Final Exam Review

Reading questions: How does Grant sketch the basic structure of communication industries? Which media technologies are “deregulated?” Are these still governed by laws? Which communication industries are the most heavily regulated? What is the “long tail?”

Reading questions: What are some risks to personal privacy that are related to using the Internet? Which of these risks are introduced by the private sector? Which are introduced by the government or public sector? Which industries, specifically, gather personal information from Internet users, and use them for commercial purposes?

The ability of companies to collect information and sell that to other people and companies. Some of the risks deal with the need of people to be connected online and not taking safety precautions to protect their privacy. The government threat deals primarily with the PATRIOT Act and the CCTV’s used in the UK to search for people and monitor their whereabouts.

Reading questions: What differences are there between digital and analog TV? Which regions of the world still use analog TV transmissions? What is SDTV? HDTV? What are some key concerns of US communication regulators? What is “triple play?”

Digital TV is sent in data packets over the airwaves while analog is simple analog signals being sent over the airwaves. Mostly throughout the Third World such as South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. SDTV is Standard Definition Television which is what was used widely until 2009. HDTV is High Definition Television which is now widely used throughout the developed world. HDTV is far more developed than SDTV, and shows more colors than the human eye can register. P.104 regulation. Some of the concerns of regulators are paying only for services that people really want or desire to pay for. Triple Pay are bundles of telephone service, cable service, and internet service all together at once.

Reading questions: How are online providers of streaming video and audio generating revenue from their online content? What is “user generated” content, and why is it an attractive business model? What are alternatives to commercially funded streaming media sites?

Through advertisements online. User generated content allows for anybody to make their own media and upload it. Business get free advertising for their products and also are able to use the information from users to do market research and make products more suited for their customers. Vimeo is an example of a non-commercially funded media streaming site.

Reading questions: Which firms and industries are competing for audiences with terrestrial radio broadcasters? Which technologies are they using? Do these services substitute for radio?

Internet Radio, Satellite Radio, and Cable Radio. All of these work in concert with each other to provide an outlet for more competition to be used against the terrestrial radio services. These services use the Internet, broadband, HD signals, and satellites. Yes, they can. There are pros and cons to each. While someone might enjoy using a radio in their car, using internet radio at a place of work is far more convenient.

Reading questions: With whom do on-demand video services compete? Which home video production standards currently compete with each other? Which technologies turn phones into cameras? What are some emerging uses and gratifications of camera phones? What are some intellectual property rights concerns associated with home video and photography? What are some privacy concerns associated with these technologies?

These services compete with each other, Blockbuster, Video Rental stores, HBO, any other service that provides movies to people to watch at home. DVD’s, Blueray, and 3-D technology. Digital Photography, specifically VGA image capturing. Camera Phones allow people to take pictures anywhere and upload them instantly. The rights of usage on the internet, concerns about privacy and copyright laws. Some people are worried if these things breach copyright laws because of the use of copyrighted material. Privacy concerns deal with the rights of people to not be tracked on the internet and through their lives because of the tracking that is attached to mobile phone photography and video making.

Reading questions: Which US government agencies designed the Internet? Who built the Internet? What is the main communication protocol underlying the Internet? What does it do? What is DNS, and what does it do? What is an IP address? What are the underlying software technologies for e-commerce? For mobile commerce?

ARPANET created the internet as part of an ARPA project designed to maintain communications in the event of a nuclear war. TCP/IP – Transfer Communications Protocol / Internet Protocol. It breaks the data into packets and then transmits it. The DNS is the Domain Name Server which assigns names to computers and allows them to talk to each other. The IP address is the Internet Protocol address of each particular computer which is then used to communicate with the Internet. Know the types of software researched etc.

Reading questions: Which companies have been responsible for building the “wired” or copper twisted pair telephone system? Which technologies underlie “wireless” telephony? How do data services travel on wired and wireless telephone systems? What is VOIP? To what extent does mobile computing rely on the public switched telephone network?

AT&T, and other subsidies. The Cell packet system; dealing with data packets. The information is divided into packets and then transmitted through either wires or by radio waves to central locations and then transmitted until the location is reached. VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol. It does not anymore, but with 1G Wireless networks it was heavily dependent.

Reading questions: What is net neutrality? Does it exist today on the Internet? What home networking platforms are predominant today in the US? What is a teleconferencing “codec?” Which companies participate in the market for teleconferencing software?

Net Neutrality is the idea of people being able to do whatever you want on the internet without ISP interference. It does exist in the US but not in China. It basically deals with the practice of free access to the internet. Ethernet and WiFi. Skype, Yahoo Messenger, and Google Voice.

Reading questions: When did video games begin using dedicated computer hardware? Who are the major players in video game hardware development? Software development? Why have some video games developed franchising relationships with film studios? What is an example of a MMORPG? How have fan cultures emerged around gaming world-wide?

Video games began using dedicated computer hardware between 199 9 and 2001 with the release of the Play Station 2 by Sony and the Xbox by Microsoft in 2001. Franchise relationships deal with making more money by tying in with movies just like books and soundtracks. WoW is an example of a MMORPG. Fan cultures have left a lasting mark on the gaming world by bringing in more information about game play directly to developers. Thus the industry has become very communal in some instances with games that are very beloved by the players. Examples of this include WoW and Halo.