next topic discussed in this article.  This was the final step needed to open the network to all users and activities.  The internet was still run by a government agency and intended only for nonprofit research and education, even though it had come under civilian control.  Because the government prevented certain involvements, the NSF managers believed that the only politically feasible way to remove all connection and operation from the government.  The NSF managers believed privatization was the solution to their worries about users and contractors.  Next the convergence with other Networks was discussed in this article.  Abbate explained how in the 1970s and 1980s, other networks with diverse technical approaches, management philosophies, and purposes had been created.  There were many benefits of computer networking in the early 1970s.  This section also discusses the grassroots systems that were being imitated in the mid 1980s by commercial email services on telephone or computer network systems.  Some examples are: MCI Mail, AT&T Mail, Telenet’s Telemail, DEC’s EasyLink, etc.  In the next section Abbate informs his readers on Management issues.  Although privatizing the internet backbone was easy, the question of who would continue technical planning and administration for the system was still unanswered.  More discussion Abbate had throughout this article included: The Global Picture, The World Wide Web, Building the Web, Participation explodes and, The Legacy of a Protean Technology.

         This week’s reading is entitled Nonlinearity and literary theory written by Espen J. Aarseth.  The article explores the true meaning of nonlinearity.  To begin, Aarseth talks about how nonlinearity in this article is described as something grounded in mathematics and not influenced by the modern physical sciences.  Aarseth believes reading a nonlinear text is not the same as reading something that is informed by research in fractal geometry or chaos theory.  He says although nonlinear can be explained using unpredictability, self-organization, and turbulence, this is not suppose to be an important factor when trying to understand nonlinearity.  A more formal definition Aarseth gives of his idea and concept of nonlinearity and how it’s grounded in the mathematical branch of topology is from the Webster’s New Twentieth-Century Dictionary.  This dictionary defines it as, “those properties of geometric figures that remain unchanged even when under distortion, so long as no surfaces are torn” (Aarseth, 766).  Aarseth also defines textual topology as a description of the formal structures that control the sequence and accessibility of a particular script.  This can be done manually or mechanically.  The article goes on to explain what texts should consist of in order for it to be topological.  Texts must show a connection between a set of smaller units and their functions must be relevant to the concept of nonlinearity.  Text can be organized in the form of graphemes (letters), lexemes (words), or syntagms (phrases or sentences).  If anyone of these forms is present then there is no nonlinearity.  A text can be considered nonlinear if many syntagms (phrases or sentences) are strung together or there is a position of a single letter.  Next Aarseth discusses texton, which he thinks is a good name for the unit he has been discussing.  A texton denotes a basic element of textuality.  Aarseth feels a better and more logical name for textuality is scripton.  A scripton as described in this article is “an unbroken sequence of one or more textons as they are projected by the text (Aarseth, 167).  Aarseth then goes on to discuss a variety of text.  He explains each of them, and then applies them to a set of nonlinear texts.  Later, he produced a two-dimensional plot by the correspondence analysis to provide a basis for general classification.  The varieties Aarseth discusses are topology, Dynamics, Determinability, Transiency and maneuverabity.  

                This article also informs its readers of the use of nonlinear texts and how it can be described in terms of four active feedback functions.  These functions are: the explorative function, the role-playing function, the configurative function and the poetic function.  The first function, the explorative function, allows the user to decide which “path” it wants to take.  The second function, the role-playing function, is where a user, according to the text, is able to assume responsibilities for a “character” in a “world.”  The configurative function is the third function where the user chooses or designs textons and travel functions.  The last function, poetic function, is where the user’s actions, design, and dialogue are all motivated.  Aarseth also proposes four pragmatic categories/degrees of nonlinearity.  They are: the simple nonlinear text, the discontinuous nonlinear text, or hypertext, the determinate “cybertex,” and the indeterminate cybertext.  The first category or degree, the simple nonlinear text, is where the textons are all static, open and explorable for the user.  The second category, the discontinuous nonlinear text, or hypertext, allows textons to be traversed by explicit links.  The determinate “cybertext” is the third category which is where the behavior of textons is predictable but conditional along with the element of role-playing.  The inderterminate cybertext is the fourth and final category or degree where textons are dynamic and unpredictable.  The article continues to discuss the four categories.  They discuss their attributes, peculiarities, and importance to literary theories and practice of literary criticism.  Aarseth informs his readers of history’s most prominent and popular nonlinear text.  It is the Chinese work of oracular wisdom, I Ching or Book of Changes.  This work was considered the great classics of antiquity and was used for thousands of years for meditation and as an oracle.  It is over three thousand years old and originated from the symbol system which was invented five thousand years ago.

