Showing papers on "Digital media published in 2008"

The effectiveness of m-learning in the form of podcast revision lectures in higher education

Abstract: In this paper we describe a study of the effectiveness of mobile learning (m-learning) in the form of podcasting, for teaching undergraduate students in Higher Education. Podcasting involves downloading a series of audio or video broadcasts (files) onto a digital media player, via a computer, over a period of weeks. These can then be watched or listened to when, where and as often as students choose. The use of digital media players, popularised by Apple's iPod(TM), is widespread amongst undergraduate students. A pilot survey of Business and Management students indicated that over 74% owned some form of digital media player, with a further 7% indicating that they intended to purchase one in the next six months. Whilst podcasting is being utilized as a teaching tool by some educators in the secondary sector, its use in higher education, and its effectiveness as a learning tool for adults, remains to be established. In our study, a separate group of just under 200 first-level students were given a series of revision podcasts after completing a course in Information and Communications Technology (and prior to their examination). As part of the subscription process, they had to complete an online questionnaire about their experience. The questionnaire utilized a five-point Likert scale comparing their attitudes to lectures, podcasts, notes, textbooks and multimedia e-learning systems. Statistical analysis of the results of the study indicates that students believe that podcasts are more effective revision tools than their textbooks and they are more efficient than their own notes in helping them to learn. They also indicate that they are more receptive to the learning material in the form of a podcast than a traditional lecture or textbook. The study suggests that the use of podcasts as a revision tool has clear benefits as perceived by undergraduate students in terms of the time they take to revise and how much they feel they can learn. Coupled with the advantages of flexibility in when, where and how it is used, podcasting appears to have significant potential as an innovative learning tool for adult learners in Higher Education.

PARTICIPATORY JOURNALISM PRACTICES IN THE MEDIA AND BEYOND An international comparative study of initiatives in online newspapers

Abstract: This article is a contribution to the debate on audience participation in online media with a twofold aim: (1) making conceptual sense of the phenomenon of participatory journalism in the framework of journalism research, and (2) determining the forms that it is taking in eight European countries and the United States. First, participatory journalism is considered in the context of the historical evolution of public communication. A methodological strategy for systematically analysing citizen participation opportunities in the media is then proposed and applied. A sample of 16 online newspapers offers preliminary data that suggest news organisations are interpreting online user participation mainly as an opportunity for their readers to debate current events, while other stages of the news production process are closed to citizen involvement or controlled by professional journalists when participation is allowed. However, different strategies exist among the studied sample, and contextual factors should b...

Exploring Consumer Motivations for Creating User-Generated Content

Abstract: The advent of Web 2.0 technologies has enabled the efficient creation and distribution of user-generated content (UGC), resulting in vast changes in the online media landscape. For instance, the proliferation of UGC has made a strong impact on consumers, media suppliers, and marketing professionals while necessitating research in order to understand both the short and long-term implications of this media content. This exploratory study (n = 325) seeks to investigate consumer consumption and creation of UGC and the attitudinal factors that contribute to these actions. The data confirm the established relationship between attitude and behavior and indicate attitude serves as a mediating factor between the use and creation of UGC. With regard to the creation of UGC, the ego-defensive and social functions of attitude were found to have the most explanatory power.

Writing in Multimodal Texts: A Social Semiotic Account of Designs for Learning

Abstract: Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials—textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (text) book, are more and more the site of appearance and distribution of learning resources, and writing is being displaced by image as the central mode for representation. This poses sharp questions about present and future roles and forms of writing. For text, design and principles of composition move into the foreground. Here we sketch a social semiotic account that aims to elucidate such principles and permits consideration of their epistemological as well as social/pedagogic significance. Linking representation with social factors, we put forward terms to expl...

Digital Literacies: concepts, policies and practices

Abstract: This book brings together a group of internationally-reputed authors in the field of digital literacy. Their essays explore a diverse range of the concepts, policies and practices of digital literacy, and discuss how digital literacy is related to similar ideas: information literacy, computer literacy, media literacy, functional literacy and digital competence. It is argued that in light of this diversity and complexity, it is useful to think of digital literacies - the plural as well the singular. The first part of the book presents a rich mix of conceptual and policy perspectives; in the second part contributors explore social practices of digital remixing, blogging, online trading and social networking, and consider some legal issues associated with digital media.

New Media, Networking and Phatic Culture

Abstract: This article will demonstrate how the notion of 'phatic communion' has become an increasingly significant part of digital media culture alongside the rise of online networking practices. Through a consideration of the new media objects of blogs, social networking profiles and microblogs, along with their associated practices, I will argue, that the social contexts of 'individualization' and 'network sociality', alongside the technological developments associated with pervasive communication and 'connected presence' has led to an online media culture increasingly dominated by phatic communications. That is, communications which have purely social (networking) and not informational or dialogic intents. I conclude with a discussion of the potential nihilistic consequences of such a culture.

Defining Digital Literacy - What do Young People Need to Know about Digital Media?

Abstract: This article offers a rationale for the notion of «digital literacy» in education. Pointing to some of the limitations of previous proposals in this field, it outlines a framework based on four key concepts drawn from media education. It applies these concepts to the World Wide Web and to computer games, and discusses the role of digital media production by students in developing digital literacy. The article emphasises the importance of developing critical approaches to digital media as a necessary prerequisite for using them as resources for learning.

Ad Lib: When customers create the ad

Abstract: Consumers are now generating, rather than merely consuming advertising. The consequences for brands, marketers, and senior executives are significant. Advertising was traditionally generated by, or on behalf of, the firm and broadcast to relatively passive consumers. With the rise of digital media, the Internet, and inexpensive media software, considerable creative and distributive power has been handed to the consumer. Liberated from the exclusive control of the firm, ads now express a myriad of different voices. Some ads are subversive, others laudatory, but the fact remains that the firm is no longer in exclusive control of the message. Using a number of high profile cases, this article explores the motivations that drive consumers to create their own ads and develops a typology of the ads created. It develops a model for the various strategic stances that a firm can adopt in response to this phenomenon so that managers can anticipate and thus deal more effectively with some of the extreme consequences of liberated advertising.

Digital media and youth: Unparalleled opportunity and unprecedented responsibility

Abstract: With the sudden explosion of digital media content and access devices in the last generation, there is now more information available to more people from more sources than at any time in human history. Pockets of limited availability by geography or status notwithstanding, people now have ready access to almost inconceivably vast information repositories that are increasingly portable, accessible, and interactive in both delivery and formation. Basic human activities have changed as a result, and new possibilities have emerged. For instance, the process by which people locate, organize, and coordinate groups of individuals with shared interests, the number and nature of information and news sources available, and the ability to solicit and share opinions and ideas across myriad topics have all undergone dramatic change as a result of interconnected digital media. One result of this contemporary media landscape is that there exist incredible opportunities for learning, social connection, and individual entertainment and enhancement in a wide variety of forms. Indeed, recent evidence indicates that 45 percent of users in the United States say that the Internet played a crucial or important role in at least one major decision in their lives in the last two years, such as attaining additional career training, helping themselves or someone else with a major illness or medical condition, or making a major investment or financial decision. 1 Enhanced connectivity and information availability have changed not only what people know, but how they know what they know. However, the wide-scale access and multiplicity of sources that ensure vast information availability also make assessing the credibility of information extremely complex. The origin of information, its quality, and its veracity are now in many cases less clear than ever before, resulting in an unparalleled burden on individuals to locate appropriate information and assess its meaning and relevance accurately. Doing so is highly consequential: assessing credibility inaccurately can have serious social, personal, educational, relational, health, and financial consequences. As a result, determining trust, believability, and information bias— key elements of credibility—become critical as individuals process the information in their lives gleaned from digital media. Understanding credibility in this environment is also important because it is a concern that cuts across personal, social, and political domains. For instance, digital media increasingly deliver information that results (or fails to result) in an informed citizenry that, in turn, drives the pursuit of particular social agendas, the degree and nature of engagement …

Video Games in Education: Why They Should Be Used and How They Are Being Used

Abstract: Today's K–20 students have been called, among other names, the net generation. As they matriculate through the education system, they are often exposed to materials and manipulatives used for the past 40 years, and not to the digital media to which they are accustomed. As student scores continue to regress from Grade 3 to Grade 12 and technical jobs once housed in the United States continue to be outsourced, it is critical to expose and challenge the Net Generation in environments that engage them and motivate them to explore, experiment, and construct their own knowledge. The commercial popularity of video games is beginning to transpose to the classroom; but is the classroom ready? Are teachers and administrators ready? This article provides a practical rationale for and experiences with integrating video games into the K–20 (kindergarten through graduate school) curriculum.

Digital storytelling, mediatized stories : self-representations in new media

Abstract: Recent years have seen amateur personal stories, focusing on «me, flourish on social networking sites and in digital storytelling workshops. The resulting digital stories could be called «mediatized stories. This book deals with these self-representational stories, aiming to understand the transformations in the age-old practice of storytelling that have become possible with the new, digital media. Its approach is interdisciplinary, exploring how the mediation or mediatization processes of digital storytelling can be grasped and offering a sociological perspective of media studies and a socio-cultural take of the educational sciences. Aesthetic and literary perspectives on narration as well as questioning from an informatics perspective are also included.

Introduction to Mass Communication : Media Literacy and Culture

Abstract: This text teaches students about the mass communication industries and gives them a deeper understanding of the role the media play in both shaping and reflecting culture

Disappearing Cryptography: Information Hiding: Steganography and Watermarking

Abstract: Cryptology is the practice of hiding digital information by means of various obfuscatory and steganographic techniques. The application of said techniques facilitates message confidentiality and sender/receiver identity authentication, and helps to ensure the integrity and security of computer passwords, ATM card information, digital signatures, DVD and HDDVD content, and electronic commerce. Cryptography is also central to digital rights management (DRM), a group of techniques for technologically controlling the use of copyrighted material that is being widely implemented and deployed at the behest of corporations that own and create revenue from the hundreds of thousands of mini-transactions that take place daily on programs like iTunes. This new edition of our best-selling book on cryptography and information hiding delineates a number of different methods to hide information in all types of digital media files. These methods include encryption, compression, data embedding and watermarking, data mimicry, and scrambling. During the last 5 years, the continued advancement and exponential increase of computer processing power have enhanced the efficacy and scope of electronic espionage and content appropriation. Therefore, this edition has amended and expanded outdated sections in accordance with new dangers, and includes 5 completely new chapters that introduce newer more sophisticated and refined cryptographic algorithms and techniques (such as fingerprinting, synchronization, and quantization) capable of withstanding the evolved forms of attack. Each chapter is divided into sections, first providing an introduction and high-level summary for those who wish to understand the concepts without wading through technical explanations, and then presenting concrete examples and greater detail for those who want to write their own programs. This combination of practicality and theory allows programmers and system designers to not only implement tried and true encryption procedures, but also consider probable future developments in their designs, thus fulfilling the need for preemptive caution that is becoming ever more explicit as the transference of digital media escalates. * Includes 5 completely new chapters that delineate the most current and sophisticated cryptographic algorithms, allowing readers to protect their information against even the most evolved electronic attacks. * Conceptual tutelage in conjunction with detailed mathematical directives allows the reader to not only understand encryption procedures, but also to write programs which anticipate future security developments in their design. * Grants the reader access to online source code which can be used to directly implement proven cryptographic procedures such as data mimicry and reversible grammar generation into their own work.

Communication and Political Mobilization: Digital Media and the Organization of Anti-Iraq War Demonstrations in the U.S.

Abstract: The speed and scale of mobilization in many contemporary protest events may reflect a transformation of movement organizations toward looser ties with members, enabling broader mobilization through the mechanism of dense individual-level political networks. This analysis explores the dynamics of this communication process in the case of U.S. protests against the Iraq war in 2003. We hypothesize that individual activists closest to the various sponsoring protest organizations were (a) disproportionately likely to affiliate with diverse political networks and (b) disproportionately likely to rely on digital communication media (lists, Web sites) for various types of information and action purposes. We test this model using a sample of demonstrators drawn from the United States protest sites of New York, San Francisco, and Seattle and find support for our hypotheses.

