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The Internet

  • /
  • The old course /
  • Part 2 (2020 exams)/
  • Key concepts/
  • The Internet

In Part 2 we are asked to explore the relation between medium and message. Every medium affects its message. Form affects content. This is to say that the same idea may be represented differently on a single sheet of paper, a website or a poster. People read differently on different media because they have different expectations of different text types.

With the arrival of the Internet, many text types have been digitized. For example the constraints of a book, with two covers and printed content, have been transformed into e-pub files for e-readers, apps or simple PDFs. Moving image is no longer constrained to the movie theatres and cinemas. Product specifications, manuals and entire stores can be found online. The text type known as 'phone book' is virtually dead. 

This page asks us to stop and asks ourselves some critical questions about online media. If "the medium is the message," as Marshall McLuhan once said, then how is the emergence of online media affecting their messages?

Discussion

Here is a set of questions to kick off this lesson on the Internet and help us think critically about these media. There are no right or wrong answers, only informed ones.

  1. Does the rise of websites, apps and mobile media spell the death of other, more traditional media? What will happen to phone books, novels, CDs, cinemas and radio stations? How has the Internet changed the economical landscapes of many industries and countries? What is the relevance of copyright laws to the economy?

  2. Is the Internet enriching our lives by placing so much information at our fingertips, or is it making us lazier? Is it activating us and encouraging us to participate, or are we becoming passive consumers?

  3. Can we rely on the Internet as a good source of information? What constitutes a reliable source?

  4. Are we using the Internet, or is the Internet using us? How does the Internet make us more or social or more isolated?

'Expert' opnion

While the questions above generate intersting conversation, it is useful to consult a second opinion. Below you find three 'expert' opinions on how the Internet is shaping our lives. They are from very different contexts. The first article by Clifford Stoll is very dated, which makes it fascinating, like a historic object in a time capsule. The second, an interview with Andrew Keen, offers a critical voice we do not often hear today. The third, a short, persuasive video by Charles Leadbeater, seems to celebrate the dawn of the Internet age. How would all three 'experts' answer the four questions above? Record your findins in a table like the one below.

 'Expert' opinion on the Internet 

  Clifford Stoll Andrew Keen Charles Leadbeater
1. What is the impact of the Internet on  our economy?      
2. Does the Internet enrich our lives or make us lazier?      
3. Can we rely on the Internet for trustworthy information?      
4. Do we use the Internet or does it use us? Social or anti-social?      

The Internet? Bah!
Clifford Stoll, Newsweek
February 27 1995

Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana.

After two decades online, I'm perplexed. It's not that I haven't had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I've met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophony more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harassment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure.

What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is that the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading. Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them—one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question, and my search is periodically interrupted by messages like, "Too many connections, try again later."

Won't the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.

Point and click:
Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software. Who needs teachers when you've got computer-aided education? Bah. These expensive toys are difficult to use in classrooms and require extensive teacher training. Sure, kids love videogames—but think of your own experience: can you recall even one educational filmstrip of decades past? I'll bet you remember the two or three great teachers who made a difference in your life.

Then there's cyber-business. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

What's missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who'd prefer cybersex to the real thing? While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this non-place lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where—in the holy names of Education and Progress—important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued.

 Interview with Andrew Keen
The Colbert Report
2007

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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www.colbertnation.com
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 We Think
Charles Leadbeater
2007

Understanding websites

If we are to continue our discussion on how the Internet is changing our lives, we need to find examples of how it is redefining text types and communication practices. In order to do this, we will look specifically at websites. (Note: the term 'the Internet' covers all forms of online communication, such as apps, email and services like Netflix.)

Below you see eight key concepts that help us understand what is going on 'behind the screens' on various websites. If you are not familiar with these terms study their definitions by clicking through to the glossary (use links below). Nine 'online experiences' have been described below. Describe how these eight key concepts are relevant to each experience. More than one concept may be relevant for each experience. 

1. crowdsourcing

2. long tail marketing

3. notifications / rss feed

4. pay-per-click

5. personalizaton

6. social networking

7. super crunching

8. viral

 

 Understanding websites

Descriptions of online experiences Which 'key concepts' (1-8) apply?
As I read an article on the Washington Post (WP) website, I notice a little box called, ‘network news’. I see that a friend of mine on Facebook has embedded a WP article on his ‘wall’. 5. personalization, 6. social networking, 8. viral
The Stumble Upon tool bar allows me to like or dislike pages I’m reading. The website sends me e-mails with links to pages that correspond to my interests. 1. crowdsourcing, 2. long tail marketing, 3. notifications, 5. personalization, 7. super crunching
Days before the US Presidential election, I receive a link in my inbox to a mock news broadcast about me (Joe). It mentions my name several times, as the only one in the state who did not vote, implying that I helped McCain defeat Obama on Nov. 4th 2008. 8. viral
An airplane has just crashed and amateur photographers take the first pictures on their mobile phones. The news channels are showing these images taken from Twitter. 1. crowdsourding, 3. notifications, 6. social networking
I purchase this combination of words from Google Ads: ‘bilingual education’,  ‘workshops’, and ‘the Netherlands’. I discover that many Dutch schools are interested in my workshops. 2. long tail marketing, 4. pay-per-click, 7. super crunching
On Amazon.co.uk, I often look for the heading: ‘Customers who bought this item also bought this item.’ These connections help me put together a thematic selection of literature for my students. 1. crowdsourcing, 2. long tail marketing, 5. personalization, 7. super crunching
The Last.fm website is free. However as I listen to music on their website, I notice advertisements for music acts in my area. I see the lists of venues and what they are presenting in the next couple of weeks. Their acts seem to suit my music tastes. 1. crowdsourcing, 4. pay-per-click, 5. personalization, 7.super crunching
A friend of mine has posted a funny video on his Facebook ‘wall’ of roller skating babies that promote Evian water. I click on it and discover that it’s quite easy to embed it on my wall too. I'm sent en e-mail whenever my friends 'like' this video. 3. notifications, 5. personalization, 6. social networking, 8. viral
I’ve been interested in job offerings in my field of work. I’ve subscribed to the agency that posts these vacancies on their website. I can see any updates that they make in my Google Reader. 2. long tail marketing, 3. notifications, 5 personalization

Towards assessment

Written task 1 - Many students like to write about the Internet in their written task 1s. While this can be a very exciting idea, it is also fraught with challenges. In brief, problems often arise when no reference is made to primary or secondary sources. You can consult the tips page on written task 1 for further help on how to avoid these pitfalls. Alternatively, you may find it useful to limit your options; focus on one or two text types, refer to only one secondary source and include some of the concepts learned class. Here is a table to guide you. Select one bullet-point from each row in the right column. Finally review a sample written task 1 that has used this guidance form to see how it helped create a recipe for success.

Written task 1 guidance form

What type of text would you like to write? Pick one of these three?
  • letter
  • journalistic review
  • magazine article
Which of these three secondary sources would you like to respond to or comment on?
How might one or more of these key concepts be releant to your task? How could you show the examiner that you've understood their relevant directly or indirectly?
How do you plan to base your task around primary sources?
  • You could look how the three major political parties in the UK (Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrates) use the Internet to persuade voters.
  • You could look at web only newspapers, such as The Daily and The Huffington Post to see how they reach their readers differently from offline newspapers.
  • You could focus on one or several social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin.