J200: Journalism and Mass Media Journalism and the Digital Revolution

J200: Journalism and Mass Media

Journalism and the Digital Revolution

2 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003_____________________________Fall 2003

Objectives for this week and next

History of Digital Revolution Consideration of its social, economic,

political and cultural impacts.


Breaking News in the NYT

In Fight Between Cable and Satellite,….”

“To Grab Young Readers, ….” “Newsstands Beckon the Ink-Stained

Entrepreneur” “Patents: Idea for Online

Networking….”


Growth of the WWW


Internet usage, trust

60+% of Americans say they use the Internet regularly to gather information, and two-thirds have been using the Internet for three or more years.

97% of I-net users expect to find the information in one or more information categories they need on the Internet, compared to 84% of all Americans.

About 58+% of Americans expect to reach others via e-mail.


Internet usage, trust

Looking at how Americans trust the information they get on the Web, the survey found:- 69% of all Americans and 85% of Internet users trust the news Web sites.- 67% of all Americans and 81% of users trust the health information sites.- 65% of all Americans and 82% of users trust the government information sites.- 63% of all Americans and 79% of users trust the shopping sites.- 31% of Americans or 34% of net users expect to find reliable information about individuals online.

Source: Pew’s Internet and American Life Project, Dec. 2002

http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=80


Distinguishing features of DigRev.

Low production cost Hardware & software Greatest cost is time in learning curve

Fluidity and ubiquity of message distribution Immediate 24/7/365 globally in multiple languages

NOT necessarily one-to-one, but one to many if so desired

Potential for “mass customization” of message/content. Infinitely “scaleable” in terms of target audience (1 all )

Low production cost Hardware & software Greatest cost is time in learning curve

Fluidity and ubiquity of message distribution Immediate 24/7/365 globally in multiple languages

NOT necessarily one-to-one, but one to many if so desired

Potential for “mass customization” of message/content. Infinitely “scaleable” in terms of target audience (1 all )


Social Implications ofAdvances in

Telecommunication

Drawing on the work of Prof. Louis Leung, Ph.D.

School of Journalism & CommunicationUniversity of Wisconsin


Major points

Intelligent home & information appliances (recall early radio model; GE/RCA)

Social & psychological impact: Digital isolation Social fragmentation Data smog Downside of e-mail Cyber relationships Internet seduction and addiction


The New Information Age

Intelligent home & Information Appliance Television + computer =

teleputer Dumb vs. smart appliance

Digital, interactive, two-way Others:

WebTV; PDA; 3G; screenfrige; Personal digital video recorder


Information Communication Revolutions

1st : Writing in 3500 B.C. Transform knowledge into

information 2nd : Printing in A.D. 1455

Knowledge/data available to everyone

Scientific & technological progress Share information with future

generation or across distances


Info Communications Revolution

3rd : Computing in A.D. 1890 (Hollerith) Storability, portability, accessibility,

processing/analysis Computers initially used for calculating

artillery shell trajectory

Computers first used in journalism 1952 presidential election http://www.cnn

.com/TECH/computing/9904/30/1952.idg/

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhollerith.htm

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/30/1952.idg/






Information Communication Revolutions

4th: Internetworking – ’60s on Transmission, dissemination,

communication

“Public computing/communication” birth c. 1981-83 a convergence model of newspaper,

radio, and TV on high speed data network


HTML and beyond

1989 - Three new technologies for the web-to-be were incorporated into Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal. Briefly, they were

HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) used to write the web documents,

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) to transmit the pages, and

a web browser client software program to receive and interpret data and display results.


The World-Wide Web

The Internet is NOT the World-Wide Web. The WWW is but one segment, or sub-set, of the total Internet

The World Wide Web birth in 1991 graphic, easy-to-use interface, hyperlink multimedia -- audio, video, text,

animation


Consistency.

An important concept of his proposal: the client software program's user interface would be consistent across all types of computer platforms so that users could access information from many types of computers


User Interface

A line-mode user interface (named at CERN, the world wide web or www) was completed in late 1989.

