2012

The Media Revolution: From Evolution to date

Tom Jones 5/10/2012

MEDIA REVOLUTION: FROM EVOLUTION TO DATE

By

Tom Jones

F.Sc. Forman Christian College (FC College), Lahore, 2011

A THESIS

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE

Faculty of Management Sciences

Bilkent University Istanbul Turkey

Approved by: Senior Professor Ozer Khalid

Abstract
The creation and circulation of digital content over electronic communications networks to a wide range of digital devices is going through exponential development. This worldwide media spectacle has significant implications for development but there is insufficient understanding about the dynamics of the process, and doubt about many results. It is clear that the constant development of networks and collaborative presentations, together with the declining cost of access and devices, are permitting millions of people in the developing world to become creators of media content. These new voices oblige peoples needs for entertainment, cultural illumination, and human contact, and provide readily reachable and expressive content in local languages. The voices give response to businesses and administrations and thereby promote sensitivity and responsibility. The new voices are also being proposed onto the worldwide media space connecting groups with collective interests and concerns from different countries and continents. It is also clear that the recognized media production sector has a substantial and rising trade and industry occurrence, including a high quantity of micro, small, and medium enterprises, employing skilled workers. Digital media is a major driver of investment in broadband setup and e-commerce, both of which can alter the development process. Furthermore, with the burst of new media opportunities, exclusively new business models are being applied by unpredicted new competitors who are stimulating outdated trades and their systems. What is unfamiliar is how this interaction will elaborate and what business models will ultimately dominate. Likewise, we can observe that the influence of the media to development has not realized yet the degree of acknowledgement that it justifies. Also, the social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. are playing a great role in changing the attitudes of the people towards the politicians and rulers. The best example is the recent revolution in Egypt and Libya in which the social media played a vital role. The social networks like Twitter and Facebook were the major revolutionaries. It is our hope that this Working Paper will assist in raising awareness, understanding, and visibility of the media in all aspects.

Table of Contents
ALL ABOUT MEDIA: FROM EVOLUTION UPTILL NOW.......................................
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. Chapter 1- The Evolution Of Media-A Brief View About History ................................................ 1 Chapter 2- A Contemporary View On The Digital Media And The Internet ............................... 17 Chapter 3- A Contemporary View On The Social Media............................................................. 30 Chapter 4- A Contemporary View On The Mass And Electronic Media ..................................... 46 Chapter 5- Introduction To The Freedom Of ExpressionMedia Democratization ................... 56 Chapter 6- Media In PakistanAn Analysis Of PEMRA, And Social And Mass Media ........... 62 Chapter 7- Role Of MediaA Contemporary View On Cyberspace And Social Networks ....... 73 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 83 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 85

Chapter 1- The Evolution Of Media-A Brief View About History

Media is everything that is a mean of communication to people giving them information of day by day happening. In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to deliver information or data. It is often referred to as identical with mass media or news broadcast media, but may refer to a solitary medium used to interconnect any data for any purpose. The evolution of media begins with the human communication through artificial networks, i.e. not vocalization or signs dates back to ancient cave paintings, map drawings and writings. Innovations in media technology are now becoming the standardization marks for historys major paradigmatic shifts. Even Mediology, is a familiar and ever rising field of study. French drastic scholar, Regis Debray, for instance, suggests three historical ages of transmission technologies: the Logosphere (the age of writing, technology, kingdom, and faith), the Graphosphere (the age of print, political ideologies, nation, and laws), and the recent Videosphere (the age of multimedia broadcasting, models, individuals, and opinions). Though these historical levels have not been widely accepted, Debrays work illustrates the fact that the technologies of transmission have taken on apposition in our culture of high power, almost, omnipotence, as media now get acknowledgement for shaping not only to the information we deal out and consume, but our powers of perception, our political, social and economic systems, and our general structures of truth. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Media and their fluctuating effects have been around ever since humanity has been assembling into tribes and nations and developing methods of communication, ways of outspreading the opportunity of ones bare voice beyond hearing range, and giving form and stuff to ones thoughts. The Paleolithic paintings at Lascaux, in other words, are no less practical (although less universal) expressions of media than TV shows and magazines of today. But the graphic analysis of media, the recognition and study of its impression on every feature of social living, is only a few decades old. Carlyle may have claimed in 1830s that the printing press destroyed feudalism and created the modern world; Plato, as Derrida emphasizes, may have pointed to the effects of inscription 2,500 years ago, but the wide ranging today given to media and their effects is, on the whole, unmatched. Even more fundamental, the concept of flexible individual constructed by his field of cultural production, as Pierre Bourdieu called it, has been tossed around for centuries. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The 19th century brought about major philosophical change that set the stage for media studies. What with a God overwhelmed by that ordinary rebellious science, the chaos that seized Western nations around the close of 19th century seemed unparalleled in history. Darwin had come up with a substantial theory of evolution which smacked God-fearing members of the Victorian Age square in the face. He pull apart, on a grand scale the moral, spiritual, and even political foundations of Western world, a world till now easily concentrated on the Almighty God who bestowed tidy, unchallengeable cores in each one of his human creations. The concept that human beings have flexible personalities largely constructed by the environment in which they develop, the partiality of
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experience, began to gain currency and technical evidence in the late1800s, and established the grounds on which the grandfather of media theory, Marshall McLuhan, would base his statements half a century later. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). McLuhan introduced into the language our existing usage of the term media. By fall of 1965, his most popular book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, had gained him a position as a faddish social thinker. He was being called as the Most Important Thinker since Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and Pavlov. McLuhans consistency began to fade away by the time of his death, in 1980: he had become increasingly intractable in public, his words, increasingly illogical, even absurd, and the print medium, which he pronounced obsolete (out-dated), was popular as ever. But McLuhan was not altogether a mimic. Today his words vibrate with weird divination. Gary Wolf often said: In on-going years, the upcoming new media, usually, the Internet has caused new anxieties. Or to put a more McLuhanesque turn on it, the arrival of the new digital media has brought the conditions of the ancient technologies into sharper liberation, and made us suddenly aware of our media environment. In the muddle of the digital rebellion, McLuhan is important again ("Wisdom of St. Marshall" 124). (Wolf, Gary, 1996; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----McLuhans Message Calling media "the extensions of man," McLuhan based his theory on the fact that content follows form, and the rebellious technologies give rise to new structures of feeling and thought, new manners of perception. He saw media as "make happen agents" rather than "make-aware" agents, as systems "similar to roads and canals, not as precious art objects or uplifting models of behavior, and he repeatedly reminds his readers that his proposition is best understood as a literary trope, not as scientific theory" ("Wisdom of St. Marshall" 124). Delighting in the power of the pun, he constantly cites as his authorities the modernist idols of the Age of Print and quotes at length from the novels of James Joyce, particularly Finnegans Wake, and the poems of T.S. Eliot and William Blake, and the letters of John Ruskin. (McLuhan, Marshall, 1995). McLuhan screened his work and his everyday parlance with word-play, and became notorious for firing puns at his opponents such as: "You think my delusion is all wrong?" According to this persistent deconstructionist, the pun is a "breakdown as breakthrough." The pun breaks down the movement of normal language enlightening that something has been intimidated. In other words, the pun is a breakthrough to reality when it breaks down some expected movement. McLuhan turns all literary techniques for crossing different kinds of discourse into different ways of grasping reality and uses all of them most effectively as devices to probe media. He applied this poetic alienation of language to his formula for addressing two things that our civilization (especially today) is concerned about --- the alienation of the self and the alienating influence of technology. In a Playboy interview from March, 1969, McLuhan said: The work is designed for the pragmatic purpose of trying to understand our technological environment and its psychic and social consequences. But my books constitute the process rather than the completed product of discovery; my purpose is to employ facts as tentative probes, as
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means of insight, of pattern recognition... I want to map new terrain rather than chart old landmarks. Needless to say, McLuhan, himself, was disturbed by his experience of alienation from new media; he was alarmed as much as he was intrigued by it. His interest lay, as said earlier, not in promoting media, but in making the public aware of media's overwhelming effects. And he drew the attentions of a vast audience through his positions as professor, author, and cultural critic. McLuhan's major works included The Gutenberg Galaxy, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, The Medium is the Massage --- his only bestseller, which combines word and image in a way that transformed his readership's expectations of what a book should be --- and his posthumously published work, The Global Village. The lasting themes of his works --- the ones that interest us most today --- revolve around the two quantum leaps in communications technology which I explore in this thesis. As Lewis Lapham explains in his introduction to Understanding Media: Beginning with the premise that 'we become what we behold," that "we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us,' McLuhan examines the diktats of two technological revolutions that overthrew a settled political and aesthetic order: first, in the mid-fifteenth century, the invention of printing with moveable type, which encouraged people to think in straight lines and to arrange their perception of the world in forms convenient to the visual order of the printed page; second, since the late nineteenth century, the new applications of electricity (telegraph, telephone, television, computers, etc.), which taught people to rearrange their perception of the world in ways convenient to the protocols of cyberspace. (McLuhan, Marshal, 1995; Lapham, Lewis, 1995). ----The Medium is the Message Perhaps McLuhan is best remembered for his valuation of the unconscious effects of the medium --its powers of hypnosis. He predicates his claims about the power of media on a belief in the mutability of man. We are the content of our media. Therefore our modes of perception are unnatural. McLuhan rejects General David Sarnoff's statement that "We are too prone to make technological instruments the stooges for the sins of those who exercise them. The products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way that they are used that determines their value." According to McLuhan, Sarnoff ignores the fact that the nature of the medium, of any and all media, is to crawl inside the participant unnoticed: "in the true Narcissus style, one is hypnotized by the amputation and extension of his own being in a new technical form... For any medium has the power of imposing its own assumption on the unwary. Prediction and control consist in avoiding this subliminal state of Narcissus trance" (Understanding Media 15). (McLuhan, Marshal, 1967; Lapham, Lewis, 1995). ----No Medium Becomes Extinct Just as our city streets are garlanded with architecture of a whole range of styles --- some dating centuries back, our modes of perception reflect a compendium of media inspirations: the dominant one of the time as well as rests of its precursors which may never become outdated. McLuhan explains, borrowing from the work of Alexis De Tocqueville, the political symptoms of print media in eighteenth-century France and Britain: "[In France] the typographic principles of uniformity, continuity and linearity had overlaid the complexities of ancient feudal and oral society. In England, however, such was the power of the ancient oral traditions of common law, backed by
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the medieval institution of Parliament, that no uniformity or continuity of the new visual print culture could take complete hold. Hence the discontinuity and unpredictability of English culture". The paradigmatic shift from oral to written culture did not necessarily render the oral obsolete, as De Tocqueville suggests in his explanation of the discontinuity and unpredictability of English culture. (McLuhan, Marshall, 1967). When new media descend upon a culture they do not eradicate the influence of their antecedents, but reposition and supplement them. McLuhan had faith in the Digital Revolution only with the understanding that we will continue to value the booty reaped from print media: Those who panic now about the threat of the newer media and about the revolution we are forging, vaster in scope than that of Gutenberg, are obviously lacking in cool visual detachment and gratitude for that most potent gift bestowed on Western man by literacy and typography: his power to act without reaction or involvement. It is this kind of specialization by dissociation that has created Western power and efficiency. Without this dissociation of action from feeling and emotion people are hampered and hesitant. Print taught Western man to say, "Damn the torpedoes. Full steam ahead! (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). A new medium is never a buildup to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never finishes coercing the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them. Each medium, if its preference is accurately demoralized, reveals and communicates a unique aspect of reality, of truth. Each offers a different viewpoint, a way of seeing an otherwise concealed dimension of veracity. It's not a question of one reality being true, the other ones distortions. One allows us to see from here, another from there, a third from still another viewpoint; taken together they give us a more complete whole, a greater fact. New fundamentals are brought to the front, including those made unseen by the "blinders" of old languages. Yet a new language is rarely greeted by the old. The oral ethnicities distrusted writing, manuscript culture was contemptuous of printing, and book culture hated the press, that slap-dag heap of passions. ----The Commodious Space of Digital Media
McLuhan deeply committed to a universal sense of "all-at-oneness." Herein lay his optimism about the digital medium: Everything everywhere happens simultaneously. There is no clear order or system. This sudden downfall of space into a single unified field overwhelms the visual sense. This is what the concept of the global village means to its inventor: "we are all within reach of a single voice or the sound of tribal drums." For McLuhan this future held a insightful risk of mass terror and sudden panic but he found great promise in the powers of digital communications and compares the mystical unification of humanity (the global village) to the Christian Pentecost. He saw in digital media the potential to "breakdown and breakthrough" the immuring "linearity" of the printed text, and the detached, hyper rational mind of the reader of print. In Understanding Media he trumpets: Electromagnetic technology requires utter human

docility and quiescence of meditation such as benefits an organism that now wears its brain outside its skull and its nerves outside its hide. Man must serve his electronic technology with the same servo-mechanistic fidelity with which he served his coracle, his canoe, his typography, and all other extensions of his physical organs. But there is this difference that previous technologies were partial

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and fragmentary, and the electric is total and inclusive... No further acceleration is possible this side of the light barrier. (McLuhan, Marshall, 1995, p.84) Although McLuhan saw that this electric speed and interconnectedness could bring all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion --- that an aspiration for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is "a natural assistant to electronic technology" --- he by no means discounted the advantages of Gutenberg's brainchild. Despite McLuhan's insistence that print and digital technologies have such radically different impacts on the user---and on culture in general, the one shall examine the evidence that the two mediums had remarkably similar receptions into the public sphere: a mad flurry of literary expression on a widespread, individual level. It's almost impossible for us today, in our world of Xerox and fax mechanisms and laser printers --- to imagine how revolutionary the opportunity to duplicate and disseminate one's opinions in a public sphere was in the mid-seventeenth century. The beliefs of a private individual had heretofore been weightless, silent, and for all intensive purposes, nonexistent. We members of the late twentieth century, on the other hand, have been enjoying the liberties of print--- that is, the freedom to duplicate and give substance to our opinions --- for decades, even before the digital medium extended them. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). But the liberties of absolute pamphlet production were felt only temporarily. Democratized expression could not endure in a society which privileged rational, linear modes of operation. McLuhan's analysis of media not only as translators but sculptors of information --- is especially useful when addressing the fate of certain forms of expression. As we will see with regard to the pamphleteers, the dominant cultural voice perched at the top of a rigid chain of command eventually reclaimed its authority with the restoration of Sovereign Charles II to the throne. De Tocqueville explained that British civilization was volatile, prone to destabilization because the influences of oral tradition remained in place even after the impact of print. The desire for the free flow of expression that oral culture accommodated was therefore in place, latent, and probably impatient to achieve fruition. But if the medium is an architect of space --- and print was the dominant architect of the time --- that space will permit only a certain configuration of expression. I will be looking at the space that digital technologies are creating today, and what personal, social, and political configurations this space will permit. (McLuhan, Marshall, 1967; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----Fifteenth-century communications swing from script to print It is staggering to the imagination to understand and appreciate the impact that Gutenberg's invention has made on civilization. Without this innovation we could not possibly have arrived at the revolution we now face today (and, as McLuhan put it, "without the alphabet there would have been no Gutenberg"). Much as we may remember print as a capacious and categorically positive agent of change (its rigid linearity notwithstanding), it was received by some with opprobrium upon its arrival in the public sphere --- just the same way that the transition from oral to scribal culture raised alarm:

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Plato... saw writing as a mainly destructive revolution. Since then we have been through enough revolutions to know that every medium of communication is a unique art form which gives salience to one set of human possibilities at the expense of another. (Stern, Gerald, 1981). But the printing press introduced Western civilization to some of its sharpest weapons; among them: linear, rational thinking, the preservation and cataloging of a vast assemblage of knowledge, the establishment of standards, the bold documentation and dissemination of forthright, educated opinions. In Notre Dame de Paris (1832), Victor Hugo discusses print as an architect --- quite literally --- of culture: Till Gutenberg became famous, architecture was the principal form of writing, the universal writing. This gigantic book, begun in the Orient, was continued through Greek and Roman antiquity and in the Middle Ages its last page was written... In the fifteenth century everything is changed. Human thought discovers a means of perpetuating itself that is not only more resistant and lasting, but also a simpler and easier means than that which architecture employed; and architecture is dethroned. The letters of orphic stone are succeeded by the leaden types of Gutenberg... The book shall overthrow the edifice. The invention of printing is the greatest event in history --- the first of many revolutions to which it gave birth. (Hugo, Victor, 1832; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The great, oftentimes oppressive edifices that printing bore, both material texts and rational perceptivity, are lasting, unlikely to crumble even under the massive weight (or lack thereof) of digital all-at-oneness. Although the new hypertextual medium extensively aggrandizes the scope of our knowledge, and the process by which we acquire it, we must not condemn our ability to delineate linear narratives, to think rationally, to obsolescence. In "The Political Computer," Ess suggests that many critics are skeptical of the adequacy or efficiency of the hypertextual medium --its ability to stand alone in the absence of print. (Ess, Charles, 1994). [Hypertext analyst] Romiszowski criticizes Bush's and Nelson's shared conception that hypertext will enable nearly universal access to a global network of electronic libraries as conjuring up a vision of a flood of information in which millions drown. Nor does everyone follow Landow, Bolter, and others who celebrate the 'anarchic' or democratizing scopes of hypertext that result from its blurring of the traditional boundaries of authority between author and reader, teacher and student. For example, McKnight, Dillon and Richardson suggest that hypertext may support collaborative work --- but only if traditional hierarchies between, say, a professor and a junior research assistant can be preserved in hypertextual annotations. (Romiszowski, A. J, 1990). We cannot suppose, therefore, that the direct structure imposed by the print medium, will be entirely replaced by the distributed structure of the hypertextual network --- utopic as it may be. If the digital medium and hypertextual form were to completely uproot print and its influences, to fully supplant them, we may be left without valuable methods of learning and organizing information. The endeavor to place more value on the position of the reader of the text --empowering her to draw upon her own subjective wealth of experience, and rewrite the information she encounters --- assumes that reader will have accumulated a substantial reservoir of knowledge having in part used linear methods. Print may have presumptuously forced words into boldface,
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immutable truths (or, more accurately, myths), but it also presented readers with valuable tasks: to seek out, analyze, and commit oneself to meaning, to express it cogently in the service of education, to journey toward a destination. This is not to say that hypertext is devoid of meaning, or that it goes nowhere, but a rich reading of hypertext requires a reader rich in intellectual experience, and familiar with a linear narrative. In this section I shall examine first the shift from scribal to print media, and then the explosion of pamphleteering --- democratized expression --- which, according to the message of the print medium as we now understand it, was fated to repossession by the hierarchical order. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). "The invention of typography confirmed and extended the new visual stress of applied knowledge, providing the first uniformly repeatable commodity, the first assembly line and the first massproduction" -- Marshall McLuhan, Gutenberg Galaxy The printing press, as Francis Bacon suggested, changed the "appearance and the state of the whole world," though these changes were not necessarily witnessed for several centuries after the press was introduced. In The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Elizabeth Eisenstein asserts that for at least the first two centuries following Gutenberg's invention, most printed texts were classic works previously conceived in manuscript, namely, the Bible. Our knowledge of scribal culture is limited by the very fact that most of what we do know we access through printed material and an inestimable, but presumably large amount of the primary sources have been lost or damaged. Scribal culture is, by the nature of the medium, motley and inconsistent. It is impossible to make reliable generalizations in light of the fact that "findings are bound to vary enormously depending on date and place. Contradictory verdicts are especially likely to proliferate with regard to the last century before printing --- an interval when paper had become available and the literate man was more likely to become his own scribe" (Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 1980, p.11; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). By the very fact that there was no way to duplicate on a wide scale a particular standard, we can find nothing typical --that is, no typical scribe or manuscript or production procedure or reading experience. In its lack of a viable or enforceable standard, scribal culture exemplified perspectivism as no fixed, literary position or point of view could yet preside. Each manuscript was individualized, interpretive --- right down to the scribe's personal understanding of facts regarding dates, geography, etc. Eisenstein reminds us that "the more thoroughly we are trained to master the events and dates contained in modern history books, the less likely we are to appreciate the difficulties confronting scribal scholars who had access to assorted written records, but lacked uniform chronologies, maps and all the other reference guides which are now in common use" (Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 1980, p.36). Each scribal text was uniquely flawed --- or, arguably, uniquely correct with regard to subjective understanding. The Internet activity today is perhaps returning to this kind of perspectivism: within its morass of networked information a theoretical or factual consensus is absolutely infeasible. (Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 1980; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). What Eisenstein calls "textual drift" --- the fact that each edition of the same text varied significantly from others not only in layout, but content --- explains why no fixed unitary text could prevail in
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scribal culture. The lasting vestiges of oral culture --- on which scribal culture had to rely because of the limited availability of the manuscripts --- exacerbated textual drift . Eisenstein asserts that "scribal culture was so thin that heavy reliance was placed on oral transmission... producing a hybrid half-oral half literate culture that has no precise counterpart today." (p.111). A precise counterpart may not exist, but the digital culture out of which the Internet is rising is necessarily interactive, which means no authoritative account or text can prevail without the appendage of some reaction to, or interpretation of, the assumptions it exhibits. Each manuscript was usually accompanied by illuminations, thus combining word and image in a way that to a large extent dissipated with the introduction of print, but is being revitalized today with multimedia. (Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 1980; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The worth of the scribal manuscript is indeed something that has no particular complement today. Producing a manuscript, and each piece was indisputably original required an excessive amount of man hours. Manuscripts were used only for high-scholarly purposes rather than layman education or entertainment. In fact, many members of the top saw a printed work as totally criticized in worth and viewed manuscripts as artistically superior (what was once a hand-painted illumination became a duplicable wood-cut or lithographic print). The Medicis, for example, are said to have insisted that their libraries only hold manuscripts. In addition, the value of the reading experience, unlike today, was a rare, highly fortunate, even revelatory peek reserved only for the insufficient little collection of literate nobles. Handling a manuscript threatened its preservation. Literary work was meant to be distributed verbally, but preserved in manuscript, and we realize in survey that the function as well as the form of the text was about to change. For years after printed books became available to the public, some owners even took them to the nearest scribe to have it translated into a "work of art." Print called the orthodox understanding of a work of art radically into question. In his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," early twentieth-century critic Walter Benjamin suggests that new technologies such as photography and film (and in our case, print) not only demystify the process of creating art, they radically alter the role of art in society: because art can now be easily and cheaply reproduced in great quantities, it no longer resides exclusively in the domain of the bourgeoisie. Such technologies, Benjamin argues, clear the way for the "formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art." (Benjamin, Walter, 1968, p.113; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----Textual imperialism The printing press gave Western civilization the means to limitlessly duplicate particular ideas in a particular, standardized text, to extend its ideological mantle over the rest of the world. McLuhan borrows from the findings of anthropologist Margaret Mead to explain that this phenomenon of expansive power and standardization is unnatural --- a prosthetic addendum to our communicative capacities: Margaret Mead has reported that when she brought several copies of the same book to a Pacific Island there was great excitement. The natives had seen books, but only one copy of each, which they had assumed to be unique. Their astonishment at the identical character of several books was a
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natural response to what is after all the most magical and potent aspect of print and mass production. It involves a principal of extension by homogenization that is the key to understanding Western power. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Print radically minimized the number of man hours required to produce a text, which in turn maximized output and greatly contributed to the sprit of capitalism that began to dominate the Western world. Elizabeth Eisenstein explains that one printer could produce 1025 books in the time it took a scribe to produce one of the same. Each printed text could sell at three times the price the scribe might have sold it for. Within this economy of mass production, the printer became an urban entrepreneur, admittedly profit-motivated. Eisenstein quotes one early printer's admission of his dedication to "'making illustrious this author's name and to benefit the world.' The profit motive was combined with other motives that were self-serving and altruistic, and even evangelistic at times." (Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 1980; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Foremost among the amenities of the printing press lays the radical increase of diversity of promulgated and examinable knowledge --- which urged the Western world to acknowledge, develop, and specialize, new fields of study. In addition, printing generated the revolutionary standardization of maps, calendars, time-tables, dictionaries, catalogs, textbooks, newspapers, and the like --- bestowing upon Western man the ability to "rationalize, codify and catalog data" (p.88). Instructional guides and conduct manuals emerged, thereby homogenizing, to some extent, expectations for behavior, and by extension, establishing more rigid norms which sharply distinguished the elite from the common. (Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 1980; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The invention of typography ushered in a standard for alphabetic ordering: "Print altered not only the spelling and grammar but the accentuation and inflection of languages and made bad grammar possible." Further, printing necessitated the introduction of copyright law. For the first time, authors --- whose works lay in the hands of innumerable strangers --- fixated on notions of propriety with regard to the specific phrasing of words as well as the formulation of concepts in general. Alvin Kernan, in Printing Technology, says of the emerging preeminence of the author in print culture: "Copyright law, which dates from this period, also redefined the role of the author by making the writer the owner of his own writing" (Kernan, Alvin, 1987, p.4-5; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Along with a radical increase in standardized literary output, the scope of the reading public expanded immensely. The spread of literacy meant that the middle class individual could become autodidactic. The opportunity to self-instruct altered the roles of student and professor --- at once esteeming the professor (or, perhaps, the textbook) as a definitive authority who could gain notoriety and wide readership, and then detracting from his status, since individuals no longer had to rely on a professor for oral instruction. The novel capability not only to consume, but to produce literature revolutionized the intellectual capacity of the middle class: "Typography created a medium in which it was possible to speak out loud and bold to the word itself, just as it was possible to circumnavigate the world of books previously locked up in a pluralistic world of monastic cells. Boldness of type created boldness of expression." (Griscom, Amanda, 1996).

