The Emergence of World Wide Web in 1994 - Assignment Example

The Emergence of World Wide Web in 1994 Introduction The modern usage of the media defines the media events. These events often attract wide coverage from media companies in several editions, such as Internet and print, among others. The methods used to relay the media events to the society have evolved significantly from the past centuries. Commercial radios and newspaper are the earliest forms of reporting and relaying the media events. Television, and further cable-television, made the media events to reach several people at the same time and have considerable effects on them. Later with the emergence of new technologies, such as the World Wide Web in mid 1990s, the communication environment was completely changed because there was a capability of reporting and relaying media events across the world during the unfolding of events through debating, instant global reporting, blogging, and polling. Emergence of World Wide Web in 1994 The initial World Wide Web (WWW) conference took place in 1994 under the organization of CERN. This conference was meant to build on the concept of the new technology and commercialize the idea. Some media organizations, such as MBONE and WIRED magazine broadcasted the conference proceedings to the world. The conference was attended mostly by academic community (A history of HTML). The conference agreed to support and further the development of the new technology because it was going to be of great importance to the world in terms of communication and exchanging information. The World Wide Web has changed considerably the way information is relayed to the audience, the urgency, the social behavior of the community, the political policies, the cultural practices as well as economic conditions. Effects of the Emergence of World Wide Web on the Society The emergence of World Wide Web has transformed various aspects of the society. The way business is carried out, communication, and the cultural values in the society have been shaped by this great event. The World Wide Web gave rise to the use of social media, including blogging and polling, debating, and instant reporting of media events across the globe. The consumption of information from the media events changed as the World Wide Web, through social media, made information to reach a wider population across the world over short time. The urgency and the immediacy of information relaying increased compared to the use of conventional medium like the televisions, radio, and newspapers (Shirky 1). Social behavior The WWW has seen the advent of social networking sites, which promote social media. Social networking sites provide a large global community of people with similar needs, to consume, and share information with one another. The WWW has modified the social behavior of individuals within the society such that most people spend their time online. The WWW has ensured that information can spread virally across the globe through the Internet. Individuals can stay in touch with their friends throughout the world. This interconnection is important in spreading information beyond cultural, political, religious, and physical boundaries. Social media are fast and information travels over million miles in seconds to reach the destination. Individuals are more attracted to the social media as a way of making friends, exchanging ideas, consuming information, and staying in touch with the world (Calladine). However, before the advent of World Wide Web, people across the world would always rely on the conventional medium of communication, such as television, radio, and newspapers to consume information and subsequently pass information to other parts of the world. Human beings are social creatures and friendships are part of their lives. Friends were made in social places and gatherings. Presently, the trend has changed, and the social behavior of humans has been changed by the WWW. Friendships are made online and more time is spent over the Internet. The time spent with friends and families chatting and sharing experiences has reduced; instead, people meet over the social media to share experience and information as well as news across the world in blogs, websites, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (Calladine). The capacity to interact between different persons in the society has increased more than the period before emergence of WWW. Political policies The emergence of WWW has also affected the political policies in several countries across the world. The large number of users in social media provides an effective means of mobilizing the population with the same political views to fight for their desired course. The widely debated Arab Spring that swept the authoritarian Arab governments is an excellent example of how WWW, through the social media, has modified political policies. The social media played a key role during the Arab uprisings. Information on where to meet, how to organize the protests, and the way the dictatorial governments deprived the citizens of their rights were communicated to members online. Videos and pictures about the brutality of the governments were shared instantly among members in online social sites (Shirky 2). The eye witnesses in such occurrences took over the role of the journalists and reported the events over the Internet. As a result, the protesters could marshal the numbers and strategize on how to push the government to give in to their demands. Social media was crucial in pushing such governments to change the political policies, which were not popular among the citizens of the country. The capacity of the large group of networked community using social media provide increased opportunity for the society to participate in public speech and the ability to participate in collective action (Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes 223). Social media tools are used to coordinate political movements across the globe. Since several persons are involved in online social networks, democratic governments are modifying their policies to provide these individuals with free Internet access as an element of freedom of expression. The media has immense potential to influence the public opinion through informing the society of the issues and events happening. The freedom of Internet access strengthens several civil society organizations globally and consequently shapes the political policies of the affected countries. Communication freedom is essential for political freedom (Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes 223). Economic condition The increasing number of people using the social media to communicate and share information has influenced the marketing world to use social media tools for marketing and advertising their businesses online to the potential clients. The online users of social media tools can promote business of an organization or totally fail a company. The online customers of a given organization for instance, may influence negatively the sales of a particular product by spreading rumors or true stories about the defects or the weak points of a product. In turn, the message will reach several potential customers, across the globe, within a short period and affect the sales of the product. An example of such occurrence is how the customers of Toyota Motor Industry could spread information that there were manufacturing faults in the vehicle. The negative publicity may have a negative effect on the economic condition of the company (Dewing). In addition, social media provides the customers with an avenue of letting out their opinions about products and organizations to the world. Businesses therefore, are focusing in satisfying their customers to avoid the possibility of them publicizing the product and the company negatively. The emergence of World Wide Web via social media tools therefore, affects the economic condition of companies. The comments and the opinions of customers in online company portals or product pages are used by the organization to evaluate the product position and meet the customer’s product requirement for better and improved economic return. The business decisions on economic conditions of products and services are evidently affected by the emergence of WWW (Huckabee). Cultural values The corporate culture of doing business has been largely affected since the emergence of WWW. More users have joined the social networking sites and the numbers have attracted organizations and businesspersons to conduct business online. Prior to the emergence of WWW, businesses could advertise and market their companies, products, and services via billboards, radio, television, and newspapers. However, technology, and the popularity of WWW have changed the business culture to embrace online businesses. The business culture has been modified to cope with the technological advances and the ever-changing customer demands. Presently, the world has changed to welcome millions of online businesses supported by advanced software and Internet infrastructure (Newman 5). The emergence of the WWW has provided the audience and recipients of news from the media organizations an opportunity to have a two-way-conversation with the society. In the conventional days, the public was to respond and communicate to the media organizations about the information presented to them, for instance the case of radios and televisions. Nevertheless, WWW has enabled a way of communicating and responding to the news updates and alerts. The culture that existed, in which the audience was not expected to comment or respond to the alerts, has changed. Currently, most information, and updates are contributed to by the public (Newman 4). Conclusion The media world has been changing constantly with the technology and the changing environment. The needs of the news consumers shape the changes that take place in media industry. World Wide Web is largely known to have changed immensely the way media operates. Further, the impact of the new media techniques and medium of operation based on the WWW has massive influence and effect on the society. The social behavior, the political policies, economic conditions, and the cultural values of the society have been modified in one way or another by the WWW through debating, instant global reporting, blogging, and polling as social media tools. Works Cited A history of HTML. 1998. 30 April 2012. Calladine, Dan. Next Generation Media. 2012. 30 April 2012. Dewing, Carryn. Social media: SMEs must wise up. 11 February 2011. 30 April 2012. Huckabee, Huck. Social Media’s Impact on Economic Theory. 11 November 2010. 30 April 2012 . Newman, Nic. "The Rise of Social Media and Its Impact on Mainstream Journalism." September 2009. 30 April 2012. Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley and Barbara A. Bardes. American Government & Politics Today. Australia ; Boston, MA : Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Shirky, Clay. "The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere and Political Change." January 2011. 30 April 2012. Read More