Unit G325: Critical Perspectives In Media

Media In The Online Age

A2 G325: Critical Perspectives in Media

Unit G325: Critical Perspectives In Media: Media In The

Online Age – Glossary Of Terms
• ARPAnet – precursor to The Internet (1969).
• TCP/IP - transmission control protocol/internet protocol. The fundamental way
computer files are moved around the Internet today (1977). Invented by ARPA
• Tim Berners-Lee – inventor of the World Wide Web.
• The World Wide Web - abbreviated as WWW and commonly known as The Web, is
a system of interlinked hypertext documents contained on the Internet. With a web
browser (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer), one can view web pages that may contain
text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them by using
hyperlinks (1989).
• Web 2.0 - The term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications that
facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and
collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based
communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-
sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its
users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-
interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that
is provided to them (Tim O’Reilly, 2004).
• Web 3.0/Semantic Web - The Semantic Web is an evolving development of the
World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information and services on the
web is defined, making it possible for the web to "understand" and satisfy the
requests of people and machines to use the web content.
• Dystopia - A vision of a future that is a corrupted (usually beyond recognition)
utopian society State in which the condition of life is extremely bad as from
deprivation or oppression or terror
• Moral Panic - A semi-spontaneous or media-generated mass movement based on
the perception that an individual, group, community, or culture is dangerously deviant
and poses a menace to society. A public outcry. Coined in 1972 by Stanley Cohen,
who coined the phrase to describe media coverage of Mods and Rockers in Great
Britain in the 1960s.
• Cultural Hegemony is a concept that derives from political history and refers to the
power of one country over several others. In Media Studies the term is associated
with the Italian theorist ◄Antonio Gramsci (1881-1937).
• Dominant Ideologies are the set of common values and beliefs shared by most
people in a given society, framing how the majority think about a range of topics, from
art and science to politics and economics. Dominant ideologies include religions,
legal systems, shared moral codes, etc.
• Top Down Communication – hegemonic form of communication in which the
powerful elites (i.e. media conglomerates) communicate to those without power (i.e.
the general public/audiences). Traditional media, e.g. TV, radio, newspapers etc. are
a kind of Top Down Communication.
• Bottom Up/Grassroots Communication - A grassroots movement is one driven
by a community, thus grassroots communication is a bottom up form of
communication in which the audience become media producers as well as
consumers, e.g. Web 2.0.
• The Long Tail – Chris Anderson (2003): Anderson argues that products in low
demand or that have a low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that
rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or
distribution channel is large enough. Anderson cites earlier research by Erik
Brynjolfsson, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith, that showed that a significant
portion of Amazon.com's sales come from obscure books that are not available in
brick-and-mortar stores.

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 Unit G325: Critical Perspectives In Media
Media In The Online Age
• Freemium - a business model that works by offering basic Web services, or a basic
downloadable digital product, for free, while charging a premium for advanced or
special features.
• Push Media - A model of media distribution where items of content are sent to the
user (viewer, listener, etc.) in a sequence, and at a rate, determined by a server to
which the user has connected.
• Push Media - contrasts with Pull Media which is where the user requests each item
individually. Pull media is usually (but not necessarily) a more Interactive, Lean
Forward experience than Push Media, which is traditionally seen as a more Passive,
Lean Backwards experience.
• Technological Determinism - (Thorstein Veblen ) According to technological
determinists, particular technical developments, communications technologies or
media, or, most broadly, technology in general are the sole or prime...causes of
changes in society, and technology is seen as the fundamental condition underlying
the pattern of social organization. The technological determinist view is a technology-
led theory of social change: technology is seen as 'the prime mover' in history… this
is known as a 'technology-push' theory rather than a 'demand-pull' theory (Daniel
Chandler, 2001).
• “The medium is the message” - Marshall McLuhan (1964). The idea that the form
of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a relationship by which the
medium influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan proposes that a
medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered
over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself
• Sovereign Provider – The main source of mass media entertainment in a person’s
home. For the first half of the twentieth century, the sovereign provider in most
homes was the radio, from the 1950s until the 1990s it was television.
• Technological Convergence - P.J. Fourie, the coming together of information and
communication technologies, especially the merging of telecommunications and
traditional media technologies, to create new ways of producing, distributing and
using knowledge, information and entertainment.
• Institutional Convergence – The merging of media companies to form
multimedia/crossmedia conglomerates. This is done to create synergy.
• Synergy - A synergy is where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final
outcome. If used in a business application it means that teamwork will produce an
overall better result than if each person/company was working toward the same goal
individually.
• Peer – To- Peer (P2P) File Sharing – A network in which users allow other users to
access files on their computer – usually associated with the illegal file sharing of
copyrighted content such as music, movies, computer programs etc. Popularised by
Napster (1999 - 2001).
• Timeshifting – using a VCR to record TV programmes to watch later.
• Microscheduling – using a PVR (e.g. Sky+ or similar system) to record TV
programmes to watch later.
• Lead Backwards Technology – a media technology, such as radio or TV, which is
consumed passively.
• Lead Forwards Technology - a media technology, such as the Internet or a video
game, which is consumed interactively.
• Video on Demand (VoD) - a process which allow users to select and watch video
content on demand, either by streaming or downloading.
• Internet Protocol Television (iPTV) - a form of video on demand, e.g. BBC iPlayer.
• Catch-up / on-demand – TV programmes requested online after they have gone out
on “normal” TV/radio channels.
• Live / simulcast – streaming of live TV channels / radio stations on a website, at
exactly the same time as broadcast on “normal” TV / radio.
• Broadcast - The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 defines a broadcast as
"a transmission by wireless telegraphy of visual images, sounds, or other information
which is capable of lawful reception by the public or which is made for presentation to
the public". Thus, it covers radio, television, teletext and telephones.

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 Unit G325: Critical Perspectives In Media
Media In The Online Age
• Narrowcast - A narrowcast is the transmission of data to a specific list of recipients.
Cable and satellite TV are examples of narrowcast services because they reach only
their subscriber base. VoD can be seen as a Narrowcast model because they are
interactive and each user individually selects what they want to watch and can watch
it whenever they want to.
• Audience Fragmentation – The breaking up of audiences into niches as a result of
the proliferation of media channels and entertainment forms. According to Sonia
Livingstone (2002): “The validity of the concept of the mass audience becomes
redundant as new communication technologies such as the Internet and interactive
TV develop”.
• User Generated Content - User-generated content (UGC), also known as Consumer
Generated Media (CGM) or user-created content (UCC), refers to various kinds of
media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users/audience members
• Citizen Journalist – The concept of members of the public "playing an active role in
the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and
information". According to the 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping
the Future of News and Information. Authors Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis
say: "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate,
wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."
• Fan Films - a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a
similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or
creators.