Comm 180 Exam #1 Study Guide

Tree And Branch Architecture

"Headend" Amplifiers Trunk line(s) Feeder lines Cable boxes.

The Evolutionary Approach Or Perspective On Media Development

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DARPA (or ARPA)

(Defense) Advanced Research Projects Agency Sputnik Launches, Oct. 4, 1957 & Space Races Begins (Defense) Advanced Research Projects Agency - 1958 IPTO - Information Processing Techniques Office. J.R. Licklider, Head (1962-1964). Envisioned computer networks. So, what's the problem? Potential harm to the circuit-switch communications system So what's the solution? A self-healing system....cue Packet-switching Bob Taylor (IPTO, 1966) starts to build ARPANET.

James Maxwell

(June 13,1831- November 5, 1879) A Scottish scientist in the field of mathematical physics. His most notable achievement was to formulate the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism, and light as manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism have been called the," Second great unification in physics" after the first one realized by Isaac Newton.

Alexander Graham Bell And The History Of The Telephone Company

- 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell called out for his assistant, "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" and the apparatus on his table relayed his words over wires to his assistant in the next room. - In 1880, Bell would invent an early, if initially impractical, ancestor of the cell phone he called the photophone - it transmitted voice wirelessly through the air over beams of light. - Bell Telephone Company formed in 1875, patent filed in 1876. It acquired Western Electric, an electrical-equipment-manufacturing firm, the third cornerstone of a vertically integrated monopoly that also included its local and long-distance networks. Early years, used its patent rights to undercut its competitors and refused to interconnect competitors with its long-distance network.

Group Communication

- A situation in which three or more people communicate with one another. Not all communication that takes place in a group setting is included, however. When pairs of students talk to each other in a classroom before the start of a lecture, for example, they are engaged in interpersonal communication. - Small-Group + Large-Group

DBS

- A television or radio satellite service that transmits signals from satellites to compact home receivers. - Direct broadcast satellite. - (Direct Broadcast Satellite) a satellite-based service that for a monthly fee downlinks hundreds of satellite channels and services; DBS began distributing video programming directly to households in 1994 - DirecTV and Dish.

Intrapersonal Communication

- An exchange of information we have with ourselves, such as when we think over our next move in a video game of sing to ourselves in the shower. Typing a to-do list into a smartphone is an electronically mediated intrapersonal communication. - Diary = Analog example. - Personal Data Assistant = Digital example.

Chappe Tower

- Claude Chappe, early form of communication. - Semaphore visual telegraph. - Equipped with a pair of telescopes, one pointing in either direction, and with a two-arm semaphore (a word derived by Chappe from the Greek for "bearing a sign"). Each arm of the semaphore could assume seven clearly visible angular positions, making possible 49 combinations that were assigned to the alphabet and a number of other symbols. - Equipped with a pair of telescopes, one pointing in either direction, and with a two-arm semaphore (a word derived by Chappe from the Greek for "bearing a sign"). Each arm of the semaphore could assume seven clearly visible angular positions, making possible 49 combinations that were assigned to the alphabet and a number of other symbols.

Basic Elements Or Components In The Telecomm Universe

- Content & Production (movies, sports, news, music, games). - Services (voice, text, search, shopping.) - Distribution (national and internal, local exhibition). - Not tidy categories, lots of overlap.

The Kingsbury Committment

- Deal struck in 1913 between American Telegraph & Telephone (now AT&T) and the Department of Justice, settling an antitrust investigation into AT&T's market power, especially over long-distance phone service - In 1913, the U.S. filed an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T to break up its growing monopoly in the phone service market. While Congress contemplated nationalizing the long distance telephone network, AT&T settled the antitrust lawsuit with the Kingsbury Commitment. In the Kingsbury Commitment, AT&T agreed to allow independent local telephone companies to interconnect with AT&T's long distance network, divest Western Union, and refrain from purchasing other companies if the Interstate Commerce Commission objected.

Post-Industrial (INFORMATION SOCIETY)

- Economy depends primarily on production and consumption of information. - Dominant tool: The Computer. - Information workers. - Telephone, Print Media, Film, Video Games, Recordings, TV, Broadcasting, Home Video.

Importants Of Patents

- Gives an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention for 20 years.

Criticisms Of Contemporary TV

- Impacts on sexual promiscuity, racial and ethnic stereotypes, sexism, economic exploitation, mindless consumption, childhood obesity, smoking, drinking, and political apathy. - Impact on violence, especially in children.

