Professional Documents
Culture Documents
New Media
New Media
Text)
Definition & the Information Revolution
Changing economics
Changing regulation
Social Issues
Social Challenges:
The Knowledge Gap
Surveillance and loss of privacy
Sharing and Market “Hacktivism”
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History of New Media
Since 1970s, but especially 1990s, nations concerned with the “
information highway”
Treated the Internet like an 1840s challenge of the telegraph
Concern that to remain competitive in a global trading economy,
nations needed to “wire up”
Provide businesses, workers and consumers access to the
Internet for education, retail, entertainment
Frontier metaphors often used
Essential for economic transformation away from industrial to service/
information economies: the so-called “innovation agenda”
In Canada, wired telco/cable providers dominated agenda: wireless
only now emerging
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Building the Internet
Nations regulate telecommunications internationally:
agree on bandwidth of electronic transmission, spacing
of satellites, sharing of costs/ interconnection
Also develop technical standards for interconnection (
IP protocols such as MP3)
This is the international standards role of nations,
businesses and technical experts in creating a market
for technology, and ensuring consumers don’t buy
technology which will not work
Business play a bigger and bigger role influencing this
shadow world of standards: citizens underrepresented
But: companies still need states to rule on standards
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Definition of New Media
Digital communication
Used in the production, distribution and
reception of communication
Involves use of new communication
networks: Internet as mass medium
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Information Revolution
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Characteristics Continued
Interpersonal: ie. The terrain of telephony treats
telephone calls ( discretionary contact between two
consenting persons) as PRIVATE not PUBLIC
communication ( where telco distributors are not
responsible for content of message)
Multiple: can be Mass/Broadcast which is PUBLIC
communication ( broadcasters are responsible for
message in exchange for spectrum monopoly: hybrid
character)
Now a grey area of semi public/private communication
( can monitor cell phones, amass, monitor and store
unprecedented personal communication)
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Digital Communication
Where image text or sound is converted into binary
numbers- ones and zeroes ( 0/1)
Digital codes can duplicate, track store or play back
complex kinds of content
Strong when combined with ever greater chip capacity
in computers, and bundles of glass fibre ( fibre optics)
capable of carrying large quantities of information
Current “revolution”: the Digital Video Disk
DVDs: higher resolution, no rewinding,now coming
recordable for storage and intending to replace CDS
Also: wireless Internet ( games on the cell phone)
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Implication of Digitization
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The Role of the Media in the
Age of Digital Reproduction
Walter Benjamin, a noted cultural scholar, suggests that the infinite
reproducibility of the communication product ( CD, video, internet)
due to its low marginal cost of duplication changes the nature of
the work of art
But western capitalism has conceived of the realm of ideas and
expression as proprietary
Books, stories or photos may be copyrighted so they ‘belong’ to the
author and no one may borrow or copy them without permission,
attribution or payment
The high risk nature of entertainment ( so called hit rule) calls for
imitation or ‘clones’ in popular culture ( riding the next so called
fad or wave)
Infinite reproducibility, repackaging,repurposing and presenting
information as original
There are many pressures on ‘news’ or ‘entertainment’
manufacture for cutting corners on production: ethical standards to
prevent recycling content and presenting it as original are weak–
digital watermarking is a weak barrier
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Technical Potentials of
the New Media
Costs of production dropping: makes
media creation more accessible ( digital
camera and access to the net)
Costs of distribution down
Interactive// less hierarchical
Faster…more global
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The Internet
What: a vast network of high speed wires and
satellite relays linking computers worldwide
No central hub: thousands of computer nodes (
it is highly distributed)
Uses a type of switching that is hard to trace:
designed after WW2 in the RAND corporation
to avoid worldwide military attack
Now used for: email, commerce, chat lines,file
sharing etc.
Sometimes synonmous with on line world
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Components of the
Internet
World Wide Web
Internet Service Providers (AOL Time
Warner; Sympatico,Telus, Shaw@Home,
AT&T)
Portals ( MSN)
Browsers: Explorer, Netscape
Search Engines and directories ( Google,
etc)
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Rate of Diffusion
Each generation of technology ( telegraph,
telephone,radio, satellite to cable TV, VCRs) had an
increasingly rapid rate of diffusion
Key is where it reaches ‘mass’ or majority ( 60% or
more) of consumers.
