Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
This has been fairly blatantly exploited by Apple Computers, who
explicitly market their computers' capacity to 'rip and burn'
commercial CDs, and whose iTunes software and iPod present a
kind of legalized version of file sharing, as well as encouraging
strange new things such as 'podcasts', mini-programmes, designed to
be downloaded and listened to on an MP3 player such as an iPod.
(Interestingly the reason why Sony was so slow in entering the MP3
player market, which, for the developer of the original Walkman,
should have been an obvious opportunity to exploit their reputation
for innovation and quality, was that they had also invested in
recorded music, and the two sides of their operation were potentially
faced with a conflict of interest.) In this context it is interesting to
consider Google's plans to digitize millions of topics and make the
results available online, which will surely alter our relationship with
the printed word. What is almost certain is that it will not simply be
a more convenient means of using topics in way that we already do,
but is likely to change how we conceive of topics and their contents.
But not all forms of web-based cultural production are commen-
taries or developments of pre-existing material. The podcast offers a
similar kind of access to others for anyone who can make a digital
recording and find some way to post to the Net. Similarly, internet
radio makes it possible to 'stream' audio content over the World
Wide Web, and Web 2:0 sites such as YouTube and Flickr lets users
post video or photographic imagery for anyone else to see.
These forms of new media have begun to effect older, more
mainstream media. For example the experience of listening to the
radio is no longer either entirely passive, or even simply an experi-
ence of listening. In the United Kingdom the BBC is the state
provider of television and radio (and, increasingly, Web and digital
content), paid by licence fee levied from every owner of a television,
rather than by advertising. BBC Radio 1 is the popular music radio
station intending to appeal to a young audience. Each programme
in the Radio 1 schedule has an accompanying set of web pages on
