62
Chapter 2
The Internet, Digital Media, and Media Convergence
In this chapter, we examine the many dimensions of the Internet, digital media, and convergence.
We will:
• Review the birth of the Internet and the development of the web
• Provide an overview of the key features of the Internet, including e-mail, instant messaging,
search engines, and social media
• Discuss the convergence of the Internet with mobile media, such as smartphones and tablets,
and how the Internet has changed our relationship with media
• Examine the economics of the Internet, including the control of Internet content, ownership
issues, and the five leading Internet companies
• Investigate the critical issues of the Internet, such as targeted advertising, free speech,
security, net neutrality, and access
Preview Story: We are the focus of our social media. We create and share text, images, audio,
and videos. Social media are all about our personal identities and personal “brands.” Our
immersion in social media has consequences. Others—friends, celebrities, coworkers, families—
create and share as much as we do, and we want to know all about them and their posts as much
as we want them to know about ours. When we disconnect (even temporarily, such as for a class
or meeting), we sometimes fear that we are missing out on something, even though we don’t
know what the thing that we’re missing might be. That’s the point of FOMO, or fear of missing
out: we have a “feeling” that something might be happening and that we might be the only one
who does not know about it. The generalized anxiety fostered by embeddedness of social media
in our lives is disconcerting. So, we engage in social media even more, heeding the siren call of
63
our devices—which vibrate and emit beeps, dings, and other tones that tell us that someone has
shared something, and we need to know what it is—just in case the latest post is something that
we shouldn’t miss.
I. The Development of the Internet and the Web
A. The Birth of the Internet
B. The Net Widens
C. The Commercialization of the Internet
1. The World Begins to Browse
2. Users Link in through Telephone and Cable Wires
3. People Embrace Digital Communication
4. Search Engines Organize the Web
II. Social Media and Democracy
III. Convergence and Mobile Media
A. Media Converge on Our PCs and TVs
B. Mobile Devices Propel Convergence
C. The Impact of Media Convergence and Mobile Media
1. Our Changing Relationship with the Media
2. Our Changing Relationship with the Internet
3. The Changing Economics of Media and the Internet
D. The Next Era: The Semantic Web
IV. The Economics and Issues of the Internet
A. Ownership: Controlling the Internet
1. Microsoft, est. 1975
64
2. Apple, est. 1976
3. Amazon, est. 1995
4. Google, est. 1998
5. Facebook, est. 2004
B. Targeted Advertising and Data Mining
C. Security: The Challenge to Keep Personal Information Private
1. Government Surveillance
2. Online Fraud
D. Appropriateness: What Should Be Online?
E. Access: The Fight to Prevent a Digital Divide
F. Net Neutrality: Maintaining an Open Internet
G. Alternative Voices
1. Open-Source Software
2. Digital Archiving
V. The Internet and Democracy
Examining Ethics: Social Medi, Fraud and Elections
Global Village: Designed in California, Assembled in China
Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Note to Self for Healthy Digital Consumption
LECTURE IDEAS
I. The Development of the Internet and the Web
• Describe the developmental, entrepreneurial, and mass medium stages as they relate to the
Internet.
65
• Search engines are a good example of an oligopoly. As of 2018, Google remained dominant
with 91.8 percent of searches, followed by Microsoft’s Bing (2.8 percent), China’s Baidu
(1.7 percent), Yahoo! (1.6 percent), and Russia’s Yandex (0.6 percent).
Start-ups don’t have the advertising budget to get noticed by the general public, so
survival is difficult. However, the typical exit strategy is to get acquired by one of the major
search companies: Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. MedStory, for example, was purchased by
Microsoft in 2007.
• Four myths about commercial search engines that the industry has been very good at
sustaining:
1. Search engines are impartial information tools.
2. Search engines search the entire web, gleaning the most relevant results.
3. Search engines vary greatly, thus offering choice and a competitive marketplace.
4. Search engines are the only place to go for relevant information on the web.
Search engines gradually became commercialized, and because of this
commercialization, they are hardly impartial information tools. Instead of “searching the
entire web,” search engines intentionally search through a greater number of “paying” sites.
Moreover, since only a few search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) power almost all
others, and since these search engines promote the most popular, “known” sites, there is
hardly any difference among search engines. Most discouraging, their results are becoming
less and less relevant, marginalizing information generated by nonprofit organizations.
There is a growing movement among digital librarians and computer scientists to sidestep
commercial search engines (which favor commercial enterprise) and link hundreds of
thousands of subject directories (also called subject gateways) together and then search them
66
in the same way one uses a search engine. This linking would give hard-to-find, marginalized
nonprofit sites (such as academic specialty sites) a presence on the web. For an example, visit
OAIster (www.oclc.org).
