Electronic media vs Print media

                      

Introduction:

The following article demonstrates about ‘The future of publishing and media’. This article is written by emmc: European monitoring centre on change and was published in 2003. The research is based on the future of publishing and media sectors. The writer had discussed about the publishing and media sector, market size, structure and employment, trends and drivers, uncertainties and issues. The writer had collected the data from different referenced books. (1)

The next article is based on the analysis of the role of ‘Multifunctional Electronic Media & Traditional media’. This article is written by Ronald Hischier and Inge Reichart and it was published in 2003. The discussion will be carried out on the basis that which one of these: the printed newspaper, an internet newspaper or a TV broadcast is having more or less environmental impact. This case study reveals that access to electronic information have positive impact on the society. The paper is structured as follow: Section I explains the increased information access and communication through electronic media and also the environmental impact of electronic media. Section II gives an overview of the functional unit according to the ISO 14040 Series and also shows the participation of electronic media on daily basis. The others Sections presents a practical analysis of the environmental impact of getting the daily news through electronic media or print media. It also focuses explicitly on the environmental impact of electronic media and print media.  (2)

Literature Review:

The first article is all about publishing and media sector. So, in first step the writer had tried to explain the meaning of publishing and media sector from different point of views. Additional information is given about different industries which are under the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the media and graphics sector.(1)

The writer had clearly described the market size through data tables. The given table is showing us the growth of global entertainment and media market from 2001 to 2006. The largest market growth includes sectors like Educational and professional books and training, Newspaper publishing, TV distribution: station, cable and satellite, TV networks: broadcast and cable. It also shows that United States of America (USA) is the largest market with about $414 billion in 2001. The further two tables gives the information about top 10 leading world groups ranked by audio-visual turnover and the largest publishing and media companies in Europe in the year 2000. These tables substantiate the strength of USA in media and publishing world. There is also a table given for the employment in the audio-visual industry in the EU. The figures reveal that the three big troupes are France, Germany and United Kingdom (UK). (1)

Then the writer had explained the economic and political drivers which include economic health, competition and regulation, digitisation and convergence, from scarcity to abundance and social and cultural drivers. These all points explain how dot.com crash due to growth of internet and television distribution. Globalisation, industry concentration and mergers and liberalisation become the media businesses for economies. Information is provided about digitisation that how it became the blessing for the publishers and how it affect the production costs.(1)

After giving all that information about different trends and drivers in the publishing and media sector, writer had also discussed on the uncertainties and issues related to new technologies. Doubts related to new technologies like how these will spread out and will these new technologies be unbeaten in the open market. The writer had insecurity about new technologies like pay-TV, digital TV, cable and satellite, third generation mobile, Internet broadcasting and many more. And at last writer had given some quotations written by famous writers and authors. The list of references had been given.(1)

In the second article writer had first given the aim and background and he explained the meaning of functional unit according to ISO 14040 Series. Then there is a column which explains the functions of the daily printed newspaper, internet newspaper and TV broadcast. In this part the writer has discussed all the three topics with their necessities in different ways and their negative side as well. The writer had also shown with the help of tables that how much time is needed for a news item in three particular ways like TV broadcast takes 180 seconds whereas on internet it takes 90 seconds to read a news item and similarly there are tables for daily news and daily media consumption. Then there is table which shows the data sources and methods of impact assessment. It gives all details about the manufacturing and disposal of various electronic, newspaper and plastic products.(2)

In the results section, the three different tables show us the production, usage and disposal of reading or watching a particular news item, daily news and daily consumption as a whole. The tables reveal that each one of these (news item, daily news and daily consumption as a whole) is having an environmental impact, in some ways it’s less and in some its more but some or the other way they are affecting our environment. The article includes a graph which gives us an idea about the influence of the electricity mix on the environmental impact. It reveals the fact that reading daily news from internet causes more environmental impact than watching daily news on TV. And on the other side newspapers on the daily news basis has more impact on environment as compared to internet and TV as it takes more electricity. At last the writer had given the analysis and the point of view after comparing the results. And a list of references is given. (2)

 Conclusion:    