                Next, the article discusses hypertext and how it’s not what most individuals think.  Aarseth says that hypertext is actually a simple concept, a direct connection from one position to another.  Hypertext can represent at least three different things.  They are: the general concept, an implementation, of the concept, and a text embedded in and defined by a hypertext system.  The general concept is the same as explained earlier, a direct connection from one position in a text to another but an implementation of the concept is different.  It is usually a hypertext system that contains idiosyncrasies and enhancements which make it different from other systems.  Theodor H. Nelson in 1965 was the first person to use the term hypertext, but the modern origin of the idea is accepted from Vannevar Bush.  Aarseth thinks that the hypertext principle should not be compared or linked to an ideology or poetic because many people can use it.  A particular term that describes literary hypertext perfectly is “Afternoon.”  Aarseth explains this text critically in his article. 

                The writer of this article, Aarseth, continues his discussion of nonlinearity and linearity by talking about cybernetics.  Cybertext, in this article, is defined as a self-changing text where the cybernetic agent controls the scriptons and traversal functions.  Cybertext has many species but according to Aarseth has two main groups.  These two groups are: those that can be predicted and those that cannot.  Eliza was the first cybertext which was created by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966.  Aarseth said that as artificial intelligence grew, there was a production of story generators and models that represented actions and characters. 

                This article was very informative and interesting.  It can relate to everyone as well as discussions we had in class.  For example, the telegraph which was used for textual fun and games.  It was also the method that allowed instant global textual communication before digital computer networks came into existence.  Other networks began to emerge as well as the use of modems which allowed textual communication.  Also, with the networks and modems, more kinds of textual communication came about which people frequently use today.  Email, mailing list, and newsgroups are a few to list.  Today’s society has developed so many different forms of ways to communicate as well as communicate nonlinear text.  All of these forms in some way came from older past forms. Also I think we use nonlinear text all the time when reading, playing games, writing, etc.  For example, in class when teachers give test where the format is fill in the blank.  The blank can be filled with any word.  Another example is certain books that require their readers to finish the sentence or idea.  This is very common.    

Faeben Fulford  

        Part two of this week’s reading also uses the article, “Information, Education, Entertainment,” by Briggs and Burke.  In this section the authors focus their attention on the age of television instead of the age of broadcasting.  In 1939 at the New York World Fair, the television, for the first time was on public display.  In 1941 when the United States entered the war, NBC and CBS both started limiting but scheduled television broadcasting in New York.  NBC and CBS were rivals of each other.  The third network, ABC, began television broadcasting in 1943.  Accepting the television in radio and film circles was hard for people to do.  There had been belief that only the higher income groups were attracted to it.  This belief changed between the years of 1947 and 1952 when the production of television grew.  During 1947 and 1952 the creation of television rose from 178,000 to around 15 million, and later there were a recorded 20 million televisions in use.  More than one third of the population owned a television set unlike in 1948 when only 0.4 percent of the population owned them.  As the sales on television sets rose, the cinema attendances declined.  Fewer people attended the cinema after buying a television.  People said it was cheaper and more efficient to just stay at home and watch their television than get up and spend money for a ticket.  Cinema attendance for a week fell from 90 million to 47 million in the years of 1948 to 1956.  So the film companies wouldn’t continue losing money, they began selling their films to television companies to be aired, but this was not done until the mid-1950s.

        Many kinds of television programs and line systems existed, but not as many as in the radio.  The United States and Japan both had 525 lines and European countries employed 625.  In America, television programs consisted of game shows like, Beat the Clock quizzes and soap operas.  I love Lucy was one of the most known programs in the United States.  CBS and NBC were the leading networks in the United States and BBC in Britain.  Television eventually moved in the direction of entertainment.  Italian film-makers and Britain moved in another direction than that of America.  In Britain, the BBC worked in a land of austerity.  Britain allowed a cultivated broadcaster named George Barnes to take charge of the television.  That did not turn out so great.  At the end of 1951, the number of television viewers hit the million mark, and it consisted of 70 percent low income people and uneducated individuals beyond the age fifteen.  Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation caused the number of television viewers to rise.  Around twenty million people watched it on television including Americans through the film transported by air.  During this time a commentator named Richard Dimbleby became well known.  He became a presenter of one of BBC’s leading information programs called the Panorama.  In 1955, Parliament took away the BBC’s monopoly.  After no longer being a monopoly, Britain expanded their field of television and allowed competition of television broadcasting.  Norman Collins played a major role in letting go their monopoly.  Because Britain was in competition, television producers and performers and outside organizations profited financially from it.

