Mediamorphosis : Understanding New Media

by Roger Fidler

• ISBN13: 9780803990869
• ISBN10: 0803990863
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-02-13
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

This book is about technological change within human communication and the media. Not technical, this work is an overview and evaluation of new communication technologies. Roger Fidler demystifies emerging media technologies and provides a structure for understanding their potential influences on the popular forms of mainstream media such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio.

Table of Contents

foreword	xiii	(2)
preface	xv
chapter one principles of mediamorphosis	1	(30)
Coping with change	1	(4)
The influence of personal computers	2	(1)
Yesterday's future, today's past	3	(2)
Visions of future media	5	(3)
Missing the future	5	(1)
Information superhighways and teleputers	6	(2)
The 30-year rule	8	(4)
Stages of development	9	(1)
Restating the rule	10	(1)
The dangers of technomyopia	10	(2)
Criteria for adopting new technologies	12	(2)
The example of cellular telephones	12	(2)
The importance of early adopters	14	(4)
Bridges of familiarity	15	(2)
The power of metaphors	17	(1)
Technological accelerators and brakes	18	(4)
Supervening social necessities	19	(1)
The law of suppression of radical potential	20	(2)
The mediamorphic process	22	(7)
Coevolution	23	(2)
Convergence	25	(2)
Complexity	27	(2)
Principles of mediamorphosis in perspective	29	(2)
chapter two domains of communication media	31	(22)
Categorizing the forms of communication	31	(2)
The interpersonal domain	33	(4)
Immediate and delayed forms of interpersonal communication	35	(1)
Twentieth-century forms of interpersonal communication	35	(1)
Cyber media	36	(1)
The broadcast domain	37	(3)
Linear and landscape structures of the broadcast domain	38	(1)
Problems with preservation of broadcast information	38	(1)
Electronic broadcast media	39	(1)
The document domain	40	(4)
Reader control of documents	40	(1)
Abstract representations of document information	41	(1)
Portrait orientation of documents	41	(2)
Print media	43	(1)
Hypertext and hypermedia documents	43	(1)
Inherited media traits	44	(5)
Flow and control of communication	45	(1)
Presentation and format of communication	46	(2)
Reception and constraints of communication	48	(1)
Domains of communication media in perspective	49	(4)
chapter three the mediamorphic role of language	53	(28)
Expressive language and communication tools	53	(3)
Spoken language and the first great mediamorphosis	56	(5)
The advantages of speech	56	(1)
The emergence of the broadcast domain	57	(1)
The differentiation of audiences and performers	58	(1)
Staged performances and the broadcast domain	59	(1)
The limitations of oral communication	60	(1)
Written language and the second great mediamorphosis	61	(10)
The development of light, portable documents	62	(1)
The typographic age	63	(3)
Literacy for the masses	66	(3)
The end of print predominance	69	(2)
Digital language and the third great mediamorphosis	71	(8)
The shift from analog to digital technologies	72	(2)
The development of digital technologies	74	(4)
The cyberspace frontier	78	(1)
The mediamorphic role of language in perspective	79	(2)
chapter four technologies of the third mediamorphosis	81	(28)
A crisis of control	81	(8)
The application of electricity and digital language	83	(2)
The prototype of modern computers	85	(1)
The first information highways	85	(2)
What hath Bell wrought?	87	(1)
Wireless communication	88	(1)
The electronic age	89	(11)
The development of commercial radio	90	(3)
The development of television	93	(5)
McLuhan's global village	98	(2)
The computer age	100	(5)
Computers on a chip	100	(1)
The network of computer networks	101	(4)
Mediamorphic principles and the future of cyber media	105	(2)
Technologies of the third mediamorphosis in perspective	107	(2)
chapter five the cultural context of the third mediamorphosis	109	(30)
