computer networks
Computers by themselves are useful tools. But once they are interconnected, they surge in usefulness and suddenly become media. One computer is connected into a network which is then patched into a network of networks. Computer networks have the potential to break the monopolies of media institutions. With networks, there is a shift from centralized, one-way media to dispersed, infinite-way communication. Every audience member in the world can at the same time be an information provider. Channels of information creation and distribution become cheaper and broader until we have limitless bandwidth and storage capacity. This technology comes with a cautionary note. Every emergent media technology has been hailed as the harbinger of popular expression. Yet each new media is used for commercial ends by those in control of power. Newspapers, radios, and television have become institutionalized and continue to institutionalize as they are purchased by larger and larger conglomerates. Advertiser-supported media has become a top-down business. The audience is, after all, not the consumer in television. That role lies with the sponsor. The sponsor purchases advertising time and decides what it is they want to support. Te
A distinction needs to be made between types of computer networks. On-line services carry the spirit of a network model, they are accessible from many points and connect many people, but are ultimately a central agency. A central server, or series of servers, is located somewhere. Corporate networks are modeled similarly, with a central server and many microcomputers or terminals. The Internet expands this connectivity exponentially by networking networks. The entire system is held together by the backbone of the NSFnet (National Science Foundation). The NSFnet itself has no servers to centralize Internet data, acting instead as conduit, connecting thousands of networks. Data therefore becomes highly de-centralized. Unlike traditional media in the hands of a powerful institutional interests, the Internet can allow limitless venues of alternate distribution over the same inter-network, "power will continually devolve from centralized institutions, bureaucracies, computer architectures, and databases into distributed systems" (Gilder 125). But computer networks have several saving graces. Distribution becomes limitless. Television, radio, and even newspapers (due to high publishing costs) have limited bandwidth. Computer networks can carry virtually limitless amounts of data at piddling costs, "the electromagnetic spectrum is not scarce but nearly limitless" (Gilder 129). That private videomaker can not distribute his video independently unless he is very wealthy. This increased bandwidth also decreases the need for mainstream entertainment. With the growth from three networks to ten networks to hundreds of networks, there is increased specialization. Each media institution tries to saturate its niche. These niches are not as large or profitable as the largest popular audiences, but with so many of them it is assured that one can find what he or she is interested in. Computer networks make five hundred channels look like puddles of programming. A corporation or other wholly private entity has a legitimate interest in mandating what is published on intra-corporate message bases, particularly one with a limit
Some common words found in the essay are:
Online CompuServe, Wide Web, Networks Computers, Foundation NSFnet, Internet Worse, computer networks, on-line services, traditional media, forum computer, forum computer networks, distribution limitless, network model, television radio, increased bandwidth, conduits information, computer network,
Approximate Word count = 1431
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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