Media, Computers and Society Kathy E. Gill 8 November 2004

Media, Computers and Society

Kathy E. Gill8 November 2004

Overview Discussion Leaders Papers More diffusion theory

Discussion – Peer Group 1

Tina M Conley Michael D Gorman Piper Ross

Papers Grammar, etc Colloquial Language Citations Notes

Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation Use the tools built-into your

word processor! General rule: punctuation is

“inside” quotation marks (exception, semi-colon)

If you don’t know how to spell-check or grammar-check, please see me after class

Colloquial Language Avoid it! Examples:

nowadays (colloquial/slang) – use today, now, presently, currently

stats (an abbreviation/slang) – use statistics

It’s been a long time since … (not concrete) – give dates

Not exhaustive list, just common examples

Citations (1/2)

Why do we include citations in academic papers? (discuss)

Citations (2/2)

Document sources, for credit (ie, not plagarized)

Allow other scholars who follow you to replicate your work

Thus, citations must be specific

Notes, types

1. Cite authority for statements in the text: facts, opinions or direct quotations

2. Make cross-references3. Comment on discussion4. Make acknowledgements

Notes, how Numerical order, beginning

with 1 Arabic numbers Superscript or parens

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (1/3)

Media is a plural noun; medium is singular.

Ditto data (datum). It’s not 1990’s or 90’s or 90s …

it’s 1990s (see Chicago Manual of Style)

Spell out numbers smaller than 10 (newspaper style) or 100 (academic style)

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (2/3)

Don’t start sentences with a number; re-write

Active tense is preferred over passive

Use notes for detail, definitions, explanations

Explain why (tie opinions, explanations to theory)

Papers – Kathy’s soapbox (3/3)

Web sources should be reasonably authoritative (ie, named author or established publisher)

Cite should include the date visited

Follow standard format for journals, magazine articles and add the URL

Secondary Research

These papers are primarily examples of secondary research (some of you are conducting surveys and interviews that would qualify as primary research, but it is not required)

Synthesis Content should be more than a

mere collection of citations Instead, the writing should

reflect a synthesis of what you have learned from the sources

Recommended from Jessica Assembling a List of Works Cited In

Your Paper, http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/works_cited Compares APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian

Citing Sources Within Your Paper, http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/within.htm Compares APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian

Citation Style Guides for Internet and Electronic Sources, http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/citation/index.cfm

Recommended from Kathy General guides

The Elements of Style (Strunk & White) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses,

and Dissertations (Turabian)

Specific guides (pick one) The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research

Papers, 6th ed (MLA, Gibaldi) Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, 5th ed (APA) Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed (for the

detail-oriented, includes MLA)

Papers – Requirements Remember - the three papers must

include at least 15 citations from scholarly books or journals

Papers are evaluated on quality of analysis, focus, and clarity of presentation

All work must be original You must reference theory (explain

“why”)

Diffusion Revisited Rogers (recap) Bass Stages of Development

Rogers (1995) Identified four main elements of an

innovation-diffusion process Innovation Social system Time Communications channels

Bass model (1969)

dx/dt=a*x*(1-x/K)+b*(K-x)

x: cumulative number of adopters at time t,K: population of potential adopters in the social system,a: internal influence factors, and, b: external influence factors.

External influences (Bass 1969)

Vertical channel(s) of communication Centralized channel(s) of

communication A structured channel(s) of

communication A formal channel(s) of communication

Internal influences (Bass 1969)

Horizontal channels of communication

Decentralized channels of communication

Unstructured, informal channels of communication

Stages of Technological Development Innovation Imitation Competition Standardization

Innovation Characterized by

high uncertainty, trial-and-error problem solving, make-shift production

Bioengineering Nanotechnology ??

Imitation Characterized by

decreasing uncertainty as new firms enter sector and develop variants on basic innovation

Solar-collector technology

Early PC days MPEG Players? ??

Competition R&D leads to

process improvements, smaller firms find it harder to enter industry, competition weeds out those who do not make improvements

Semi-conductors RAM Hard drives?

Standardization “Ideal” product has

been found/created, R&D focuses on preserving lifecycle; shift to price competition

Pocket calculators PCs today?

Computing and Networks Technology Impacts History

Computing technology advances at exponential rates

Memory capacity quadruples every 3 years

Processor speed doubles every 3 years

Number of hosts doubles every year

Chip transistor densities double every 18 months at constant prices (Moore’s Law)

Computers and Networks Facilitate

Concentration of knowledge and control

Distribution of knowledge and control Have the power to

Amass and analyze enormous volumes of data

Process data at enormous rates for real systems and simulations

Computers and Networks Challenge:

Constitutional definitions Social structures Lifestyle options None more challenging than

“the Net”

Internet History

1964 - Rand Corporation Plan for dealing with military and government communications… in the event of a

“NUCLEAR WAR”

National Network with No Central Authority

Supervening Social Necessity?

Discuss (social, political, economic …)

ARPANET (Rand, MIT, UCLA)

1969 : 1st node on the Internet

1971 : 15 nodes 1982 : TCP/IP

Picking Up Speed 1987 : Apple’s Hypertext 1991 : Tim Berners-Lee at

European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva conceived the World Wide Web

1993 : National Center for Supercomputing Applications [NCSA] - University of Illinois created a WWW browser named Mosiac

Faster... faster... faster

April 94 : Mosaic Communications [Clark & Andreesen]

Oct 94 : Netscape Beta Released Nov 94 : Mosaic Co ==>

Netscape Aug 9, 1995 : Netscape IPO

Internet Hosts

1971 : 15 1981 : 213 1985 : 1,961 1990 : 313,000 1994 : 3,864,000 1996 : 9,472,000 2003 : 171,638,297

http://www.isc.org/ds/host-count-history.html http://earthtrends.wri.org/searchable_db/index.cfm?the

me=10&variable_ID=553&action=select_countries

What is a Host (aka Server)? A computer running software

that allows it to provide (serve) documents via the WWW.

The computer is assigned an IP address and connected to the Internet

Somewhat analogous to the “printer” of a print document.

Parts of a Society Education Transportation Private Sector Business Government Entertainment

Housing Currency

(banking) Jobs Space Medicine Anything else?

The Net and Society In recent years this one area

has affected society more than any other

How? What are the issues?