INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
H1: INTRODUCTION TO INTERACTIVE MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
Definitions and concepts:
- IM&E = the use of interactive platforms for entertainment purposes
- Entertainment = a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an
audience, that gives pleasure and delight
o Exhibition entertainment = f.e. amusement parks, fairs, museums
o Media entertainment = f.e. film, TV, music, digital games
o Live entertainment = f.e. theatre, concerts, sports, parties
- Entertainment can also have a serious purpose (e.g. achieving insight, intellectual
growth)
- And/or be used for other, more pragmatic goals: to advertise and promote, to
teach and train, to inform, …
- Interactive media = media that allow for interactivity with the audience
o Inter = between, implying a two-way exchange
o Active = doing something, being involved and engaged in the activity,
there’s an active relationship between the audience and the medium
content
- Interactive media offer a profoundly different way of relating to medium content
o Passively enjoying a form of entertainment: you are merely watching,
listening, reading (+ making connections in your mind, questioning things)
→ traditional media
o Interactively enjoying a form of entertainment: you actually become a
participant, you can control what happens, how the story unfolds, the
choices that are made, ...
- Types of interactivity with media:
o Cognitive interactivity = interpretative participation (f.e. in story)
o Functional interactivity = utilitarian use (f.e. remote control)
o Explicit interactivity = exerting influence on, shaping media concent
(f.e. playing a videogame)
o Beyond-the-object interactivity = interacting with media outside the
contents itself (f.e. participating in fan culture, fan communities
Choice and control:
Interactive entertainment offers the audience 2 gifts:
1) Ability to control aspects of the medium content agency
2) Ability to make choices and to see and enjoy the results of those choices
BUT: because each user is in control of their own path through the material, interactivity
can never truly be a mass audience experience because each person makes their own
choices
Fields of study:
communication sciences
- Increasing interest
- Digital communication takes over most areas of traditional comm
- Rise of new forms of interactive media
- A few devisions that have a specific focus on IM&E:
o Communication and Technology
o Game Studies
o Information systems
Communication & Technology (CAT)
- Roles played by information and communication technologies (ICT’s) in the
processes of human communication
- CAT seeks to enhance theory on adaption, message content, communication
networks, effects and polity of ICT’s
Game Studies
1
,INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
- Study of games and game experience offering opportunities for the study of
human comm
- Multidisciplinary approaches that merge other disciplines
Information Systems
- Focus on information, language and cognitive systems
- Goal is promoting the development of general theories of complex systems and
quantitative methodologies for communication research within a variety of
domains
- Studies of information flows, the human interface with comm technology and life
in an information society
Research areas:
- Multidisciplinary field
o Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
o Media and Entertainment Studies
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
= a field of study focusing on the design and use of computer technology
- Interfacing between users and computers
- Methods and theories with regards to:
o Designing new computer interfaces + optimizing the design of existing
computer interfaces
o Evalutaing interfaces for their usability and user experience
o Studying human computer use and its sociocultural implications
Media and Entertainment Studies
= a field of study focusing on the content, history and effects of (digital) media
- Psychological effects (negative (addiction, aggression) and positive (problem-
solving, meaning-making))
- Motivations for media use
- Identity
- Gender studies
- Community building
- Marketing
H2.1.HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS AND EFFECTS OF IM&E
Birth of digital entertainment:
- Interactive entertainment has existed before the invention of computers and
digital content most forms of human entertainment are ‘interactive’
- Actual birth of digital entertainment: the development of the modern computer
now entertainment is made possible through digital media that allows explicit
interactivity
History of the computer:
1890:
- Machine that could perform computations using punch-card technology
- Designed to speed up computations for the US Census Bureau
- Would become the workhorses of the business and scientific world for 50 years
1940: WW2
- War accelerated the development of the modern computer (machines that could
quickly perform complex calculations were urgently needed)
- Earliest computers were specific-purpose: breaking a specific code, solving a
specific equation
- New code or equation = a new machine
- Makes things complicated need for a more general purpose calculator/computer
2
,INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
1946: ENIAC
- Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer
- = the first general-purpose computer
o Primarily used to calculae artillery firing tables for the US Army
o First program: feasibility of the thermonuclear weapon (could perform
