Computers and the Internet

Computers and the Internet

Upgrade — Sitton upgraded to a MacBook Pro (left) in Fall 2009, but still had to use his Dell Latitude D820 (center) update Web pages. The G4 (right) still had files from the 1990s that he tried to save.

As you saw from Media Journal I, typically your generation uses the computer to access the Internet more than older generations do. You might find that odd since the Internet has been around as long as some of your parents. According to Baran (p. 263), either the Internet was a product of the Cold War or the brainchild of a psychologist.

The more common story claims the U.S. Air Force commissioned leading scientists in 1962 to develop the means to transfer information around the country even if a given area was destroyed in an enemy attack. But researchers and scientists dispute this "myth," pointing to a decentralization model first described by psychologist Joseph C.R. Licklider in 1956. Following in the steps of Marshall McLuhan's ideas of a "global village" and the power of communication technology, Licklider foresaw a nationwide network of "home computer consoles" and television sets creating a citizenry "informed about, interested in and involved in the process of government" (Hafner & Lyon, 1996, p. 34).

The political process would essentially be a giant teleconference and a campaign would be a months-long series of communications among candidates, propagandists, commentators, political action groups and voters. The key is the self-motivating exhilaration that accompanies truly effective interaction with information through a good console and a good network to a good computer.

Was he correct? Some would claim he predicted the 2008 election 52 years in advance, e.g. see the MoveOn.org ad Web site (p. 275), the Obama video "Yes We Can" (p.285) and Figure 10.3 (p. 286), which shows the Internet activities run by the 2008 presidential candidates' online sites. How much did you engage in the 2008 election? Had you ever been involved before?

Yet back then, Licklider's ideas must have seemed crazy. After all, it took until the mid-'90s for the Internet to completely fulfill the idea of a global network of interconnected computers that communicate freely, sharing and exchanging information. As a result, we have moved closer to McLuhan's view that media do not bring the world to us, but permit us to experience the world with a scope and depth otherwise impossible (p. 274), i.e. media are extensions of our bodies.

DEVELOPMENT

Apple introduced a revamped version of the iPod Touch in September 2009, with founder Steve Jobs, pictured, calling it a "great game machine."(AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan)
When did the first computer come into existence? Well it depends on what you call a computer. Someone gave the title "Father of the Computer" to Englishman Charles Babbage, who produced designs for a "computer" that could work algebraic computations using stored memory and punch cards for input and output. The first electronic digital computer, Colossus, helped the British break Germany's secret codes in World War II.

The first "full-service" electronic computer, ENIAC, came online in 1946 and filled a room -- 18 feet tall, 80 feet long, weighing 60,000 pounds, composed of 17,500 vacuum tubes and 500 miles of electrical wire, consuming 150,000 watts of electricity (see picture, p. 264). ENIAC scientists John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert left Iowa State, developed a computer company, and sold it to Remington Rand Corporation, where they developed the first successful commercial computer -- UNIVAC -- for the Census Bureau in 1951. IBM ignited the commercial computer explosion by selling (rather than renting) computers to businesses.

When Sputnik launched in 1957, the U.S. military and scientific communities became concerned and then started to work, establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency to sponsor and coordinated sophisticated defense-related research. In 1962, ARPA commissioned the Rand Corporation to produce a plan to maintain command over U.S. missiles and planes if a nuclear attack knocked out conventional communication.

Paul Baran came up with a packet switched network, which allowed the message to be resent if packets were lost at any given moment.. By using protocols (i.e. common communication rules like http or ftp), any type of computer running any operating system could communicate with each other. Additionally, destination instructions embedded in the information would enable instantaneous detours if a given computer on the network became unavailable. The switching network, called ARPAnet, went online in 1969 and became fully operational and reliable within a year.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates talks to students at an appearance at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
In 1972, Ray Tomlinson made the first e-mail program (complete with @); the term "Internet" was coined two years later. More personal applications came along when the semiconductor replaced the vacuum tube as the essential information processor. The tiny size, absence of heat and low cost made smaller, affordable personal or microcomputers (PCs) available to anyone, opening the Net to everyone.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak led the PC revolution. The three college dropouts (see p. 268) came up with the software that anyone could use and the operating systems that kept the average individual from needing to know how to use FORTRAN and COBOL.

