Week 9 readings

Constantly changing and advancing technology is offering consumers new choices. Voip software is just another example of this. People are no longer forced to sign up with huge conglomerate phone service corporations and pay outrageous prices for phone calls. The internet and digital technology can eliminate these phone companies and their prices. Soon they will be forced to adapt to the needs of consumers that are weary of traditional pricing. This trend is emerging in other media as well. Record companies are losing huge profits due to downloading and file sharing via the internet. They are having to find ways to adapt their media in order to continue to make profits. Movie theaters and rental stores are losing their profits because of digital technology that make movies and shows available "on demand" through cable providers. These new innovative technologies will continue increase demand for cheap and easily accessible media. It will be interesting to see how supply will meet this demand and how the producers of older media technologies will remain competitive.

How will services like 911 be affected by VOIP software?


Will this technology be adopted quickly or will it take time?

How will this technology change the business practices of regular phone service providers?

In class exercise

Maria Cantwell's website seems clean and well organized, but maybe a little too simple. The changing pictures along the top is a nice touch. I thought it was a great idea to have a letter containing information for a project she is trying to gain support for as the center of the homepage. It is an excellent way to get attention for the issue. The menu bar along the left side of the page lists multiple options for ways to become involved, such as ways to contribute and ways to ways to volunteer or petition. The only clear opportunity to interact with voters is through the "contact us" page. There they have options to send emails for questions about policies and the campaign, as well as a place to leave comments. An issue that I think is important is healthcare, and there was no information clearly accessible on the website.

McGavik's website is a little bit busier and very patriotic colored red, white and blue. It still looks clean and easy to navigate. Instead of his menu bar being along the left side it scrolls across the top and bottom. My first opinion is that it looks more professional than Cantwell's site. He Has links to pages for donating and volunteering, but he does not make it as clear how voters can interact with the candidate like Cantwell did. He does have a "Meet Mike" page that gives you a little bio info. The link to a page on his position on issues is more clearly accessible than on the other site. He even has the issue more clearly laid out than Cantwell. With hers there was just a long page to read like a written speech, no menu to choose from. He has a clear section on healthcare and a link that allows you to watch a speech of his on healthcare.

Based on viewing the websites and the websites alone I would trust McGavik because the site looked better, information was more clearly marked and accessible, and it was easier to access his position on issues. I think that Cantwell did a better job of allowing voters to interact with the candidates.

Extra credit

The comparison of the two campaign websites was very interesting. I like how they were analyzed from both the perspective of decided and undecided voters. It was interesting that same party members used similar technology that was different from the opposing parties technology. It makes me wonder whether or not that was coincidental. From the descriptions made by Professor Gill it seems that the Bush website was much more chaotic and not as easy to navigate as Kerry's website. The Kerry site had more information available on his position on issues where Bush's focused on campaign goals. Overall, the Kerry website appeared to be more user friendly and had more of the points on the site that Professor Gill was trying to find and were more easily identified.

Week 7 Readings

I enjoyed reading the article about Joe Trippi and his campaigning techniques. The story about the tickets and the buses was very amusing. I recently read a book written by Joe Trippi in another class title "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." It was a fascinating documentation about his experience managing the Howard Dean Campaign. His unique method of take the campaign to the people via the internet was a pretty unique method of soliciting campaign funds in an interactive way that made his supporters feel as if they were involved with their candidate on a more personal level than was ever possible before.

It was interesting to see the results of the studies of how people obtained their news information. The study showed that newspapers were the primary sources of information followed closely by television. It looked as though local papers were more popular than national papers. The article implied that news websites were used for supplemental news sources in addition to primary sources like papers. I wonder if this is still true. The article is somewhat dated and there is a lot more content provided on news websites than there was even in the last year of two. Now those sites are getting added features that primary news sources like television and newspapers cant compete with. These are features like RSS, blogs, and live news feeds. It seems to me that in the near future papers will cease to be the primary news sources because news is becoming so instantaneous that information presented in papers will be old news before they are even distributed. In addition, papers will no longer be cost efficient compared to the low cost of websites.

What is your primary source of news information?

How will the increasing popularity of the internet change other news sources like TV and newspapers?

How has the internet affected political involvement?

in class exercise

1. RSS Technology

BBC.com: The BBc does have approximately 25 RSS feeds. There are a whole veriety of stories that they cover from international news to sports and entertainment. They also have a variety of blogs that you can review without any log in. They have the blogs categorized by subjects so that it is easier to choose one relevant to the subject matter that you are looking for.

CNN.com: There was a considerable databse of RSS feeds on their website. They are categorized by subject matter. A feature they offered that I thought was very helpful is they offer an explanation of what RSS feeds are how to access them. They had ecvertising links to blogs but I had difficulty finding anything that cnn sponsored.

It seems that the technologies like RSS, blogging, and live feeds made the sites more relevant sources for news and information than the TV networks themselves. It seemed that the BBC website was more user friendly and required less login information. ( work in progress) It was also not as busy and didn't have as much advertising so it was a little easier to navigate.

