Lesson 2.

GENERATION OF
COMPUTERS

A computer is an electronic device that manipulates information or data. It has

the ability to store, retrieve, and process data.

Nowadays, a computer can be used to type documents, send email, play games,
and browse the Web. It can also be used to edit or create spreadsheets,
presentations, and even videos. But the evolution of this complex system started
around 1940 with the first Generation of Computer and has been evolving ever
since.

First Generation
Computers
Vacuum Tubes and Plug boards (1951 -1958)

The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes as their main logic elements;

punched cards to input and externally store data; and rotating magnetic drums for

internal storage of data in programs written in machine language (instructions written as

a string of 0s and 1s) or assembly language (a language that allowed the programmer
to write instructions in a kind of shorthand that would then be "translated" by another

program called a compiler into machine language).

The following are the characteristics of the First Generation computers:

• Used vacuum tubes for circuitry

• Electron emitting metal in vacuum tubes burned out easily

• Used magnetic drums for memory

• Were huge, slow, expensive, and many times undependable

• Were expensive to operate

• Were power hungry

• Generated a lot of heat which would make them malfunction

• Solved one problem at a time

• Used input based on punched cards

• Had their outputs displayed in print outs

• Used magnetic tapes

• Used machine language

• Had limited primary memory

• We’re programming only in machine language

The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing

devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client,

the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation
Computers
Transistors and Batch Filing (1959 -1963)

AT&T's Bell Laboratories, in the 1940s, discovered that a class of crystalline mineral

materials called semiconductors could be used in the design of a device called a

transistor to replace vacuum tubes. Magnetic cores (very small donut-shaped magnets

that could be polarized in one of two directions to represent data) strung on wire within

the computer became the primary internal storage technology. Magnetic tape and disks

began to replace punched cards as external storage devices. High-level programming

languages (program instructions that could be written with simple words and

mathematical expressions), like FORTRAN and COBOL, made computers more

accessible to scientists and businesses.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to

symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in

words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such

as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that
stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to

magnetic core technology.

The following are the characteristics of the Second Generation computers:

• Used transistors

• Faster and more reliable than first generation systems

• Were slightly smaller, cheaper, faster

• Generated heat though a little less

• Still relied on punch cards and printouts for input/output

• Allowed assembly and high-level languages

• Stored data in magnetic media

• Were still costly

• Needed air conditioning

• Introduced assembly language and operating system software

The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation
Computers
Integrated Circuits and Multi-Programming (1964 - 1979)
Individual transistors were replaced by integrated circuits. Magnetic core memories

began to give way to a new form, metal oxide semiconductor memory (MOS), which,

like integrated circuits, used silicon-backed chips. Increased memory capacity and

processing power made possible the development of operating systems — special

programs that help the various elements of the computer to work together to process

information. Programming languages like BASIC were developed, making programming

easier to do.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation

computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system,

which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central

program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to

a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

The following are the characteristics of the Third Generation computers:

• Used ICs

• Used parallel processing

• Were slightly smaller, cheaper, faster

• Used motherboards

• Data was input using keyboards

• Output was visualized on the monitors

• Used operating systems, thus permitting multitasking

• Simplified programming languages (i.e. BASIC)

Fourth Generation
Computers
The Microprocessor, OS and GUI (1979 to Present)

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of

integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled

an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in

1971, located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and

memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.

In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple

introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop

computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to

use microprocessors.

As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form

networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation

computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

The following are the characteristics of the Third Generation computers:

• Used CPUs which contained thousands of transistors

• Were much smaller and fitted on a desktop, laps and palms

• Used a mouse
• Were used in networks

• Were cheap

• Had GUI

• Were very fast

• Register over 19 billion transistors in high-end microprocessors

Fifth Generation
Computers
The Present and The Future

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in

development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are

being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to

make artificial intelligence a reality.

Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face

of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop

devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and

self-organization.
Lesson 3. Four Basic
Computer Periods
Information technology has been around for a long time. Basically, as long
as people have been around, information technology has been around
because there were always ways of communicating through technology
available at that point in time. There are 4 main ages that divide up the
history of information technology. Only the latest age (electronic) and some
of the electromechanical age really affects us today, but it is important to
learn about how we got to the point we are at with technology today.

PRE-MECHANICAL AGE
(3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.)