Internet has done so within one decade: only other
technology to do so, but not quite as fast were the VCR
and cell phones
Now well over 75% of Canadians have access: that
number rises to 100% under 25
The Internet the fastest techology in rate of social
adaption
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Impacts
Changed the way we work
Accellerated space time compression:
globalization processes
Convergence of computers and distribution
allows greater efficiency of control and
communication
Much cheaper to sell via Internet than in person (
1/100th cost per transaction for banks, airlines)
Average person is now estimated to spend 187
hours a year on line ( source: Penguin Media and
Information 2003)
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Social Transformations of
the Internet
Utopic Visions Dystopic Visions
Breaks oligopoly power Reinforces and extends it ( US
Allows user control over media controls 65% share of world Internet
selected, compiled, used server hosts)
Provides new forms of social Keeps user in ‘invisible walled
connection beyond space based gardens’
New communities of interest may
form ( beyond borders) Has enabled social predation: largest
Together with other technologies use for pornography /weapons and
allow development of artificial illicit drug/and stalking on line
intelligence/body/intelligence New market intelligence aggregating
augmentation in unprecedented scope: data
A Democratic Realization shadows and on line surveillance
Few use the Net for political news,
mobilization: while alt.news and other
organizations are growing:
commercial search engines bury
them so they are difficult to find…thus
an authoritarian politics continued,
not a democratic one
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World Wide Web
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Ideology of the Internet
Electronic Freedom Media Oligopolies (
Foundation Incumbent Media)
Neo liberal/New Media Social Responsibility model:
Free but self not government
Egalitarian regulation
Decentralized For Profit
Ad Hoc Hierarchical
Open and peer to peer Systematized and
Centralized
Experimental
Planned
Autonomous
Proprietary
Anarchic
Pragmatic
Accountable
Organized
Reliable
Cmns 130 Source: Richard Campbell,
Media and Culture, 41.
The Business Case for On
line Start Ups
Sector characterised by rapidly falling costs
Transistorization etc.
Costs for average computer falling 30% per year ( just 0.01% of costs
in 1970)
E commerce applications growing, but still less than 5% of retail(
slower than supposed)
Personal messaging ( email) very high
Use for Information /Research high: but rise of subscription media
( eg. Newspaper on line, growing only among global travel
segment)
Drive to get video downloadable for entertainment (video cell
phones banned in washrooms)
Still largest volume of business is porn worldwide
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Globalization of the
Internet
US has privatized domain names but retained control
over their allocation
This is a sore point for Europe and other powerful
economic regions
Internet content providers are estimated to be 98%
English, 87% commercial, and dominantly US in origin
Other foreign governments now trying to:
Invest in promotion of infrastructure
Offer government services on line
Promote the development of indigenous services
( eg. Canada: New Media Content Fund at Telefilm and the
Canadian Television Fund)
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Canadian Shape of
Convergence
Links telecom and broadcast and news
No computer sector
Does link portals and so on
First impacts of convergence have been
to de-localize news and media production
Consolidation of media production
Centralization in a few cities
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Regulation of the Internet
Canada ‘s CRTC decided in 1999 not to regulate the Internet : to
leave it to open competition
Australia and Europe are taking very different directions
1996 US Telecommunications Act ( calling for deregulation) is
opposed world wide:
It is essentially impossible for one country to act as a content
gatekeeper for a world community– Michael Epstein, quoted in
Campbell, 57.
Hate and offensive contents are of growing social concern (
especially sexual predation on the Net)
1996 US Communications Decency Act made it a felony to transmit
obscene, indecent, or harassing material on the Internet where
children might see it: struck down n grounds Internet no different from
a book store: not like broadcast ACLU v. Janet Reno, 1998)23
Rise of ‘filters’/ ratings? On line entertainment
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“Hacktivism”
Development of Open Source Code: Linux which is free open
source operating system challenges Microsoft
File sharing “coops” of the type of Napster ( trading MP3s)
growing
“junk” and growth of viruses
Romantic vision of small content providers surging on the net
Eg. The ‘garage bands’ now can find an audience; the poet
self publish, the digital video camcorder allow the production of
broadcast quality documentaries for $20,000 versus 1.2 million
in the TV industry
A technologically optimistic view: technology as emancipatory,
“revolutionary” shattering the powers of entrenched business,
cultural authorities
What Winseck in the courseware calls ‘fantasy’
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Intellectual Property Law
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The Canadian Copyright
Act
“protection”
For the life of the author plus 50 years
Where the creator has the sole right to perform the creative act,
grant permission or a “license” to reproduce it, or copy it.
What is not copyrightable:
Facts– but the compilation of them ( i.e how they are interpreted, is)
Ideas- unless they are manifest in a drawing, paper, or written form (
see Vivian and Maurin, page 365)
Copyright: important in book publishing, sound tracks to films,
films, music
All TV and radio based on copyright payment to the performers
they use
Increasingly important in international trade, all forms of academic
expression
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Canadian Copyright
Agencies
CANCOPY: 130 courseware
SOCAN
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US Digital Millenium
Copyright Act ( 1998)
Computer users who copy or distribute
the digital expression of others without
their permission are liable to prosecution
ISP’s may avoid liability if they police and
remove offenders
Arose because of spread of MP3 ( a
digital compression technology)
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Napster
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Napster defense
An information source
Not ‘housing’ or copying
Intention to move to a subscription
service
Struggled to settle out of court
Agreed to charge a monthly fee
Purchased by Bertelsmann
Lost Case
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Effects of Napster
Now usurped in the market ( Morpheus , Kazaa and others) but
trying a comeback
Victor? : to large companies:
BUT– they introduced 2 tier pricing to allow new artists to break in
They reduced price of CDs
More services experimenting with subscription and transaction fees
Major transformation in Music Happening
Victor? To consumers
Forcing a major rethink of copyright
Hierarchy of value: new versus brand artists merit more protection
Should IP be free? It takes a community to raise an artist.