Multilingual administration of enterprise data with default target languages

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for multilingual administration of enterprise data. Embodiments include retrieving enterprise data; extracting text from the enterprise data for rendering from digital media file, the extracted text being in a source language; identifying that the source language is not a predetermined default target language for rendering the enterprise data; translating the extracted text in the source language to translated text in the default target language; converting the translated text to synthesized speech in the default target language; and storing the synthesized speech in the default target language in a digital media file.

Video Game-Based Learning: An Emerging Paradigm for Instruction

Abstract: Interactive digital media, or video games, are a powerful new medium. They offer immersive experiences in which players solve problems. Players learn more than just facts—ways of seeing and understanding problems so that they “become” different kinds of people. “Serious games” coming from business strategy, advergaming, and entertainment gaming embody these features and point to a future paradigm for eLearning. Building on interviews with leading designers of serious games, this article presents case studies of three organizations building serious games, coming from different perspectives but arriving at similar conclusions. This article argues that such games challenge us to rethink the role of information, tools, and aesthetics in a digital age.

Multilingual asynchronous communications of speech messages recorded in digital media files

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided multilingual for asynchronous communications. Embodiments include recording a speech message in a digital media file; transmitting, from a sender multilingual communications application to a recipient multilingual communications application, the speech message in the digital media file; receiving, in the recipient multilingual communications application, the recorded speech message in the digital media file; converting, by the recipient multilingual communications application, the recorded speech message to text; identifying, by the recipient multilingual communications application, that the text of the recorded speech message is in a source language that is not a predetermined target language; translating, by the recipient multilingual communications application, the text in the source language to translated text in the target language; converting, by the recipient multilingual communications application, the translated text to synthesized speech in the target language; recording, by the recipient multilingual communications application, the synthesized speech in the target language in a digital media file; and playing the media file thereby rendering the synthesized speech.

Method and System for Ensuring Sequential Playback of Digital Media

Abstract: Techniques for ensuring that media playback proceeds sequentially through media content of a digital media asset are disclosed. In one embodiment, distinct portions (e.g., segments) of a digital media asset can be separately encrypted such that on playback decoded data being output from at least one prior portion can be used to derive a cryptographic key that is used in decrypting a subsequent portion of the digital media asset.

Conceptualizing personal media

Abstract: The digitalization and personal use of media technologies have destabilized the traditional dichotomization between mass communication and interpersonal communication, and therefore between mass media and personal media (e.g. mobile phones, email, instant messenger, blogs and photo-sharing services). As private individuals use media technologies to create and share personal expressions through digital networks, previous characteristics of mass media as providers of generally accessible information are no longer accurate. This article may be situated within a medium-theoretical tradition, as it elucidates technical and social dimensions of personal media and revises the distinction between mass media and personal media. A two-dimensional model suggests locating personal media and mass media according to an interactional axis and an institutional/professional axis: personal media are de-institutionalized/de-professionalized and facilitate mediated interaction. The implementation of digital media technologie...

The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory

Abstract: New media, like the computer technology on which it relies, races simultaneously towards the future and the past, towards what we might call the bleeding edge of obsolescence. Indeed, rather than asking, What is new media? we might want to ask what seem to be the more important questions: what was new media? and what will it be? To some extent the phenomenon stems from the modifier new: to call something new is to ensure that it will one day be old. The slipperiness of new media—the difficulty of engaging it in the present—is also linked to the speed of its dissemination. Neither the aging nor the speed of the digital, however, explains how or why it has become the new or why the yesterday and tomorrow of new media are often the same thing. Consider concepts such as social networking (MUDS to Second Life), or hot YouTube videos that are already old and old email messages forever circulated and rediscovered as new. This constant repetition, tied to an inhumanly precise and unrelenting clock, points to a factor more important than speed—a nonsimultaneousness of the new, which I argue sustains new media as such. Also key to the newness of the digital is a conflation of memory and storage that both underlies and undermines digital media’s archival promise. Memory, with its constant degeneration, does not equal storage; although artificial memory has historically combined the transitory with the permanent, the passing with the stable, digital media complicates this relationship by making the permanent into an enduring ephemeral, creating unforeseen degenerative links between humans and machines. As I explain in more detail later, this conflation of memory with storage is not due to

