Media changes drastically over short periods of time. Just in the past ten years it has become much more advanced and useful for people all around the world. There has been an extreme advance in media technology. This includes the creation of analog-to-digital converters, technology convergence, and the changes in the media industry and audiences. There have been advances in the way gatekeeping and content filters are handled. The rise in the technology of books has even been so great that there has been a decrease in the annual sales by 44 million books. With the ascending spiral of technology the world of media will be a great place for the future.
Analog media has been used originally for audio recording for media that was analogous for the sound that it was creating. Recently analog media has been used to refer to non-digitized media, such as film, audio, and print media. Since technology has advanced and become dependent on computers analog has been translated into digital media so that it is in computer and machine-readable form. It is put into binary digits so that computers may read and comprehend it. This process in which media is translated into computer-readable is called digitization.
Communication of media has been transferring from the traditional analog media to the newer aged digital media. This is much more convenient in this new age because people have learned to depend on their computers to do work. When dealing with audio and video an analog-to-digital converter works at an extremely high rate. Digital media is a great advancement in media technology.
Technological convergence is the coming together of computing, telecommunications, and media in digital environment. It can be used in different types of media, such as print, audio, and video to converge it all into one digital media. Convergence makes mass communication digital for networked media so that it is not a necessity to communicate through words, images, and sound. This is very useful when dealing with multimedia situations when there is more than one type of media. For example, web pages combine several different forms of media together to create a web page with text, video, audio, and several other media forms. Technological convergence has been a very useful factor when dealing with the steady rising of Internet use. Without this it would be much harder to communicate through the Internet because there would be no digital environment for computing. The use of hyperlinks has been a huge advancement in convergence and communication. A hyperlink is an HTML code that is used to link to another webpage or element within a website. Technological convergence has been a main benefactor in making digital media what it is today.
A huge technique used in sending media to massive audiences is known as gatekeeping. This is the way that editors decide what is important in what an audience will see on a webpage. This is often used to sort through massive amounts of media information to carefully select what is important for the audiences to see and what is not. The gatekeepers are people who decide what messages are absolutely necessary for the audiences to read. They put out the messages in the correct content and for the masses to read and understand. In the high school media center, the Media Specialist is this individual. Being the person who disseminates information to both faculty and students is a huge responsibility.
Along with distribution of information, the Media Center webpage has become an advertising agency. Advertisements include upcoming events, schedules for both academics and athletics, and announcements that interest parents. The Media Center webpage has become the center of communication and link for the community, both inside and outside the school. Posting pictures from past events is another popular way the Media Specialist can help advertise and disseminate information.
Through the webpage the Media Specialist is able to influence and enhance instruction. Students learn to become information literate and learn to use Internet tools appropriately with the help of the webpage. Creating summer reading lists and links to help parents stay on top of content assignments and previewing work is yet another way the website can benefit the student learner.
Many school districts have taken the approach of creating the base or foundation for the page so all schools in the district have a similar look and style. As students move from elementary to middle to high school, the webpage changes colors and the information is certainly updated to reach the appropriate school level, but the layout and design may remain the same. This gives parents a familiar comfort zone with the school’s webpage.
Collaborative teaching is enhanced through the use of webpages, wikis and blogs. The possibilities are endless and exciting for both the student learner and the educator. The Media Center is the heart of learning in the school and the webpage is the extension of that heart into the community. Maintaining the webpage has become an innovative part of public education and use through libraries and media centers.
Franklin, Pat, Stephens, Gatrell. (2011). “Creating Webpages for the 21st Century Library Media Center.” School Library Journal. Retrieved 20 October 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7729/is_200711/ai_n32243004/.
Trinkle, Catherine. (2011). “Teaching the Use of Informational Text is Information Literacy.” School Library Media Activies Monthly. Retrieved 20 October 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7729/is_200711/ai_n32243007/.
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