Chapter Review

COMMON THREADS

One of the Common Threads discussed in Chapter 1 is the commercial nature of mass media. The Internet is no exception, as advertisers have capitalized on its ability to be customized. How might this affect other media industries?

People love the simplicity of Pinterest, the visual social media site where users “pin” images and videos to their “board,” creating a customized site that reflects their own personal style on topics like home décor, apparel, food, crafts, or travel. To sign up for an account, users provide their name, e-mail address, and gender (male or female). The final choice is already prechecked by Pinterest and says, “Let Pinterest personalize your experience based on other sites you visit.”

Pinterest is just one example of the mass customization the Internet offers—something no other mass medium has been able to provide. (When is the last time a television, radio, newspaper, or movie spoke directly to you, or let you be the content producer?) This is one of the Web’s greatest strengths—it can connect us to the world in a personally meaningful way. But a casualty of the Internet may be our shared common culture. A generation ago, students and coworkers across the country gathered on Friday mornings to discuss what happened the previous night on NBC’s “must-see” TV shows, like Cosby, Seinfeld, Friends, and Will & Grace. Today it’s more likely that they watched vastly different media the night before. And if they did view the same thing—say, a funny YouTube video—it’s likely they all laughed alone, as they watched it individually, although they may have later shared it with their friends on a social media site.

We have become a society divided by the media, often split into our basic entity, the individual. One would think that advertisers dislike this, since it is easier to reach a mass audience by showing commercials during The Voice. But mass customization gives advertisers the kind of personal information they once only dreamed about: your e-mail address, hometown, zip code, and birthday, and a record of your interests—what Web pages you visit and what you buy online. If you have a Facebook profile or a Gmail account, they may know even more about you—what you did last night or what you are doing right now. What will advertisers have the best chance of selling to you with all this information? With the mass-customized Internet, you may have already told them.

KEY TERMS

The definitions for the terms listed below can be found in the glossary at the end of the book. The page numbers listed with the terms indicate where the term is highlighted in the chapter.

Internet, 41

ARPAnet, 42

e-mail, 43

microprocessors, 43

fiber-optic cable, 44

World Wide Web, 44

HTML (hypertext markup language), 45

browsers, 45

Internet service provider (ISP), 45

broadband, 45

digital communication, 45

instant messaging, 46

search engines, 47

social media, 47

blogs, 47

wiki Web sites, 48

content communities, 48

social networking sites, 49

Telecommunications Act of 1996, 57

portal, 57

data mining, 62

e-commerce, 62

cookies, 62

spyware, 62

opt-in or opt-out policies, 63

phishing, 64

digital divide, 65

net neutrality, 66

open-source software, 67

REVIEW QUESTIONS

The Development of the Internet and the Web

  1. Question

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    When did the Internet reach the novelty (development), entrepreneurial, and mass medium stages?

  2. Question

    HUEovDFR5YA9YjD/D28oF0QCOGo25ICdNi5taexDDyJuWpq+S+67twyi1Aq/aqEAn9ukrhG9YfLyUmZ5JKJj2pNlKzGuf1cGU/5YTX3a+A/IkQyK3FVftS2Bv+7YPXVVXAc1XA==
    How did the Internet originate? What role did the government play?

  3. Question

    HxW9oigPsN4PF9TbhS2kQ0FDRmIuPKzM4gcFzTZi1qxRTtB9rb6nXVSB+M8RVjVRdbqu+AIyVfda6TuiUEQMJVh47OaZsHhhU8Uro8A6JmcfM2XF+PJ4plMO8exfHuUBomMUHeY2VL9Nj1/cN1z4S3c4/MWlJV97hBDklo5phII=
    How does the World Wide Web work? What is its significance in the development of the Internet?

  4. Question

    KYaMRcz4yFQAwfVdXv8TpPl7e3BAZ+jVBcThmUHwaqmIjSBbuVyZ2oZKDajiy+gLkJDKFTEbK+b9kFrBmVG62jzkrdPfaOIv70k/6673lUDyzoE8
    Why did Google become such a force in Web searching?