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Bold, standardized expression is at once emancipating and immuring. On the one hand, print authorized puissant expression, but on the other, it reduced the literary experience to a single sense -- the visual --- and relegated auditory and other sensuous complexity to the background. McLuhan explains the fragmented experience to which a reading of the printed text is limited: "With typography, the principle of movable type introduced the means of mechanizing any handicraft by the process of segmenting and fragmenting an integral action. What had begun with the alphabet as a separation of the multiple gestures and sights and sounds in the spoken word, reached a new level of intensity, first with the woodcut and then with typography." (McLuhan, Marshall, 1967; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). McLuhan argues that subliminal effects of print are engendered by repeatedly scanning lines of print presented in a standardized format --- which can be calamitous according to McLuhan, since the standardized code so inadequately or in-authentically relays experience. The duplicated, standardized text subjects scores of individuals to the same literary experience, conforming on large scale readers' mental habits --- that is, the manners in which they learn, think, read and perceive. The uniformity and repeatability of print permeated the Renaissance with the idea of time and space as continuous, measurable quantities. The immediate effect of this idea was to desacralize the world of nature and the world of power alike. The new technique of control of physical processes by segmentation and fragmentation separated God and Nature as much as Man and Nature, or man and man. Shock at this departure from traditional vision and inclusive awareness was often directed toward the figure of Machiavelli, who had merely spelled out the new quantitative and neutral or scientific ideas of force as applied to the manipulation of kingdoms. (McLuhan, Marshall, 1995). McLuhan sees the printed word as the architect of nationalism. He contends that the effect of the discovery of printing was evident in the savage religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, borrowing from Harold Innis's argument in The Bias of Communication that the application of power to communication industries hastened the consolidation of vernaculars and the rise of ethnocentrism and imperialism. McLuhan expounds: "It may well be that print and nationalism are axiological or coordinate, simply because by print a people sees itself for the first time. The vernacular in appearing in high visual definition affords a glimpse of social unity coextensive with vernacular boundaries." According to the analyses of McLuhan and Innis, we can surmise that if seeing their vernacular actualized in distinct, indelible, material typography influences a nation's perception of itself as discrete and authoritative, than the aesthetic of digital ephemera --- words and images which are inconsistent in their intensity and on-screen endurance --may have the inverse effect, promoting in the viewers tolerance and humility. (Innis, Harold, 1951; McLuhan, Marshall, 1996). But we must remember to be conservative in our assumptions about the ideological change that media effect. In Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, George Landow admonishes: First of all such transitions [brought about by the introduction of printing] take a long time, certainly much longer than early studies of the shift from manuscript to print culture led one to
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expect. Students of technology and reading practice point to several hundred years of gradual change and accommodation, during which different reading practices, modes of publication, and conceptions of literature obtained. According to Kernan, not until about 1700 did print technology "transform the more advanced countries of Europe from oral to print societies, reordering the entire social world, and restructuring rather than merely modifying letters." How long then will it take computing, specifically, computer hypertext to effect similar changes? How long, one wonders will the change to electronic language take until it becomes culturally pervasive? And what byways, transient cultural accommodations and the like will intervene and thereby create a more confusing, if culturally more interesting, picture? (Landow, George P, 1992). ----New Media Technology and Youth: Trends in the Evolution of New Media An information environment is emerging from the simultaneous, rapid, and interconnected evolution of transmission systems, interfaces, and content quantity, quality, and structure. It will be easy to underestimate the collective impact of the sum of these changes on how young people communicate and absorb information. Ultimately, it will be more important to understand how these technologies will facilitate, amplify, or alter the cognitive processes and/or social behavior of the Internet generation. The article analyzes the impact of the following trends on media use and cognition among youthful users: Information expansion and overload: Accessible networked information will continue to grow at a rapid pace for at least the next 1020 years. Rapid increase in interface diffusion: The number of access points into the Internet is expanding in number, variety, and mobility. Evolution toward more embodied computing: Interfaces are evolving to use more of the sensorimotor system to transfer information to and from the user. The evolution of more intelligent sensors to interpret use behavior and intentions. Evolution toward anthropomorphic agent techniques: Computers are evolving to use more social and interpersonal communication techniques to interact with the user. 1(Biocca, Frank, 2000) ----Trends in Technological Development Research on television use provides the following estimate: American youth born to the television generation will spend the equivalent of 7 years of their lives watching television. But what about the Internet generation, the generation starting with children born in 1994? The computer is what famous interface designer Alan Kay called a meta-medium, a medium that potentially combines TV, the book, the radio, the typewriter, and the game console into one interface. Based on time spent with these other media over a lifetime, we can make a rough estimate that members of the Internet generation may spend as much as 20 years of their lives in front of, interacting with, and connected to this medium. If we put this 20-year interaction in the context of some recent neuroscience
1

From the Media Interface and Network Design Labs, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan Address correspondence to: Frank Biocca, Ph.D., Ameritech Professor of Telecommunication, Director, M.I.N.D. Labs, Media Interface and Network Design Labs, Michigan State University, 409 Communication Arts and Sciences Building, East Lansing, MI 48824-1292. Manuscript accepted April 24, 2000.

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literature showing significant cortical reorganization based on motor and sensory stimulation, this long-term interaction with virtual environments presents us with many cognitive unknowns. How youth will think and act in this emerging virtual environment is largely unexplored. Although there may be laboratory studies of youth and interactive media, there are few long-term studies of media use from youth to old age that use sophisticated, detailed measures of context of cognitive and perceptual processing. If the young brain and body are increasingly connected to media information, the most important long-term changes might be cognitive. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). This emerging meta-medium is young and not fixed in its hardware and software. There is no single computer medium; rather, there is a family of intelligent information technologies. What we call the computer medium is evolving more rapidly than did the traditional interfaces of radio and television. It takes on new and varied shapes: different configurations of input and output devices, new screens, etc. This medium frequently changes the way it looks and feels, involving new interaction algorithms, new interaction techniques, etc. It continuously changes the information content it presents: a continuous churn of content and evolution of formats. It is best to think of these new emerging technologies as information environments that combine three elements: (a) multisensory content, (b) various types of interfaces to access and present the information, and (c) various transmission systems for delivering the information to the interface and the user. Here, I review two classes of evolutionary change in media technology, trends that are likely to continue through the early part of the new millennium: Trends in the development of transmissions systems: The wires, protocols, and subsystems that support the Internet and other information environments. Trends in the development of interfaces: How the face of the medium, the part that directly connect to the users body, his or her senses, and motor channels is evolving. Because interfaces, content, and transmission systems are in a continuous process of evolution, it is best not to focus on specific rapidly obsolescing configurations [e.g., todays personal computer (PC)]. Rather, an analysis of evolutionary trends in interfaces, transmission systems, and content is more valuable for predicting youth involvement, planning research, and considering policy issues. The current pattern of evolution is not random. Media are evolving but there are trends, constraints, and maybe even a logic and teleology to this evolution. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). ----Trends in the Evolution of Transmission Systems Patterns of Growth in Information Volume Cyberspace (The Internet) are the global, networked information representation space created by the worldwide interconnection of computer memory, data storage, and users. Although cyberspace is built of trillions of bits, young users experience it as a physical and social space. Cyberspace, like physical space, is expanding rapidly. Constructed within the worlds telecommunication systems, it includes the universe of all electronic communication. To young users it is variably a library of libraries, a giant electronic mall, a digital bank of bits, a town square, or their own backyard. But none of these metaphors captures the stunning range of information and experiences emerging on the outer frontiers of our telecommunication systems. Herein lays both the opportunity and danger for the Internet generations eventual lifetime embrace of this new medium. Cyberspace has a potentially
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measurable volume, if we think of it as the sum of all mediated information. It can be defined in terms of the number of bits stored or the number of nodes transmitting bits. In the past, communication researchers rarely attempted to measure this theoretical volume of information. The idea of the volume of information was buried under the loosely defined concepts such as infoculture. Information was also hard to measure. Much of this information volume was ephemeral, such as a radio broadcast, some of it was decaying and disappearing daily (e.g., pamphlets), and much was inaccessible to most people. In a networked environment, however, a great deal of the volume is potentially accessible. As a consequence, transactions may be monitored, growth mapped and plotted, and information traces tracked as they bounce around cyberspace. How is the volume of information changing? To young users today cyberspace may seem huge, but it will grow exponentially during their lifetimes. Since 1990 the size of the Internet has approximately doubled every year. The number of hosts in 1999 is estimated to be about 63 million. By one conservative estimate, there are more than 8 billion pages on the World Wide Web (WWW). Someone would have to surf more than 300,000 pages a day to see it all. Although already enormous, the current cyberspace information volume may be, 5% of the information that eventually will appear. The number of WWW sites is doubling every 6 months. Huge stores of pictorial and video content have not yet migrated to the WWW. If old media content such as the Dead Sea Scrolls is already being put on the Net, it is likely that most content, existing as well as future, eventually will be there as well. By the year 2020 more than 90% of the words, images, sounds, videos, and third-dimensional (3D) worlds produced will be located somewhere on the Internet, and much of it will be accessible for free or for some small fee. Because consumers also are producers of content on the Internet, there is a relationship between the size of the user population and the volume of information. Given all the news reports about the Internet, it is easy to forget that we are still at the very beginning of the diffusion process. In 1999, an estimated 62 million people used the Internet. For all their activity and enthusiasm, this is only 1% of the worlds population. In this sea of content and networked communicators, it appears that the Internet generation will be born into a world of information abundance on a scale previously unknown to civilization. However, each child soon will discover that the evil twin of information abundance is information overload. Information overload might lead to a veritable crisis of information navigation, retrieval, and reliability. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). ----The Number of Access Points Into Cyberspace Is Expanding in Number, Density, and Mobility Thinking about cyberspace as an accessible information volume raises issues regarding the development of technologies that influence when, where, and how information is accessed by young users. Because each access point allows individuals to both produce and receive information, the size of cyberspace is likely to increase as a function of the number of access points or ports into cyberspace. This access point is usually an expensive PC with a modem. But the singular use of the expensive, multipurpose PC as a port to cyberspace is changing. New access points to the WWW are emerging to allow freer, less restrained, and easier access: Dedicated low-cost Web browser systems including Web TV, Web-enabled game platforms (e.g., Sony), wearable and hand-held computers, E-mailaugmented pagers, cell phones with data screens, and a variety of other specialized Internet
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appliances are connecting humans to information and to each other. These active human-oriented systems also are being joined by computers that work autonomously and are connected to the Internet: sensors, intelligent home appliances, and other networked intelligent technologies. Thus, the volume of data is being created by both human users and an expanding array of networked sensors (i.e., continuously streaming cameras). If cyberspace can be thought of as a large volume, users will be peeking at this volume through a wide variety of windows: some big, some small. High- Internet-use households are emerging with a variety of access points to the Net: some highresolution systems [e.g., high-definition TV (HDTV) screens]; personal access systems (e.g., multiple PCs); and some low-end, WWW-enabled, mobile systems. We should expect this trend to continue along with public access systems to the WWW and other forms of specialized portals to cyberspace. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). ----Information Flow Is Speeding up and Expanding on an Increasingly Diverse Range of Bit Transportation Systems If cyberspace is like an ocean of information, the typical connection to cyberspace is little more than a clogged straw. Users report that the slow speed is the most frustrating aspect of the Internet: It is the most commonly reported complaint. Information just does not flow fast enough to support user cognition or real-time social exchange. With the information space expanding and the number of access points increasing, the most urgent telecommunication challenge has been to increase bandwidth, the number of ones and zeros that can be transmitted per second from one place in cyberspace to another. Major infrastructure changes are under way that are dramatically changing the type of content and interaction that will engage the youthful user. The cable companies are rolling out cable modems that provide1-10+ Mbps speed. Promising next-generation connectivity, Internet 2 or one of its broadband sisters will find its way to most educational institutions and homes. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). This opens up the possibility for new formations of youth culture around music, homemade video imagery, social virtual environments, political action, and various other forms of school-based, local, or national forms of youth culture social coordination and expression. ----Trends in the Evolution of Interface Technologies As cyberspaces information capacity expands and as bandwidth delivers a glut of information to the home, the bottleneck becomes the users ability to process the information. The youthful user may suffer increasingly from information overload and an inability to find or absorb the information sought. How can media designs increase the information processing ability of young students and advanced information workers such as engineers, scientists, executives, and other staff? There is a widespread belief in the computer industry that one way to increase information throughput is by developing more natural interfaces that use more of the bodys senses and motor systems. The various types of virtual reality systems are just one example of this trend in interface design. These kinds of interfaces are used most often by young users in location-based entertainment systems (e.g., Disney) and high-end computer games. Virtual reality systems work by immersing more of the users senses into the information environments. Information is presented intuitively not as abstract
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symbols, but more as physical places and experiences. Designers tend to subscribe to a virtual evolutionary argument for an embodied computer: Human beings have survived by working with all of their senses, moving and searching with their bodies in the savanna and jungles of the past. Interactions with physical places, things, and people require less training. In virtual reality, information is presented in the way the body and mind were designed to absorb information: in three dimensions surrounding the body of the user. How does this manifest itself technologically, in the changing form in the interface? These technologies slightly or dramatically alter the way the medium connects to the body. Interfaces are increasingly immersive, that is, they immerse more and more of the users senses and motor systems in mediated information. The level of sensorimotor immersion can be defined as a combination of the degree to which the senses are immersed in media stimuli, the degree to which the motor actions of the body are sensed by the computer, and the level of coordination between motor actions and sensory feedback. This process of steadily engaging more of the body of the user in mediated stimuli is sometimes referred to as the progressive embodiment of the user. Let us consider some examples of this trend toward immersive technology. Visual displays are getting larger and filling more of the visual field (e.g., HDTV). More senses are being engaged by mediated stimuli [e.g., haptic (touch) feedback in games, motion platforms] (22). The resolution of visual and auditory displays is increasing dramatically in homes and other systems. Interfaces are increasingly being designed to be worn on the body, close to the senses (e.g., wearable computers). The increasing immersion of the body into the interface has important implications for youthful users. More immersive, multisensory systems may increase users sense of being present in the virtual environment. This may support learning. There is some evidence that increased sensorimotor interactions may increase learning for spatial information and other types of information that cannot be easily encoded linguistically. This has implications for assisting learners who may rely on more spatial and kinesthetic intelligence to model the world around them. Highly embodied interfaces may increase ease of navigation, understanding of data, pattern perception, creativity, and training efficiency. This approach to the design of new interfaces is sometimes referred to as intelligence augmentation or intelligence amplification. This trend toward greater embodiment in media resonates with research that indicates the important role of the body in all forms of thought, including abstract thinking. On the darker side, there is some evidence that the tighter coupling of the young users body to the interface may contribute to some perceptual disorders. The degree of coordination between motor actions and feedback through sensory displays or across different sensory displays may be delayed or out of synchronization, or produce various conflicting sensory cues. The result is simulation sickness, a type of motion sickness to which young users may be more susceptible. There is also evidence of perceptual adaptation and other performance-distorting aftereffects. This problem has severely inhibited some of the major game companies from too rapidly adopting and diffusing highly immersive virtual reality technologies. There also has been some concern about the effect of these highly immersive environments on mood and on the intensification of effects from acting-out behaviors in highly realistic, sensorystimulating, and arousing environments. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). ----Trends in the Evolution of Social Virtual Environments
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Many metaphors are used to describe the Internet: as a space, a superhighway, a library, etc. However, E-mail was the killer app or widely adopted application that built the Internet. The history of the Internet suggests that what attracts most people to it is not information: it is other people. Internet services that allow like-minded people to gather and interconnect are booming. The most social corners of the Internet are populated mostly with young users. Since the beginning of the Internet, various environments have been created to allow people to meet each other and interact. Email was one such application, but more informal synchronous communication environments have arisen to support more conversational interaction. Perhaps the most interesting applications of this interconnection of individuals are the so-called chat rooms. Those environments, also called MUDs (multiuser dungeon or multiuser dimension), a cyberspace where users can take on an identity in the form of an avatar and interact with each other. Originally, MUDs tended to be adventure games played within enormous old castles with hidden rooms, trap doors, exotic beasts, and magical items. Nowadays, the term is used more generically to refer to any cyberspace multiuser environment. MUDs are also knows as 3D worlds and chat worlds. (from Webopedia) and MOOs (short for MUD, Object Oriented, a specific implementation of a MUD) have been around for years as environments where people interact using nothing but lines of text. The fundamental drive behind this family of social applications is: A real-time interaction, approximating group face-to-face contact; Anonymity, with options for self-disclosure as relationships develop; Environments that help to structure interaction and talk, such as groups organized by topic, activity, or some other level of affinity. (Biocca, Frank, 2000). The latest generation of chat environments includes images and pictures that may help them seem more like physical environments. In those virtual environments, such as Worlds Inc. and Blaxxun, visitors are allowed to choose an avatar or the image that physically represents them in the virtual world. Those virtual environments are increasingly social and embodied. The latest generation of environments can support more simultaneous users ($1000) involved in increasingly complex social behavior such as virtual gangs, real transactions, political activity, and virtual sex. The environments also include 3D interaction that includes more of the body. In the more recent 3D networked virtual environments, 3D avatars can walk around (instead of fly) and pick up objects for use in other rooms and worlds. Another recent advance is that, in some worlds, rather than type feverishly, people can talk through microphones to others in the virtual world. The interaction is more intuitive. Threedimensional social, audio-based environments allow people to talk, form relationships, discuss business, play games, train, and do many of the social things they do in physical environments. Companies are beginning to host environments to bond the user to the companies products. For example, MTV created 3D audio-enabled places in cyberspace that allowed young visitors to meet each other and interact. (Biocca, Frank, 2000).

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Chapter 2- A Contemporary View On The Digital Media And The Internet

BASIC COMMUNICATION TOOLS As we know that Media may refer to Communication, the tools used to store and deliver information or data, so, the bases of communication are: Digital Media, the electronic media used to store, receive, and transmit digitized information. Social Media, the media disseminated through social interaction. Mass Media, all the means of mass communications. Electronic Media, the communications delivered via electronic or electromechanical energy.

Digital Media and the Internet

----The Question of Utopia For many hundreds of years the prophetic [messianic] vision of the good society slumbered --- until that decisive period in Western history beginning with Renaissance, when the seed of rational and theoretical thought, transferred from Greece into the soil of Europe, began to germinate... A new sense of strength arose, and man began to feel himself the potential master of his world. At this point, two trends of Western civilization were joined: the prophetic version of the good society as a goal of history and the Greek faith in reason and science. The result was that the idea of the utopia was born again, the idea that man was capable of transforming himself, and of building a new world peopled by a just, rational society of men, a world in which justice, love, and solidarity would be realized. Each era --- the Renaissance, the English Revolution, the Age of Enlightenment, the nineteenth century --- created its own utopia. (Fromm, Erich, 1960; Griscom, Amanda,1996). The Digital Era is creating its own utopia, too, but unlike the utopias of yesterday --- which could be nothing more than philosophical pipe dreams actualized only on the writer's page or in a work of art --- today's digital utopia has been given a space to grow that's far bigger than a painter's canvas and more substantive than the imagination. As of now --- and only the cornerstones have been lain --- it's a horizontally distributed (anti-hierarchical) network of computers within which millions of people can actually communicate and travel and make money and meet friends and buy products and argue and pray and develop communities. The utopia that we are (perhaps inadvertently) attempting to construct in cyberspace seems to satisfy the utopian ideals that have been hovering above Western civilization since ancient Greece. In The Religion of Solidarity, late-nineteenth century author Edward Bellamy (1960), conceived of the classic American utopia; his egalitarian ideal encapsulates that of his utopian predecessors as well as that of digital utopians today: The cardinal motive of human life is a tendency and a striving to absorb and be absorbed in or united with other lives and all life... It is the operation of this law in great and low things, in the love of men for women, and for each other, for the race, for nature, and for those great ideas which are
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the symbols of solidarity, that has ever made up the web and woof of human passion... As individuals we are indeed limited to a narrow spot in today, but as Universalists we inherit all time and space. (Fromm, Erich, 1960; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). At best, the digital medium (in terms of the Internet), will allow a sense of harmony and interconnectivity to rise, like a phoenix from the ashes of a mighty blaze, out of the fragmented ruins of the postmodern world. The Internet is categorically a humanistic utopia. The radical digital utopian, George Gilder believes that, if we assume utopia is some time away, the effusive development of digital technology means that "In one year, if we get n closer to utopia, in the next year we will get n squared closer to utopia... The Internet will multiply by a factor of millions the power of one person at a computer" (Bronson, Po, 1996, p.124). The hyper textual network that is the Internet (or, more specifically, the World Wide Web) allows one individual to journey through an entire world of information, to inform and respond to all humans otherwise geographically displaced. Compared with the world of the pamphleteers, limited by print media itself as well as constricted infrastructure, the possibility for an interactive democracy of individual expression in the Digital Age is exponentially greater. Predictions about the future size, that is, world-wide inclusiveness --- speed and function of the Internet are futile. The same goes for writing a book about today's digital medium because by the time the book gets copy-edited, typeset, printed, and shipped, the subject matter isn't so emerging anymore. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996; Bronson, Po, 1996, p.124). Bruce Sterling, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1993), discusses the patulous scope and unknowable fate of the Internet: The headless, anarchic, million-limbed Internet is spreading like bread mold. Any computer of sufficient power is a potential spore for the Internet, and today, such computers sell for less than $1000 and are in the hands of people all over the world. ARPA's network, designed to assure control of a ravaged society after a nuclear holocaust, has been superseded by its mutant child, the Internet, which is thoroughly out of control, and spreading exponentially through the post-ColdWar electronic global village...The future of the Internet bids fair to be ... a multimedia global circus!...Or so it is hoped -- and planned. The real Internet of the future may bear little resemblance to today's plans. Planning has never had very much to do with the seething, fungal development of the Internet. After all, today's Internet bears little resemblance to those original grim plans for RAND's post-holocaust command grid. It's a fine and happy irony.( Grunig, James, 1976; Sterling, Bruce, 1993; Griscom, Amanda, 1996;).