Today, the "network of networks" consist of local area networks - connecting two or more computers typically within the same building - and wide area networks, connecting several LANs in different locations. Internet Service Providers offer connections at monthly rates depending on size and amount of access needed; more than 6,000 ISPs operate in the United States, including America Online and Prodigy.

e-Mail — users can communicate online with anyone, anywhere, without long-distance fees. You can even find someone's e-mail address online, especially if they're using social networking sites. The real-time version of e-mail, instant messaging, allows instantaneous communication and can also be used for downloading files and gaming.
Mailing Lists — used through e-mail, users subscribe to groups of similar interests and then receive all e-mail posted to the group, e.g. Freecycle sends messages to groups who want to recycle clothes, computers, furniture, books, etc. A listing of discussion groups can be found here.
Usenet — also known as network news, Usenet works as an internationally distributed bulletin board. Access the document "Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists" to find a mailing list or discussion group.
Voice over Internet Protocol — VoIP transmits telephone calls over the Internet (through services including Skype, Vonage and Microsoft's Voip) for FREE, e.g. when my best friend returned to Iraq in 2007, we talked through Skype to keep phone charges down. Keep an eye on GoogleVoice's beef with AT&T as it will probably affect internet as we know it. FreePress says the distractions come at the expense of Net Neutrality.

Typically, most people access these amenities through the World Wide Web. Hypertext transfer protocols (i.e. http) transport files from one place to another. A uniform resource locator designates each file on the net; i.e. we use URLs as the official address of each file.

However, we typically know the sites by their domain names:

dot-com — commercial, good for product information but not typically for unbiased news
dot-net — networking organization, good for information if cross-verified with other sites e.g. FreePress.net, a site dedicated to media reform.
dot-home — personal sites, not typically something you want to use in research
dot-edu — educational, typically good information but you must make sure it's not a student site, e.g. Comm-Stop
dot-org — nonprofit organizations, typically good information from a source with a known outlook; acceptable for research when balanced with other sites, e.g. MediaLit.org, a nonprofit site dedicated to Media Literacy
dot-gov — governmental, typically good information though it sometimes changes depending on politics, e.g. Global Climate Change and the Secretary of State's Web site
dot-mil — military, typically good information from the military point of view, e.g. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines
dot-int — international, typically good information from international bodies, e.g. NATO
dot-tv — television sites, relatively new but providing media outlets

    Internet users access files through browsers such as Netscape, Firefox and Internet Explorer. They use search engines including Ask, Yahoo! and Google. They encounter a home page at each site they visit, or they may keep their own homepage. The potential of the Internet is only as good as the uses made of it (see cartoon, p. 272).

Internet users may be both reading Internet content and creating it, i.e. "The Internet makes us all journalists, broadcasters, columnists, commentators and critics," according to former NBC and PBS president Lawrence K. Grossman. In 1996, 62 percent of Internet users were men; women became the majority gender in 2000, as women of every age group use the Internet more than men for a variety of activities (see Figure 10.2, p. 271).

FREEDOM of EXPRESSION

   By its very nature, the Internet is decentralized with no on-and-off button, making it very difficult (if not impossible) to control. Free expression advocates argue that this gives the Internet its strength, while those advocating more control say it is a breeding ground for abuse.

   Free expressionists claim the Net's affordability and ease of use make it the most democratic medium; control advocates claim this freedom comes with a social responsibility maintained by other media outlets, but generally ignored on the Internet.

   So which is more important to you? The potential of making the First Amendment's freedom-of-the-press guaranty applicable to everyone or setting boundaries for control?

   Because of the Internet, every "publisher" is equal, i.e. each is only as powerful as its ideas. Because of this, the Internet legitimizes those typically denied express or "de-legitimized" by media coverage and labels placed on groups such as "radicals," "fringe," "left-wing," "right-wing." The results have been dramatically demonstrated through "flash mobs," i.e. "large, geographically dispersed groups connected only by thin threads of communication technology ... drawn together at a moments notice like schools of fish to perform some collective action" (p. 276). Using e-mail and instant messaging, MoveOn.org led the Feb. 15, 2003, worldwide antiwar protest, gathering 400,000 people in New York and 10 million more worldwide and deluging the White House with more than 1 million e-mails and faxes.

The group showed the Internet's power again in 2004, with the video "Child's Play." CBS refused to run the 30-second commercial made from an online competition that ask "ordinary Americans" to create "Bush in 30 seconds" video commercials commenting on President George W. Bush's administration policies. When CBS refused to run the winner,, MoveOn used the Net and news coverage of the controversy to "air" it globally, generating more publicity than it would have received if it had run during the Super Bowl.

The Internet also offers expanded expression through blogs, which prior to Sept. 11 typically were personal online diaries. Blogs now refer to "a Web journal that comments on the news -- often criticized by media and usually in rudely clever tones -- with links to stories to back up that commentary with evidence" (Seipp, 2002, p. 43). In 2002, bloggers became riled with Trent Lott's nostalgia for segregation following Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday, which kept the story going and eventually led to Lott's resignation.