The interface was used on a minor network in March 1991.

May 1991 was the first time that the information-sharing system using HTML, HTTP, and a client software program (www) was fully operational on the multi-platform computer network at the CERN laboratories in Switzerland.


File Availability

The availability of CERN's files was announced in the UseNET newsgroup, alt.hypertext, in August 1991.

This was the first time that the availability of the files was announced to the public.


"Web Server" All documents coded with HTML elements were

stored on one main computer at CERN. This special type of computer was called a " web server" (by the physicists at CERN) because it "served-up" batches of cross-linked HTML documents.

There was only one Web server located at CERN; but by the end of 1992 there were 50+ Web servers in the world. Many of these earliest Web servers were located at universities or other research centers.

These servers were using line-mode interfaces. By June 1999 there were more than 720,000 public information servers. In April of 2001 there were over 24 million servers (http://www.netcraft.co.uk/survey/).


NCSA Mosaic

In 1993 Marc Andreesen was an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

He worked on a project for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

There he led a team that developed “Mosaic” - the graphic interface browser..


Releasing Mosaic - 1993

The first pre-Beta version of Mosaic was released in February 1993; demo-ed in March ‘93.

Version 1.0 of Mosaic was released in September 1993 for the Windows, Macintosh and the X Windows System platforms.

Popularity of the graphical user interface (GUI) browser was immediate.


Paradigm Shift

Computer: From Calculating device global

multimedia communication device Mainframe PC PDA Younger gen used to talk used

to write ?? Now behind the screen


Characteristics of Intelligent Home & information appliances

tend to be digital, computer-driven, and interactive

less restricted by limitation of time and space

old media may assume passive receivers of news and information as their audience

new media require active seekers of content


The Changing Technology

Old Economy New Economy

1. Signal Analog Digital2. Time Synchronous Asynchronous3. Carriage Air Multiple4. Device Dumb (TV/Radio) Intelligent

(Information Appliance)

5. Quality Low High6. Direction One-way Casting Two-way

(Interactive)


The Changing Customers

Old Economy New Economy 1. Role Viewer/Listener User 2. Stance Passive Active 3. Function ConsumerProducer or programmer 4. Location HomeEverywhere


The Changing Business

Old Economy New Economy

1. Control Broadcaster Customer2. Schedule Prime time Anytime3. Funding Advertising Customer Direct4. Advertising Hyperbolic Content5. Programming Dramatic Information-based6. Programming Cost High All over the map7. The IndustryMass Media Molecular Media8. The Business Stable Volatile9. Requirements Sound Visionary

for Success management Leadership


Social Impact of Information

Technologies

(Some aspects)


Digital isolation

blessed with fax, voice- and e-mail, computer hookups and TV with hundreds of channels, we don’t have to leave home to work, shop, bank, visit, exercise, and experience “virtual sex” (especially for singles and the lonely)


Digital isolation

concerns about the effects of an apparently growing obsession with new communication technology

often times causing isolation… ICQ in their bedroom Playing their gameboys in their own world listening to

discman/MP3/walkman


Social fragmentation

Before cable: it was dominated by a single broadcast medium (e.g. free terrestrial TV like TVB and ATV in HK)

Now, widespread development of cable TV providing a much richer, diverse choice of programming in a multi-channel viewing environment for a variety of audience groups such as women, children, sports, MTV, movies, classics, news, comedy, minority, and gays


Social fragmentation

although certain major events (e.g., War in Iraq) could capture virtually the entire viewing audience (i.e., country or community), common and shared viewing experience are in question


Consider:

Assumption: technological development may erode one of the most important positive social functions television has served - nurturing common culture

Do you agree or disagree with this assumption? Why & why not?