Social forces	109	(12)
The television generations	110	(2)
The growth of media choices	112	(2)
Competition for time and attention	114	(1)
The decline of literacy	115	(2)
Image versus content	117	(3)
Future media environments	120	(1)
Political forces	121	(6)
The indirect control of print media	122	(1)
The regulation of electronic broadcast media	123	(1)
The common carrier role of telephony	124	(1)
Regulatory policies and the new media	125	(2)
Economic forces	127	(9)
Competition for audiences and advertisers	129	(4)
New media and the relative constant	133	(3)
Cultural context of the third mediamorphosis in perspective	136	(3)
chapter six lessons from failure	139	(28)
The troubled birth of consumer online services	140	(3)
The development of teletext	140	(1)
The development of videotex	141	(1)
Technologies looking for markets	142	(1)
The Viewtron experience	143	(16)
The secret mission	143	(3)
The market trial at Coral Gables	146	(2)
What you want--when you want it	148	(3)
What went wrong?	151	(7)
The second stage of consumer online services	158	(1)
The trials of interactive TV	159	(4)
Warner-Amex's Qube system	160	(2)
The Cerritos experience	162	(1)
Lessons from failure in perspective	163	(4)
Opportunity and need	163	(1)
Delayed adoption	164	(1)
The true nature of cyber media	165	(1)
Hypotheses for the next mediamorphosis stage	166	(1)
chapter seven mediamorphosis within the interpersonal domain	167	(28)
Scenario for 2010. The Cyber dwellers	168	(7)
Living in virtual worlds	175	(4)
Star Trek technologies	176	(1)
Bill Gates's vision	177	(1)
Building virtual communities	178	(1)
Next-generation cyber technologies	179	(9)
Personal agents and databases	180	(3)
Immersive virtual reality systems	183	(2)
Virtual environments and avatars	185	(1)
Light-wave communication	186	(2)
Future control and social issues	188	(5)
Trust and privacy in cyberspace	189	(2)
Censorship versus the free flow of information	191	(2)
Mediamorphosis within the interpersonal domain in perspective	193	(2)
chapter eight mediamorphosis within the broadcast domain	195	(24)
Scenario for 2010. The interactive video family	196	(4)
Harbingers of the future	200	(3)
Hidden intelligence	202	(1)
Death of the medium?	202	(1)
Next-generation television technology	203	(9)
High-definition television	204	(3)
500-channel TV	207	(3)
Broadcasting on the Web	210	(1)
Intimate home theaters	211	(1)
Commercial video and holographic theaters	212	(1)
Future control and social issues	212	(4)
Manipulation of visual and audio content	213	(1)
Parental control and censorship	214	(1)
Zapping commercials	214	(1)
Isolating tendencies	215	(1)
Mediamorphosis within the broadcast domain in perspective	216	(3)
chapter nine mediamorphosis within the document domain	219	(34)
Scenario for 2010. The mobile digital document reader	220	(5)
Gutenberg's legacy	225	(4)
Taking the first steps	226	(1)
Incentives and disincentives	227	(2)
Next-generation digital print technologies	229	(15)
Printing presses in the home	229	(4)
Printing custom publications	233	(1)
Publishing on the Web	234	(2)
Digital print media and portable tablets	236	(3)
Flat-panel technology	239	(3)
Memory cards and offline publishing	242	(2)
Future control and social issues	244	(7)
The daily me or the daily us?	245	(2)
Preserving the social function of newspapers	247	(1)
Providing answers to readers' questions	248	(1)
Maintaining personal privacy	249	(1)
Extending brand-name identities	249	(2)
Mediamorphosis within the document domain in perspective	251	(2)
chapter ten hype and reality	253	(14)
The great cyber stampede	254	(2)
The future of mass communication	256	(7)
Print media and the business of publishing	257	(2)
Broadcast media and the business of broadcasting	259	(1)
Schools of journalism and mass communication	260	(1)
Advertising and the business of mass marketing	261	(1)
Audiences, customers, and users	262	(1)
Keeping the future in perspective	263	(4)
acronyms/abbreviations	267	(4)
glossary/index	271