----History
About thirty years ago, the Rand Corporation, America's foremost Cold War think-tank endeavored to construct a post nuclear communications system that, like the Hydra of Greek Mythology, would survive even if one of its limbs were destroyed. The Rand proposal, which went public in 1964, was to create a communications network that had no central authority, and would be designed to operate while in disrepair. All the nodes in the network would be equal in status to all other nodes, each
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node with its own authority to originate, pass, and receive messages. The messages themselves would be divided into packets, each packet separately addressed. Each packet would begin at some specified source node, and end at some other specifies destination node. Each packet would wind its way through the network on an individual basis and be passed around from node to node until it ended up in its proper place. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). During the '60s, RAND, MIT and UCLA researched this decentralized, imperishable, packetswitching network idea, and in 1967 Britain's National Physical Laboratory developed the first test network. The US followed suit in 1968 with a more ambitious project under the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency where the nodes of the network were, relatively speaking, high-speed computers which were good for data swapping among national research institutions. By 1969 ARPANET was comprised of four nodes (the first of which was installed at UCLA); by 1971 there were fifteen, and by 1972, thirty-seven. ARPANET was embraced as an invaluable research tool for scientists and academics, and especially for casual interpersonal communication, which led to the development of e-mail and mailing-lists. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Throughout the '70s ARPANET grew rapidly and with ease because of its decentralized structure and the fact that it became accessible to a variety of different computers. By 1977 other networks were linking to ARPANET by means of the newly standardized "Transmission Control Protocol" and "Internet Protocol." TCP "converts messages into streams of packets at the source, then reassembles them back into messages at the destination" ; IP "handles the addressing, seeing to it that packets are routed across multiple nodes and even across multiple networks with multiple standards" (Sterling, Bruce, 1993). This standardization allowed what was once just ARPANET to become a "growing network of networks" wherein a group such as the military could break off and become its own network, MILNET. In the '80s more and more commercial, academic, governmental, and social subgroups entered the network. Six basic Internet domains emerged, and were denoted with abbreviations for their addresses: governmental (Gov.), military (mil), educational (edu), commercial (com), organizational (org) and net, which served as a gateway between networks. Due to its overwhelming successes, ARPANET surrendered to the phenomenal met network, the Internet, in 1989. Now there are hundreds of thousands of nodes that comprise the Internet, though if it is the "world-wide encyclopedia" that critics are calling it, it isn't yet comprehensive: few Third World countries have access, not to mention the fact that less than half the of the America's population is on line. According to Dana Hoffman, a researcher at Vanderbilt University and founder of Project 2000, which examines Internet statistics, today an estimated 33 million Americans above the age of sixteen have access to the Internet, and 22 million have used it in the last three months. On average, participants spend about six hours a week online. With regard to gender, Internet users are roughly 85 to 90 percent male and 15 to 10 percent female. For now, statistics show that democracy is limited, but provided that computers become more intellectually and economically accessible, we've got the means to create a global village. (Grunig, James, 1976; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----Defining the World Wide Web
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Strictly speaking, the Web the subset of the Internet (separate and apart from, for instance, other informational services such as bulletin board systems, mailing lists, and UseNet newsgroups) which most effectively employs the hyper textual format to create a global network of information. The Web was designed by a team of programmers at CERN, a physics research lab in Geneva. Although originally created to help scientists share information, it has grown to encompass nearly the whole range of information available on the Internet --- everything from bird-watching to beer-guzzling to political pontification. Accessing a multimedia hypertext document on the World Wide Web requires a graphical web browser, which controls retrieval and display. Netscape, formerly Mosaic, is the most popular web browser, as it is equipped to access two- and three-dimensional graphics as well as sound and video clips. (Landow, George P, 1992; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The World Wide Web is an enormous compendium of individual web sites --- the trophies of individual expression comparable to the seventeenth century pamphlet. Web site owners can share whatever they like ---their poetry, their products, their political beliefs, their photo albums --- to millions of would-be strangers. What's more, they can create links between their web sites and others which they find particularly insightful --- or particularly offensive, for that matter --- thereby sharing the power of authorship with the droves of others who are commenting on similar or related topics. (Landow, George P, 1992; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Virtually anyone with the time and interest and a meager income can express himself on the Web. As with the pamphleteers, invested interest is the key, as most participants stand to make no financial profit off of their site unless they are advertising. Setting up a web site requires little money and even less expertise. One Apple Macintosh advertisement reads: "Looking for a compelling reason to set up an Internet site? How about the fact that you don't have to be a propellerhead anymore to actually do it?" Anyone can buy user-friendly software right off the shelf, but most owners broadcast their sites through a server with a high-speed Internet connection (a T-1 line) which can transmit an enormous amount of information and keep the site open to multiple visitors at all times. Web site owners pay service providers monthly according to the amount of memory their site requires --- usually anywhere from $20 to $100. Fees are steadily decreasing as competition increases among service providers, and now many offer package deals which include unlimited Internet access and a web page (with about two megs of memory) for around $25 a month. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). In an interview, Larry Magott, columnist for the LA Times, explained that the lasting legacy of the Internet comes down to two fundamental innovational concepts: egalitarian openness, which means anyone can connect to the net as sure as they can connect to the phone system, and flat pricing, which means that a broadcaster pays according to the bandwidth (the amount of data, sound, or video that can be sent through a wire) that his site requires, not according to the number or distance of the places he chooses to visit, or the length of time he chooses to stay. "Together," he said, "these innovations provide a model where every home becomes a broadcast studio, every person becomes a publisher, and this is what guarantees not only openness but profound social changes." (Griscom, Amanda, 1996).
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----Navigating cyberspace On the one hand, the hierarchical distribution of information that limited the scope of print culture has been disrupted. Randall Davis, professor of computer science associate director of the artificial intelligence lab at MIT, explained in an interview that "publishers and syndicates can worry because it is now possible for authors and poets and artists and other information providers to bypass the traditional distribution infrastructure which is incredibly cumbersome, and which favors the few. We are witnessing the shift from oligarchy to meritocracy." The hierarchical system only allows a small number of people to get their information out and actually make some money out of it. The Internet, he argues, turns everyone into a private publisher, a distributor, a warehouse. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). On the other hand, while we celebrate this free flow of information, we don't want to get lost in the chaos. This literary renaissance in which the masses can distribute their information without having to be chosen or favored by the powers that be is theoretically appealing, but it can be utterly overwhelming to try to navigate. By the very nature of the distributed network, no web site is any less accessible than another --- that is, the web sites of celebrities or political giants can exercise no preeminence over those of ordinary people. We may enjoy the concept of having the world's information at the tips of our fingers, but actually absorbing it --- finding the sites that particularly interests us --- is another matter altogether. Search engines such as Yahoo may limit our quest for the ultimate destination to several thousand entries, but we still remain aimless. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). We do well to remember that, although all web sites are equally accessible in terms of their ability to be called up on the computer screen, they are unequal in terms of notoriety. The popularity of web sites can be assessed by number of hits-per-month, and the dominant institutions of culture today, such as magazines, popularize those statistics inevitably and influence the meanderings of net wanderers. Again, we are in the beginning stages of all this. Companies with the financial backing to advertise gain the upper hand with regard to notoriety over private web site owners who can just pay their online rent. The real way to gain power in the distributed hypertext network is to make sure that a lot of links lead to one's web site. The popular notion about cyberspace is that it is infinite and unbounded. But it, too is limited by the amount of human attention available in it. (Dyson, Esther, 1995). Does a place in cyberspace exist if no one visits it? What makes any kind of real estate valuable? Esther Dyson, in her oft-quoted Release 1.0 article, examines the development of major hubs in the Internet's infrastructure, and the value of the content they produce: The initial appeal of real estate may be proximity to other space --- it's easy to find on your way somewhere else. The net equivalent (more or less) is a listing in someone's guide, for example, a pointer in a web page, or highlighted availability through a service such as CompuServe or Poland Online. The virtual space near any particular location is limited --- just like the retail space along Fifth Avenue in New York, Bond Street in London, or Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg. There are just so many services to highlight and point to a particular location. (Dyson, Esther, 1995)

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But you can build your land up so that more people want to pass through it. You can add restaurants and tony shops... The question of what happens to intellectual property on the net can be summed up like this: value shifts from the transformation of bits rather than bits themselves, to services, to the selection of content, to the presence of other people, and to the assurance of authenticity --- reliable information about the sources of bits and their future flows. In short, intellectual assets and property depreciate while intellectual processes and services appreciate. (Dyson, Esther, 1995, p.139-41). On the Net, content can draw people in, and people draw more people: they exist as content that no one owns, but content that is sold to other members of the market. Content and people (like goods) that get visibility in favorable locations gain in popularity, and can thereafter be used in other locations to raise value elsewhere. The gold rush for popularity among web sites on the Net to which Dyson refers seems to belie the basic principles of Democracy. But a profound shift is taking place nevertheless: value lies in the ancillary market; success lies in favorable relationships with --- links to --- other web sites. The insular world of print is being forced into a state of interactivity. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The question remains: Does a place in Cyberspace exist if no one visits it? What good will democratized literary expression do if the voices are never heard? We must resign to the fact that we need to rely on some authority to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. Randall Davis comments: We need to have some sense of all of the information widely available, but there remains still a necessity for editing, for putting faith in a credible source, and I think we are already beginning to see the same sorts of structures build up in the Internet world which are, in effect, critics and people who can vouch for or against the various information sources...anyone with a laser printer or an ink jet printer can pass out their leaflets on street corners, but why do millions of people read Time magazine and only an handful of people read those leaflets? (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Davis alludes to the fact that for now, we rely on filtering systems, and in today's world that means relying on brand names. So we find major media conglomerates jockeying for a position , trying to create a brand name, trying to establish their preeminence as erudite guides, quality information providers. Does this mean that, just as the traditional systems of hierarchy co-opted the anarchic expression of the pamphleteers, cyberspace will find itself fragmented into a series of information dictators? (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). No, the mere fact that we cannot, by our very humanness, absorb (indeed we may even be expected to read) an entire world of information, and that we must therefore prioritize among the planetary scope of possibilities in order to suit our interests, does not doom us to a future of rigid hierarchy. In the first place, the hyper textual format itself means that we will encounter, on our journey to uncover whatever information we are in pursuit of, far more ancillary knowledge than we have ever had access to. If all goes well, the hyper textual format will encourage a prevailing suspicion about hierarchical trends in culture and the immutability of meaning. (Landow, George P, 1992; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----Politics and Digital Media
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And to some extent we need to execute control to reserve the democracy that might otherwise become polluted if left to its own defenses. Here enters American politics. Is government outdated in cyberspace? No, not entirely, but the possibilities of centralized control are drastically diminished. What will happen to monopolies? Will or, can the market throws them off? As yet, no definitive answers to these questions exist. The overwhelming ethos of the Internet is, theoretically speaking, libertarian. We cannot jump to conclusion that government is or will be --- or even should be --- uninvolved. Some radical libertarians such as George Gilder demand that "an information superhighway cannot be built under a canopy of federal tariffs, price controls, [public policy] mandates, and allocated markets" (Kline, and Burstein,1996, p.88). Some less optimistic --- and, I would argue, more realistic --- critics say "The bigger and more unpredictable the industrial tiger, the more cautious Washington ought to be in poking it with the stick of national policy" (Kline, Davis, 1996, p.90). On the one hand, the free market has shown itself to be the most effective force in society for creating new wealth and spreading that wealth relatively broadly among the population. Governments may pontificate about desirable social goals, but business has a much better track record in turning innovative technology such as communications network into a material force that transforms millions of lives for the better. On the other hand, while tomorrow's decentralized, networked economy offers great potential for letting the creative forces of the market tackle some of the social tasks previously managed by government, historical experience suggests that society's best interests (i.e. anti-monopolist legislation, environmental issues, etc... ) will probably still require governmental intervention---even if it is vastly downsized. "The law of supply and demand has never by itself prevented businesses from skunking the consumer...." (Kline, Davis, 1996, p.92). Newt Gingrich, the most digital-minded politician out there, perhaps, and his advisors Alvin and Heidi Toffler are, of course, leaning toward the libertarian approach. Says Newt's spokesperson (from his 'think tank') "He believes in a strong culture underlying the free market. But he does not believe it is the government's job, beyond the most basic levels of right and wrong, to be the moral policeman." Gary Chapman, in his article in FEED online magazine, "The Exxon Divide," discusses the divisive effect the Internet has had on right-wing solidarity. To another ilk of right-wingers swayed by radically distorted media sensations, "the Internet has become the world's filthiest pipeline of hard-core pornography and pedophilic seduction." The extent to which the Government assumes control in censoring information on the Net is a much disputed topic. I shall examine the recently enacted telecommunications bill as a reflection of where we stand today in terms of governmental control of commerce and free speech in cyberspace. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996) On February 8, 1996 President Bill Clinton claimed that with a strokes of his pens "our laws will catch up with the future." In the immutable fountain -pen ink used by our forefathers, and in the colorless blood of our future (bits of light as ephemeral as they are duplicable widely distributable, issued forth from an electronic pen), he signed into both reality and virtual reality a telecommunications bill which has been bouncing around congress for years and has undergone radical revisions. As a result---even taking the modifications into account---corporate moguls are
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toasting him with the finest crystal, and cyber rights activists are shaking their fists. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Basically this bill means that our government is investing a whole lot of faith in the free market, and not so much in free speech. The media industry is now substantially deregulated and plutocratic America will---if only temporarily---reach vertiginous heights. In a newly expanded, free-for-all market, the country's biggest telephone and media companies are scrambling to merge together and dip into each other's markets. Cable companies, for instance, are thrilled about infiltrating the local phone business. They are now allowed to provide on-line access which means expanding the capacity of bandwidth about five hundred percent. But, in the absence of anti-trust legislation, the mighty monopolies will increase their purview. Within moments of the bill's passage, chatter abounded regarding a potential merger between NYNEX and Bell Atlantic and an alliance between the long-hostile giants AT&T and MCI. The NYNEX/Bell merger could mean that the consolidated powers will control phone lines from Virginia clear up to Maine. As reporter John Keller (1996) explains in a recent Wall Street Journal article (1996), AT&T and MCI claim that their alliance may lead to an unprecedentedly extensive network of phone lines which "could be used by any company providing local service... [MCI executive Gerald Taylor says] 'The opportunity here is to have a carrier's carrier... that other carriers could buy from.'"(Griscom, Amanda, 1996). In the best of all worlds, these monopolistic mergers will eventually lead to greater competition among a larger number of small business---and, we hope, decreased prices and far wider choice for the average consumer. But as far as I can tell, the executives of these gargantuan companies are only securing their positions at the tippy-top of the socio-political hierarchy---perched as if Greek gods in Olympus, fiddling at will with their small-company-pawns on the chess board of international economics. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). However, in his February 8 article, "Communications Bill Signed and Battles Begin Anew," Edmund Andrews admitted that "even some consumer activists who had warned that the new law would raise prices for consumers and lead to a new era of media conglomerates said the final bill had been moderated by pressures from Mr. Gore and Senate Democrats and might actually be good for ordinary people." (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). What concerns just about everybody in the community of cyberspace is a provision that makes it a crime to publish "indecent" or "patently offensive" material anywhere on the Internet in reach of children younger than 18. The "indecent" material refers specifically to pornography, bad language,' and information about abortion (the Justice Department, however, assured that the latter was unconstitutional and would never be enforced). Violators face a $250,000 fine and a two-year prison term. These provisions, to be sure, are already facing lawsuits from such organizations as The American Civil Liberties Union. The bill also requires television-makers to build into their sets devices called V chips that will allow parents to keep violent and sexually oriented programs out of their children's reach. This, too, faces a court fight. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Netizens expressed their defiance not through riots but through written ranting and blackened screens. Within minutes of the law's signing, the backgrounds of Internet home pages started turning
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black through the efforts of this newly minted breed of digital-age dissenters. We can bet that a strong fight in support of the First and Fourth Amendment rights in cyberspace will continue as long as censoring persists. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). But according to Michael Joyce, the free flow of information cannot truly exists. Refer to the interview included in the Appendix for the details of his argument. The hope lies in hypertext, although it's having a real time of it gaining on the obstinate heels of print technology. In a FEED article, "Written on the Web," Carolyn Guyer, a writer of hypertext fiction since the late 80s, discusses the hypertextual format of the web: Our postmodern era is particularly concerned with multiplicity, with equalized and decentralized authority, which is actually reflected in the decentralized structure of the Web itself. Yet in reading through many of the requirements people have for inclusion on literature and hypertext lists, or for participation in collaborative web projects, I found that there is much retrograde insistence on author-provided continuity of narrative , and little insistence given to reader-provided coherence. In truth, the urgency for print-style continuity belies every web traveler's experience in this environment, and reveals the widespread cultural assumption that voice and individuality are had through the control of other voices. Of course that doesn't even touch on what constitutes narrative or story...Collaborative fictions generally deserve much more attention and effort, and though so far I've only seen a little here I really like, web hypertext may be where that can finally happen. (Guyer, Carolyn, n.d; Griscom, Amanda, 1996) Reading and writing these works might even be perceived as similar to the experience of web travel: the propensity to move, make a line, fill in a gap, gather myriad views which we blend to a tensional event held by its own momentum. Hypertext proceeds from the notion that style and function, form and content, are intertwined, and the processes of reading and analysis become simultaneous. But mainstream visionaries such as Bill Gates (a corporate mogul in this case) see the linear narrative as indefatigable and cannot conceive of hypertext supplanting the traditional story-line. The following is an excerpt from Gates' best-selling book, The Road Ahead(1995): Among all the types of paper documents, narrative fiction is one of the few that will not benefit from electronic organization. Almost every reference book has an index, but novels don't because there is no need to be able to look something up in a novel. Novels are linear. Likewise, we'll continue to watch most movies from start to finish. This isn't a technological judgment---it's an artistic one: Their linearity is intrinsic to the storytelling process. (Gates, Bill, 1995). The success of CD-ROM games has encouraged authors to begin to create interactive novels and movies in which they introduce the characters and the general outline of the plot, then the reader/player makes decisions that change the outcome of the story. No one suggests that every book or movies should allow the reader or viewer to influence its outcome. A good story that makes you just want to sit there for a few hours and enjoy it is wonderful entertainment. We don't want to choose an ending for The Great Gatsby or "La Dolce Vita." F. Scott Fitzgerald and Frederico Fellini have done that for us. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996).

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But in order for the message of the hypertext medium to reach its full volubility, the artistic world --including, and mainly literature --- must not remain invulnerable to the hyper textual format. If print produced the linear, rational man, what is the fate of hypertext man? The mosaic arrangement of the medium itself and the process of revealing information profoundly shape our ways of thinking and feeling. The Internet links millions of people in new spaces that are challenging the way we think and the way we form our communities. Does this mean we are moving from a modernist culture of calculation to a postmodernist culture of simulation. "Computer screens are the new location for our fantasies, both erotic and intellectual. We are using life on computer screens to become comfortable with new ways of thinking about evolution, relationships, sexuality, politics, and identity." (Turkle, Sherry, 1996, p.149; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----The Cybernetic Community The utopic feeling of "all-at-oneness" which hypertext has the capacity to promote can be at once unifying and alienating. With the publication of his book on the subject in 1993, Howard Rheingold put the term "virtual community" on the map. His book focused on one of the chief benefits of the online conferencing systems --- they can restore a sense of community to a society that's been feeling alienated and alienated and disempowered by its lack. These types of distributed communities may be largely responsible for preserving democracy on the Internet. Within exclusive, heterogeneous virtual communities members continually inform and challenge each other in general, perpetuating a commitment to the interchange of ideas and prevent ideological tyranny. (Godwin, Mike, 1995; Griscom, Amanda,1996) Mike Godwin, an outspoken member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization spearheaded by John Perry Barlow which is dedicated to preserving the First and Fourth Amendment rights within cyberspace, suggests the following guidelines for virtual community development, which he contends, we should start actively developing now He based these parameters on his own virtual community, WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link): 1- Use software that promotes good discussions (i.e. that makes receiving and retrieving postings-even archival--simple. 2- Dont impose length limitations on postings, (as some servers do to 25 lines). 3- Frontload system with talkative, diverse people. Decrease online charges for a group of people who are committed and proficient at facilitating discussions--incendiators, not monitors. 4- Let users resolve own disputes. 5- Allow institutional-size memory so that there will be no problem preserving archives. 6- Promote continuity--re. Membership treatment and long-term members 7- Be host to particular interest group. 8- Provide places for children

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9-Confront members of the community with crisis for which, together, they will need to arrive at a solution in the democratic way. (Godwin, Mike, 1995, p.98). Virtual communities need to rely on heterogeneity to create some state of overall equilibrium in a system of checks and balances. But heterogeneity is by choice --- to create a dynamic forum of greater intellectual activity --- a place where everyone who loves a challenge can practice her powers of persuasion in a effort to prove herself or sway others, and maybe even modify her own stance. But heterogeneity is not meant to cause destructive strife. The beauty of it is: when things become unpleasant in one section of the Internet, it is remarkably easy to move some place different in the service of peace. Therefore, a "live and let live" attitude accompanies the absence of police or litigious regulation. (Godwin, Mike, 1995, p.98; Griscom, Amanda, 1996). ----The future of the Net Sven Birkerts, a modern-day Luddite, is feeling uneasy about all this rapid cultural change. He longs for the slow elegance of print culture. So much so, in fact, that the cover of his new book, The Gutenberg Elegies, features a fuzzy caramel-colored snapshot of a naturally-lit library which houses the endangered species of digital modernity: a leather armchair draped with an afghan, droopy lace curtains, and shelves of softened leather hard-backs coveting thick yellowed pages and the tidy, immutable thoughts of yesterday's literary prophets. Birkerts is terrified that his warm dusty paradise is being ransacked, and the remaining rubble is merely forgotten or misunderstood in a world distracted by garish, pulsing iconography. He calls this digital insurgent the "devil," though he read his Marlowe and knows all about Faustus --- and he absolutely refuses to sell his soul. (Birkerts, Sven, 1994). In the last pages of the Gutenberg Elegies Birkerts warns: The devil no longer moves around on cloven hooves, reeking of brimstone... he is an affable, efficient fellow. He claims to want to help us all along to a brighter, easier future, and his sales pitch is very smooth. I was, as the old song goes, almost persuaded. I saw what it could be like, our toil and misery replaced by a vivid, pleasant dream. Fingers tap keys, oceans of fact and sensation get downloaded, are dissolved through the central nervous system. Bottomless wells of data are accessed and manipulated, everything flowing at circuit speed. Gone the rock in the field, the broken hoe, the grueling distances. 'History,' said Stephen Dedalus, 'is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken.' This may be the awakening, but it feels curiously like the fantasies that circulate through our sleep. From deep in the heart I hear a voice that says 'Refuse it' (Birkerts, Sven, 1994, p.229). Birkerts' potent paranoia (which has been printed not only in his book, but in the pages of major periodicals) has secured him notoriety as a 'modern-day Luddite.' The term 'Luddite' this is nowadays synonymous with counterrevolutionary or used to describe a person opposed to technological growth has wandered from its original denotation. The nineteenth-century Luddites were violent machine breakers angry manual laborers whose livelihoods were being replaced by the efficient and inexpensive machines of the Industrial Revolution. (Birkerts, Sven, 1994; Griscom, Amanda, 1996).