Baran notes "because bloggers in effect own their own presses, they have freedom of the press" (pp. 276-277). Readers increasingly doubt the validity of the traditional press and turn to blogs for answers, e.g. Glynn Wilson's Locust Fork Journal kept the story on the Tennessee Valley Authority's ash spill in the public eye long after the traditional media looked the other way. The power of the "weapons of mass documentation" (in Jon Stewart's words) could be seen through U.S. soldiers' Here in Reality and the digital images that circumvented a Pentagon ban on photos of the war's victims (p. 277).

Bloggers can be both insiders (e.g. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who boosted his own image under a pseudonym) and outsiders (media writers from every mainstream media outlet and Fortune 500 company); but they are responsible to no one but their readers, which has led to the Online News Association coming up with the "Bloggers Code of Ethics" (pp. 278-279).

Not every blogger follows the code, leading to the ruin of some people's reputations, e.g. Alexandra Polier, a recent college graduate who Matt Drudge falsely accused of an affair with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

As seen in the cartoon on p. 280, rumors, lies and innuendo spread quickly on the Internet. The smear forward plagues countless people and organizations:

Proctor & Gamble was victimized by stories that its cleaners killed pets.
Starbucks was falsely accused of refusing to provide coffee to Marines serving in Iraq.
The "true story" of Barack Obama's loyalty to radical Islam persisted on the Net for years, even after major journalists debunked it.

Help yourself to curtail the abuse by being attentive to return addresses, ignoring messages sent anonymously and checking those forwarded e-mails through fact-checkers like Hoax-busters, Snopes, TruthorFiction and BreaktheChain.

Proponents of stricter Internet control often target indecent or pornographic Web content. The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 forbade online transmission of any image of "a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct." In 2002, the Supreme Court sided with opponents who claimed that child pornography was already illegal, ruling that the Act would be too damaging to freedom of expression (p. 280). The solution seems to be with filters like Net Nanny; yet free expressionists argue these should not be put on computers at public libraries since virtually anything can be blocked.

Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act in 2000, requiring libraries to install the filters anyway. In June 2003, a sharply divided Supreme Court upheld the act, declaring Congress had the power to make the law. But in June 2004, a sharply divided Court rejected the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which would have fined commercial websites $50,000 a day if people younger than 17 could access the content.

Eminem accepts the 'Best Hip Hop Video' award during the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 13, 2009, in New York. Eminem's music publisher wants a bigger slice from Apple. Eight Mile Style LLC is suing Apple Inc., claiming it never authorized the use of 93 songs in a downloadable format on the popular iTunes service. The publisher is alleging copyright infringement. A trial in federal court in Detroit is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 unless a deal is reached Wednesday with the help of a judge. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

Copyright technically applies to the Internet as to other mediums, but we've already discussed some of the problems. Include the fact that it's nearly impossible to police those who do copy. When combining new and existing material to make "newer" material, where does authorship reside? The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) planned to bring U.S. Copyright law into compliance with the World Intellectual Property Organization by doing the following:

Making it a crime to circumvent antipiracy measures built into commercial software.

Outlawing the manufacture, sale or distribution of code-breaking devices used to illegally copy software.

Permits breaking copyright protection devices to conduct encryption research and to test computer security systems.

Provides copyright exemptions for nonprofit libraries, archives and educational institutions under certain circumstances.

Limits copyright infringement liability of ISPs for simply transmitting information over the Web, but ISPs must remove material from users' Web sites that appears to constitute copyright infringement.

Requires Webcasters to pay licensing fees to record companies.

States explicitly that fair use applies to the Internet.

Are media FAIR when covering privacy issues? Only if they tell us the full story. Privacy on the Internet is more than the right to be left alone. In addition to protecting the communication we wish to keep private, it also concerns the use (and misuse) of information willingly given online. The 1986 Electronic Communication Privacy Act guarantees the privacy of our personal e-mail, giving it the same protection that phone conversations enjoy. In other words, a government agency must get a court order to tap your phones or see your e-mail documents.

However, that privacy does not extend everywhere, e.g. as a UAM student, your e-mail cannot be read, but as a UAM employee, mine can. This "authorized" interception guarantees computer systems are not abused by workers, but employers are asked to issue clear and fair guidelines on the use of computer networks.

Every time you go to a Web site, click through a link or do anything online, you leave a digital trail easily uncovered through dataveillance. The collection of your data is easily and cheaply given to countless, unknown others, e.g. when you take Facebook quizzes. Your click stream tracks the choices you make on the Web. Cookies identify you each time you visit a Web site. Don't want people to know where you've been? Try the Anonymizer. Another way to keep your privacy is by disabling cookies or using sites approved by TRUSTe. Otherwise, you may have to deal with potential problems like identity theft.

Images and articles used here under Educational Fair Use. Notes originally produced to accompany Stanley Baran's "Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture." 6th ed. If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Sitton.