scratch@cisunx.UUCP (Steven J Owens) (04/21/89)
Hello out there in Netland. Your help with this subject would be
greatly appreciated. This is for a final paper in a mass communications
class.
The subject of this paper is computer networks as a valid form of
mass media, and the possibility, practicality, and societal effects, of
a publicly available computer network at minimum costs.
To get one thing clear, the idea in this paper is to have computer
terminals as prevalent in society as telephones. As an example of what
I am proposing, I'm using the French computer/phone network, Minitel.
[they got tired of telephone books that were out of date almost as soon
as they were printed, so they put it all on computer and added a bare
minimum computer terminal on to the phone]
Questions:
1. Awhile back, on news.admin (or news.sysadmin) somebody posted a
quick summary of how much it would cost of have a UUCP "leaf" in every
home in america (or something along those lines). Does anybody have a
copy of this post, or of the pertinent figures, or is anybody willing to
provide me with similar information?
2 The hypothetical computer network in this paper is more like Internet
than Usenet (although bulletin boards would be an important aspect), so
does anybody have any idea what the costs for that kind of network would
be?
3. What kind of effects would this network have on society? Some of
the effects can be extrapolated from Minitel, but what about others?
How would advertising be affected? How about the effect on other media?
4. What kind of effect would this network have on the people who use
it? For example, a computer network would allow the user/recipients of
the mass media a GREAT deal more control over what he or she receives,
and would also allow two-way mass communication (since you would no
longer need a tv or radio station to become involved).
5. Other ideas? Any suggestions would be most welcome. I have most of
the rough structure and ideas I want to work with, but hard data is
welcome, as well as additional ideas.
Post to provoke followup discussions :-)
(I just hope I manage to track down all the posts! :-)
Steven J. Owens | SCRATCH@PITTVMS | (via bitnet) UUCP? Mail Path? Hah!
"...'fire' does not matter, 'earth' and 'air' and 'water' do not
matter. 'I' do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality
and remembers words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his
fellows esteem him. He looks upon the great transformations of the
world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon
reality for the first time. Their names come to his lips and he smiles
as he tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming."
- Siddartha, _Lord_of_Light_ by Roger Zelazny
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