You and your media
New media technologies and audience consumption
The most exciting aspects of learning about New Media Technologies relate to the immediate impact they have on our everyday lives and on our experiences and choices as consumers. In the first of two linked articles, Struan Bates explores how NMTs have transformed their audiences; and regular MM NMT expert Gavin Luhrs homes in on the red button to explore the impact of digital and interactive TV.
When you are logging-on to the Internet at home or watching a DVD with friends, have you ever considered yourself as part of an expanding New Media audience?
If you haven’t, it’s maybe because these experiences often occur alone, or with a few other people, rather than a larger ‘audience’. But aren’t thousands of others having similar experiences in different places? Thinking about the experiences of New Media audiences gives an insight into how work and leisure time is being changed by new technology. As a user of New Media your choices are important to the institutions that provide products and services. But have you ever wondered how advances in the technology itself are dictating how audiences form and interact?
Individual New Media Technologies are often complicated and evolving things. Don’t worry too much if you don’t know the difference between XML and HTML or what MP3 compression rates are; to understand the component technologies behind things like DVD, IMAX cinema or digital television often requires a high level of technical knowledge. It is more relevant to your course to understand the ways in which Audiences and Institutions have been changed by these technologies, and to be able to talk broadly about the future implications that New Media Technology may have for them.
More choice
New Media audiences can choose between a bewildering number of media products, but how does choice begin to affect the composition of audiences themselves? Digital technology, for instance, has given audiences in Britain access to hundreds of new digital television channels from around the world, giving audiences many more viewing options than the usual five terrestrial channels. The ‘digital revolution’ has also affected the way in which audiences consume music, with the Internet allowing listeners to access MP3 technology and download music tracks to play through their home PCs. This freedom of choice, though, has not continued unabated: legal challenges have been mounted by music companies who feel that consumers should not be able to listen to their artists without paying for the privilege first. Digital technology has therefore given users the ability to select media according to their interests, while simultaneously creating more diverse audiences.
Making life easier for consumers
New Media Technology has also facilitated a greater degree of choice for audiences and consumers of many ‘off-line’ products and services. For example, the appearance of Internet banks over the past five years has allowed consumers to open accounts more easily, without the requirement to fill in a number of forms or make a series of trips to their local branch. If customers have the Internet at home they have access to information such as latest interest rates and banking service reviews; this makes them more powerful as consumers as they can more easily make informed choices. Consumers of products such as clothes or cars can also make more informed choices by surfing the Internet for the best deals. These may often be abroad, though the World Wide Web allows barriers such as language and currency to be transcended; transactions can be carried out simply using the customer’s credit card details.
Consumers of New Media Technologies are therefore transformed from being a passive‘audience’ of technologies like the Internet into active participators, making choices and exploiting the media for their own requirements. The Internet, as one of the most accessible New Media Technologies, has offered the biggest array of choice to the largest audience by virtue of its ease of use. The possibilities to audiences and consumers increase on a daily basis as the web expands and a greater number of people have access to online technology.
Access for all?
‘Narrowcasting’ is when media texts are aimed at very small special-interest groups. TheInternet has allowed events to be ‘narrowcast’ to a niche audience whose interests are not shared by the majority of the population. This form of accessibility has begun to change the composition of media audiences in radical and unpredictable ways. For instance, whereas a fan of a rock group may have once gone to watch the band at a concert, they may now choose to watch a live web-cast in the comfort of their own bedroom. The Internet can also enable audiences to converge where previously they might not have existed: special interest or ‘fan-sites’ allow media communities to appear whose breadth is not restricted by distance or space. For example, fans of ‘cult’ television such as Doctor Who may live in various countries across the world, and without the aid of New Media Technology they may never meet. The Internet allows them to interact with each other as an audience community and share their interests online. To uncover these changes, the media researcher could use an ‘ethnographic’ model to ask questions about particular groups:
• What technologies are being used?
• How sophisticated are the users in accessing the media?
• In what contexts is the media being accessed?
This raises questions about the ways in which technology is changing the shape of audiences and the b that are associated with media consumption. New Media Technologies, however easy to access, are not wholly democratic. Some sections of society are partly excluded from experiencing them; one major factor is the cost of the devices and products available.
