Media Technology

https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/7/005/06d/223/38308b4.jpg The Web and Social Media At one time most of these names in the above image were related to the old fashioned types of media technology; television shows, magazines, or newspapers, being that traditional media was TV, Cable, radio and print. Now they have all been combined and can be seen online on the web and social media (LinkedIn, 2014). All of the information shared online and through the social media has a great impact on our ideas and perceptions in a much faster way (LinkedIn, 2014). Web and social media give us the opportunity to share ideas, meet and work together fast and easy because it is right at our fingertips (LinkedIn, 2014). Social Media is a phrase thrown around everywhere, but many people do not know the real definition of social media. In order to define social media you need to break it down. Media is an instrument that is used to communicate, like a newspaper or a radio. Therefore social media is a social instrument of communication (Nations, n.d.). There are several types of social media websites. They are social bookmarking, social news, social networking, social photo and video sharing, and wikis. Some examples of the well-known and frequently used sites are Digg, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Wikipedia. Any website that encourages interaction with the site and the other visitors to the site would fall into the category of social media website (Nations, n.d.). Those who are interested in fashion trends can check out Pinterest. Look on Facebook to check out fun events and personal information. If you are wanting to make professional connections and industry information, LinkedIn would be the site to visit (LinkedIn, 2014). Unfortunately not everyone that uses social media websites use it for good. An example of how social media is used for bad and making Facebook and Twitter a platform for public enemies, is how gangs are using social media to fuel gang wars (Austen, 2013). The term used for a gang member that stirs up trouble online is called a Facebook driller. This person gets on Facebook and starts insulting someone in a rival gang. It is much easier to do online than face-to-face and spreads at a faster pace city wide (Austen, 2013). The tragedy is that what starts out as insulting and provocative words online end up with someone getting drilled in real- life, thus the name Facebook driller (Austen, 2013). There is always going to be a positive and negative side to communication. As everyone communicates, it just depends on what media is used and by whom, that dictates the outcome, good or bad. The major difference between the old-fashioned media is that a newspaper story or a report on the television was only one-way communication, the ability to give input is limited. Whereas using social media is a two-way street that enables input to the output creating more effective communication (Nations, n.d.).

Healthcare Media Technology

A more specific type of media technology is healthcare media technology. This is media technology that is being used to assist in the care of patients and their families. An example of this is the placement of special televisions in the patient’s rooms. These televisions provide information on special channels specific for patient and family education for the disease or condition of the patient watching (healthcaremedia.com, 2015).




Photo: AlexanderZam/Shutterstock.com

There is also research being done to help people with diabetes. It is called diabetes management platform. This special technology will have the ability to provide someone with diabetes to be able to see the association between their activity levels and blood glucose lows. This is important information as 1 in 20 people die from low blood sugar (McCann, 2015).

Unlike social media sites like Facebook that is for personal interaction and not always used for good, healthcare media technology is always used in a positive way, to help people with medical problems or to just take their minds off of the pain they may be in.

There is also research being done to help people with diabetes. It is called diabetes management platform. This special technology will have the ability to provide someone with diabetes to be able to see the association between their activity levels and blood glucose lows. This is important information as 1 in 20 people die from low blood sugar (McCann, 2015).

Unlike social media sites like Facebook that is for personal interaction and not always used for good, healthcare media technology is always used in a positive way, to help people with medical problems or to just take their minds off of the pain they may be in.

Fred Pennic (2015) wrote in his article that 66% of Americans surveyed would be willing to use a mobile app to manage their health related problems. The features that most of them were interested in stemmed from the proactive desire for informative, functional and interactive programs (Pennic, 2015).

Nurses use media technology to chart and keep track of the medicine and treatments they provided to their patients. This information can be readily shared with the physicians and other disciplines providing care.



http://drexel.edu/~/media/Images/excite/metLab/MET-lab-04.ashx

Music and Sound Media Technology

Another company called the Music and Entertainment Laboratory (MET-lab) is involved in research in digital media technologies that will be a big part of the future of entertainment. Their main focus is in sound and music. Their primary research projects are in the areas of music production and playback technology, machine listening and music information retrieval, and new music interfaces. 

The MET-lab is not only involved in musically-aware humanoid robots but are very involved in outreach programs for K-12 students and they also host a summer music technology program to provide a one-week learning experience for high school students. They understand how important it is to educate the future generation who will be using all of the new technology they are developing.

