Centralization of the Content Industry Following the 1980s a sweeping restructuring of commercial media power has happened. While some firms have grown through expansion others extended through mergers and acquisitions. Examples are In recent years those developments have led to the rise of transnational media giants, resulting in the domination of the global media system by about ten huge conglomerates. These have interests in numerous media industries, ranging from film production, magazines, newspapers, book publishing and recorded music to TV and radio channels and networks, but also include retail stores, amusement parks and digital media products. Behind these firms are about three or four dozen smaller media companies, which primarily engage in local, national or niche markets. In short, the overwhelming majority of the world's content production facilities and distribution channels lies in the hands of approximately fifty enterprises. |
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Virtual body and data body The result of this informatisation is the creation of a virtual body which is the exterior of a man or woman's social existence. It plays the same role that the physical body, except located in virtual space (it has no real location). The virtual body holds a certain emancipatory potential. It allows us to go to places and to do things which in the physical world would be impossible. It does not have the weight of the physical body, and is less conditioned by physical laws. It therefore allows one to create an identity of one's own, with much less restrictions than would apply in the physical world. But this new freedom has a price. In the shadow of virtualisation, the data body has emerged. The data body is a virtual body which is composed of the files connected to an individual. As the The virtual character of the data body means that social regulation that applies to the real body is absent. While there are limits to the manipulation and exploitation of the real body (even if these limits are not respected everywhere), there is little regulation concerning the manipulation and exploitation of the data body, although the manipulation of the data body is much easier to perform than that of the real body. The seizure of the data body from outside the concerned individual is often undetected as it has become part of the basic structure of an informatised society. But data bodies serve as raw material for the "New Economy". Both business and governments claim access to data bodies. Power can be exercised, and democratic decision-taking procedures bypassed by seizing data bodies. This totalitarian potential of the data body makes the data body a deeply problematic phenomenon that calls for an understanding of data as social construction rather than as something representative of an objective reality. How data bodies are generated, what happens to them and who has control over them is therefore a highly relevant political question. |
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Timeline 1600 - 1900 AD 17th century Cardinal Richelieu invents an encryption-tool called grille, a card with holes for writing messages on paper into the holes of those cards. Afterwards he removes the cards and fills in the blanks, so the message looks like an ordinary letter. The recipient needs to own the same card - Bishop John Wilkins invents a cryptologic system looking like music notes. In a book he describes several forms of steganographic systems like secrets inks, but also the string cipher. He mentions the so-called Pig Latin, a spoken way of encryption that was already used by the ancient Indians - the English scientist, magician and astrologer 1605/1623 Sir Francis Bacon (= Francis Tudor = William Shakespeare?) writes several works containing ideas about cryptography. One of his most important advises is to use ciphers in such a way that no-one gets suspicious that the text could be enciphered. For this the steganogram was the best method, very often used in poems. The attempt to decipher Shakespeare's sonnets (in the 20th century) lead to the idea that his works had been written by Francis Bacon originally. 1671 Leibniz invents a calculating machine that uses the binary scale which we still use today, more advanced of course, called the ASCII code 18th century this is the time of the Black Chambers of espionage in Europe, Vienna having one of the most effective ones, called the "Geheime Kabinettskanzlei", headed by Baron Ignaz von Koch. Its task is to read through international diplomatic mail, copy letters and return them to the post-office the same morning. Supposedly about 100 letters are dealt with each day. 1790's Thomas Jefferson and Robert Patterson invent a wheel cipher 1799 the Rosetta Stone is found and makes it possible to decipher the Egyptian Hieroglyphs 1832 or 1838 Sam Morse develops the Morse Code, which actually is no code but an enciphered alphabet of short and long sounds. The first Morse code-message is sent by telegraph in 1844. 1834 the 1844 the invention of the telegraph changes cryptography very much, as codes are absolutely necessary by then 1854 the Playfair cipher is invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone 1859 for the first time a tomographic cipher gets described 1861 Friedrich W. Kasiski does a cryptoanalysis of the Vigenère ciphers, which had been supposed to be uncrackable for ages 1891 Major Etienne Bazeries creates a new version of the wheel cipher, which is rejected by the French Army 1895 the invention of the radio changes cryptography-tasks again and makes them even more important |