Cost and privilege
There is a misconception that some New Media Technologies (the Internet, for instance) allow audiences to access a wealth of media products and services cheaply. This is not always the case; the affordability of New Media products for audiences changes as different technologies become available. For example, a greater audience can now access the Internet more cheaply than they could five years ago, since cheaper computer hardware and ISP charges have allowed more of the population to use services like email and the World Wide Web. Another example would be games consoles (such as PS2 and X-Box), where the price of the hardware (the console itself) has come down in price significantly over the past five years, mainly due to increased mass production of the units and the cheaper availability of the component parts. Whether this form of New Media Technology is really cheaper for consumers, however, is questionable: the price of software (the games themselves) has roughly stayed the same, and for a number of formats it has increased.
On the other hand, digital television is a technology waiting to be fully successful. The promise of this technology has not wholly been realised due to the failure of institutions like ITV Digital, and the relatively high cost of the hardware involved. Up until fairly recently, someone who wished to install digital television at home would have to pay a lot of money for the privilege. Hence, the Internet has a greater audience, while digital television has failed to reach the mass audience that its promoters had envisaged. Different technologies may therefore attract different audiences by virtue of their affordability.
Quality of experience
This is an area where New Media have significant advantages over older technologies. Whiledigital technology in particular has given audiences images of greater quality, it has also opened new avenues for sharing and distribution: images can be attached to emails or displayed in websites. The quality of graphics and sound displayed by games consoles such as PS2 and N64 has improved significantly on the previous generation, and online gaming provides players with a quality of experience that extends beyond their bedrooms. The greater audience available to the online gaming industry helps to create an online community that can experience a product in a way that exploits its potential to its fullest. Whether the game is sophisticated graphically or otherwise is perhaps of less importance than the ability to interact with other gamers. Theinstitutions that provide these experiences know that the quality of experience in this expanding arena will also help to sell ‘units’ of software in the lucrative home market.
Existing forms of media can also be presented in different and exciting ways for audiences. The development of IMAX cinema has provided a whole new cinematic experience, which supersedes the style of film presentation that most filmgoers are familiar with. For the viewer who wishes to stay at home, the increasing affordability of DVDs has meant that their old VHS tapes have been replaced by an item of superior quality that comes with a host of added ‘extras’ such as directors’ cuts, interviews with the cast, and trailers. These all add to the quality ofexperience for the audience, extending their familiarity with the media product beyond a simple viewing. The development of a film as a New Media product therefore has an implication for the quality of experience as well as the quality of product.
But does this greater quality always mean a more desirable product for audiences? Many professional photographers dislike the pixel-perfect quality of digital cameras and prefer to use older techniques of developing rolls of film to achieve a result that provides a greater ‘realism’. Also, the greater number of television channels facilitated by digital television has meant that many broadcasters have paid less attention to the quality of their programming than thequantity of viewers they have attracted.
Audience power
The next time you use your mobile phone, download an MP3 track or switch on your games console, think about yourself as part of an audience. What choices are available to you? Who else is involved in your use of the technology? How is your quality of experience changing? Is what you are doing cheaper or more expensive than it used to be? Developments in the technology itself may help to dictate how people interact with one another. But as a user of New Media your choices and experiences can, in turn, help to drive the development of new products and devices – your behaviour as a member of a New Media audience can be as important to the institutions that govern the media as the evolving technologies driving it. MM
Struan Bates
What’s on the box tonight?
An introduction to thinking about digital and interactive TV
For OCR’s New Media Technologies unit (2732) you need to gather material for a case study. This article is intended to introduce some of the issues related to digital and interactive television; the topic is vast so further investigation on your part is vital.
Digital television has been with us for just a few years, but already it has reached a penetration rate of around 50% of homes (approximately 10-11 million homes). Digital television can be accessed using three platforms: Digital Satellite (Sky), Digital Cable (NTL/Telewest) and DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television – Freeview). All platforms offer an expanded choice of channels and varying levels of interactivity. In general, the digitised television signals mean better picture and sound quality as well as using less bandwidth – this is why it is possible to offer so many additional channels.
Increased channel variety
While some reject the value of all these additional channels, arguing that their output is over-reliant on repeats, imports and ‘trash’, most accept that the possibilities are enriching. Specialist music, documentary, arts, movie, children’s and sports channels are plentiful, particularly on digital satellite and cable platforms. Inevitably, much of the programming is of lower quality; but some of it is also of high quality and of the type rarely seen on the five terrestrial channels. Perhaps the ideals of public service broadcasting should be reconsidered for the digital age; today the channels offering ‘something for everyone’ seem increasingly outmoded.
