COM257: Media History and Theory

Tom Farley begins his article on
“Mobile Telephone History” by dating when mobile telephones were first
introduced which was in the 1940s after World War II. At this time, these
mobility technologies were only 2 way radios used generally for government or military
purposes. However, he explains that this article will be focusing on the
service and carriers of mobile telephones and the wireless system it is
correlated to. Because of the mass destruction after World War II, many cities
were in need for merely landline telephones although mobile research continued
while cities began to be rebuilt. On July 28, 1945 a cellular radio was first
published in print. The United State’s Federal Communications Commission, the
FCC, discussed the 460MHz to the Saturday Evening Post. However, the FCC did
not actually accept this proposal and a year after that on June 17, 1946 in
Saint Louis, Missouri, AT&T and south-western Bell began operating Mobile
Telephone Service, MTS. Motorola built the radios as the Bell System was installing
them. The mobiles attached to the devices were car based radio—telephones which
transmitted to several receivers around the specified area. MTS started with
six channels and resulted with three because of interference between the
signals. In December, 1947, Bell Laboratories’ D.H. Ring, and W.R. Young spoke
of an actual mobile telephone that could have universal characteristics. “Young
said later that all the cellular radio elements were known: a network of small
geographical areas called cells, a base station transmitter in each, cell
traffic controlled by a central switched, frequencies reused by different cells
and so on” (Farley, pp. 23). In 1949 the FCC also gave the Bell System a few
more channels, but they also gave half of the frequency allocations to other
companies called Radio Common Carriers (RCC). The RCCs serviced over 80,000
mobile units by 1978 which was twice as many as AT&T.

            In
January of 1969 the Bell System offered commercial cellular radio for the first
time by monitoring it in a small zone area, also known as public payphones.
Passengers used these on the Metroliner train service which ran from New York
City to Washington DC. “Six channels in the 450MHz hand were used again and
again in nine zones along the 225 mile route” (Farley, pp. 25). The system was
managed by a main control center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, therefore the
first mobile telephones were pay-phones. Over the next couple years, many
manufacturers started releasing big bulky portable radiotelephones in the
United States. In 1973 Motorola filed for it’s own cellular radio system. Since
Motorola had previously been doing business with AT&T, their separation
with the goal to produce their own cell phones created a major rivalry between
AT&T and Motorola.

            This
article made me remember when I was about 3 or 4 years old and riding in the
car with my mom. This was around 1993, although cell phones were still being
produced big and bulky and most were only available in cars. Hers was connected
to the console of her car and could not be disconnected. This article also
makes me appreciate the communication accessibility we have today. Not only do
we have portable, detachable, sleek and small cellular telephones, but most now
offer the same capabilities that computers have. We are very fortunate in the
technology that is available to us. Seeing as how my mom’s large bulky
car-cellular phone was produced less than two decades ago, its amazing to
imagine the technological advances in cell phones in the next two decades. 

Tim O’Reilly begins his article, “What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software,” by recalling that the concept of “Web 2.0” was derived from a brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International in 2001. They believed that the web was at a center point in it’s need and new applications were constantly being introduced. They agreed that a collapse of dot-com had occurred and a new action was to be taken place, such as Web 2.0. They then tried to compare the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 to decide on a final definition of Web 2.0. One concept is that one can think of Web 2.0 as “principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core” (O’Reilly, pp. 19).  O’Reilly then discusses three cases of Web 2.0 elements of difference. The first he describes is Netscape vs. Google. Netscape was the standard for Web 1.0 with their main product as the browser, a desktop application, and their strategy was to dominate in the browser market. Netscape then promoted a “webtop” which replaced the desktop which was constantly updated with information by providers who purchased Netscape servers. In contrast, Google was first a web application, with customers either paying directly or indirectly for using the service. There was only continuous improvement with Google. There was no licensing or sale, there were no transporting platforms so customers could use the software on their own computers, but just a wide variety of information from a web browser. However, Google is a specialized database, and one must manage and control the constant uploading of information that crosses through Google. Google actually is in between the browser and the search engine classification, “as an enabler or middleman between the user and his or her online experience” (O’Reilly, pp. 20). The next issue is “DoubleClick vs. Overture and AdSense.” DoubleClick believed that the web was mostly about publishing, advertisers making decisions, and size mattered vs. consumer’s opinions, and participation. Overture and Google make up “the long tail” which is a majority of the small sites that make up the web’s content. They also figured out how to place ad’s on any web page, and introduced publisher friendly advertising formats that were consumer-friendly text advertising. The summarize each of these company contrasts with the Web 2.0 lesson: “leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head” (O’Reilly, pp. 21) He then discusses Akamai vs. BitTorrent. Akamai deals with the head and center of business by serving individuals from central sites where popularity is large. BitTorrent is in the business of P2P movement, and the more popular a file, the faster it can be downloaded and served to the user. This demonstrates a main principle of Web 2.0: as the popularity grows, the service gets better.

Each of these companies who have survived from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 all have harnessed the collective intelligence of: hyperlinking, linking text that is in different positions or spaces on the web. Examples of these companies are Yahoo!, Google, eBay, Amazon, Wikipedia, Flickr, Cloudmark, and many others. Some of these companies have other principles of Web 2.0 that have furthered the existence of their web page such as tagging, customer reviews, customer participation, interactivity, and so forth. Blogging is also a key characteristic of Web 2.0. It is a “personal home page in a diary format” (O’Reilly, pp. 24). RSS is also one of the most significant advancements because not only can one click on a link to be transferred to another page, but they are offered the choice of subscribing to this new page, which in turn informs them of any current news or updates via email. O’Reilly states that as Web 2.0 is mainly about “harnessing collective intelligence and turning the web into a kind of global train, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads…which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought” (O’Reilly, pp. 26).

Without a doubt, this article has been the most interesting and informing to me because as most people do in our society today, I use Web 2.0 continuously daily. It has put a new perspective into the hyperlink and blogging actions and the affects they have on our daily needs. Of course, based on the characteristics of New Media, Web 1.0 would also be considered new media, but due to O’Reilly’s extensive information on all of the advancements from the 1.0 era to the 2.0 era of today, I personally find 1.0 to be old media. It’s hard to imagine how quickly the world of technology advances to where one would not go 5 years back with those resources. I really enjoyed the text and information that O’Reilly presented in this article.