 I am very much impressed with the way the writer had explained the topics and revealed some interesting facts about the publishing and media world.  Instead of directly discussing about the different topics related to publishing and media, the writer had explain what is publishing and media sector and he explained it in many ways by giving variety of definitions. Then he had discussed both the positive and negative aspects of media world. Tables had been used which clears all the figures. When I read it I came across new things like which are the leading companies and which country is having the largest media sector and also the writer had given information about the employment.  The article is a bit old as it was written in 2003 but it tells us what happened at that time and what was the thinking of the people related to new technologies. (1)

It is true that there are uncertainties and issues which are still to be solved. New technologies have given the chance that we can express our views more openly and precisely to everyone. Publishing is done in more sophisticated form and the media sector is also increasing with new ideas every day. Our publishing and media sector is having more advanced technologies and in today’s world due to these we can get information about anything and from anywhere. The world has become very small because of these as sitting at one place you can get one particular information in various forms. But it happens when people are getting new technologies which make their life easier than at that situation they don’t think about the uncertainties or the negative side related to that technology. (1)

 About the second article, the writer had revealed all types of aspects whether it’s positive or negative. He had used graphs to show the consumption on different basis whether it’s daily news or a news item. People are using all the three ways to grab a piece of news. Some got the time of reading a newspaper with their morning tea, some got the time in office to check the latest headlines on the internet and some people prefer TV. So, in any case people are using both the electronic media and the printed media. And if we talk about the impact on environment then each of these either less or more but they are affecting. Graphs related to these data sometimes are high and sometimes low. Our old generation still prefers the newspapers and TV for their daily news. But in future it seems that most of the people will prefer news on internet. Because on internet one link is connected to another or to different websites which gives lot of information together. The paper used for newspapers comes from wood, so if there will be less production than we can stop cutting of trees. I myself prefer internet for the news. But different people have different preferences. Both the writers had done there research very precisely and it is helpful to students like us. (2)

References

1.       Sector Futures, The future of Publishing and media, Report by European Monitoring Centre of Change, available at :    http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/emcc/publications/2003/sf_pm_1.pdf

2.        Roland Hischier and Inge Reichart, Multifunction Electronic Media- Traditional Media,LCA case studies, Sustainable Information Technology Unit(SIT) , Swill Federal Laboratories For Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen Switzerland, 2003, available at:

  http://www.empa.ch/plugin/template/empa/355/21841/---/Functional-unit-lca.pdf

Universal Design

Good design is an important concern in the digital world. The rapid development of digital media has changed the market with a variety of information products of different quality. Many of the design are very effective but few designs fail to satisfy the need. Good design requires brilliant idea and deeper understanding. The role of designer is to design or create something should perform its function with less chance of a failure. So it is necessary to create product which are accessible to one population and also accessible to another disability people. E.g. ATM machine, to use web browser etc.

                             Sometime different disabilities require similar accommodations. Someone who is blind and someone who cannot use his or her hands both have difficulty using a mouse but support for speech output not only benefits blind users, but also to other. Web plays an important role in society and can make some tasks easier for people with disabilities. As disability terms varies from one country to another, person to person. Design half a product to one group and the other half of the product to another is not helpful. Sometimes a solution to a problem for one type of disability may cause a new problem for a person with another type of disability.

                                              Universal design is not only the design or trend but a process which helps with considering the needs of the user, people with disabilities apart from age, size, ability or disability. Universal design supports the social model of disability and its target to maximize the accessibility and usability of a product. Its benefits more people than older people and people with disabilities. Safety must be an essential consideration in the universal design process. The universal design works on the seven principles of development. It provides services equally to all users no separation of people with disabilities such as privacy, security, and safety should be equally available to all users. When providing flexible program, it means that people of all disabilities, visible and non-visible receive services needed. They makes the design or service easy to understand, regardless of the user’s experience, knowledge. Providing information in easy way, giving clear and easy instructions that can be understood by the people. Everyone can use the product comfortably to maintain a neutral body position and reduce continuous physical effort such things as disabled parking and accessible bathrooms. Beyond all these principles, it also means that staff is disability aware, communicate in a respectful manner with people of all abilities and are aware of the need. Designer should always be aware about this fact and realize their design it serve everyone.