No other search company has even come remotely close to matching Google’s unabashed
dominance on the Internet. Google has even gone abroad, customizing search sites in
numerous languages and tailoring its site to dozens of countries (google.de, google.fr,
google.ru, google.cn, google.it). Some companies, however, are taking a stab at Google by
rethinking how web searches could be reconfigured. Niche search engines have also gained
some ground: Kayak and Mobissimo for travel, ShopltToMe and Ideel (Groupon purchased
and renamed Ideeli in 2014) for fashion, and Healthline for health (health is a particularly
difficult area for a general search engine like Google to handle because the jargon is so
specific).
• Here are a few questions to ask students about Google’s role as an access point for
information:
• What is Google, an advertising firm or a search firm?
• What does it mean that Google is a publicly traded company, competing with rivals
Yahoo! and Microsoft?
• If certain searchable information becomes threatening to Google, couldn’t Google easily
block and/or erase very controversial or “socially threatening” sites from its servers that it
doesn’t want the world to see—that is, websites that some might deem threatening to the
social order (e.g., sites with instructions on how to make weapons, sites with information on
notoriously reclusive yet very powerful people or groups)?
67
• Even if Google doesn’t block controversial search results, couldn’t the company just as
easily bury these pages (e.g., on the ten thousandth page of results that obviously no one will
ever reach), thus keeping them extremely low in the results even if they contain highly
relevant and useful information?
• Does Google privilege mainstream information over controversial information? If so,
how?
• Does “Googleization” cause reason for worry?
• Does Google’s “undisputed” preeminence on the Internet threaten the free flow of
information?
II. Social Media and Democracy
• Social media now plays a large part in how we interact with political movements. One of the
earliest instances of this was the the wave of protests in more than a dozen Arab nations in
late 2010, dubbed “Arab Spring.” This period featured many young activists using mobile
phones and social media to organize marches and protests across Tunisia. Other notable
instances are the #BlackLivesMatter and #OccupyWallStreet movements, both of which
centralize around social media hashtags.
• Social media platforms continue to expand their reach across age groups. According to a
2018 Pew Research Center Internet and Technology fact sheet, the center began tracking
social media adoption in 2005. At that time, only 5 percent of American adults used a social
media platform. By 2011 that share had reached 50 percent of all Americans. As of January
2018, 69 percent of those surveyed said they were using some type of social media.
68
(The fact sheet can be viewed at http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social–media/. The
full 2018 report is available at http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media–use-in–
2018/.)
III. Convergence and Mobile Media
• Explain how the Internet converges with other technologies, and discuss how these new
technologies and social media can potentially transform businesses, institutions such as
schools or government, neighborhoods and cities, and finally our own homes. Discuss the
possibilities and limitations of newer technology like smartphones and tablets. Help students
understand the distinctions among various terms, such as Internet, web, WiFi, Bluetooth,
media/medium, platform, and technology.
• Understanding the ways in which people interact with the Internet goes beyond the content
available on the Internet. Arguably just as important are the tools that people use to go
online. Discuss how those options have changed since the mid-1990s and what that has
meant for the day–to-day ways in which people use the Internet. Ask students what kinds of
Internet-capable devices they have, and if they have multiple devices, ask them how they use
each device. How often do they rely on apps instead of websites? When did they begin their
shift to apps?
• Apple has released new versions/variations of iPhones every year since the first iPhone was
sold in 2007. Here is the chronology of iPhones with the dates of their release: iPhone 3G in
2008, iPhone 3GS in 2009, iPhone 4 (new design) in 2010, iPhone 4s in 2011, iPhone 5 (new
design) in 2012, iPhone 5c and 5s in 2013, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (new design) in 2014,
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in 2015, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in 2016, iPhone 8 and
69
iPhone 8 Plus in 2017. The iPhone X was also released in 2017. In 2018, Apple is rumored to
release the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Plus.
Google’s Android smartphones are now more popular than iPhones in the United States.
Android phone apps are available from Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.
• Mobile phones are multipurpose devices at the center of digital convergence. For example,
they are now used as money exchange devices. Retailers can turn a mobile phone or tablet
into a point of sale (a digital cash register) with Square, a credit card reader that plugs into a
mobile device. Enabling consumers to use their mobile phones to exchange money without
involving credit card companies and their high fees is the next goal in digital transactions.
Cash remains the most secure medium for information security, though, because it contains
no personal information at all.
• Discuss how the Internet is different from other mass media: To what extent are we “users”
rather than “consumers”? Explore how the “free” nature of the Internet comes into conflict
with corporate interests and what business models have worked for companies seeking
profits on the Internet.
IV. The Economics and Issues of the Internet
• Discuss the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to approve net neutrality rules
(under Title II). Note the different perspectives among Internet companies, consumers, and
media activists regarding the FCC’s June 2018 net neutrality decision.