         The United States and Britain had many differences in their television but were both adapting themselves to the various changes they came across and needed to make.  America had color television before Britain.  In the mid 1950s, 36 million television sets were in use in the United States, 4.8 million in Europe and 4.5 million in Britain.  In the mid-1960s, television stations existed in more than ninety countries.  Although the television was growing in popularity across the country, some countries like Tanzania and Guyana still didn’t have them but they were both by governmental choice.

          Briggs and Burke continue their discussion of the age of television by sharing the various comments countries had about the television.  Countries had their own opinions of what the television meant to them.  Some called it the “universal eye” and some called it “chewing gum.”  In the United States, the chairman of the FCC in 1961, Newton Minow, described the network television as a “vast wasteland.”  The article also informs its readers that in London, Milton Shulman called the British television “the least worst television in the world.” 

           Briggs and Burke point out how the age of broadcasting, the age of television, the age of railways and the age of the cinema have all overlapped.  They each added on to one another and never eliminated each other.  This article, Information, Education, Entertainment, relates to theories and discussions we have had in class as well as our own personal lives.  As Briggs and Burke explained that the old and new inventions coexisted, I thought about new and old media.  New media only exist because of old media.  They feed off of each other.  Without one, the other could not exist.  When the television was first invented, it was considered new media.  I personally enjoy watching television and couldn’t imagine this world without it because we have become so dependent on it.  People get their entertainment, education, and lots of other information from it.  The radio and television are important to today’s society.   

Faeben Fulford

                This week’s reading is entitles, Information, Education, Entertainment, by Briggs and Burke.  The two authors begin this article by discussing “sound broadcasting” instead of beginning with television.  They chose this particular order because of its level of interest as well as the institutions used in guiding the age of broadcasting were also used for conducting the age of television.  NBC and CBS (located in the U.S.) and BBC (in Britain) each thought of themselves as institutions rather than organizations.  Briggs and Burke went on to discuss radio reporters and broadcasters that made a significant impact during the beginning and forming of broadcasting.  Ed Murrow (1908-65) was known as a great radio reporter during the battle of Britain, was equally known on both sides of the Atlantic, and was almost an institution himself.  MacLeish was another reporter that made everything alive during his time.  His broadcasts “destroyed the superstition of distance.”  He opened a new chapter in American radio along with Orson Welles as a radio announcer.  A few years later the radio slowly became more popular than the newspapers which was not appreciated by the U.S. but accepted by Britain, and most European broadcasting stations were run by the Nazis.  Broadcasting became another way to fight war, “A war of words.”  The microphone became a weapon of war.  Another type of radio, wired radio, was favored by the people because it was a way to control and keep other countries’ radio out of theirs so problems wouldn’t arise.  Briggs and Burke also explained how in the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used radio differently.  He chatted with his citizens trying to make them feel like he was with them in their homes by using the microphone and radio.  This became known as the “fireside chats.”  This was quite different from the way Britain used their radio.  BBC during its first years of its operation was controlled by the government and required to retain from all controversial broadcasting.  Because of this, the range of its pre-war programming was much wider and had an advantage than any other country.  Briggs and Burke then go on to discuss Reith and his input in the British broadcasts.  In 1922 Reith was appointed General Manager of the British Broadcasting Corporation.  Reith changed the structure which stated that BBC was required to provide information, education and entertainment.  Reith did not believe in using broadcasting as a simple way of communicating entertainment and giving the people what they wanted.  Reith’s ideas and ways of running the broadcast created a monopoly.  The article states that, “only a monopoly could defy a cultural Gresham’s law stating that the bad drives out the good.”

          Britain’s ways of running the radio was very different from the United States.  The American radio was a form of entertainment.  In 1927, the Federal Radio Commission was set up in the United States which would deal with broadcasting issues.  Briggs and Burke state the main difference in international approaches to radio in this article as well.  They said it was their ways of advertising.  Britain financed their radio from license fees, not from general taxation unlike America who financed it from advertising.  Britain and the United States of America systems were the only two broadcasting systems that evolved in the 1920s.  Both served as models.  Many generalizations are possible to be made about radio broadcasting compared to before the television became the dominant form of relaying entertainment, education and information to a vast number of people at once.  Briggs and Burke state in this article that radio broadcasting is a medium that is frequently studied and had an influence on other inventions and creations in our culture and society.

