Media in the Digital Age

John V. Pavlik

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9780231512138
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media & Communications Industry
• Index: Social Sciences

Digital technologies have fundamentally altered the nature and function of media in our society, reinventing age-old practices of public communication and at times circumventing traditional media and challenging its privileged role as gatekeepers of news and entertainment. Some critics believe these technologies keep the public involved in an informed discourse on matters of public importance, but it isn't clear this is happening on a large scale. Propaganda disguised as news is flourishing, and though interaction with the digital domain teaches children valuable skills, it can also expose them to grave risks.

John V. Pavlik critically examines our current digital innovations—blogs, podcasting, peer-to-peer file sharing, on-demand entertainment, and the digitization of television, radio, and satellites—and their positive and negative implications. He focuses on present developments, but he also peers into the future, foreseeing a media landscape dominated by a highly fragmented, though active audience, intense media competition, and scarce advertising dollars. By embracing new technologies, however, Pavlik shows how professional journalism and media can hold on to their role as a vital information lifeline and continue to operate as the tool of a successful democracy.

1 / DIGITAL DELIVERY MEDIA

New media and digital convergence may often seem synonymous with the Internet and World Wide Web. Online newspapers, downloadable music and video, bloggers, and podcasts are among the most familiar examples of new, or digital, media. But in truth a wide host of technologies compose the full spectrum of media in the digital age. Among them are not only the Internet and the Web, but wireless and mobile media, digital television and satellite radio, digital cameras, digital music players, and other new or emerging technologies for mediated public communication. For the purposes of this book, I define digital media as the systems of public communication, the systems of content production and distribution, and the computer and networked-based technologies that support and shape them. The use of the term public is not meant to imply only the domain of public, or not-for-profit, media such as public television or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, although they are within the purview of this book. Rather, the term includes all media that produce, deliver, and package content and communications for public rather than private discourse or consumption. As such, it includes all the traditional media of mass communication, including newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, and the cinema, which are today undergoing a digital sea change. It also includes emerging new media accessed online and through other digital delivery media, many of which serve specialized audiences or communities and not a mass audience in the traditional sense.

Some interactive media lie in something of a gray area, such as IM, personal Web pages, and text messaging. These media are often meant as communications between or among individuals, yet they sometimes extend well beyond the interpersonal into the public arena and as such become part of mediated public communication, particularly when they convey content of a potentially much wider interest. Such was the case, for example, in 2006, when social-networking Web site YouTube featured video that sometimes quickly became part of a much bigger, public news story (e.g., cell phone video of University of California at Los Angeles campus police using a TASER to subdue a student for refusing to show his identification in a library November 14, 2006, was viewed on YouTube more than 100,000 times as of January 23, 2007, and has been incorporated into both local and national television newscasts).¹ These largely interpersonal digital media are also considered in this book, although only in the context in which they are relevant to mediated public communication.

The transformation of media in the digital age involves at least twelve dimensions, which I discuss in sequence in this book:

1. The medium of digital delivery;

2. The devices for accessing, displaying, watching, and listening to digital media;

3. The audience or users of digital media;

4. The producers of digital media;

5. Digital media content itself;

6. The distributors of media;

7. The financers, owners, and business of media;

8. The regulators and law of media;

9. The digital technologies of production (and encryption) that in many ways are fueling the explosive growth in media production and protection;

10. The inventors and innovators of the next generation of media;

11. The ethical framework surrounding or providing context for media; and

12. The next generation of media consumers, users, and creators—children.

I begin the examination of this transformation with a discussion of the medium of digital delivery for at least three reasons. First, the medium of delivery is a foundation for all other aspects of the media and their digital transformation. The qualities of the delivery medium influence what is possible in terms of how the audience interacts with the medium, the nature of emerging business models, and the regulatory frameworks that govern the media.

Second, the digitization of delivery media represents a fundamental shift from the analog system in which different media were delivered via different technologies, some having very little to do with the content or nature of the medium. For example, print media have been delivered in a variety of ways, including on the backs of trucks, in the shoulder bags of delivery boys and girls, and via the U.S. Postal Service. Television and radio have been delivered over the airways and via cable. In a digital environment, the content of all media types exists as a binary digit (bit) stream of ones and zeros. All media can be and are delivered through convergent digital delivery systems. Yet there are different digital delivery systems, some based on fiber optics, others by coaxial cable, and some by the airwaves, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial (i.e., satellite). Despite their common digital platform, these alternative systems have significant variations that influence and shape their capabilities and how they are managed.