The pre-mechanical age is the earliest age of information technology. In 3000 B.C., the

Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today southern Iraq) devised a writing system. The

system, called cuneiform, used signs corresponding to spoken sounds, instead of

pictures, to express words. When humans first started communicating, they would try to

use language or simple pictures or drawings known as petroglyphs, which were

usually carved in the rock.

Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.

As alphabets became more popular and more people were writing information down,

pens and paper began to be developed. It started off as just marks in wet clay, but later,

the paper was created out of a papyrus plant. The most popular kind of paper made

was probably by the Chinese who made paper from rags.

Now that people were writing a lot of information down, they needed ways to keep it all

in permanent storage. This is where the first books and libraries are developed.

Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest "books" , a collection of rectangular

clay tablets, inscribed with cuneiform and packaged in labeled containers — in their

personal "libraries." The Egyptians kept scrolls - sheets of papyrus wrapped around a

shaft of wood. Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically

into leaves and bind them together. The dictionary and encyclopedia made their

appearance about the same time. The Greeks are also credited with developing the first

truly public libraries around 500 B.C.

Also during this period were the first numbering systems. Around 100A.D. was when the

first 1-9 system was created by people from India. However, it wasn’t until 875A.D. (775

years later) that the number zero (0) was invented. And yes now that numbers were

created, people wanted stuff to do with them so they created calculators. A calculator

was the very first sign of an information processor. The popular model of that time was

the abacus.
MECHANICAL AGE
(1450 – 1840)

The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between

our current technology and its ancestors. A lot of new technologies
are developed in this era as there is a large explosion in interest in
this area.

● Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, invented the movable metal-type printing

process in 1450 and sped up the process of composing pages from weeks to a
few minutes. The printing press made written information much more accessible
to the general public by reducing the time and cost that it took to reproduce the
written material.

● In the early 1600s, William Oughtred, an English clergyman, invented the slide
rule, a device that allowed the user to multiply and divide by sliding two pieces of
precise machines and scribing wood against each other. The slide rule is an early
example of an analog computer — an instrument that measures instead of
counts.

● Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, invented the Pascaline around 1642

which was a very popular mechanical computer; it used a series of wheels and
cogs to add and subtract numbers.

An eccentric English mathematician named Charles Babbage, frustrated by

mistakes, set his mind to create a machine that could both calculate numbers

and print the results. In the 1820s, he was able to produce a working model of his

first attempt, which he called the Difference Engine; the name was based on a

method of solving mathematical equations called the "method of differences".

Made of toothed wheels and shafts turned by a hand crank, the machine could
do computations and create charts showing the squares and cubes of numbers.

He had plans for a more complex Difference Engine but was never able to

actually build it because of difficulties in obtaining funds, but he did create and

leave behind detailed plans.

Designed during the 1830s by Babbage, the Analytical Engine had parts

remarkably similar to modern-day computers. For instance, the Analytical Engine

was to have a part called the "store," which would hold the numbers that had

been inputted and the quantities that resulted after they had been manipulated.

Babbage also planned to use punch cards to direct the operations performed by

the machine — an idea he picked up from seeing the results that a French

weaver named Joseph Jacquard had achieved using punched cards to

automatically control the patterns that would be woven into cloth by a loom.

Lady Augusta Ada Byron helped Babbage design the instructions that would be

given to the machine on punch cards and to describe, analyze, and publicize his

ideas. She has been called the "first programmer". Babbage eventually was

forced to abandon his hopes of building the Analytical Engine, once again

because of a failure to find funding.

There were lots of different machines created during this era and while we have
not yet gotten to a machine that can do more than one type of calculation in one,
like our modern-day calculators, we are still learning about how all of our
all-in-one machines started. Also, if you look at the size of the machines invented
in this time compared to the power behind them it seems (to us) absolutely
ridiculous to understand why anybody would want to use them, but to the people
living in that time all of these inventions were huge.
ELECTROMECHANICAL
AGE
1840 – 1940

Now we are finally getting close to some technologies that resemble our

modern-day technology. The discovery of ways to harness electricity was the key

advance made during this period. Knowledge and information could now be

converted into electrical impulses. These are the beginnings of

telecommunication.

● The discovery of a reliable method of creating and storing electricity, with a

Voltaic Battery, at the end of the 18th century made possible a whole new

method of communicating information

● The Telegraph was created in the early 1800s. It is the first major

invention to use electricity for communication purposes and made it

possible to transmit information over great distances with great speed.

● Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835. Morse devised a

system that broke down information (in this case, the alphabet) into bits

(dots and dashes) that could then be transformed into electrical impulses
and transmitted over a wire (just as today's digital technologies break down

information into zeros and ones)

● The Telephone (one of the most popular forms of communication ever)

was created by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. This was followed by the

discovery that electrical waves travel through space and can produce an

effect far from the point at which they originated. These two events led to

the invention of the radio by Marconi in 1894.

By 1890, Herman Hollerith, a young man with a degree in mining engineering

who worked in the Census Office in Washington, D.C., had perfected a machine

that could automatically sort census cards into a number of categories using

electrical sensing devices to "read" the punched holes in each card and thus

count the millions of census cards and categorize the population into relevant

groups. The company that he founded to manufacture and sell it eventually

developed into the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

Howard Aiken, a Ph.D. student at Harvard University, decided to try to combine

Hollerith's punched card technology with Babbage's dreams of a

general-purpose, "programmable" computing machine. With funding from IBM,

he built a machine known as the Mark I, which used paper tape to supply

instructions (programs) to the machine for manipulating data (input on paper

punch cards), counters to store numbers, and electromechanical relays to help

register results.
ELECTRONIC AGE
1940 – Present

The electronic age is what we currently live in. It can be defined as the time

between 1940 and right now.

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was the first

high-speed, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range

of computing problems. This computer was designed to be used by the U.S.

Army for artillery firing tables. This machine was even bigger than the Mark 1

taking up 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons - HUGE. It mainly used vacuum

tubes to do its calculations.

There are 4 main sections of digital computing:

● The first was the era of vacuum tubes and punch cards like the ENIAC and

Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal storage.

● The second generation replaced vacuum tubes with transistors, punch

cards were replaced with magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums

were replaced by magnetic cores for internal storage. Also during this time,

high-level programming languages were created such as FORTRAN and

COBOL.
● The third generation replaced transistors with integrated circuits, magnetic

tape was used throughout all computers, and magnetic cores turned into

metal oxide semiconductors. An actual operating system showed up

around this time along with the advanced programming language BASIC.

● The fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs (central processing units)

which contained memory, logic, and control circuits all on a single chip.

The personal computer was developed (Apple II). The graphical user

interface (GUI) was developed.

Lesson 4. Classification of
Computers
Computers can be classified based on size and computing power. However, as
technology advances, these classifications tend to overlap as modern computers have
become smaller, yet more powerful, and relatively cheaper.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF COMPUTERS

Classification of Computers

The computer systems can be classified on the following basis:

1. On the basis of size.

2. On the basis of functionality.

3. On the basis of data handling.

Classification on the basis of size

■ Supercomputers : The supercomputers are the most high performing

system. A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance
compared to a general-purpose computer. The actual Performance of a
supercomputer is measured in FLOPS instead of MIPS. All of the world’s
fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems. Additional
research is being conducted in China, the US, the EU, Taiwan and Japan to
build even faster, more high performing and more technologically superior
supercomputers. Supercomputers actually play an important role in the field of
computation, and are used for intensive computation tasks in various fields,
including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and
gas exploration, molecular modeling, and physical simulations. and also
Throughout the history, supercomputers have been essential in the field of the
cryptanalysis.
| Eg: PARAM, jaguar, roadrunner. |

■ Mainframe computers : These are commonly called as big iron, they are
usually used by big organizations for bulk data processing such as statics,
census data processing, transaction processing and are widely used as the
servers as these systems has a higher processing capability as compared to
the other classes of computers, most of these mainframe architectures were
established in 1960s, the research and development worked continuously over
the years and the mainframes of today are far more better than the earlier
ones, in size, capacity and efficiency.
| Eg: IBM z Series, System z9 and System z10 servers.|

■ Mini computers : These computers came into the market in the mid 1960s
and were sold at a much cheaper price than the main frames, they were
actually designed for control, instrumentation, human interaction, and
communication switching as distinct from calculation and record keeping, later
they became very popular for personal uses with evolution. In the 60s to
describe the smaller computers that became possible with the use of
transistors and core memory technologies, minimal instruction sets and less
expensive peripherals such as the ubiquitous Teletype Model 33 ASR. They
usually took up one or a few inch rack cabinets, compared with the large
mainframes that could fill a room, there was a new term “MINICOMPUTERS”
coined
| Eg: Personal Laptop, PC etc. |

■ Micro computers : A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive

computer with a microprocessor as its CPU. It includes a microprocessor,
memory, and minimal I/O circuitry mounted on a single printed circuit board.
The previous to these computers, mainframes and minicomputers, were
comparatively much larger, hard to maintain and more expensive. They
actually formed the foundation for present day microcomputers and smart
gadgets that we use in day to day life.
| Eg: Tablets, Smartwatches. |

Classification on the basis of functionality

■ Servers : Servers are nothing but dedicated computers which are set-up to
offer some services to the clients. They are named depending on the type of
service they offer. Eg: security server, database server.

