introduction to new media

Introduction to New Media

22 September 2008

April 9, 2023 New Media

Once upon a time, long, long ago …

• There was, in a land far away …


A Handsome Print(s)

Meet the Handsome Print(s)• Print(s) is the oldest ruler of Medialand• He was born around 1450, when Gutenberg invented the

printing press• At first he was a “high brow” ruler, courting and pleasing the

gentry only (bibles, academic texts, etc)• Later in his career he embraced the masses, making literature

and news widely and cheaply available

• He is intellectual, proud, sometimes stuffy, though a generally popular leader. He’s not afraid to buck authority, is sometimes mischievous, and like, the rest of us, is fallible. Yes, he can get stuff wrong.


Print Definition

• Definition of print media:– “Printed [media], as distinguished from

broadcast or electronically transmitted communications, includes all newspapers, newsletters, booklets, pamphlets, magazines, and other printed publications, especially those that sell advertising space as a means of raising revenue.”

– (http://www.answers.com/topic/print-media)


Print Timeline• 618 to 906: T’ang Dynasty - the first printing is done in China, using ink on carved

wooden blocks.• 1423: In Europe, block printing is used to print books.• 1452: In Europe, metal plates are first used in printing. Gutenberg begins printing

the Bible, which he finishes in 1456.• 1476: William Caxton begins using a Gutenberg printing press in England.• 1605: First weekly newspaper published in Antwerp.• 1702: Multi-colored engraving invented by German Jakob Le Blon. The first English

language daily newspaper is published called the Daily Courant.• 1800: Iron printing presses invented.• 1846: Cylinder press invented by Richard Hoe. Cylinder press can print 8,000 sheets

an hour.• 1891: Printing presses can now print and fold 90,000 4-pg papers an hour. • 1903: The first tabloid style newspaper, the Daily Mirror is published. • 1933: A war breaks out between the newspaper and radio industries. American

newspapers try to force the Associated Press to terminate news service to radio stations.

• 1954: There are more radios than there are daily newspapers. • 1967: Newspapers use digital production processes and began using computers for operations. (http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/printing_3.htm)


Gutenberg, 1398 - 1468

Now, enter another character …• She’s new,

she’s cool, she’s rocking the world…


She’s Princess Broadcast!

Meet the lady of the show, the Sassy Princess of Broadcast


• Her date of birth is unclear (a lady never tells): Morse code and telegraphs of the C19th are types of broadcasting, too, but our princess rose to prominence in the 20th century with the rise of radio and TV

• She was a popular leader from the beginning, ruling by appealing to the masses, providing entertainment, and breaking down barriers

• She is brassy, bold, AMBITIOUS, sexy, alluring, accessible, dominant, and able to tap into popular culture.

Broadcast Definitions

1. To transmit (a radio or television programme) for public or general use.

2. To send out or communicate, especially by radio or television3. To make known over a wide area 4. To send a transmission or signal; transmit.

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/broadcast)


Broadcast Timeline• 1906 :Reginald Fessenden invents wireless telephony, a means for radio waves to carry signals a

significant distance.• 1923: Vladimir Kosma Zworykin patents the iconoscope, the first television transmission tube. • Radio broadcasting begins in South Africa.• 1925: Radio's The Smith Family introduces the soap opera format.• 1927: Philo Farnsworth transmits the first all-electronic television image.• 1928: John Baird beams a television image from England to the United States.• 1931: There are nearly 40,000 television sets in the United States; 9,000 of them are in New York

City alone. • 1936: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) debuts the world's first television service with

three hours of programming a day.• The SABC is formed.• 1944: The first instance of network censorship occurs. The sound is cut off on the Eddie Cantor

and Nora Martin duet, “We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me.”• 1945: The FCC creates the commercial broadcasting spectrum of 13 channels, and 130

applications for broadcast licenses follow.• 1951: Colour television introduced in the U.S.• 1956: The Wizard of Oz has its first airing on TV.• 1971: TV finally allowed in SA• 1975: First national TV broadcasts in SA• 1980: Ted Turner launches CNN, the first all-news network.• 1992: There are 900-million television sets in use around the world; 201-million are in the United

States.• 2000: Reality TV mania hits the world.


http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0151956.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Broadcasting_Corporation

http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0151956.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Broadcasting_Corporation

Now, meet the most memorable character of them all …


• He’s ugly but he’s cute• He’s popular and one of us• He has weird ears and

magical powers …

Super-quickHumungousRoughEver-evolvingKoolAnd his name is NEW MEDIA.

The Birth of the Internet• 1989: Tim Berners-Lee completes the original

software for the World Wide Web (WWW). He envisions the WWW as a shared information space within which people communicate with each other and with computers.

• From 1991 to 1994 use of the original WWW server grows by a factor of ten each year as the world begins to take note of a new information phenomenon.

• The Internet does not consist of a physical network. It is a loose system of connections between different computers, located all over the world.

