Exploring the Internet

91.113-021Instructor: Michael Krolak

Tonight

• Roll Call

• Class Announcements

• Weekly Blog

• Internet as a New Media

• Creating a Media Page

• Assignments

Class Announcements

• Mid Term Vote

• Carly’s Proposition: The students missed a week of class last week. They were supposed to have the media lab before the mid-term. Either give them an extra week, or hand out the mid term a week later.

Further Reading

Blog o’ the Week

“Search engines- We've all used them at some point. Whether it was to research for a school essay, or looking up a simple website. Where would we be without Google or Yahoo? Looking up information in books and journals. I recently had a conversation with someone about how much harder our lives would be without Google. We were talking about papers for class and saying, "remember back when, we were assigned a research topic and the specifics of the paper were... at least 3 book references, 2 internet website, 2 encyclopedia exerpts.. now we can just go online and Google that stuff." We went on to talk about how anything you need to know can be found somewhere on the internet, all you have to do is go to www.google.com and type in what you're looking for, then a list of suggestions comes up. Easy as that.

There are also other ways of finding information without using a search engine. A friend of mine showed me Smarter Child. Just add the screen name SmarterChild to your buddy list and send him an IM when you have a question. All you have to do it IM SmarterChild and say "Forecast Lowell Ma." and he will respond to your IM with the 5 day forecast for Lowell, Ma. SmarterChild can also look up movie listings, and look up words in the dictionary. IM SmarterChild and say "define computer" and a definition from the American Heritage Dictionary is returned to you. When you first IM SmarterChild he'll ask you some questions about yourself, but other then that, it's just that easy.

It is because of search engines that we can look up information on any topic. But be careful of the wording, because one wrong word and your suddenly launched into a web full of porn and other garbage. My friend told me he googled "Old Spice" for a marketing class (meaning the men's cologne) and well, we can only imagine what kind of websites he found. And someone else showed me something funny. If you go to Google.com and in the box type in the words "miserable failure." The biography of George Bush tops the list of websites Google finds. You can hit "i'm feeling lucky" instead of "search" and The Biography of George Bush comes right up. I mean no offense to anyone who is a George Bush supporter, it was just something funny a friend showed me.“

What is Mass Media?

media

n. pl. of medium

1. A contraction of the term media of communication, referring to those organized means of dissemination of fact, opinion, and entertainment such as newspapers, magazines, cinema films, radio, television, and the World Wide Web

The Printing Press (1451)

• Printing Press is the first form of Mass Media

• Allowed many copies of the same content to be distributed within a short period of time.

The Spanish Inquisition (1502)

• King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella set up prior censorship both before printing and before issuing a permit for importing books.

• Every bookseller had to have foreign publications examined.

• Every printer must have a printing licence.

The Trial of John Peter Zenger (1735)

• NY governor, William Cosby demanded half of previous governor’s salary

• Zenger printed an article by James Alexander attacking Cosby.

• Cosby ordered Zenger’s press be burned.

• Cosby had Zenger tried for publishing seditious libel, but a jury acquitted him.

The Boston Massacre (1770)

• March 5, 1770, a couple of young boys began throwing snowballs at soldiers

• A crowd gathered and began heckling the British soldiers.

• Five were killed when the British panicked and fired upon the crowd.

• Sam Adams used the event as a means for generating propaganda against the British.

1st Amendment of the US Constitution (1787)

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”

Sedition Act (1798)

SEC. 2. And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the Constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

Telephone as Media (1890)

• Theatrephone (1890) Paris, France– For a half-franc, one could hear

a play or a concert• Telefon Hirmondó (1893) Budapest,

Hungary– A 13 hour news service over the

telephone• The Electrophone (1890) London,

England– Hear comedies, music, and

plays• Telephone Herald (1912) Newark,

New Jersey– News delivered over the phone

The Spanish American War (1898)

• Remington: “There is no war, request to be recalled." William Randolph Hearst: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war."

• Peak of Yellow Journalism• “Remember the Maine! To

hell with Spain."

Early Commercial Radio (1901)

In the United States, a series of companies sold stock at vastly inflated prices, backed mostly by vastly inflated visions of the companies' profits. High prices were already being paid for stock in companies with minimal assets and limited prospects. In November, 1904 analysts warned that there still was no reason to believe that the operations of any of the U.S. radio companies were even remotely profitable. By 1907, only a handful still existed.

Source: http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec006.htm

The Radio Era (1922)

• Many amateurs and small companies were broadcasting.

• In March 1922, federal regulations allow only 67 stations to broadcast.

• Speculations that radio would bring World Peace

• Radio enthusiasts stole telephone receivers from phone booths so they could listen.