Data smog

“ As we have accrued more and more

data and information, they have become a commodity – as well as a pollutant. “

-- David Shenk

Author of Data smog: Surviving the information glut


Data smog

For nearly 100,000 years, information and information technology was almost always a good thing…

developing culture; made us healthier; wealthier; and more tolerant; understand more about how to overcome challenges of life; food is more abundant; have learned how to make political systems function, societies more stable; citizens are freer; individuals empowered; dangerous superstitions and false notions washed away; reduce probability of conflict (with hot lines for better communication)


Data smog

But now, we began to produce more information than we could process it

For 100,000 years, three fundamental stages of the communications process – production, distribution, and processing –had been more or less in sync with one another


Data smog

But in the mid-20th century, this synchrony was abruptly knocked off track with the introduction of computer, microwave transmission, television, satellites, and the Internet

hyperproduction and hyperdistribution mechanisms surged ahead of human processing ability, leaving us with a permanent processing deficitprocessing deficit

in a very short history, we go from a state of information scarcity to one of information surplus


Data smog

in 1850, 4% American workers handled information for a living, now most do

information processing as opposed to material goods now accounts for more than half of the U.S. GDP

data has become more plentiful and more speedy

computer processing speed has doubled every 2 years for the last 30 years – Moore’s Law


Data smog

from 1965-1995, average TV ads shrunk from 53.1 seconds to 25.4 seconds

average TV news sound bite shrunk from 42.3 seconds to 8.3 seconds

number of ads per TV minute increased from 1.1 to 2.4

information has become a lot cheaper to produce, to manipulate, to disseminate


Data smog

the real issue for future technology does not appear to be production of information, and certainly not transmission, the difficult question is how to reduce it. -- Eli Noam

or how to filter, scan, screen out the unwanted information -- Fred Williams

just like a “motor drive” that attached to 35mm camera which shoots many separate exposures in any given second.. click, click, click…


Data smog

same with copy machines, e-mail forwarding, copy and paste from Internet

signal-to-noise ratio: how much of the information in our midst is useful? And how much of it gets in the way?

The blank spaces and silent moments in life are fast disappearing. Media is everywhere.


Data smog

Anywhere you go, all forms of media now follows:

On trains; planes; automobiles; hotel bathrooms; along joggings paths and mount trails; on bikes and boats; giant TV screens adorn stadiums and surround theatrical stages; TVs hang from ceilings in bars and airport lounges; mini-TVs in front of individual seats in new airliners; and …….. (the list goes on)


Data smog

cellular telephone conversation creates a new ambience for sidewalks, hallways, even in libraries and theaters; beepers and laptop computers follow us home and come with us on vacation

Portable PCs have replaced the American Express card slogan: “Don’t leave home without it.”


Data smog

Information has not only emerged as a currency, but also as a pollutant

Information doesn't have to be unwanted and unattractive to be harmful

E.g., TV commercial messages are esthetically appealing and each can be considered relatively harmless


Data smog

But they crept into every corner of our lives – onto our jackets, ties, hats, shirts, wrist-bands, bikes, benches, cars, trucks, taxi, tennis nets, banner trailing behind planes, hanging above sporting and concert events

Bordering web pages; sides of blimps hovering the sky; magazine ads on every single page; magazines inserts sometimes it becomes impossible to determine whether someone is trying to tell you something or sell you something


Data smog

The Law of Data Smog

= With information and data production at an all-time high, information overload has surfaced as a contentious social, political, and even emotional problem.


Consider:

1. What are some of the personal, societal, and professional implications of the law of data smog?

2. What are some possible ways of counteracting the incessant barrage of information characteristic of a message-dense society?


The Downside of E-mail

the “insistent arrogance” and “unstoppable proliferation” of e-mail messages that threaten to drown computer users everywhere in a sea of inelegant and unwanted communication.