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The first Luddites appeared in 1811 in Nottingham, England when knitters began to demolish machines that made shoddy stockings at prices which undercut skilled craftsmen. Their name came from Ned Ludd, nicknamed 'King Ludd,' who is said to have smashed two stocking frames. The movement exploded among bands of workers around the country who stormed cotton and wool mills. Though the rebellion had little to no organization, and the British government restored order with a mere waive of its wand, the Luddites were for a time considered a serious threat. And they turned out to be real trend-setters. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). McLuhan said that resistance is futile. In a Wired article, Gary Wolf ordained McLuhan a saint. With regard to McLuhan's take on Luddism, Wolf explains: "McLuhan believed that the message of electronic media brought dangerous news for humanity; it brought news of the end of humanity as it has known itself in the 3000 years since the invention of the phonetic alphabet. The literatemechanical interlude between two great organic periods of culture is coming to an end as we watch and as we listen. 'On a moving highway, the vehicle that backs up is accelerating in relation to the highway situation.' [McLuhan] wrote. 'Such would be the ironical status of the cultural reactionary. When the trend is one way, his resistance insures a greater speed of change'" Gary, Wolf, 1996, p.129). Sven Birkerts mourns with elegance. His appreciation of the printed text is understandably romantic. Few of us wish to witness the suffocation and demise of our best friend, the book, and Birkerts is persuasive in his adulation. As an adversary of the Digital Age, however, Birkerts is weak. Indeed he is educated in literature, but he has no proficiency in computers whatever --- and therefore no access to the abundant amenities of the Digital Revolution. His resistance, in the end, is untenable. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). But even cyber - enthusiasts fear for the future of the digital medium. Media critic John Katz, condemner of Luddites, himself, admitted in an interview: "we have a lot to fear. Mostly, a profound class division between the technological elite and the culturally illiterate." Michael Joyce expounded: "I fear it as intensely as I champion it. I fear any claim for communication, for universality, for possibility, for a future whose immanence undermines the present meaning we make and remake among us." (Griscom, Amanda, 1996).

----Conclusion
All media, according to anthropologist Edmund Carter, are new languages. Each codifies reality differently; each conceals a unique metaphysics. Writing, for example, didn't record oral language, it was a new language which encouraged an analytical mode of thinking with an emphasis on lineality. Subject became distinct from verb, adjective from noun, thus separating actor from action, essence from form. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Where preliterate man imposed form diffidently, temporarily --- for such transitory forms lived but temporarily on the tip of his tongue, in the living situation --- the printed word was inflexible, permanent in touch with eternity: it embalmed truth for posterity. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The embalming process froze language, eliminated the art of ambiguity, made puns the lowest form of
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wit, and destroyed word linkages. The word became a static symbol, applicable to and separate from that which it symbolized. It now belonged to the objective world. It could be seen... The word became a neutral symbol, no longer an inextricable part of the creative process. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Gutenberg completed the process. The manuscript page with pictures, colors, correlation between symbol and space, gave way to uniform type, the black and white page, read silently, alone. The format of the book favored lineal expression, for the argument ran from cover to cover, subject to verb to object, sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter, carefully structured from beginning to end, with value embedded in the climax. This was not true of great poetry and drama, but it was true of most books... Events were arranged chronologically and hence, it was assumed, casually; relationship, not being, was valued. The author became an authority; his data were serious, that is, serially organized. Such data, if sequentially ordered and printed, conveyed value and truth; arranged any other way, they were suspect. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). Ted Nelson's invention of the new language, hypertext, in the 1960s disrupted the sequence of data and thereby disrupted the configuration of truth. Truth is embodied within the process of revelation in a hyper textual network: the fixity of print has been diffused into digital ephemera which gain substance and meaning only when a reader chooses to edify them with light. Hypertext creates a palimpsest of layered meaning wherein hegemonic authority defers to multilinker relativism. For McLuhan and other cyber enthusiasts, this necessarily tolerant structuration of knowledge approaches a state of spiritual nirvana more closely than any other medium to date. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996). The paradigmatic shift from print (linear) to digital (hyper textual) culture has not yet occurred and we cannot, according to Thomas Kuhn, accurately predict its occurrence. The splendid anarchy which a hyper textual structure such as the Internet has the capacity to accommodate cannot as yet pervade the political and ideological configuration of our culture. In its beginning stages, the impact of digital media is certainly widespread, but not even close to universal. Only a fraction of America --- much less, the rest of the world --- can access and participate in the hyper textual medium, though its ubiquity increases exponentially every day. For now, we continue to emulate the linear modes of thinking and learning on which Western civilization has long been predicated. These habits become less oppressive as we become more aware that they are merely learned. Though we cannot expect to witness in our lifetimes a full-fledged paradigmatic shift from print- to digitally constructed culture, we are equipped to dedicate ourselves to the first stages of repositioning --- but not nullifying --- the authority of print media. We shall challenge the fixity of things and protect the space in which readers become authors, consumers become producers, and meaning lies in the process by which it is revealed. (Griscom, Amanda, 1996).

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Chapter 3- A Contemporary View On The Social Media

Social media has become an integral part of modern society. There are general social networks with user bases larger than the population of most countries. There are niche sites for virtually every special interest out there. There are sites to share photos, videos, status updates, sites for meeting new people and sites to connect with old friends. It seems there are social solutions to just about every need. Recent years have seen a transformation in the type of content available on the web. During the first decade of the webs prominencefrom the early 1990s onwardsmost online content resembled traditional published material: the majority of web users were consumers of content, created by a relatively small amount of publishers. From the early 2000s, user-generated content has become increasingly popular on the web: more and more users participate in content creation, rather than just consumption. Popular user generated content (or social media) domains include blogs and web forums, social bookmarking sites, photo and video sharing communities, as well as social networking platforms such as Facebook and MySpace, which offers a combination of all of these with an emphasis on the relationships among the users of the community. (Castillo, et al., n.d) Community-driven question/answering portals are a particular form of user-generated content that is gaining a large audience in recent years. These portals, in which users answer questions posed by other users, provide an alternative channel for obtaining information on the web: rather than browsing results of search engines, users present detailed information need, and get direct responses authored by humans. In some markets, this information seeking behavior is dominating over traditional web search. (Castillo, et al., n.d) An important difference between user-generated content and traditional content that is particularly significant for knowledge-based media such as question/answering portals is the variance in the quality of the content. As Anderson describes, in traditional publishing mediated by a publisherthe typical range of quality is substantially narrower than in niche, unmediated markets. The main challenge posed by content in social media sites is the fact that the distribution of quality has high variance: from very high-quality items to low-quality, sometimes abusive content. This makes the tasks of filtering and ranking in such systems more complex than in other domains. However, for information-retrieval tasks, social media systems present inherent advantages over traditional collections of documents: their rich structure offers more available data than in other domains. In addition to document content and link structure, social media exhibit a wide variety of user-to-document relation types and user-to-user interactions. (Castillo, et al., n.d) Social media has exploded as a category of online discourse where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate. Examples include Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Twitter and JISC list serves on the academic side. Because of its ease of use, speed and reach, social media is fast changing the public discourse in society and setting trends and agendas in topics that range from the environment and politics to technology and the entertainment industry. Since social media can also be construed as a form of collective wisdom, we decided to investigate its power at predicting real-world outcomes. Surprisingly, we discovered that the
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chatter of a community can indeed be used to make quantitative predictions that outperform those of artificial markets. These information markets generally involve the trading of statecontingent securities, and if large enough and properly designed, they are usually more accurate than other techniques for extracting diffuse information, such as surveys and opinions polls. Specifically, the prices in these markets have been shown to have strong correlations with observed outcome frequencies, and thus are good indicators of future outcomes. (Asur, Sitaram, 2010; Huberman, Bernardo A, 2010) In the case of social media, the enormity and high variance of the information that propagates through large user communities presents an interesting opportunity for harnessing that data into a form that allows for specific predictions about particular outcomes, without having to institute market mechanisms. One can also build models to aggregate the opinions of the collective population and gain useful insights into their behavior, while predicting future trends. Moreover, gathering information on how people converse regarding particular products can be helpful when designing marketing and advertising campaigns. (Huberman, Bernardo A, et al., 2006). Although Twitter has been very popular as a web service, there has not been considerable published research on it. Huberman and others studied the social interactions on Twitter to reveal that the driving process for usage is a sparse hidden network underlying the friends and followers, while most of the links represent meaningless interactions. Java, et al. investigated community structure and isolated different types of user intentions on Twitter. Jansen and others have examined Twitter as a mechanism for word-of-mouth advertising, and considered particular brands and products while examining the structure of the postings and the change in sentiments. However the authors do not perform any analysis on the predictive aspect of Twitter. There has been some prior work on analyzing the correlation between blog and review mentions and performance. Gruhl and others showed how to generate automated queries for mining blogs in order to predict spikes in book sales. And while there has been research on predicting movie sales, almost all of them have used meta-data information on the movies themselves to perform the forecasting, such as the movies genre, MPAA rating, running time, release date, the number of screens on which the movie debuted, and the presence of particular actors or actresses in the cast. Joshi and others use linear regression from text and metadata features to predict earnings for movies. Sharda and Delen have treated the prediction problem as a classification problem and used neural networks to classify movies into categories ranging from flop to blockbuster. Apart from the fact that they are predicting ranges over actual numbers, the best accuracy that their model can achieve is fairly low. Zhang and Skiena have used a news aggregation model along with IMDB data to predict movie box-office numbers. We have shown how our model can generate better results when compared to their method. (Huberman, Bernardo A, et al., 2006). ----Twitter2 Launched on July 13, 2006, Twitter 2 is an extremely popular online micro-blogging service. It has a very large user base, consisting of several millions of users (23 million, unique users in Jan3). It can be considered a directed social network, where each user has a set of subscribers known as followers. Each user submits periodic status updates, known as tweets, that consist of short messages of maximum size 140 characters. These updates typically consist of personal information about the users, news or links to content such as images, video and articles. The
2 3

http://www.twitter.com http://blog.compete.com/2010/02/24/compete-ranks-top-sites-for-january2010/

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posts made by a user are displayed on the users profile page, as well as shown to his/her followers. It is also possible to send a direct message to another user. Such messages are preceded by @userid indicating the intended destination. A retweet is a post originally made by one user that is forwarded by another user. These retweets are a popular means of propagating interesting posts and links through the Twitter community. Twitter has attracted lots of attention from corporations for the immense potential it provides for viral marketing. Due to its huge reach, Twitter is increasingly used by news organizations to filter news updates through the community. A number of businesses and organizations are using Twitter or similar microblogging services to advertise products and disseminate information to stakeholders. (Huberman, Bernardo A, et al., 2006). ----Dataset Characteristics The dataset that we used was obtained by crawling hourly feed data from Twitter.com. To ensure that we obtained all tweets referring to a movie, we used keywords present in the movie title as search arguments. We extracted tweets over frequent intervals using the Twitter Search Api4 , thereby ensuring we had the timestamp, author and tweet text for our analysis. We extracted 2.89 million tweets referring to 24 different movies released over a period of three months. Movies are typically released on Fridays, with the exception of a few which are released on Wednesday. Since an average of 2 new movies is released each week, we collected data over a time period of 3 months from November to February to have sufficient data to measure predictive behavior. For consistency, we only considered the movies released on a Friday and only those in wide release. For movies that were initially in limited release, we began collecting data from the time it became wide. For each movie, we define the critical period as the time from the week before it is released, when the promotional campaigns are in full swing, to two weeks after release, when its initial popularity fades and opinions from people have been disseminated. (Huberman, Bernardo A, et al., 2006). ----The specter of Social Media As of January 2009, the online social networking application Facebook registered more than 175 million active users. To put that number in perspective, this is only slightly less than the population of Brazil (190 million) and over twice the population of Germany (80 million)! At the same time, every minute, 10 hours of content were uploaded to the video sharing platform YouTube. And, the image hosting site Flickr provided access to over 3 billion photographs, making the world-famous Louvre Museums collection of 300,000 objects seem tiny in comparison. According to Forrester Research, 75% of Internet surfers used Social Media in the second quarter of 2008 by joining social networks, reading blogs, or contributing reviews to shopping sites; this represents a significant rise from 56% in 2007. The growth is not limited to teenagers, either; members of Generation X, now 35-44 years old, increasingly populate the ranks of joiners, spectators, and critics. It is therefore reasonable to say that Social Media represent a revolutionary new trend that should be of interest to companies operating in online space or any space, for that matter. Yet, not overly many firms seem to act comfortably in a world where consumers can speak so freely with each other and businesses have increasingly less control over the information available about them in cyberspace. (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009a)

http://search.twitter.com/api/

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Today, if an Internet user types the name of any leading brand into the Google search, what comes up among the top five results typically includes not only the corporate webpage, but also the corresponding entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Here, for example, customers can read that the 2007 model of Hasbros Easy-Bake Oven may lead to serious burns on childrens hands and fingers due to a poorly-designed oven door, and that the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company has been accused of using child labor in its Liberian rubber factory. Historically, companies were able to control the information available about them through strategically placed press announcements and good public relations managers. Today, however, firms have been increasingly relegated to the sidelines as mere observers, having neither the knowledge nor the chance or, sometimes, even the right to alter publicly posted comments provided by their customers. (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009a) Wikipedia, for example, expressly forbids the participation of firms in its online community. Such an evolution may not be surprising. After all, the Internet started out as nothing more than a giant Bulletin Board System (BBS) that allowed users to exchange software, data, messages, and news with each other. The late 1990s saw a popularity surge in homepages, whereby the Average Joe could share information about his private life; todays equivalent would be the weblog, or blog. The era of corporate web pages and e-commerce started relatively recently with the launch of Amazon and eBay in 1995, and got a right ticking-off only 6 years later when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. The current trend toward Social Media can therefore be seen as an evolution back to the Internets roots, since it retransforms the World Wide Web to what it was initially created for: a platform to facilitate information exchange between users. But does that mean that Social Media is just old wine in new bottles? Probably not! As we will delve into further, the technical advances that have been made over the past 20 years now enable a form of virtual content sharing that is fundamentally different from, and more powerful than, the BBS of the late 1970s. (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009a) Precursors to Social Media ----Usernets Usenet systems were first conceived of in 1979 by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis. UseNets let users post articles or posts (referred to as news) to newsgroups. UseNets had no centralized server or dedicated administrator, setting them apart from most BBSs and forums. UseNets are mostly responsible for the development of newsreader clients, which are the precursor to RSS feed readers so commonly used to follow blogs and news sites today. Group sites such as Google Groups and Yahoo! Groups use many of the conventions established by the original UseNet systems. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) The first BBSs came online in the late 70s. Originally these were primarily hosted on personal computers and users had to dial in through the host computers modem. Only one person at a time could gain access to the BBS. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) FIG 1

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While there were legitimate BBSs, most were at least somewhat involved in illicit, illegal, or other shady practices. Adult material, virus code, information and instructions for hacking and phreaking (phone hacking), and materials like The Anarchists Cookbook were commonly hosted on BBSs. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) But BBSs were the first type of sites that allowed users to log on and interact with one another, albeit in a much slower fashion than we currently do. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----Online Services After BBSs came online services like CompuServe and Prodigy. These were the first real corporate attempts at accessing the Internet. CompuServe was the first company to incorporate a chat program into their service. Prodigy was responsible for making online service more affordable (CompuServe had been prohibitively expensive for many, with charges of $6/hour plug long-distance fees that often made the service run $30/hour or more). Genie was an early online service created by a General Electric subsidiary (GEIS) in 1985. It ran through 1999 and was one of the earliest services available. It was a text-based service, and considered the first viable commercial competition to CompuServe. The service was created to make use of idle time-sharing mainframes after normal U.S. business hours. GEnie offered games, shopping, mail, and forums (called Roundtables). There was even a print magazine associated with the service at one time. AOL started as an online service too and made great strides at making the Internet more universally accessible in the U.S. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Five points about using media ----Choose carefully There are dozens, if not, hundreds of Social Media applications, and new ones are appearing on the horizon every day. If you still need time to run your core business, you simply cannot participate in them all, especially since being active is one key requirement of success (see below). Choosing the right medium for any given purpose depends on the target group to be
5

Fig 1 represents the BBs model <img src="./The History and Evolution of Social Media Webdesigner Depot_files/bbs.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="450">

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reached and the message to be communicated. On the one hand, each Social Media application usually attracts a certain group of people and firms should be active wherever their customers are present. For example, if your main target audience is book lovers, a content community via which users share self-written novels or poems is likely better suited to your purpose than a virtual world which centers on fighting dragons and finding treasures. On the other hand, there may be situations whereby certain features are necessary to ensure effective communication, and these features are only offered by one specific application. For example, when the U.S. Army undertook an initiative in 2007 to reach the Hispanic community, it decided to utilize the social networking site Univision rather than the more popular Facebook. This choice was driven in part by the fact that Univision a Spanish language television network in the U.S. and Puerto Rico is the social networking application with the largest Latin American audience, due to an extensive range of telenovelas and Mexican programs produced by Grupo Televisa. However, another reason Univision was chosen is because it offers a moderating service which checks comments from users for appropriateness before posting them on the site. In contrast, other applications, including Facebook, allow users to post messages without supervision. (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Pick the application, or make your own Once you know which game youre playing, the next decision involves whether to make or buy. In some cases, it might just be best to join an existing Social Media application and benefit from its popularity and user base. After all, there is no need to reinvent the wheel if somebody has already done it, especially given that Social Media show positive network externalities in the sense that they get more attractive to join the more participants they already have. But in some cases, the right application might just not be available yet. Japans Fujifilm, for example, recently launched its own social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts. In a similar spirit, U.S.-based department store firm Sears collaborated with MTV music television to create a social network around back-to-school shopping. Yet, whatever the ultimate decision to buy, make, or both it is vital that there is an understanding of the basic idea behind Social Media. Its all about participation, sharing, and collaboration, rather than straightforward advertising and selling. (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Ensure activity alignment Sometimes you may decide to rely on various Social Media, or a set of different applications within the same group, in order to have the largest possible reach. In this case, it is crucial to ensure that your Social Media activities are all aligned with each other. A prime example in this context is computer manufacturer Dell and its Digital Nomads campaign. Dell uses a combination of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn), blogs, and content communities (YouTube videos) to show how its range of laptop computers enable individuals to become a nomadic mobile workforce. In a similar spirit, Chryslers Jeep brand connects with its customers by combining photos shared on the content community Flickr, with groups on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Using different contact channels can be a worthwhile and profitable strategy. But remember: one goal of communication is the resolution of ambiguity and reduction of uncertainty, and nothing is more confusing than contradicting messages across different channels. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Media plan integration What is true for different types of Social Media also holds for the relationship between Social Media and traditional media: Integration is key! While you may consider these two arenas to be
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completely different, in customers eyes they are both part of the same: your corporate image. Consider the actions of soft drink giant Coca-Cola. In June 2006, a pair of performance artists shot a video featuring a series of geysers they created by dropping Mentos brand mints into 2liter bottles of Coke; the clip became a major hit on YouTube. Realizing customers enthusiasm for this performance, Coca-Cola fostered the sensation by airing the video on late-night television and ensuring broad digital distribution across different content communities. Besides the advantage of high impact/low cost media coverage, the campaign also resulted in a measurable sales uplift. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Access for all Although this might sound elementary, once the firm has decided to utilize Social Media applications, it is worth checking that all employees may actually access them. Commonly, firms block Facebook, YouTube, and Second Life on corporate PCs for fear that staff might spend too much time networking instead of working. While this is certainly a consideration, it cannot imply that employees must have special permission to be able to access the company blog. At the same time, there is a need to curtail the possibility of the entire organization spending all its time producing funny videos and uploading them to YouTube. One possible approach involves defining groups of employees whose primary objective is the management of corporate Social Media; all other staff members are treated as occasional participants. Under this scenario, the first group is given administrator rights which allow the opening of new discussion threads and deletion of inappropriate posts while the second group is not. Also, at some point, it will be necessary to develop certain guidelines for Social Media usage; as done, for instance, by Big Blue IBM, which has a corporate Charta for appropriate behavior within Second Life. For example, it is important to highlight that every employee needs to identify himself or herself as such when posting a comment on the corporate blog. Otherwise, end-consumers could get the impression that anonymous accounts are used to enable employees to post fake messages and overly- positive feedback, which could severely damage the credibility of your whole Social Media campaign. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) Five points about being social ----Be active If you want to develop a relationship with someone, it is always advisable to take the lead and to be active. Social Media are all about sharing and interaction, so ensure that your content is always fresh and that you engage in discussions with your customers. Consider the aforementioned blog kept by Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Via this outlet, the figurehead discusses on an ongoing basis his corporate strategy, new product development projects, and company values, and replies directly to correspondence received. In considering your Social Media efforts, be aware that firm involvement must extend beyond responding to negative comments and defending product offerings. Social Media is less about explaining why your baking mix, detergent, or shampoo is better than anyone elses than it is about engaging others in open and active conversation. Participants on Social Media applications have the desire to actively engage and to become both producers and consumers of information, so-called presumes (Toffler, Alvin, 1980). Be considerate of this need and act accordingly. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ---- Be interesting

