The Convergence of Television and the World Wide Web - Essay Example

Convergence of Television & World Wide Web Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation The underlying new electronic levels of communication technology are playing a greater role in the transformation of societies across the globe. It is noted that within the digital world that is characterised by a high set of bandwidth as well as enormous computing power, there is a higher degree of interest today for converging computing, broadcasting radio and television with the World Wide Web. It is important to note that it was the year 1997 that the viewing of television and navigation of the World Wide Web started to collide especially after Microsoft acquired Web TV from Philips for the purpose of encouraging cable television networks and improving digital standards; a form of TVML for HTML focus (Carro, 2011). It is also within this time that popular online search engines like Yahoo was focused on reaching a great number of adults in comparison to many popular network television programs. It is during this period that the Internet Service Provider AOL that facilitated the adoption of TV channel metaphor of coming up and portraying online content. The focus of this paper is to examine the aspects related to both Television and World Wide Web and the possibility of their convergence in broadcasting media activities. The modern consumers have an imminent need for additional media-related services. It is quite normal nowadays that when people engage in watching live or even recorded television shows, they tend to show a liking for having access to related complementary content like the performances of stocks and product prices, traffic as well as weather conditions (Mao & Chen, 2005). It is as a result of this that most of media organisations have today taken the initiative of coming up with efficient ways of storing as well as manipulating audio-visual interactive informational data. The society nowadays, having focused on the development of both radio and television, the activities related to on-line services like the ones currently being offered by World Wide Web have continued to emerge at a greater degree and are, also far and widely accepted. Online services that are entirely based on internet, avail an opportunity to access an enormous level of informational data and on an interactive basis (Borés, Saurina & Torres, 2003). It is crucial to note that the internet is indeed the global network of computer both within a local or wide area network. The internet provides a mechanism for connecting a wide range of computers on distinctive varieties of a number of operating systems or even languages with the use of a language that is commonly known as the Transmission Control Protocol (Borés, Saurina & Torres, 2003). Due to the relative increase in the size and complexities of the internet framework, there have been efforts made to come up with efficient tools that will assist with the search of new information within a network popularly referred as the navigation systems. The World Wide Web or rather simply put the Web is a modern superior navigation system. The internet and the Web as a whole have impacted the process of transforming the society. These two frameworks offer a great number of users across the globe with the opportunity to access and even engage in the exchange of information as well as foster elements of communication between each other (Cooke, 2005). Presently, the online systems within the Web provide distinctive varieties of a great number of services to millions of users across the globe. Ferguson and Perse (2000) note that the World Wide Web has ensured to capture lots of public attention especially since the millennial has been characterised by an exponential growth in internet hosts as well as personal computer adoption, which has resulted to tremendous improvements in overall online activities. In a study conducted by Nielsen, shows a great concern on how home computing have resulted to time spent on other activities especially on mass media. It is believed that the conventional media use will be diminished greatly due to a number of reasons that include; first, possible restrictions on free time given the fact as the use of computers increases; free time decreases (Cooke, 2005). Second, it has been established that computers especially those that relates to the interactivity provided by the internet and World Wide Web are far-much interesting in comparison to the media since it fosters enormous mental engagement. Consequently, it is ascertained that children today have access extensive access to computers in comparison to their parent’s generations (Bendinelli & Krishnaswamy, 2000). It is thus argued that a greater use of computers is attributed to a possible decline in the overall media use. Online systems within the World Wide Web has continued to improve on their services to different set of users like private message services, electronic databases and, also job placement. The World Wide Web is vehemently an open, multi-point to multi-point network that provides users with an opportunity to select and retrieve a set of different information from a great number of serves across the globe. In the modern era, there has been established a benefit for providing useful complementary Web information in the context of a live or even recorded show. In fact, the adoption of television sets as a medium for accessing the Web has continued to increase over the period (Bendinelli & Krishnaswamy, 2000). The immediate result of this development is the integration of Web and television by broadcasting along with video signals. The integration of television and World Wide Web popularly known as the WebTV has fostered the formulation of digital television (Bendinelli & Krishnaswamy, 2000). Notably, the data processing technologies as well as transmission that are adopted for the television and Web are now more than ever converging. It is important to indicate that television sets are becoming more and more intelligent and this intelligence requires the overall upgrading of hardware that will specifically support Web functionalities (Deuze, 2001). In essence, most of the services that are attributed with WebTV are currently present within the World Wide Web platform. The most notable pattern relating to Web on television lies in the incorporation of the Web within the broadcast and cable television network. Its immediate design rests with comprehending the show that is being watched by any user at any given moment in time (Deuze, 2001). In this relation, digital television medium has focused on working with chosen few television producers in order to come up with hyperlinks in the course of airing programs and commercials. The hyperlinks are then exploited for the purpose of accessing further information that relates directly television shows through the WebTV platform. The current set of efforts being made to facilitate the convergence of both interactive services and media has resulted to a consortium of communication providers that is engaged with the promotion of a particular set of standards for interactive television as well as WebTV popularly known as enhanced television (Deuze, 2001). A good example can be seen with Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF) is basically a cross-industry coalition of entities within the field of cable networks, radio and television as well as personal