Method and System for Upgrading a Previously Purchased Media Asset

Abstract: Systems, graphical user interfaces and methods for upgrading from one or more digital media assets to a set of digital media assets over a network are described. A potential purchaser can be notified of available upgrade opportunities that are available for purchase. The potential purchaser can elect to pursue an upgrade opportunity so as to purchase a set of digital media assets. Upon upgrading to the set of digital media assets, the digital media assets within the set of digital media assets are made available to the purchaser. According to one aspect, a graphical user interface facilitates presenting and requesting upgrade opportunities. According to another aspect, equivalency rules and/or eligibility rules can be used to control which sets of digital media assets are available for upgrade by respective potential purchasers.

Digital rights management and audience measurement systems and methods

Abstract: Digital rights management and audience measurement systems and methods are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a request to upload media content to a content distributor, attempting to obtain a code associated with the media content, querying a program information database for program information associated with the media content using the code, and applying a business rule to the media content based on the program information.

The Changing Context of News Work: Liquid Journalism and Monitorial Citizenship

Abstract: In this paper, the relationships between theories of (new) citizenship and (new) journalism are explored. The meaning of citizenship has changed in the last few decades. People still tend to be seen by most politicians, scholars, and journalists alike as citizens that need to inform themselves widely about issues of general interest so that they can make an informed decision at election time. However, this model of the informed citizenry is a thing of the past — a prescriptive and rather elitist notion of both how people should make up their minds and what (political) representation means to them. Today’s citizen is not only critical, self-expressive, and distinctly anti-hierarchical (Beck, 2000), he is also what Schudson (1999) calls “monitorial”: scanning all kinds of news and information sources for the topics that matter to him personally. People are not necessarily disengaged from the political process, they just commit their time and energy to it on their own terms. This individualized act of citizenship can be compared to the act of the consumer, browsing stores of a shopping mall for that perfect pair of jeans — it is the act of the citizen-consumer. In journalism, a similar trend is emerging, where traditional role perceptions of journalism influenced by its occupational ideology — providing a general audience with information of general interest in a balanced, objective, and ethical way — do not seem to fit all that well with the lived realities of reporters and editors, nor with the communities they are supposed to serve. In the context of a precarious and, according to the International Federation of Journalists, increasingly “atypical” professional work life, ongoing efforts by corporations to merge and possibly converge news operations, and an emerging digital media culture where the consumer is also a producer of public information, the identity of the journalist must be seen as “liquid” (Bauman, 2000). Such a liquid journalism truly works in the service of the network society, deeply respects the rights and privileges of each and every consumer-citizen to be a maker and user of his own news, and enthusiastically embraces its role as, to paraphrase James Carey, an amplifier of the conversation society has with itself.

Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times

Abstract: In an age of proliferating media and news sources, who has the power to define reality? When the dominant media declared the existence of WMDs in Iraq, did that make it a fact? Today, the "Social web" (sometimes known as Web 2.0, groupware, or the participatory Web)--epitomized by blogs, viral videos, and YouTube--creates new pathways for truths to emerge and makes possible new tactics for media activism. In Digital Media and Democracy, leading scholars in media and communication studies, media activists, journalists, and artists explore the contradiction at the heart of the relationship between truth and power today: the fact that the radical democratization of knowledge and multiplication of sources and voices made possible by digital media coexists with the blatant falsification of information by political and corporate powers. The book maps a new digital media landscape that features citizen journalism, The Daily Show, blogging, and alternative media. The contributors discuss broad quest ions of media and politics, offer nuanced analyses of change in journalism, and undertake detailed examinations of the use of Web-based media in shaping political and social movements. The chapters include not only essays by noted media scholars but also interviews with such journalists and media activists as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Media Matters host Robert McChesney, and Hassan Ibrahim of Al Jazeera. Contributors and Interviewees: Shaina Anand, Chris Atton, Megan Boler, Axel Bruns, Jodi Dean, Ron J. Deibert, Deepa Fernandes, Amy Goodman, Brian Holmes, Hassan Ibrahim, Geert Lovink, Nathalie Magnan, Robert McChesney, Graham Meikle, Susan D. Moeller, Alessandra Renzi, Ricardo Rosas, Andra Schmidt, Trebor Scholz, D. Travers Scott, R. Sophie Statzel, Stephen Turpin.