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Extract of AOL Time Warner’s Content Production and Distribution Holdings The following selection does not claim to present an exhaustive listing, but rather picks some of the company's most important assets. Due to the rapid developments in the world of media giants the list is also subject to changes. Cable TV Systems and Channels/Networks Cable TV channels/networks (some part-owned): HBO, HBO Plus, HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Comedy, HBO Zone, Cinemax, MoreMAX, ActionMAX, ThrillerMAX, HBO en Espa-ol, Comedy Central, Court TV, HBO Ole, HBO Asia, HBO Central Europe, Movies, TV, Video Production, and Movie Theaters Warner Bros. film studio Warner Bros. Television production studios Warner Bros. Home Video Turner worldwide Home Video Turner Pictures Castle Rock Entertainment movie production company New Line Cinema movie production company Warner Bros. film library Turner Film Library Hanna Barbera Cartoons Owns many movie houses, with over 1,000 screens, around the world Book Publishing Time Life Inc. Book-of-the-Month Club Warner Books Little, Brown and Company Oxmoor House Leisure Arts Sunset Books Magazines Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Life, Money, Parenting, In Style, Entertainment Weekly, Cooking Light, Baby Talk, First Moments, Coastal Living, Health, Progressive Farmer, Southern Accents, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated, For Kids, Sunset, Teen People, Time for Kids, Weight Watchers, Mutual Funds, Your Company, Asiaweek, President, Wallpaper. Hippocrates Recorded Music Warner Music Group The Atlantic Group Elektra Entertainment Group Rhino Entertainment Sire Records Group Warner Bros. Records Warner Music International WEA Inc. WEA Corp. WEA Manufacturing Ivy Hill Corp. Warner Special Products Alternative Distribution Alliance Giant Merchandising Deals with record labels include: Maverick records Tommy Boy Sub Pop Qwest 143 Records Internet and New Media About 130 Websites including: CNN.com, AllPolitics.com, CNNSI.com, Time Digital, People, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated Turner New Media Online Services including: Compuserve, Netscape, Netcenter Pro Sports Teams and Promotions Atlanta Braves major league baseball team Atlanta Hawks NBA basketball team World Championship Wrestling Goodwill Games Other Six Flags entertainment/excursion parks Warner Bros. Movie World theme park Over 150 Warner Bros. stores, plus Turner Retail Group 25 % stake in Atari 14 % stake in Hasbro Business Connections with Other Media Companies Joint ventures, equity interests or major arrangements with |
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Java Applets Java applets are small programs that can be sent along with a Web page to a user. Java applets can perform interactive animations, immediate calculations, or other simple tasks without having to send a user request back to the server. They are written in Java, a platform-independent computer language, which was invented by Source: Whatis.com |
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Viacom One of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the world. Founded in 1971, the present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and television stations and cable television programming services and systems, acquired the entertainment and publishing giant Paramount Communications Inc. and then merged with the video and music retailer Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. Headquarters are in New York City. |
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CNN CNN is a U.S.-TV-enterprise, probably the world's most famous one. Its name has become the symbol for the mass-media, but also the symbol of a power that can decide which news are important for the world and which are not worth talking about. Every message that is published on CNN goes around the world. The Gulf War has been the best example for this until now, when a CNN-reporter was the one person to do the countdown to a war. The moments when he stood on the roof of a hotel in Baghdad and green flashes surrounded him, went around the world. |
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Royalties Royalties refer to the payment made to the owners of certain types of rights by those who are permitted by the owners to exercise the rights. The |
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Whitfield Diffie Whitfield Diffie is an Engineer at Sun Microsystems and co-author of Privacy on the Line (MIT Press) in 1998 with Susan Landau. In 1976 Diffie and |
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