1. The Internet, Digital Media, and Media Convergence
Chapter 2
The Internet, Digital Media, and Media Convergence

2. Online Image Library Go to www.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture
to access the Media & Culture, 9th Edition Online Image Library.
The library contains all your favorite images from Media & Culture, 9th edition!

3. Smartphones and Media Convergence
Along with computers, digital music players, and a new generation of touchscreen devices like the iPad, smartphones are part of the general shift to media convergence in media devices over the past decade.

4. The Birth of the Internet
ARPAnet
Created by the Department of Defense to enable researchers to share computer processing time
improved communication.
Each computer hub had similar status and power.
No master switch to shut it down

5. Figure 2.1: Distributed Networks

6. The Net Widens Entrepreneurial stage Early 1970s to late 1980s
Microprocessors
Signaled the Net’s marketability
Allowed for the first personal computers
Fiber-optic cable
Became the standard for transmitting communication data rapidly

7. The World Begins to Browse
World Wide Web
Developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in the late 1980s
HTML (hypertext markup language)
Allows computers to communicate
Web browsers
Allow users to navigate the Web

8. Users Link in through Telephone and Cable Wires
Internet Service Providers (ISP)
Connect users to their proprietary Web system
Broadband connections have largely replaced dial-up ISP services.
Major ISPs
Verizon, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, Charter, and Cox

9. People Embrace Digital Communication
Image, text, or sound is converted into electronic symbols, which are transported and reassembled as a precise reproduction.
Includes and instant messaging

10. Search Engines Organize the Web
Automated route to finding content on the Internet
Built on mathematic algorithms rather than manually entered data
Google became a major success largely due to its new algorithm based on a page’s popularity.

11. What Are Social Media? Venues for social interaction
Virtual communities that are multiplatform, participatory, and digital… truly democratic
Platforms that enable the interactive Web by engaging users to participate in, comment on, and create content as a means of communicating

12. Types of Social Media Blogs Collaborative projects Content communities
Wiki Web sites
Content communities
Social networking sites
Virtual game worlds and virtual social worlds

13. Social Media and Democracy
Tools for democracy and for undermining repressive regimes
Arab Spring protests
Occupy Wall Street movement
Increasing mass communication and exposure to the outside world in China

14. Media Convergence on Our PCs
Media converges on computers
Users can access:
Movies (Netflix and Hulu)
Music (iTunes and Spotify)
Books (Amazon and Google)
Games
Newspapers and magazines
Services such as Skype and iChat can replace telephones

15. Media Convergence on Our TVs
Examples
Internet-ready TVs
Video game consoles such as Xbox, Wii, and PS3
Set-top boxes such as Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, and Boxee
Consumers use multiple avenues to access media content.

16. Mobile Devices Propel Convergence
Smartphones and tablet computers can be used for:
Texting
Listening to music
Watching movies
Reading books and magazines
Connecting to the Internet
Playing games

17. The Impact of Media Convergence and Mobile Media
Media consumption is mobile and flexible.
Merging of media onto one device blurs distinctions between what used to be separate media
Formats are morphing
We can experience media in multiple manners simultaneously

18. Our Changing Relationship with the Internet
Two noteworthy trends
Apple makes more than five times as much money selling iPhones, iPads, and iPods as it does selling computers.
Number of Facebook users continues to increase
We now inhabit a closed Internet or walled garden.

19. The Changing Economics of Media and the Internet
Apple established the new media economics.
Provided a market for music on iTunes in exchange for a 30-percent cut of the revenue
Amazon
Followed suit, creating the Kindle and selling e-books for a cut of the revenue

20. The Next Era: The Semantic Web
Will place the basic information of the Web into meaningful categories
Apple iPhone’s Siri
Uses conversational voice recognition to answer questions, find locations, and interact with various iPhone functionalities

21. Ownership and Control of the Internet
Connected to three issues
Security of personal and private information
Appropriateness of online materials
Accessibility and openness of the Internet

22. Information Wants to be Free
Wikileaks
The Guardian

23. Ownership: Controlling the Internet
Companies dominating the Internet by the end of the 1990s
Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, and Google
Leading companies in today’s converged world
Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

24. Google

25. What Google Owns Web ▪ Web Search ▪ Google Chrome • iGoogle
Specialized Search
• Google Blog Search
▪ Google Patent Search
▪ Google Finance
▪ Google Alerts
▪ Google Custom Search
▪ Google Product Search
▪ Google Scholar
▪ Google Trends
Media
▪ YouTube
▪ Google Images
▪ Google Videos
▪ Google Play
▪ Google News
▪ Picasa
Social
• Google +
▪ Knol
• Reader
• Groups
• Orkut
• Blogger
• Google Talk
Geo
▪ Google Latitude
▪ Google Earth
▪ Google Maps
▪ Panoramio
• Google Offers
• SketchUp
Mobile
• Google Mobile
• Android
• Motorola Mobility
Home & Office
▪ Gmail
▪ Google Sites
▪ Google Translate
▪ Google Docs
▪ Google Calendar
▪ Google Voice
▪ Google Wallet
Advertising
• Adwords and AdWords
Express
• Adsense
• Google Mobile Ads
• Google Analytics
• Google Display Network
• Google Video Ads
• Google TV ads
• FeedBurner

26. Targeted Advertising and Data Mining
Advertising is part of social networking sites, , and IM
Modern marketing relies on data mining
E-commerce
Cookies
Spyware
Opt-in, opt-out policies

27. Security: The Challenge to Keep Personal Information Private
Whenever you use the Internet, you give away personal information.
Government surveillance of online activity allowed by PATRIOT Act
Identity theft results in about $3.4 billion each year in the United States.
One form of identity theft is phishing.

28. Appropriateness: What Should Be Online?
Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2003
Requires public schools and libraries to use filtering software to limit minors’ exposure to inappropriate Internet content
Many want the Web to be completely unregulated.

29. Access: The Fight to Prevent a Digital Divide
Refers to the growing contrast between “information haves” and “information have-nots.”
Smartphones are helping to narrow the gap.
Still a big gap between the United States and the rest of the world

30. Net Neutrality: Maintaining an Open Internet
“Every Web site and every user has the right to the same Internet network access and speed
Major telecomm companies want to offer faster connections and priority for those willing to pay higher rates.

31. Alternative Voices on the Internet
Open-source software
Developed by independent programmers who openly share their ideas and source codes
Internet Archive
Aims to provide all citizens with universal access to more than 85 billion archived Web pages

32. The Internet and Democracy
Commercialism
Perhaps the biggest threat to the Internet’s democratic potential
Internet’s potential for widespread use by all could be partially preempted by narrower commercial interests.

33. The Internet and Democracy (cont.)
Inexpensive digital production and social media distribution allow greater participation than any traditional medium.
May just be communicating to those who already share the same feelings and opinions