         This article, Information, Education, and Entertainment by Briggs and Burke was very interesting.  It can relate to everyone as well as theories and discussions talked about in class.  The creation of the radio broadcast was a convenient and faster way of sharing various types of information to a wide range of people in a more efficient and quicker way.  This is exactly what new media does.  New media defined the early stages of the development of the radio which was a form of relaying information, education, and entertainment.  Now in today’s society various updated and recreations of radio broadcasting have been formed.  I find this article interesting because it deals with my major and choice of occupation after I graduate.  Learning the history of the age of broadcasting is important to know because it allows me to appreciate all the new forms of the radio and television which exist today.  

Faeben Fulford

This week’s reading is an article entitled Technology and Ideology: The case of the Telegraph. James Carey wrote this article which discusses the invention of the telegraph as a form of communication. Throughout this article, the reader is informed of the many effects and changes the telegraph presented to society. Carey begins Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph, by discussing the opening of the Boston and Albany Railroad in May 1844. This railroad was responsible for the first telegraphic messages that were sent from Baltimore to Washington and relayed the news of Clay and Polk’s nomination for presidency. Carey states that the telegraph is one of the least studied communication technologies despite its significance. Each of the telegraph’s effects on modern life and for future developments have hardly ever been explored and studied in depth. Next Carey goes into various reasons he feels the abandonment of the telegraph is unfortunate. The first reason he mentions is that the telegraph was dominated by the first great industrial monopoly which was the Western Union. The second reason Carey gives is that the telegraph was the first product and foundation of the electrical goods industry and the first of the science-and engineering-based industries. To understand the different forms of engineering, Carey informs his reader of David Noble’s American Design: Science, Technology and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. The third reason mentioned deals with the changes in the nature of language of ordinary knowledge and structures of awareness that the telegraph brought about. Some people saw the telegraph as an agency of spiritual, moral, economic and political improvement. The fourth and final reason Carey thought the abandonment of the telegraph was unfortunate, was that the telegraph was a “watershed” in communication.  The telegraph altered, not shifted, patterns of connection formed by natural geography.

             Carey continues his discussion of the telegraph by listing its importance and impacts on modern life. The article said the most obvious, important, and innocent fact about the telegraph is that it permitted for the first time the effective separation of communication from transportation. Before the telegraph, communication and transportation was synonymous, but the telegraph ended that identity and allowed them to move independently of geography.  The telegraph allowed messages to be separated from the physical movement of objects as well as allowed communication to control physical processes actively.  For example, the early use of the telegraph in railroad signaling where telegraph messages could control the physical switching of rolling stock which multiplied the purposes and effectiveness of communication.  Carey also said that the discovery of the telegraph freed communication from the constraints of geography.  The telegraph broadened people’s abilities to think.  It opened up new ways of thinking about communication dealing with the formal practice of theory and the practical consciousness of everyday life.  New conceptual systems, new forms of language and new structures of social relations were brought into existence through the telegraph.  Carey also defines and explains the relationship between telegraph and ideology throughout this article.  He gives three relationships between the telegraph and monopoly capitalism.  The second relationship between ideology and the telegraph deals with the popular imagery, largely religious, that accompanied the latter’s introduction.  This relationship has been studied and investigated more thoroughly within the “myth and symbol” school.  The final relationship was electricity.  This was something unfamiliar and new to society and its people.  Carey informed his readers on a piece of doggerel typical of the era, entitled “To Professor Morse, in Pleasant Memory of Oct 9, 1856, at the Albion,” that expressed the mixture of science, commerce, politics, and pious religious unity that surfaced with the telegraph. 

              In this article, Carey also talks about how the telegraph altered literary style.  For example, in the well-known story “cablese” influenced Hemingway’s style, by helping him pare his prose to the bone.  This also led to the telegraph creating a journalism without detail and analysis which eventually brought an overwhelming crush of such prose to the newsroom.  Carey continues his discussion of the telegraph by also revealing its outcomes.  The telegraph evens out markets in space and puts everyone in the same place for trading purposes.  Carey states, “The telegraph brings the conditions of supply and demand in all markets to bear on the determination of a prince” (Carey, p. 217).