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The Argument
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Crucial Questions
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The Myth of Convergence
Not new
Since 19th century
Telegraph and global news agencies born
together ( Winseck)
AT&T ran RCA/Films until State department
busted it
In Canada today, we have one of the most
consolidated media systems in the world, with
a high degree of cross-media ownership
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Risk and Political
Economy Game
Inventors of new technologies generate new patents ( ham
heaven)
When market become established: patents bought or litigated (
crisis of capital for development)
Incumbent industries either block development or buy out new
technology
If new technology threatens core business of old, then predatory
behavior, or massive buyout
If new technology too risky, then businesses buy not make new
service.
Thus new technologies rarely challenge the incumbents, but over
50 years can see major change in owner players: market efficient
at reducing risk and adapting to change
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The Critical Political Economy View: Lost
in Cyberspace by Dwayne Winseck
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Impacts of Cross Media
Ownership
Now vertically and horizontal Yes: allows economies of
companies can control all scale, more money reinvested
aspects of message in content, better assumption
Should those who control the of risk, more choice and
medium also control the convenience for consumers
message? No: debt means less
investment in content, loss of
jobs, avoidance of risk, less
choice and higher prices for
consumers ( Winseck, 326)
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Canadian Argument
Canada does have more choice among services
Highest level of cable, cell, Internet penetration in G-8
Chronic shortage/ market failure in high cost production
Shrinking public investment in non commercial or community media
Indicators News
More news services, fewer private foreign news bureaus, more reliance on
wire services; diminishing number of jobs
Indicator Entertainment
Digital channels not allied with big Canadian companies on verge of
bankruptcy
Can’t get carried by cable companies, or carried at too high a wholesale rate
Services high level of repetition( estimated more than 66% reruns)
Lag of asymmetry: late on video file swapping, speed of video downloads
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Winseck’s conclusion
In short, there is a resilience in the “old media”
that will not yield
Incumbents battle new entrants and either buy
them up or forge partnerships, or force them
out of business
People still mostly rely on TV for their political
information
Internet works to extend and conserve existing
market dominance in cyberspace
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Netscapes of Power
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Fleras: Rhetoric and
Reality ( p.269)
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Rhetoric & Reality
Subversive/Freewheel Corporatized/Control
Egalitarian Ehaves/Ehavenots
Anarchic Power to the Authoritarian power to
People the dollar
Globalizing Americanizing
Free Marketing and
Empowering and Advertising
Enlightening Make Money
Diversity Conformity
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Social Issues:
Surveillance
Network architecture is now “smart”
Before, telcos did not know the content of messages
Now, they do. Bits are monitored, stored in charting
flow and effective service
Nortel and Cisco can establish network architectures
which:
Identify each traffic type-Web, email, voice, video…and isolate
the type of application even down to specific brands, by the
interface used, by the user typeand individual user
identification or by the site address (winseck:331)
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Surveillance 2
Rise of “cookies” ( spies on content, personal
information and preferences jeapordizing privacy)
Technological potential of building a complete ‘data
shadow’ of the consumer, to better market to them
Emerging self regulation of services
Eg restrictive private contracts for use, limiting video
downloads, for example, in absence of regulation permitting it.
Or: @Home…wide open powers to remove offensive matter
which is too prone to authoritarian censorship
Still major fights: first over spam ( reaccessing your
email accounts, and next data shadowing/market
surveillance)
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The Walled Garden
AOL Time Warner term
Disney too
Keep users within designated zones for as long as
possible ( Winseck, 335)
How?
By creation of content and service menus, organization of
hyperlinks, bias of search engings, network architecture,
promotion, content synergies,elimination of bypasses
Creation of walled gardens: safe, predictable, branded
Eg: Disney assumes role of immigration officer in AOL’s world:
if people enter their site, and then leave AOL, contract can be
cancelled ( Winseck, 336)
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The Information Gap
Rest of the World is less than one-tenth on the
way to cyberspace
Vast continents ( Africa) left out of “global
information highway”
Rich consumers and those educated elites the
first to embrace computers and the Internet
Poor, uneducated slow: many countries do not
have policies to help individuals(eg. Computers
in the home), although do help schools
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The Knowledge Gap
Information and Knowledge gap is widening:
despite mass penetration of the Internet in
Canada, still high levels of illiteracy, ( under
25%) relatively low levels of university
education ( several points below Europe), and
growing child poverty: estimates place one in
four to one in three kids below poverty level
Structurally higher levels of unemployment,
precarious jobs
Gendered landscape of technological control
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