All developers of new technology should follow the ideas of MET-lab and provide training and education for the people who will be using their new media technology for sound and music.

According to the information about sound technology on the Education Portal (2015) the people that are interested in sound technology will need to learn about recording and manipulating sound waves, analog and digital recording and how it all works in the manipulation of sound files process.

One of the careers in this field is a sound engineer, who mixes and reproduces sound files in a recording studio or on location. They are responsible for engineering recordings of the regular types of media technology such as vocal and instrumental music performances, dialogue from theater events, films, television, radio, but they also engineer the sound effects for video games (Education Portal, 2015). This shows how vast the audience is for this type of media technology and also another career path for communication majors as someone has to write all the words being engineered.



Virtual Media Technologies (2014) retrieved from http://www.virtualmediatechnologies.co.uk/

Virtual Media Technologies

Today everyone uses computers and smartphones and they do practically everything, but they are only machines. There has to be companies like Virtual Media Technologies that specialize in the provision of web and mobile technology that develop the software that are the brains behind the machine (virtualmediatechnologies.co.uk, 2015). 

Anyone that is looking to develop web and mobile solutions to help keep up with the changing demands and challenges that they face globally on a day to day basis, will need the services of companies like VMT that use cutting edge technology and offer reliable and efficient business application solutions (Virtual Media Technologies, 2014).

The use of skills of print and text of legacy media, were then combined with the competence of visual mass media reported Knut Lundby (2014) and he also stated in his book “This new digital networked media invites radical multimodality where text and visuals are mixed with sound and graphics in endless combinations of bits and bytes.”

Shalin Hai-Jew (2011) talks about how the combination of different modalities in the virtual environments allow more than one mode of communication, and aids the language and cultural immersion. Today they are using virtual media technology to help people learn languages. It was found that computer-mediated communication and interaction created a favorable environment for language learning (Hai-Jew, 2011). 

Simulations, digital kiosks, live virtual events, live interactivity, instructor-facilitated learning, AI-driven robots, and hyper-realistic experiences are all part of immersive learning which those people involved in e-learning have gotten involved with along with the development of open-source immersive 3D learning spaces (Hai-Jew, 2011).

These are only four ways that media technology are an important part of the lives of everyone in one way or another. Hopefully most of the experiences people have are positive ones. Each day the research and development of media technology is expanded and improved and in some cases have even saved the lives of people fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time.

References

Austen, B (2013) Public Enemies: Social Media Is Fueling Gang Wars in Chicago; retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2013/09/gangs-of-social-media/all/

Drexel.edu, (n.d.) retrieved from http://drexel.edu/excite/research/met-lab/ Education Portal (2015) Sound Technology Education Requirements and Career Information; retrieved from http://educationportal.com/sound_technology_education.html

Hai-Jew, S (2011) Virtual Immersive and 3D Learning Spaces: Emerging Technologies and Trends; retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=B5zUPXWwOZ8C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=virt ual+media+technologies&source=bl&ots=Bw3yFzZrh_&sig=n09Dq7kkLYEp_ET1dhP MPAuMf_Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cMvzVLfAFcaxsAS54oKYAw&ved=0CEUQ6AEwCD gK#v=onepage&q=virtual%20media%20technologies&f=false

Healthcare media retrieved form http://www.healthcaremedia.net/what-we-do.php

Image retrieved from https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/7/005/06d/223/38308b4.jpg

LinkedIn (2014) Social media code of conduct; retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140630143749-46429081-social-media-code-of- conduct

McCann, E. (2015) Better IT needed in battling diabetes; retrieved from http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/better-it-needed-battling-diabetes

Nations, D. (n.d.) What Is Social Media? What are social media sites? Retrieved from http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.html
Pennic, F. (2015) 66% of Americans Would Use Mobile Health Apps to Manage Their Health; retrieved from http://hitconsultant.net/2015/02/24/66-of-americans-would-use-mobile- health-apps/

Photo: AlexanderZam/Shutterstock.com

Virtual Media Technologies (2014) retrieved from http://www.virtualmediatechnologies.co.uk/

Lundby, K, (2014) Mediatization of Communication; retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=HRPoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=vi rtual+media+technologies&source=bl&ots=FlY__6w86r&sig=8tLLAzTSVuEkQWcQV PnQv1vNQYE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cMvzVLfAFcaxsAS54oKYAw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwB TgK#v=onepage&q=virtual%20media%20technologies&f=false

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