Industrial (PRINTING, OTHER MASS MEDIA)

- Important precursor - printing of Gutenberg Bible, 1455....moveable metal type. - Mass production + spread of literacy helped create a demand for sporadic printed news sheets which turned into newspapers. - Gutenberg's methods...not just newsprint, all types of goods. - Centered in large cities, triggering a mass migration, also agricultural jobs to manufacturing. - Newspapers - first advertising supported medium of mass communication. - By 1910, industrial. - Film, radio, television, as well as newspapers and magazines are the characteristic media of industrial societies.

Interpersonal Communication

- Includes exchanges in which two or more people take part, but the term is usually reserved for situations in which just two people are communicating. Sometimes we call that one-to-one communication. Having a face-to-face conversation over lunch and writing a postcard to a friend are everyday examples. - When interpersonal communication is electronically mediated, as in a telephone conversation, the term point-to-point communication is sometimes used. - Letter = Analog example. - E-Mail = Digital example.

Media Convergence

- Integration of mass media, computers and telecommunications.

Types Of Communication

- Intrapersonal Communication - Interpersonal Communication - Group Communication (Small-Group & Large-Group) - Organizational Communication - Intercultural Communication - Both the nature of the communication setting and the size of the gathering must be considered. - One way (info goes from the source exclusively to the receiver). - Two way (both participants take an active role)

Large-Group Communication

- Involves anywhere from a dozen to several thousand participants, and the communication situation restricts active involvement to only a few of the parties. - Large-group communication still involves immediate feedback from the receivers of the message, which is not the case with mass communication. - Lecture = Analog example. - Webinar = Digital example.

Effects Of Printing Press On Society

- Science became general knowledge. - Language became stabilized. - Memory was lost. - Poetry changed. - The elderly was marginalized. - Instrumental in spread of Protestant Reformation, religious beliefs. - Spread of literacy to new classes of society.

Pre-Agrarian (ORAL)

- Small groups, hunters of animals and gatherers of plants. - Depended on spoken word/song. - Shamans/story-tellers spread the news. - Oral tradition.

Intercultural Communication

- Takes place across international or cultural boundaries.

Organizational Communication

- Takes place in formally structured organizations, spans the entire spectrum of communication types as classified by size, and is affected by a person's position and function within the organization.

Samuel Morse

- Telegraph was an early forerunner of the Internet in 1844. - The Electric Telegraph (1840s) : May 24, 1844 "What Hath God Wrought" Arguably, the start of "telecommunications" The (nearly) instantaneous transmission of a message Note: This is a BIG DEAL - Led to a marked improvement in speed and reach in news gathering. - Co-inventor of Morse Code, dots and dashes as sent signals. - In spite of the court's clear ruling, Morse received no official recognition as first for telegraph from the U.S. government.

Small-Group Communication

- Usually involves fewer than a dozen people, extending interpersonal communication into situations where group dynamics become important. - Study Group = Analog example. - Chat Room = Digital example.

Development Of The Early Telegraph

- While scientists and inventors across the world began experimenting with batteries and the principles of electromagnetism to develop some kind of communication system, the credit for inventing the telegraph generally falls to two sets of researchers: Sir William Cooke (1806-79) and Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-75) in England, and Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale (1800-83) and Alfred Vail (1807-59) in the U.S. - In the 1830s, the British team of Cooke and Wheatstone developed a telegraph system with five magnetic needles that could be pointed around a panel of letters and numbers by using an electric current. Their system was soon being used for railroad signaling in Britain. During this time period, the Massachusetts-born, Yale-educated Morse (who began his career as a painter), worked to develop an electric telegraph of his own. He reportedly had become intrigued with the idea after hearing a conversation about electromagnetism while sailing from Europe to America in the early 1830s, and later learned more about the topic from American physicist Joseph Henry (1797-1878). In collaboration with Gale and Vail, Morse eventually produced a single-circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery. This action sent the electric signal across a wire to a receiver at the other end. All the system needed was a key, a battery, wire and a line of poles between stations for the wire and a receiver.

Agrarian (WRITTEN)

- Work found on farms/resource extraction (mining, fishing, begging). - Sumerian culture credited with developing writing in 3100 BCE. - Greco-Roman writing developed into present day alphabet. - Literacy only among priests/upper class. - Chinese developed printing - used carved wooden blocks, paper, ink. Populace still illiterate.

Bits And Bytes

A bit (Binary digit) is the smallest unit of digital information 1 = on, 0 = off (electrical charge) One byte = 8 bits = 256 possible values (0 to 255).

