10The Internet

Mass Communication Gets Personal

The Development of the Internet

• Internet—a diverse set of independent networks, interlinked to provide its users with the appearance of a single, uniform network

• Packet Switching: Letting Computers Talk to Each Other Paul Baran (1964):

• designing a military communication network that could survive a nuclear strike

• packet switching—cutting messages into little pieces and sending them on along the easiest route to their final destination

message reassembled on the receiving computer

Donald Davies (England):• coined the name packet switching

ARPAnet

• Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)

• headed by J.C.R. Licklider

• universities supplied with large, expensive computers

• in Fall 1969 ARPAnet connected four institutions o initial nodes were:

• University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA)• Stanford Research Institute• University of California-Santa Barbara• University of Utah

o first message from UCLA to Stanfordo coincided with first moon landing, significance

Connecting Incompatible Networks

• creating the Internet’s protocols: • Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf • invented TCP/IP

TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol

• allowed for conversion and transmission of messages across previously incompatible networks

Commercial Networks Compuserve, Prodigy, and Quantum provided

access for non-academics 1989—Quantum became America Online

(AOL)• between 1993 and 1998, AOL subscribers grew

from 200,000 to 8 million

• faster, more efficient networks being built

• Internet2 Consortium

oas of 2007, participants include: • more than 200 U.S. universities• 70 corporations• 45 government agencies• 50 international organizations

The Next-Generation Internet

Computers as Communication Tools

Interpersonal Communication: • E-mail and Instant Messaging

electronic mail (e-mail)—a message sent from one computer user to another across a network

initially limited to messages on a single computer Ray Tomlinson (1972):

• developed a system to send messages across systems• created the addressing format• @ fit format, and was not already in use

• Instant Messaging instant messaging programs—e-mail systems that

allow users to:• chat with one another in real time• hold virtual meetings that span multiple cities• keep track of which of their “buddies” are online

most programs are incompatible:• violates a generally accepted standard for the Net

• Group Communication: Listservs and Newsgroups listservs—Internet discussion groups that use e-mail

to exchange messages between as few as a dozen people or as many as several thousand:

• users must subscribe to the group

newsgroup bulletin boards:• allow for international discussion of topics• usenet one of the largest

• Mass Communication: The World Wide Web Doug Englebart:

• in 1968, demonstrated computer interaction

Ted Nelson:• hypertext—material in a format containing links that

allow the reader to move easily from one section to another and from document to document

• all the world’s literature available in hypertext

• Tim Berners-Lee and the Birth of the World Wide Web: World Wide Web—a system that allows users to

view and link documents located anywhere in the world using standard software

in 1990 the European Organization for Nuclear Research had the first Web server online

• The World Wide Web has three major components: Uniform resource locator (URL)

• the address of content placed on the Web

Hypertext transfer protocol (http)• a method for sending text, graphics, or anything else

over the Internet from a server to a Web browser

Hypertext markup language (HTML)• the programming language used to create Web pages

A Vision for the Web • The basic technology is free.• Principles:

Information of all kinds should be available through the same window, or information space.

All documents on the Web must be equally accessible. There must be a single address that will take users to a

document. Users should be able to link to any document at any space. Users should be able to access any type of material from any

type of computer. Users should be able to create whatever types of relationships

between information that they want to. The Web should be a tool not just for information but also for

collaboration. There is no central control. The Web software should be available free to anyone who wants

to use it.

Bringing the Net to the Public Berners-Lee’s browser:

• limited to certain computers, no graphics

Mosaic:• first easy-to-use graphical Web browser • created by Marc Andreessen at the University of Illinois

at Champaign-Urbana • 1 million downloads after release

Andreesen and Jim Clark founded Netscape Communications Netscape Navigator:

• first commercial Web browser • 65 million using it in two years

The Last 100 Yards March 2006—42 percent of Americans had high-

speed connections at home, while 31 percent were using dial-up

broadband service: • ten times faster; allows for streaming audio, video

wireless access:• December 2006—34 percent using wireless connection

New Media and Online Entertainment

Traditional versus New Media click and mortars—traditional media companies that

publish news online • sites may include supplementary material only found

online• particularly effective with breaking news • can effectively cover multiple stories

customizable content

Movies and the Net: promotion of films and filmmakers requires high speed connection users unwilling to pay for online films forced to watch in front of their PC

• New Media: Slate and Salon, exclusively online magazines low publishing costs, quick updates

• readers expect updates, no subscription revenue

• Aggregator Sites Excite, Yahoo, Google, AOL, and Netscape

The Changing Nature of News: large amounts of information, accurate and otherwise distinguishing what is good from what is nonsense

can be difficult many stories start out on the Internet, then creep into

the mainstream media rumors can spread uncontrollably

Weblogs blog—a collection of links and commentary in

hypertext that can be created and posted on the Internet with relatively little effort:

• provides a forum for people to write, post content

• offers readers different perspectives

Search as a Medium search engines provide information and news some world governments restrict Internet searching

• France and Yahoo• China and Yahoo

The Long Tail of Internet News citizen journalism YouTube

The Internet and Society

The Hacker Ethic:

• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniaks’ blue boxes

• Stephen Levy, Hackers” “Digital trespassers”:

• access to computers should be unlimited and total • all information wants to be free • mistrust authority—promote decentralization • you should be judged by your skills

The Man Who Invented Cyberspace

• William Gibson coined the phrase “cyberspace” in his 1984 book

Neuromancer Gibson on cyberspace: “an expression of the hippie

ideals of freedom and self-expression” also credited with the word cyberpunk

Community on the Net

• Face-to-face communication not required

Is It Really a World Wide Web?

• 73 percent of Americans have Internet access at home.

• Only 16 percent of world population has Internet access:

• 13 percent in Brazil, 19 percent in Mexico

• Barriers:• language—80 percent of Web sites are English• costs and lack of basic technology:

electric and telephone service

Conflicts over Digital Media Controlling content on the Web:

• open forum where anyone can publish anything • great deal of inappropriate material for kids

filtering software• original Net built to prevents blocks and barriers

Privacy and the Web Amazon.com, online forms, registrations cookies—tiny files used to identify Web site visitors

and potentially track their actions on the Web • used for personalized content delivery

Clifford Stoll: Silicon Snake Oil assisted U.S. government in catching hackers in late

1980s internet replaces real interactions and experiences false sense of intimacy without the emotional

involvement

Convergence of Old and New Media: National Public Radio and News 2.0 Al-Jazeera started its English-language service online Politico and premature John Edwards announcement

From newspapers to brands: Arthur Sulzberger, New York Times publisher/owner

• states in a speech that the Times will continue to deliver news and advertising in whatever forms will turn a profit