Increased bandwidth also means that for little extra outlay, channel owners can offer +1 services, which allow viewers a second chance to see a programme they may have missed. Such channels, as well as multiple movie channels showing the same films at 15-or 30-minute intervals, question the traditionally rigid idea of scheduling. Just a few years ago, if you missed a programme you cursed your inability to programme your VCR. Now you can watch it an hour later, or a few days later as part of a weekly cycle of multiple repeat or ‘catch up’ slots. By clever navigation of the television listings, it is becoming almost possible to make your viewing fit around your life, not the other way around.
The increase in the number of channels does have some disadvantages. For viewers, the absence of original programming can lead to a feeling of ‘nothing’ being on across hundreds of channels. ‘Event’ programmes are also under threat; virtually gone are the days when 30 million people tuned into the same programme. For channel owners selling advertising time is increasingly difficult. Niche broadcasters may be advantageous in terms of reaching a specific target audience, but many have official audience shares of 0%. For example, Sky News, despite its reputation as the most successful 24-hour news channel, has an audience share of just 0.6%. In August 2003 the ‘extra’ channels combined had 25.1% of the audience share compared to BBC’s 24.4% and ITV1’s 23.1%. Little wonder, then, that there is an absence of money for risky, original programming.
Press the red button
Interactive features are one of the clear differences between analogue and digital television. On digital platforms the ‘red button’ on the remote control is commonly used to access the interactive content delivered with the television pictures. The appearance of these interactive services varies, but is much like a slimmed-down website or even a DVD video menu. Through the interactive ‘pages’ it is possible to play along with quiz shows, watch video clips, modify the experience of the channel’s main television programme, perhaps by selecting a different camera angle or narrative audio track, or play games. Sky viewers can even buy console-style controllers used specifically to play the games provided on the platform’s interactive service. Using a telephone connection, viewers can also send information to the channel, possibly in the form of votes, as has been used in programmes such as Big Brother and Restoration.
Alternative experiences
The increased bandwidth available on digital platforms allows interactive content to be sent along with a conventional channel. Quickly these interactive offerings have been embraced, admittedly with varying success. Test the Nation, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Banzai are just three quiz-based shows offering viewers the chance to take a fuller part in the proceedings. Premier League Football, tennis at Wimbledon and programmes such as Big Brother and Walking with Beasts have all offered extra video and audio content. Walking with Beasts offered an alternative narration; the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage on interactive television allowed viewers the choice of which game to watch. Such variations link to the experience offered by many other New Media Technologies. The traditionally linear nature of books and films has been made non-linear by the Internet and DVD video (an idea explored in MediaMagazine 4). Interactive services can mean that there is no definitive version of a programme, as viewers switch between the main programme and the supplementary video clips, pictures, or passages of text. The computerised feel of interactive television, and DVD, is making all of us a little more comfortable with computers, and is a good example of convergence.
Optional extras
For viewers, interactive services have the advantage of offering ‘extras’ as well as encouraging a closer interaction with a particular programme. It could be argued that the viewers have greater control if they can select camera angles or the depth of the narration. For the owners of digital television channels, interactive services are attractive because they can both encourage audiences to become more involved with programmes and, more importantly, earn more money through a share of call costs arising from activities such as voting or entering competitions. Increasingly advertisers are using ‘red button’ interactivity to offer viewers the chance to send for more details, request free samples or enter competitions. All viewers need to do is watch out for the red button invitation when the advertisement appears.
As you can see, there are many aspects of digital and interactive television to explore. A good place to start is the BBC News website and the Guardian’s MediaGuardian site. By using the ‘search’ boxes and visiting the sites regularly you will quickly become a digital television expert!
Gavin Luhrs
Glossary
Analogue: analogue signals are sent in radio waves which are received by rooftop aerials. Digital signals are composed of a series of ones and noughts, making the transfer of data, in this case a television signal, much more accurate.
Bandwidth: the capacity available to send data (television pictures, computer files).
Convergence: the process of technologies combining to create a new product – digital television combines moving pictures and computerised, interactive displays.
Digitised: if something is digitised it is converted into computerised data. At its most basic level digitised content is made up of a series of ones and noughts. This allows the perfect reproduction of content as many times as necessary.
Niche broadcasters: providers of specialist content, usually based on a theme. For example, there are channels devoted to food, travel, money and music.
Platform: the ‘stage’ on which something operates. The use of this depends on the context. For example you could talk about a gaming platform to mean either a PC or a games console. Or you could talk about either Sky Television or your PC as a platform for the Internet.
Scheduling: the process of deciding what is on television and when.