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Lets face it: nobody is interested in speaking to a boring person. As such, if you would like your customers to engage with you, you need to give them a reason for doing soone which extends beyond saying you are the best airline in town, or manufacture the most robust kitchen blender. The first step is to listen to your customers. Find out what they would like to hear; what they would like to talk about; what they might find interesting, enjoyable, and valuable. Then, develop and post content that fits those expectations. Coffee powerhouse Starbucks, for example, created the My Starbucks Idea platform, via which customers can submit new ideas for the company. These ideas are subsequently voted on by other users, with the winners being considered for implementation by Starbucks top management. As stated by Oscar Wilde in his novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey: The one sin for which there is no forgiveness is ennui. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Be humble Never forget that Social Media existed before you decided to engage in them; indeed, in many cases, even before you knew about their existence. In this light, do not expect that you know better how to use them than others who have spent countless hours on Facebook or Second Life, for example. Before you enter any application, first take some time to discover it and to learn about its history and basic rules. Only once you have gained the necessary understanding, start to participate. When aerospace and defense firm Boeing decided to launch its first corporate blog, the site was designed such that users were not allowed to comment on what they saw. Yet, interaction and feedback are critical elements of all Social Media, blogs included. Hence, many readers perceived the Boeing blog as a fake, and simply corporate advertising in disguise. If there is one certain path to failure, it involves thinking that Social Media is just about posting existing TV spots on YouTube or putting prefabricated press announcements on corporate blogs. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Be unprofessional Have you ever noticed that in Hollywood blockbuster films, its not usually the handsome guy who ends up with the girl, but rather the clumsy, charming one? The same goes for Social Media, and firms would be wise to avoid overly-professional content offerings. Theres no need to spend $100,000 to design the perfect MySpace presence, or hire a professional writer to manage your corporate blog. Instead, try to blend in with other users and dont be afraid to make mistakes! Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of the Marriott International Hotel chain, uses his blog, for example, to post regular updates and stories from his travels to Marriott properties around the worldvery much in the same way as would a work colleague when describing her last vacation. Social Media users are people like you, who understand that things do not always go smoothly. And, if youre nice to them, they may even give you free advice on how to do it better the next time. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) ----Be honest Last but not least, be honest and respect the rules of the game. Some Social Media such as Wikipedia may not allow companies to be involved, so do not try to force your way in. Consider Anheuser-Busch, owner of SeaWorld marine mammal parks. Anheuser- Busch tried to rectify misleading information on Wikipedia through the use of PR firms, and failed miserably at it. Never
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expect that other participants may not find out who stands behind some anonymous user account; after all, youre dealing with some of the most technologically sophisticated people on the planet. . (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2009b) Major Advances in Social Networking The early 2000s brought some huge developments in social networking and social media. ----Friendster Friendster was really the first modern, general social network. Founded in 2002, Friendster is still a very active social network, with over 90 million registered users and 60+ million unique visitors each month. Most of Friendsters traffic comes from Asia (90% of it). (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Fig 2

Friendster operated by allowing people to discover their friends and then friends-of-friends, and so on to expand their networks. Its goal was to be a safer place to meet new people than in real-life, as well as being faster. Friendster was, in part, a new kind of dating site. Instead of matching complete strangers based on shared interests, it operated on the assumption that people with shared friends and acquaintances would have a better chance than those who had no shared connection. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Friendster was most popular with three different groups: gay men, attendees of Burning Man and bloggers. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

http://www.friendster.com/

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----Hi5 Hi57 is another major social network, established in 2003 and currently boasting more than 60 million active members according to their own claims. Profile privacy works a bit differently on Hi5, where a users network consists of not only their own contacts, but also second (friends of friends) and third (friends of friends of friends) degree contacts. Users can set their profiles to be seen only by their network members or by Hi5 users in general. While Hi5 is not particularly popular in the U.S., it has a large user base in parts of Asia, Latin America and Central Africa. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----LinkedIn LinkedIn8 was founded in 2003 and was one of the first mainstream social networks devoted to business. Originally, LinkedIn allowed users to post a profile (basically a resume) and to interact through private messaging. They also work on the assumption that you should personally know the people you connect with on the site. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Fig 3

Gradually, other features have been added, including groups, question and answer forums, and advanced profile features, including real-time updates. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----MySpace MySpace10 was founded in 2003 and by 2006 had grown to be the most popular social network in the world. MySpace differentiated itself from competitors by allowing users to completely customize the look of their profiles. Users could also post music from artists on MySpace and embed videos from other sites on their profiles. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)
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http://www.hi5.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/ 9 http://www.linkedin.com/profile

10

http://www.myspace.com/

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Fig 4

11

Originally MySpace allowed communication through private messages, public comments posted to a users profile, and bulletins sent out to all of your friends. Blogs are also a big part of MySpace profiles, with each member automatically getting a blog. In 2006 MySpace introduced MySpace IM, an instant messaging client that lets users chat with their friends. Other recent additions to MySpaces functionality include the addition of real-time status updates and a news feed showing friend activity. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----Facebook While Facebook12 started out as a Harvard-only social network back in 2004, it quickly expanded to other schools, then to high schools, businesses and eventually everyone (by 2006). In 2008 Facebook became the most popular social networking site, surpassing MySpace, and continues to grow. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Fig 5

13

Facebook doesnt allow the same kind of customization that MySpace does. Facebook does, however, allow users to post photos, videos and otherwise customize their profile content, if not the design. Facebook has added a number of features over the past few years, including instant messaging/chat and apps (and their developer platform). (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)
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http://www.myspace.com/home http://www.facebook.com/ 13 http://www.facebook.com/markzuckerberg/

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Users have a few different methods of communicating with one another. Private messaging is available as well as writing on another users wall. Wall posts are visible to that users friends, but usually not to the general public. Users can easily change their privacy settings to allow different users to see different parts of their profile, based on any existing relationships (the basic privacy settings are only friends, friends of friends, and everyone). Users can post notes that are visible to all of their friends. Users can also comment on or, more recently, like the posts of their friends, and conversations often occur within the comment sections among multiple people. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Media Sharing Social media isnt just limited to social networking sites. Sharing photos, videos, and other multimedia content is also a popular social media activity. ----Photobucket Photobucket14 was the first major photo sharing site, launched in 2003. Photobucket allows users to share photos publically or in password-protected albums. They allow users 500MB of storage (lowered from 1GB in August of 2009). Pro accounts get 10GB of storage (lowered from 100GB to 25GB in July of 08 and then to 10GB in August of 09). Photobucket also hosts video content. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Fig 6

15

In 2007, Photobucket was purchased by Fox Interactive Media (a News Corporation subsidiary). It was rumored to have sold for as much as $250 million, though terms of the sale were never disclosed. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----Flickr Flickr16 has become a social network in its own right in recent years. They claim to host more than 3.6 billion images as of June 2009. Flickr also has groups, photo pools, and allows users to create profiles, add friends, and organize images and video into photo sets/albums. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)
14 15

http://www.photobucket.com/ http://www.photobucket.com/home 16 http://www.flickr.com/

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Fig 7

17

One of Flickrs major advantages is that they allow users to license their photos through Creative Commons, as well as retaining all copyrights. Flickr has also recently launched a collection called The Commons, which features archived photos and images from a variety of museums and other institutions under a no known restrictions license (basically meaning the photos are believed to be in the public domain). (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) ----YouTube YouTube18 was the first major video hosting and sharing site, launched in 2005. Users can upload videos up to 10 minutes long and share them through YouTube or by embedding them on other websites (social networks, blogs, forums, etc.). YouTube now allows users to upload HD videos and recently launched a service to provide TV shows and movies under license from their copyright holders. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d)

17 18

http://www.flickr.com/home http://www.youtube.com/

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Fig 8

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YouTubes major social features include ratings, comments, and the option to subscribe to the channels of a users favorite video creators. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Social Everything It seems that nowadays there are social and user-generated sites for just about every activity you can imagine. There are social shopping sites, social financial planning sites, and sites for getting book, movie, app, and other review. Sites to share your goals and meet like-minded people. Sites to plan your travels and share them with others. And sites to help us make decisions on just about anything. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Fig 9

20

Social media has become a huge part of the lives of millions of people worldwide. Whether its something as simple as looking up reviews of movies from real, live people (instead of professional movie reviewers) or getting advice on major life decisions, there are social sites out there to provide you with the information you seek. Even on general-purpose social networks and social media sites like Twitter there are thousands of ways to get input on just about anything. Instead of using Google
19 20

http://www.youtube.com/home http://www.websabe.com/home

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the next time having a question about something, try asking on Twitter. A lot of the time you get better information from the crowd there in less time than pouring over pages of search results. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Social Media Concerns and Criticism As social media has grown in popularity and become mainstream, it has been faced with growing controversy and criticism. The main criticisms seem to fall along a few lines: Social media can be used by stalkers; Social media can be used by child predators; and, Social media sites open up privacy and security concerns. While there is only so much social media sites can do about the first two, there is a growing trend among many sites to bolster the privacy policies and make users feel more secure. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Social Media Used by Stalkers Facebook and other social media sites have come under attack for making it easier for stalkers to track their victims or even to find new ones. This kind of accusation is not entirely unfounded. Many social media users dont take advantage of privacy settings and leave their entire profiles public. While this is often a good idea for professional profiles where you want to make connections with people you dont necessarily know, personal profiles can benefit from hiding some information from public display. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d). Social networks make these privacy settings available to users to help prevent stalkers and predators from being able to see their updates. But they cant force users to use them, so in the end much of the responsibility falls to the individual users, not the networks themselves. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d). Social Media Used by Child Predators MySpace is the most publically attacked social networks accused of being a haven for child molesters and pornographers, but the site, and other social networks, have made great strides in protecting the identities and information of minors using their sites. Again, this is one of those situations where much of the problem came from users not making their profiles private. MySpace took a major step to prevent predators from friending underage teens by requiring friend requesters to know the email address or another personal identifier in order to send a friend request to a minor. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) They also require the profiles of teens under the age of 16 to be private, not allowing non-friend users to view them. Other sites have taken similar steps. Privacy Concerns Facebook recently came under attack for changes to its privacy policy that were worded ambiguously enough to effectively grant rights to Facebook to use any of your content, private or public, for their own purposes (such as advertising) even after youd deleted your profile. Fig 10

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21

While the company maintains that was never their intent and it was simply unfortunate wording, the backlash was severe enough that Facebook changed their privacy policy back to its previous version and then solicited user input for revisions. It was a harsh lesson in how concerned many users are about the information they provide online. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) When you consider that many people post information about all aspects of their lives online, mostly on social media sites, its no wonder many are concerned about what companies can do with that information. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Social networks and other sites have to rapidly respond to user concerns over privacy and security. With the information in an average social media profile, it would not be inconceivable for a hacker to illegally gain enough information about a person to steal their identity or otherwise cause problems. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d) Security concerns have also cropped up as average people have found their profiles hacked and embarrassing information posted about them. While this type of thing was once relatively confined to celebrities and well-known people (or people who had a personal vendetta against them), it has become more widespread and its not unheard of for regular people to be targeted. (Chapman, Cameron, n.d).

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Chapter 4- A Contemporary View On The Mass And Electronic Media

When it comes to the media, most of us spontaneously think of the mass media. However, for those who work in the field, mass media tools are not always the most suitable or most commonly used. Media can be separated into two main categories: Those that favor interpersonal communication. This type of media is most common in research projects that employ the participatory communication approach. They include what are called group media and traditional media and are used primarily with groups that are directly affected by the research projects. They can be used to implement the research results. Those that favor mass communication. They are used mainly to reach publics other than those directly affected by the research projects. They can be used to increase the visibility of research projects. (Anon, n.d) When used appropriately, the mass media are a highly effective means of transmitting information. For research projects in the field, however, mass media are rarely favored over participatory or traditional communication media. However, that doesnt mean that they should be neglected altogether. Rather, it is important to strike a proper balance between mass media and media based on interpersonal communication. Before using mass media, it is important to identify their different forms, to clearly understand their advantages and their audiences and to be aware of the contacts that can be developed through them. In other words, the use of mass media is a process that requires organization. (Anon, n.d) ----A list of local media If we are developing a communication strategy, its important that we should be familiar with our media environment. This entails drawing up a list of the media available to us and that are capable of reaching our target audiences and groups: General print media (daily, weekly, monthly publications; in a European or local language) Specialized print media (national or international, public or organizational) Local, national or international radio or television stations This media list can be established by consulting: Our own library or by referring to documents we have read The telephone directory of the country in which the project is operating Documentation centers dealing with issues similar to ours Organizations or researchers working in the same field A specialist in local communication, to whom this task can be conferred In the print media, for example, we can establish contact with different journalists according to the sectors they cover (politics, the environment, agriculture, editorials, columns, regional news).

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In the electronic media, its important to be on the lookout for programs that could be interested in our research topic and whose format and content may offer a suitable vehicle for presenting our project. (Anon, n.d) Means of intervention The principal means of intervention using the mass media include: The press release: Brief, clear and precise, the press release announces a piece of news; it never repeats something that has already been said or is already known, unless the purpose is to explain the context. The release is dated and gives an authorized date of publication as well as the contact information of a resource person for further details. (Anon, n.d) The press kit: It is distributed to one or more media during an individual or group meeting. The aim of the press kit is to familiarize the media with the project and to provoke the interest of journalists. Press kits include texts and photos. (Anon, n.d) The interview: The interview can be used in both the print and electronic media. It allows for a different, more dynamic coverage and lends a more personal touch to the information. (Anon, n.d) Feature story: From time to time, you may run into a journalist who shows a particularly strong interest in your project. This person should become your main contact in the media. You can suggest a topic for a feature story or simply offer a visit to your project. (Anon, n.d) Advertising: Barring special circumstances, we dont recommend using advertising. Truly effective advertising is too expensive. In the development field, a good media campaign produces a stronger impact and is more credible in the eyes of the target populations. (Anon, n.d) Just because we want to reach a certain audience, doesnt mean we have to limit ourselves to a single medium. On the contrary, the coordinated and simultaneous use of several media to transmit a single message to a given audience is a good way to reinforce the impact of our message. (Anon, n.d) For example, in order to support a development intervention in a village, we can choose several more traditional or familiar means of communication: Informal discussions Storytelling and proverbs Flannel graphs Theatrical representations Posters Radio Michel Andrien addresses this subject in his work Social Communication in Nutrition: A Methodology for Intervention: On several occasions, it was stated that no one medium can, by itself, significantly alter social communication []. Interventions should make use of different media which will mutually reinforce

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each other. To this end, the planning committee is faced with a formidable task of coordination. This is absolutely essential for the success of the Programme. Programs that have been successful in bringing about change in nutrition-related habits have demonstrated the need to complement the interpersonal channel with other methods []. (Andrien, Michael, 1993) ----Attitude towards Mass Media and its role in promoting Environmental Consciousness Communication remains the most fundamental element of society and its progress. Therefore, the modern epoch of information technology - also known as the era of satellite communication necessitates mass media as part and parcel of human existence, experience, and endeavor. Through communication, members of a society share their experiences and knowledge, understands each other, and generates collective wisdom. The ever-expanding network of communication has overcome great distances and formidable boundaries. It has enabled the most essential and basic trait of human communication to thrive and flourish more splendidly. Today, various types of mass media enable people all over the world to interact and learn from each other at a tremendous pace. Communication, with the help of mass media, not only brings people but also communities together, thus contracting the globe into a village (McLuhan, Marshall, 1964). The frontier between mass media, individual and cultural transition has been the subject of investigation for many social scholars since the dawn of the information and communication age (Lerner, Daniel, 1958; Hagen, Everett, 1962; Schramm, Wilbur, 1964; Rogers, Everett & Shoemaker, Floyd, 1971; Rogers, Everett, 1986; Alahari, Prasad, 1997; McDonald, R, 2000). As mass media becomes an integral part of human societies, it, undoubtedly, brings varying degrees and natures of unprecedented changes to different societies and individuals in different ways. It is reported that initially, early studies on mass media communication were based upon the assumption that the effects of mass media communication were powerful, direct, and uniform. The insight into the importance of diverse societal needs and priorities, and individual differences in peoples attitudes, values and other personality variables, prompted later scholars to cast doubt on its very theoretical foundation. This gave birth to a new theoretical framework considering societal and individual differences pertaining to their perceptions and responses. The new theory assumes that the effects of the media are selective and dependent on the characteristics of a society and individual differences, and is supported by many empirical findings (Peterson, Ruth & Thusrstone, Louis, 1933; Cantril, Hadley, 1940; Schramm, Wilbur, 1979; Kazee, T.A, 1981; Lowery, Shearon & DeFleur, Melvin, 1988). ----Role of mass media in modern democracy The mass media constitute the backbone of democracy. The media are supplying the political information that voters base their decisions on. They identify problems in our society and serve as a medium for deliberation. They are also the watchdogs that we rely on for uncovering errors and wrongdoings by those who have power. It is therefore reasonable to require that the media perform to certain standards with respect to these functions, and our democratic society rests on the
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assumption that they do. (Fog, Agner, 2004; Venturelli, Shalini, 1998; Kellner, D, 2004; McQuail, Denis, 1993; Skogerbo, Eli, 1996). The most important democratic functions that we can expect the media to serve are listed in an often-cited article by Gurevitch and Blumler (1990). These functions include surveillance of sociopolitical developments, identifying the most relevant issues, providing a platform for debate across a diverse range of views, holding officials to account for the way they exercise power, provide incentives for citizens to learn, choose, and become involved in the political process, and resist efforts of forces outside the media to subvert their independence. (Fog, Agner, 2004). However, there is a growing concern that the mass media are not fulfilling these functions properly. Media critics claim that commercial mass media controlled by a few multinational conglomerates have become an antidemocratic force supporting the status quo (Kellner, D, 2004; Herman, Edward and Chomsky, Noam, 1988; Herman, Edward and McChesney, Robert, 1997; Alger 1998; McChesney, Robert, 1999; Keane, John, 1991). The news is more entertaining than informing, supplying mostly gossip, scandals, sex, and violence. Political news is more about personalities than about their ideologies. In the absence of serious debate, voters are left with paid political propaganda containing only meaningless slogans making them disinterested and cynical about politics (Bagdikian, Ben, 1983; Fallows, James, 1996; Capella, Joseph and Jamieson, Kathleen, 1997; Bennett, Lance and Entman, Robert, 2001; Barnett, Stephen, 2002). It is also claimed that the watchdogs are barking of the wrong things. The media hunt for scandals in the private lives of politicians and their families, but ignore much more serious consequences of their policies. They go after wounded politicians like sharks in a feeding frenzy (Sabato, Larry, 1991). All too often, the media make us afraid of the wrong things. Minor dangers are hysterically blown out of proportions, while much more serious dangers in our society go largely unnoticed (Glassner, Barry, 1999). The exaggerated fears often lead to unnecessary measures and legislation and "gonzo justice" (Altheide, David, 1995, 2002; Altheide, David and Michalowski, RS, 1999). Critics also complain that the media fail to report wrongdoings in the industry. For example, many media have suppressed information about the health hazards of smoking due to pressure from advertisers. Even more alarming is the claim that certain mass media (especially women's magazines) are promoting worthless alternative health products, thereby effectively conspiring with the industry to defraud consumers of billions of dollars every year (Barrett, Stephen and Jarvis, William, 1993). The political and cultural consequences of this suspected misinformation of the community are not fully explored. What are the effects of the democratization of the news? Which way does this effect push the growth of our society? The study of these questions is difficult because it must integrate findings from many different scientific disciplines. (Fog, Agner, 2004). ----Media Economics Most newspapers, radio- and TV stations get most or all of their earnings from advertisements and sponsoring. The media will therefore seek to please the interests of their advertisers, which are not necessarily equivalent to the interests of the readers, listeners and viewers. (Baker, Edwin, 1994;
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McManus, John, 1994). The predominant view among economists is that free competition generally benefits society because it provides the most differentiated supply of commodities to the optimal price. This line of reasoning dominates European as well as American media policy. (Blum, Jay, 1992; Noam, Eli, 1991; Sepstrup, P, 1989). It is well known, though, that free competition does not always consider all benefits. The term market failure describes the situation where the free market forces do not mechanically lead to highest welfare (often defined as the sum of benefits to all parties). Market failure may occur, for example, when consumers are unable to evaluate the quality of a commodity, when third party interests are affected (externalities), or when production has large fixed costs (McManus, John, 1995). In the case of media financed by advertisements exclusively, the interests served are those of the advertisers. The interests of the media consumers are satisfied only insofar as these are coincident with the interests of the advertisers (Doyle 2002; McManus 1994, 1995). There is no guarantee that public interests are served well. This is the reason why many countries have public radio- and TV stations with public service obligations. Liberalizing the media market and relying on the free market forces are policies that are often used for the express purpose of making sure that all interests are served. Many theorists ignore, however, that the media not only satisfy consumer preferences, but also form them (Entman, Robert and Wildman, Steven, 1992). ----Popularization of Media The simulation of proximity is an important element in popularization. A political decision can be difficult to explain in abstract terms. It helps when the medium shows an ordinary person telling what the consequences of the decision is for him or her. The audience feel that a story is more convincing when they see an example they can identify with. But in fact it is less credible because the example may not be representative. A magazine can show a person who felt better after taking a certain brand of alternative medicine, and fail to show the 99% who felt worse after taking the same medicine. Advertising has a profound influence on the choice of programs. TV advertisers prefer to have their commercials shown in association with soft entertainment. Ideal from the advertisers' point of view are shows such as competitions where one can win sponsored merchandise, or soap operas that portray a privileged lifestyle where luxurious goods give status (Shoemaker, Pamela and Reese, Stephen, 1996). This does not provide good conditions for the political debate. It is difficult to find sponsors for serious political debates because these do not make the viewers relax and because some of the viewers will disagree with the points of view presented (Herman and McChesney 1997; McManus 1994, 1995). Furthermore, the commercial media are not very inclined to cover controversial issues in a balanced way. People prefer to hear points of view that they agree with. It is therefore adverse to the media's economy to view a controversy from both sides and present alternative points of view. The media are prone to choose side in a controversy; and if later evidence should favor the opposite side, they are likely to keep silent about the matter rather than loosing face. Disclaimers are not profitable. This is a self-amplifying process. The more the media create consensus about a particular
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issue through biased coverage, the fewer proponents of the opposite view will there be to balance the issue, and the more difficulties will these proponents have in gaining access to the media (Ericson, Richard, et al., 1989). Nowhere is this bias problem worse than in crime reporting. The media often take a stance on the question of guilt before a verdict has been made. The police and the prosecutor are often very willing to express themselves because it gives them a PR gain and an opportunity to ask the public for help in solving crimes, while a suspect has few, if any, possibilities and resources for replying (Ericson et al. 1989). It is very unlikely that judges can resist being influenced by this when media frenzy has created a public outcry against a suspect (Fog, Agner, 2004). The legal possibilities of forcing the media to publish disclaimers or to give a voice to alternative points of view are quite illusory, and the means of sanctions are far from effective (Ericson at al. 1989). The printed media cannot compete with the ability of the electronic media to keep their audience spellbound by strong sense impressions. The newspapers have their strength in the possibilities for in-dept. analysis of social and other topics. However, this possibility is not fully exploited because the journalistic resources are limited by economic competition, and because this parameter of competition only gives access to a limited niche of the reader market. Many papers and magazines therefore compete on news about celebrities and topics that appeal to the emotions (McManus, John, 1994). Everything that is dangerous, different or wrong has a obvious place, especially in those papers that are mainly sold from newsstands. They want to have a new scandal on the front page every day in order to tempt people to buy the paper. We may expect to see similar approaches when electronic pay-per-view media become common. Radio- and TVchannels based on advertising use fewer horror effects, because this would conflict with the principle of bringing the viewers into a buying-mood. This does not improve the journalistic and artistic quality, however. Many media workers are frustrated that their creativity is curbed by the economic structures, and the situation is hardly better for advertisement-free commercial media, such as home video and pay-tv (Blumler, Jay and Spicer, Carolyn, 1990). ----Effects of the Mass and Electronic Media There are many different theories about how the media impact people's attitudes, worldview, and behavior. While ancient as well as modern observations are full of examples indicating to the power of the mass media to effect people, early experimental studies have failed to confirm the assumption that mass media have a strong power to change people's attitudes (McGuire, William, 1986). This discrepancy between experiments and real world observations was solved with the introduction of theories of cognitive processing, such as agenda setting, framing, and priming (Lowery, Shearon & DeFleur, Melvin, 1988). The effect of Media on us today is a stealthy thief. As we read our daily Newspaper, the advertising sometimes takes up the whole page. We search for the rest of the article, hidden back beneath the ads. When we turn the Radio on during the ride to work, verses of songs can overwhelm us with the vulgarity and crudeness, casting us into a foul mood for the rest of the day. As we drive down the road we are still being contacted by advertising. The Billboards tell us where to stay, where to shop,
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and how to get to the racetrack. The Magazines we read now have articles we would not want our children to read. The racy and risqu now is commonplace, causing our children to grow up with way too much information. Our children and teenagers have used Games and gaming to such an extent that they now feel violence is normal and acceptable. The games children play with on the Internet seems to be destroying the value system we desire to teach. When we go online to surf the web we are bombarded with inappropriate Internet pop-ups and emails. Buy this, play the casino here - we will even give you money to start. Then, when we get home our place of peace, yet the Television is on, inciting our children, and toys there are. On TV they age can watch the ill manners of the Bart Simpson show, playing at a time that is not appropriate, the dinner hour. This show is adult humor, yet there it is when our little ones are still up. We need to evaluate the trends of today. Does the influence in our familys lives build stronger healthier families? Or do the TV, Radio, Magazines, Internet, and Games tear down what we are trying to establish, a good moral home place, family values that are taught and learned at home. Is what we see, what we are about to become? How much does what we see stay with us?22 ----Mass Media Influence In the last 50 years the media influence has grown exponentially with the advance of technology, first there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet. (Web) We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we have to do. (Web) A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the TV news or newspaper, goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his decisions based on the information that he has either from their co workers, news, TV, friends, family, financial reports, etc. (Web) What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In our work we usually know what we have to do base on our experience and studies, however on our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of. We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment and education. However, the influence of mass media on our kids, teenagers and society is so big that we should know how it really works. (Web) ----How mass Media Influence works Of all the media distribution channels the most influential has been the television, we are constantly exposed to thousands of images of violence, advertising, sex, celebrities and much more, in fact a its known that a child is exposed to about 40,000 ads a year. (Web)
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But who owns the media, which are the companies or people that shape our values, beliefs and decisions? The media is basically dominated by five major companies they are:

