Cmns 130

New Media ( Chapter 8 in

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”

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

Information Revolution

� Digitization: using computers to store,manipulate and transmit information in form of speech, text, data, and video more cheaply and faster than every before.

� Networking: distributed, fast digital networks wired and wireless

� Convergence: refers to merging of what were three separate industries: telecommunications, computing, and electronics or broadcasting

Cmns 130

Characteristics of New

Media

� Convergence of telecommunications and entertainment/broadcast media industries

� Wire or wireless communication

� Point to point or addressable

� Interactive ( two way) ( now multiple

conferencing)

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

Implication of Digitization

� Drive to animation and special effects

� Actors worried about cyber simulators replacing them

� Domination of nature: totally simulated worlds?

� Question of authenticity of image

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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

� FasterFmore global

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

Social Transformations of

the Internet � Utopic Visions

� Breaks oligopoly power � Allows user control over media

selected, compiled, used � Provides new forms of social

connection beyond space based � New communities of interest may

form ( beyond borders) � Together with other technologies

allow development of artificial intelligence/body/intelligence augmentation

� A Democratic Realization

� Dystopic Visions � Reinforces and extends it ( US

controls 65% share of world Internet server hosts)

� Keeps user in ‘invisible walled gardens’

� Has enabled social predation: largest use for pornography /weapons and illicit drug/and stalking on line

� New market intelligence aggregating in unprecedented scope: data 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 findFthus an authoritarian politics continued, not a democratic one

Cmns 130

World Wide Web

� Between 22 and 800 million sites– less than half indexed

� Main search engines:

� Google (500 m page estimate)

� Alta Vista294)

� Yahoo

� Iwon,

� Northern Light

� Fast

Cmns 130

Industry Structure

� No one owner of Internet � ISP providers route through a tangled web of other providers � One dominant PC software manufacturer: Microsoft ( Internet

Explorer) � Decade long anti trust suit settled out of court � Like AT&T, US Department of Justice concerned about dominant

market power, and predatory competition

� Until 1990s, little competition between telephones and cable companies: now starting

� Late 1990s a wave of Stock Speculation and large scale mergers for dot com sector just before its crash

� AOL ( which owns Netscape) tookover Time Warner: sign of new technology surpassing old

� Emergence of little known Netscapes of Power

Cmns 130

Ideology of the Internet

� Electronic Freedom Foundation � Neo liberal/New Media

� Free

� Egalitarian

� Decentralized

� Ad Hoc

� Open and peer to peer

� Experimental

� Autonomous

� Anarchic

� Media Oligopolies ( Incumbent Media) � Social Responsibility model:

but self not government regulation

� For Profit

� Hierarchical

� Systematized and Centralized

� Planned

� Proprietary

� Pragmatic

� Accountable

� Organized

� Reliable

� Source: Richard Campbell, Media and Culture, 41.

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

“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’

Cmns 130

Intellectual Property Law

� Part of Intellectual Property Law

� Governs the realm of inventions ( Patent Law) and brands or names ( Trade Mark Law), Trade Secrets ( Commercial Law) and Copyright

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

Canadian Copyright

Agencies

� CANCOPY: 130 courseware

� SOCAN

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

Napster

� Before 1999, just 5 companies, court cases on price fixing underway

� Developer launches Website wi 2 mi per day � Called P to P networking � Allowed visitors to search for files on other MP3 users’

hard drive and download to burn their own CDs: control over compilation shifts to consumers

� ‘freeware’: since Napster’s server did not house or archive the music, the owners thought they were exempt from copyright law and reasoned that prosecution should happen at the individual level: since so dispersed and large ( estimated in the millions a month) it was believed it was not possible to enforce the law

� Napster’s early success launched a wave of imitators:

Cmns 130

The Napster Case (see

Fleras: 262)

� Musical Recording Industry argued Napster infringed copyright– even Metallica!

� Damages estimated in the millions

� Refused to admit free sampling in fact increased exposure to music: eventual purchase

� Lined up a number of musicians to argue that the financial damage was to artists ( not the the multinationals)

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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.

Cmns 130

Cmns 130

The Argument

� Fleras: intrusion of commercial interests and government regulation has compromised the regulatory potential of the Internet

� McLuhan: the inception of a new media casts into sharper relief the premises, priorities and power relations of existing media ( page 249).

Cmns 130

Crucial Questions

� Should those who control the medium also control the message?

� Cases: GayTV and Shaw Cable

� BCE /CTV and Independent Film

� Sympatico(Bell) and Oliver Hate Site

� Issue is: will gatekeeper show preference/discriminate against competitors, or evade responsibility?

Cmns 130

The Consumer’s Guide to

the New Media

� 1.Question Everything that is seen, heard or read in new media. ( no FDA)

� 2. Conclude almost everything is to make money for someone.

� Assume everything is a potential threat to your privacy:

� Source: John Pavlik “ The Structure of the New Media Industry: in The Media Entertainment Industries, Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

The Critical Political Economy View: Lost

in Cyberspace by Dwayne Winseck

� Sees Intellectual Property Disputes as masking the larger problem: oligopoly of power and control

� Internet now dominated by big players, not an ideal perfect competition

� Convergence not new: 19th and 20th century waves and predicted in Canada since 1971

� In Canada: � Rogers allied with Microsoft and AT&T

� CanWest: news and TV and radio

� Bell Globemedia, CTV,Expressvue, Globe and Mail and Sympatico, largest ISP

Cmns 130

Impacts of Cross Media

Ownership

� Now vertically and horizontal companies can control all aspects of message

� Should those who control the medium also control the message?

� Yes: allows economies of scale, more money reinvested in content, better assumption of risk, more choice and convenience for consumers

� No: debt means less investment in content, loss of jobs, avoidance of risk, less choice and higher prices for consumers ( Winseck, 326)

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

Netscapes of Power

� Must watch “netscapes of power”: rise of gatekeepers and “walled gardens”

� Trend to bundling services for convenience

� Styling information services for personal preferences– and not challenging these ( narrower and narrower homogenous taste communities)

� Technologies of discrimination: owner preference in placing subsidiaries at front of retail shelf and burying competitive service providers

Cmns 130

Fleras: Rhetoric and

Reality ( p.269)

Cmns 130

Rhetoric & Reality

� Subversive/Freewheel

� Egalitarian

� Anarchic Power to the People

� Globalizing

� Free

� Empowering and Enlightening

� Diversity

� Corporatized/Control

� Ehaves/Ehavenots

� Authoritarian power to

the dollar

� Americanizing

� Marketing and

Advertising

� Make Money

� Conformity

Cmns 130

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, videoFand 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)

Cmns 130

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: @HomeFwide 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)

Cmns 130

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)

Cmns 130

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

Cmns 130

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