Broadcast Media
The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. With all
technological endeavours a number of technical terms and slang are developed
please see the list of broadcasting terms for a glossary of terms used.
Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting over
frequency bands that are highly regulated by the Federal Communications
Commission. Such regulation includes determination of the width of the bands,
range, licencing, types of receivers and transmitters used, and acceptable content.
Cable programs are often broadcast simultaneously with radio and television
programs, but have a more limited audience. By coding signals and having a cable
converter box in homes, cable also enables subscription-based channels and pay-
per-view services.
A broadcasting organisation may broadcast several programs at the same time,
through several channels (frequencies), for example BBC One and Two. On the
other hand, two or more organisations may share a channel and each use it during
a fixed part of the day. Digital radio and digital television may also transmit
multiplexed programming, with several channels compressed into one ensemble.
When broadcasting is done via the Internet the term webcasting is often used. In
2004 a new phenomenon occurred when a number of technologies combined to
produce podcasting. Podcasting is an asynchronous broadcast/narrowcast
medium, with one of the main proponents being Adam Curry and his associates
the Podshow.
Film
'Film' encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in
general. The name comes from the photographic film (also called filmstock),
historically the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many
other terms exist—motion pictures (or just pictures and "picture"), the silver screen,
photoplays, the cinema, picture shows, flicks—and commonly movies.
Films are produced by recording people and objects with cameras, or by creating
them using animation techniques and/or special effects. They comprise a series of
individual frames, but when these images are shown rapidly in succession, the
illusion of motion is given to the viewer. Flickering between frames is not seen due
to an effect known as persistence of vision—whereby the eye retains a visual
image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Also of
relevance is what causes the perception of motion; a psychological effect identified
as beta movement.
Film is considered by many to be an important art form; films entertain, educate,
enlighten and inspire audiences. Any film can become a worldwide attraction,
especially with the addition of dubbing or subtitles that translate the film message.
Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures,
and, in turn, affect them.
Video games
A video game is a computer-controlled game where a video display such as a
monitor or television is the primary feedback device. The term "computer game"
also includes games which display only text (and which can therefore theoretically
be played on a teletypewriter) or which use other methods, such as sound or
vibration, as their primary feedback device, but there are very few new games in
these categories. There always must also be some sort of input device, usually in
the form of button/joystick combinations (on arcade games), a keyboard &
mouse/trackball combination (computer games), or a controller (console games),
or a combination of any of the above. Also, more esoteric devices have been used
for input. Usually there are rules and goals, but in more open-ended games the
player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of the virtual
universe.
In common usage, a "computer game" or a "PC game" refers to a game that is
played on a personal computer. "Console game" refers to one that is played on a
device specifically designed for the use of such, while interfacing with a standard
television set. "Arcade game" refers to a game designed to be played in an
establishment in which patrons pay to play on a per-use basis. "Video game" (or
"videogame") has evolved into a catchall phrase that encompasses the
aforementioned along with any game made for any other device, including, but not
limited to, mobile phones, PDAs, advanced calculators, etc.
Audio recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical or mechanical re-creation and/or
amplification of sound, often as music. This involves the use of audio equipment
such as microphones, recording devices and loudspeakers. From early beginnings
with the invention of the phonograph using purely mechanical techniques, the field
has advanced with the invention of electrical recording, the mass production of the
78 record, the magnetic wire recorder followed by the tape recorder, the vinyl LP
record. The invention of the compact cassette in the 1960s, followed by Sony's
Walkman, gave a major boost to the mass distribution of music recordings, and the
invention of digital recording and the compact disc in 1983 brought massive
improvements in ruggedness and quality. The most recent developments have
been in digital audio players.
An album is a collection of related audio recordings, released together to the
public, usually commercially.
The term record album originated from the fact that 78 RPM Phonograph disc
records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album. The first collection
of records to be called an "album" was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, release in
April 1909 as a four-disc set by Odeon records.[7][8] It retailed for 16 shillings—
about £15 in modern currency.
A music video (also promo) is a short film or video that accompanies a complete
piece of music, most commonly a song. Modern music videos were primarily made
and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.
Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their
own in the 1980s, when Music Television's format was based on them. In the
1980s, the term "rock video" was often used to describe this form of entertainment,
although the term has fallen into disuse.
Music videos can accommodate all styles of filmmaking, including animation, live
action films, documentaries, and non-narrative, abstract film.