Jane Abbate begins her section, “Popularizing the Internet,” by recounting the days when the Internet was first introduced. She says that to the new users, the Internet was a sensation, and computing was now a world function. Through about 20 years of packet switching, by the 1990s, the Internet was a popular form of communication. Through the 1980s and 1990s the Internet grew tremendously into many different networks, types of computers, and the amount of users controlling it. This is when people began to realize the immense need for a better accessibility to information, social networking, entertainment, and self-expression which was offered by the Internet. The application that could coincide all of these aspects into one network was the World wide Web. ARPA was the original creator of the internet technology, however the National Science Foundation, Bush and Clinton administrations, and public and private organizations took responsibility for various parts of the system. Because of a loss of central guidance of ARPA the Internet was at times only a competition between investors, while technology, economics, and politics of commuting and communications advanced resulting in the Internet changing interfaces frequently. The Internet was so adaptable to constant changes due to the TCP/IP protocols being adopted by network builders all across the world who hoped to offer information on the web as well. The internet’s social side was monitored by ARPA who worked hard to send a widespread appeal to many users.

    In 1983, the military wanted their information separate from the public so that only authorized personnel had access to private military data. To do this, ARPANET was split into a second network, MILNET. As packet switching progressed, administrators of the Internet focused on providing easier accessibility and a wide variety of sites for information to be derived from. Through this time, many people became Internet users  and the popularity grew dramatically. According to Abbate, in 1985, about 2000 computers had internet access compared to in 1987, with 30,000 computers and in 1989 with 159,000 computers accessing the Internet. Personal computer popularity grew in result, which demanded a way to access the Internet through homes. Robert Metcalf created Ethernet. By 1986 there were over four hundred networks, and each had a host name, and address with a code specifically made for attaining the site. The Network Information Center could not keep up with constant new networks and addresses so ARPA created six domains that can reach all networks, which are still relevant today. These domains consist of: edu, gov, mil, com, org, and net. Email was also introduced through these community names and the “individual users would be identified as user@host.domain” (Abbate, pp. 189).  Regional networks were then created from earlier NSF activities. This would allow educational systems to have access to information for schooling, and to make sure elite schools were not the only ones with the Internet. After several regional networks were made, NSF sponsored a University Satellite Network (USAN) which linked many universities together by satellite. By 1988 the existing MERIT network was connected to NSFNET, which became the network backbone.

    By 1990 the NSF was searching for private sectors of the Internet, and corporations who could separate ownership of various networks. Commercial networks were thriving and the numbers were increasing at a high rate at this time. This intrigued the idea to create a commercial version of the internet, and thus CIX was made. The CIX arrangement allowed customers “of any member network to reach users on all the other networks, (which) greatly increased the value of the service each network provided” (Abbate, pp. 1999).  Then a set of “gateways” was created which were called “exchanges” at which two or more ISPs would connect their systems, and traffic could be sent from one network to another. The government then made a backbone for this gateway service called the “very-high-speed Backbone Network Service” (vBNS). The NSF gave contracts for four Internet Service Providers and in 1995 MERIT terminated the old NSFNET backbone.

    With the Internet being widely known by this point, self entertainment, social interaction, and self expression became focuses of this interconnected internet service. “As a flood of new users joined the network, the Internet suddenly became a focus of new social issues involving personal privacy, intellectual property, censorship, and indecency” (Abbate, pp. 200).  Abbate later states that the Web did not come from the ARPA research community, but that the first copy of the Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and others at CERN. Tim Berners-Lee wanted to create a hypertext system that would make it possible to link sites and information together with the use of multimedia: text and images, and later audio and video were created.

    This article helped me understand my topic that I will be presenting on Thursday, which is Bulletin Board Systems. BBSes were one of the first social networking systems that allowed people to chat in discussion forums, send private messages, upload and download files, and play video games. As Jane Abbate discusses in “Popularizing the Internet” as these functions became readily available to the public in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the popularity of Internet users skyrocketed. The Internet had many different networks, hence many different interfaces that all provided information, connections to other sites, commercials, and social entertainment. I am very thankful to Tim Berners-Lee for introducing the Web to us and for also creating the hyperlink, which now makes accessing information so much easier. Without the hyperlink, even Google would not be available on the Internet, and to our society, Google does not even seem like “new media.”
    
 By: Lauren Leslie

Aarseth begins the section of "A topology of Nonlinear Textuality"
correctly defining his term on nonlinearity in this essay from the
mathematical branch of topology. From Webster's New Twentieth-Century Dictionary,
he gives the definition, "those properties of geometric figures that
remain unchanged even when under distortion, so long as no surfaces are
torn." He also states that it is the way various sections of text are
connected, not including the physical mediums, but by also how the text
is transmitted. Aarseth states that Textual topology describes the
structures that govern the sequencing and how accessibile a script is,
whether it is conducted manually or mechanically. He states that it is
not difficult to disect graphemes (letters), lexemes (words), or
syntagms (phrases or sentences), from a text, hence these do not
exemplify elements of a nonlinear text. A unit which is conceived of
"an arbitrarily long string of graphemes, is identified by its relation
to the other units as constrained and separated by the conventions or
mechanisms of their mother text" (Aarseth, pp. 167). He states that
textons and scriptons are words of text that denote a unit belonging to
the reading process, rather than that aids in the structure of
strategic potential. A scripton is an unbroken sequence of textons
which are projected by another text. A text also contains transversal
functions, which are mechanisms that combine and poject textons as
scriptons for the user to access in the text. 