computers. It is important to understand that this coalition of organisations have successfully formulated set protocols for television media that is focused on Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) in order to facilitate content creators so as to deliver top notch shows over all types of transmission that include; analogue, digital and cable to any given intelligent receiver as a whole (Gordon, 2003). In truth, the ATVEF is solely focused on accelerating the formulation and distribution of enhanced TV shows to allow users to access shows in the most expensive and convenient manner possible. In providing World Wide Web services on television medium, it is safe to indicate that the television offer a single-point to multi-point networks (Deuze, 2003). This means that each and every single user receives a similar content from a single broadcasting point. Today, more than ever, most of televisions will likely engage in the display internet address for purposes of making pertinent assessments related to shows that are being retransmitted. The efforts related to the access of internet calls for one to access a computer for which a user can successfully enter internet address. Some of the systems foster the exchange of digital information with the audience by way of integrating the programs with television signals (Deuze, 2003). On the contrary, these types of systems restricts the immediate access to a specific single information transmission source, which for most cases is under the influence of the broadcast or even cable television operators. In consequence, until recently, there has been no way for which producers of television shows could come up with hyperlinks that would facilitate the access of complementary information pertaining to broadcast shows (COSMOPOLITANISM, 2004). In this regards, the systems that are proposed for this purpose postulate a requirement for the transmission of complementary data within a secondary signal platform while still engaging with transmission of the main television program. It thus crucial that television viewers should be fundamentally equipped with particular decoder circuits considered to be necessary for recovering pertinent information ( COSMOPOLITANISM, 2004). Other proposed frameworks are focused on transmitting the identification of television shows or even ULRs of hyperlinked informational data that is attributed with television programs in the course of vertical blanking interval (VBI) period. Notably, special forms of decoders are also required for purposes of utilising such approaches. Television closed captions are those that are invisible since they are hidden within television video signals and can only be seen using a special decoder. The place for which they are positioned is popularly referred to as the 21 of the vertical blanking interval (VBI) (Atkin, 2002). The uses and gratifications provide a fundamental explanation for possible alterations related to media use following the adoption of new media technologies. In relation to this perspective, it can be certainly noted that viewers will solely use media for which they believe will assist them to attain their overall goals and objectives (Atkin, 2002). Relatively fewer media platforms are distinctively able to accomplish their overall goals and so, people will choose from a range of functional alternatives or even media that can allow fulfilment of similar objectives. For example, cable-based television and videocassette recorders (VCR) are functional substitutes needed for broadcasting television for relaxing entertainment purposes (Kang & Atkin, 1999). In order for the World Wide Web to be a distinct functional substitute to television, its immediate use should be focused on similar set of objectives. Most notably, it is arguable clear that for these two media to converge then computers and televisions should be fairly-positioned to allow for content interchange-ability (Kang & Atkin, 1999). This means that the computers should be able to perceive and use television content while televisions on the other hand should be able to use and view internet-based content. Furthermore, potential users should be entirely focused in being able to see similar form of content on both devices hence ensuring interoperability capacity (Quinn, 2005). With the possibility of converge media, there are great level of expectations of the emergence of devices that will be focused on displaying a particular degree of standardized format. These devices will occur in different size and functionalities but would possess a similar capacity of interpreting a converged media platform. To sum up the discussion above, it has been noted that the modern consumer has an imminent need for additional media-related services like for instance, when they engage in watching live or even recorded television shows, they tend to show a liking for having access to related complementary content like the performances of stocks and product prices, traffic as well as weather conditions. The most notable pattern relating to Web on television lies in the incorporation of the Web within the broadcast and cable television network. To foster the element of convergence between television and World Wide Web; two things have been suggested that include; the fact that both computers and televisions should all be content interchangeable. It is also expected that viewers should be sufficiently interested on viewing similar content on both of the devices in order to ensure the interoperability of commercial viable functions. References Atkin, D. (2002). Convergence across media. Communication technology and society: Audience adoption and uses, 23-39. Borés, C., Saurina, C., & Torres, R. (2003). Technological convergence: a strategic perspective. Technovation, 23(1), 1-13. Bendinelli, S. J., & Krishnaswamy, V. (2000). U.S. Patent No. 6,061,719. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Carro, F. I. (2011). U.S. Patent No. 7,984,472. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Cooke, L. (2005). A visual convergence of print, television, and the internet: charting 40 years of design change in news presentation. New Media & Society, 7(1), 22-46. COSMOPOLITANISM, P. (2004). Mapping cultural flows in an age of media convergence. Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium, 114. Deuze, M. (2001). Online journalism: Modelling the first generation of news media on the World Wide Web. First Monday, 6(10) Deuze, M. (2003). The web and its journalisms: considering the consequences of different types of news media online. New media & Society, 5(2), 203-230. Ferguson, D. A., & Perse, E. M. (2000). The World Wide Web as a functional alternative to television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44(2), 155-174. Gordon, R. (2003). Implications of Convergence. Digital journalism: Emerging media and the changing horizons of journalism, 57. Kang, M. E., & Atkin, D. J. (1999). Exploring the role of media uses and gratifications in multimedia cable adoption. Telematics and Informatics, 16(1), 59-74. Lytras, M., Lougos, C., Chozos, P., & Pouloudi, A. (2002). Interactive Television and E-learning Convergence: Examining the Potential of T-learning. In Proceedings of the European Conference on eLearning. Mao, W, & Chen. D. (2005). "Digital TV system with synchronized world wide web content." U.S. Patent No. 6,886,178. Quinn, S. (2005). Convergence's fundamental question. Journalism studies, 6(1), 29-38. Read More

