Relationship Between Media And Information Technology example essay topic

Discuss the relationship between 'Media' and 'Information Technology " The term 'Media' could today be defined as a collective term for television, radio, cinema and the press. The media are nowadays often discussed as a single entity, because of their combined importance as providers of entertainment and information, their presumed power to mould public opinion and set standards and the growth of cross-ownership among the various sectors. The word was however, originally derived from (i.e. is the plural of) the word 'medium', which suggested a medium for the transfer of information. Media are channels through which information is transmitted or through which communication takes place.

In a similar way, 'Information Technology' could be described as a term commonly used to cover the range of technologies relevant to the transfer of information, in particular to computers, digital electronics and telecommunications. So, in relation the brief descriptions outlined above, it's possible to say that there is already a certain connection between the two terms in that they are both involved in the transfer of information to some extent. However, this is a very broad description and so, for the purpose of this discussion, specified aspects of Media and Information Technology will be examined in order to discover any less tenuous relationships and any pros and cons discussed. The past 18 months has seen an explosion of innovation relating the internet to the more traditional media.

Technology such as the E-Book, Internet Television, Internet Radio coupled with the fact that so many printed magazines, newspapers and journals now also have a presence on-line has shown that the trend seems to be for convergence. Media and Information Technology have entered an era where technological changes are removing many of the distinctions between telecommunications, broadcasting and IT. Consumers can watch television programmes on their computers, send emails from their television sets and access the internet from their mobile phones. E-books for example, have received a lot of press coverage of late and when Stephen King successfully published and sold two of his new stories on the internet, the publishing world began to take notice. King's Riding the Bullet, which sold more than 400,000 copies in the first day 1 showed the potential for books to be released in a digitized form on the internet rather than only in print. Steven King is not the only famous author to experiment with E-books.

As a result of his success, the authors Douglas Adams, Fay Weldon and Frederic Forsyth have all vowed to follow suit 2. The release of these E-books coincides with the release of numerous portable, hand-held reading devices such as the Hewlett Packard Journada Pocket PC and the Nuvo media Rocket e-book. These devices are capable of holding several titles in their memory and can have other features such as access to the internet, spreadsheets, digital music players and even some games. E-books can be downloaded directly to these devices via a personal computer from a growing number of e-book providers such as Glass book. com or e-book city. com. As discussed above then, there is a relationship between the medium of the book and the information technology pertaining to the internet and the technology involved in creating portable reading devices. Books are now available on the internet and are being designed for hand-held readers.

However, there are disadvantages of e-books and their portable readers: Battery Power - The e-book reader will be useless as a book with no text if the battery runs out in mid sentence. The Rocket e-book for example has a battery life of only a few hrs. The cost - The e-book readers all cost upwards of lb 150 and then there is the additional charge to download books. Sunshine - Certain e-books such as the HP Journada become almost useless in bright sunshine due to glare and reflection issues.

Different e-book devices use different proprietary formats. If one company gets the electronic rights to a book, other companies' devices or programmes may not be able to read that particular format 3. Nonetheless, a lot of things are falling into place to ensure the future of the e-book. Publishers are involved - on their own and with technology partners - in all sorts of distribution projects 4.

As soon as electronic readers improve to counter some of the problems outlined above, and distribution channels expand, e-books may very well start threatening it's printed counterpart. According to a report by Christopher Gass on on Britain's publishing industry, (Bookseller Publications), it is possible that more will be published on the web during the next three years than has been published in print since the invention of the printing press 600 years ago 5. All this goes to show how strong a relationship there might actually be. The relationship between Media and Information Technology in terms of books is not only a one-way relationship.

Hard-copy, printed materials are in fact being promoted as a result of e-commerce on the internet. The book market is still expanding, partly as a result of online sales companies such as Amazon. com. Although publishers now also have an e-presence on the internet, they use their sites to promote printed material. Penguin for example, recently re-launched it's Web-site (web) indicating a recognition of the importance of having a lively and interactive web presence. Books then, it can be said, have a strong relationship with Information Technology but what about other Media? The medium of Television has also received a lot of press coverage over the last year especially concerning new innovations such as interactive television or Internet TV.

The launch of interactive TV in the UK at the beginning of October by American company Ti Vo has started to change the way the general public perceive television. Nearly four million households in the UK will have interactive TV by the end of 2000 according to research firm IDC suggesting that the UK is leading the world in this area 6. Issues such as Internet access, personalization, video on demand and broadband 7 are responsible for radically changing the face of television and the media, fusing it with the World Wide Web. Of all the technologies that 'threaten " the traditional television, 'broadband' is perhaps the most ominous. While cable companies have been slow to invest in costly video-on-demand technologies, the more practical route for VOD is likely to come in the form of 'streaming video' over the Internet. Advances in compressing data and sending it through high-speed cable, phone lines or satellite has now made it practical to deliver top-quality audio and video to personal computers.