Negative side of Facebook

FACEBOOK, what is Face book? I know it’s a stupid question but if we ask to different people there will be different answers. Teenagers would say; they can chat, make new friends, and find old friends on Facebook. Professionals would say; they can find the updates related to any company, any new brand, new software and many more. I would say Facebook is a social networking website.

Why I am discussing about Facebook because some people don’t know how to use or take advantage of a new technology. They are having a herd kind of mentality i.e. without knowing anything about that particular thing they just want to follow it because everybody is following it. I have seen students around me wasting their time on Facebook. Students miss their lectures because of the addiction of the games they play on Facebook and also because of chatting. Whenever they get time they just chat for hours and hours. Chatting till late night then wake up late, the whole schedule is affected by that and they don’t even realizing what they are losing. I myself get irritated when my roommates do that.

I agree that every technology has both positive and negative effects. But what I want to say is try to grab the positive ones.

Delete Book Review

The author has revealed the digital age. He has tried to explain us how Google is interrelated to digital technology.In my point of view, Delete book shows only the dark side of the digital world. The book also reveals that if you surf the web and after a time period you will forgotten what you searched for and when but Google will not. The remembrance power of Google creates problem to the people who had been denied for the entry to other country or rejected from a job because of their past on the internet.

My point of view is that “every coin has two faces”. We can't ignore of the fact that google has great impact on the way we interact with the internet. We do so many things on internet like searches on Google, attach our documents, photos and so many things. In most of the cases, it is advantageous that Google help us in finding the information through the search engine. Google doesn't share information such as emails, chat or searches with anyone. I think that the data saved by the Google could be very helpful in some cases such as if any justice department need to find out what people are researching online etc. In my case, I am using google services such as gmail, social networking sites, personal search account and custom homepage linked by my Gmail address and account name. I really don't want anyone to see or Govenement to ask me in case of any suspect of crime why I entered those words. It's none of their business to see what searches I made. our peronal search history are highly sensitive becuase they show what we were thinking.

Now if we see on the other side, people do make changes in their life and also it changes from time to time.  Therefore, if some company is not offering you the job because they found out in your profile that you are a drug addicted person but that was your past and you can’t explain it every time. I am not agree with the author to set up an expiry data system to the file we uploaded. If we do so that could put us in another problem if that data is important and it will be impossible for the person who is not much into the computers to figure it out for how to recover expired file once it was deleted.

So what I think is there are advantages and disadvantages but we have to focus on how to deal with the disadvantages.

Imagination has made technology

How technology would have been possible without imagination?

  Human mind has infinite capabilities and because of these capabilities Stone Age has turned into machine age. Our life is controlled by different kinds of technologies. You can say that our mind is a huge beast who is trapped inside a space like body and always eager to express itself with its imaginative feelings.  But an imagination needs a way to show its workings on the outside world. And then language is created so that mind can express itself directly. We have turned imagination into reality. 

Previously, human mind created things according to their needs, like whatever tools they needed, for harvesting, weaving, killings animals for food and many more. It was like converting mind thoughts into body actions. Now we are addicted to these machineries and still our mind is imagining more and more, and we are creating more and more new technologies.  Nobody knows when this mind will stop imagining, when we will feel that it’s enough now. 

In other words we can say that technology is using our mind to create new faces of realities.

Why Digital Media?

Digital media is the platform on which people communicate electronically. It contains the biggest potential for changing the way we live our lives. We all use digital technology, tools and other forms to creatively explore, innovate and transform the way we communicate. The reason why I choose the M.Sc. in applied digital media is because it’s really have everything to do about web designing, animation, 3d modelling and also the theories. The course has a mixture of creativity and technology. This course also has one module of digital media studies. I am doing this course because I want to know more about digital world not because it’s the latest course. From last few years, digital media is the fastest information provider who uses technology and the internet.

This course is not about learning software but it’s all about to solve the creative problems and also to combine the visual image to develop web. With this course, I am very much aware about the inside stories of the technology such as how web pages work or how to store data for big companies. What social networking sites do to attract a person towards his website? I feel doing digital media course, all things are possible.  This course offers unique skills to the digital and information technology in advanced web and internet technologies. This course also helps to know how to start our own businesses to exploit and utilise our own ideas and also provide skills to become a self employed entrepreneurs. In today’s time, digital media is a major part of who we are.