Aarseth then offers a list of set functions in which a nonlinear text must exemplify. First of all, a topology
is the fundamental difference between the linear and nonlinear texts. A
nonlinear is a work that doesnt reveal it's scriptons in one exact
sentence, but instead through the user and/or the text. Dynamics
is the next term that Aarseth defines, stating that there is a
difference between the a static text (the scriptons are constant), and
a dynamic text (the scriptons are variable, while the textons may stay
fixed or vary as well). Aarseth then states that the stability of the
traversal function is described as determinability. If the adjacent scriptons of every text are the same, a text is determinate, and if they vary, it is indeterminate. Transiency
is the next word on the list, in which a text is transient if the
passing of the user's time creates scriptons to appear, and intransient
if not. The accessability of the scriptons in a text is described as maneuverability.
The most open/accessible a text is, is called random access to all
scriptons, the hypertext traversal function, which is the link and
explicit access to all scriptons, the hidden link is complex and the
arbitrary is a completely controlled access. The last word that Aarseth
presents is User-Functionality which can be described in four active
feedback functions: the explorative function, user chooses what path to
take, the role playing function, in which the user takes responsibility
for being a character in the text, the configurative function, where
textons or traversal functions are chosen and/or designed by the user,
and poetic function, in which the user's actions, speech, and design
are motivated by the text.

Aarseth then offers categories of
noninearity. The first, simple nonlinear text, is where textons are
completely static and accessible to the user. The second, the
discontinuous nonlinear text which has the possibility of being
traversed by links between textons. Third, the cybertext, is where the
behavior of textons can be predicted but is connected with the element
of role-playing. Lastly, the indeterminate cybertext is where textons
are unpredictable.

Aarseth states that the most famous and prominent nonlinear text, I Ching or Book of Changes,
was used for thousands of years for meditation. It is over three
thousand years old and originally comes from the symbol system which
was created over five thousand years ago. It is made up of 64 symbols
or hexagrams, which are combinations of six whole or broken lines. 
Each hexagram contains a major texton and six smaller ones. By
combining two hexagrams, textons come together which results in 4096
possible scriptons, which is the answer to a question that the user
previously created. Hence, This is communication between the user and
the book. Aarseth says that if one must understand the correlation
between nonlinear texts and their users, a concept that implies more
and offers less reading while redefining literacy satisfaction must be
given. Aarseth then reveals the term, hypertext, "a direct connection from one position in text to another" (Aarseth, pp. 170). Hypertext
can signify three things: the general concept, an implemation of the
concept (usually a computer application), and a text embedded in such
system.

This article reminds me of much we have previously talked about in class about new media and old media. The terms described in this article such as maneuverability, the accessibility of the text, is similar to new media in that it's distribution is carefully created so that one is able to access such text quicker and easier. The example of I Ching would most definitely be considered old media because of the language and printed copies, but it has helped us develop literature today and the ways to reach a reader so that they are able to receive the overall meaning of the creator. 

"The age of Television" begins with Briggs and Burke discusing how sound broadcasting was well established by the 1930s, and managers,
proprietors, presenters and performers could not see how television
could fit in to the media market. In 1939, when the war was almost
over, television was displayed at the New York world Fair at which
Roosevelt spoke. It wasnt until 1941 however, that NBC and CBS began
scheduled television broadcasting times due to the United States
engagement with the war. When WWII ended, television was still not a
major interest in society and the FCC did not help when they froze the
setting up of all new stations between 1945 and 1949, which mainly
harmed Dumont studios. Soon before the freeze ended, and only a few
programs being offered on television, the sales of TV sets rocketed
from 178,000 to 15 million between 1947 and 1952. This resulted in
one/third of the population owning a television set. Cinema attendances
decreased, and President Eisenhower wrote in his diary: "If a citizen
has to be bored to death, it is cheaper and more comfortable to sit at
home and look at television than it is to go outside and pay a dollar
for a ticket." In 1948 film companies began trying to secure television
licences, including Twentieth Century Fox who tried buying out ABC. 

Television's
scanning line systems were different throughout the country. The United
States and Japan employed 525 lines, while amny European countries
employed 625 lines. Many programs began to be created, not near as many
as on telelvision, although drama was the first popular genre.
Broadways were becoming popular, and with broadcast television, such
performances could be viewed through the "tube." Other American progams
consisted of game shows such as  Beat the Clock, and soap operas. The one soap opera most well known was I Love Lucy (1957). The editor of the Lousiville Courier-Journal
said that "Television is going the same way as radio as fast as it can:
that is towards entertainment" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 190). Other
countries were not moving quite as fast as the United States in the
field of television, especially Britain. After a seven-year, war time
break, a 405 line televsion was restored in June of 1946. A Disney
cartoon of 1936 was the first item shown. Between 1947 and 1951
Britain's number of television licenses grew from only 14,560 to a
million. The mass media audience was now arriving.  Another turning
point in the mass viewing of television was Queen Elizabeth's
Coronation in 1953, in which close to 20 million people watched. After
a Coservative White Paper of 1952, Parliament took away the BBC's
monopoly and the 1955 monopoly resulted in: "the expanding field of
television, provision should be made to permit some element of
competition when the calls on capital resources at present needed for
purposes of greater national importance make this possible."

America
acted as a warning to other countries in the advertising industry, and
when regionally based commercial companies, which were "independent"
companies, were enfranchised they were said placed within the viewing
of an "Independent Television Authority", which was set up by
Parliament in 1954. Commercial breaks were used as a form of
advertising and became big features of the British television
experience. British television competition worked to the advantage in
financial aspects for producers and performers while sharpening the
competition inside the BBC itself between different individuals who
were employed in television.

By the early 1960s, the BBC had
not yet accepted the verdict of the Parliament in 1954, and in its
evidence to the Pilkington Committee, seven times the length of
Tolstoy's War and Peace. The BBC knew that they would have to
create an adaptable strategy to defend public broadcasting and the
licence system, whoever was in power. Tony Benn, an ITV enthusiast did
not believe that "broadcasting could be left to the broadcasters"
(Briggs and Burke, pp. 193).  In the early 70s, local BBC radio was
opened up to competition and there began a unified broadcasting system
between radio and television and no longer significant differences
between the BBC and ITA(now renamed due to commercial radio=IBA).
Professionals began to be switched from one institution to another. The
only major difference was concerning finance because the BBC did not
take advertising like the companies did. The BBC remained dependent on
licence fees and the companies used advertising to achieve a necessary
profit. By this time, the global audience introduced to television
media now reached over 750 million and there were television stations
in more than ninety countries. The United States led in exporting their
own programs, while others just produced cheap, fast, domestic programs
that they could create the day before the viewing.  Countries continued
furthering their advancements with different line scanning in each
country to get where we are today.

