RTV 420 Interactive Media

1. RTV 420 Interactive Media Introduction to the Internet

2. Internet, Packets and Routing • The Internet is a network of computer networks • Data is transmitted by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP) • Packet– a unit of information carriage • Packet switching– process of moving packets from one node (computer device) to another

3. A Visualization of Internet

4. A Visualization of Internet

5. Internet, Packets and Routing • At the sender, data is broken into packets and sent to the nearest node (router) • At each router, it sends the packet to another router that is closer to the final destination • At the receiver, packets are reassembled to get the original data • A comparison: mailing system

6. UTA A&M-Commerce A B Admin Admin Mailing System

7. TCP/IP and Domain Names • Basic task of IP– moving packets as quickly as possible from one router to another • Yet, it doesn’t check whether packets are delivered successfully, thus it needs TCP • TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) – disassemble/reassemble packets, error checking, ACK packets

8. TCP/IP and Domain Names • TCP's relatively complex protocol called the "three-way handshake” • SYN • SYN/ACK • ACK • The protocol is based on: • SYN - (Synchronize) Initiates a connection • FIN(Final) Cleanly terminates connection • ACK - Acknowledges received data

9. TCP/IP and Domain Names • We need some sort of address in order to identify different nodes, as every house has a mailing address in order to receive mail from others • The one used by Internet Protocol is called IP address • Every host on the Internet has a unique IP address, made up of four numbers. E.g.. 192.56.215.131, each number is between 0 and 255

10. Why? • If you know binary, you will understand that each of these numbers are stored in 8 bits (binary digits), and the number of possibilities you can have is 2 raised to the power of 8, which is 256 (0-255).

11. TCP/IP and Domain Names • The numbers in an IP address are hard to remember, names are easier • Domain Name System– a mapping between the human-readable name (domain name) of a host and its IP address • A domain name consists of two or more parts, e.g. hssa.tamuc.edu • The rightmost label conveys the top-level domain, e.g. edu

12. TCP/IP and Domain Names • The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers manages the top-level development and architecture of the Internet domain name space. • ICANN authorizes domain name registrars, through which domain names are registered and reassigned. • Domain name registration with a registrar does not confer any legal ownership of the domain name, only an exclusive right of use.

13. TCP/IP and Domain Names • Each label to the left specifies a domain, in our example, domain is now tamuc(University’s registered domain name), then sub-subdomain is hssa (Humanities Social Sciences Arts). • A top-level domain can contain multiple subdomains, each subdomain can contain multiple sub-subdomains, so on. • The database contains the mapping between a domain name and an IP address is stored on a DNS server.

14. World Wide Web • The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. • It is created to share files/documents and overcome the barrier of different file formats • Hypertext refers to text on a computer that will lead the user to other, related information on demand.

15. World Wide Web • Hypertext documents are created using a special kind of document formatting or “markup” language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). • Not computer code • HTML is sent or received over the network using HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). • A browser is a software program which interprets the HTML documents and displays it on the user’s screen.

16. URLs and Client-Server Model • Each document/resource on the WWW needs to have an identifier in order to be accessed by others. • A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is a compact string of characters used to identify or name a resource. • A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a URI which provides means of obtaining the resource by describing its network “location”.

17. URLs and Client-Server Model • Two things are given by the URL • Exact location of the document • The method or protocol by which to retrieve and display the document • Example, http://faculty.tamuc.edu/TDeMars/420outlineSS14.html • http:// – specifies the protocol • faculty.tamuc.edu – specifies the subdomain / host name / domain name • /TDeMars/420outlineSS14.html – specifies the path of the document on the host

18. Putting it All Together

19. So to get started… • Overview and training for html • Then: • Wix and similar online options • WordPress • Dreamweaver • Page creation vs. CMS • ‘Interactive Media’ • ‘rich media sites’

20. So to get started… • Who knows html? • Our goal is not to become computer IT people • Our goal is to become more familiar with how to use the Internet to reach an audience • RTV 453, social media, uses ‘in the cloud’ approach • RTV 420: we produce our own content

21. Course work • Mostly in class time… • Creating web pages • Outside class… • Training sessions for those without audio and/or video production skills • Content production for web pages • Interactive Media means we are building and managing ‘media rich web sites’ • Skills we all need in ‘the digital world’

22. Discussion & Review • What is multimedia? • How does legacy media relate to digital media? • What new ways of communicating do digital media provide? • What social implications are there for digital communication? •video games, •infants with digital devices •‘always connected’ •no sense of place?

