COMM 209 EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE THURLOW ET AL Technology o Technology can in principle be very far reaching o Broadly speaking technology is how people modify the natural world to suit their own purposes From the Greek word TECHNE meaning art or artifice or craft technology literally means the act of making or crafting but more generally it refers to the diverse collection of processes and knowledge that people use to extend human abilities and to satisfy human needs and wants o Not just computers or cameras but technology also includes things like a doorbell vaccum clock forks tv toothbrush o It is also as old as the wheel and writing and as simple handwriting o Printing press mid 15th century telegraph 1840s telephone 1870s tv o These all enabled mass publication and far greater speed and 1930s distance o There is always a distinctions to be drawn between what technologies are SUPPOSED or designed to do and what people ACTUALLY do with them Whatever the intentions and goals of the designers and inventors of different communication technologies ORDINARY people inevitably make their own decisions about WHETHER they want to use the technology and more importantly HOW they want to use it based on their own needs and values o Communication technology as new if it s digital and computer based o The Internet is an almost global network connecting millions of computers using a number of agreed formats known as protocols users are able to transfer data or files from one computer to the next the internet is not a single communication technology but rather a collection of different technologies for communication There is no single way of communicating on the internet o According to the almost mythical history of the Internet it was originally envisioned in the 1960s by the US Department of Defense as a means of securing information exchange in the event of nuclear war And later taken up by academics Also email was unexpectedly taken up by users as a way of doing things socially rather than things scientific o Convergences we simply mean the coming together and or overlapping of different aspects of something Internet o Hobbes detailed timeline of the internet o Web o Developed originally as a means of scientific information exchange in the 1990s the WEB is a system of computer servers connected through the Internet and which supports the exchange of files or webpages formatted mostly in a simple programming language known as HTML HyperText Markup Language o The Internet and Web ARE NOT TECHNICALLY SYNONYMOUS o The WEB is a technology within a technology it is just one part of the Internet which also hosts the transfer of other types of documents or files best examples of which are emails and discussion group postings o The WEB is to the INTERNET what LANGUAGE is to COMMUNICATION it can account for everything we do but it is unquestionably a major element in the larger system o The WEB is the MOST IMPORTANT and MOST DOMINANT COMPONENT OF THE INTERNET o Email chat bulletin boards are just about all web based these days o Convergence of the internet and the web Genres of CMC computer mediated communication technologies that are commonly studied o Emails listservs and mailing lists o Newsgroups bulletin boards and blogs o Internet relay chat and instant messaging o Metaworlds and visual chat o Personal homepages and webcams These are all technologies within technologies which facilitate interaction These are the places in cyberspace where people hang out together and the niches where they are sociable Relationship between cyberspace and the real world o CYBERSPACE is about the people who use the Internet and the different uses they put it to Used to be the exclusive domain of relatively few people Today it is just an added dimension in the lives of many people and it s hard to imagine many people living in isolation from the internet and web o CYBER SOCIETY a term which perhaps describes better the way that communication mediated by the internet is all about social life people interactions relationships identities and communities Its for this reason that we re less interested in the technology per se than in its human users and uses o REAL LIFE o Overlap between CYBERSPACE REAL WORLD DIAGRAM sometimes the difference is sometimes impossible to tell o DIAMOND AND BATES What is ARPAnet What is NSFnet How are the two related DIZZARD What is the information age o Is an inadequate phrase for o The Information Age also known as the Computer Age Digital Age or New Media Age is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization to an economy based on information computerization The onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age What are the three stages in the three stage progression toward an o information age o 1 Beginning with changes in the basic information production and distribution industries It is concentrated in what the Department of Commerce s 1977 study called the primary information sector This sector is dominated by a relatively small group of large corporations that are the builders and operators of the basic information and communication infrastructure o 2 Leading to a greater range of services available for other industries and for government it involves the industries and organizations both private and public that will be the primary users of the new high technology network Their dependence on the services of the new technology is already extensive and it is increasing exponentially o 3 Resulting in a vastly expanded range of information facilities at the consumer level most far reaching stage This stage will accelerate during the coming decade This is the mass consumerization or high technology information services POSTMAN What is the new problem we are facing in regard to information and why is this problem important o Information glut information incoherence information meaninglessness o We have transformed information into a form of garbage and ourselves into garbage collectors Why is narrative important What function does it serve o Narrative is important because it helps people know what to do with information o There was the great narrative of the melting pot which is now being challenged in a return to tribalism o Today tribalism is a kind of response to the decline of great national