Third, and perhaps most important, almost all aspects of media transformation in the digital age are dependent in large part on the delivery media. Ownership is often organized by delivery system. Access devices are designed at least in part for how they connect to different delivery media. Audiences and media users are organized and defined often in terms of the medium of delivery. Media regulation is typically defined by the delivery environment; even the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the most recent comprehensive federal legislation regarding the U.S. media system, is organized largely by delivery environment (e.g., different rules apply to different delivery media). Only production technologies are largely independent of the delivery system, although in many cases they are still somewhat influenced by it, at least in the short term (e.g., convergent newsrooms are increasingly emerging in the media system, yet the majority of media production is still organized and managed according to the delivery platform).

Nevertheless, it is important to note that technology does not determine the nature and future of media. People, policies, and politics are often of much greater influence in shaping media, whether digital or analog. Economics similarly has a profound impact on the nature of media. Technology makes possible many different media qualities and futures. This book is based on the notion that digital and networking technologies are enabling a transformation of media, one that is potentially but not necessarily a better system of public communication.

THE MEDIUM OF ONLINE DELIVERY

The digital transformation of the media parallels in many ways the ubiquitous deployment of broadband Internet access. Although most homes had dial-up access to the Internet in the 1990s, this slow-speed delivery meant that a very limited form of Internet access was possible. The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen widespread delivery of high-speed, or broadband, Internet access. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “generally defines broadband service as data transmission speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 200,000 bits per second, in at least one direction: downstream (from the Internet to your computer) or upstream (from your computer to the Internet).”² Data transmission at this speed can deliver standard analog-quality (National Television System Committee [NTSC], the analog television standard in the United States) video on demand, although the network is subject to congestion and can affect the viewer’s experience. Higher-speed services, such as 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps) can deliver digital-quality (Motion Picture Experts Group-2 [MPEG-2]) video on demand. Internet 2, the next generation of the Internet, promises even greater bandwidth availabilities. Higher-speed Internet service also means much faster connections to Web pages of all types, more rapid downloading of all file types, whether video or audio, music or digital books, software or other formats. Broadband access also means having an Internet connection that is always or almost always on and ready for use. Unlike a dial-up connection where nonuse usually results in a disconnection after a few minutes, a broadband connection normally stays on twenty-four hours a day, which means the user can go online and access a Web site or download content such as a photo or video at any time and without delay. Always-on connections may be as significant a shift in Internet use as the higher speed has been. Research shows that with an always-on Internet connection, people go online frequently, but not always for long periods. They quickly check for an important e-mail. They use IM. They check the news headlines. They watch a music video. They download a favorite song. They may then move on to another task, and another household member may go online.

There are at least five different means of broadband delivery: (1) digital subscriber line (DSL), (2) cable modem, (3) terrestrial wireless (fixed and mobile), (4) satellite, and (5) broadband over power line (BPL). DSL uses primarily copper wire, but both it and cable modem utilize fiber optic cabling in their broadband networks. Cable television is the leading provider of broadband Internet services, followed by the telephone companies’ DSL, direct-to-home broadcast satellite (DBS), fixed wireless services (including several technologies, such as Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services and BPL. As of 2001, the total number of homes with broadband Internet access was 8.5 million. By year-end 2007, the total in the United States is expected to top 100 million and 400 million worldwide. Discussed in detail in chapter 8, the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has enabled heightened competition in the broadband services marketplace.

Although cable modem and DSL are the leading providers of broadband to U.S. homes (see chapter 3 for a discussion of Internet users for these delivery media), fixed wireless is increasingly important in the delivery of broadband to portable devices and therefore for video to mobile devices, such as cell phones. Broadband is increasingly popular because it can deliver a variety of enhanced services, including voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP), high-speed music downloading, and video on demand.

