NEW MEDIA

BJMC IV Morning

Aakanksha Sharma

Assistant professor

UNIT 1 Definition of online communication Features of online communication Merits Demerits Strenghts

DEFINITION Online communication refers to reading,

writing and communication via networked computers. Online communication dates back to the late 1960s when US researchers first developed protocols that allowed the sending and receiving of messages via computers. Online communication first became possible in educational realms.

MERITS/FEATURES

Interactivity Virtuality Hypertextuality Democratization Globalization Immediacy Covergence (multimedia)

DEMERITS Cyber crime/cyber security Anonymity Cyber trolling Authenticity/credibility Privacy of Information Information Overload Multimedia Technical/accessibility issues Data plagiarism Continuous changes in media

NOT CREDIBLE

NOT SECURE

NO PRIVACY

NO SAFETY

MAY BE ADDICTIVE

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

PLAGIARISM

STRENGTH Facilitates networking & Collaboration Allows new ways of expression Economical and faster compared to

other media ‘Always on’ or continuous updation Best way to reach mass audience

globally Ubiquitous

WEAKNESS Digital divide may exist Requires infrastructure Medium for literates

UNIT 2 Characteristics of Internet Internet Networks Components of network Various terms

CHARACTERISTICS 1. Ubiquity: The availability of omnipresent

computing, often passively in the background. Some ethical issues here.

2. Digital: New media are digital media are capable of Infinite duplication without degradation, Being altered in a way that is far less detectable than with analog media (compare these images), Easy retrieval, calculation or computation since contents are inherently "machine readable," and Digital media are frequently stored on magnetic or optical surfaces which do not have a proven permanence.

 

CHARACTERISTICS….   3.Space Binding and Distance

Insensitivity: New media canvass large distances, "binding" them. We get web pages almost as easily from France as we do Seattle. But how do these pages last over time. Digital media present severe problems of archiving or long-term storage. Time binding is a serious problem. Rag paper books last millenia while floppy disk records are suspect after five years, even with careful storage.

CHARACTERISTICS….4. Personalized New media commonly exist in

smart (computing) devices and networks. As such, these systems can be instructed to customize, individualize information for each user. The idea ofmass media is challenged in an environment where different messages are crafted for each member of an audience.

 One major issue is that of "profiling" or categorizing consumers in terms of dominant characteristics of spending, lifestyle and beliefs. One frequently used profiling scheme is VALS (values and lifestyle) profiling.

CHARACTERISTICS…. 5. Prothesis and

Telepresence: Extension of the self to a machine representation or "prothesis." As well, the implication of this point is also the reverse - an incorporation of smart machines into our personal functioning in increasing ways.

present webcams extend one's sight in almost realtime to various exotic venues.

 

CHARACTERISTICS…. Virtuality,  Virtual Community: Society without

propinquity. See K.I.S.S of the Panopticon. We'll discuss some core

issues here later on in C300. Howard Rhinegold is the great popularizer of "virtual community." See his site. Here is a guide to virtual communities and related articles (a little dated)

Hypertext: Providing linkage transparently within documents, creating highly varied paths through a body of information. Common, hypertext media are called non-linear media. Implications are that (a) one need not read documents in a prescribed order; (b) authors, styles and permissible rules of content may vary as one reads linked documents; (c) responsibility and control is diffused - as is ownership of the resulting content; (d) form and structure is easily changed, composed on demand for individuals.

  Interactivity: Seeking user input, then performing functions based upon it.Transaction forms modes, Amazon Books - a very successful (Seattle) on-line bookseller. Another good demo is to peruse the auction at Onsale.Push v. Pull: New media contrast with older forms in that users/audiences request custom content and are not programmed to in the usual sense of television and the press. Instead, content is "pulled" by the consumer, not "pushed" by the media organization.  There have been strong efforts over the past few years to establish a TV-like "push" to web content. Tried originally byMSNBC and PointCast, the scheme did not prove as popular as originally thought. People like older media when they want to passively consume. New media, it seems, are preferred when consumers want more control or "pull."