The Web Goes Social

  1. Question

    PyyjK7sT5ET8Lz6QZbqiK/BCoB6zsVfypdHcXtidmEck6tVlalJ+aTKg2VoTTO/KNYcemx1mxIdjBzEWcR3kAMvtl29ICGkG1GDFJzNnScLFbvdFHmy0Yt8LnF4pjRTYG8kX+Je5xn7AYHLHSW5M7NvSJjkszouEwt6tyW53RAaL5Qg39Z370w==
    What is the difference between a “Read/Only” culture and a “Read/Write” culture on the Internet?

  2. Question

    cM4vzzqx1nbXDATjNSfvGltIT7lGgGP/FHyz6AUiWNNFjLoGSuVBMy7+m3qsHxqM0HhI8Riq6o1xEtUzKbQiLQ95zvxBoktlT40Zbw==
    What are the six main types of social media?

  3. Question

    bMfxGXPyyWGiBQAdPRYGzp9v794GPF9H6vlKLmPrTWcRkHnbtJnX5i6uXLSQxCkRPMwffeObgbEW/u22K8GQyhYTt3SjlkBDyBJgXcXmTSl0qLd1bsmHBPiq7yt7P8DsStgCAVZu5CsVQowZ5Alv9B2dpzghN1THhgkUmeNK9UCL3XRFfENymQ==
    What are the democratic possibilities of social media? How can social media aid political repression?

Convergence and Mobile Media

  1. Question

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    What conditions enabled media convergence?

  2. Question

    wYflb9lOQ4whtZNxj2egIr88gayWRS/YmDLGvPeInxnlcgHtAikdpI/zjN9udCoZxHS4dzYwmRLIHNXLdCANfCX5pSXC9cCH5OVrJFPOhGDYTVXOXItIr/eL7XOyLaydNrldu5ia9ST8OfHe0p3P2avBgxcrCMkMf1NeZnT+pNNX3Schsrto+0Bd4d4c+V4k
    What role do mobile devices play in media convergence, and what significant mobile milestones can you think of?

  3. Question

    Qub48kNrrTjDcYS6tUs/8O+nBgGtjbhGUPgjEBfY98/YMKx9XzORyruhUTGIQZt5q4/BQ2kqzlVGmkEzXQhxCed61es69tFxmk4BBbVrVVmz/a3+sIon72EnuQOZxKT6kaLUkWOgpBqWWw0LzqkJXA==
    How has convergence changed our relationship with media and with the Internet?

  4. Question

    A0rqhQBt6oKQDVWVidSPezSsSATS+WXiyUJGrBDRi6o0dOd68A8781JHHgr3dW6GYEEgN7hUK8+k+aBjykj9gA2VXnI8VlzU8DU4/5tdpWepioCUlDbYmyWgbk4TS+BdiCWxjl8+b/4=
    What elements of today’s digital world are part of the Semantic Web?

The Economics and Issues of the Internet

  1. Question

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    Which of the five major digital companies are most aligned with the “open Internet,” and which are most aligned with the “closed Internet”?

  2. Question

    k132YTBDrEBLO7NLkehxNmb56PdPS5s3nqUNKrhpHkx1p5O5du0DSOoS6a6MVJu/w2QRAXRsQPy8vJaSiCVLvqhRgDkftsdKo6vJj4guR7eO4JGeZhdMPSijmvwisvXMXGtvsEouZxMvnjd0N/uj466BASDsa2xr
    What is the role of data mining in the digital economy? What are the ethical concerns?

  3. Question

    BeiLbWhBnWDtfvE1re5j6T3eN9t3SeZegBiDfN7RtIqnVejvOb67gcW7lma0/LJ/FzbEORccaWlHBo+CtVeaFaElGoLn/qATSDvxrkuxUlmFi/T6lUcPXuNI5rGuGxnD3bEbtQ==
    What is the digital divide, and what is being done to close the gap?

  4. Question

    9czK/+8N5x8j1Fdxqh7bkzsFbx05TkM3N37f65PWZ1mGpKyH3xbkuPZS9DEO/EW/GK6UeEF/KcCrC5z/RqbC/TaZiqD/X4aOf6Ocnf2Oybk=
    Why is net neutrality such an important issue?

