Deciphering Cyberspace: Making the Most of Digital Communication Technology

by Leonard C. Shyles

Overview

Deciphering Cyberspace: Making the Most of Digital Communication Technology, a collection of new chapters by media experts, social-psychologists, and legal scholars, lucidly explores the modern digital information revolution with one goal: to demystify digital communication technology. By examining its subject matter from the three perspectives of technology, markets, and policy, Deciphering Cyberspace provides an impressively comprehensive view of the technical nature of cyberspace, its social impact, and legal significance for individuals, institutions, and society.

Marrying the broad social and psychological impact of technology to the personal, this text goes beyond mere operation of technology and illuminates how systems work. Deciphering Cyberspace is a must-have volume for anyone interested in keeping connected and learning about the ever-changing world of technology in our increasingly mediated world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761922193
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	10/31/2002
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	7.38(w) x 9.12(h) x (d)

About the Author

Leonard Shyles (Ph.D., Communication, Ohio State University) is Associate Professor of Communication at Villanova University. His publications include journal articles and book chapters dealing with the content and impact of televised political advertising in presidential campaigns. He is co-editor and co-author of The 1000 hour war: communication in the gulf (1994) for Greenwood Press, dealing with the use of telecommunications technologies to conduct the war in the Persian Gulf and to provide journalistic coverage of the conflict. Most recently, Shyles has published a comprehensive television production textbook, Video production handbook (1997) for Houghton Mifflin Company. Shyles’ current research focuses on understanding digital technology in the contexts of markets and policy.

Table of Contents

PART I: TECHNOLOGY
1. Radio and Television Broadcasting - Leonard Shyles
Broadcasting in America
The Basics of Electromagnetic Radiation
From Radio to Television Transmission
The Expanded Video System
Cyberinterview: Michael Young
2. Computers in Communication: Concepts and Application - Leonard Shyles
The Language of Binary Code
The Move Toward Machine Calculation
Conceptual Foundations
From Theory to Practice
ASCII: Why 1 Is a Beautiful Number in the Computer Industry
Capturing Sound with Binary Code
Capturing Images
Standard Computer Architecture
Modern Computers
Chip Manufacturing
Cyberinterview: Dan Birenbaum
3. Sending Messages Across the Network - Leonard Shyles
Connecting Users: Access
From Analog to Digital Transmission
Growth of Telecommunications Network
Cellular Telephony
Cyberinterview: Charles Ehlin
PART II: MARKETS
4. Children in Cyberspace - Mark R. Banschick and Josepha S. Banschick
The Child/Internet Interface
Intellectual Development
Internet and the Social World
Identity Formation and the Internet
5. Social and Psychological Uses of the Internet - Jo Ann Magdoff and Jeffrey B. Rubin
Who Uses the Internet?
When the Web Resembles the Real World
Re-creating Identity
What is the True Self? Online and Offline
Emergence and Complexity
Cyberinterview: Marvin Kane
6. Connected Learning in the Information Age - Thomas Mc Cain and Leigh Maxwell
The Infrastructure of Education
The Unique Qualities of Digital Media
Administrative Challenges
Cyberinterview: Rick Marx
7. Adopting Instructional Technologies - Judy C. Pearson
Brief Overview
Assessing the Impact of Instructional Technologies
The Promise of Instructional Technologies
Challenges Facing Administrators
PART III: POLICY
8. Law and Regulation, Part I: Individual Interests - Keith Lee and Janessa Light
Freedom of Expression
Constitutional Right to Privacy
Copyrights
Epilogue
9. Law and Regulation, Part II: Business Interests - Janessa Light and Katherine Neikirk
Trademarks
Jurisdiction
Defamation
Epilogue
Appendix A: US Radio Spectrum Allocations and Uses