But there's another important implication here - an ability to cross with ease between or among these sensory forms as content dictates. Software now allows text to be "read" by a PC or spoken words to be interpreted as text (this conversion being at present less sure than the former). Here's one of several PC-based speech-to-text translation programs. To go the other way, there's other software.

"Smart" Server controlled functions, applications. "Appliance" terminals Hot Java and implications. The idea here is that one doesn't have software locally, but draws it in

continuously updated form from the Internet. One may rent software in the future, rather than buy a version outright.

Web TV and implications The core idea here is an "appliance" computer for web access. Costs are lowered by using home TVs as a display, commonly the most costly part of a computer set-up.

secure modes and transactions  Central here is conducting financial and personal transactions in privacy and free from possible fraud by electronic intercept.

Wired, Wireless, Terrestrial and Satellite-based: While not strictly characteristic of new media, the digital and smart character of new media make them more easily configured for a variety of transmission methods. For example, cellular telephones are far more efficiently run (and with better quality) as digital TDMA and CDMA devices than as the antique analogue AMPS phones. The rates charged for analogue phones are higher on a per minute basis. On the otherhand, the digital instruments themselves are more costly. That should change.

Electromagnetic v. Optical: Digitally-based new media are more readily converted to optical transmission (using pulses of light) which affords advantages over conventional electronic transmission (using magnetic pulses). In brief, electromagnetic systems are more fragile, are often bulkier for a given capacity, more subject to interference, and often can be more easily tapped. Optic fibres deliver gains in capacity, reliability and accuracy compared with traditional copper wire and microwave radio technologies. However, given the large installed base of copper wire in the world, it is often more economical to work with this existing technology rather than replace it with fibre. Here's some more on this topic.

BASICS OF INTERNET

NETWORK COMPONENTS The computer, smartphone or other device you're

using to read this may be called as -end points clients.

Machines that store the information we seek on the Internet are servers.

Other elements are nodes which serve as a connecting point along a route of traffic.

And then there are the transmission lines which can be physical, as in the case of cables and fiber optics, or they can be wireless signals from satellites, cell phone or 4G towers, or radios.

All of this hardware wouldn't create a network without the second component of the Internet: the protocols.

PROTOCOL? Protocols are sets of rules that

machines follow to complete tasks. Without a common set of protocols that all machines connected to the Internet must follow, communication between devices couldn't happen. The various machines would be unable to understand one another or even send information in a meaningful way. The protocols provide both the method and a common language for machines to use to transmit data.

TYPES OF PROTOCOLS You've probably heard of several

protocols on the Internet. For example, hypertext transfer protocol is what we use to view Web sites through a browser -- that's what the http at the front of any Web address stands for. If you've ever used an FTP server, you relied on the file transfer protocol. Protocols like these and dozens more create the framework within which all devices must operate to be part of theInternet.

WHAT DO THESE PROTOCOLS DO? Two of the most important protocols are

the transmission control protocol (TCP)and the Internet protocol (IP). We often group the two together -- in most discussions about Internet protocols you'll see them listed as TCP/IP.

At their most basic level, these protocols establish the rules for how information passes through the Internet. Without these rules, you would need direct connections to other computers to access the information they hold. You'd also need both your computer and the target computer to understand a common language.

WHAT? When you want to send a message or

retrieve information from another computer, the TCP/IP protocols are what make the transmission possible.

HOW? Your request goes out over the network,

hitting domain name servers (DNS) along the way to find the target server. The DNS points the request in the right direction. Once the target server receives the request, it can send a response back to your computer. The data might travel a completely different path to get back to you. This flexible approach to data transfer is part of what makes the Internet such a powerful tool.

THE PROCESS First, you open your Web browser and connect to

our Web site. When you do this, your computer sends an electronic request over your Internet connection to your Internet service provider (ISP). The ISP routes the request to a server further up the chain on the Internet. Eventually, the request will hit a domain name server (DNS).

This server will look for a match for the domain name you've typed in (such as www.howstuffworks.com). If it finds a match, it will direct your request to the proper server's IP address. If it doesn't find a match, it will send the request further up the chain to a server that has more information.

THEN? The request will eventually come to our Web

server. Our server will respond by sending the requested file in a series of packets.