• Some more facts about Google:
Although you could find it on Google Maps, Google doesn’t advertise its global network
of computers. In one location—a barren stretch of desert along the Oregon–Washington
border—a single computer complex stretches over two football fields. The multibillion-dollar
70
“factory” of computer power handles such an enormous number of search queries that two
four-story-high cooling plants work twenty-four hours a day to keep the heat down.
In October 2006, Google acquired YouTube, paying $1.65 billion (and causing people to
jokingly refer to the acquisition as “GooTube”). This acquisition was no joke, though; it sent
shockwaves through media industries. “The YouTube team has built an exciting and
powerful media platform that complements Google’s mission to organize the world’s
information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Eric Schmidt, chief
executive officer of Google. “Our companies share similar values; we both always put our
users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are
natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners
and advertisers.” The deal, however, marked the real beginning of an online video
entertainment and copyright war between the ten–year-old media kid, Google, and the old
and entrenched media establishment, including Viacom, Sony, News Corp., Disney, and
Time Warner.
• The problem media companies have with YouTube is unique: They disdain losing revenue
when their content is posted on YouTube. However, YouTube’s massive reach can lead to
increased exposure to their content, particularly with younger consumers. Saturday Night
Live, for example, has received a major boost from users sharing various skits across the
YouTube platform.
To compete with YouTube, big media companies are scrambling to invest in their own
online video sites. NBC, Fox, and ABC partnered to create Hulu, one of the most popular
video sites on the web. In their effort to reclaim viewers who watch clips of their shows on
71
YouTube, media competitors also formed unlikely video distribution alliances in 2007:
NBC+News Corp.+Microsoft; Yahoo!+AOL; and Yahoo!+Viacom, for example.
As the Seattle Times reported in 2007 (March 23, p. D1), “The willingness of media
rivals to forge a partnership underscores the pressure they feel to rein in the widening use of
their shows across the web.”
• Online harassment is a major concern. A 2014 study by the Pew Research Center
(http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/online-harassment/) found that harassment “is a
common part of online life that colors the experiences of many web users. Fully 73% of adult
internet users have seen someone be harassed in some way online and 40% have personally
experienced it.” According to the study, “60% of internet users said they had witnessed
someone being called offensive names,” and “25% had seen someone being physically
threatened.” Some of the key findings of the study were that “young adults, those 18–29, are
more likely than any other demographic group to experience online harassment” (65 percent
of young Internet users reported being targets of harassment), and more than one-fourth of
eighteen– to twenty-four-year–old women experienced severe types of harassment (e.g., being
stalked or sexually harassed online). Two-thirds of online harassment occurs on social
networking sites or apps. Interestingly, more than half of victims ignored their most recent
incident.
• Explore the impact of the Internet on the concept of democracy and open discussion of ideas
worldwide. Discuss the consequences of the digital divide both within the United States and
between rich and poor nations. Explain the strategies of some Third World countries for
getting ahead in the digital age as well as the wider infrastructural challenges they face.
Examine the impact the Internet has had on freedom of expression in the world.
72
As it has done with other technology, Apple helped popularize the use of wireless
networking, or Wi-Fi. In 1999, Apple began putting Wi-Fi interface cards in its iBook
computers, enabling them to wirelessly communicate up to a few hundred feet from a base
station, which was connected to the user’s Internet service. Soon, wireless advocates
expanded Wi-Fi service beyond just homes to more public locations, creating Wi-Fi
“hotspots” in coffeehouses, hotels, and parks.
In Illinois, Champaign-Urbana’s wireless network, called CUWiN, is an initiative
committed to a low-cost municipal network owned by citizens and created for citizens. It is
also trying to support sustainable community networks throughout the world by developing
and disseminating open-source Wi–Fi software.
Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Tracking and Recording Your Every Move
• Discuss the trade-off between privacy and personalization. Services like My Yahoo! and
iGoogle offer personalization to their users—that is, they allow users to organize Internet
information according to their specific preferences. Users visiting their personalized My
Yahoo! or iGoogle page, for example, can retrieve specific types of news, weather reports,
sports scores, horoscopes, television schedules, and state lottery results as well as access their
favorite websites, chat rooms, and message boards. They also can view daily health tips and
online reminders of a friend’s birthday or anniversary. The service is convenient for people
who don’t know how to create their own home pages (which can be just as personalized) and
want their preferred sites only a click away. The downside of personalization, however, is
that it requires users to fill out a detailed questionnaire that can take up to a half hour to
complete. The questionnaires, users are told, serve to fine-tune their personal pages, but they
also work as market surveys for companies like Yahoo! and Google to decide what kind of