Time Warner VIACOM Vivendi Universal Walt Disney News Corp

Those 5 companies own 95% of all the media that we get every day. They own the major entertainment theme parks, entertainment movie studios; television and radio broadcast networks and programing, video news and sports entertainment. (Web) They also own integrated telecommunications, wireless phones, video games softwares, electronic media, the music industry and more. Years ago there was more diversity in companies, but they have merged so now they are just a few and they have the power to shape the opinion and beliefs of us and our kids. So its important to be aware of what your kids are exposed to every day and you should also try to look at things from different perspectives and not just from the one the media gives you.23 ----How does mass media influence young people? The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that we are exposed to. We buy what we are told to be good, after seeing thousands of advertisings we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on TV, newspapers or magazines to be a product we can trust and also based on what everyone else that we know is buying and their decision are also base don the media. (Web) These are the effects of mass media in teenagers, they buy what they see on TV, what their favorite celebrity advertise and what is acceptable by society based on the fashion that the media has imposed them. There are some positive and negative influences in young people. Here is a positive influence example, if there is a sport that is getting a lot of attention by the media and gains popularity among your friends and society, you will more likely want to practice the sport and be cool with all your friends. The result is that you will have fun with your friends and be healthier because of the exercise you are doing. (Web)

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http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society [accessed on 28-04-2012 at 9:00pm]

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However a negative influence in teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity movie stars, the constant exposure of sex images, the excessive images of violence and exposure to thousands of junk food ads. (Web)24 Young people are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their peers, they want to be loved and be successful. The media creates the ideal image of a beautiful men and women and tells you what the characteristics of a successful person are; you can see it in movies and tv. Its a subliminal way to tell you that if you are not like them you are not cool yet so its time to buy the stuff they buy and look like they look. (Web) Another negative influence in teenagers that has grown over the last years are anorexia and obesity. There are millions of adolescents fighting obesity, but at the same time they are exposed to thousands of advertisements of junk food, while the ideas image of a successful person is told to be thin and wealthy. Also more women are obsessive with losing weight even when they are not obese; there are many thin women that want to look like the super models and thin celebrities so they engage in eating disorders which lead to severe health issues and even death. (Web)25 ----Effects of violence in the Media When we watch TV or a movie we usually see many images of violence and people hurting others. The problem with this is that it can become traumatic especially in our children as we see it more and more. Our kids that are starting to grow and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become aggressive or they can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing. (Web) In the past years there have been some cases of kids carrying a gun at school and even hurting others with it. Those kids have been linked to excessive use of violent video games and war images. Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the media, we should make our kids and teen aware that war is not a form of entertainment and that there is no win or lose like in video games, in real war everyone lose. (Web)26 ----How media influence public opinion As i have said above, the media has a huge impact on society and also in public opinion. They can shape the public opinion in different ways depending of what is the objective. For example, after the attacks of 911 the media gave a huge coverage of the event and exposed Osama guilty for the attack as they were told by the authorities. This shaped the public opinion to support the war on terrorism, the same happened with the war on Iraq. The problem is that if media received inaccurate information then the public opinion supported a wrong cause, this is the power of public opinion influence. Other ways to influence are with polls and trends, especially in political campaigns. The

24 25

http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society [accessed on 28-04-2012 at 9:00pm] http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society [accessed on 28-04-2012 at 9:00pm] 26 http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society [accessed on 28-04-2012 at 9:00pm]

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candidates that can pay for more TV and media exposure have more influence on public opinion and thus can receive more votes. (Web)27

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http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society [accessed on 28-04-2012 at 9:00pm]

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Chapter 5- Introduction To The Freedom Of ExpressionMedia Democratization

In the last decade and a half, media reform and media freedom have come under close scrutiny by governmental and nongovernmental organizations as well as academic scholars. Media reform and freedom often are viewed as intrinsically important and are seen by many as related to development of democratic institutions and a civil society. In the view of some, media reform is needed for media freedom, and media freedom is a necessary condition for democratization. Because of the importance of media freedom, western governments have invested heavily in training of media workers and in media reform in order to bring it about. In addition, a number of prominent governmental and nongovernmental organizations have developed indices of press freedom, at least implicitly so as to judge the consequences of and need for media reform. The methodologies employed in creating these indices of media freedom are not always transparent, however, and charges are often made about biases in the underlying assumptions behind them. Nor are the conceptual bases for the indices always obvious. It is possible that the competing indices measure different concepts, measure the same concept unreliably, or measure the same concepts in a reliable but invalid way. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). The concept of press freedom is a contentious one in the literature of mass communication. McQuail (2000) argues that the concept of media freedom covers both the degree of freedom enjoyed by the media and the degree of freedom and access of citizens to media content. The essential norm is that media should have a certain independence, sufficient to protect free and open public expression of ideas and information. The second part of the issue raises the question of diversity, a norm that opposes concentration of ownership and monopoly of control, whether on the part of the state or private media industries. (p. 144-145). (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Curran (1996) differentiates between a classical liberal perspective on media freedom and the radical democratic perspective. The former focuses on the freedom of the media to publish or broadcast. The latter focuses on how mass communications can mediate in an equitable way conflict and competition between social groups in society (p. 55). Within the classical liberal perspective, according to Curran, is a strand arguing that the media should serve to protect the individual from the abuses of the state. Within the radical democratic perspective, he continues, is a strand that argues that the media should seek to redress the imbalances in society. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). For Price (2002), the foundation requirement for media freedom is that government does not have a monopoly on information. Rozumilowicz (2002) contends that the question of who has control is the critical consideration as to whether media are free and independent. There must be a diffusion of control and access supported by a nations legal, institutional, economic and social-cultural systems, she argues. Thus, free and independent media exist within a structure which is effectively

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demonopolized of the control of any concentrated social groups or forces and in which access is both equally and effectively guaranteed (p. 14). (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Rozumilowicz sees media independence as the outcome of a process of media reform. The general assumption is that the media should progress ever nearer to an ideal of freedom and independence and away from dependence and control (p. 12). In her view, a media structure that is free of interference from government, business, or dominant social groups is better able to maintain and support the competitive and participative elements that define the concept of democracy and the related process of democratization. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Rozumilowicz sees the ideal media environment as one in which there are two media sectors, a market-led media sector and a nonmarket-sector. Within the market sector, advertisers are free to present their goods to target audiences, programmers can use fees provided by these advertisers to draw in audiences, and audiences are informed and entertained to the extent the market allows. The nonmarket-sector provides balance by ensuring that the needs of non-dominant groups are met. It also creates a forum in which a common discourse emerges and which allows people to function within the society. . (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). For these two sectors to exist, there must be both legal and institutional support for them as well as social-cultural support. For example, the market sector can exist only if laws are in place protecting media from government interference. Audiences also must be protected via defamation laws from media abuse. Also needed are anti-trust legislation, ownership laws limiting concentration, licensing laws, and rules on advertising. . (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). For the nonmarket-sector to exist, there must be legal and institutional support for the right to publish and the right of access. Citizens are guaranteed the right to information, and the various voices in society are guaranteed the right to communicate. For Rozumilowicz, socio-cultural support for free media comes from training for and professionalism among journalists, a general educational system that instills values of tolerance within society, and training for politicians on the workings of a free press in an open society. Following from this conceptualization, Rozumilowicz outlines four stages of media reform. The first stage, labeled a Pre-transition Stage, lays the groundwork for subsequent change. During this change, there is an opening or- freeing of a previously constrained media system. The regime signals a greater willingness to tolerate criticism and expressions of alternative points of view. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). The second stage is termed a Primary Transition Stage. During this stage, there is a systematic change within the formerly authoritarian regime. Statutes on access to information, defamation, ownership, and the like are passed. The culture of censorship is disrupted. The next stage is called the Secondary Stage. During this period both politicians and journalists participate in training seminars to explain and clarify the new institutional and legal order. Networks of media professionals develop. Journalists receive training in new skills of investigative and responsible journalism. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004).
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The final stage is called the Late or Mature Stage. At this point, legal and institutional questions have been resolved. Educational opportunities for journalists are well established. Instruction to provide support for open communication is incorporated in primary and secondary schooling. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). More than 100 organizations throughout the world are currently engaged in some form of media system assessment and evaluation or media freedom promotion. Many of these are newly-formed in response to recent democratization in Europe and re-democratization in Latin America. The groups describe their missions variously as promoting free and independent media through activism, monitoring media freedom violations, evaluating media systems through indices and written reports, and defending and protecting journalists working in conflict zones and under repressive governments. The organizations have applied rather than conceptual goals for their work. They are interested in media reform often because they believe it plays a role in the development of democratic states. Their work is often described and cited in the popular media, giving weight to their operationalizations and consequent conceptualizationsof media freedom. For this reason, their applied activity deserves close examination. Additionally, examination contributes to the future development of precise instruments for measuring media freedom. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Reviewing some of the organizations, those are global or regional in scope, allowing for country by country assessments of their outcomes and deductions. Their reports are categorized by generality, systematic research, and specific expertise in the areas they cover, often originating from the organizations durability, the experience of their employees, and their use of diverse, in-country bases. ----The Freedom House A non-governmental organization based in Washington D.C., Freedom House was founded more than 60 years ago to promote democracy globally. Since 1978, Freedom House has published a global survey of freedom, known as Freedom in the World, now covering 192 countries and 18 related or disputed territories, which are widely used by policy makers, academics, and journalists. In 1980, as a separate undertaking, Freedom House began conducting its media freedom survey Freedom of the Press: A Global Survey of Media Independencewhich in 2003 covered the same 192 countries (Freedom House, 2004). Concept: Freedom of the media. Conceptual Definition: In the 2004 report, Freedom House says that it attempts to measure the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information (Freedom House, 2004). Operational Definition: To measure press freedom as defined, Freedom House attempts to assess the political, legal, and economic environments of each country and evaluate whether they promote and do not restrict the free flow of information. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Procedures: According to the Freedom of the Press managing editor Karin Karlekar (personal communication, July 6, 2004), Freedom House U.S.-based staff keep year-round files on media activities for each country. The files contain news articles by and on media in each country and other
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reports from governmental and international organizations. These files are consulted prior to the production of the annual reports. To augment that information, Freedom House staff members consult local and international media organizations, multilateral and governmental organizations, and other NGOs. Staff members also rely on the Toronto-based International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global clearing house for media freedom organizations around the world, and on Freedom Houses own world freedom surveys.28 (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). ----Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) The non-profit RSF works to defend journalists and media outlets by condemning attacks on press freedom worldwide, publishing a variety of annual and special reports on media freedom, and by appealing to governments and international organizations on behalf of journalists and media organizations. The group, based in Paris and including a network of 100 correspondents, works to reduce censorship, opposes laws devised to restrict press freedom, supports journalists and media outlets with financial aid, and has recently developed a judicial branch to promote effective prosecution of crimes against journalists. On an annual basis, RSF publishes comprehensive regional and country reports that assess political, economic, and legal environments for media freedom. In 2002, RSF released its first Worldwide Press Freedom (RSF, 2002a) report and ranking of individual nations. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Concept: Respect for media freedom. Conceptual Definition: The amount of freedom journalists and the media have in each country and the efforts made by government to see that press freedom is respected (RSF, 2002b). Operational Definition: Extent to which legal and political environments, circumstances, and institutions permit and promote media freedom and the ability of journalists to collect and disseminate information unimpeded by physical, psychological, or legal attacks and harassment. Procedures: To create the index, RSF sends out a 53-item questionnaire to in-country sources, usually members of domestic and foreign media as well as legal experts and members of NGOs involved with media freedom. RSF receives an average of three to four completed questionnaires for each country, and if it does not receive at least three, the country is not included. The questions fall into the five categories of physical and psychological attacks on the journalists, legal harassment of and discrimination against journalists, obstacles to collecting and disseminating information, and government manipulation of the media. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). After questionnaires are returned, RSF staff members in Paris score the surveys. Each of the questions is weighted. Lower scores indicate more media freedom. Points are summed and averaged to arrive at final score.29 (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). ----Arab Press Freedom Watch (APFW)
28 29

http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/pressurvey.htm http://www.rsf.org/article

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APFW was formed in May 2000, describing itself as the first media freedom organization to monitor Arab countries. Based in London, the organization produced its first annual report in 2001 (APFW, 2001), which included regional and country analyses of media freedom conditions and a chronology of attacks on journalists. Its 2003 report (APFW, 2004) on 19 Arab countries included 235 cases of media freedom violations, including journalists arrests, threats, injuries, imprisonment, kidnapping, and deaths. This report also included cases of censorship and banning of media, as well as new press laws that APFW considers to be an obstacle to media freedom. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Concept: Freedom of media, opinion, and expression in Arab countries. Conceptual Definition: Extent to which nations are characterized by violations of freedom of expression (Arab Press Freedom Watch, 2001) and media. Operational Definition: Cases of censorship, overly restrictive press laws, and physical, psychological and legal attacks on or intimidation of journalists. Procedures: The newly-formed organization draws on journalists and individuals described as media freedom supporters to compile information for the annual reports. It states that some contributors prefer to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Neither the annual reports or the APFW Web site provide more details on procedures.30 (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004).

----European Institute for Media (EIM) The European Institute for the Media, a policy-oriented think tank, was created in 1983. In 1989, EIM, based in Paris and Dusseldorf, created the Media and Democracy Programme (MADP) to monitor media development in the emerging democracies of Europe. The EIM so far has monitored media coverage in at least 50 presidential, parliamentary, and municipal elections in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, producing comprehensive written reports from each mission. Additionally, the project has published several books on related topics, such as media and elections and media and conflict. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Concept: Media coverage of elections and media developments in former totalitarian countries. Conceptual Definition: Extent to which media provide free, fair, and objective coverage of elections and contribute towards diversity, participation and accountability in the society (EIM, 2004). Operational Definition: Equal media coverage for all political candidates participating in the election, defined as equal space in print media and equal time on broadcasts, as well as objective tones in reports. Procedures: To produce its reports, EIM missions, which have included academics and journalists as well as EIM staff members, are sent to the selected countries to conduct field research. During
30

http://www.apfw.org/data/annualreports/2001/english/2001annualreport.pdf

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monitoring of coverage of the March 2002 elections in the Ukraine, for example, the EIM mission oversaw monitoring of the print and broadcast media to produce quantitative data on the amount of media time was spent on competing candidates. Monitors also measured positive, negative and neutral references to provide an assessment of the tone of coverage. In addition, they conducted interviews with sources from media, political and regulatory fields. The interviews addressed issues of impartiality of election coverage, media access for all political parties and candidates, balance in the presentation of various political perspectives, and the ability of the media to report freely, fairly and objectively. Reports (EIM, 2004) include descriptions of staffing, methodology, political and regulatory background, as well as summaries of findings.31 (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). ----International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Based in Brussels, the IJF is among the most longstanding media freedom organizations, claiming 500,000 members in more than 100 countries (IFJ, n.d.). First formed in the 1920s, it describes itself as politically neutral but committed to freedom of expression, defense of press freedom, partly through independent trade unions. IFJ chronicles the killings of journalists all over the world in the IFJ Annual Report on Journalists and Media Staff Killed. (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). Concept: Safety of journalists and media workers. Conceptual Definition: Extent of press freedom violations throughout the world (IFJ, 2004). Operational Definition: Counts of cases of reported and unconfirmed murders of journalists, deaths of journalists covering news. Procedures: IFJ monitors abuses of journalists and media workers, including translators, drivers, technicians and others. IFJ includes cases in which it is unclear why journalists were killed, and cases in which journalists were killed in accidents while on the job. The annual compilation of attacks includes the sources for each case, often other media freedom organizations such as the International Press Institute, Committee to Protect Journalists, World Association of Newspapers, Reporters sans frontiers, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.32 (Becker, Lee & Nusser, Nancy, 2004). All of these above mentioned organizations are involved in the day to day activities and operations of Media, and are informed for its actions. There are several other institutions which also play a great role in media democratization.

31 32

http://www.eim.org/ http://www.ifj.org/

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Chapter 6- Media In PakistanAn Analysis Of PEMRA, And Social And Mass Media
After nine years of military rule, Pakistan today finds itself in the second year of a challenging transition to democracy. Unlike previously unsuccessful transitions to democracy, this transition is characterized by the presence of a newly liberalized mass media. This can prove to be to be a crucial and positive factor, but only if the media can assume a role as a watchdog of democracy. Even though Pakistans media is vibrant this is a difficult task, because the media is faced with a number of challenges. (International Media Support, 2009) ----Media landscape Pakistan has a vibrant media landscape, which in spite of political pressure and direct bans that they are sometimes subject to from the state; the media enjoys independence to a large extent. After having been liberalized in 2002, the television sector experienced a media boom. In the fierce competitive environment that followed commercial interests became paramount and quality journalism gave way to sensationalism. Although the radio sector has not seen similar growth, independent radio channels are numerous and considered very important sources of information especially in the rural areas. (International Media Support, 2009) The Pakistani media landscape reflects a multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and class-divided society. There is a clear divide between Urdu and English media. Urdu media, particularly the newspapers, are widely read by the masses mostly in rural areas. The English media is urban and elite-centric, is more liberal and professional compared to the Urdu media. English print, television and radio channels have far smaller audiences than their Urdu counterparts, but have greater leverage among opinion makers, politicians, the business community, and the upper strata of society. (International Media Support, 2009) ----Media and conflict Pakistan ranks as the most deadly country in the world for journalists. The security and safety situation in the conflict-affected areas, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP), are the most grievous. Here journalists face propaganda, threats, coercion, and targeted killings. Some areas are effectively no-go areas for journalists; and the journalists working in the conflicts epicenters have adapted to self censorship in order to not antagonize the conflicting parties. As a result, curbs have been put on the free flow of information and some areas in FATA and NWFP and Baluchistan suffer from a dearth of information or an outright information vacuum. There is a great need to provide journalists with improved security through risk-awareness training and conflict sensitive journalism. (International Media Support, 2009) Pakistani media have not only been caught up in this violent conflict, but also in a war of words, ideologies and propaganda. FATA and NWFP have more than a hundred radical, illegal hate speech radios and the mainstream media have been subjected to a radical agenda as well. The media coverage of the regional conflicts within Pakistan and how these relate to the conflict in Afghanistan
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is either very rudimentary or stereotypical, and does not contribute to a greater understanding of the interwoven challenges from extremism that the two neighbors face. (International Media Support, 2009) Pakistan is at cross roads in its history. It is the cradle of contemporary terrorism and the centre of attention in the global war against terrorism. The country is faced with a violent, prolonged domestic conflict. But most importantly, after having held elections in February 2008, Pakistan today finds itself in the second year of a challenging transition to democracy after nine years of military rule. The present development marks a historic nexus with an opportunity to establish a sustainable democracy. Pakistan is a fragile state, threatened by economic crisis and the effects of a continued insurgency. The civilian government is facing a difficult task. (International Media Support, 2009) The violent conflict with the Pakistani Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militant groups on one side, and the army and state on the other, has intensified dramatically during the past year; and has craved thousands of casualties, produced millions of internally displaced persons and now threatens the cohesion of the state. In several regions the military is involved in fierce fighting with the Taliban, which have been able to assert its will and enforce Sharia Law in the tribal areas and parts of NWFP. (International Media Support, 2009) Recently, the armies have had its first major success in pushing back the Pakistani Taliban when it cleared the Swat district for militants after heavy fighting. Although ruthless, the military operation received a previously unseen backing of the public and the major opposition party. (International Media Support, 2009) The public support encouraged the military and was pivotal for a successful outcome. This indicates that there is now greater resolve to counter the insurgency. But whether the military success in Swat is the beginning of a more determined and comprehensive policy to defeat the Pakistani Taliban remains unclear. But one thing is for certain. If the tide is not turned by a decisive strategy, Pakistan could begin to slide toward a failed state. This possible scenario is echoed in a recent report from the Atlantic Council think tank, which calls for a more comprehensive US policy towards Pakistan. (International Media Support, 2009) The Atlantic Council argues that Pakistan is on a rapid trajectory to failure as a democratic and stable state, and needs a boost of $4 billion in aid and loans each year to begin a reform process. The report warns that we are running out of time to help Pakistan change its present course toward increasing economic and political instability, and even ultimate failure.33 (International Media Support, 2009) 9/11 brought Pakistan into the epicenter of international politics. It was an indispensable actor of the US-led global war against terrorism. Consensus in the international community strongly agrees that a democratic, stable Pakistan is paramount for global peace. But the million-dollar question is if this is still possible. Creating a well-functioning democracy will require a political leadership able to curb the militarys influence in state affairs; find solutions to Pakistans economic crisis; improve
33

Pakistan Report: Comprehensive U.S. Policy Needed, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, Atlantic Council, Feb. 2009.