Briggs and Burke finish off
this section of the article stating that no medium eliminated one
another. "Old and new coexisted" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 215). The press
remained powerful through the 1960s even with the introduction of radio
and television. It may have increased it's sales even after this point.
Television did not make radio extinct, and especially during the first
years of television, radio's sales sky-rocketed due to the simpleness
and familiarity of the technology. Even the railway was not diminished
once automobiles began to be sold to a mass audience because people in
"First World" countries depended on this physical mobility as a means
of transportation.

Overall, I found this article very
interesting because I hope to land a career in the television/media
field as a broadcaster. I am currently taking COM317 which is
Television Studio Production, and we began the semester learning about
the different countries and the "line scanning systems" they use. It is
humorous that even today we are still in the same situation as we were
when televisions first came out when thinking about how we just moved
from an Analog Television System to a Digital Television System. The
main cause for this switch is competition and simplicity, which is a
recurrent cause in history, as discussed in this article. It is
important to realize how much television has impacted our society
today, and even the smallest little videos that are shown for education
purposes in classrooms would not be available if the technological
advancements of television had not occurred. As far as communication is
concerned, television was then, and definitely is now one of the main
ways news is dispersed over a large area, making geographical position
not an issue. I am glad we were assigned this reading so that we can
now appreciate the hard work, dedication, and struggle between
countries to provide a medium for communication that we so often
overlook today.

In the first section of the assigned reading, Briggs and Burke begin by discussing how "sound broadcasting" has intrinsic interest and the same institutions that started the age of broadcasting, also started the age of television. These were such institutions as NBC and CBC in the United States, and the BBC in Britain. R.S. Lambert, a former editor for a BBC journal, Ariel and All His Quality, stated that "in the field of art, intellect and politics' the BBC exercised through patronage all the power once exercised by the court" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 173). A reporter of the war, Ed Murrow, was recognized as almost an institution himself because of his broadcasts from London during the Battle of Britain. MacLeish, at that time Librarian of Congress started a new beginning in American radio with the 1937 play The Fall of the City, broadcasting with Orson Welles as a radio announcer. In 1938, CBC broadcasted of the supposed Martian landings, with Welles as an announcer. This broadcast as described by Dorothy Thompson was the "news story of the century," offering further understanding to Hitlerism, Mussolinism, Stanlism (Briggs and Burke, pp. 174). Two years later, the Nazis ran most European broadcast stations and radio had an advantage over newspapers for the need of "real news." Many Europeans volunteered to broadcast to voice their opinion of the war, resulting in many Americans to turn to their radio stations and an act of democracy was spread throughout. Between 1939 and 1945 the microphone became a "potent weapon" and Josef Goebbels (who wanted to destroy the independence of the press) stated that "the radio would be to the twentieth century what the press had been to the nineteenth" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 174).  The press became very controlled, and most Soviet programmes only appeal to party activists who understood the terminology. Franklin D. Roosevelt, president the same time as Hitler's reign, used a different approach to his listeners, making them feel as if he was present with them in their homes. The BBC had such a wide range of pre-war programming, much more than other of any other country, continuing during and after the war. By 1944 the US networks were still in control, although the US War Department had its own network with 1800 outlets. Very few relaxing programmes were broadcasted. 

Earlier, in 1922, Reith was appointed General Manager of the BBC, and in 1926 started a new structure which stated that the BBC must provide information, entertainment, and education, and should be governed by a Board of five governors.  He appointed trustees, not managers, and convicted that the management of broadcasting had to be controlled by broadcasters, independent of the government and of business. Reith's proposition stayed with the BBC long after he resigned in 1938 and his ideas had been written in the book, Broadcast over Britain(1924).  Reith said that the BBC could not offer entertainment alone, and it order to reach the greatest number of homes possible it should reveal "every department of human knowledge, endeavor and achievement" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 178). He emphasized the importance of religion and never used the words "mass media" or "mass communications." In 1922, a Manchester Guardian leader confirmed that "broadcasting of all industries is the one most clearly marked out for monopoly" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 178).  Twelve years later, The Times stated that broadcasting in Britain must be entrusted to a single organization with an independent monopoly, and with public service as their main objective.  By 1927 the Federal Radio Commission was set in the United States, however American radio had a different political attitude than that in Britain, and radio was mainly a means of entertainment.  By 1930 there were about 14 million radio sets being used, the beginning of a mass medium. The main difference in radio between countries was in advertising. The British had to pay licence fees to pay for broadcasting, whereas Americans funded their programmes through advertising; A programme with better ratings and more viewers were able to stay on air opposed to those without many listeners. 

Other countries were involved in the broadcasting through radios, although America and Britain were the model systems. Canada's broadcasting was used to reinforce national identity. "Spill-over" broadcasting from the United States disturbed the Canadian Radio League and resulted in the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act of 1932, which set up the Canadian Broadcasting Commision, CBC, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was created in 1936. The Italian radio broadcasted propaganda in Arabic, which influenced the BBC to create its first foreign language broadcasting in 1938, before the war. Japan's NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) was in closest relation to the BBC in its dependence of licence fees, although it was under government control. After the second World War and Japan was occupied, NHK was confirmed in the Radio and Broadcasting Law of 1950 which guaranteed freedom of expression in broadcasting. At this time, in Eastern Europe, radios main focus was "The formation of socialist state consciousness" (Briggs and Burke, pp. 181). Central Europe followed the the Soviet system and in West Germany in 1945, a decentralized radio was created with nine regional public law broadcast stations, each having three programs. 