– Seth Shostak

e-mail has become “an incessant distraction, a nonstop obligation, and a sure source of stress and anxiety

e-mail started out cute – an inoffensive spin-off from a government defense project – to colleagues at universities for among small group of researchers



e-mail was something to be checked every week or so

today access to the Internet is widespread, everyone is wired and has something to say

the gentle art of letter writing with pencil and paper is gone

e-mail is aggressive – it has a built-in insistent arrogance

because it arrives more or less instantaneously, the assumption is that you will deal with it quickly –quickly might mean minutes or possibly hours; certainly not days



failure to respond directly usually produces a complaint: “Didn't you get my last e-mail?”

old style exchange of letters allows inquires and response in a few days or a week which could be considered in depth; today, all is knee-jerk reaction

despite being easy to edit, e-mail usually suffers from major spelling faults, grammar, and a lack of logical organization – can be called ASCII graffiti

Effects on writing skills?? e-mail is not one-to-one, it can be one-to-many;

that is bad news on the receiving end



cc: (carbon copy) are being abused and used to prove that people are doing their jobs under the name of keeping everyone informed

vacations have lost their attraction as laptops are brought along in the desperate hope of keeping up with e-mail’s steady drip

of all e-mails we receive on a typical day, about 50% [at BEST] require a reply; others are jokes, irrelevant bulletins, announcements, and spam


Cyber Relationships

virtual communities – meet people through communication

networks extends our relationships across

time and distance


Cyber Relationships

Jerry Brown: Mammals need contact Human resides in a physical world, not in

cyberspace Meaning of communication and conversation Need to smell the books, feel of Mosque &

churches, meet people in coffee shops, watch ducks swim in lakes

social presence - the degree to which sensory cues are present that convey hidden meanings

Problem of “high tech - low touch”


Cyber Relationships

low social presence are adequate for information seeking and problem solving, but not for relationship building

less effective when resolving conflicts or forming impressions of new acquaintances (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976)

people save bad news for in-person contacts than do good news (Dordick & LaRose, 1992)


Domestication of the Internet

= the integration of the Internet into the home In 1999, over 205 million Internet users

worldwide over 3 million users have access to the

Internet in Hong Kong (48.7% of all households)

PC among all household = 60.6%; of which 80.4% online

As of April 2002, 757,000 households have broadband access in Hong Kong, over 33% of all households

Over 77% go online at home Nearly 50% go online in the evening


The debate

Does the Internet improve or harm participation in community life and social relationships?


2 perspectives:

(1) Internet is causing people to become socially isolated and cut off from genuine social relationshipsalone over the terminals or communicate with anonymous strangers through socially impoverished medium


2 perspectives:

(2) Internet leads to more and better social relationships by freeing people from constraints of geography or isolation brought on by stigma, illness, or schedule join groups on the basis of common

interests rather than convenience


Civic Engagement and Social Participation Theories Robert Putnam (1995) “Bowling Alone:

The collapse and revival of American community” -- America’s Declining Social Capital

Found broad decline in civic engagement and social participation in the U.S. over the past 35 years: citizens vote less go to church less


Civic Engagement and Social Participation

discuss government with neighbors less

members of fewer voluntary organizations

fewer dinner parties get together less for civic and

social purposes


Putnam argued:

Major consequences of social disengagement: At individual level

social fabric and individual lives deteriorated

poor quality of lifediminished physical and psychological

health


Putnam argued:

more social contact = happier both mentally and physically

At societal levelmore corruptionless efficient governmentmore crime


Putnam argued:

More social engagement: school runs better politicians are more responsive streets are safer

Checks and balances on public agenda


If this theory has merit, are Internet users engaging or disengaging themselves

through ICQ, chat groups, forums, and e-mails?


The Carnegie Mellon

Study


The Carnegie Mellon Study

tracking social and psychological well-being on 169 people in 73 households over a 2-year period online (Kraut, 1998)

Purpose: To examine the social impact of the

Internet on social involvement and psychological well-being


Methodology

monitored a panel of families over time (longitudinal)

measured at multiple times

DemographicsDemographics

Social involvement &psychological well-beingSocial involvement &psychological well-being

Internet useInternet use Social involvement &psychological well-beingSocial involvement &psychological well-being

T1T1 T2T2 T3T3

(Control group?)