2. Exploring the Social Networks Enabled by RSS Technology:
When I did a search for steven Colbert without the parenthesis it showed 3,838 posts containing Steven Colbert. The sight is experiencing difficulties. When I can access it turns up a "page not found " alert every time I do a search. I think that I have no choice but to finish the exercise later.

Week Six Readings

"We The People" by Dan Gilmore begins with a brief history of media and emerging patterns. There are two dominant trends of media that he discussed that I found to be very interesting. The most important is the trend that media has to be easily accessible in order to be accepted as a mass medium. It wasn't until the railroads connected the country to make it possible for a national postal service to deliver newspapers and magazines affordably that they reached their mass media status. Before then papers were luxuries only the wealthy could afford. This trend has proven to be true for other media as well. There wasn't the demand for telephones until enough people knew enough other people who had telephones to make it worth their while. The same is proving to be true for the growing demand for PC's and internet access.

Another trend he discussed is the "corporatization" of media. He talked about how it is the nature of capitalism for industries to consolidate. This trend has been to the detriment of mass media users because it narrows the range of available perspectives. There is a shift of focus away from serious news worthy subjects and a move towards unpartisan exploitive storytelling. Mass media is no longer about telling truths and educating, it is about making money. The new generation of media is for those who are disenfranchised with traditional mass media and looking for outlets that will allow self expression, interactive communication, and grater options for choices. This is what the blogging sphere can offer that other media wasn't able to do before.

NPR's Podcasts are another example of how people are exploring new media options, especially through the internet. Tired of traditional media consumption habits, people are now exploring new forms of media that allow them to access content they want without the aspects of other mass media sources they didn't want, like advertising. As a result these new media sources have to find ways of making the advertising more discrete and unobtrusive.

Questions:

Will the internet become more "corporatized" in the future?

How will advertising evolve as people look for new ways to avoid it?

What mass media sources will become obsolete as podcasts and new media sources increase in popularity?

Extra Credit

It is important for scholars to study open source software because it will have some revealing information about group communication. There is valuable knowledge to be gained by studying how individual behavior can be altered within a group setting, and this open source software on the internet brings that to a new level with such a high volume of participants.

There seems to be a loose set of standards that contribute to likelihood of success of the software. I thought it was interesting that there had to be barriers that "act as a membrane to seperate the group from the rest of the world." It was a good point that there has to be some goal orientation or participation can become directionless and fizzle out.

Week 5 Readings

There is an emerging media evolution brought on by the instantaneous interactive communication of the internet. People are no longer satisfied with the one way, single dimensioned media output from traditional television and radio. The internet is enabling interactions and conversations that were not possible in the era of mass media. As a result, new trends in the world are emerging.

The chapter from “The Cluetrain Manifesto” describes how the media evolution is affecting advertising and presenting new challenges to marketers. It is becoming increasingly difficult to utilize traditional marketing strategies. Advertisements traditionally used to depict an image of reality envisioned by advertisers and imposed upon consumers. Markets could be segmented and targeted through massive campaigns. The nature of ads is changing. Consumers are more empowered than ever before because access to information for products is easier than before with the internet. People demand more from marketers in order for them to be successful, like real one-on-one communication. People want marketers and their companies to listen and be responsive. They want their individual needs to be understood. Marketers should work for the consumers. Spend less time listening to the producers and really start focusing on the wants of consumers. Traditional ad campaigns will quickly become outdated with technologies like Tivo and creating better relationships with consumers will be key to the future of marketing.

“The Second Superpower Rears it’s Ugly Head” was a very empowering article. It shows how the open international communication has created a very powerful and democratic force in the US and around the world. The “will of the people” is empowering Americans like never before. Knowledge is growing rapidly along with a thirst for information as our world is getting smaller and smaller. Citizens disenfranchised with our voting system in our country find that the internet gives their opinions a voice and power they didn’t have before. One of the most important emerging roles of the second super power is as a “watchdog” to the press. The important information we are supposed to receive from the press has been polluted by sponsors and political partisanship. Bloggers and internet communicators are the ones who are ensuring that we are receiving quality and accurate information, and holding those responsible who practice unethical journalism.

How will advertisers get their messages across in the future?

Does the internet affect your political participation? How?

Are there dangers in having a second superpower? Can the swarming effect of bloggers sometimes be a bad thing?

Week 4 Readings

After reading these articles it is a little clearer to me why people can become frustrated with machines. Humans and machines function and process information in very different ways. We are able to interpret information and messages the way they are intended even if those messages contain errors. These errors are part of human behavior. We are flexible and compliant so we are often unaware when these errors are made. Machines cannot interpret messages the same way humans do. They are rigid and require accuracy and control. They cannot interpret abstract messages and require a great deal of precision. I thought the author of being analog made a very interesting point about the differences in evolution humans and technology. Humans evolve slowly over time and the stronger and better human characteristics survive. With technology, developments can have negative effects or soon be obsolete.

The second article, "Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions", it was interesting to find out how messages are transferred over the internet. I never knew the different codes and steps that were involved. I was unaware of how messages are transferred over different network systems. It makes it all that more amazing how instantaneous the process is.


What is the connection the author was trying to make between humans and analog?

How does technology positively and negatively affect your life?

What evolutions in technology do you think will happen in the next twenty years?