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 6, December 2003
New media technologies and audience consumption
The most exciting aspects of learning about New Media Technologies relate to the immediate impact they have on our everyday lives and on our experiences and choices as consumers. In the first of two linked articles, Struan Bates explores how NMTs have transformed their audiences; and regular MM NMT expert Gavin Luhrs homes in on the red button to explore the impact of digital and interactive TV.
When you are logging-on to the Internet at home or watching a DVD with friends, have you ever considered yourself as part of an expanding New Media audience?
If you haven’t, it’s maybe because these experiences often occur alone, or with a few other people, rather than a larger ‘audience’. But aren’t thousands of others having similar experiences in different places? Thinking about the experiences of New Media audiences gives an insight into how work and leisure time is being changed by new technology. As a user of New Media your choices are important to the institutions that provide products and services. But have you ever wondered how advances in the technology itself are dictating how audiences form and interact?
Individual New Media Technologies are often complicated and evolving things. Don’t worry too much if you don’t know the difference between XML and HTML or what MP3 compression rates are; to understand the component technologies behind things like DVD, IMAX cinema or digital television often requires a high level of technical knowledge. It is more relevant to your course to understand the ways in which Audiences and Institutions have been changed by these technologies, and to be able to talk broadly about the future implications that New Media Technology may have for them.
More choice
New Media audiences can choose between a bewildering number of media products, but how does choice begin to affect the composition of audiences themselves? Digital technology, for instance, has given audiences in Britain access to hundreds of new digital television channels from around the world, giving audiences many more viewing options than the usual five terrestrial channels. The ‘digital revolution’ has also affected the way in which audiences consume music, with the Internet allowing listeners to access MP3 technology and download music tracks to play through their home PCs. This freedom of choice, though, has not continued unabated: legal challenges have been mounted by music companies who feel that consumers should not be able to listen to their artists without paying for the privilege first. Digital technology has therefore given users the ability to select media according to their interests, while simultaneously creating more diverse audiences.
Making life easier for consumers
New Media Technology has also facilitated a greater degree of choice for audiences and consumers of many ‘off-line’ products and services. For example, the appearance of Internet banks over the past five years has allowed consumers to open accounts more easily, without the requirement to fill in a number of forms or make a series of trips to their local branch. If customers have the Internet at home they have access to information such as latest interest rates and banking service reviews; this makes them more powerful as consumers as they can more easily make informed choices. Consumers of products such as clothes or cars can also make more informed choices by surfing the Internet for the best deals. These may often be abroad, though the World Wide Web allows barriers such as language and currency to be transcended; transactions can be carried out simply using the customer’s credit card details.
Consumers of New Media Technologies are therefore transformed from being a passive‘audience’ of technologies like the Internet into active participators, making choices and exploiting the media for their own requirements. The Internet, as one of the most accessible New Media Technologies, has offered the biggest array of choice to the largest audience by virtue of its ease of use. The possibilities to audiences and consumers increase on a daily basis as the web expands and a greater number of people have access to online technology.
Access for all?
‘Narrowcasting’ is when media texts are aimed at very small special-interest groups. TheInternet has allowed events to be ‘narrowcast’ to a niche audience whose interests are not shared by the majority of the population. This form of accessibility has begun to change the composition of media audiences in radical and unpredictable ways. For instance, whereas a fan of a rock group may have once gone to watch the band at a concert, they may now choose to watch a live web-cast in the comfort of their own bedroom. The Internet can also enable audiences to converge where previously they might not have existed: special interest or ‘fan-sites’ allow media communities to appear whose breadth is not restricted by distance or space. For example, fans of ‘cult’ television such as Doctor Who may live in various countries across the world, and without the aid of New Media Technology they may never meet. The Internet allows them to interact with each other as an audience community and share their interests online. To uncover these changes, the media researcher could use an ‘ethnographic’ model to ask questions about particular groups:
• What technologies are being used?
• How sophisticated are the users in accessing the media?
• In what contexts is the media being accessed?
This raises questions about the ways in which technology is changing the shape of audiences and the b that are associated with media consumption. New Media Technologies, however easy to access, are not wholly democratic. Some sections of society are partly excluded from experiencing them; one major factor is the cost of the devices and products available.