One particular area of success concerning the relationship between television and the Internet was during the summer with Channel 4's Big Brother series. The series, put 10 'contestants' in their 20's and 30's, to live together for nine weeks in a purpose-built house where 24 cameras and 30 microphones recorded everything they did. At times, there were an estimated ten million viewers / voyeurs logged onto the live web broadcast of the programme. The series, broadcast simultaneously on television and on the Internet helped promote the Internet as a medium of broadcasting, something that the general public had perhaps not considered. At the moment, most people see the Internet primarily as a text and graphics medium, with the odd bit of short video footage, but what Big Brother has stressed is that this is changing: the two can be used in conjunction with one another, ultimately creating one audio and visual platform. The relationship between television and the Internet is growing stronger.

Digital technology is linking television with a broader element of interactivity. As broadband technology becomes more commonplace, it is easy to see how TV and Internet campaigns will merge as these media converge. One example of how this idea of convergence is being taken seriously comes from the proposed merger between America Online (AOL) and Time Warner. This merger is one of the clearest indications yet of the Web's incredible momentum.

The two companies are aware that to stay ahead in their competitive sectors they must work together. The grand strategy would appear to be to provide both the transmission services and the content. Communications and entertainment may soon be delivered via the same pipeline. It's possible that Time Warner will make its videos available via AOL or the Web someday soon. It seems to be a good example of how the relationship between Media (Time Warner) and Information Technology (AOL) is being strengthened. Other companies such as Time Warner rivals Disney are starting to realise the implications of such mergers.

They fear that AOL's 23 million or so customers will now be directed straight to Time Warner pages such as CNN rather than be given the choice of visiting the Disney owned rival to CNN, ABC news 8. When ISP's such as AOL start collaborating with media conglomerates such as Time Warner they are put in a position of power due to the audience numbers they can reach. It seems that the convergence of television and computing will happen one of two ways: either by adding internet connections to the television through a set-top box, or by embedding a standard television receiver to the computer. Whichever becomes the most used, it is widely understood that some form of convergence will take place between the two technologies turning the television into a home terminal for access to and interaction with networked interactive technology, programmes and services. There are of course disadvantages. It's argued that the television monitor was not designed to cope with the type of graphics available on a computer and so internet pages would not look as good.

However, this is likely to change as and when televisions start to get designed with the internet in mind. Currently though, it's understood that the television is not a computer screen and as a result the interactive internet facilities available through set-top boxes tend to be a lot simpler than those available from a personal computer. Also, the technology to allow for constant video streaming on the internet isn't widely available yet so in many cases people are finding television on the internet a bit slow and jerky. This will no doubt improve as more and more people upgrade their internet connections. In conclusion then it is possible to say that convergence is definitely a current issue and one that will bring Media and Information Technology so close that soon, it might not be able to tell one from the other. Of course, what might also happen is a certain element of divergence.

Digital television, portable hand-held devices, PCs, mobile phones will all have some form of internet access but they " ll all differ in a way that might even drive them apart. Also, with so many entry-points into the internet, an increasing amount of people would have the right and in theory, the ability to publish on the internet to the extent that it may be hard to find trustworthy sources. More often than not, the sources considered trustworthy on the internet are ones that have built up a reputation off-line. In 1993 fewer than 50 news organisations had an internet presence. Today there are thousands of news-based websites - from various sectors of the media - with more appearing monthly. This is evidence of the trend that media companies are utilising Information Technology to reach a wider audience.

Finally then, it must be said that this trend for convergence - bringing Media and Information Technology together - is one that seems to be here to stay, at least for the immediate future. Soon, it might be possible to access all forms of media from one appliance or all forms of media may in fact become one - reached from a number of appliances. Just like the success of the internet, it's hard to predict what might happen.

Bibliography

1. Stone, Andrew. Great E-xpectations, The Times, 2nd October 20002.
Ibid 3. Breitzer, Frith. Judging E-books by their covers. Macworld. com, July 20004.
O'Leary, Mick. Bartleby. com Reworks free E-book Model, Information Today, October 20005.
Keegan, Victor. Online: Second Sight, The Guardian, 3rd August 20006.
Wakefield, Jane. King of Interactive TV? It's Britain. ZDNet (UK), October 20007.
Trefgarne, George. TV and Internet will converge, The Daily Telegraph, 26th August 20008.
Grimes, Christopher and Hargreaves, Deborah. AOL and TW face set-top box demands, Financial Times, 11th September 2000 Word Count: 2256.