Understanding New Media Chapters 47-49

These chapters of Logan's book again deal with New Media not covered in McLuhan's original book. Chaper 47 talks about Virtual Reality and the development of 3D virtual reality platforms. It also describes the concept of role-playing games, as well as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These games, as the name suggests, include many players and often include a storyline and a theme. Chapter 48 deals with robots, bots, and agents. Logan defines a robot as "a hybrid technology consisting of a computer and an electromagnetical mechanism that can automatically perform tasks such as manufacturing, mining, exploration, or clean-ups in environments unsafe or difficult for human operators." Robots have been used in manufacturing for years, often making production faster, but coming at the expense of jobs for human workers. Chapter 49 discusses artificial intelligence (AI) and expert systems. AI is divided into two forms: weak AI and strong AI. Weak AI is,  "the use of computers to automatically perform tasks requiring human intelligence. Strong AI involves the area of study in which research have attempted to create a computer with, "an intelligence that its human creators would not be capable of." An example of this is the IBM computer Big Blue, which won a chess championship.

Understanding New Media Ch 34-43

These chapters of Logan's book are in Part III: The Analysis of New Media not Dealt with in Understanding Media. In other words, this deals with technologies that emerged after 1964, and the ways they were affected by New Media. Chapter 34 talks about hybrid and converging technologies, such as the microcomputer system. Chapter 35 deals with the multifunction printer, photocopier, scanner, and fax. It enhances distribution, and allows everyone to "be a publisher." Most households have one of these systems today. The cell phone, as talked about in chapter 36, now includes a camera and many have computer functions. Today, people are always connected and available. The personal computer can now come in the form of a handheld device, making it easier to work from home. The PDA, although not widely used anymore, used to combine multiple organization functions such as a calendar and a notepad. Other media affected include computer software and the internet, which includes an enormous amount of information. Other chapters in this section included email, IM, SMS, bulletin boards, and the world wide web.

Logan Chapters 23-33

In chapters 23-33 of Understanding New Media, the author finishes describing how certain old media have been influence by new media. Ads are now ubiquitous on the internet. Videogames have changed our idea of games forever. The telegraph is now extinct, and the typewriter is almost extinct; however, the QWERTY keyboard lives on. The telephone answering machine has been replaced by voice mail, and smartphones, which are telephones that contain computer functions, are everywhere. Music playing and recording has also been influence by new media; many, if not most people listen to music on iPods or other mp3 players. Movies can now be created by anyone that has a videocamera and shared with the world via YouTube. Radio has been influenced by new media due to the use of satellite radio, online radios, and podcasts. Television shows are now widely available online and can be watched at any time due to the use of DVRs. Last but not least, weapons have even be influenced by new media because many are now robotic or unmanned.

Understanding New Media: Chapters 8-15

One of the most notable things about this book is it's structure. Each chapter is introduced with a description of the chapter topic's "Content and Extension, Cascade, and Laws of Media". This background information provided at the beginning of each chapter contributes to our enhanced understanding of New Media. A unique feature of this book is its emphasis on how different elements of communication are interrelated and some how converge into the realm of new media. Chapters 8-14 involve the spoken word, the written word, roads and paper routes, numbers, clothing, housing, and money. In Chapter 8, a concern was brought up about the possibility that New Media would make English a dominating language and cause the depletion of other spoken languages. However, the author counters this concern by stating that although New Media will increase the use of English, it will not eliminate other languages. The New Media in fact contributes to the expansion of abstract terminology used in spoken language. Furthermore, programs have been created so that more websites will be available in a variety of different languages. Another matter was brought up in Chapter 9 that entailed the New Media's effect on the written word. Although most would expect that New Media would bring about the deterioration of written word, it actually encourages it. New Media constantly involves written word through activities such as e-mailing, texting, and blogging. Another interesting topic in this reading is Chapter 11 concerning numbers. The use of 1s and 0s has created a digital revolution that form the foundations  of computers. Digitization involves "the use of numbers in binary form in which any number can be expressed in terms of ones and zeros (111)". This technological advancement gave rise to the codes used for audio and video information that is present in the New Media technologies of today.