Cost and privilege
There is a misconception that some New Media Technologies (the Internet, for instance) allow audiences to access a wealth of media products and services cheaply. This is not always the case; the affordability of New Media products for audiences changes as different technologies become available. For example, a greater audience can now access the Internet more cheaply than they could five years ago, since cheaper computer hardware and ISP charges have allowed more of the population to use services like email and the World Wide Web. Another example would be games consoles (such as PS2 and X-Box), where the price of the hardware (the console itself) has come down in price significantly over the past five years, mainly due to increased mass production of the units and the cheaper availability of the component parts. Whether this form of New Media Technology is really cheaper for consumers, however, is questionable: the price of software (the games themselves) has roughly stayed the same, and for a number of formats it has increased.
On the other hand, digital television is a technology waiting to be fully successful. The promise of this technology has not wholly been realised due to the failure of institutions like ITV Digital, and the relatively high cost of the hardware involved. Up until fairly recently, someone who wished to install digital television at home would have to pay a lot of money for the privilege. Hence, the Internet has a greater audience, while digital television has failed to reach the mass audience that its promoters had envisaged. Different technologies may therefore attract different audiences by virtue of their affordability.
Quality of experience
This is an area where New Media have significant advantages over older technologies. Whiledigital technology in particular has given audiences images of greater quality, it has also opened new avenues for sharing and distribution: images can be attached to emails or displayed in websites. The quality of graphics and sound displayed by games consoles such as PS2 and N64 has improved significantly on the previous generation, and online gaming provides players with a quality of experience that extends beyond their bedrooms. The greater audience available to the online gaming industry helps to create an online community that can experience a product in a way that exploits its potential to its fullest. Whether the game is sophisticated graphically or otherwise is perhaps of less importance than the ability to interact with other gamers. Theinstitutions that provide these experiences know that the quality of experience in this expanding arena will also help to sell ‘units’ of software in the lucrative home market.
Existing forms of media can also be presented in different and exciting ways for audiences. The development of IMAX cinema has provided a whole new cinematic experience, which supersedes the style of film presentation that most filmgoers are familiar with. For the viewer who wishes to stay at home, the increasing affordability of DVDs has meant that their old VHS tapes have been replaced by an item of superior quality that comes with a host of added ‘extras’ such as directors’ cuts, interviews with the cast, and trailers. These all add to the quality ofexperience for the audience, extending their familiarity with the media product beyond a simple viewing. The development of a film as a New Media product therefore has an implication for the quality of experience as well as the quality of product.
But does this greater quality always mean a more desirable product for audiences? Many professional photographers dislike the pixel-perfect quality of digital cameras and prefer to use older techniques of developing rolls of film to achieve a result that provides a greater ‘realism’. Also, the greater number of television channels facilitated by digital television has meant that many broadcasters have paid less attention to the quality of their programming than thequantity of viewers they have attracted.
Audience power
The next time you use your mobile phone, download an MP3 track or switch on your games console, think about yourself as part of an audience. What choices are available to you? Who else is involved in your use of the technology? How is your quality of experience changing? Is what you are doing cheaper or more expensive than it used to be? Developments in the technology itself may help to dictate how people interact with one another. But as a user of New Media your choices and experiences can, in turn, help to drive the development of new products and devices – your behaviour as a member of a New Media audience can be as important to the institutions that govern the media as the evolving technologies driving it. MM
Struan Bates
What’s on the box tonight?
An introduction to thinking about digital and interactive TV
For OCR’s New Media Technologies unit (2732) you need to gather material for a case study. This article is intended to introduce some of the issues related to digital and interactive television; the topic is vast so further investigation on your part is vital.
Digital television has been with us for just a few years, but already it has reached a penetration rate of around 50% of homes (approximately 10-11 million homes). Digital television can be accessed using three platforms: Digital Satellite (Sky), Digital Cable (NTL/Telewest) and DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television – Freeview). All platforms offer an expanded choice of channels and varying levels of interactivity. In general, the digitised television signals mean better picture and sound quality as well as using less bandwidth – this is why it is possible to offer so many additional channels.
Increased channel variety
While some reject the value of all these additional channels, arguing that their output is over-reliant on repeats, imports and ‘trash’, most accept that the possibilities are enriching. Specialist music, documentary, arts, movie, children’s and sports channels are plentiful, particularly on digital satellite and cable platforms. Inevitably, much of the programming is of lower quality; but some of it is also of high quality and of the type rarely seen on the five terrestrial channels. Perhaps the ideals of public service broadcasting should be reconsidered for the digital age; today the channels offering ‘something for everyone’ seem increasingly outmoded.