  5. Question

    oQqPUcyrKex6bDafmF83xLC4uwPQb9FPHSipKXQe8377CAyy7y/R6gzmn7nqx/MM1pCQMIRcHuTU0yWRFbOahYwbODKRmIbcx+2X9mX+Pte0b6/y0QgXlw==
    What are the major alternative voices on the Internet?

The Internet and Democracy

  1. Question

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    How can the Internet make democracy work better?

  2. Question

    Mmj7UIewjz0inH79WcYql6/shw+cKggGd7nl/mEtFWuzVCyj+ENXDfhle6wqmkzPVU5I2VPWJKLKeyEANNg4VVKwPUVp5SX/M8DE791jgu1hnk5wDmazmqOHgVWQ/kKbOK6l+sPGeR/p8uP2
    What are the key challenges to making the Internet itself more democratic?

QUESTIONING THE MEDIA

  1. Question

    slvQi+hMjDJu5sT2a37KNXIkJV48uef57tQCKrIuclOsY3UbcNXENWxxgiBqq6oiIWuhbIE0HNWjSKBuhEsJCgzbtjsNDIXcyQalWXPl9R9hAPz6wkIHkK0guCB78rCuR905ExGIbOifWk89d9CgoKI4Pu9NNUW9LvtbqK0Br4Vo+4/TVFF8FH0ZP8l86ByNFaUCybvNiNO7XZxo
    What possibilities for the Internet’s future are you most excited about? Why? What possibilities are most troubling? Why?

  2. Question

    vyCgdkTrPPpWWQCDJWEBVrVe68cvgIFnYEwKhPFyAP1irHBiI043r1N+28q2hv3oS9uiivykHWz2vcmyGZAk0ex6FCB5NhU/VP8IcCjbwkAhi7Wdg0UcUWQ1s2d5DzSlGXHzACeOtKGDNR43q2NkDgS3cg3REi1iQHHcT3MUdJr5jIUYzqBaZswS0Xs=
    What advantages of media convergence enable all types of media content to be accessed on a single device?

  3. Question

    xP2CocbhzshlM7JhsAykBwmp2iqBRtmnQlKW4A+ob6EQjhtHUD0NMAdtBaM45V2wSCYndbNlo80V++vReLr3r8HiXyIypSRmejQrUC5dem/SXXUtFu6uBa7xd2mHcRIHz4DLb7JN4+890WbOp4xwFqnpd5BtwODfhA6UBqLKRb0RzwDkxi6mOPW+USFnNR4rWbPvPjYN0mk6hLmtmMwsrEfWjA+JUb2jF9faocZZGjrazQ1CRdwj1BBVcr4AlrJltsmC/yWKs/SAHAHb5O/qwmT1vNzKlYEbTEyRb3krlSqXoVukU8cfSxtOchq+NOsuJSmJR3la1WDQUkkPT/JqIGAH/5wmljZE
    Google’s corporate motto is “Don’t be evil.” Which of the five major digital corporations (Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook) seems to have the greatest tendency for evil? Which seems to do the most good? Why?

  4. Question

    p2Xf5OqGKUkeTTSy123VT3HRMOnP7bRKOw7A0kFzyp79p183bDz3NEKrpUmSlmVqNbO1oGx4GXk0gNUZNZMkNhdLn6F02uRt6UFnNpoK8y1ZaF9x6IRwoiPVKD53jX4/Lgl19xM1/pzQRjUZZdTu3eHmSxCltLr3O6vAQPUV4hybk5YAjhNENbczdgu39C5FJwyzsA4SE5Bec0R+Nr3R5g+cVdNGtbCE23hXC/GApbwS4Nj6Es/cYHUQ7+8As+MZDV2bbsDrOzv/M1FAaHb/LtKpqFhd80jWX2kUAqvopPmITsp1p7gibFOkCNCGkmRTbvgotLPORBDwrven91ToseJ/JAUsLjTkze4ttPXKWv6BSPSC1xjc+VwMYzVPhZUvHUN+ew==
    As we move from a print-oriented Industrial Age to a digitally based Information Age, how do you think individuals, communities, and nations have been affected positively? How have they been affected negatively?

LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE