'Net Structure/Culture/History
Defining Characteristics of "New Media" and "Information Technology"
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For the purposes of this class, new media . . .
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Are created by and/or communicated through a computer and related
information technologies
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I.e., a digital medium as opposed to older media which
are analog
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Or, as IT&S says, "technologies that use electronics to transform
information into digital, binary--0s and 1s--format" (5)
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But what does this mean? What is the difference between digital and analog?
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In what sense is a computer digital? How does it use 0s and 1s?
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Inside a computer's brain, its CPU, everything is binary
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Difference between "technology" and "media"
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Technology is the machinery, the equipment, the wiring (the
hardware) and the programs necessary to run it (the software)
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Information technology is everywhere today. Supermarket cash
registers have computers in them; are they "new media"?
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No, but they do use new information technologies--when a bar code is scanned,
information (the name of the item, its price) enters into an electronic,
computer technology
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Media are phenomena that use hardware/software to present information,
narrative, propaganda, etc. to a user
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E.g., the cinema is a medium that uses the technology of cameras/projectors
to communicate stories
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E.g., the World Wide Web is a medium that uses the technology of computers,
telecommunication equipment and wires to communicate stories, information,
pictures, music, etc. etc. etc.
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Have the potential to alter the position of the spectator (i.e., the
reader/viewer/listener or the "subject"). Obviously, not all new media
do this.
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Some new media require subjects who pull information toward them rather
than have it pushed toward them.
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You enter cyberspace, jack into the matrix, instead of having it come
to you. You seek/hunt information/entertainment rather than having it delivered
to you.
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"Push" media, like broadcast TV, contains texts (broad, semiotic use
of this term) which are aimed at an ideal spectator, pointed at one position
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"Pull" media display textual fragments, calling to (hailing) the spectator,
but permitting him/her to collect bits and pieces of a fragmented media space.
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E.g., a hypertext link on a page is such a fragment
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A process that anthropologists term bricolage
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Viewing/reading becomes assemblage
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In a sense, TV become "new media" with the widespread use of the remote
control--allowing the TV viewer to assemble his/her own media text
out of a televisual textuality
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A push medium has become a limited pull medium--though Hollywood still determines
what is available to be pulled.
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On the Internet, however, the texts to be pulled from are much more varied
than broadcast TV
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Positive: alternative viewpoints are difficult to suppress
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Negative: alternative viewpoints are difficult to suppress
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Interactivity: the subject interacts with the medium and alters
it according to his/her needs, desires, whims
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Gives subject control--but always within limits
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E.g., a computer game such as Doom only has a certain number of landscapes
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E.g., the number of Web pages you may browse to is huge, but not infinite
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Viewing experience is often fragmentary, disjointed (or jointed in usual
ways), instead of unified.
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Have erased the difference between the original and the copy
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Because, in the digital world, the copy is just as good as the original.
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Calls into question the notion of authenticity
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Permits identical copies of something to exist in more than one place
at a time.
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Threatens the laws of intellectual property (i.e., copyright)
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How does it change our notion of the text, of, say, an artwork?
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More disposable, less valuable?
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Destroy what Benjamin calls "aura"?
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"Original" copy of an artwork could be simultaneously viewed in Tuscaloosa
and Tahiti
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Have--through computer networking--revolutionized the distribution
of texts.
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Older media (specifically, book/magazine/newspaper publishing, the cinema,
television) required a mammoth, expensive system for the distribution of
information and entertainment.
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New media texts may be distributed for a $20-per-month AOL account.
Although new media take many forms, we'll use the World Wide Web and
computer-mediate communication (CMC) as our test cases.
Contextualizing These New Media
What do they share (in, perhaps, modified form) with older media?
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Print Media: Books, Periodicals (magazines and newspapers) and Still Photography
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The use of words to entertain, provide information, convince/propagandize
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Regardless of the hyperbole surrounding the graphical (i.e., image-oriented)
nature of the Web, its content is still predominantly communicated
through text (narrow meaning: not broad meaning like above).
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The Web is much less graphical/visual than, say, a John Woo film or commercial
for Diet Coke
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Periodicals
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The combination of text and static (not moving) images
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Page design and layout of new media are heavily indebted to principles of
composition from print publications
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E.g., photographs used to direct reader's eye inward, not out beyond frame
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Photograph of someone looking right would be placed on left
of page
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Photography
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Digital photography incorporates many of the technologies of analog
photography (e.g., lenses), but revolutionizes the darkroom process
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The manipulation of the image after its original capture has reached new
levels
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But it's really just an extension of and not a break from darkroom
principles of increasing/decreasing contrast and other characteristics
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Still, photographic aesthetic principles remain largely the same
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Books
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19th century novel provides one basic structure for narrative
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Roland Barthes's Hermeneutic code
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Enigma used to draw the reader in, but stalling devices prevent immediate
gratification
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Narrative structure can be traced even further back through long tradition
of story-telling
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The Cinema
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Moving image
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Based on succession of still frames and persistence of motion
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Editing
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The displacement or juxtaposition of one image by another
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Achieved, e.g., through hypertext linking--one Web screen replacing another
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Broadcast Television and Video
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Computer monitor uses same technology as TV/video monitor
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Bits of light (pixels) are illuminated by an electron gun
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Illusion of movement comes from refreshing of still images
Computer Networking:
What Is the Internet and Where Did It Come From?
Where the Heck Is Cyberspace?
A network of networks
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Little electronic packets of information or data are thrown around
from one computer to another, around the world.
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These packets can contain words or images or sounds--electronic mail or computer
files
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Routed from one location to another according to a protocol (a set
of rules and guidelines) known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol)
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Travelling from smaller networks to bigger and bigger ones
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The computers in the TCF Lab are all hooked together by coaxial cable (resembling
the cable attached to your TV); they are wired to other networks on campus
and then out to the world
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The connections between the biggest networks are called backbones
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E.g., UA gets its Internet connection from BBNplanet, whose network looks
like this:
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Another large Internet Service Provider (ISP) is UUNET, whose backbone
looks like this:
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How do data packets find their way around these networks?
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Each machine has a unique IP address, four numbers strung
together
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No other computer has this number.
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Read left to right = increasingly specific
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130.160 = U of Alabama network
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171 = TCF Dept network
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236 = specific machine in room 430A Phifer
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Domain names
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Easier to remember names may be attached to these numbers
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E.g., www.tcf.ua.edu = 130.160.171.236
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Read right to left = increasingly specific
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edu = educational instutition
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ua = our UA
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tcf = this dept
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www = the Web server machine in room 430A
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Other abbreviations
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gov (government), org (non-profit organization), net (organization associated
with running the Internet), mil (military), and country codes (ca = Canada,
uk = United Kingdom, br = Brazil)
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How are these names attached to these numbers?
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Certain computers function as Domain Name Servers (DNS)
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When asked, they "serve" up the number associated with a name
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E.g., at UA, NS1.ua.edu (130.160.4.4) is the primary DNS machine
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When you type an address into a browser in the TCF Lab it:
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Asks NS1.ua.edu for an IP number to go with the name
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Sends a request to that IP number for some data packets
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The distant computer notes your IP number and ships packets in that
direction
(This is one of the few pieces of information distant computers can get from
you when you connect to them--but not your passwords, credit card numbers,
etc.)
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Who controls the assignment of these domain names?
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InterNIC, a company in Virginia--but
this is changing
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Users have been less than satisfied with InterNIC's operation, and there
have been numerous lawsuits over the use of trademarked names
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Tracing a data packet around the Internet
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One can follow the route a data packet makes around the Internet by using
traceroute (on a Unix machine), or tracert (on Win95), or
dressed-up versions of the same such as Neotrace
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E.g., here's the route a little data packet took from UA to Washington:
Internet Culture
How many people are "on" the Internet? Who are they? Nobody really knows
for sure.
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But some agencies are willing to make estimates in specific areas:
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RelevantKnowledge:
Feb. 24 to Apr. 16, 1998 survey
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Web users in the U.S. = 57,037,000
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Males = 56%
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(48% of the U.S. population are men.)
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Nearly 77 percent of all Web users are between the ages of 18 and 49. Users
between the ages of 18-34 comprise 39 percent of the Web universe, the highest
composition of any demographic group.
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(Only 30 percent of the U.S. population are ages 18-34.)
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51% of all Web users have college degrees
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(Only 24 percent of the U.S. population have a college degree.)
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Graphic, Visualization, & Usability
Center (Georgia Tech):
October
10 - November 16, 1997
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(A not-for-profit org, unlike RK above.)
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Provides more demographic information
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Found a higher percentage of men: 62%
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And also includes questions such as race and sexual orientation. E.g.,
Information Technology History
Internet History
Last revised: May 25, 1998
