Media and Democracy
To function as a public (and society), the public must be well informed of the collective challenges and issues that face the country (and/or organization, group, network, etc.) as a whole. Due to time constraints and the vast population, we have relied on the press to provide that information.
The 5 Majors
Over the last 100 years there have been roughly 5 major forms of electronic media (most still existing today): the telegraph, television, radio cable and the Internet. There have been (and still are) barriers to these technologies. The telegraph was a private system and required a special language to send or receive a message. Unlike the telegraph, the radio didn’t require a special language, but it did require the hardware. Additionally, radio uses a limited spectrum for its broadcasts. Like radio, over the air TV also has a limited spectrum. However, TV is even more limiting than radio because of the regulatory issues and high cost of production. Cable, a method to transmit television content is limited because the content travels over a private network. This limitation is not necessarily a bad thing for the cable operators. Finally, the Internet has several limitations. ISP bottlenecks, private monopolies and systems, bandwidth and access all limit the number of people that can access the media.
Web Radio
Web Radio already contains thousands of stations and millions of listeners. People have started using the radio to find content that is different and more suited to their tastes. There are several formats including talk, country, live content and on demand content. There are two copyright distinctions that come into play with regards to radio content. The first copyright is on the notes or the musical work. The second copyright is on the sound recording (the CD).
Technology Fact - Encoding Technologies
There are two types of encoding technologies - one that uses a variable bit rate (VBR) and one that uses a constant bit rate (CBR). VBR is generally considered better for hardware viewers and those that are more complex. For example, a soccer game would be a good piece of content for VBR because there’s a lot of action in the capture. CBR is good for streaming media and shots that are simpler. CBR is constant, allowing the person downloading the content to maintain a constant stream when viewing the media.
Further Fact – Where did TV get its 3 x 4 resolution?
Early TV systems shared the same aspect ration of 4:3 which was chosen to match the academy ratio used in the making of films. This ratio was also square enough to be viewed on round cathode-ray tubes (CRTs).
In the 1950’s, studios moved towards the wodescreen aspect ratio in an effor to distance their product from TV. This started out as a gimmick but still remains the format of choice today and square aspect movies are rare.
The switch to digital TV systems has been used as an opportunity to change the standard television picture format from the old ratio of 4:3 (approximately 1.33:1) to an aspect ratio of 16:9 (approximately 1.78:1). This enables TV to get closer to the aspect ratio of modern widescreen movies, which range from 1.78:1 through 1.85:1 to 2.35:1.
(Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television#Aspect_ratios)