 Packets are parts of a file that range between 1,000 and 1,500 bytes. Packets have headers and footers that tell computers what's in the packet and how the information fits with other packets to create an entire file. Each packet travels back up the network and down to your computer. Packets don't necessarily all take the same path -- they'll generally travel the path of least resistance.

PACKETS?? EH? That's an important feature. Because packets

can travel multiple paths to get to their destination, it's possible for information to route around congested areas on the Internet. In fact, as long as some connections remain, entire sections of the Internet could go down and information could still travel from one section to another -- though it might take longer than normal.

When the packets get to you, your device arranges them according to the rules of the protocols. It's kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The end result is that you see this article.

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INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE

POP- NAP Most large communications companies

have their own dedicated backbones connecting various regions. In each region, the company has a Point of Presence (POP). The POP is a place for local users to access the company's network, often through a local phone number or dedicated line. The amazing thing here is that there is no overall controlling network. Instead, there are several high-level networks connecting to each other through Network Access Points or NAPs

ROUTERS The routers determine where to send

information from one computer to another. Routers are specialized computers that send your messages and those of every other Internet user speeding to their destinations along thousands of pathways. A router has two separate, but related, jobs:

It ensures that information doesn't go where it's not needed. This is crucial for keeping large volumes of data from clogging the connections of "innocent bystanders."

It makes sure that information does make it to the intended destination.

IP ADDRESS To keep all of these machines straight, each machine on the

Internet is assigned a unique address called an IP address. IP stands for Internet protocol, and these addresses are 32-bit numbers, normally expressed as four "octets" in a "dotted decimal number." A typical IP address looks like this:

216.27.61.137 The four numbers in an IP address are

called octets because they can have values between 0 and 255, which is 28 possibilities per octet.

Every machine on the Internet has a unique IP address. A server has a static IP address that does not change very often. A home machine that is dialing up through a modem often has an IP address that is assigned by the ISP when the machine dials in. That IP address is unique for that session -- it may be different the next time the machine dials in. This way, an ISP only needs one IP address for each modem it supports, rather than for each customer.

DOMAIN NAMES

Because most people have trouble remembering the strings of numbers that make up IP addresses, and because IP addresses sometimes need to change, all servers on the Internet also have human-readable names, called domain names. For example, www.howstuffworks.com is a permanent, human-readable name. It is easier for most of us to remember www.howstuffworks.com than it is to remember 209.116.69.66.

WHAT DOES DNS DO? DNS servers accept requests from programs and

other name servers to convert domain names into IP addresses. When a request comes in, the DNS server can do one of four things with it:

It can answer the request with an IP address because it already knows the IP address for the requested domain.

It can contact another DNS server and try to find the IP address for the name requested. It may have to do this multiple times.

It can say, "I don't know the IP address for the domain you requested, but here's the IP address for a DNS server that knows more than I do."

It can return an error message because the requested domain name is invalid or does not exist.

CASH? NO SILLY! ITS CACHE!!!  There are multiple DNS servers at every

level, so that if one fails, there are others to handle the requests. The other key is caching. Once a DNS server resolves a request, it caches the IP address it receives. Once it has made a request to a root DNS server for any .COM domain, it knows the IP address for a DNS server handling the .COM domain, so it doesn't have to bug the root DNS servers again for that information. DNS servers can do this for every request, and this caching helps to keep things from bogging down.

BACKBONE The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the

first high-speed backbone in 1987. Called NSFNET, it was a T1 line that connected 170 smaller networks together and operated at 1.544 Mbps (million bits per second). IBM, MCI and Merit worked with NSF to create the backbone and developed a T3 (45 Mbps) backbone the following year.

Backbones are typically fiber optic trunk lines. The trunk line has multiple fiber optic cables combined together to increase the capacity. Fiber optic cables are designated OC for optical carrier, such as OC-3, OC-12 or OC-48. An OC-3 line is capable of transmitting 155 Mbps while an OC-48 can transmit 2,488 Mbps (2.488 Gbps). Compare that to a typical 56K modem transmitting 56,000 bps and you see just how fast a modern backbone is.