Event Mining in Multimedia Streams

Abstract: Events are real-world occurrences that unfold over space and time. Event mining from multimedia streams improves the access and reuse of large media collections, and it has been an active area of research with notable progress. This paper contains a survey on the problems and solutions in event mining, approached from three aspects: event description, event-modeling components, and current event mining systems. We present a general characterization of multimedia events, motivated by the maxim of five ldquoWrdquos and one ldquoHrdquo for reporting real-world events in journalism: when, where, who, what, why, and how. We discuss the causes for semantic variability in real-world descriptions, including multilevel event semantics, implicit semantics facets, and the influence of context. We discuss five main aspects of an event detection system. These aspects are: the variants of tasks and event definitions that constrain system design, the media capture setup that collectively define the available data and necessary domain assumptions, the feature extraction step that converts the captured data into perceptually significant numeric or symbolic forms, statistical models that map the feature representations to richer semantic descriptions, and applications that use event metadata to help in different information-seeking tasks. We review current event-mining systems in detail, grouping them by the problem formulations and approaches. The review includes detection of events and actions in one or more continuous sequences, events in edited video streams, unsupervised event discovery, events in a collection of media objects, and a discussion on ongoing benchmark activities. These problems span a wide range of multimedia domains such as surveillance, meetings, broadcast news, sports, documentary, and films, as well as personal and online media collections. We conclude this survey with a brief outlook on open research directions.

Apparatus and method for web marketing tools for digital archives—web portal advertising arts

Abstract: This invention relates to the creation of a software application to: facilitate the creation, representation and publication of digital objects; in particular, methods and apparatus that improve digital resource retrieval on the part of end users and to provide a new system for the web based marketing of digital assets and the online distribution of metadata enriched advertising.

Creation and Collaboration: Engaging New Audiences for Information Visualization

Abstract: In recent years we have seen information visualization technology move from an advanced research topic to mainstream adoption in both commercial and personal use. This move is in part due to many businesses recognizing the need for more effective tools for extracting knowledge from the data warehouses they are gathering. Increased mainstream interest is also a result of more exposure to advanced interfaces in contemporary online media. The adoption of information visualization technologies by lay users --- as opposed to the traditional information visualization audience of scientists and analysts --- has important implications for visualization research, design and development. Since we cannot expect each of these lay users to design their own visualizations, we have to provide them tools that make it easy to create and deploy visualizations of their datasets.

New Media, Branding and Global Sports Sponsorship

Abstract: New media has emerged as a significant dimension of branding and global sports sponsorship because it provides the capability to communicate with consumers worldwide via a multitude of digital platforms. This paper discusses the results of a systematic review of the development of global sports sponsorship and the importance of new media integration to the sector for the future. Results indicate that a new paradigm is emerging which involves thematically linked, integrated, strategic global marketing initiatives driven by new media applications, which have enhanced the value of sports sponsorship.

System and method for personalizing playback content through interaction with a playback device

Abstract: User interfaces associated with devices and applications for distributing digital media content are described. A user interface may be provided that includes a favorites selection button allowing a user to identify selected media tracks and/or associated artists to be played more frequently. A ban selection button may be also provided allowing a user to selectively ban media tracks and/or associated artists. Additional controls may be provided including controls and interfaces for creating user customized stations to customize content delivery based on user specified preferences stored in a user profile.