Whatever the country or regime, broadcasting was the offer of programmes to a large audience. Different countries who mainly used the same technology presented a variety of programmes. In the United States broadcasting was incorporated into the business system and there was a division between the programme-makers, programme-presenters (celebrities) and the salesmen who collected the advertising profit. By 1945, the BBC developed an internal system which considered the quality of particular programmes as well as the amount of people listening to them. Weather forecasts were offered everywhere, and in Switzerland and America, they were a major addition in selling radio sets. Sporting events and religious programmes were also offered throughout the globe. Later in 1964, Europe dealt with "pirates" and broadcasted first from teh North Sea which was heard in Britain and other countries. The BBC created a "new Radio 1" in 1967 which was mainly rock music and charged the same far as the pirates, and employed some pirates. This made four radio channels (1, 2, 3, and 4) instead of the three previous, Home, Light, and Third. A new Broadcasting Act of 1967 introduced two stations, TROS and VOD with the purpose to entertain. 

Brigg and Burke's article reminded me of the COM250 class where we learned about the history of the radio and television and the impact it had on media today. At the time when radio was first introduced it was considered new media in that it offered a new way of communication and was distributed throughout space. It is similar to how the telegraph is a virtual mobility technology, seeing as how one does not have to physically move to communicate with another person. The programmes presented on the radio were broadcasted over large audiences and over a wide range of countries. Because of the radio, television's characteristic of reaching a great number of people was capable to be achieved quicker than it would have been if the radio had not been such an influence. 

 By: Lauren Leslie 

J. Carey's chapter, "Technology and Ideology: The Case of the telegraph" begins discussing when the Boston and Albany Railroad first opened in 1844, which introduced the telegraphic messages sent from Baltimore to Washington stating the news that Henry Clay and James K. Polk were nominated for presidency. Carey states that the importance of the telegraph has been highly unmentioned throughout history for several reasons. One reason is that the telegraph was dominated by the first great industrial monopoly: Western Union, which was the first communications empire that resulted in many other industrial empires. Second, the telegraph was the first product of electrical engineering which was in turn the first to focus on the central problem in modern engineering: thee economy of a signal. The third reason is that since information could now be carried through a wire, a new form of reporting and knowledge were thought to take place and replace traditional literature with new scientific machinery. The fourth reason that Carey discusses how the telegraph altered but did not displace patterns of connection in natural geography. Carey states that the telegraph's most important feature is that for the first time, information was able to be received without teh aids of transportation.

Carey calls the telegraph to be "not only a new tool of commerce but also a thing to think with, an agency for the alteration of ideas" (Carey, pp. 204). The telegraph allowed communication to disperse without the constraints of geography because of its fast transportation.  He says that the telegraph altered the boundaries of human interaction and brought in new forms of language and fostered a national commercial middle class. These became displacements of older language because the previous forms of writing declined and the pattern of city-state capitalism that was dominant in the first half of the nineteenth century was split up. Carey comments that there are three relationships between the telegraph and ideology. The first is the relationship between the telegraph and monopoly capitalism. Because the telegraph demanded a new body of law, a new economic theory, new political features, new management, new organization, and new scientific rationales which resulted in a privately owned and controlled monopolistic corporation.  The second relationship between ideology and the telegraph is based on the popular imagery, and the spread of religious views. The telegraph was known at this time as "the noiseless tenant of the wilderness," surrounded by religious aspiration and a language named by Leo Marx as "the rhetoric of the technological sublime" (Carey, pp. 206). Lastly, the idea of electricity was mysterious to people of this time.  "It was this invisibility that made electricity and the telegraph powerful impetuses to idealist thought both in religious and philosophical terms" (Carey, pp. 206). The telegraph inspired the spreading of the Christian message farther and faster. Carey states that the general public's reaction to the telegraph was how it was able to connect opposite poles of the electrical sublime: "the desire for peace, harmony, and self sufficiency with the wish for power, profit and productivity" (Carey, pp. 207).

Overall, the telegraph provided the break between communication and transportation. It's significance lay in the fact that it acts as a model of control for physical movement of things, specifically the railroad. The telegraph allowed for centralized control along miles of the rail road tracks. The connection between the railroad and telegraph "allowed for an integrated system of transport and communication" (Carey, pp. 215).  The relationship between the two provided the introuduction for the organic metaphors that dominated the nineteenth century thought. The telegraph's effect on ideology can also be described with two other examples: commodity markets and the development of standard time. Early nineteenth century Americans believed that the price of commodity would be different from city to city, making markets independent of one another. Prices were only affected and influenced by local supply and demand markets. Because of the railroad and the telegraph, these distinctive markets slowly diminished because the telegraph "evens out markets in space" (Carey, pp. 217).  It made the constraint of geography irrelevant and put every city and place into the same market, and eliminated opportunities for arbitrage. After the telegraph changed the commodity trading between places, it changed the trading between times. The telegraph invented the future trading as a new area of uncertainty and a new region where action should be placed. The importance of time contracts was the separation of communication from transport. The knowledge of crop conditions were sent to the market before the actual commodity itself. 

Overall, the telegraph started communication to evolve without the physical aspects of transportation. Since the telegraph, computers, fax machines, internet, cell phones...etc have been created to enhance communication without the constraints of geographical positioning. I do agree with Carey in the fact that the telegraph is not nearly as recognized as it should be, however we can personally be thankful for the first electrical engineered product which started our virtual world that we live in today.    

 “Printing and the Rupture of
Classification” begins with thirty-eight year old Michel de Montaigne retiring
from the parlement of Bordeaux to “live the remainder of his life, now more
than half run out, in sagelike tranquility” (Hobart and Schiffman, pp. 87) Death
had been all around Montaigne such as his beloved friend, his father, his
younger brother, and the deaths occurring in the civil war between the French
Protestants and Catholics. In the country estate that he escaped to, he
refurbished a tower of the chateau into a library where he hoped to “attain
wisdom, a tranquility and constancy of spirit impervious to pain and death”
(Hobart and Schiffman, pp. 87). Aristotle’s successors, the Stoic and Epicurean
moral philosophers of Greek and Roman antiquity encouraged the idea that
cleansing the mind with knowledge of worldly concerns to live in harmony with
the principle of Reason. Montaigne’s library did not clear his mind of the
deaths that had caused him grief, and the different accounts such as ancient, medieval,
and modern; historical, poetical, and philosophical all contradicted each
other. Montaigne’s library totaled around a thousand volumes, however if it had
been one hundred years earlier, before the spread of printing, a library
similar to Montaigne’s would have been unheard of.