Internet
The Internet (also known simply as "the Net" or less precisely as "the Web") is a
more interactive medium of mass media, and can be briefly described as "a
network of networks". Specifically, it is the worldwide, publicly accessible network
of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using
the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It consists of millions of smaller domestic,
academic, business, and governmental networks, which together carry various
information and services, such as email, online chat, file transfer, and the
interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.
Contrary to some common usage, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not
synonymous: the Internet is the system of interconnected computer networks,
linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections etc.; the Web is the
contents, or the interconnected documents, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The
World Wide Web is accessible through the Internet, along with many other services
including e-mail, file sharing and others described below.
Toward the end of the 20th century, the advent of the World Wide Web marked the
first era in which most individuals could have a means of exposure on a scale
comparable to that of mass media. Anyone with a web site has the potential to
address a global audience, although serving to high levels of web traffic is still
relatively expensive. It is possible that the rise of peer-to-peer technologies may
have begun the process of making the cost of bandwidth manageable. Although a
vast amount of information, imagery, and commentary (i.e. "content") has been
made available, it is often difficult to determine the authenticity and reliability of
information contained in web pages (in many cases, self-published). The invention
of the Internet has also allowed breaking news stories to reach around the globe
within minutes. This rapid growth of instantaneous, decentralized communication is
often deemed likely to change mass media and its relationship to society.
"Cross-media" means the idea of distributing the same message through different
media channels. A similar idea is expressed in the news industry as
"convergence". Many authors understand cross-media publishing to be the ability
to publish in both print and on the web without manual conversion effort. An
increasing number of wireless devices with mutually incompatible data and screen
formats make it even more difficult to achieve the objective “create once, publish
many”.
The Internet is quickly becoming the center of mass media. Everything is becoming
accessible via the internet. Instead of picking up a newspaper, or watching the 10
o'clock news, people can log onto the internet to get the news they want, when
they want it. For example, many workers listen to the radio through the Internet
while sitting at their desk.
Even the education system relies on the Internet. Teachers can contact the entire
class by sending one e-mail. They may have web pages where students can get
another copy of the class outline or assignments. Some classes have class blogs
in which students are required to post weekly, with students graded on their
contributions.
Blogs (web logs)
Blogging, too, has become a pervasive form of media. A blog is a website, usually
maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of
events, or interactive media such as images or video. Entries are commonly
displayed in reverse chronological order, with most recent posts shown on top.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as
more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images and other
graphics, and links to other blogs, web pages, and related media. The ability for
readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many
blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog),
photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio
(podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Microblogging is another
type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.
RSS feeds
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including
major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and
personal blogs. It is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently
updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. An RSS
document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" or "channel") contains either a
summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it
possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be
piped into special programs or filtered displays.
Podcast
Main article: Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet
using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers.
The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to
the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host
or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
Mobile
Mobile phones were introduced in Japan in 1979 but became a mass media only in
1998 when the first downloadable ringing tones were introduced in Finland. Soon
most forms of media content were introduced on mobile phones, and today the
total value of media consumed on mobile towers over that of internet content, and
was worth over 31 billion dollars in 2007 (source Informa). The mobile media
content includes over 8 billion dollars worth of mobile music (ringing tones,
ringback tones, truetones, MP3 files, karaoke, music videos, music streaming
services etc.); over 5 billion dollars worth of mobile gaming; and various news,
entertainment and advertising services. In Japan mobile phone books are so
popular that five of the ten best-selling printed books were originally released as
mobile phone books.
Similar to the internet, mobile is also an interactive media, but has far wider reach,
with 3.3 billion mobile phone users at the end of 2007 to 1.3 billion internet users
(source ITU). Like email on the internet, the top application on mobile is also a
personal messaging service, but SMS text messaging is used by over 2.4 billion
people. Practically all internet services and applications exist or have similar
cousins on mobile, from search to multiplayer games to virtual worlds to blogs.
Mobile has several unique benefits which many mobile media pundits claim make
mobile a more powerful media than either TV or the internet, starting with mobile
being permanently carried and always connected. Mobile has the best audience
accuracy and is the only mass media with a built-in payment channel available to
every user without any credit cards or PayPal accounts or even an age limit.
Mobile is often called the 7th Mass Medium and either the fourth screen (if
counting cinema, TV and PC screens) or the third screen (counting only TV and
PC).