■ Workstation : Those are computers designed primarily to be used by a single

user at a time. They run multi-user operating systems. They are the ones
which we use for our day to day personal / commercial work.

■ Information Appliances : They are the portable devices which are designed
to perform a limited set of tasks like basic calculations, playing multimedia,
browsing the internet etc. They are generally referred to as mobile devices.
They have very limited memory and flexibility and generally run on an “as-is”
basis.

■ Embedded computers : They are the computing devices which are used in
other machines to serve a limited set of requirements. They follow instructions
from the non-volatile memory and they are not required to execute reboot or
reset. The processing units used in such devices work to those basic
requirements only and are different from the ones that are used in personal
computers- better known as workstations.
Classification on the basis of data handling

■ Analog : An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the

continuously-changeable aspects of physical fact such as electrical,
mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved.
Anything that is variable with respect to time and continuous can be claimed
as analog just like an analog clock measures time by means of the distance
traveled for the spokes of the clock around the circular dial.

■ Digital : A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with

quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system of “0”
and “1”, “Computer capable of solving problems by processing information
expressed in discrete form. from manipulation of the combinations of the
binary digits, it can perform mathematical calculations, organize and analyze
data, control industrial and other processes, and simulate dynamic systems
such as global weather patterns.

■ Hybrid : A computer that processes both analog and digital data, Hybrid
computer is a digital computer that accepts analog signals, converts them to
digital and processes them in digital form.

Lesson 5. Evolution of
Information Technology
The evolution of IT began in the 1970s
Technological Evolution

Since World War II, the performance capabilities of computers and telecommunications
have been doubling every few years at constant cost. For example, a decade ago
$3,500 could buy a new Apple II microcomputer. Today, $6,800 — the same amount of
purchasing power (adjusted for 10 years of inflation)-can buy a new Macintosh II
microcomputer. The Macintosh handles 4 times the information at 16 times the speed,
preprogrammed and reprogrammable memory are both about 20 times larger, disk
storage is about 90 times larger, and the display has 7 times the resolution and 16 times
the number of colors. Comparable figures could be cited for other brands of machines.
Equally impressive, users’ demands for this power have increased as rapidly as it has
become available. Over the next two decades, data processing and information systems
will probably be replaced by sophisticated devices for knowledge creation, capture,
transfer, and use. A similar evolution can be forecast for telecommunications: personal
video-recorders, optical fiber networks, intelligent telephones, information utilities such
as videotex, and digital discs will change the nature of media.

Cognition Enhancers

The concept of “cognition enhancers” can help us understand how we can use these

emerging technologies. A cognition enhancer combines the complementary strengths of

a person and information technology. Two categories of cognition enhancers will have

considerable impact on the workplace: empowering environments and hypermedia.

Empowering Environments

Empowering environments enhance human accomplishment by a division of labor: the

machine handles the routine mechanics of a task, while the person is immersed in its

higher-order meanings. The workplace is adopting many empowering environments:

databases for information management, spreadsheets for modeling, computer-aided

design systems for manufacturing. And word processors with embedded spelling

checkers, thesauruses, out-liners, text analyzers, and graphics tools are driving the

evolution of a new field: desktop publishing.

Hypermedia

Hypermedia is a framework for creating an interconnected, web-like representation of

symbols (text, graphics, images, software codes) in the computer. This representation is

similar to human long-term memory: people store information in networks of symbolic,

temporal, and visual images related by association.

Evolution of Software Applications

The advancement of hardware was not sufficient to change the human life-style, had it

not been supported by software and software applications. Let us see how software

applications evolved over time.

Command Line Programs (1980s)- the first generation software application included

compilers, device drivers etc., which were mainly command line programs.

Desktop Application (1990s)- with the popularity of graphical interface, GUI based

desktop applications of multiple types and forms were released: office application, audio

and video players, utility programs, browsers, etc.

