How the Information Infrastructure Has Changed in the Digital Age - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 79

tions. Now recording of information can be instantaneous with reproduction when
a reporter sends a message via social media. Storing a research report in a uni-
versity repository that provides open access to that report is a merging of recording
and reproduction. The lines between the recording and reproduction processes are
blurred.
In the past, as described in Chapter 4, the recording and reproduction of new
information were discrete and usually accompanied by a lapse of time. A report-
er covered an event, returned to his office, typed a report, and submitted a paper
copy to the editor. The editor then made revisions and delivered the copy to the
pressroom, where the story was simultaneously converted to type and set for print-
ing. More recently, that process was digitized, and the editor's revisions were digit-
ally input for printing a hard-copy newspaper and posting on a Web site.
In the digital age, reproduction is on a global scale; news can be downloaded
from a Web site anytime, anywhere in the world. Television and radio broadcasts,
thanks to communication satellites, can transmit anywhere. British (BBC) and Ara-
bian (Aljazeera) news organizations transmit news in the United States and world-
wide, as do American networks. Multiple perspectives are available on virtually any
issue.
Information consumers have access to a variety of information formats from
various sources and offering differing perspectives or viewpoints. Writers and mu-
sic composers provide alternatives from which the consumer may choose. For ex-
ample, a variety of international topics and newspapers are available online for
downloading to tablet or laptop computers. Music is available in multiple formats:
CDs, online, and broadcast over radio and via satellite. International boundaries
have dissolved as artists, musicians, writers, and film producers from many coun-
tries make their creations available worldwide. The mass production of information
in various formats for various purposes results in an overwhelming volume of in-
formation available for distribution or dissemination.
Dissemination
Technological advancements have drastically changed the dissemination of in-
formation. As the printing press in the 15th century unleashed the volume of
publishing possible, computers and digitization have dramatically increased the
volume of information and channels of dissemination.
As with other aspects of the emergent paradigm, the dissemination process
has been decentralized and melded with reproduction. Dissemination includes the
earlier methods of printing newspapers, books, journals, and other documents
on paper, but those methods have been supplemented with digital documents.