Increased bandwidth also means that for little extra outlay, channel owners can offer +1 services, which allow viewers a second chance to see a programme they may have missed. Such channels, as well as multiple movie channels showing the same films at 15-or 30-minute intervals, question the traditionally rigid idea of scheduling. Just a few years ago, if you missed a programme you cursed your inability to programme your VCR. Now you can watch it an hour later, or a few days later as part of a weekly cycle of multiple repeat or ‘catch up’ slots. By clever navigation of the television listings, it is becoming almost possible to make your viewing fit around your life, not the other way around.
The increase in the number of channels does have some disadvantages. For viewers, the absence of original programming can lead to a feeling of ‘nothing’ being on across hundreds of channels. ‘Event’ programmes are also under threat; virtually gone are the days when 30 million people tuned into the same programme. For channel owners selling advertising time is increasingly difficult. Niche broadcasters may be advantageous in terms of reaching a specific target audience, but many have official audience shares of 0%. For example, Sky News, despite its reputation as the most successful 24-hour news channel, has an audience share of just 0.6%. In August 2003 the ‘extra’ channels combined had 25.1% of the audience share compared to BBC’s 24.4% and ITV1’s 23.1%. Little wonder, then, that there is an absence of money for risky, original programming.
Press the red button
Interactive features are one of the clear differences between analogue and digital television. On digital platforms the ‘red button’ on the remote control is commonly used to access the interactive content delivered with the television pictures. The appearance of these interactive services varies, but is much like a slimmed-down website or even a DVD video menu. Through the interactive ‘pages’ it is possible to play along with quiz shows, watch video clips, modify the experience of the channel’s main television programme, perhaps by selecting a different camera angle or narrative audio track, or play games. Sky viewers can even buy console-style controllers used specifically to play the games provided on the platform’s interactive service. Using a telephone connection, viewers can also send information to the channel, possibly in the form of votes, as has been used in programmes such as Big Brother and Restoration.
Alternative experiences
The increased bandwidth available on digital platforms allows interactive content to be sent along with a conventional channel. Quickly these interactive offerings have been embraced, admittedly with varying success. Test the Nation, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Banzai are just three quiz-based shows offering viewers the chance to take a fuller part in the proceedings. Premier League Football, tennis at Wimbledon and programmes such as Big Brother and Walking with Beasts have all offered extra video and audio content. Walking with Beasts offered an alternative narration; the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage on interactive television allowed viewers the choice of which game to watch. Such variations link to the experience offered by many other New Media Technologies. The traditionally linear nature of books and films has been made non-linear by the Internet and DVD video (an idea explored in MediaMagazine 4). Interactive services can mean that there is no definitive version of a programme, as viewers switch between the main programme and the supplementary video clips, pictures, or passages of text. The computerised feel of interactive television, and DVD, is making all of us a little more comfortable with computers, and is a good example of convergence.
Optional extras
For viewers, interactive services have the advantage of offering ‘extras’ as well as encouraging a closer interaction with a particular programme. It could be argued that the viewers have greater control if they can select camera angles or the depth of the narration. For the owners of digital television channels, interactive services are attractive because they can both encourage audiences to become more involved with programmes and, more importantly, earn more money through a share of call costs arising from activities such as voting or entering competitions. Increasingly advertisers are using ‘red button’ interactivity to offer viewers the chance to send for more details, request free samples or enter competitions. All viewers need to do is watch out for the red button invitation when the advertisement appears.
As you can see, there are many aspects of digital and interactive television to explore. A good place to start is the BBC News website and the Guardian’s MediaGuardian site. By using the ‘search’ boxes and visiting the sites regularly you will quickly become a digital television expert!
Gavin Luhrs
Glossary
Analogue: analogue signals are sent in radio waves which are received by rooftop aerials. Digital signals are composed of a series of ones and noughts, making the transfer of data, in this case a television signal, much more accurate.
Bandwidth: the capacity available to send data (television pictures, computer files).
Convergence: the process of technologies combining to create a new product – digital television combines moving pictures and computerised, interactive displays.
Digitised: if something is digitised it is converted into computerised data. At its most basic level digitised content is made up of a series of ones and noughts. This allows the perfect reproduction of content as many times as necessary.
Niche broadcasters: providers of specialist content, usually based on a theme. For example, there are channels devoted to food, travel, money and music.
Platform: the ‘stage’ on which something operates. The use of this depends on the context. For example you could talk about a gaming platform to mean either a PC or a games console. Or you could talk about either Sky Television or your PC as a platform for the Internet.
Scheduling: the process of deciding what is on television and when.
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 6, December 2003