Spark Gap Transmitter

A device that generates radio frequency electromagnetic waves using a spark gap. Spark gap transmitters were the first devices to demonstrate practical radio transmission, and were the standard technology for the first three decades of radio (1887-1916)

Oligopoly

A few companies dominate a market Film distribution The recording industry

Cloud Computing

A system in which all computer programs and data is stored on a central server owned by a company (e.g. Google) and accessed virtually.

Amplitude And Frequency Modulation

AM: Carries information in the height, or amplitude, of the radio wave. 117 channels located in the Medium Frequency band: 535-1705 kHz 1170 kHz total spectrum allocated FM: Carries information in variations in the frequency of the radio wave. located in the Very High Frequency (VHF) band: 88-108 MHz 20 MHz or 20,000 kHz total allocated 1 FM station = 20 AM stations

Digital Broadcasting

An advanced system of broadcasting radio (DAB or DRB) or television (DTV) in digital pulses rather than waves and which gives improved quality and/or more channels of content. There are currently two quality levels in television, standard definition (SDTV) and high definition (HDTV). NTSC (old analog) versus ATSC (today's digital) National TV Standards Comm. & Advanced TV Standards Comm. DTV standards 480, 720, 1080 lines of resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels The near future: 4K 3840/4096 (horizontal) x 2160 vertical Progressive vs. interlaced scanning Multi-casting & data services.

Economies Of Scale

As production increases (number of units produced), the average cost per unit decreases. Average cost = total cost / units produced. Strongest when there is a large difference between fixed costs and marginal costs. Goal: spread out fixed costs over large number of units. Units can be copies sold or size of audience (one viewer = one unit). Emphasis on mass audience!

Hyper-Text

Basically the same as regular text - it can be stored, read, searched, or edited - with an important exception: it contains connections within the text to other documents.

Packet Switching

Breaks digital information into individually addressed chunks, or packets. Message broken up into small uniform packets Each packet might take a different route to destination Packets are reassembled at destination Much more efficient since multiple messages can share same line.

Broadband & Narrowband

Broadband: refers to high-speed internet connections. Narrowband: A term that refers to communications channels that have low bandwidth. Less capacity, such as dial-up Internet access.A type of wireless transmission in which signals travel over a single frequency or within a specified frequency range.

Tim Berners Lee

CERN 1989/1990. He invented Hypertext Markup Language. Created the idea of a "home page" where everyone could access documents and images to see what you are working on and is credited with developing HTML. Known as the inventor of the World Wide Web in 1989

Coaxial Cable

Cable. 550, 750 MHz up to 1,000 MHz or 1 GHz, "broadband" A single copper wire surrounded by layers of plastic insulation and sheathing; used mainly in cable television and cable Internet service.

Nonrivalrous "Public Goods"

Can be used simultaneously and cannot be "used up".

Star Or Circuit Switched Architecture

Central Office Home or business "point of presence (POP) It's SWITCHED This is a big deal

Interactive

Communication uses feedback to modify a message as it is presented. - Ex: Selecting alternative plots in an online novel.

Western Union

Company turned down Alexander Graham Bell when Bell offered to sell them his patent on the telephone for 100K. - Changes mind in 1878. Financial and communications company; dominated the telegraph industry in the 19th century An American financial services and communications company founded in 1851; as an industrialized monopoly, it dominated the telegraph industry in the late 19th century.; it was the first communications empire and set a pattern for American-style communications businesses as they are known today.

Servers

Computer programs running to serve the requests of other programs, the clients. Thus, the server performs some tasks on behalf of clients. It facilitates the clients to share data, information or any hardware and software resources.

Marginal Costs

Cost to reach one additional viewer or to produce one additional copy. Reproduction cost is a marginal cost. Marginal costs are usually much lower than fixed.

Digital Compression

Digital takes a LOT of bandwidth, more than fit in 6 MHz So, DIGITAL COMPRESSION So good, it provides extra TV channels Standards: JPEG, MPEG-2, MP3, MPEG-4 Reducing the quantity of data while retaining as much quality as possible thus reducing the bandwidth required to transmit.

The "Magic Donut"

Eat a donut, then finish and the donut reappears. Analogy to media being nonrivalrous, meaning after you use it it doesn't go away. Cannot be used up. Massive economies of scale and scope.