Web application (21st century)- with web’s availability, the next generation applications
were developed keeping the world wide web in mind. Web applications were developed
keeping in mind that they can be accessed from any location over the internet. Most
popular web applications include email clients like gmail, ymail, etc. Social networking
platform life facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, quora, etc.

Mobile application (21st century)- advent of computer technology has resulted into

smartphones being affordable. The most popular mobile applications development

platforms are IOS, Android, windows which are also the most popular mobile operating

systems.

Evolution of Programming Language

Software is developed through various programming languages. Programming started

with machine language and evolved to new-age programming systems.

1st generation programming language (1GL)- early programming was done in

machine language. So machine language is the first generation programming

language.

2nd generation programming language (2GL)- also called the assembly

language programming which is easier for computers to understand but difficult for

programmers.

3rd generation programming language (3GL)- more normal English language

like and hence easier for programmers to understand. Also called High Level

Languages(HLLs).

4th generation programming language (4GL)- closer to natural language than

3GLs.

5th generation programming language (5GL)- used mainly in artificial

intelligence research.

Lesson 6. Evolution of
Media
The media has transformed itself based on two things – (1) how information is
presented; and (2) how the connection is established.
● Woodcut printing on cloth or on paper was used in the early 15th century.

● It was in 1436 when Johannes Gutenberg started working on a printing press

which used relief printing and a molding system. Now, the modern printing press
delivers messages in print, such as newspapers, textbooks, and magazines.

● In the 1800s, the telegraph was developed followed by the telephone which
made two-way communication possible. Message sending and receiving can
now be done both ways simultaneously.

● At the beginning of the 1900s, broadcasting and recorded media were

introduced. Radio and television were used to send sound and video to homes
and offices through electromagnetic spectrum or radio waves. Audio (lower
frequency band) or video (higher frequency band) content can be received
depending on the frequency used. Later on, a combination of both audio and
video information made the audience’s viewing experience more exciting. Films
and movies became popular as they catered to larger audiences.

As communication devices also evolved and became pervasive. So did information

distribution. A photo taken using a smartphone can immediately be uploaded and

shared on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Community websites such as OLX.ph, a

Philippine counterpart of ebay.com, let its users buy and sell items online. This

eliminates the need for going to physical stores.

In line with this development, the audience regardless of their professions can now

interact with one another and are no longer disconnected. News sites can even get
news stories for example from Twitter or other social media sites. According to Claudine

Beaumont, author from The Telegraph, one good example of this happened on January

15, 2009, when dozens of New Yorkers sent ‘tweets’ about a plane crash in the city.

News about the US Airways Flight 1549 which was forced to land in the Hudson River in

Manhattan, USA immediately spread all over the country. All of the plane's engine shut

down when it struck a flock of geese, minutes after take-off from New York’s LaGuardia

Airport.

The figure shows one of the first photos taken from a Twitter user, Jānis Krūms,
showing the drowned plane with survivors standing on its wings waiting for
rescue. It was instantly forwarded across Twitter and used by numerous blogs
and news websites, causing the TwitPic service to crash due to multiple views. In
this regard, Twitter users were able to break the news of the incident around 15
minutes before the mainstream media had alerted the public about the crash
incident.

This is a typical example of how individuals can now deliver content to everyone
and connections are no longer controlled by professionals.

What Does the Media Do for Us?

Media fulfills several basic roles in our society. One obvious role is entertainment.

Media can act as a springboard for our imaginations, a source of fantasy, and an outlet

for escapism. In the 19th century, Victorian readers disillusioned by the grimness of the

Industrial Revolution found themselves drawn into fantastic worlds of fairies and other

fictitious beings. In the first decade of the 21st century, American television viewers

could peek in on a conflicted Texas high school football team in Friday Night Lights; the

violence-plagued drug trade in Baltimore in The Wire; a 1960s-Manhattan ad agency in

Mad Men; or the last surviving band of humans in a distant, miserable future in

Battlestar Galactica. Through bringing us stories of all kinds, media has the power to

take us away from ourselves.

Media can also provide information and education. Information can come in

many forms, and it may sometimes be difficult to separate from entertainment. Today,

newspapers and news-oriented television and radio programs make available stories

from across the globe, allowing readers or viewers in London to access voices and

videos from Baghdad, Tokyo, or Buenos Aires. Books and magazines provide a more

in-depth look at a wide range of subjects. The free online encyclopedia Wikipedia has

articles on topics from presidential nicknames to child prodigies to tongue twisters in

various languages. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has posted free

lecture notes, exams, and audio and video recordings of classes on its

OpenCourseWare website, allowing anyone with an Internet connection access to

world-class professors.