calculations x1000 faster than previous computers
o But: cumbersome and bulky machine, could not easily be programmed
1950s-1970s:
- Rapid progression of computers
- Computers faster, smaller, more memory and perform more functions
- Computer-controlled robots and AI were articulated and refined
1970s:
- Essential elements could be shrunk down to tiny microchips
- Hardware became cheaper
- Software became easier to use
- Development of a more intuitive user interface
o From keyboard + command-line interface (CLI) mouse and keyboard +
graphical user interface (GUI)
1980s-1990s:
- The creation of Personal Computers widely available to the public
- Great number of devices became computer-enhanced (children’s toys,
telephones)
- = the start of the digital revolution
2000s:
- Further innovations in user interfaces
o Handheld devices (tablets, smartphones): touch-based interfaces
o Games & VR: body-based and action-oriented interfaces
o Natural language or voice user interface (VUI): spoken interface where the
user interacts with the computer by talking to it (Siri, Alexa, Google)
History of the internet:
1960s:
- Basic concept of the Internet is sketched out (Cold War)
- Connecting computers together to allow them to send information back and forth
even though geographically distant from one another
- 1969: the US Department of Defense commissioned and launched the Advanced
Research Project Association Net (ARPANET) designed to transmit scientific
and military data
- ARPANET: led to the discovery of:
o Email (electronic mail)
o MUD (Multi-User Dungeon / Multi-User Domain = text-based role-playing
adventure game
1990:
- Decommissioning of ARPANET by the US
- 1991: birth of the World Wide Web (created by Tim Berners-Lee)
o A system for disseminating information over the internet
o Created critical ingredients to do so:
Uniform Resource Locators (URL’s) = a web address: a
reference to a web recource that specifies its location on a
computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) = the standard markup
language for creating web pages and web applications
3
, INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
Hypertext Tranfer Protocol (HTTP) = an application protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems
Implications: the Internet and computer paved the way for new interactive
entertainment
Digital entertainment: allowing for explicit interactivity
- Computer: interactivity with content
- Internet: interactivity with content + with other people
History of social media:
1979:
- Creation of Usenet (by Tom Truscott & Jim Ellis)
o = a worldwide discussion system that allowed internet users to post public
messages
o = precursor to today’s internet for a
1997:
- Birth of the first social networking site (SNS) called SixDegrees.com
o You can set up a profile page, create a list of connections and interact
through messages
o But: too ahead of its time? People were increasingly flocking to the
internet, but most didn’t have extended networks of friends who were
online so not really useful
o Service was closed in 2000
1998:
- Founding of Open Diary
o = a SNS that brought together online diary writers into one community
- Weblog pops up at the same time
o 1999: turned into a blog
2000:
- Founding of Friendster
o Originally designed as a dating site (focused to help friends-of-friends
meet) to compete with Match.com, which was focused on introducing
people to strangers with similar interests
o Three groups of early adopters: bloggers, attendees of the Burning Man
arts festival and gay men
o Popularity grew through WOM and press coverage
o Popularity shrunk due to technical and social difficulties
2003:
- From now onward, SNS is the mainstream
- Beginning of popular SNS with the creation of MySpace
o = a Friendster rival that quickly became the go-to site for musicians and
teenagers
- Apex (2005): 25M users, 5th most popular site in US, sold to NewsCorp (for 580
million dollars)
SNS became a global phenomenom
- While MySpace attracted the majority of media attention in the US, a variety of
SNSs were growing worldwide
2004:
- Facebook
o = SNS originally designed to support distinct college networks only
4
VANHOOREN
H1: INTRODUCTION TO INTERACTIVE MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
Definitions and concepts:
- IM&E = the use of interactive platforms for entertainment purposes
- Entertainment = a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an
audience, that gives pleasure and delight
o Exhibition entertainment = f.e. amusement parks, fairs, museums
o Media entertainment = f.e. film, TV, music, digital games
o Live entertainment = f.e. theatre, concerts, sports, parties
- Entertainment can also have a serious purpose (e.g. achieving insight, intellectual
growth)
- And/or be used for other, more pragmatic goals: to advertise and promote, to
teach and train, to inform, …
- Interactive media = media that allow for interactivity with the audience
o Inter = between, implying a two-way exchange
o Active = doing something, being involved and engaged in the activity,
there’s an active relationship between the audience and the medium
content
- Interactive media offer a profoundly different way of relating to medium content
o Passively enjoying a form of entertainment: you are merely watching,
listening, reading (+ making connections in your mind, questioning things)
→ traditional media
o Interactively enjoying a form of entertainment: you actually become a
participant, you can control what happens, how the story unfolds, the
choices that are made, ...