Due to the relative increase in the size and complexities of the internet framework, there have been efforts made to come up with efficient tools that will assist with the search of new information within a network popularly referred as the navigation systems. The World Wide Web or rather simply put the Web is a modern superior navigation system. The internet and the Web as a whole have impacted the process of transforming the society. These two frameworks offer a great number of users across the globe with the opportunity to access and even engage in the exchange of information as well as foster elements of communication between each other (Cooke, 2005).

Presently, the online systems within the Web provide distinctive varieties of a great number of services to millions of users across the globe. Ferguson and Perse (2000) note that the World Wide Web has ensured to capture lots of public attention especially since the millennial has been characterised by an exponential growth in internet hosts as well as personal computer adoption, which has resulted to tremendous improvements in overall online activities. In a study conducted by Nielsen, shows a great concern on how home computing have resulted to time spent on other activities especially on mass media.

It is believed that the conventional media use will be diminished greatly due to a number of reasons that include; first, possible restrictions on free time given the fact as the use of computers increases; free time decreases (Cooke, 2005). Second, it has been established that computers especially those that relates to the interactivity provided by the internet and World Wide Web are far-much interesting in comparison to the media since it fosters enormous mental engagement. Consequently, it is ascertained that children today have access extensive access to computers in comparison to their parent’s generations (Bendinelli & Krishnaswamy, 2000).

It is thus argued that a greater use of computers is attributed to a possible decline in the overall media use. Online systems within the World Wide Web has continued to improve on their services to different set of users like private message services, electronic databases and, also job placement. The World Wide Web is vehemently an open, multi-point to multi-point network that provides users with an opportunity to select and retrieve a set of different information from a great number of serves across the globe.

In the modern era, there has been established a benefit for providing useful complementary Web information in the context of a live or even recorded show. In fact, the adoption of television sets as a medium for accessing the Web has continued to increase over the period (Bendinelli & Krishnaswamy, 2000). The immediate result of this development is the integration of Web and television by broadcasting along with video signals. The integration of television and World Wide Web popularly known as the WebTV has fostered the formulation of digital television (Bendinelli & Krishnaswamy, 2000).

Notably, the data processing technologies as well as transmission that are adopted for the television and Web are now more than ever converging. It is important to indicate that television sets are becoming more and more intelligent and this intelligence requires the overall upgrading of hardware that will specifically support Web functionalities (Deuze, 2001). In essence, most of the services that are attributed with WebTV are currently present within the World Wide Web platform. The most notable pattern relating to Web on television lies in the incorporation of the Web within the broadcast and cable television network.

Its immediate design rests with comprehending the show that is being watched by any user at any given moment in time (Deuze, 2001). In this relation, digital television medium has focused on working with chosen few television producers in order to come up with hyperlinks in the course of airing programs and commercials.

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