23. Critically Thinking about Digital Media

24. Basic Media History • Gutenburg • Movable type, c. 1439 (before? … ) • Newspapers / magazines • Telegraph (1844) / telephone (1876) / photograph (1839) • Radio (1895) / television (1800s / early 1900s) / cable (1940s) / satellite (1960s) • Vacuum tubes / transistors / integrated circuits / computers

25. New media are associated with… • A shift from modernity to postmodernity • Intensifying globalization processes • A replacement (in the West) of an industrial age of manufacturing by a post-industrial information age • A decentring of established and centralized geo-political orders

26. How are the media changing? • Institutions • Constant flux of ‘new media’ • Ideological connotations of ‘the new’ • Inclusive – ‘interactive media’ … ‘computer mediated communication’ … virtual reality … non-linear communication … UGC … citizen journalism

27. Discussion • How is each made? • Why is each made? • How is each distributed? • What role do you have in the communication process? • How would these products be different if you lived in –China? –Saudi Arabia? -Cuba?

28. Communication Context • Theories and Models (paradigm) • Relationships and Power • Economics • Nature and Nurture • How can you evaluate a system in which you are intricately involved? • What is real? How do you know?

29. Shannon’s (1948) Model

30. Mediated Communication

31. Interactive Communication

32. A Transactional Model

33. Critical / cultural study • Ideological analysis • Narrative Analysis • Semiotics • Cultural analysis • Political economy • Psychoanalytic theory • What are theories and models? • What is a myth? Scientific method? • Quantitative vs. qualitative study

34. Media Research • Hypodermic needle • Stimulus-Response • Diffusion of Innovations • Cultivation • Priming Effects • Grand Theory -- Critical -- Narrative, Ideological, etc. analyses

35. Analysis of media content • Newspapers • Magazines • Tabloids • Blogs • Video games • Radio programming • TV programming • Online video (YouTube, Hulu, etc.)

36. Assumptions • Being critical • stand back from the hype and investigate the nature of change • Not reduce everything to being capitalist scams • Not assume everything has changed; not assume nothing has changed • Knowing some of the important scholars…

37. Marshall MacLuhan (1911-1980) • His work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. • McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and the "global village” • The subject that would occupy most of McLuhan's career was the task of understanding the effects of technology as it related to popular culture, and how this in turn affected human beings and their relations with one another in communities. • ‘Technological determinism’

38. Raymond Williams(1921-1988) • One of the first in Britain to develop the discipline of Cultural Studies • Tried to understand literature and related cultural forms (including media) not as the outcome of an isolated aesthetic adventure, but as the manifestation of a deeply social process that involved a series of complex relationships • Evaluated relationships between ideology and culture, and the development of socialist perspectives in the communicative arts

39. Vannevar Bush(1890-1974) • Many consider Bush to be the Godfather of our wired age, often making reference to his 1945 essay, "As We May Think." • Bush described a theoretical machine he called a "memex," which was to enhance human memory by allowing the user to store and retrieve documents linked by associations. • This associative linking was very similar to what is known today as hypertext.

40. Others… • Gottfried Leibniz (math, logic, philosophy) • Charles Babbage (invented first mechanical computer) • Alan Turing (father of computer science and artificial intelligence) • Ted Nelson (hypertext) • Roland Barthes (structuralism, semiotics) • Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Jaron Lanier? • Tim Berners-Lee? • Who else? • Chapter 1 – read before tomorrow – ‘Understanding Multimedia’