chapters 1-2

People think that the definition for new media revolves around the use of a computer and its distribution and exhibition.  It also says that anything electronically published on paper it is not considered new media.  Now if something is published on paper it is not considered to be new media.  It is funny when new media was when new media was when the printing press was invented in the fourteenth century.  Both forms developed the culture and the society they lived in.  Now computers have become a necessary part of school and out daily life.  Almost every college student has a laptop.  We are in a "media revolution" where we are shifting into using our computer to perform different forms of production, distribution, and communication.  "This new revolution is arguably more profound than the previous ones and we are just beginning to sense its initial effects."

This revolution began in the 1830's with Babbage's Analytical Engine and Daguerre's daguerreotype.  New media became graphics, moving images, sounds, shapes, spaces, and text which became computable.  Babbage in the 1830's designed the key components of the modern day computer.  I find it fascinating that a man during this time could create key components to a computer that really hasn't become popular until the end of the twentieth century and early twenty first century.  During his time steam power became an important part of civilization at that time.  It seems basic now, especially in the heavily electronic age that we live in, that a punch card was a very advanced form of computing who came to work that day.  This basic process was used in the 2000 presidential election.  Now we use computers to create digital effects for movies and people are praised for their skill in creating realistic visual effects.

In the 80's Macintosh started releasing their computers.  The GUI, Graphical User Interface, helped popularize Macintosh.  It showed the clarity and functionality of a computer.  The screen was made up of straight lines and rectangular windows where there are smaller rectangles.  Now computers have windows of rectangular boxes that people use to get their information.  Creating different windows makes people happy because it helps them keep their information together and organized.  The computer used to be white and black and when it progressed it started using colors.  This gives people the chance to customize their background.  "The computer interface acts as a code."  When you use the Internet anything you access will pass through the interface of the browser.  The interface links you to the internet.  I think is is somewhat uncomfortable when an interface can remember what you have accessed until you have personally gone and deleted  it and even then it isn't completely deleted.