Another useful aspect of media is its ability to act as a public forum for the

discussion of important issues. In newspapers or other periodicals, letters to the editor

allow readers to respond to journalists or to voice their opinions on the issues of the

day. These letters were an important part of U.S. newspapers even when the nation

was a British colony, and they have served as a means of public discourse ever since.

The Internet is a fundamentally democratic medium that allows everyone who can get
online the ability to express their opinions through, for example, blogging or

podcasting—though whether anyone will hear is another question.

Similarly, media can be used to monitor government, business, and other

institutions. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle exposed the miserable conditions in

the turn-of-the-century meatpacking industry; and in the early 1970s, Washington Post

reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered evidence of the Watergate

break-in and subsequent cover-up, which eventually led to the resignation of President

Richard Nixon. But purveyors of mass media may be beholden to particular agendas

because of political slant, advertising funds, or ideological bias, thus constraining their

ability to act as a watchdog. The following are some of these agendas:

■ Entertaining and providing an outlet for the imagination

■ Educating and informing
■ Serving as a public forum for the discussion of important issues
■ Acting as a watchdog for government, business, and other institutions

It’s important to remember, though, that not all media are created equal. While

some forms of mass communication are better suited to entertainment, others make

more sense as a venue for spreading information. In terms of print media, books are

durable and able to contain lots of information, but are relatively slow and expensive to

produce; in contrast, newspapers are comparatively cheaper and quicker to create,

making them a better medium for the quick turnover of daily news. Television provides

vastly more visual information than radio and is more dynamic than a static printed

page; it can also be used to broadcast live events to a nationwide audience, as in the
annual State of the Union address given by the U.S. president. However, it is also a

one-way medium—that is, it allows for very little direct person-to-person communication.

In contrast, the Internet encourages public discussion of issues and allows nearly

everyone who wants a voice to have one. However, the Internet is also largely

unmoderated. Users may have to wade through thousands of inane comments or

misinformed amateur opinions to find quality information.

The 1960s media theorist Marshall McLuhan took these ideas one step further,

famously coining the phrase “the medium is the message (McLuhan, 1964).” By this,

McLuhan meant that every medium delivers information in a different way and that

content is fundamentally shaped by the medium of transmission. For example, although

television news has the advantage of offering video and live coverage, making a story

come alive more vividly, it is also a faster-paced medium. That means more stories get

covered in less depth. A story told on television will probably be flashier, less in-depth,

and with less context than the same story covered in a monthly magazine; therefore,

people who get the majority of their news from television may have a particular view of

the world shaped not by the content of what they watch but its medium. Or, as computer

scientist Alan Kay put it, “Each medium has a special way of representing ideas that

emphasize particular ways of thinking and de-emphasize others (Kay, 1994).” Kay was

writing in 1994, when the Internet was just transitioning from an academic research

network to an open public system. A decade and a half later, with the Internet firmly

ensconced in our daily lives, McLuhan’s intellectual descendants are the media analysts
who claim that the Internet is making us better at associative thinking, or more

democratic, or shallower. But McLuhan’s claims don’t leave much space for individual

autonomy or resistance. In an essay about television’s effects on contemporary fiction,

writer David Foster Wallace scoffed at the “reactionaries who regard TV as some

malignancy visited on an innocent populace, sapping IQs and compromising SAT

scores while we all sit there on ever fatter bottoms with little mesmerized spirals

revolving in our eyes…. Treating television as evil is just as reductive and silly as

treating it like a toaster with pictures (Wallace, 1997).” Nonetheless, media messages

and technologies affect us in countless ways, some of which probably won’t be sorted

out until long in the future.

Key Takeaways

■ Media fulfills several roles in society, including the following:

■ entertaining and providing an outlet for the imagination,
■ educating and informing,
■ serving as a public forum for the discussion of important issues, and
■ acting as a watchdog for government, business, and other institutions.

■ Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press enabled the mass

production of media, which was then industrialized by Friedrich Koenig in the
early 1800s. These innovations led to the daily newspaper, which united the
urbanized, industrialized populations of the 19th century.