• Popular Shows– Children’s stories– Music– News

Motion Pictures (1891)

• The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the moveable first motion picture camera

• Black Maria Studios begins filming

• Early audiences were amazed by even the most mundane moving images - an approaching train or a parade, women dancing, dogs terrorizing rats, and twisting contortionists.

• For the first ten years, there were only three major movie studios.

The Television Era (1948)

• After WWII, families had saved enough money to purchase televisions.

• Televisions quickly became an obsession and an icon within American society.

USENET (1979)

• USENET allows people to collectively interact about news, entertainment and recreational topics.

Zines (1986)

• Although started in the 30s, not popularized until the mid 80s.

• Murder Can Be Fun becomes the first popular zine.

24 Hour News Media (1991)

• CNN’s coverage of the First Gulf War won it popular appeal and changed the expectations of news media consumers.

• CNN refused to be debriefed by US Military, because it would compromise their journalistic ethics.

CNN.COM (1995)

• First major news site on the Internet• Other news agencies were quick to follow

Monica Lewinsky (1998)

• Bill Clinton had an affair with White House Intern, Monica Lewisky.

• He denied “knowing that Ms. Lewinsky woman”.

• First time an online “journalist”, Matt Drudge, broke a story.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

• First major film to use the Internet as its primary source of advertising.

• Rumors spread that the movie was a documentary through the Internet.

Jane’s Intelligence Review (1999)

• Editor of magazine stops publication of an article on cyber-terrorism because he feels the article is not entirely accurate.

• In response, he asks a popular geek forum called Slashdot.org to review and critique the article before publication.

• The magazine incorporated some of the comments made through the forum.

AI (2001)

• Developed an Alternate Reality Game to promote the movie.

• The game, called the Beast, was incredibly popular.

• Rumors were that Stanley Kubrick had convinced a child that he was a robot.

Strom Thurmond’s 100 Birthday (2002)

• “Here is what Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, said yesterday at Senator Strom Thurmond's birthday party, according to ABCNEWS' O'Keefe. "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." ABCNews.com’s The Daily Note

Strom Thurmond’s 100 Birthday (2002)

• The rest of the traditional news media ignored the issue, bloggers became incensed.

• Within two weeks, Sen. Lott resigns as Senate Majority Leader

Farmers’ Market Massacre (2003)

• George Russell Weller, 86, drove his Buick LeSabre at speeds reaching 60 mph through a farmers’ market in Santa Monica.

• 10 were killed and many others were seriously wounded.

• First stories by traditional news sources were on the scene within minutes.

• They were all scooped by Andy Baio, a blogger, at waxy.org

Raging Cow (2003)

• Upon entering the dairy industry, Dr. Pepper uses a blog to promote it Raging Cow line of drinks.

• Unfortunately, they briefed bloggers about the product and encouraged them to write about Raging Cow in their blogs, but not explain that they had been debriefed by Dr. Pepper.

Microsoft (2003)

• Michael Hanscom, a copy shop worker, was fired from Microsoft for posting this picture of G5 Macs being unloaded for research at Microsoft.

Steve Olafson and Dan Finney (2003)

• Steve Olafson, aka Banjo Jones, was a reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

• Dan Finney was a reporter for the St Louis Post-Dispatch

• Both were fired from their positions for maintaining blogs.

Valerie Plame (2005)

• Robert Novak revealed that Valerie Plame was a CIA employee in an article attempting to discredit her husband’s statements regarding Iraqi attempts to acquire WMDs.

• Judith Miller, a NYT journalist, goes to jail to defend her right to conceal sources from Grand Jury testimony.

• Prosecution has currently only placed her on civil contempt, but is considering criminal contempt.

Problems with Internet Sources

• Hard to verify claims

• Hard to determine sources

• Hard to distinguish commercial content from editorial content online.

The Big Six Media Conglomerates

• Disney

• Viacom

• AOL Time Warner

• News Corp

• Bertelsmann

• General Electric

Let’s Play a Game: Who Owns What?

• Sports Illustrated• Universal Pictures• Paramount Pictures• New York Post• Miramax Films• 20th Century Fox• Doubleday Books• MTV• ESPN• RCA Records

• Time Warner• General Electric• Viacom• News Corp.• Disney• News Corp.• Bertelsmann• Viacom• Disney• Bertelsmann

Uses of the Internet

• The Internet contains images and video of current events that mainstream media refuse to distribute.

• 24% of Internet users viewed images/videos through the Internet not run in the mainstream media during the height of the Second Gulf War

• 77% of online users sought out information regarding the Second Gulf War.

• After 9/11 the number of online users dropped significantly. Yet, those online sought out information about the terrorist attacks more often than regular.