Gugliemo Marconi

Father of radio. Italian inventor credited with the invention of the radio. Sent the first radio waves across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901 Assembled a wireless telegraph that was later developed into the radio. Marconi's Mom - Annie The Italians say, "no thank you." 1896 - To England Utility of device? 1897 - British Marconi 1899 - American Marconi

"Mosaic"

First ever browser - 1933. Marc Andreeson, National Center for Supercomputer Applications, Univ. of Ill.

KDKA

First radio station in Pittsburgh.

Film Distribution Windows

First-Run films DVDs & PPV (buy, then rent) Netflix, Amazon or similar "Pay-TV" like HBO TV syndication.

Total Cost

Fixed + Marginal

Earliest Commercial Uses Of Radio

Frank Conrad, Westinghouse engineer. Westinghouse realized regular radio broadcasts could help sell radios, opened KDKA. Newspapers saw news potential; schools and churches saw educational possibilities.

Frequency And Wavelength

Frequency: number of cycles that radio waves complete in a second. Wavelength: crest to crest. 1 kilohertz kHz = 1,000 cycles per second 1 megahertz MHz = 1 million cycles per second (1,000 kHz) 1 gigahertz GHz = 1 BILLION cycles per second (1,000 MHz) TV Channel 6 transmits its signal at 83.25 MHz The wavelength is 11.8 feet Cell phones in U.S. use 850 MHz (14") and 1900 MHz (6.2")

Digital Sampling

From waves to digits - SAMPLING Digital is sampled: the sound or image is measured thousands of times per second. Each sample is then converted into an electrical signal. Higher sample rate = more information = higher quality = larger file. Standard sampling rate: 44,100 times per second for CDs.

3G And 4G In Cell Phone Technology

G stands for generation.

The Harmonic Telegraph

Gray discovered that he could control sound from a self vibrating electromagnetic circuit and in doing so invented a basic single note oscillator. The original intention was to use this principle to develop an early version of muliplex telegraphic transmission; sending multiple telegraphic messages encoded as different pitches simultaneously over the same line which could be decoded at the receiving end. Using this principle he designed a musical instrument; The 'Musical Telegraph' or 'Electro-Harmonic Telegraph' initially to demonstrate and promote his ideas.

The FM Revolution

Growth of FM radio revived radio in the 1960s. High-fidelity sound, short range. More stations in each market by reducing interference with stations in nearby markets that use the same frequency. More specific formulas and formats. Licenses easy to get. Moved into stereo sound. Longer songs. Subgenres targeted to certain groups.

Synchronous

Happening at the same time; occurring at the same rate and thus happening together repeatedly.

HTML

Hypertext markup language. Used to format pages on the Web. Hypertext markup language; a standardized system for marking up text files with tags that achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages.

HTTP

Hypertext transfer protocol. The internet protocol used to transfer files over the web.

Heinrich Hertz

In 1887, he ran an electric current through one coil, which produced a current in another coil across the room. This was the start of electronic sound transmission. (1887)Spark Gap Detector (metal rods electrified), Proves that radio Waves exist, Hz (One cycle of a radio wave) A german physicist that proved James Maxwell's ideas where true. He generated Electromagnetic waves, transmitted them down his lab, detected them, and then measured their lengths. They where called Hertzian waves.

Top Level Domain Names

Include: .com, .org, .gov, .net, .mil, .edu, .int, and country codes. ICANN : The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Oversees DNS system and approves all registries and registrars Registry: manages a particular TLD and sets criteria for use Registrar: sells individual domain names within the TLD.

Electromagnetic Spectrum And Its Elements

Includes all forms of electromagnetic radiation; the types of radiation differ in their frequencies and wavelengths Full range of frequencies and wavelengths for electromagnetic waves broken down into the following region, in order of descending/decreasing λ: radio, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, Gamma Ray.

Interlaced And Progressive Scanning

Interlaced: Old analog system 1080i Progressive: Computers 1080p

ISPs

Internet Service Providers. Provide connections to the internet. Supply and sustain user connections to the internet, maintain the hardware and software required for those connections, and protect their sites and networks from outside threats

The Audion Tube

Lee DeForest - 1906. Lee De Forest invented the Audion vacuum tube in 1906, which went on to become the most significant electronics innovation of the first half of the 20th century after its application to radio was understood and perfected.

Asynchronous

Media are not consumed simultaneously by all members of the audience.

Network Externalities Or Network Effects

Network increases in value when it increases in size Existing users benefit when new users join Gives largest network a competitive advantage (barrier to entry).