  By
the end of the sixteenth century, printing had begun and enabled minor noblemen
to access needed printed materials. Once printing was firmly established
through the printing press it transformed the “intellectual landscape” (Hobart
and Schiffman, pp. 89). Mostly, printing allowed people to have access to a
great number of books with diverse information. Most of the books came from
original medieval works but the new versions added a more thorough and critical
analysis. Two realms were founded through these first publishings, philosophy
which used logic to prove truths, and rhetoric which used articulacy to
persuade. Logic also revealed the hierarchy of classes and concepts, and
rhetoric displayed the arguments of these concepts. These realms did not meet
at an easy equilibrium, and usually tried to subordinate each other. The rest
of “Printing and the rupture of classification” was split into different
categories. The first category is Medieval Antecedents, which discusses how the development of more
advanced scribal documents were needed in the Middle Ages. First they arranged
information on a page, then systems applied more taxonomic principles to the
problem of information management. Lastly, these advances “engendered the
comprehensive organization of all knowledge in a system that wedded
Aristotelian philosophy to a Christian worldview” (Hobart and Schiffman, pp.
90) The first manuscript was created with a codex, a book format, and
supplanted the papyrus roll or “volumen.” This allowed people to flip to the
exact page they needed without having to search through everything and less
memorization was required. The high demand for books resulted in an easier way
to view and understand the printed works. This led cursive scripts, which were
easier and quicker to write than the formal bulky monastic “scriptoria”
books.  This newly accessible
information also led to advances in the fields of anatomy to zoology.

 Another category mentioned further
in the article, Rhetoric and the Rise of Commonplace Thought, 
focuses on how printed books furthered education, and a “glossing” of
the text, which allowed for commentaries by students and others in the corners
of their pages. The term “gloss reflects the medieval practice of dictating text
and commentating during lectures.” Later glosses were used in the study of The
Bible and of Roman canon law. Hobart and Schiffman also discuss another way of
organizing and managing information. This was called the summa, or “summary” aimed to eliminate the ability for
interpretations by the reader to “establish a core of truth (Hobart and
Schiffman, pp. 93).

Overall,
this article by Hobart and Schiffman, makes me appreciate the art of printing,
whereas in today’s society many take it for granted. Not even the fact that
most people have printers of their own, allowing them to create a paper version
of anything they create on the computer, but without printers, books,
newspapers, magazines, journals, encyclopedias…etc and any other documented
information would not be extremely available like it is today. In the ages when
printing was first discovered, it could have been considered new media because
it distributes information that would not have otherwise been easily
distributed, and this creates a world of communication. 

Katherine Hayles in The Condition of Virtuality defines virtuality as the cultural perception that
material objects are interpreted by information patterns. She states that the
definition is based on the duality of materiality and information, and the perception
of virtuality enhances the development of technologies while the technologies
reinforce the perception. In the 1940s and 1950s the discrete concepts of
information and materiality enforced the need to emerge existent technologies
into new scientific technology for more reliable quantification. One important
site for information and materiality is molecular biology because the “body is
said to express information encoded in the genes,” while the body’s materiality
creates a preexisting composition. She states that molecular biology and other
sciences of information was in great need after World War II which underlines
the fact that information is time dependent. She states that “the efficacy of
information depends on a highly articulated material base.” Hayles offers
statements from Hans Moravec in his writing, Mind Children, who argues that humans are mostly informational
patterns rather than bodily presences. 
Another important site after World War II in addition to molecular
biology was information theory. This implies that no message is ever sent, but
instead a signal is sent. Hayles says that, “A message has an information
content specified by a probability function that has no dimensions, no
materiality, and no necessary connection with meaning. It is a pattern, not a
presence.” In other words, only when a message has a medium, such as ink
printed on paper as the medium, can the message be signaled for
transmission.  She believes that
information has a want to be free and accessable, and emphasizes that any
information that is not connected to a material medium is free to travel across
time and space. The matter/information duality that she discusses is further
defined using related “dichotomies” such as signal/not-signal,
information/noise, and pattern/randomness. She states that these function as
dialects and intertwine with each other. 
For example, in the noise/information relation, she states that noise is
information, which is not encoded by the sender and that noise increases the
information capabilities than if it were embedded on a medium. Therefore,
materiality is understood as a dialect of presence and absence. Each term is
historically more advanced than the other, and when the terms are inverted,
informational assumptions arise that would not have been viewed if transmitted
through a medium.

 

This article encourages communication through dialect
opposed to through mediums we have previously discussed such as new media
technologies. She believes that more can be said when one is speaking, because
one’s body language is shown and emotions behind the conversation are
expressed.  I personally am very
thankful for the new media mediums through which we can communicate, but I also
find it important to not lose personal contact with someone face to face. This
article reiterates the importance of dialect communication so that one is not
solely dependent upon media technology. The idea that information should be
free and open that Hayles discusses is very interesting to me because one
reason why I encourage personal communication versus media communication
because it allows for more privacy than accessible information across the
internet. This article has opened my eyes to how one should use media
technologies and dialect to communicate information equally.

 By: Lauren Leslie 

Lev Manovich's article, "The Poetics of Augmented
Space," delivers an abstract view of how electronic media affects the
world and space, and "overlays any built space." Manovich defines
augmented space as physical space over laid with dynamically changing information.
Manovich describes that in the 1990's, virtual reality was introduced, and in
the 21st century, electronic images began to fill physical space. Manovich
lists fifteen research paradigms for augmented space with video surveillance,
cell spaced applicator, electronic displays, and monitoring and tracking as the
top four paradigms. It is stated that every place in augmented space is filled
with information that is delivered from another point in space. The paradigms
of video surveillance and monitoring extract such info from a given point, and
record all movements, gestures, and activities, for a new "dimension to 3D
space." Manovich declares that there is an importance in the difference
between virtual reality, in which the user works on virtual stimulation, and
augmented reality, in which the user works on actual things in actual
space.  With all of the research
paradigms given to describe the ways electronic media covers all space,
Manovich emphasizes that the "approach of design of augmented space is an
architectural problem" because virtual layers will consistently overlay
built space. Manovich states that architects and artists accept the virtual
space and mix it with physical space and data to create extraordinary art.
Augmented space is "something that needs a structure, politics, and a
poetics."