■ In the 20th century, radio allows advertisers to reach a mass audience and
helped spur the consumerism of the 1920s—and the Great Depression of the
1930s. After World War II, television boomed in the United States and abroad,
though its concentration in the hands of three major networks led to
accusations of homogenization. The spread of cable and subsequent
deregulation in the 1980s and 1990s led to more channels, but not necessarily
to more diverse ownership.

■ Transitions from one technology to another have greatly affected the media
industry, although it is difficult to say whether technology caused a cultural
shift or resulted from it. The ability to make technology small and affordable
enough to fit into the home is an important aspect of the popularization of new
technologies.

Lesson 7. Media in the

Digital Age
Media normally refers to the means of communication that uses unique tools to
interconnect among people. The forms of media include televisions, radio,
cellular phones, and internet (which involves the access and use of various social
media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, among others).
In the digital age, however, media can be considered as the message, the
medium, and the messenger.

The Message

Media is considered to be the message itself for those who create and own the
rights of content. The forms of content can be user-generated or
professionally-produced. User-generated content (UGC) is a form of content created
and owned by the users of a system. UGC has grown exponentially especially with the
wide internet coverage or easy WIFI access, increased social media participation, and
affordable smart devices.
Below is one of the many example of media tools used especially by millennials to
generate content:

Blog

Keeping a diary or a journal is a traditional method of recording one’s thoughts or

expressing one’s emotions through writing. With the advent of the internet, expressing
one’s feelings and thoughts was given a new concept through online writing or blogging,
a Blog is a combination of two words- web ad log. It works the same way as pen and
paper would but privacy becomes irrelevant given that a blog post can be seen by
anyone online. A person who writes blogs is called a blogger.

One of the TV personalities in the Philippines who also does blogging to further express
feelings, thoughts, and opinions is Maine Mendoza, also known as “Yaya Dub,” in the
Kalye Serye of the noontime show “Eat Bulaga”

Most recently, blogs have evolved into microblogs and video blogs. Microblogs have
become popular due to the rise Of Tumblr and Twitter in which users instantly share
limited content or short messages. Now, with the increasing number of YouTube
viewers, people have explored uploading their own videos ranging from their travels and
products, their own videos ranging from travels and product reviews to any other
random topics. Some vloggers, Youtubers, or social media influencers even make
money based on the number of views they get and on the products they feature in their
video blogs.

The Medium

The medium used refers to the tool or tools used in sending a message from the
source to the destination. Traditionally, for example, professionals send messages to
the audience, such as a news anchor delivering the news on TV and/or radio. However,
with the latest technologies, the so-called social media has become an avenue for
information dissemination even taking over news sites in bringing the latest or
up-to-date. One such example is twitter. Users of this application can constantly update
other Twitter users about a certain topic. In this platform, Twitter users can also share
other user’s content (in the form of retweeting) and discuss any topic with one another.
Thus, the media, instead of just being an avenue for delivering messages, is becoming
increasingly social- with the audience themselves creating their own content and
interacting with one another.

Media types fall under two broad categories: traditional and new. The traditional
media include the print and broadcast formats, while the new media include the
ever-changing digital formats, such as blogs and podcasts.
Not so long ago there existed a clear distinction between the two categories. Today,
they are evolving closer together. Traditional media have begun to embrace the
interactive, adaptable, and social nature of new media, while new media are boosting
their reputation as outlets for hard news. In fact, journalists often break new stories on
Twitter before they appear on television or in a newspaper. As technology advances,
traditional media and new media will resemble each other even further.
Explore the graphic below to better understand the types of media.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the media format?

Each media format has inherent strengths and weaknesses. Social media messages,
for example, are quick and efficient but prone to inaccuracies. In general, newspapers
provide depth and accuracy but lack the sensory appeal of television, the interactive
feature of a blog, and the rapid delivery of radio.

FORMAT STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

Web sites, blogs, Accessible; interactive; Prone to inaccuracies;

microblogs diverse; immediate; often biased and
inexpensive opinionated
Newspapers, magazines, Accurate; comprehensive; Limited to text and
books appeal to general public pictures; slow delivery

Television, radio Strong audio and visual Highly commercialized;

appeal; current; local; highly persuasive; may be
friendly biased

The Messenger

The messenger is the one who delivers the message. This is why broadcasters,
for example, being the messenger of news are called “media” in the digital space,
however, does the “media” also refer to social network users who create content
themselves but are not professional journalists? Hence, although the media can be the
message, the medium, and the messenger, in the digital age, the demarcation lines
between them are somewhat blurry.