- Types of interactivity with media:
o Cognitive interactivity = interpretative participation (f.e. in story)
o Functional interactivity = utilitarian use (f.e. remote control)
o Explicit interactivity = exerting influence on, shaping media concent
(f.e. playing a videogame)
o Beyond-the-object interactivity = interacting with media outside the
contents itself (f.e. participating in fan culture, fan communities
Choice and control:
Interactive entertainment offers the audience 2 gifts:
1) Ability to control aspects of the medium content agency
2) Ability to make choices and to see and enjoy the results of those choices
BUT: because each user is in control of their own path through the material, interactivity
can never truly be a mass audience experience because each person makes their own
choices
Fields of study:
communication sciences
- Increasing interest
- Digital communication takes over most areas of traditional comm
- Rise of new forms of interactive media
- A few devisions that have a specific focus on IM&E:
o Communication and Technology
o Game Studies
o Information systems
Communication & Technology (CAT)
- Roles played by information and communication technologies (ICT’s) in the
processes of human communication
- CAT seeks to enhance theory on adaption, message content, communication
networks, effects and polity of ICT’s
Game Studies
1
,INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
- Study of games and game experience offering opportunities for the study of
human comm
- Multidisciplinary approaches that merge other disciplines
Information Systems
- Focus on information, language and cognitive systems
- Goal is promoting the development of general theories of complex systems and
quantitative methodologies for communication research within a variety of
domains
- Studies of information flows, the human interface with comm technology and life
in an information society
Research areas:
- Multidisciplinary field
o Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
o Media and Entertainment Studies
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
= a field of study focusing on the design and use of computer technology
- Interfacing between users and computers
- Methods and theories with regards to:
o Designing new computer interfaces + optimizing the design of existing
computer interfaces
o Evalutaing interfaces for their usability and user experience
o Studying human computer use and its sociocultural implications
Media and Entertainment Studies
= a field of study focusing on the content, history and effects of (digital) media
- Psychological effects (negative (addiction, aggression) and positive (problem-
solving, meaning-making))
- Motivations for media use
- Identity
- Gender studies
- Community building
- Marketing
H2.1.HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS AND EFFECTS OF IM&E
Birth of digital entertainment:
- Interactive entertainment has existed before the invention of computers and
digital content most forms of human entertainment are ‘interactive’
- Actual birth of digital entertainment: the development of the modern computer
now entertainment is made possible through digital media that allows explicit
interactivity
History of the computer:
1890:
- Machine that could perform computations using punch-card technology
- Designed to speed up computations for the US Census Bureau
- Would become the workhorses of the business and scientific world for 50 years
1940: WW2
- War accelerated the development of the modern computer (machines that could
quickly perform complex calculations were urgently needed)
- Earliest computers were specific-purpose: breaking a specific code, solving a
specific equation
- New code or equation = a new machine
- Makes things complicated need for a more general purpose calculator/computer
2
,INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
1946: ENIAC
- Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer
- = the first general-purpose computer
o Primarily used to calculae artillery firing tables for the US Army
o First program: feasibility of the thermonuclear weapon (could perform
calculations x1000 faster than previous computers
