JOUR1111 Lecture 2 - The evolution of media.

It is without a doubt that in order to survive and advance in this ever changing world we must continually adapt and evolve into what is often considered to be better and is mostly always 'new'. That is the process of evolution; the idea of giving up certain aspects of life in order to make way for bigger and arguably better things. So it then makes sense that  journalism and the different platforms and modes of media should not be excused from this evolutionary cycle and indeed, as history has witnessed the media was certainly no exception. 

The birth of the evolution of media and journalism began with what is now considered 'Old or Heritage Media,' this included 

• Books
• Printing Publications
• Radio 
• Cable Television 
• Print Magazines

The main factor that these different modes of 'Old Media' all hold in common is that each example is used to transmit mass communication and therefore all belong to the mass media group. According to Beth Lane in her book 'What is Mass Media'“Developing new technology breeds new questions. Should cell phones be included in a definition of mass media? What about video and computer games? Is “World of Warcraft” a mass medium strictly speaking?”It is without a doubt that the media, not unlike mankind is forever evolving and with it the notion of communication which continually redefines the ideas that previously surrounded and even defined the media. 

The digital revolution however opened up new doorways for the modernisation of media and what is now considered to be 'New Media'.

Web 1.0 was the first type of 'New Media.' Web 1.0 is considered to be the 'Information Web' and is aimed at advertising with websites considered static, not interactive. Examples of Web 1.0 include company websites that provided information.

The second evolution of media is Web 2.0 or the social web and includes social mediums such as 

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Myspace
• Blogger
• Skype
• Flickr

The introduction of Web 2.0 give way to leading concerns about the death of true journalism with Web 2.0 birthing the term 'Citizen Journalist' and the notion that everyone can now hold the capability to be a journalist with the reporting of everyday life through social mediums. The birth of Web 2.0 and the increasing role the average citizen plays in journalism begs the question of how high a risk are we willing to put the trade of 'true journalism'?

The newest form of web iterations is Web 3.0 or the 'Semantic Web' as it is predominately focused on the individual as well as making sense of information. The key theory produced by Web 3.0 is the idea of 'meta-tagging', that is; ' a special HTML tag that is used to store information about a Web page but is not displayed in a Web browser. For example, meta tags provide information such as what program was used to create the page, a description of the page, and keywords that are relevant to the page. Many search engines use the information stored in meta tags when they index Web pages.' (http://www.techterms.com) The benefits of the 'Semantic Web' is the easy access of information provided. For example, the ability to search for the cheapest restaurants or certain ethnic restaurants within a 1 km radius or the best coffee in the CBD, this information has never before been as easily attainable and is without a doubt technology at its finest. 

The dangers however of Web 3.0 is of course  hyperlocalisation and although it may appear the ultimate convienance, it has the ability to shorten our line of sight and in doing so create a certain line of ignorance to the surrounding world. 

Before this lecture, 'Web Iterations' was a foreign concept for me, the idea that media could be divided up and categorised into different groupings, although completely feasible, was never something that I had given a great deal of thought to. The different platforms between old media and new media, as highlighted in this blog is ever-evolving and  with it the very definition of media and journalism.