Photography has been around for quiet some time now, which has played a huge role in peoples live and in history. The camera provides surveillance and cultural transmission. This gives people the truth/verification because of the physical evidence of a photograph. Photo also last a long time and can be passed down over time. It can tell a story and convey information quickly which is fascination and entertaining. The first tool that worked like a camera was the Camera Obscura. This was a dark box which had a tiny hole in it that projected the image of the outside scene to be shown on the opposite inner wall. This was the first step in creating the camera. Than came the daguerreo type. This created images on to a metal plate by exposure. It also created ground breaking reality about the war. Matthew Brady was the first person to provide photographs of the civil war. Before people could only hear about war through stories told and past down through history. Kodak and Polaroid made cameras more portable so anyone can get one. Professionals can take more powerful picture with manual adjust and inexperienced photographers can still take high quality photos due to automatic mode.
Ever since Thomas Edison's invention of the Kineticscope, the movie industry and products have changed dramatically over centuries. Thomas Edison made the mistake of not putting a patent on is kineticscope. So the Lumiere Brothers improved Edison's invention by making it more portable, adding a film processor and a projector. This invention lead to the Silent Era of film making. These films were non-verbal which used live music, subtitles, facial expressions, and body language to portray the message.
There were many people that have helped the movie industry to where it is today but these people are the most important: Thomas Edison, Lumiere Brothers, Melies, Grifith and Eisenstein. Melis worked with the medium to conjure and create illusions. He was the first person to make objects suddenly appear and disappear/change. Grifth introduced in 1915 the first full length that included many new cinematic techniques like crosscutting to pot ray battle scenes. Eisentein created fast cuts between scenes which is used in music videos. The first successful "talkie"film was made in 1927 tilted The Jazz Singer. This didn't mean actually verbal dialog but there was an orchestra and pianist to help give to story character. It wasn't till 1930s that color came in to movies. However the film was hand colored. For example the Wizard Of Oz was technicolored, which means hand colored. Other popular people were the Warner Brothers, who opened their studio in 1923 and made The Jazz Singer. Walt Disney first set up his shop making animations in his garage. He later released the first full length animation film. Marcus Loew and Luis Mayer were some of the first people to own movie theater chains. Luis Mayer was credited with creating the Hollywood Star System, which was the studios way of controlling the actors lives. They made they're money off of the way they controlled their lives and even traded movie deals with other theaters. However this does not happen anymore in today society.
In today's society movies try to get the most money possible out of their films. With thought out business and marketing plans they are able to make more money. For example they are sent to the movie theaters and once they are done there they are released on DVD where you can buy them at stores, online or rent them. Then the film is sent to streaming companies like Netflix, Hulu or HBO. Another way to make money is through product placement where companies pay money to put their product in movies.
In 1859 the cathode-ray tube was invented. This transmitted images to a screen and was the first taste of what we know as the television. By 1950 about four million Americans had Tvs and by 1960 when color was added about forty-eight million households had Tvs. Shows like the The Twilight Zone and The Ed Sullivan show helped widen the popularity of tv.
There is three ways to receive television. The first way is through cable. Cable is a scrambled message through wire which is decoded through a cable box that the company provides you. Next, satellite requires a dish. The dish communicates through air waves sent from a satellite in space. The last is an outdated method but is called terrestrial wireless. This is Tv that gets transmitted through air by an antenna.
Chapter 5: The Internet , Video Games and Augmented Reality
Interactivity is an import an aspect of digital media. There are three steps interactivity and the first is a dialog between a human and a computer. For example, you moving the mouse around. Second, is feedback. An example would be putting the arrow over a hyper link and it changes to a pointer finger. Third, is the audience has a measure of control. This means we can view what we want to see, which makes it personal.
Modern Media is designed in a way to have a conversation. Dialogic nature makes it become more personalized because you get to choose what you want to consume and how you do it. Traditional media was not designed this way and intact can't really be done and make sense. Traditional media would be books linear. As online, hyperlinks are not linear. This is an effective media because we can interact with it.
User interface(UI) is the junction between us (the user) and medium (technology). Ui's have played a huge role in mass communication and over time have progressed so far. We used to have to stand up and go over to the cable box to change the channel. On the dial there was only twenty or so channels. The UI invention the remote has provides us with a much easier method with way more advancements. This gives us thousands of channels and even invented the channel surf. Another mass communication tool is the app Shazam or Siri. You can ask it what song is playing and it will detect it. Than you can go and share it through text or social media. Back in the day you had to wait for the dj to say it or figure out through a whole other way. Than going to the recorded store and physically buying it. This proves how far technology has come.
Video games in a way have similarities to traditional media. Video games can be broken up into different genres just like movies, books, and magazines are. Movies and video games both make entrainment on the same subjects. An example would be a movie and a game on WW2. Also video game industries are owned by a handful of powerful companies just like a monopoly.
There are many different trends of video games. One trend is serious games, where they designed the video games to entrain and educate people on politics, skills, history and stress management. Another is social video games where you can play them on social media platforms. An example would be Candy Crush or Farmville. The Fitbit also gives you rewards when you reach your goals. This is an example of gamification because it takes game elements and uses it in a non-gaming element.
As we advance in our gaming we start to see more development of augmented reality. This is an addition of information or graphics to what you are already seeing on the screen. An example of this would be Pokemon Go or Google Glasses.