Broadband wireless is also in the form of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity). Wi-Fi is the common vernacular for high-speed wireless Internet access. The technical standard is 802.11b. Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are local-area networking (LAN) technologies. They must connect to wide-area networking (WAN) technologies, such as DSL or other broadband services, in order to access the Internet. Wireless technologies targeting cell phones and other mobile devices are also available, such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).³ GPRS is sometimes referred to as 2.5G, a wireless technology falling between second-and third-generation mobile telephony. It provides moderate speed data transfer, or about 80 Kbps (a theoretical limit of about 171 Kbps is rarely if ever achieved). 3G technology has been rolled out commercially in some countries, such as Japan, and is rolling out slowly in the United States. An emerging wireless communication standard known as WiMAX has the potential to connect distributed Wi-Fi hot spots (places where Wi-Fi is available). It may also provide affordable broadband connections in rural areas where DSL and cable modems are not economically viable.

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia notes that “WiMAX is defined as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access by the WiMAX Forum, formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the IEEE 802.16 standard, officially known as WirelessMAN.”⁴ It can deliver up to 70 Mbps and can deliver broadband services over a distance of seventy miles, although not at the full 70 Mpbs. This advance would be a boon to rural areas, developing nations, and any location where fiber optic connectivity might be difficult or prohibitively expensive, or even to urban areas as an alternative to cable modem or DSL service. Beyond these services is personal ultrabroadband technology—wireless broadband at more than one gigabyte per second (Gbps), many times faster than most broadband in 2006. Eli Noam, director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, says personal ultrabroadband “will drive vast changes in mass media, consumer electronics, and ICT [information and communication technology]. In the home, numerous connected devices will form a ‘cloud’—a next-generation home network that moves with the user.”⁵

The growth of broadband has fueled or at least enabled a growing public appetite for online audio and video, both of which might be termed broadband “hogs,” especially high-quality video. A growing concern about the distribution of online video is what it may do to the actual arteries of Internet traffic, the major Internet service providers, including the telephone and cable companies. An increasing chorus of these companies is warning that TV-quality and high-definition programming may choke the Internet. The bandwidth required to deliver such high-quality video is considerable. Although small, low-resolution video clips do not pose a problem, the increasing volume of high-quality video has carriers such as Verizon and AT&T contemplating charging content providers to guarantee delivery of large video files. Such an online toll poses other problems, of course, including potentially locking out smaller video providers.⁶ As an alternative, cable TV giant Comcast is building an on-demand video service using Internet technologies.⁷ This topic is discussed further in the context of “network neutrality” in chapter 8 on regulation.

With Internet access, video can be watched from wherever the viewer is, at home, office, or on the road—wherever there is Internet service, that is. With wireless broadband, viewing fall baseball playoff games via a laptop can be a completely mobile experience, whether one is sipping a latte at a Starbucks or catching lunch in New York City’s Bryant Park or at any of the many thousands of other free or low-cost Wi-Fi hot spots around the country and the world. Wi-Fi has become so popular that even Zagat’s offers a Wi-Fi destination guide. Internet consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that as of 2006 there are at least 40,000 Wi-Fi hot spots around the United States, up from just 4,000 in 2002.⁸ Frost & Sullivan expects the number to top 100,000 by the end of 2008. Among the emerging technologies is Internet Protocol television.

Thanks to my wife, who is a media and information technology professional, our home has a Wi-Fi network that allows members of the family to go anywhere in the home, patio, or yard and get high-speed Internet service on their computers, whether desktop or laptop or other handheld Wi-Fi-enabled device.

Consequently, my laptop and I are untethered and able to be anywhere in or around the home and still go online with broadband Internet access, so that I can watch all the games, do my work, and on a crisp October day sit comfortably by a roaring fire in a wood-burning stove and still be online.

Of course, I could watch the game on a television set and separately use my laptop. Research by media ethnographer John Carey of Fordham University shows that this phenomenon is not uncommon.⁹ But this approach has several problems. First, my television set is not nearly as mobile as a laptop. Also, it may not have all the games that are available over the Internet. Further, my laptop is a private machine, wher...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction: New Technology and the Media: An Uneasy Alliance
• 1. Digital Delivery Media
• 2. Devices to Access Digital Media
• 3. Audiences or Users of Digital Media
• 4. Producers of Digital Media
• 5. Content in the Digital Age
• 6. Distributors of Digital Media
• 7. Financers and Owners of Digital Media
• 8. Regulation and Law of Digital Media
• 9. Production and Protection of Digital Media
• 10. Inventors and Innovators of Digital Media
• 11. Ethical Considerations in the Digital Age
• 12. Children and Digital Media
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index