HyeRi Jung/ Professor Monje/ CMN 622/ February 23, 2008/ Short Online Review #3
c. A critical analysis of a new media form: digital media’s impact on television.
For five decades or so, the television industry’s main mission has been to come up with hit programs, get them on screens, and hope people will stop and watch the programs. Now, that is just the starting point. As an era of ordering TV shows at the push of a button gets underway, new challenges are clouding the landscape in the year ahead: What business models are going to work and who is going to get paid what? These questions loom behind attention-grabbing announcements in recent weeks from some of the biggest TV networks, cable operators, satellite companies, gadget-makers and Internet players, including Apple, Disney, NBC Universal and Comcast, offering what is expected to be the first of many new video-on-demand and downloading services. The digitalized TV includes such as cable TV, the Internet TV, and digital broadcasting. Over the past 25 years, broadcasters have been frightened by new delivery platforms: cable, satellite, and digital TV. Digital television (DTV) is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals, in contrast to analog signals used by traditional analog TV. DTV uses digital modulation data, which is digitally compressed and requires decoding by a specially designed television set, or a standard receiver with a set-top box, or a PC fitted with a television card. Introduced in the late 1990s, this technology appealed to the television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries as offering new financial opportunities. The nation’s largest cable company, Comcast, has made free video-on-demand products until recently as the company’s strategy to convert more of its customers to its digital service. CBS was already allowing Comcast to offer programs like its “CBS Evening News” free on Comcast’s video-on-demand service. But Comcast, faced with the prospect of NBC’s deal to show selected programs on DirecTV for 99 cents a show, acceded to CBS’s insistence that it be paid directly. According to the article I found in The New York Times, “There was no way we were going to do this for free,” said Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS, in an interview when the deal was announced. In recent years, computer and consumer electronics companies have exclaimed the imminent nirvana that would be a networked union of TV-Internet-stereo-DVD-cable box-speakers-video projector-personal computer with only one remote control. While the recorders are also available from ReplayTV, Dish Network, and some cable providers, it is the TiVo that has become synonymous with our new technology. TiVo has been paid perhaps the ultimate consumer compliment: it has become a verb such as ”Did you TiVo the show I missed?” or ”I’ve TiVoed every episode of Friends.” While TiVo is the best-known brand of digital video recorder, there is plenty of competition. Because of the today’s highly developed digital media, we can watch TV programs whenever we want; we can watch missed episodes on the Internet for free, we can skip commercials with TiVo. Today, audiences can choose from hundreds of TV services. The problem is finding good content to fill all of the available channels.
HyeRi Jung/ CMN 622/ Professor Monje/ February 9, 2008/ Short Online Review #2
a. A critical analysis of a web site and its functionality.
The website I’ve chosen to analyze is www.viviennewestwood.com. It is an official website for a British designer, Vivienne Westwood, who is largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream fashion market. When I go to the website, the first thing I have to do is choosing between broadband and modem before entering the site. After choosing either one and entering the site, I see the designer’s picture at the center of the screen in her label’s clothing and a female model who has a weird bone stuck in her hair. At the left side of the screen, I see categories of: home, collections, accessories, where to buy, history, contact, and subscribe. The background color is light-blue gradually fading away towards the center. There are related links at the bottom of the site where it says “Buy online at viviennewestwoodonline.co.uk.” Overall, this website is not very hard to move around. It’s quite a straight forwardly structured website with not much complications and difficulties. The core audience of this site is any world-wide fans who love the designer and want to know more about the label. As for me, I’m a frequent visitor of this site (I visit the site at least two times a week), so I know exactly how to move around, and which category to click to find what I’m looking for. Under the category of “collection,” there are Gold Label (runway look), Red Label (ready to wear look), Man (men’s wear), and Anglomania (the latest look of young and casual). The part I like the most about this site is the “History” part where I can read her careers chronically. It provides specific information and stories of Westwood. The downside of this website, however, is that there isn’t a lot of update. Whereas other famous designers’ official websites (such as www.marcjacobs.com or www.chloe.com) immediately update new pictures after they show off their new season’s products, Westwood’s site doesn’t. Sometimes, there even isn’t any image of her product at all. I think this site distinguishes from any other famous designers’ official websites for its punk-rock-web design style.