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the previous democratic governments poor track record on effective governance and, lastly, curb the increasing spread of violence and Talibanisation. (International Media Support, 2009) The role of the media in this process must be emphasized. If Pakistan is going to make a successful transition to democracy, the media must be able to perform its role as a watchdog -holding politicians, the state apparatus and army accountable and keeping the general public well informed. Even though Pakistan has a vibrant media this is challenging task. Pakistans media is faced with number of challenges. The booming electronic media is powerful, but young, and needs to find a greater balance in its coverage of political and conflict-related issues. Many journalists need training. Areas within the country suffer from lack of access to media. Journalists reporting from conflict areas face security problems that in turn hamper their ability to provide a free flow of information. With twelve deaths in 2008, Pakistan became the second deadliest country for working journalists and other media employees. With six journalists killed so far in 2009, Pakistan now ranks as the most deadly country in the world for journalists to work in. (International Media Support, 2009) Pakistan is faced with a huge job ahead if it is to establish autonomous governance and practices, inner peace and fortune for its residents. Responsive of the significant role the media needs to play in this process, and alarmed by reports of the weakening security condition correspondents face in large parts of the country, an IMS team went to Pakistan in January 2009 on a combined media assessment mission. (International Media Support, 2009) The purpose of the mission was two-fold: 1) to carry out a needs valuation and 2) to identify potential forthcoming partners able to recruit actions as quickly as possible. This report is the result of the mission; and its conclusions constitute the foundation for IMSs plans for future projects and collaboration with Pakistan media workers and institutions. (International Media Support, 2009) The mission, which took place from 31 January to 7 February 2009, was based in Islamabad where most of the major local media organizations, related ministries and governmental institutions, international media support organizations, academic institution and think-tanks have their main offices. Furthermore, a close proximity to FATA and NWFP was preferred as safety issues for journalists were part of the mission scope. (International Media Support, 2009) During the mission a series of investors was consulted. To ensure effectiveness, and gauge how IMS could subsidize, other international and local media support organization were primarily consulted in order to learn from their experiences in the country and to establish contacts for possible future cooperation. (International Media Support, 2009) Based on these preliminary studies, the IMS mission team consulted with Pakistani media stakeholders. Representatives from print, television and radio broadcaster outlets, the local union of journalist, media regulating authorities, the information ministry, and educational institutions were interviewed. The emphasis of the research was on gaining a general understanding of the Pakistani conflict, and a detailed insight into the medias role and working conditions for the journalists who operate in the conflict areas. The Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) assisted in organizing
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the mission and provided an overall review of the prevailing conflict and the corresponding media issues. This background information was complimented with interviews and insights from local journalists, some of whom work in conflict areas such as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). (International Media Support, 2009) Due to the conflicts regional character spanning the Afghan-Pakistani border the mission had a particular focus on media relations between the two countries when conduction field research and interviews with media support organizations, newspaper editors and journalists occupied with the conflict. The mission small team consisted of Finn Rasmussen; IMS Programme coordinator, and two consultants: Ranga Kalansooriya, specialist in media development, and Jeppe Matzen, MA in History and journalist specialized in Pakistan affairs. (International Media Support, 2009) ----Description of the media landscape Pakistan has a energetic media landscape; among the most vigorous in South Asia. To a large extent the media enjoys freedom of expression in spite of political pressure and direct bans sometimes managed by political investors. More than 40 television channels beam soaps, mockery, music programs, films, religious speech, political talk shows, and news of the hour. Although sometimes criticized for being unprincipled and politically unfair, the television channels have made a great involvement to the media landscape and to Pakistani society. (International Media Support, 2009) Radio channels are frequent and considered a very important source of information especially in rural areas. Besides the state channel Radio Pakistan, a number of isolated radios carry independent reporting content and news. But most radio content is music and entertainment. There are hundreds of Pakistani newspapers from the large national Urdu newspapers to the small local dialect papers. (International Media Support, 2009) Media demographics imitate a multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and stratified class society with a clear divide between Urdu and English media. Urdu media are mostly inspired by the rural population. The English media targets urban and the exclusive and is more generous and professional in contrast. English print, television and radio channels have far smaller spectators than their Urdu colleagues, but have great influence among opinion makers, politicians, the business community, and the upper strata of society. (International Media Support, 2009) Besides the Urdu/English and Rural/Urban divide, Pakistan media is also divided linguistically with a series of media in dialect languages, such as Punjabi, Pashto and Sindhi. Pakistans media sector is highly influenced by the possession structure. There are three dominating media powers, or large media groups, which to some extent also have political relationships. Due to their dominance in both print and broadcast industries all three media groups are very influential in politics and society. The security situation for journalists in general has deteriorated in the past couple of years. Twelve journalists were killed in 2008; and so far by May 2009 six more has been killed. Threats and intimidation against journalists and media workers by state and non-state actors is widespread. Political pressure on media is mostly done indirectly. One tool widely used by the government is to
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cut off unfriendly media from governmental advertising. Using draconian laws the government has also banned or officially silencing popular television channels. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has been used to silence the broadcast media by either suspending licenses or by simply threatening to do so. In addition, media is also visible to advertising from state agencies, pressured by powerful political elements and non-state actors involved in the current encounter. (International Media Support, 2009) As news coverage on the most popular private television channels is mostly focused on conflict and political stories, reports covering social issue, minorities, marginalized groups, human rights and women rights do not get due exposure in the media. In defense of the media, one could argue that developments within political theatre and the prevailing conflict have been so intense that they have demanded all the attention of journalists and media in general. (International Media Support, 2009) ----Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority from partner to controller Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was promoted by the government as an open media policy reform and was fortified with strong regulatory teeth but it is in reality one of the major hurdles to press freedom in the country. The establishment of PEMRA was initiated in 2000 through the formation of the Regulatory Authority for Media Broadcast Organizations which was mandated to improve standards of information, education and entertainment; expand the choice available to the people of Pakistan in the media for news, current affairs, religious knowledge, art, culture, science, technology, economic development, social sector concerns, music, sport, drama and other subjects of public and national interest; facilitate the devolution of responsibility and power to grass roots by improving the access to mass media at the local and community level; and lastly, to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance by optimizing the free flow of information. (International Media Support, 2009) Many pro-democratic campaigners consider this four-point mandate to be a solid foundation supporting democracy processes and comprehensive media liberalization. However, the general opinion among media practitioners is that PEMRA only acted as a license issuing office that has implemented regulatory barriers for broadcaster. It is a Bhatta (means money extortion in Urdu) body that collects money from broadcasting operators in a legal way. Nothing more can be expected, notes media law activist and journalist Matiullah Jan. (International Media Support, 2009) The PEMRA laws were utilized by the Musharraf regime in his attempts to tame the media. Some stations were shut down and some were under severe harassments using these laws. The 12-member authority was dominated by bureaucrats and ex-police officers a phenomenon that had been partly changed after the assumption of office by the present government. (International Media Support, 2009) However, media activists are still not comfortable with the composition of the 12-member committee where they highlight the need of a greater representation from the media itself. Regulation of the TV and Radio should be through the participation and representation of the stake
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holders. What must happen is the restructuring of the Board of PEMRA with independent eminent people. It is still full of bureaucrats and ex-policemen, so there you find lack of ownership, say Matiullah Jan. (International Media Support, 2009) PEMRAs leadership agrees to that the institution needs to be more engaged with its stakeholders. Its a combination of regulator and the stakeholders. Therefore, the chain is Law /Regulator / Stakeholder, says Dr. Abdul Jabbar, the Executive Member of PEMRA. (International Media Support, 2009) However, the present government is under pressure to amend or repeal these laws. Many media practitioners confirmed that the harsh use of the PEMRA laws during the Musharraf regime had not occurred during the past year. The PEMRA board has been reconstituted to some extent and includes some media professionals. Furthermore, the government is making some attempts to reintroduce some democratic norms in its media regulation reform. The Code of Conduct made by PEMRA has been subjected to criticism by the industry players, and is now being reviewed by the government. The former Minister of Information has requested Pakistani Broadcasters Association to draft a new Code of Conduct to replace the existing Code of Conduct of PEMRA. (International Media Support, 2009) Still, a somewhat top-down approach is taken from PEMRA authorities on this matter. Referring to the issue on Code of Conduct, Dr. Abdul Jabbar said that presently there are many Codes of Conduct, one by PFUJ, one by South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) and the broadcasters are in the process of formulating another. The Government will not agree to any of these, most probably. But taking all these documents into account, the government will come up with a comprehensive document that can be acceptable to all stakeholders. Then everybody has the ownership. He continued: PEMRA will function it will not be silenced or nullified. We will be the regulatory body. But the stakeholders will have a say in the Code of Conduct. Thats what we call self-regulation. (International Media Support, 2009) ----Journalists and media workers in Pakistan The working conditions of a Pakistani journalist varies greatly depending on the form of the media (electronic/print), its readers (rural/urban), language (English/Urdu) and the size of the media (local/national). Financially, the greatest divide is between print journalists on the one hand and TVjournalists and other electronic media workers on the other. A fulltime TV employee earns up to 100,000 rupees a month (1.200 Euros). The most prominent reporters and anchors have higher salaries than cameramen and other TV employees under regular contracts. (International Media Support, 2009) Newspaper journalists earn less, often with no clear contracts and irregular payment of wages. The minimum wage at a newspaper is officially 10,000 rupees a month (120 Euros). At a larger paper a regular employee will typically make 15-20,000 rupees a month. Salaries at the large national papers and especially those in English are higher. (International Media Support, 2009)

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According to the general secretary of PFUJ, Mazhar Abbas, up to 80% of the print journalists have no contracts or employment letters and media houses invent scams to avoid paying higher salaries. Dawn, according to Abbas, contracts some journalist through a subcontractor in order to avoid having complaints about wages directed at the newspaper itself. (International Media Support, 2009) Working for a rural newspaper can be particularly difficult. Sometimes the owners of rural newspapers tell the journalists, that there is no salary, but that they can make money by selling advertising says Abbas. (International Media Support, 2009) Many rural journalists work part-time for a local paper or they freelance and provide local news for a larger urban or national media. Besides poor financial conditions these journalists also lack backing for their safety concerns and support in legal matters and insurance. Journalists training vary greatly. Some local journalists have no education or training at all. Many came from low-paid jobs as for example schoolteachers. Journalists who are able to write and speak English are more likely to make a decent salary. A job with the urban elitist media is considering favourable if you are print journalist. (International Media Support, 2009) These urban media also have a number of columnists, who often come have different backgrounds. Many of these columnists are retired army officers, academics and intellectuals, who often are financially well off and belong to the higher middle or upper classes. They are often very influential and provide background information related to specific news reporting. (International Media Support, 2009) Female Pakistani journalists have very different work area. In general female journalists are not assigned to cover conflicts or politics, but find themselves confined to reporting on social and cultural topics. Most female reporters work for the large urban and national media, and especially in the electronic media. (International Media Support, 2009) ----Quality of media and journalists Pakistan has many excellent and professional journalists, who are able to produce high quality journalism under very difficult conditions. But the standard of journalism varies widely from the best trained, educated and most professional journalist to the uneducated, untrained and unprofessional. Even the most professional journalists often work under conditions that make it hard to maintain a high journalistic standard. (International Media Support, 2009) The boom in electronic media has led to a surge in the number of journalists working in Pakistan in recent years. Some experienced TV-journalists have left the state broadcaster PTV to work at the new TV-channels, but the bulk of the new TV-reporters have come from the print media. TVchannels offer better salaries and the prospect of gaining celebrity status attractive work places for a young journalist. (International Media Support, 2009) Sufficient training and education of TV-professionals have not accompanied the sudden boom of TV-channels. Major TV-channels and reporters are criticized for sensationalism and too heavy a focus on breaking news. News events are followed on minute-by-minute basis with reporters on the
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spot, but these contain little background information, analysis or follow up that could put events in a context. Few journalists care about the quality of the news and have little knowledge of issues, says Farrukh Tanveer Malik, Senior Assignment Editor at Geo TV in Islamabad. They just report on what is happening. (International Media Support, 2009) Commenting on the issue of the breaking news trend, Farrukh Tanveer Malik explains that owners insist on a focus on breaking news. Stories are broken up into mini-stories, where insignificant details are blown out of proportion. Now the Chief Justice comes out of his house, now he sits in his car, now This is not breaking news. We are forced to practice it. Sensationalism is also prevalent in the political talk shows. Seeking to raise ratings by airing opinions presumed to be popular among their viewers, talk show moderators sometimes step outside their roles and become biased stakeholders in a debate. (International Media Support, 2009) According to Khalid Jameel, Bureau Chief of Ajj TV in Islamabad, five or six moderators on the TV channels dominate national debate. Acting as hosts to a group of retired army personnel and professional opinion makers, these Programme anchors sometimes espouse ungrounded speculations and unfounded conspiracy theories. (International Media Support, 2009) To some extent this sensationalism can been seen as part of the growing pains of a recently liberalized and booming electronic media with ambitious journalists trying to learn to deal with the responsibilities of a powerful medium. Farrukh Tanveer Malik, at Geo News, thinks that too few journalists care about the quality of the news and have knowledge of the issues. He stresses the need for more training. In general TV journalists come from three backgrounds. Former print journalists that have gone into TV reporting, because of the much higher salaries, better working conditions and higher status; young journalists or newcomers that have begun their career in television. The third group is of the few seasoned television reporters, or senior newspaper journalists, who often fill the editorial and management positions or function as anchors. (International Media Support, 2009) Both in the electronic and print media, reporters, anchors and editors also unfounded speculations. Political talk shows on TV are crammed with guest analysts and retired army officers who often are biased and are not being challenged about their personal agendas. The same goes for the opinion pages in the newspapers, which some times print erroneous and untruthful manipulative content. This is often the case for foreign affairs news reporting. The Pakistani medias coverage of foreign affairs is limited, superficial and, at times, misleading. (International Media Support, 2009) Commercial interests, hidden political agendas, and attempts to coerce media are often the motivations behind airing biased information in newspaper and TV reports, interviews and talk shows. But journalists have so far not been able to unite and raise their concerns about the lack of objective, balanced journalism with the powerful media owners. Training and education is not part of the media budgets. Few journalists do mid-career training or refreshment courses. They are trying to do their best, but are not up to mark, says Farrukh Tanveer Malik from Geo TV. (International Media Support, 2009)

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----Media distortion Media content in Pakistan is distorted most of all because of coercion, pressure, bribery and propaganda from outside actors. Radical Islamist influence on the media first manifested itself in the 1950s, when the government in Punjab used the media to promote radical views against the Ahmadis Muslims. The newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt was among the papers receiving money from the Punjab government to incite public anger against the Ahmadis. (International Media Support, 2009) Since then radical groups and political parties such as Jamaat-i-Islaami, Sipahi- Sahaba and more recently the Pakistani Taliban, have infiltrated the mainstream media or strengthened and expanded their own media platform. The radical organizations have grown strong enough to threaten violence with such leverage that the mainstream media often give in to their agenda. A survey by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies found that 69% of 16 journalists and editors thought that radicalization was crippling freedom of expression. 50% found that the radical media had an impact on mainstream media, and 57 % thought that the media was concealing facts about radicalization.34 (International Media Support, 2009) Coercion comes in different forms and affects the media in many ways. When journalists are in the field in NWFP, says an interviewee that prefers anonymity, the militants use to follow journalists around to ensure that they are not talking to ordinary people. They are not honoring our independence. (International Media Support, 2009) This is a mild form of coercion. Radicals also threaten to kill journalists and their families, media owners and editors. According to Waseem Ahmed Shah, resident editor of the Dawn in Peshawar, journalists and media representatives live in fear, and therefore they censor their reporting so the public are not getting appropriate and balanced information.18 The situation is very different from region to region. In the south and middle regions of the country radical influence is not as dominant as in the NWFP and FATA. (International Media Support, 2009) Part of the radical influence has also been generated by the medias own dynamics as media sees the conflict as hot news and follows it intensely. During the Red Mosque incident in 2007, the media was criticized for covering the event as an entertaining spectacle, and thereby for giving too much airtime to the radicals inside the mosque. Journalists are not sufficiently trained to have a critical eye, to sort out undocumented information and radical viewpoints when these are not relevant or necessary to the present story. Radical organizations seek media coverage because they want to spread their messages. The media is aware of this and, consequently, give the radicals extensive coverage to avoid their wrath.19(International Media Support, 2009) Part of the problem is that journalists, TV-anchors and reporters want to be popular and increase their programs ratings by covering what they believe to be popular events and issues. This is true at both the large TV stations as well as at small newspapers. The Urdu media however prefers to propagate radical views as they believe that their readers and viewers are conservative and more likely to appreciate Islamist agendas. (International Media Support, 2009)
34

Muhammad Azam, Radicalization and Media, Conflict and Peace Studies, vol. 1 2008, PIPS, p. 37.

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In addition to the radicalization of mainstream media, the Islamists also have their own media. Pakistan has always had religious media, but in the 1980s a new type of radical Islamist media came into existence that was established in order to support the call for Jihad in Afghanistan and building support for Islamist movements. This has now become a parallel media industry. (International Media Support, 2009) The number of radical publications runs into hundreds. Six major jihadi outfits print more than 50 newspapers and magazines alone. The Urdu monthly, Mujalla Al-Dawa, has a circulation of approximately 100,000. It is published by the Jamaat ud-Dawaa, an organisation run by Lashkar-eTaiba which has been label as a terrorist organization. Lashkar-e-Taiba also publishes the weekly paper, Ghazwa, claiming a circulation of approximately 200,000.20 The Islamist party Jamaat-iIslami publishes 22 publications with a total circulation equaling that of a large mainstream Pakistani newspaper. (International Media Support, 2009) Many of these publications can be found in newsstands across the country; the banned publications are distributed around mosques, or delivered to subscribers home address. Glorification of the Mujahidin and disparage of the US and its allies are the dominant features of these publications. They criticize the government of Pakistan; and encourage true believers to die for Islam. (International Media Support, 2009) Militant activities are highlighted and glorified as are calls for the Umma to unite against the enemies of Islam. The jihadi and other radical organizations are also using electronic media. According to Altaf Ullah Khan, Professor in Mass Communication at Peshawar University, there are hundreds of underground Jihadi radios in FATA and NWFP. Mullahs use the radio to glorification and to propagate their cause. But another very important use of the radios is to generate fear. Mullahs began using the radio to spread hate and fear a few years ago and realize that it is an effective weapons useful to instill terror in inhabitants of FATA and parts of NWPF who are cut off from the rest of the country and hostage to the Taliban and other militant groups. In Swat the notorious Mullah FM run by Maulvi Fazl Ullah broadcasts threats of attacks. These are always followed up with action the next day if the people named do not comply and capitulate to the verdicts announced on the radio. People regularly listen to the radio to hear whether they are named, or their business or profession banned. Children want to have a radio to hear whether their schools will be allowed to function or whether the age limit for girls to go out in public is further reduced. (International Media Support, 2009) Many community radio stations in Pakistan have fallen into the hands of radicals. One of the reasons for this is that PEMRA has not been willing to issue licenses for community or non-commercial FM radio operation. PEMRA has the authority to issue special licenses for community radios, but the special community radio licenses have not been put into effect on a large scale. FATA is not under the jurisdiction of PEMRA. The central government has the authority to issue radio licenses in the tribal areas. Shabbir Anwer, Principal Information Officer at the Ministry of Information suggests that a system for issuing free frequencies for community radios could be establish. (International Media Support, 2009)
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According to Altaf Ullah Khan, community radio could have a major impact in fostering social change, public healthcare, education and the spread of democracy. It is impossible to close down or jam the radical stations but providing access to an alternative and a voice for normality would be valuable. (International Media Support, 2009) The government, military and intelligence agencies also influence the medias agenda through coercion, bans and revoking of advertisement budgets. According to Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, bribery is also used. Prominent journalists are on the take and corrupt. But the journalist associations and union dont want to come to terms with it, she says. (International Media Support, 2009)

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Chapter 7- Role Of MediaA Contemporary View On Cyberspace And Social Networks

THE INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL CHANGE The political uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011 have further intensified discussions on the political potential of internet communication which, since the very beginning, have been closely tied to the worldwide expansion of the medium: the new information and communication technologies (ICT) are generally seen as facilitating a more open information exchange, the formation of alternative political opinions, and the mobilization of social actors previously excluded from political participation. Six months after Twitter messages about the protests of Iranian voters against the manipulation of the presidential elections in June 2009 had mobilized worldwide attention, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared internet freedom a new priority in American foreign policy. Drawing on Cold War rhetoric, Clinton warned of a descending new information curtain and likened the battle against internet censorship to an overall fight against authoritarianism (Clinton 2010)35. Coupled with the powerful impressions from Egypt where protesters allegedly used social media like Facebook to organize their vast presence in Cairos central Tahrir Square, the perception of the internet as a means for democratization and development is bound to shape future political expectations and decisions. As a consequence, the new medium increasingly attracts the interest of civil society activists, policy makers, and development organizations. In the US, as in many other Western countries, this has already led to a sharp increase in projects and funds dedicated to harness the supposed democratic potential of the internet. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011) Yet the narrative of the Twitter/Facebook-Revolutions has been contested. In his detailed rebuttal of cyber-optimism Evgeny Morozov argues that a mere focus on information freedom and technology access neglects the way authoritarian rulers are using the internet for propaganda purposes, online surveillance, and targeted censorship. A one-sided approach to supporting netactivism would risk not only a waste of funds and resources but also carry dangers for the very activists the assistance is directed at (Morozov, Evgeny, 2011). Also, research on the Kenyan postelection crisis of 2007 has shown that the new communication technologies actually exacerbated conflict and violence (Goldstein/Rotich 2008, BBC 2008)36. The Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia points out that the sudden interest in digital activism, the politicization of cyberspace, and the proliferation of funding affect the independence, autonomy, and authenticity that have characterized online initiatives in the Arab world so far. Moreover, due to the involvement of giant private companies like Google and Facebook he considers the Internet Freedom Agenda a new

35

Clinton, Hillary Rodham (2010): Remarks on Internet Freedom. U.S. Department of State, January 21. http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm. 36 Goldstein, Joshua/Rotich, Juliane (2008): Digitally Networked Technology in Kenyas 2007-2008 Election Crisis. Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Goldstein&Rotich_Digitally_Networked_Technolog y_Kenyas_Crisis.pdf.pdf