           Technology and ideology: The Case of the Telegraph by James Carey basically informs and discusses the effects, impacts, and importance of the telegraph.  The telegraph brought a vast separation between communication and transportation.  This article can relate to everyone in several ways.  The telegraph whether we know it or not, changed our perception on things and our thinking ability.  If we think about the various forms of technology we currently have, it is constantly increasing.  These inventions and pieces of technologies were derived from the telegraph.  Without the telegraph, we would not have the various communication technologies we have today which do not require or are attached to transportation.  The telegraph is a form of a database and old media in a way because it stores, processes, and communicates information and messages and because it is a form of technology that existed in the past and currently has updated versions and recreations.

Faeben Fulford

            Printing and the Rupture of Classification is the next article I read written by Hobart and Schiffman.  The article starts off by introducing a thirty-eight year old guy named Michel de Montaigne.  Montaigne was a very unique man who retired from the parlement of Bordeaux, viewed the world as a glass half empty, and considered death as the test of his life because it surrounded him.  When Montaigne retired he decided to move to a place that would provide him with wisdom, a tranquility and constancy of spirit.  He amassed a collection of books which spoke of his thoughts and concerns and created a library which included used books from his deceased friend.  Montaigne’s library totaled to a thousand volumes and if created a hundred years earlier, before the spread of printing, it would have been worth a “king’s ransom,” in Hobart and Schiffman’s words.  Printing in the 16^th century allowed a nobleman to collect and save his thoughts, opinions, and stories.

            Throughout this article, Hobart and Schiffman discuss and explain the importance of the printing invention.  They describe it as an epoch-making invention because it changed the intellectual landscape.  For example, printing resulted in the advancement of a wide range of fields, including anatomy and zoology.  It also transformed modern science and medicine.  Hobart and Schiffman inform their readers of the advantages printing gave individuals.  People had access to many books which presented them with loads of new and diverse information.  Not only do Hobart and Schiffman recognize the importance of printing, but they also discuss its evolution over time.  Because new books were being formed, there was a need for the construction of books.  This need sparked during the medieval advances, with the creation of the “codex.”  The codex was a book format for manuscripts.  The codex slowly replaced the papyrus roll which was the traditional form of ancient manuscript.  This article noted that the papyrus volumes were difficult to consult.  They each consisted of a roll of about nine or ten inches wide and thirty feet long.  Overall, Hobart and Schiffman said the codex made it possible to control manuscripts more easily because you could simply flip to the desired page.  As the demand for books increased, cursive scripts and smaller book formats were created.  Cursive scripts were much quicker and easier to write in a short period of time than the formal, monastic book hands.  More and more applications and means of organizing and managing information were created as the printing invention grew.  Two examples are the gloss manuscript and the summa (summary).  The gloss manuscripts reflect the medieval practice of dictating text and commentary during university lectures.  The summa or summary aimed at establishing more truth by cutting through the diversity of interpretations.  In other words, the books began with stating the topic then the topic was broken down into rational series of articles and eventually reveals the authors point of view on the topic.

            This article, “Printing and the Rupture of Classification,” taught me a lot of information I never knew about the printing invention.  This invention, when created, could have been considered new media, in the sense it provided a new form of communication and accessing information in a quick and easy manner.  Now over time the invention has revolutionized.  It has been updated and recreated to fit today’s technical society.  If this invention were to never have been created, life would not be the same.  Life would probably include much more personal labor.  We are able to read books, pamphlets, documents, speeches and more because of printing which was originally (a long time ago) the printing press.  Knowledge of all sorts of new and diverse information is constantly accepted and learned as a result of this invention.  Everyone’s now easy accessing life would be negatively affected by the disappearance of the printing invention.    

Faeben Fulford

          Katherine Hayles, author of the article “The Condition of Virtuality” discusses, explores, and explains virtuality in a way never done.  A device developed at Xerox Parc and exhibited at a Siggraph show, demonstrated what it means to be in a condition of virtuality.  This device consisted of thin red cords that hung from the ceiling of the Art Show exhibit. Hayles eventually offers her readers a definition of virtuality.  “Virtuality is the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns” says Hayles (Hayles, 1999).  She also defines virtuality as a cultural perception and a mind-set that finds evidence of concepts in a pattern of powerful technologies.  According to Hayles, virtuality consists of two categories and concepts. These categories and concepts are information and materiality which are separable and discrete.  Throughout the beginning of the article, Hayles explains and gives examples of the two categories of virtuality.  World War II emerged the idea of virtuality.  Hayles discusses and explains the way information was translated, interpreted and communicated during World War II.  Information had no connection to meaning and it was simplified into codes and signals.  She also related molecular biology, in particular the human body, to virtuality.  The genes pass a series of information to one another which keep the body functioning instead of the body keeping the genes functioning.  Not only does Hayles discuss the human body, and World War II, but she also talks about the virtual and physical world through games.  The virtual world and physical world relate to information. The way Hayles connects this point to her reader is by familiarizing them to the computer game myst.  Myst involves players in a more reality setting and carries players into a 3-Dimensional environment.  In virtuality, for example virtual games, people are capable of viewing the world as if it were the physical world.