Mass Media Communication Examples

Newspaper = Analog example. News Blog = Digital example.

Barriers To Entry

Obstacles companies must overcome to enter a market: Sunk Costs or capital costs Economies of Scale & Scope Legal barriers, especially patents In telecom infrastructures, right of way (both legal and economic) "Natural Monopolies" Utilities, historically, including telecom

Monopoly

One firm dominates a market Maybe landline telephone (but there is VoIP)

Vertical Integration

Owning companies at different levels of the supply chain Advantages: Economies of scale and scope Guaranteed distribution Profits at each level Reduced transaction costs? Concern is anticompetitive behavior Can discriminate against other suppliers (favoritism) Can discriminate against other customers (favoritism).

Horizontal Integration

Owning multiple companies or competing in multiple markets at same level of supply chain. Viacom: multiple cable networks, increasing total share of cable audience Comcast owns cable systems in multiple markets Multiple system operator (MSO) CBS owns local TV stations in multiple markets A company can also own multiple stations in a single market Advantages: Economies of scale and scope Increased market share = increased negotiating power Who do distributors negotiate with? Upstream program suppliers, downstream distributors Advertisers. Samples: Disney ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel, A&E, Lifetime, The History Channel Time Warner HBO, Cinemax, CNN, TBS, TNT, The Cartoon Channel Viacom CBS, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Comedy Central

The "Layers" Of The Internet

Physical layer Wired: Cable, DSL, Ethernet Wireless: Cell phone, Microwave, Satellite WiFi hotspots Computers, Routers & Servers Transport layer Protocols for how information will be communicated Domain names, addressing, transmission protocols (TCP/IP) Application layer Web, e-mail, IM, VoIP, RSS, webcasts, Twitter, Facebook, radio Content layer Information transmitted Physical Layer Elements: Computers (local nets, WiFi, etc.) ISPs - Internet Service Providers PoPs - point of presence & NAPs - internet access pts Routers Servers

Reginald Fessenden

Radio Telephony Continuous wave radio 1901 - 1905 - Alexanderson Generator 1906 - First voice broadcast (General Electric) He created the first radio broadcast. It was Poetry and Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve in 1905

The Origins Of Email

Ray Tomlinson "You've got mail" E-mail, 1971.

Routers

Re-directs network traffic and deals with different packets in different ways.

Alexanderson Generator

Reginald Fessenden 1901-1905.

RBOCs

Regional Bell operating companies. Are the local telephone operating companies that AT&T divested in 1984.

Fixed Costs

Remain the same no matter how many copies are produced. First copy costs are considered fixed costs. Fixed costs are usually high.

Economies Of Scope

Sell multiple products using shared infrastructure (Cable "Triple Play").

DSL

Sends high speed data over existing phone lines. Digital Subscriber Line. (Digital Subscriber Line) A high-speed Internet connection that uses existing telephone lines, requiring close proximity to a switching station.

Affordances

Technical features of communication channels that allow their users to perform useful functions. - Ex: Facebook's Like Button.

Twisted Pair Wires

Telco. 4 kHz, "narrowband" Strands of copper wired twisted in pairs for voice and data communications; may be shielded or unshielded

Universal Service

The principle that everyone should have basic access to telecommunication services.

Analog

Think "waves", a continuous signal (do the wave) "analogous" to.... Example: Sound waves to variations in electrical current

TCP/IP

Transmission-control protocol/Internet Protocol A network technology that defines how messages are routed from one end of a network to the other, enduring the data arrives correct by dividing it into packets

Duopoly

Two firms dominate a market Local cable/broadband: Comcast & Windstream

URLs

Uniform resource locators. Addresses of web pages. Format for the hyperlinks that identifies each object on the web and how it should be retrieved.

HFC Architecture

Uses both fiber optic cable and coaxial cables to transport signals between the headend and equipment in the customer's home

First Radio Station To Broadcast Advertising

WEAF, NYC.

Digital

Zeroes & Ones On & Off Advantages: Perfect copies, over and over (eliminates signal noise) Easy manipulation (editing, mashups) Advanced tracking and control: Digital rights management (DRM) But, a couple disadvantages Some love for the vinyl people (LPs) Bandwidth Hunger (which takes us back to TV).

Fiber Optics

up to 1 THz (Terahertz) 1 THz = 1012 Hertz, very fast broadband. Bundles of long strands of pure glass that efficiently transmit light pulses over long distances. Interception without detection is difficult. Narrow tubes that transmit light, used to send information at very high speeds