Manovich's article reminds me of a lecture I received in
COM250, when the professor discussed the virtual world that we live in today,
and how everyone and everything is connected through the electronic space in
some way. Like Manovich describes, this does allow for much information to be
easily accessed and for data such as email available through a click on cell
phones, however it strongly takes away the act of privacy. One cannot place
anything online for a friend to see, without the entire world having access to
such information. The entire virtual information world can be contacted by
anyone with a simple click, and like Manovich previously discussed, this data
can continue to be researched unless the original creator deletes the
information himself/herself. I believe that it is important that society
continues to use personal communication along with virtual communication, which
will enhance one’s knowledge and skills in the real world and behind a
computer.

Kellerman begins his chapter about “Technologies” focusing
on the changing relationships “among space-transcending technologies, self
operated by individual users, and their socio-spatial aspects.” Kellernman
states that physical spatial movility has mostly been dealing with the
automobile, whereas virtual spatial mobility uses technologies such as the
telephone, internet, and wireless communication devices. He also states that an
emerging technological change is that of “speed space, a space in which machine
time or speed, rather than human time, is manipulated.” Time and space are
dependent upon each other when the uses of today’s technologies are being
utilized.

 

            Kellerman
first goes into detail about transportation technologies, or “enabling
technologies” which speed up the world through the use of electricity, trains
and automobiles. Communication technologies such as writing, printing,
telephone, fax, and the internet are known as general purpose technologies.
Kellerman focuses mainly on the private vehicle technology, which he defines as
auto-centered transport systems. He believes that this provided spatial,
physical, and autonomous mobility of individuals. The Internet is said to be
the most available for personal use, states Kellerman, when discussing the
overall source of communication technologies in today’s society. He does,
however, state that the telephone has allowed for humans to interact from
different locations with real-time voice communication. The more recent mobile
technologies that have arisen include the PCs (laptops), mobile telephones
(cell phones) and palm-pilot computers/cell phones.

 

            Kellerman
then discusses the development, structure, and operation of automobiles and
telecommunications for the use of personal mobility. He says that the
development of  spatial mobility
has two dimensions, standardization and adoption. Standardization refers to
procedures that allow self-operations by the users, which in turn has resulted
in mass adoption by the public for such user-generated technologies. It also
refers to the fast movement of information, and the structure of mobility
systems. Physical infrastructures, logics and contents are the structures that
are involved in the standardization of mobility technologies. Kellerman also
states that the surfacing of networks, and how they flow and are used reflect
“both standardization and structural aspects of mobility systems.”

 

            This
section of Kellerman discussing technologies relates in great detail to the
lectures we have had in class regarding Manovich. The idea of devices that are
user controlled and managed, are mentioned as the result in a high demand for
such products. In reality, Kellerman’s focus on the emerging mobility of
technology is becoming vital in today’s society. Very few people leave home
without their cell phone, laptop or other tele-communicative device that allows
them to access endless information instantaneously. Most people are canceling
their land phones because the ability to be communicating while mobile is much
more important, and economical than that of one for strictly one area. The
Internet has managed to become accessible in most all electronics, even in a
music player, such as the iPhone. Instant accessed communications will continue
to emerge in more aspects in mobile devices as the years progress.

In this chapter, Manovich first recalls his visit in 1999 at
Razorfish Studios, which in 1998 was named one of the top ten interactive
agencies. Manovich states that the area is designed to imitate a computer
culture’s key themes: interactivity, lack of hierarchy, and modularity. He
notices that all is done through computer, and that the physical environment
from the GUI has been transferred all to a screen. In order to organize
documents through a navigable space, Manovich states that the forms, database
(used to store any kind of data) and virtual interactive 3D space (employed in
computer games, animation, motion rides, and human-computer interfaces) can be
found in any new media.  Manovich
then begins explaining the scientific definition of the word “database” as a
“structured collection of data.” He states that there are different types of
databases: hierarchial, network, relational, and object oriented, which all use
different models of organizing their data. However, despite differences between
those types, they all have the same purpose for the user and that is to view,
navigate, and search. He says that a computer database allows for quick access,
and the ability to sort and organize millions of records without the loss of information.  The virtual interactive 3D space lets
the user visualize any type of data – “molecules and historical records, files
in a computer, the internet as a whole, and the semantics of human language.”
Both of these forms have become the true computer culture, representing human
experience, the world, and human existence, according to Manovich. Manovich
reinstates from previous chapters that the computer in today’s society is used
for both work and home business and activities, and the virtual space allows
for leisurely play with the ability to search scientific data.

Manovich later offers actual examples of the database form
in new media. He says multimedia encyclopedias, CD-ROMs which can collect a
matter of information such as recipes, quotations, photographs…etc. According
to Manovich, the main new media database is located on the Internet. Originated
from HTML, a web page acts as a database because of the ability to separate
many elements into sequential lists such as text blocks, images, digital video
clips, and links to other web pages. 
Manovich also states that the world is reduced to two types of software
objects that compliment each other: data structures and algorithms. A simple
operation that a computer executes to reach a certain goal is an algorithm,
while any object in the world can be apart of a data structure. Examples of
data structures are arrays, linked lists, and graphs. Manovich states that they
are dependent upon each other because the more complex the data structure of a
computer program, the simpler the algorithm should be, and visa versa.

            The
idea of virtual 3D space and databases are of use to me in my every day life. I
recently just purchased the Wii game, which is completely virtual. One is able
to create their own 3D character that can play numerous games with the control
of the user through a sensor remote. The winnings and losings of each character
are recorded in their stats which is a database for the user to keep track of
their record scores. Manovich’s previous chapters have stated that a computer
does not lose any data and old data does not deteriorate without the users
consent. Because of this, I am able to do work and leisure activities on my
computer, and on the Wii, without loss of old information. Without the use of
databases and virtual 3D space, technology would not be near as efficient as it
is today, and many would not be able to create information into lists and
sequences like needed. 