The MORE Internet used:

declining in the size of their social circle with fewer friends

less time talking with their families experiencing more daily life

stressors feeling more lonely and depressed

GenderGender

AgeAge

StressStress

Social supportSocial support

DepressionDepression

LonelinessLoneliness

Internet useInternet use

DepressionDepression

T1T1

LonelinessLoneliness

T2T2 T3T3

IncomeIncome-

-

-

+


Questions:

1. Why did the researchers conclude that relationships maintained over long distances through the Internet erode personal security and happiness?

2. If avid Internet use really does lead to a decline in normal levels of social involvement and psychological well-being. What should be done about it—anything?


Here is why?

Internet had a negative impact on well-being, why?

(1) Time spent more online may take away from more valuable activities, including social contact, sleep, or reading books

(2) Useful linking people to information and social resources unavailable in people’s closest local groups (e.g., professional groups)


Here is why?

(3) many of the social relationship people maintained online are LESS substantial and sustaining than relationship that people have in their actual lives

(4) relationships associated with frequent contact, deep feelings of affection and obligation


Here is why?

(5) strong social ties are relationships that generally buffer people from life’s stresses

(6) Online (computer-mediated) communication is a LESS adequate medium for social communication than the telephone or face-to-face interactions it displaces

(7) relationships with superficial and easily broken bonds


Internet and Interpersonal Communication Internet turned out to be far more

social than television Internet may be more like that of the

telephone than television interpersonal communication is the

dominant use of the Internet at home

user must actively involve in the balancing act


Consider:

How serious is this problem in your personal life?

Any one you know who has the symptoms of Internet addiction?


Blogs and Journalism

Media writer Mark Jurkowitz wrote in "The Boston Globe" that the Internet writing journals or Web logs called "bogs" may have had a role in the downfall of former majority leader Senator Trent Lott (R-MS).

It appears that many mainstream journalists read the writings of "bloggers" who dug into Lott's segregationist past and kept the story alive until picked up by the mainstream press.

"Whatever the bloggers' impact in the Lott case, the episode did serve to turn the spotlight on a hybrid form of [online] journalism/commentary/conversation that is exploding into the media landscape."

It is estimated that there were about one million bloggers in 2002, which is a 50% jump from 2001. Perhaps another half million or more this year.


More on Blogs

Bill Mitchell, online editor at the journalism think tank, the Poynter Institute, thinks that bloggers will become an important "adjunct" to the journalism field.

Blogs are read by mainstream journalists, much like they read the specialized trade press for story ideas.

Mitchell concluded, "If I were a beat reporter, I would think a blog would be a really valuable part of my tool kit [given] the opportunity it creates for journalists to selectively serve particular chunks of the audience." It is also interesting to note that there are more Weblogs applications, such as:

1. blogmapping: Go to www.blogmapper.com to see how you can click on a map and get related blogs.2. Richer than text blogs, which use new technology to integrate digital pictures or audio or video.

http://www.blogmapper.com/


Blog history

First news blog: Dispatches from the Coast -- First known use of the Weblog format to cover a breaking story by a news site (Aug. 26 - 28, 1998, The Charlotte Observer, covering Hurricane Bonnie). Read a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Dispatches from the Coast...

http://web.archive.org/web/20010307020840/http:/www.charlotte.com/special/bonnie/0828dispatches.htm

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=48413




New messages

Political “Cartoons”http://www.idleworm.com/index.shtml

http://www.idleworm.com/index.shtml

http://www.idleworm.com/index.shtml


Characteristics of the digital power shift

Ubiquitous Interactive Bi-directional, immediate feedback Go back to Week III’s and the

analytic matrix


John Seely Brown-Fundamental digital Dynamics


John Seely Brown-Amazing Digital Disk


John Seely Brown- Digital Age Shifts


New channels

Meetuphttp://www.meetup.com/

http://www.meetup.com/


Journalism and Bloggs

The CyberJournalist ListThe Internet's most complete directory of J-Blogshttp://www.cyberjournalist.net/cyberjournalists.html

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/cyberjournalists.html

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/cyberjournalists.html

Documents

J200: Journalism and Mass Media Journalism and the Digital Revolution