o But: cumbersome and bulky machine, could not easily be programmed
1950s-1970s:
- Rapid progression of computers
- Computers faster, smaller, more memory and perform more functions
- Computer-controlled robots and AI were articulated and refined
1970s:
- Essential elements could be shrunk down to tiny microchips
- Hardware became cheaper
- Software became easier to use
- Development of a more intuitive user interface
o From keyboard + command-line interface (CLI) mouse and keyboard +
graphical user interface (GUI)
1980s-1990s:
- The creation of Personal Computers widely available to the public
- Great number of devices became computer-enhanced (children’s toys,
telephones)
- = the start of the digital revolution
2000s:
- Further innovations in user interfaces
o Handheld devices (tablets, smartphones): touch-based interfaces
o Games & VR: body-based and action-oriented interfaces
o Natural language or voice user interface (VUI): spoken interface where the
user interacts with the computer by talking to it (Siri, Alexa, Google)
History of the internet:
1960s:
- Basic concept of the Internet is sketched out (Cold War)
- Connecting computers together to allow them to send information back and forth
even though geographically distant from one another
- 1969: the US Department of Defense commissioned and launched the Advanced
Research Project Association Net (ARPANET) designed to transmit scientific
and military data
- ARPANET: led to the discovery of:
o Email (electronic mail)
o MUD (Multi-User Dungeon / Multi-User Domain = text-based role-playing
adventure game
1990:
- Decommissioning of ARPANET by the US
- 1991: birth of the World Wide Web (created by Tim Berners-Lee)
o A system for disseminating information over the internet
o Created critical ingredients to do so:
Uniform Resource Locators (URL’s) = a web address: a
reference to a web recource that specifies its location on a
computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) = the standard markup
language for creating web pages and web applications
3
, INTERACTIVE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SAMENVATTING CARO
VANHOOREN
Hypertext Tranfer Protocol (HTTP) = an application protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems
Implications: the Internet and computer paved the way for new interactive
entertainment
Digital entertainment: allowing for explicit interactivity
- Computer: interactivity with content
- Internet: interactivity with content + with other people
History of social media:
1979:
- Creation of Usenet (by Tom Truscott & Jim Ellis)
o = a worldwide discussion system that allowed internet users to post public
messages
o = precursor to today’s internet for a
1997:
- Birth of the first social networking site (SNS) called SixDegrees.com
o You can set up a profile page, create a list of connections and interact
through messages
o But: too ahead of its time? People were increasingly flocking to the
internet, but most didn’t have extended networks of friends who were
online so not really useful
o Service was closed in 2000
1998:
- Founding of Open Diary
o = a SNS that brought together online diary writers into one community
- Weblog pops up at the same time
o 1999: turned into a blog
2000:
- Founding of Friendster
o Originally designed as a dating site (focused to help friends-of-friends
meet) to compete with Match.com, which was focused on introducing
people to strangers with similar interests
o Three groups of early adopters: bloggers, attendees of the Burning Man
arts festival and gay men
o Popularity grew through WOM and press coverage
o Popularity shrunk due to technical and social difficulties
2003:
- From now onward, SNS is the mainstream
- Beginning of popular SNS with the creation of MySpace
o = a Friendster rival that quickly became the go-to site for musicians and
teenagers
- Apex (2005): 25M users, 5th most popular site in US, sold to NewsCorp (for 580
million dollars)
SNS became a global phenomenom
- While MySpace attracted the majority of media attention in the US, a variety of
SNSs were growing worldwide
2004:
o = SNS originally designed to support distinct college networks only
4