        Lev Manovich begins his chapter “The Interface”
recalling the 1984 director of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott who created a
commercial introducing the new Macintosh computer.  Manovich states that Macintosh defined a point in history when
they popularized Graphical User Interface (GUI) which remained the modernist
values of clarity and functionality. He states that the screen was filled with
straight lines and rectangular windows with smaller rectangles of files all
arranged in a grid. This allowed the computer to work with the user through
black type and a white background. This technology was used in several
electronics following such as the Palm Pilot, cell phones, car navigation
systems and other LCD displays. GUI displayed a characteristic of never
allowing anything to decay. When files were created on computers, they would
never deteriorate unless manually deleted by the user. Manovich states that GUI influenced many other areas such as changing graphical
images to more conceptual, and a digital computer was shifted from a particular
technology (calculator) to being “filter to all culture, a form through which
all kinds of cultural and artistic production is being mediated.” 

Manovich then described the Human-Computer Interface (HCI),
which “describes the ways in which users interact with a computer,” and items
of HCI include things such as a monitor, mouse, and a keyboard.  Manovich reveals that the HCI acts as a
code for messages of all cultures in media. Whether text, music, or video,
everything that passes through the internet has its own code. Whorf-Sparif
stated, “all speakers of different natural languages perceive and think about
the world differently,” which relates to the human-computer interface in that
the interface develops how the user reacts and conceives the computer. Manovich
then says how the interface can separate work from leisure, using the same
interface: computers.

Manovich discusses “The Language of Cultural Interface” and
introduces cultural media which are aspects such as web sites, computer games,
and other cultural objects distributed via a computer. Manovich says that he
believes it is a cultural transition because computers are changing differently
in various environments from a tool to a universal media machine.  He says that cultural data includes
“texts, photographs, films, music, multimedia documents and virtual
environments,” changing human-computer interface to human-computer cultural
interface: “Cultural interface.” Three cultural forms described are cinema, the
printed word, and a general-purpose human-computer interface. In his second
section, “The Screen and the User” Manovich discusses the main element of the
modern interface, the computer screen. He states that contemporary technologies
within the computer interface allow for new possibilities, such as virtual
reality, which gives us 3D vision through a screen. Screens have become a part
of our daily activities such as at the ATM, checkout-lines in stores, control
panels in cars, and computer screens. 
Manovich then recalls the history of the screen, going back from
painting on a canvas that is placed within a frame, a given screen. Overall, a
computer’s screen, and its interactivity included in the human-computer
interface have changed society into a computer dependent world.

 

Manovich’s chapter, “The Interface” made me appreciate all
of the computer screens that are available. Close to twenty times a day I use
my laptop, constantly use my cell phone touch screen, watch the television, and
frequently use my car navigation system. In relation to Manovich’s chapter,
“What is new media?” the aspect of computer screens would not be as needed
without the interactivity between the computer and the user. This allows the
user to create such files needed with easy access, without worry of loss or
decay of information because files are concrete within the computer unless user
actually deletes them himself.   I believe that I and a lot of others in my generation
would be lost without the aid of computers and their screens in ways of
communication, leisure, and work.  

 

 By: Lauren Leslie 

Today’s society is computer based with constant technologies being advanced to further the media source and digitalization all around the world. In Manovich’s article, “What is New Media,” the history of how old media has transformed into new media is distinguished and the devices that are used for distribution and production are explained. Manovich states that this is a computer media revolution and that it affects all stages of communication and all the different parts of media. The year that Manovich credits for the main beginning of computing and media is 1936 when the “Universal Turing Machine” was built, which resembled the film projector, giving appreciation to old media. He defines new media as the translation of all existing media into numerical graphics, moving images, sounds, shapes, spaces and texts, which all have the same digital code and use the same machine: computers.  Through those sources, Manovich lists five principles of New Media: Numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability and cultural transcoding. Numerical representation is how all media objects are converted from analog media into digital code. This ends the continuous data and transforms data into a discrete source. Modularity is explained as objects in new media consist of independent parts, which consist of smaller independent elements. The following three principles are based on numerical representation and modularity. Automation fulfils the need for the storing, organizing, and accessing of the technologies that are produced. Variability allows new media objects to create many different versions instead of identical copies, and the new versions are often computer generated. Variability distinguishes the non permanent copies through branching type interactivity, hypermedia, and scalability. The last principle that Manovich discusses is transcoding, which states that computerization turns media into computer data. Manovich emphasizes that new media should be considered as a computer science consisting of the concepts in media theory: interfaces and databases. Manovich lists the differences between new media and old media, with new media focusing on digitalization. He states that new media is digital and discrete, all media uses the computer which is a multimedia device, accessibility is made quick, digitally encoded representation has a fixed amount instead of continuous, copies can be made continuously without degradation, and new media is interactive.

    Manovich’s article is relative to everyone everyday. At some point or another, a computer is assisting us in our daily activities and we have become dependent on such technologies. Because new media derived from old media, we must appreciate all technicians throughout history who have created such a media based society today.  As Manovich states that new media is identified with the use of computer for distribution and exhibition rather than production, it is very obvious that new media surrounds us everywhere. Because distribution on paper is not considered new media, we must realize that old media still exists, like that of the cinema as well. It is imperative that we continue to connect both old and new media to create a civilization that can live and operate efficiently with the aid of computers and other sources that allow for distinct identities. I believe that Manovich’s article helps readers realize the importance of the technologies that have been created and where they began. In COM250, we discussed the history of the printing press, telephone, computer, internet...etc, and this article reinforced my appreciation for all media in both past and present. It is hard to imagine how this culture could technologically advance in the future, but I’m sure that years from now what is now considered new media will be then old media, and the computer will have transformed into a faster, more efficient piece of technology.

By: Lauren Leslie