         This article “The Condition of Virtuality” by Katherine Hayles applies to discussions held in class and other articles recently read.  Virtual games are the continuous formation and update of older games created in the past.  This piece of new technology can be known as new media in the sense that it was constructed from old media (the past). Virtual computer games are also considered virtual mobility technologies because they allow the transfer of information through a still piece of technology, not transportation technologies.  Virtuality also relates to everyone through their personal bodies as the article reveals.  The way information is processed in our body and triggers genes to react and function a certain way is amazing.  If I were to touch a scorching hot stove, my brain would not identify it automatically, but instead the nerves in my fingers will trigger the rest of my genes and nerves which then will notify my brain.    

 Faeben Fulford

From the journal entitled, Personal Mobilities, Aharon Kellerman has written an article known as “Technologies.” Instead of focusing his attention mainly on people as individuals or as societies, Kellerman switches his focal point to media for personal mobilities referring to technologies. This article will discuss spatial and social perspectives and changing relationships among space-transcending technologies. Kellerman states for physical spatial mobility, the space-transcending technology has always been the automobile and for virtual spatial mobility the space-transcending technologies are telephones, internet and wireless communications technologies. We learn from reading “Technologies” that time is reorganized by space-transcending technologies in order to overcome space. So the reader can understand and obtain additional knowledge of this topic, Kellerman divides this article into sections explaining in depth each section topic. Personal mobility technology is the first section of this chapter. The development, structure and operation of physical and virtual mobilities as well as their similarities and differences are discussed throughout this section. Kellerman informs his readers that spatial mobility is achieved through transportation and communications technologies which each result in the speeding up of the world. The discussion of private vehicles, their environments and how they provide for spatial, physical and autonomous mobility of individuals will be taking place throughout this section and chapter. Throughout this section of personal mobility technologies, Kellerman states that the physical mobility of people has been improved through consecutive modernization of different types of modes of transportation technologies. On the other hand, the virtual mobility of humans has been upgraded through the use of telephones and interactive voice communications. Two major phases consist as a result of the appearance of virtual mobility. The first phase deals with information technologies developing and allowing all types of information in the forms of text, voice, still and streaming pictures that stored and moved electronically. The rising wireless transmissions such as mobile telephones and laptop computers are allowing the improvement of physical mobility and virtual mobility. The developments of automobiles and telecommunications have shaped their structures and thus, both developments and structures are reflected in their operations. The development of personal spatial mobility focuses on two dimensions which are standardization and adoption. The structures of these two dimensions have emerged and consist of physical infrastructure, logic and content. These structures which are visible in the infrastructures determine the operations of automobile and telecommunications. Three layers of operation are facilitated from these structures, networks, flows and use.

            The second section of this article by kellerman is about technologies, space and society. This section focuses its attention on the socio-spatial characters of transportation and telecommunications technologies through automobility, telephony, internetness and wirelessness. Kellerman begins by discussing the significance of walking which was the first and natural form of human personal mobility. Walking is a form of mobility that is constantly declining and now mostly only used for physical training and for physical training and exercise. Followed by walking, a more time saving invention was made which would result in less individuals walking. The automobile attracted people by its speed of movement resulting in flexibility in physical movements. An even speedier form to communicate than automobiles that was created next was the telephone. The telephone provided speedy and instant two-way communications and did not involve time and space resistance like the automobile. Next the internet was introduced, another speedy form of spatial mobility. The internetness, telephony, automobility and wirelessness each refer to values, practices, norms and patterns within the three spheres of individuals, society and space. In the third section of kellerman’s article, “Technologies,” the use relationships among mobility technologies are explored. The question of whether physical and virtual mobilities through various media complement each other and if they are interchangeable, is answered in this section. These mobile technologies form a relationship by their choice for adoption by households. This section compares the relationship between automobiles verses telephones, internet verses automobiles and wireless communications verses mobility media.

