The Information Age

James R. Messenger

He proposed the theory of the Information Age in 1982.

1837 TELEGRAPH

Invented by Samuel Morse, It revolutionized distanced communication. This works by the transmission of electric signals over the wires which was laid or installed in-between stations.

1868 TYPEWRITER

Christopher Latham Sholes invented the typewriter. It was firstly mounted to a sewing machine and only consists of uppercase letters.

TELEPHONE

Used to transmit voices or communicated in a wide range of distance through wires or even radios. This was possible because vibrations was converted to electrical signals.

1923 VLADIMIR ZWORYKIN

Known as the "Father of Television" who discovered the two key components which are iconoscopes and kinescopes.

1989 WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)

A space of information where links, webs, and documents are accessed online or in the internet.

1997 GOOGLE

A multifunctional search engine technology that enabled people to access the internet.

2001 WIKIPEDIA

Wikipedia began on 15 January 2001, it is an online free encyclopedia that contains wide range of information.

2004 FACEBOOK

A social networking service launched founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin and their fellow roommates.

2005 YOUTUBE

A video-sharing website that allowed users to upload, share, and view content.

2006 TWITTER

Twitter is an online social networking service where users post and interact with messages, "tweets", and access news globally.

Media space must eat

The Information industry is built on a certain quantity of information flow. News can be invented readily. Information is shaped to fit the medium and the available or required size.

Information must complete

Here are some ways competition is mounted in the information arena:

• Exaggeration- Over claims are made, or implications made in headlines or ticklers. Ever more advertising views for attention.

• Information one-upmanship - Our media seem obsessed with “pushing the envelope”, which often means moving to ever more excess in search of attention.

• Scarcity- In a world where information is a commodity, information that can be positioned as scarce, exclusive, or secret will have more value that common information. Thus, we see everywhere,“The 10 secrets of X, “Exclusive interview,” “What Y doesn’t want revealed.” “Tonight, A special.”

The early word gets the perm

The first media outlet to cover an issue often defines its terms, context, and attitudes surrounding it. The first statement often becomes the permanent concept. How the issue will be viewed, what the alternatives are, etc.

The frame makes the painting

The fallacy or false dilemma is often used, where one side is presented as highly undesirable and the other as attractive. Photographs do not speak for themselves. What happened before and what happened after? Often pictured are not worth a thousand words, the pictures are ambiguous until explained by words.

Selection is a viewpoint

Selecting certain stories to report on while not selecting others or selecting certain details of a story while omitting others reflects not just the interest but the agenda of the media outlet. Whatever is ignored is seen as not important and in effect non existent.

The media sell what the culture buys

Because information is a commodity item, it must cater to the tastes of its consumers. In other worlds, information is shaped by cultural priorities.

Newer is equated with truer

There is an obsession with the new and different. Novelty, the unusual , will get our attention. We are a “been there done that society and always want something new.

You are what you eat and so is you brain

We think by using the information given to us by others. When you make generalizations, you must do so based on the information you have received from the information inputs you make use of.

All ideas are seen as controversial

There is a saying, “Nothing so bad that some don’t like; Nothing so good that some won’t strike”. It is probably impossible to make any assertion that will not find some supporters and some detractors.

Anything in great demand will be counterfeited

Old master paintings are in demand, hence art fraud. Designer luggage is in demand, hence product counterfeiting.

To accuse is to convict

Many people believe that no accusation would be made without any basis, so that if an accusation is made, it must be true, at least in part. Many people are too busy to check anything out, so they just assume that accusations are valid.

The medium selects the message

Television is mostly pictorial, partly aural, and very little textual. Therefore, the visual stories are the ones emphasized: fires, chases, disasters.

The whole truth is a pursuit

The information we receive comes to us filtered, selected, slanted, verbally changed, and sometimes fabricated. what is left out is

often even more important that what is included.

The Experimenter Effect of Media: the presence of the media creates the story

The experimenter effect is the tendency for the expectations, actions, or biases of the researchers to affect or influence the responses which participants produce, and therefore at least partially produce the observed differences

Yours is not to reason why; yours is to buy and buy

Samuel Johnson, an 18th century writer, said that “no one but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” Today, some still write to inform, while there seems to be more emphasis on persuasion and spin. And more people than ever write to gratify their egos, keep

their jobs, or make money.

Provenance provides probability

Today, because of pressure to be first or at least not left in the dust, news media organizations pick up and often pass on many of the rumors that circulate online somewhere, together with the motivations to lie, dissemble, and slander, causes or constant churn of junk quality information to circulate.

Mason (1986)

identified four major ethical issues that involves the information age:

• PRIVACY

• ACCURACY

• PROPERTY

• ACCESSIBILITY