Chapter 1 Understanding Multimedia

Dr. Tony DeMars, Texas A&M-Commerce

REMINDER: Technology use only for taking notes. No open web pages, no texting, no cell phone use, no Facebooking, etc.

Social media is a broad term used to describe the many web-based tools that enable computer-mediated interpersonal, group, and mass communication. •Blogging•Content Sharing•Social Bookmarking •Social Networking •Wiki

Social Media

Metaphors

• The Apple Lisa computer used icons to represent virtual versions of common, everyday objects found in a real office.• What preceded this first GUI?

Metaphors

• Not metaphors:• Is a painter’s canvas ‘media’?• Is a sculptor’s stone ‘media’?• How and why do humans communicate?-dance, music, etc.

Multimedia is any combination of:• Text• Graphics• Video• Audio• Animation

→ in a distributable format that consumers can interact with using a digital device. How different from interactive media?

Multimedia

In addition to traditional print and online media channels, the mobile marketplace offers readers access to information and entertainment through a growing cadre of digital devices and gaming apps.

Mobile Marketplace

• Hypermedia makeswatching a videoonline a moreinteractive andnonlinear experience.• Compare hypertext• Links, connections• 2-way, multipath

Hypermedia

Visitors to J. K. Rowling’s official website are treated to an interactive virtual desktop.

http://www.jkrowling.com/

Catfish King Kid’s Page

Virtual Desktop

• How important is ‘storage elsewhere’?• How important is ‘access anywhere’?

Cloud computing

• Web 1.0• Web 2.0• Web 3.0• ‘Semantic Web’

Three Generations of the Web

• Mosaic 1.0 was released in 1993.

• It was one of the first web browsers to combine colored images with text on the same screen.

• The world was changed forever.

Mosaic

• 14.4 dial upconnection (or less)

• ‘local number’ • Note kB – not MB or gB

• Chat rooms• America Online and CompuServe (pre-Internet)

• 10 hours access per month

• Hypertext article

• Newsgroups• ‘The Well’

Memories…

• Old Media:7 traditional forms of mass communication

• New Media: emerging digital technologies

From Old to New Media

PRINT MEDIA•Books•Newspapers•Magazines

TIME-BASED MEDIA•Sound Recordings•Movies•Radio•Television

Old Media (Legacy Media)

1. The mass media are the product of large organizations that operate with great expense.

2. The mass media are directed towards a relatively large, heterogeneous, and anonymous audience.

3. The mass media are publicly transmitted and timed to reach the most audience members simultaneously.

3 Characteristics of Old Media

Source: Sociologist Charles Wright, 1950s

‘Citizen Journalism’

User Generated Content

Blogs

But now…

Sent from my iPhoneSent with two cans and a string

CNN iReport givesusers of CNN.coma public outlet forposting opinion pieces,news reports, photos,and video.

Mainstream Distribution

Fox News provides the uReport iPhone app to citizen journalists for instant filing of user-generated photos.

Emerson College in Boston has a ‘newscast app’

Citizen Journalism

• The ‘mainstream media’ must adapt or become irrelevant• But we still need large groups and distribution:--9/11--Oklahoma tornado--Super storm Sandy

Adapting

• With support for mobileapps and social media,Pandora’s reachextends far beyondthe Web.• What’s wrong with ‘Internet Radio’?• What challenging about ‘Internet Video’?

Internet Radio

• E-books• Online newspapers

• Social magazine apps

• Blogs• Music downloading

• On-demand streaming media

• Internet radio• Smart TV

New Media

• Netflix• Hulu Plus• YouTube• Sat TV anywhere?• Licensing & copyright

• Aereo• UGC vs. professional

• ‘Complete access to anything from anywhere’

• ‘Semantic web’• ‘Computer: play ‘lighting strike scene from the movie “Back to the Future.’

‘Online DVR’

• Did you say “fighting scene” from Star Trek: Insurrection?

• No• Did you mean ‘Lightning Scene’ from the movie ‘Twister’

• ‘virtual reality’ room environment? – say it, play it

• Siri examples?• Autocorrect examples

‘Online DVR’

• Businesses can continue to reach readers through traditional methods ofprint advertising and/or through new media channels of content delivery via the Web (online), mobile, and tablet technologies.• But – RTV 453

New Media & Advertising

Smartphones

• A phone was once “just” a phone.

• Today, the smart phone represents the convergence of many previously discrete communication technologies.

Convergence

• Numerical Representation

• Structural Modularity

• Automation

• Variability

• Cultural Transcoding

5 Principles of New Media

Source: Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

In Adobe Photoshop, filters can be used to create visual effects using mathematical algorithms.

1. Principle of Numerical Representation

But, reality?

This composite image is constructed of four separate elements: sky, sun, house, and person. Each element resides on its own editable layer, allowing the designer to easily change any part of the design without affecting the others.

2. Principle of Structural Modularity

3. Principle of Automation

The photo gallery on the right was created in Adobe Photoshop CS5 with automation provided by the SimpleViewer plug-in.

Using Adobe Bridge, you can automatically rename a group of selected images and copy them to a new folder.

3. Principle of Automation

This image of a red boat was saved first in Adobe Photoshop’s native PSD file format. However, the program offers lots of options for saving a document file in a different image format.

4. Principle of Variability

• We’re in the middle of significant changes in how people communicate• The last significant change happened with radio (TV was an extension)• Connection to others is getting easier• Worldwide connection is becoming commonplace• ‘Ubiquity of technology’• Undermining of previous power relationships is occurring• We are communicating differently (or) we are not

•So what does this all mean?

What changed?

• From Arpanet to Internet

•New program – the World Wide Web: Tim Berners-Lee

• GUI, personal computers

•Web pages and apps to communicate with users

•Web page based on html

•How did the Internet start?

•How was the initial ‘version’ used? ▫Newsgroups▫Email▫Games

•Some quiz / test review ideas…

T or F: Timothy Berners-Lee invented the Internet.

False. He invented the World Wide Web.

A(n) ------ is a mathematical sequence or set of instructions for solving a problem.

algorithm

____ is broad term used to describe the many web-based tools that enable computer-mediated interpersonal, group, and mass communication. Social media

Timothy Berners-Lee referred to what generation of the Web as the Semantic Web.

‘Web 3.0’

The term ________________ was first used by Thomas Kuhn to describe a monumental change that would challenge the scientific community’s preconceived ideas and assumptions about natural phenomena.

Paradigm shift

The term _______ is used to describe the methods of new media companies like Pandora Radio to deliver content to a niche audience with shared values and interests.

narrowcasting

Nicolas Negroponte used the phrase “from atoms to bits” to describe a radical shift during the digital revolution in the production of intellectual content from material to electronic formats, an idea often called the ------- .

Negroponte shift

_________________ is the merging together of previously discrete technologies into a unified whole.

convergence

The execution of a series of sequential actions performed by a digital device or software application is called ____.

Batch processing

______ is an automated background process activated by a computer application whenever numerical calculations or transformations are performed.

rendering

Discussion• What are some good things communication technologies provide?

• What are some damaging things done by communication technologies?

• What are the critical skills for everyone working in a field based on reaching an audience with content?

• How important is music to a society? Radio? Streaming music? Buying music? Live music performance?

• How important is storytelling to a society? Movies? Creating stories for others?

• How do you consumer media content? How has that changed in your lifetime?