            Kellerman’s article entitled, “Technologies” relates to various topics and readings we discussed in class as well as everyone’s everyday lives. Virtual mobility and physical mobility technologies each have the ability to act as an interface. An interface is anything that mediates communication between two things. In the case of virtual mobility, the telephone, internet and wireless connections allows individuals to access and understand information by mediating communication between people or data. In the case of a cell phone, the cell phone operates as an interface between the two individuals talking. Automobiles are examples of physical mobilities which can also act as an interface between two people and their access and understanding of communication. I personally prefer virtual mobility technologies. These technologies result in fast and efficient forms of communication. The internet and telephone are necessary to have in today’s society.    

By Faeben Fulford  

            The next article we read written by Manovich entitled “The Form: The database” informs its readers, explores the importance, and presents the history of the database. This chapter in the book, The Language of New Media, consists of and intertwines past information we previously read with the new facts and details given to us concerning database. Manovich begins his discussion of the database with “The Forms.” He shares his knowledge of Razorfish Studios that was named by Adweek between ten top interactive agencies in the world for 1998. The Razorfish Company’s projects vary in designs, with screen savors and online trading websites consequently because it’s the design leader in the virtual world of computer screens and networks. This relates to database because Razorfish’s intentions were to eventually provide total user experience through designing real buttons on the screen, so the user would not have to travel to another store to find them. The database’s purpose is similar to this but instead collects data and organizes it onto one computer where one can access it simultaneously. The definition Manovich gives us for database is a structured collection of data which is organized for fast search and retrieval by a computer. There are various types of databases that use different models to organize data. Manovich gave an example of this using the records in hierarchical databases and how they are organized in a treelike structure. Manovich has many questions concerning the relationship between databases and other forms of media which he answers throughout this chapter by dividing the chapter into different sections discussing different aspects and their relation to databases. Some of these questions are: why does new media favor database form over others; can we explain its popularity by analyzing the specificity of the digital medium and of computer programming; and what is the relationship between database and another form which has dominated human culture. In this chapter, Manovich informs his readers that the most popular forms of multimedia (encyclopedias and commercial CD-ROM titles which are collections of recipes, quotations, photographs, etc) all favor the database form. The divided sections in this chapter are Data and Algorithm, database and narrative, paradigm and syntagm, a database complex, and a database cinema. The data and algorithm section discusses how not all new media objects are databases. For example, computer games are ruled by another logic known as the algorithm which is a final sequence of simple operations that a computer can execute to accomplish a given task. The database and narrative are natural enemies competing for the human culture and making meaning out of the world. They do not have the same status in computer culture. Another section in this chapter is Paradigm and Syntagm, which states the database of choices that narratives are constructed (the paradigm), is implicit, and the actual narrative (the syntagm) is virtual. The next section entitled, a database complex explains how the connection between storage media and database forms are not universal.

            After reading the forms and the database from the book, The Language of New Media, I realized it related to other readings we previously read and discussions we have had in class. It also can relate to our everyday life. In Manovich’s article entitled, “What is New Media,” he discussed the principles of new media. One principle was modularity. Modularity is the notion that each media element is a separate entity and can be changed independently without affecting the other elements. In class, we discussed some examples of modularity could be photoshop and text edit. This principle of new media relates to a computer database because it allows its users to quickly access, sort, and re-organize millions of records that contain different media types without affecting other elements. In today’s society many people use databases to organize their work, school and leisure activities. This form is popular especially in the business realm because it is quick, easy, and changeable. Anyone has the ability to access and create their own database. It has become a form of organization that some people are dependent upon.      

