Week 12 -- Readings & Take aways & RELFECTION PAGE - Lesson 12

Web Theory An Introduction by Robert Burnett and P. David Marshall - Chapter 8-end of book (page 152-201)

Chapter 8


THE WEB OF INFORMATIONAL NEWS

(page 152)

The archdeacon comtemplated the gigantic cathedral for a time in silence, then he sighed and stretched out his right hand towards the printed book lying open on his table and his left hand towards Notre-Dame, and he looked sadly from the book to the church. 'Alas, this will kill that.' -- Victor Hugo Notre Dame de Paris

New forms of digital news delivery=local/national and global communications

(page 153)
Multimedia presentations/news/bandwidth/enormous flood of information/

(page 155)
Approaches to delivery of news/digital/newspaper databases/single scrolling window

(page 156)
Usenet newsgroups=narrow subject focus

(page 157)
Push technology=1996 dig news over Internet

(page 162)
Alternatives online/mediachannel/mediachannel.org//designed to engagecitizens with their media and to attract a broad, general audience

(page 163)
Gatekeeping structures of contemporary television networks and newsmagazines

(page 166)
Fans can find plots/storylines/informal news/email groups/all before final episodes i.e. XFiles example

(page 167)
Newspapers are created by journalists, who now have to master a new set of tools to be able to make use of the online medium in the most relevant way. On the one hand, the Internet offers new ways of collecting and reporting information, and the integration of Internet access into the newsroom and enconomisation of the news gathering process will dominate furute news production. On the other hand, making use of the medium to publish newspapers also requires a completely new set of skills. One that at this point few journalists have. They have to learn how to organize stories into structures conducive to interactive reading online. They might need to learn about using audio, video, animations, interactive maps, and databases. These narrative techniques and the critical thinking that goes into them appear to be among he most important skills for online journalists to possess.
van Dusselforp, Scullio an Bierhoff 1999:13

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Chapter 9

WEB OF ENTERTAINMENT
(page 174)
How digital technology and the Internet influence entertainment


Digital formats/CD/networks/MP3/Napster

(page 175)
Webportals/generate audiences/brand name/accessibility/consumers/broadband/mobile/wireless

(page 177)
playlists/dDolby on Internet/music industry/analogue moves into digital transmission

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Week 12 - Holding on to Reality by Albert Borgmann

Introduction:

(page 7)
Information can illuminate, transform and displace reality. Without tracking and documenting experiences, we can forget about them easily.
(page 8)
Information technology can change the way we look at information and transform it to a different level of reality sometimes challenging what is real.
(page 9)
IA has become a vital part in our post modern culture and a valuable resource.
(page 10)
The flatworld of things like television and now the internet can flatten our senses while we endure the pressures of the real world.


Part One: NATURAL INFORMATION Information about Reality


Chapter 1

(page 9)
The Origin of Information
Information is an old wordverb/Latin informare, to impose a form on some ting, on the mind, to instruct, to improve it/companion of materialization

Birth of information-as a prominent word topic of knowledge/answer problems

(page 12)
Cognitive Information
-structures of environment fail to mesh with our physical senses
-awareness measure of information/seeing object cant be determined by simply knowing what was seen
(page 13)
-ambiguity is considered/Constructivists/skeptics

(page 14)
Information and Presence
-Is having information the same as knowing?
-direct/indirect knowledge
-knowledge by acquaintance/knowledge by description


Chapter Two


THE NATURE OF INFORMATION



The information Relation
(page 17)
-things that are present immediately and things we have heard or read about=instructive information
-about a distant thing
-it delivers not the thing itself but a sense of the thing - a message
(page 20)
-a sign can loose its reference when it is presented at an unnatural scale
-information has to be a relation of at least four terms:person/sign/thing/context
(page 22)
Intelligence
person
sign
thing
context

Chapter Three

Ancestral Information

Natural Signs and Significance

(page 24,25)
-Our ancestors was basically about natural information/evolutionary adaptation/hunting/gathering/stories/serves as point of ref/referring to a wider world/landmarks to encompass order/crucial signs/

(page 28)
-in our digital world now massive amount of information/pruned away all the irrelevant information
-covey information/shaping power
(page 29)
-meaningful structures formed by humans
-eloquence of things makes it possible for signs to be about some thing
(page 30)
once set apart from its natural surroundings, a sign is no longer incidental - its now intentional

Chapter Four

FROM LANDMARKS TO LETTERS

(page 38)
Remembering before Writing
-intelligence provided someone with information by a sign about something within a context
-ledgers/accounts/files/calendars/memos/letters/scores/plans/maps/databases/-suddenly disappear so would order/coherence in society
(page 39)
-language correspond patterns of content and meaning formulas that capture a person, thing, setting in a memorable phrase used over and over again
(page 40)
-counting to remember the number of whatever
(page 43)
-Writing=3 dimensional reality of signs reduced to two dimensions
-what/how many/how much/

.........................................................................

Week 12 Reflection

This weeks reading covers the impact that the digital divide has taken (and still has) on the way we delivery formats of communication such the news and music. These new forms of digital methods of delivery for the news spread into the local, national and global communications. With the new ways multimedia tools were developing, journalists had to learn how to use them for presentations, news, bandwidth combined with the enormous flood of information.


Journalist were pushed to new approaches to the delivery of the news using digital formats to create newspaper databases and single scrolling windows. Some digital structures such as Usenet newsgroups would create the news online and narrow the subject focus so that information was compressed for online access. A good example of a news group developed online is Mediachannel.org is a website that is designed to engage users with their media and to attract a broad, general audience.

The news online doesn't just limit to newspapers but also expands to television and magazines. There are structures in place such as gatekeeping structures of contemporary television networks and newsmagazines to use for managing the structure of the news online. Users can now find out about plots to movies and television shows along with storylines and final episodes such as The XFiles. Informal news can be accessed for local, national and global efforts alongside email groups and chat rooms and now we have twitter and facebook for up to date information.

Digital technology and the Internet has had a major impact and influence on the world of entertainment. New and improved digital formats such as CD and iPods available across the network on the Internet and format like MP3 have monopolized the music and video world as we know it. These new digital formats quickly outdated old ones such as tape and VHS and is gaining headway on making CD and DVD obsolete. Companies such as Napster has had to create laws and controlling factors in order to prevent users from downloading without paying videos and music.

Webportals have made entertainment very accessible generating new audiences that otherwise might not have enjoyed venues of entertainment. The digital movement has also created an explosion of brand name and accessibility to consumers via broadband and mobile and wireless devices.

Creative formats for music such as playlists help users personalize their listening entertainment. The music industry has had to scrample making laws that protect musicians and copyrights so that music and videos can still receive the financial commerce they deserve. As analogue moved into digital transmission, the way we communicate and entertain ourselves has exploded into a more versatile, wireless and mobile way of using music, videos and communication, all without landline telephones, radios or televisions.

The next questions that we are facing is the extinction of these old devices. How more can we make our lives easy, mobile and protect our rights, privacy and still be entertained.

We have transformed the way we communicate since hunting and gathering. Marks and signs have be transformed into writing with meanings, counting, and the memory of meaning and from a three dimensional format into a two dimensional format(writing) and now a virtual format (the internet).