COMM 1300 FINAL UCONN

o Advanced Research Projects Agency Network• Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense

hypertext, clicking on hyperlinks, Apple's HyperCard

Graphical Internet browsers for average computer users Mosaic --> Netscape Navigator 1995: Commercial services like AOL - free Internet access to all Cultural + Economic impact Eventually Microsoft's Internet Explorer supplanted Netscape

icons and shit

Value of the Internet increases with increase in the number of users

o Processing capacity in computer chips has doubled every 18 months since 1960s (Gordon Moore at Intel)

o Strong concerns: Invasion of privacyo "Electronic footprints", track everything we doo Cookies: • Files left by websites on your hard drive • Collate information with other websites, without users' knowledgeo Spyware or adware• Programs that accompany other forms of downloads (e.

g., music files)• Send user information without their permission or knowledge• Monitor browsing behaviors and trigger pop-up ads

Online authors can "opt-in" or "opt-out" of specific copyright protections Allow for non-commercial use

o Basic premise of the Internet: Free and open access to all. o Is Internet access a "public utility" like water, gas, electricity, etc? • Similar to Title II of the Telecommunications Act• This would also allow FCC to regulate Internet services more stringently.• All consumers have same access to the same serviceo Goal: To prevent ISPs from blocking or slowing down contento Broadband companies (AT, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc) fear "government micromanagement" (via FCC). More government regulation could mean -- • Discourage investment• Halt technological progress and innovation

Multi user dungeons Massively multiplayer online

o XML: Meta-language for creating tags -metadatao Useful for indexing labels (tags) on different types of datao Tags invisible to humans, but readable by machines

email, personal chat

Ubiquitous computing Everyday objects connected to one another and being able to communicate with one another

o Video Games + Personal Computers - turning point for both technologies• Commodore 64 - brought gaming into homes• Computer games: Main reasons why home PC sales increasedo 1980s, ARPANET - forerunner of the Interneto Start of online role playing games• Dungeons & Dragons, Zorko MUDs - Multi-User Dungeonso MMORPGs - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

o Immerse the users in a virtual worldo Head-mounted displays (motion sickness issues)o Oculus Rift

o Superimpose game objects on real-world environmento Second Life meets First Life!?!

o Game continues to change according to opponent's moveso Gets progressively difficulto Virtual characters in the game act as if they are human (not just preprogrammed paths)

o "Voluntary" ratings by the industryo Self-censorship to avoid outside regulation

• modifications to game play or game environments• Introduce new characters• Add new weapons• Create new settings

o Games with positive effectso Educational Games• Playing games helps acquire complex skills• Improve "visual attention" (Barlett et al.

, 2009)

games that involve social media

• Are games a threat to society?• "moral hazard", bad influence on the youth• Games of Chess in the 12th century raised similar concerns• Graphic violence, problem of desensitization• Death Race 2000• Mortal Kombat• Congressional hearings• 1999: Columbine shooting• Doom implicated• Sexual stereotypes and gender inequalities

o WHAT / WHICH issues to think abouto Gatekeepingo Rank ordering of issues

Study media in CONTROLLED laboratory environments that manipulate exposure and content (p. 407).? EX: Bobo doll experiments (Bandura,) Claims to "causal" relationships INDEPENDENT Variable (X):? The proposed CAUSAL mechanism behind media effects.? E.g. Violence in video games DEPENDENT Variable (Y):? The consequences, our outcomes of media exposure? E.

g., Aggressive behavior in children and adults

results are STABLE and CONSISTENT• Weight machine, same weight every time

Actually measure what we are intendingto measure• e.g., Age measured via year of High School graduation

o "Naturalistic way of looking at the impacts of communication media" (p. 410)• Participant observation and Interviewing• Adopts a more holistic approacho Capture people in their own environmento Can be difficult to generalize resultso Researchers' subjective bias needs to be monitored

Understand audience's media consumption behavior (Blumler & Katz, 1974) Based on active audiences view Users actively seek out media for? New knowledge? Social interaction? Diversion Different media for different needs? Interpersonal and social needs - Facebook / Twitter? Opinion and Analysis - Newspapers and Magazines? Entertainment - TV and Movies Our media consumption patterns change constantly, because our gratifications keep changing

o Focus not on gratifications but on "outcome expectations"• What is the proposed outcome? Reward? Punishment?o E.

g., The Family Guy, The Simpsons, Law & Order SVUo Important to Social Learning theory: Observing the experiences of otherso Observational learning & Modeling • E.g., Bobo doll experiments

o Questionnaires to gather large scale data.o Interested in variable correlation.

• How two (or more) variables are correlated with each other.• Example: Education level and Internet usage.o Often used in tandem with an experiment or on its own. o More generalizable than experiments.

• Larger sample sizes.o Ambiguous on Cause-Effect relationship. o More valid: Longitudinal (over-time) essays

"CHARACTERIZES THE CONTENT OF THE MEDIA" (P. 405)? Manifest content (explicit meaning).

Example: How many times was the word "gun" used?? Latent content (symbols, gestures). Example: Focused on nonverbal patterns. Themes and patterns that are not explicitly discussed. Select samples of media and evaluate the content based on an objective set of definitions (CODING SHEET) of words, images and themes.

? EX: Family Guy and Sex. (+): Create detailed profiles and trends over time.? (-): This method cannot speak to media "effects".

Heavy exposure to media, leads to a world view that is consistent with the world view portrayed by the media Longitudinal effects - happens over a long time of media exposure? Opposed to one-shot, short-exposure, immediate effects

Publicity or Media Relations? Gaining press coverage? News releases, press conferences, etc Promotion or selling? Print and audio-visual materials on a product? Exhibits, promotion giveaways Government relations? Assisting or influencing local and state governments? Problems pertaining to legislation, regulation, etc Public information? Use of print and audio-visual materials to inform, educate and assist the public Special events? Plan and manage internal & external events? Ribbon-cutting, ground breaking ceremonies Employee Relations? Professional practices and policies within organizations? Labor relations, contracts, benefits, etc- Lobbyingo Working with legislators and Super Political Action Committees (PACs)• secret-money groups• special-interest donorso Cannot give money directly to a candidate, but indirectly via super PACso Influence the course of legislative action

Hard Sell ? Facts? 'Reason why' ads Soft Sell? Emotional? Entertainment? Values Rather than rational

Major tool for PR research and data gathering? What areas do people visit?? What products and services do they buy? Youtube videos - "Viral" campaign "Snowball effect": Sharing with friends and networks, forwarding and creating a buzz e-WoM: Electronic Word of Mouth Having an online presence has become mandatory for most businesses? Cost-effective ways to persuade / influence masses