• The seed of “new media” is planted.


Internet in Africa


New Media Ogre

• He is a huge, new, popular king of Medialand, born at the same time as the internet

• He is the champion of the “every man and woman”.

• He is a growing power, largely accessible, popular, fractured, and many voiced.

• He empowers his users to define their own news agendas.

• Some say he’s just a buffoon.


New Media Definition

• New media is a catch-all term for all forms of electronic communication that have appeared or will appear since the original mainly text-and-static picture forms of online communication. New media usually includes any and all of these: Online news, streaming video and streaming audio, 3-D and virtual reality environments and effects, highly interactive user interfaces, mobile presentation and computing capabilities, CD and DVD media, telephone and digital data integration, online communities, live Internet broadcasting

Source: http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci213507,00.html


Oh wait, what would a fairytale be without a monster?



PossessiveMonopolisticGreedyCruelRules the Land of the Digital Divide

New Media for Journalists

• Blogging • Citizen and tradition journalism• Social networking• Viral marketing• So many more…


Social Networking

• Social networking: is the grouping of individuals together into to specific groups, often using online networking services.

• People have always social networked but the internet has opened up ways of doing it globally

• Social bookmarking: is a way of sharing, storing, organising, searching, and managing web pages on the internet


Flickr


Flickr continued• A photo-sharing website• Lets you search for images, connect with photographers

and join groups about specific interests

• Uses:1. Search for photos related to your story2. Put you in touch with photographers, and potential sources3. Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org): Many

Flickr users offer their work under a Creative Commons license, saying upfront whether or not you can use their pictures


http://www.creativecommons.org/

Facebook


Facebook• One of the most popular social networking

services in the world: over 100-million people have joined Facebook!

• Networks: Regional, national and interest group based. Eg: South Africa, Wits University, TAC support group, fans of “Freshly Ground”

• Uses:1. Search for groups related to your story2. Put you in touch with sources3. Search for events


Stumbleupon


YouTube


• Thabo Mbeki (BBC)• Battle of Kruger (ordinary South African)

Thabo Mbeki & new media




This is a shortened version. Original: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2007/at41.htm

Oh My News


Oh My News continued

• A website for “citizen journalism”• Stories contributed, edited and commented

on by normal people acting as journalists• http://english.ohmynews.com/


Reporter.co.za


Reporter Continued

• Bills itself as news for and by the people• Local equivalent of Oh My News• “The purpose of Reporter.co.za is to give our readers the

opportunity to determine what they regard as news. We welcome breaking news reports, columns, entertainment news and reviews, research-driven stories, interviews and community-oriented issues. Contributors can report on whatever they deem interesting and think will be of interest to their audience.”


Convergence


• The internet is defined as: publicly available worldwide system of interconnected computer networks: made up of thousands of other, smaller business, academic, and government networks that provide various information and services, such as by electronic mail, online chat, and on the graphical, interlinked World Wide Web.

• Convergence is defined as: The process of coming together or the state of having come together toward a common point.

• Thus, taken together, Convergence and the Internet means the incorporation of the wide reaching and linking aspects of the internet with other mediums, in order to lead the technology toward a common point. This convergence has led to the development of new forms of media technologies.

(http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Convergence)

Internet Commons


• Open content describes any kind of creative work published in a format that explicitly allows copying and modifying of its information by anyone, not exclusively by a closed organization, firm or individual. The largest open content project is Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_content)

• The commons is the repository of this content. There are many commons projects on the go including Science Commons and Creative Commons

Web 2.0


• “Web 2.0 is a living term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, etc.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0)

The Google Phenomenon• March 1995: Google co-founders, Sergey Brin from Moscow and Larry Page from Michigan, meet at Stanford

University.• January 1996-December 1997: Brin and Page create BackRub, the precursor to the Google search engine.• Sept. 7, 1998: Google is incorporated and takes up residence in a Menlo Park, Calif., garage with four employees.• May-June 2000: Google, answering 18 million search queries a day, becomes the largest search engine on the

Web.• November-December 2001: Google boosts the size and scope of searchable information through its search engine

to 3 billion Web documents.• January-February 2002: Google begins selling its enterprise search appliance, a hardware and software product

that helps companies and organizations find information within corporate intranets.• March-April 2002: Google launches a beta version of Google News, which provides news stories from numerous

global providers.• September-October 2002: Google rolls out its keyword advertising program worldwide, making it available in the

United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.• November-December 2002: Google launches a beta version of Froogle, a search engine that helps users search for

millions of products on the Web.• January-February 2003: Google acquires Pyra Labs, creator of the Web self-publishing tool Blogger.• May-June 2003: Google launches AdSense, an advertising program that delivers ads based on the content of Web

sites.• March 31, 2004: Google announces its free e-mail service, Gmail, supported by advertising. • April 29, 2004: Google files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell as much as $2.7 billion in

stock in an initial public offering.


That’s all, folks!


introduction to new media

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