INTRO TO MMA MODULE 1

Marshall McLuhan, Communication Theorist

We become what we behold, We shape our tools and them

our tools shapes us.

Douglas Engel, Inventor of the Computer Mouse

The digital revolution is far more significant than the

invention of writing or even of printing

Marshall McLuhan

Communication Theorist

Douglas Engel

Inventor of the Computer Mouse

Media

means “ways of

transmission” and encompasses all of

the various technologies we use to record

information and transmit it to others.

Videotape

is a recording medium (singular) used

for storing moving images and sound

onto the physical surface of a

magnetic strip.

Television broadcasting and

DVD (digital versatile disc)

are transmission media (plural)

used to deliver a video

recording or live event to an

audience.

Printing

is a medium

whereby ideas are encoded as

letterforms in ink onto the

surface of a page, white books,

newspapers, and magazines

are the distribution channels or

media through which intellectual

content is delivered to a reader

Multimedia

is any combination of text,

graphics, video, audio and animation in a

distributable format that consumers can

interact with using a digital device.

Multimedia

can be though of as super-

medium of sorts, because it represents the

blending together of previously distinct,

and non-combinable, forms of human

expression.

Medium

can be thought of as a pathway or channel through

which ideas, information and meaning flow as they travel from

one place or person to another.

has a native form and structure through which it

delivers content.

Sound Recording

produces pressure waves

that can be understood aurally through the organs of hearing.

Book

transmit ideas with text and still pictures.

Video and film

conveys stories through moving images and sound.

Traditional Media Products

have a physical structures that is rigid and fixed and cannot

be easily modified or adapted by the user or content

producer.

Web

has been the centrepiece

of multimedia culture.

Multimedia-enabled

Smart phones, smart TV’s, tablets

computers, gaming consoles, and

similar devices are being touted as

Multimedia

is the grand

culmination of many ideas rooted

in the centuries-old traditions of

human communication and

content production.

Text

is the basis for word processing

programs and is still the fundamental information used in

many multimedia programs.

Audio/Sound

The integration of this into a multimedia

application can provide the user with information not

possible through any other method of communication

.Some types of information can't be conveyed effectively

without using sound.

Graphic Images

There is no movement in these

types of picture.

Static graphics images

are an important

part of multimedia because humans are visually oriented.

Animation

refers to moving graphics images.

Full-motion video

may sound like an ideal way to add

a powerful message to a multimedia application ,it is nowhere

near the quality you would expect after watching television

Traditional Media

are often defined as

a set of monolithic industries with

discrete practices and workflows that

are proprietary to specific segments of

creative workforce.

seven traditional forms of mass communication

books

newspapers, magazines, film, sound recordings, radio

and television.

New Media

is used to describe the

relatively recent emergence of digital technologies that

have change the way the content is produced,

distributed produced distributed and consumed.

Sociologists Charles Wright

In the 1950s, he examine the mass media

and found that the share free defining characteristics

The Characteristics of Old Media

1. Large Organization

2. Large Audience

3. Simultaneous Delivery

Digital Revolution

as it is often called, fundamentally

changed many of ways that people work, produce, and

interact with one another. It also opened up many new

methods for the production and distribution of media

content.

Nicolas Negroponte

uses the phrase

“from atoms to bits” to describe revolutionary shift in the

production of intellectual content from a material form

consisting of atoms (film, printed matter such as books,

magazines, and newspapers; phonographs record and

cassette tapes; etc.) into electronic format made up of

bits (the invisible output of computers)

Digital Information

is more easily disseminated. The

distribution possibilities are nearly endless. Bit can travel

across telephone lines, fiber optic cable, or through the

airwaves using wireless transmission systems.

Cel

Animators used to be entirely

hand-drawn by the artist frame

by frame on a transparent

sheet of thermoplastic called

The Language of the New Media,

author Lev Manovich

In his book, he uses the phrase “the

computerization of media” to highlight what he

see s as the primary distinctions between old

and new media .

Five Principles of New Media

1. Numerical Representation

2. Structural Modularity

3. Automation

4. Variability

5. Cultural Transcoding

Numerical Representation

The first principle of new media is called, and states that new media objects can

be defined numerically as a formal equation or

mathematical function. The computer reduces every act of

human communication to a binary expression made up of

zeros and one.

Structural Modularity

The second principle of new media is called, is

made possible because of new media’s property of

numerical representation. Modularity means that new

media object retains its individuality when combined with

other objects in a large scale project.

Automation

the computer can be programmed to serve

as an agent of content design and production. In the age of

new media, low-level creative task can be carried out

through automated machine process and preprogrammed

batch sequences . This feature can save time and often

requires little expertise on the part of the user.

Variability

New media objects are not bound to a single fixed

form but can exist, and often do, in a “potentially

infinite” number of versions.

Cultural Transcoding

The fifth principle of new media delves deply into

the theoretical implications ofusing computers to

represent the various products of human culture.