Faeben Fulford

Manovich continues his discussion of new media and introduces, explains, and explores interfaces in the second chapter of The Language of New Media entitled “The Interface.” Manovich begins this chapter by informing the readers of the history of the Blade Runner and Macintosh computer and how they each defined two aesthetics, the first being the futuristic dystopia which combined futurism and decay, computer technology and fetishism, and retro-styling and urbanism, and the second being the Graphical User Interface which was a screen ruled by strait lines and rectangular windows that communicated with the user. As the use of the internet advanced, the digital computer became a necessity to all cultures. Cinemas and television screens, walls in art galleries, libraries and books were all substituted by the windows of web browsers. Manovich stated that the past and present cultures are all revealed through a computer, with the human-computer interface (HCI). The way users interact with computers describes the human-computer interface. Examples of HCI include a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse Manovich notifies his readers that computer interface acts as a code and displays various forms of messages in different forms of media. For example whenever you use the internet, maybe to chat with a friend, listen to music or watch movies, everything you accessed is passed through the interface of the browser. The interface is important and plays a vital role in determining a computer’s popularity because it shapes how the computer user conceives the computer itself and how the users judge any media objects retrieved using a computer. Manovich clarifies interfaces in depth by dividing the chapter in two sections, each explaining different issues of the subject interface. The first section is entitled, “The Language of Cultural Interface” in which Manovich defines “cultural interfaces” and reveals the expectations of a computer and the transformation from just being a tool to developing into a universal media machine through the use of hypermedia, web sites, computer games, etc. Cultural interface can be defined as the various ways the computers present and allow people to interact with cultural data. Manovich believes that the language of cultural interfaces is composed from essentials of other familiar cultural forms. Three forms in particular that influenced this language to Manovich are “cinema”, “printed word”, and human-computer interface. These forms organize information and present them as cultural interfaces. The second section of this chapter is entitled, “The Screen and the User.” In this section Manovich discusses the importance of the screen to a user and the various aspects of a screen. The actual definition of a screen Manovich gives in the second chapter on page 99 is, “the existence of another virtual space, another three-dimensional world enclosed by a frame and situated inside our normal space.”

            “The Interface” by Manovich has discussed many points in which can relate to everyone’s life and topics and readings we have discussed in class. In particular, I found myself intrigued by the way I could relate to the second section in chapter two, “The Screen and the User.” Manovich’s discussion of the importance of the screen is true from my experiences. I use screens multiple times a day, whether it is the screens of a computer which I use the most, an ATM machine, a GPS system, a phone screen, a T.V. screen and many more. Screens have advanced society today and allowed people to have easy access to obtain information, chat with friends, view television and movies, etc. I can’t imagine life without the invention of screens because we have become awfully dependent upon them. I use a screen in order to complete my homework, perform leisure activities, and to communicate with people. As we discussed in class (COM 257) and read in another one of Manovich’s articles entitled, “What is New Media,” new media is created everyday, usually derived from old media and is too broad to be placed in a category. Screens have been around for an immense amount of time and have quite a lot of history. So would screens be considered old or new media? Most likely we would say old because of their amount of history, when in fact it could be considered new as well. Each time screens are updated or a feature is added to its structure, it has amazingly become new. For example the “dynamic screen” which was named by Manovich, was a new type of screen a hundred years ago. Obviously it has been altered, updated, and reformed continuously which makes it new each time.   

By Faeben Fulford

          It is natural for individuals to relate the internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMs, DVDs and other forms of newly invented subjects to examples of new media. But are these the only examples that define new media? According to the article, “What is New Media,” by Manovich, new media can be described using various examples and can be discussed on a wide spectrum with no limits. This article defines new media as the results of computers and other forms of media and their creation of existing media into numerical data. Examples of this include: graphics, moving images, sounds, shapes and spaces. In the article, Manovich also discusses the differences between old and new media by listing, explaining and providing examples of the five principles of new media in a logical order. These five principles are: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability and transcoding. Numerical representation states that all new media objects are composed of digital code, and modularity states that media elements, which are independent, can be customized at any time without affecting the original and director elements. Automation allows its users to be involved in media creation and access, while variability explains that new media is constantly existing but in different editions, never permanent. The last principle, transcoding, seeks to explain how the computer converts media to actual computer data.  Manovich emphasizes that the last three principles: automation, variability and transcoding, each are dependent on the first two principles. Another important topic listed in this article Manovich provided to his readers was what new media is not. He did this by going in depth to present differences between new and old media that are incorrect.  For example, cinema is an example of an old media that is occasionally mistaken for new media.

            This article, “What is New Media,” by Manovich, relates to everyone’s life as well as the course entitled media history and theory. Manovich stated that the results of anything available through computers and media were considered new media. As of today’s society, America is comprised of computers and various forms of new media. Hardly one day passes where we don’t use some form of technology, media and computers. For example, we are capable of watching motion films, digital cable TV and 3-D graphics, all forms of new media. Before new media objects receive all the credit, it is imperative you understand that many new media objects were created from various forms of old media. Manovich states in the article that old media is continuous. For example, motion picture films would not exist and we would not be able to watch them if it wasn’t for still photographs, which are forms of old media. This article gives us insight and the history on old and new media which is great for the course I am currently enrolled in, communication 257 media history and theory. Because this course will eventually inform us on the historical development of telecommunications, print, photography, film, broadcasting, and computer mediated communication, it is helpful that we are now aware and understand what new media is because it will give us a strong base and some knowledge of the history before learning more important information.  

by Faeben Fulford