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strategy for advancing the geopolitical and economic interests of the West (Gharbia, Sami, 2010; Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----The Internet as a Potential Tool for Democratization It is not surprising that the internet has raised high expectations regarding its possible effects on authoritarian regimes and the advancement of worldwide democratization. The internet allows for a quasi instantaneous transmission of information at low cost and free from the typical barriers that confine access to the traditional media. The evolution of the new media during the last decade has made it easy to transmit messages in different formats (text, sound, and image). Furthermore, online communication transcends geographical borders permitting the formation of transnational communities based on shared language, culture, or interests. Due to its network-like and nonhierarchical structure, the internet has been considered as the ideal means of communication for social movements and subaltern groups challenging established power structures (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). In Western democracies, it was expected to eradicate the democratic deficits of corporate-dominated media systems, influenced by consumer-culture and intertwined with powerful elites. As for authoritarian systems, the World Wide Web promised not only to undermine the states control on information circulation but also to open up new communication channels for suppressed opposition groups and dissidents (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Up till now, however, it has become evident that the internets potential for fostering democratic change is restrained by several factors. First of all, the different aspects of the so-called digital divide shape, size, and composition of online public groups as well as possible forms of usage: not only infrastructural development and access quality but also education, media literacy and socioeconomic stratification create unequal conditions within the population for accessing and using the Internet (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Secondly, the characteristics of online communication itself influence its political outreach. The internet is considered a pull-medium; i.e. users have to actively search for the content and applications they are interested in. Consequently, political information and debate enter an uneven rivalry with entertainment as it is the case in other media too. In addition, users tend to visit the websites of well-established traditional media, like newspapers or TV-stations that generally have significant resources at their disposal to compete with independent online publications or weblogs (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Thirdly, non-democratic regimes have developed sophisticated mechanisms for the surveillance and control of online communication. Administering the national infrastructure and legislation of telecommunication, authoritarian states successfully block access to specific internet content, and monitor and persecute dissident online authors. The recent events in Iran and Tunisia have shown that security agencies employed internet technology to identify protesters and networks of resistance. Furthermore, regime actors actively produce online content in order to extend their ideological hegemony into cyberspace. In China and Russia, for instance, not only all are important state media present on the internet but the government also organises bloggers who engage extensively in online debates in order to drown out dissident voices. Saudi-Arabia and Thailand
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provide internet users with the option of reporting websites considered offensive to ruling norms and values, thereby crowd-sourcing censorship. The Singaporean government uses internet forums to absorb critique that could otherwise seek different channels to emerge in public. These various forms of pro-active internet use ultimately contribute to strengthening the legitimacy of nondemocratic rulers. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Finally, aside from authoritarian regimes other non-democratic actors benefit from the internet too: extremist groups of various orientations discovered long ago the advantages of online communication, underlining the fact that the internet as such does not necessarily function along democratic norms. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). As a consequence of these restricting factors, the internets use for the spreading of political information and debate in developing and transitioning countries remains generally limited to the educated and urban layers of society. Nevertheless, these information elites by and large originate in the middle classes and can be considered as upwardly mobile social groups who, in an authoritarian setting, are often affected by political exclusion. In many transformation processes, educated professionals such as journalists, academics, lawyers, and engineers have formed the core of movements that have challenged established regimes. In civil society, these actors are often committed to social development and change. By creating awareness of existing grievances and formulating demands for change they influence public opinion. With regards to democratization processes, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the capability and inclination of internet-active social actors to challenge the status quo. Subsequently it can be examined whether and how the internet is supporting the activities of these actors. For this purpose, several potential effects of the internet on the communication and activities of civil society and political challengers will be distinguished in the following. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----Case Study of Pakistan Since its foundation in 1947, Pakistan has not succeeded in establishing a stable system of democratic governance. Alternating intervals between civilian governments and military rule remain a characteristic feature of the countrys political evolution. After the removal of the military government led by former Army Chief and President Musharraf in 2008, Pakistan has, again, embarked on a fragile course of democratization. However, even if no longer directly involved in government, the army still casts a long shadow over the political sphere as well as the economy and the national culture, thereby hampering the evolvement of functional democratic institutions. Combining elements of authoritarian rule, hesitant liberalization and democratic consolidation, Pakistan has to be situated in the grey zone of hybrid systems. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----Challenges The consolidation of a democratic system in Pakistan faces multiple challenges. Although the country ranks among the most populated in the world, there is neither a congruent strategy nor the political will to manage demographics. The population growth exerts significant pressure on all sectors of public life. The education and health system particularly are unable to cater for the needs of society. Pakistan is far from its declared goal of providing basic primary education to all children
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by 2015: currently only 56 per cent of children between the age of five and nine years attend school. With nearly half of the population being illiterate, the literacy rate is among the lowest in the region. Moreover, a lack of efficient training and qualification for the labor market leads to high numbers of un- and underemployment, particularly among the youth. These trends coincide with an increasing migration into the cities where a poor and overstrained administration often results in energy, water, and housing shortages. The unfulfilled promises of both education and urbanization are generally considered as catalysts for feelings of resentment and alienation among the affected layers of the population, fermenting social tension and radical ideas.37 (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----A Growing Media Market Pakistans media landscape experienced an impressive evolution during the last 10-15 years. The previously non-existent sector of private electronic media especially has flourished after the state monopoly on broadcasting was lifted in 2002. Overall, the media enjoy freedom of expression but are faced with political pressure and safety issues when approaching certain topics. Also, a lack of professional education and weak journalistic ethics restrain the media from fully playing their required role in the democratic consolidation of the country. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Television is nationwide the most popular medium. In addition to the state-run PTV with different channels for news, entertainment, and regional programs, more than 70 private channels had been issued a license by the end of 2009. Nevertheless, there is a considerable gap between rural and urban areas. In some remote areas, where electricity shortages, limited coverage, and high poverty levels restrict the outreach of television, radio usage is almost equally as prevalent. In addition, the television market remains divided between PTV, still the only network with terrestrial emission, and the private channels operating via cable or satellite. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). According to a survey, only 11 per cent of the rural population has access to satellite or cable, versus 69 per cent in the urban areas (Audience Scapes, 2010a)38. The costs of equipment or subscription also restrict the usage of private television. Although purchase prices for satellite equipment are decreasing and several households often share a single connection, the usage of private channels increases with the level of income and education. Thus, among the urban and educated television consumers with higher income rates, the private news channel Geo News has already outranked PTVs news Programme. Other private news channels such as Express News, ARY News, and Aaj TV also enjoy growing popularity within these audience groups (Audience Scapes, 2010b)39. Despite the impressive progress in the sector television, radio remains an important medium in Pakistan. Particularly for the rural and poorer sections of the population with limited access to television and other media, radio is an essential source of information and entertainment. Due to the increasing circulation of mobile phones with a radio device, more and more people listen to radio
37

Kazim, Hasnain (2011): Taliban verbreiten Video von Massenexekution. Spiegel Online, July 18. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,775051,00.html. 38 Audience Scapes (2010a): Television in Pakistan. The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles-pakistan-country-overview-television-statistics. 39 Audience Scapes (2010b): Pakistan Media Outlet Matrix. The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles-pakistanmedia-outlet-matrix-popular-media.

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programs via their telephone. More than 100 private FM radio stations have been licensed in Pakistan, but they are not allowed to broadcast their own news programs. Consequently, the options of obtaining news on the radio are restricted to state programs, illegal (mostly militant) radios, and the programs of foreign broadcasters such as the BBC, Voice of America (VoA) or Deutsche Welle (DW). Remarkably, the BBCs news programme is most popular among those sections of the population who otherwise access only the state-run radio as a source of information (Audience Scapes, 2010c)40. In the Federally Administered Areas (FATA) and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK), many illegally operated radical radio stations distribute propaganda and erroneous information, undermining efforts towards education and development. To counteract the detrimental effects of these radical radio stations, a number of media assistance initiatives support the development of local radio stations, focusing, for instance, on womens or human rights issues (Audience Scapes, 2010d)41. The printed press has a long tradition in Pakistan and there is a lively and diverse newspaper industry. As per official records, in 2010 the total number of periodical print publications reached 952, with 360 dailies,3 but according to media practitioners only around a dozen of these newspapers can actually be found at the newsstands (Asia Media Barometer 2009: 26). The total circulation of newspapers is estimated at 6 million, although figures are not reliable (AMB 2009: 27). The language divide between the countrys two administrative languages, Urdu and English, that characterizes the overall media landscape is most distinctive in the press. English media have only limited circulation but target the urban elite, thus having an impact on opinion makers and political circles. The Urdu press reaches much larger audiences and therefore unfolds a greater influence among the general public. There are also numerous publications in Pakistans other vernacular languages, most importantly in Sindhi. The low literacy and education rates of Pakistans population represent a significant hurdle to the outreach of the press. There is also a large gender divide among newspaper readers, which is even more accentuated in the rural areas where only 5 percent of women report to read a newspaper once a week (Audience Scapes, 2010e)42. The press market is dominated by three major groups, which have also expanded into the general media market and respectively show different political inclinations: The Jang Group, considered moderate conservative (i.e. dailies Jang and News International, Geo TV), the liberal Dawn Group (Dawn Newspaper, Herald magazine, Dawn TV), and the rather right-wing conservative Nawa-e Waqt Group (dailies Nawa-e Waqt and The Nation, Waqt News TV). The Lakson Group is another player in the media market, producing amongst others the popular dailies Express (Urdu) and Express Tribune as well as the television channel Express News. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011).
40

Audience Scapes (2010c): News on the Radio: What Choices do Pakistanis have? The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles/pakistan/news-radio-what-choices-do-pakistanis have/radio-news-444. 41 (2010d): Radio in Pakistan. The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles-pakistan-country-overview-radio-statistics. 42 (2010d): Radio in Pakistan. The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles-pakistan-country-overview-radio-statistics.

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----The Internet in Pakistan Pakistan has currently about 20 million internet users. In a country of more than 180 million people, this figure amounts to only slightly over 10 per cent of the population. With regards to internet penetration, Pakistan scores better than its larger neighbor India, but stays far behind the transition countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where online communication reportedly fostered the development of civil societies that formed the core of the upheavals against authoritarian rule. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----Expecting Internet Expansion In an overall ranking of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which determines worldwide ICT development by using a composite index (ICT Development Index: IDI) made up of 11 indicators covering access, use, and skills, Pakistan reached position 127 out of 159 countries in the year 2007. At that point its progress rate was higher than that of any other country because at the time of the previous evaluation in 2002, ICT usage in Pakistan was barely existent. However, that progress stalled in the following year, 2008, with Pakistan reaching only rank 128 (ITU 2010).43 (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). As a matter of fact, the expansion of internet use in Pakistan is as much slowed down by the insufficient development and quality of the network as by low levels of education. The internet is still accessed mainly through dial-up connections. There are only about 1.3 million broadband users in Pakistan.44 The urban-rural divide that characterises the countrys overall development naturally has an impact on internet access and usage too. In a BBC survey in 2008, only 1 per cent of the respondents in the rural areas of Pakistans four provinces used the internet. Various rural areas remain without any access at all (Audience Scapes, 2010f, Freedom House 2011: 3).45 Another reason for the restricted development of internet usage may be seen in Pakistans comparatively low Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, making computers and access subscriptions unaffordable to many people. The ITU report partly refutes that assumption though: An additional indicator, the ICT Price Basket classifies countries based on the relative costs for fixed telephones, mobile cellular and broadband internet services. Generally, a low ranking in the ICT Development Index corresponds to high values in the ICT Price Basket. Yet Pakistan deviates from that trend as it has a relatively low price-level but scores poorly in the ranking of access and usage. This points to the fact that barriers other than high costs hinder ICT development and
43

The ICT Development Index (IDI) is composed of three sub-indexes measuring access (fixed telephony, mobile telephony, international internet bandwidth, households with computers and households with internet), use and intensity of use (internet users, fixed broadband and mobile broadband) and skills (adult literacy rate, gross secondary and tertiary enrolment.) 44 Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Telecom indicators: http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=269:telecomindicators&catid=124:industry-report&Itemid=599. 45 Audience Scapes (2010f): The Internet in Pakistan. The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles-pakistan-country-overview-internet-research-statistics.

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proliferation, namely infrastructure, access to infrastructure, and usage skills (ITU 2010: 61). Since the level of secondary education is considered a decisive hurdle for internet usage, the ITU report thus confirms Pakistans poor education statistics as a main factor in hindering many people from going online. However, as education is closely linked to economic status, there is admittedly a strong correlation between both factors. The results of the 2008 BBC-survey show that the majority of internet users are high-income earners and have a secondary or higher degree of education. There is also a certain preponderance of men among the internet users (AudienceScapes 2010f).46 These restrictions notwithstanding, Pakistans percentage of young population is comparable with (or even higher than) the transition countries in the MENA region. As people aged under 30 years typically constitute the largest user group within society, there is a huge potential for ICT proliferation. The impressive growth of the mobile phone market underlines the overall interest in modern communication technologies: with now six mobile companies on the market, the number of mobile phone subscribers reached about 108 million in mid-2011, according to official statistics.47 (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Another interesting factor shaping internet usage in Pakistan is the general language divide between Urdu and English that can be observed particularly in the media landscape. Despite more and more content being produced in other languages, English remains the lingua franca of the internet. While this is certainly to the advantage of the more or less bilingual Pakistani upper and middle class, it limits the usage of other social layers as there is relatively little content in Urdu on the internet. In fact, observers expect a significant surge in the number of internet users once the Urdu market is expanded. Already now the online publications of the English-language newspapers Dawn and Express Tribune, considered forerunners in the online news sector, gather only one third of the online audiences of the big Urdu papers Jang and Express. Another issue supposedly limiting a proactive use of the internet in Urdu is the disparity between the fonts that are usually employed in publishing and those that are available for the internet. Urdu books and newspapers appear with an italicized version of the Arabic scripture (nastaliq) but many websites and blogs only offer the fonts that can normally be found on Arabic or Persian websites. Apparently the resulting unfamiliarity seems to heighten users hesitance to employ Urdu as a language for communicating online, for instance when writing blogs. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----Social Networks and Politics: Digital Precursors One of the most active political organizations on the internet is the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI) led by former cricket star Imran Khan. The organization has an active website with news and announcements about its activities. There are also blogs by members of the organization, online chapters for the U.S., U.K., and other countries with a significant Pakistani community, a Twitter account and even an application for smart phones. Of course, PTI has also established several
46

Audience Scapes (2010f): The Internet in Pakistan. The Intermedia Knowledge Center. http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles-pakistan-country-overview-internet-research-statistics. 47 Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Telecom indicators: http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=269:telecomindicators&catid=124:industry-report&Itemid=599.

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Facebook profiles for the organization and its chairman, so that followers receive news and can partake in debates on the social network. The party also uses the internet to raise funds from its followers in Pakistan or abroad. Due to his extensive media presence and a discourse underscored by populism, Imran Khan has been able to attract a significant following of mainly young people. However, this media prominence stands in sharp contrast to the political significance that his organization has shown so far: apart from the celebrated leader, there are no influential or recognizable political figures in the leading circle of his party. Behind the attractive rhetoric on a new beginning, there is actually no substantial Programme being offered. Although Khan has been able to raise interest in urban circles, he does not have any power base or influence in Pakistans rural areas where established networks of loyalty and patronage decide the vote of the population. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Another political figure showing an even greater discrepancy between online popularity and actual political impact is the former president and army chief Musharraf. He tries to portray himself as an alternative to the current government, promising economic prosperity and moderate politics. His Facebook profile shows more than 400,000 followers. However, a YouTube channel with Musharrafs statements was less successful, underlining the limits of online popularity and mobilization: while many users may easily like the Facebook profile of the former president, they are less inclined to listen in more detail to what he actually has to say. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). According to Alexa, an online service ranking worldwide internet traffic, Facebook is the most popular website in Pakistan. In mid-2011, the website had an estimated five million users. It is followed by other central internet sites such as Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia. The most visited news websites are those of Jang Newspaper, Express, and GEO TV all in Urdu. The Urdu edition of the BBC website also counts among the most visited news sources on the internet. Last but not least, the micro-blogging service Twitter has gained considerably in popularity with currently about two million users in Pakistan. People tweeting on news, political and social affairs are usually journalists and avid internet users, but also politicians. The assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was known for his activity on Twitter, sending out regular messages with comments on daily politics. The Minister of the Interior Rehman Malik and the former mayor of Karachi, Syed Mustafa Kamal also use the micro blogging service, the latter with a large following on Facebook too. Former parliamentarian Marvi Memon used among other channels a Twitter message for justifying her decision to resign from the National Assembly and party membership in PML-Q.48 (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). According to Jehan Ara, president of the Software Houses Association P@SHA, Twitter has become an important outlet for initiating or steering debates, but also for fund-raising and knowledge sharing. Herself very active on the network, she says that Twitter has allowed for the formation of small communities or networks in which people belonging to a sort of information elite share information, ideas and advice. For instance, her expertise in the field of ICT has been solicited more
48

For an overview on the most important figures in Pakistans Twitter-community see: Tribune Twitterati list: 140 characters of Pakistan. The Express Tribune, June 24th 2011.

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than once via Twitter by young entrepreneurs or others active in this field. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). Twitter is also used for breaking news, thereby following a trend of sensationalism that is already quite popular on the news channels. Some journalists observe that politicians who use Twitter have been forced to develop closer relationships with ordinary people as the readers of their tweets are able to directly confront them with questions regarding their decisions. The former anchor of Dawn News, Naveen Naqvi, also took live questions from the audience via Twitter to pose them to her guests. At the same time, the ambition to circulate spectacular news leads to rumours and false information being transmitted via Twitter, undermining its credibility as a media source. During the attack by militants on the Pakistani Naval Base in Karachi, end of May 2011, several tweets called for urgent blood donations although the army had not issued such call and it was in fact dangerous for potential donors to come to the site of the ongoing battle. And, as in other countries, there are of course fake twitter accounts being set up for prominent public figures. The new Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, for instance, has been the victim of messages being circulated under her name. (Michaelsen, Marcus, 2011). ----Role of Media in Political Socialization Political socialization through media is not a new phenomenon. Political scientists are sometimes interested in the medias role in politics. Media plays an important role in creating political awareness among the people and ensures their participation in the democratic process. It also plays a significant role in bringing changes in the society. Socialization is a long-term process that every human being undergoes as he or she becomes a functioning member of society. Socialization refers to the internalizing of all of the lessons from many sources concerning ways of behaving that are approved or expected by society, as individuals mature through every stage in the life cycle. (Anwar, Muhammad, n.d) Media is one of the agents that politically socialize masses. Radio and Television are playing significant role in a politically socialized life. Media is a source of information which not only affects daily activities of human life but also provides information about other events like developments being took place on national and international forums. The extent of media and its possible effect on general public have been acknowledged in various media research studies. The primary purpose of media is to ensure a well informed citizenry for our social and political structure. The mass media provides information and programs that can promote democracy. Communication systems democratization has not gained much attention in the individual countries despite of political awareness in masses. Media can ensure smooth functioning of a democratic system which is linked with media role for diffusion in field of innovations and information. The basic aim of democracy in Pakistan is to work for a democratic system representing opinion of the public. The development of democratic Government by the people is determined through interaction of democracy with publics aspirations regarding formation of Government in accordance with their desires. (Anwar, Muhammad, n.d)

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The political stakeholders like politicians, political parties etc. play pivotal role in representative democracy through maintaining link between people and those having political powers. In this way, establishment of political power structure and various interests of citizens are balanced. Formation of public opinion and mobilization are caused due to involvement of media, political institutions and other networks. The process of socialization can be defined as creating a sense of interaction with world by gaining and adopting norms, values and traditions of other cultures. Adoption of other cultures is over-dominating our own culture in a process of socialization. Since our childhood, we acquire knowledge about how to behave in a socially acceptable manner. Some social segments have very powerful impact in socialization of young generations like family and (schools), whereas other institutions have also strong effect on process of socialization though not intentional. Now we are looking for the place of media in socialization. It has been observed that an average American high school student remain in front of TV for more time than in a class. Mass Media is considered as strong agent of socialization. (Anwar, Muhammad, n.d)..

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Conclusion
So now, as we know how the media (medium), actually evolved and whats its origin, we can now elaborate the changes from ancient times till todays digital revolution. In an interview with Mr. Shakeel John, Chief Editor of Reporting Time, he described that, social media is a major social device of communication in todays world. Our social networks have a great influence on our lives than nearly anything else. Currently, all across the world, major governmental resolutions are occurring due to social media influence. The Egyptian rebellion, fall of the Gaddafi rule and revolts in other parts of the Arab world are some common examples. In the past, the economy was the most deliberated issue in the social media, but drifts have changed and politics is now the focus of the social media all over the world, including Pakistan. On December 25, 2011, around 30,000 PTI workers observed PTIs Karachi rally on the internet. It is the suitability of social media that has made it a major foundation of information, if we use it honestly. People all over the world have a stage where they can raise their opinions on every political event that takes place. Political movements, live conferences of political leaders, information on political directives, etc., is just a snap away. Internet communities, blogs, networking sites have become a significant part of life nowadays; we can say, it is the new face of the youth. Social media has been a great stage for cyber extremists to share their ideas, brainstorm and create open source claims. Users have been more than ready to examine technologies whose beta versions are introduced for analysis and post their responses. It has opened new career options for people, computer knowledge has enlarged and life has become much calmer. The influence of social media is everywhere. We can generate, collaborate, entertain, get entertained, review a creation, discuss a movie, gossip with friends, etc. the opportunities are limitless and never-ending. The government is taking ingenuities to promote social media as a tool of cognizance and to utilize it as an operative device to convey the desired communications. Thus, it is important to make people more aware about it. According to Mr. Shakeel, in this period social media has a lot of significance in our lives. This report sought to place Pakistan as a case study surrounded by current discussions on the internets significance for progressions of political conversion and democratization. The exploration of Pakistans status of political conversion has shown that the country can be positioned in a phase of tentative democratic alliance. After years of military rule a comparatively free and open election in 2008 has fetched a civilian government to power. The conclusion of its tenure up to a new round of regular elections will essentially be a step of chronological scopes for Pakistan. Nevertheless, the country faces major difficulties on the way to a steady democratic system from motionless economic expansion and the vicious conflict with Islamist aggressiveness up to an alarming prospective for social tensions and the elites confrontation to any change in the circulation of power and property. Last but not least, the militarys frequent interruptions into the political range and the classified structure of society have mired the expansion of a political culture that would inspire political participation, rational
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discussion, and cultural broadmindedness. The evolution of such a culture and the solidification of civil society need to be seen as central requirement for Pakistans future progression towards equality. Though, there is an important role of media in the society but indeed, there are some drawbacks which they need to overcome. For instance, their major drawback is this that, instead of creating awareness they are also encouraging terror, which effects the cognitive abilities of the society. As, we all know that the most spreading disease in Pakistan is the Dengue Fever and media always reports that several died of it due to bad treatment, but actually its not the case. Media always skip the positive part that should be included in their report, i-e. they should also report that among the several dead, thousands have been cured, and some are under good treatment, and our media everywhere, always skips this part. So, they should think about this fact too which will be a good step in creating better awareness and getting better response indeed.

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