A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Friday, January 26, 2007

COM 150 -- today's in-class journal

Some questions to focus your reading and get you started on class discussion ... start by reviewing the summary and questions at the end of Chapter 1 in our textbook. Then answer the questions. Post your answers (see below) as comments on this entry on the class blog.

1. What do a shaman, a webmaster and an advertising copywriter have in common?

2. What does it mean to digitize information? How, briefly, does it work? If your significant other were to give you the "silent treatment" on the phone, how would that information be conveyed digitally? What would it look like? Why, briefly, does it matter?

3. How many career changes can you expect in your lifetime? Where are the jobs going to be in the information industry in the 21st century? How might you fit that information into your career planning as a college student?

As you quote from the book, it would be a good idea to put page numbers in parentheses after the quote or the information you cite. We have an open-book midterm and final, and this will help get you in practice.

How to post your answers

Go to the bottom of this entry (right below this 'graf). On the left side of the last line, there will be a link that says "___ posts" (with a number filled in where I've left a blank, depending on how many comments have been posted). Click on that link and fill in the comment field on the right. Sign in (make a note of the username and password you choose because we'll keep on posting to the blog), review your comment if you wish and publish it by clicking on "Publish Your Comment." Logical, isn't it? And, just think, you're digitizing your thoughts. Doing your bit for the digital revolution, right?

____________

* "Graf" is a word that journalists, who really ought to try harder to be good communicators, use to refer to a paragraph.

16 comments:

aneshaH said...

A webmaster keeps the web server running properely. A shaman is a medium for the supernatural and the world. An advertising company works to conceive, develop, and produce effective advertisements. They are similar because they all are something that keeps on thing going.

beckyvandyke said...

1. They all like pizza, because, let's be honest, who doesn't like pizza?!

2. According to Wikipedia, digitizing or digitization is representing an object, an image, or a signal (usually an analog signal) by a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called "digital representation" or, more specifically, a "digital image", for the object, and "digital form", for the signal.

Analog signals are continuously variable, both in the number of possible values of the signal at a given time, as well as in the number of points in the signal in a given period of time. However, digital signals are discrete in both of those respects, and so a digitization can only ever be an approximation of the signal it represents. The digital representation does not necessarily lose information in this transformation since the analog signal usually contains both information and noise.

A digital signal may be represented by a sequence of integers. Digitization is performed by reading an analog signal A, and, at regular time intervals (sampling frequency), representing the value of A at that point by an integer. Each such reading is called a sample.

A series of integers can be transformed back into an analog signal that approximates the original analog signal. Such a transformation is called DA conversion. There are two factors determining how close such an approximation to an analog signal A a digitization D can be, namely the sampling rate and the number of bits used to represent the integers.

Should your boyfriend/girlfriend give you the silent treatment, I doubt it would show anything when digitized. For there would be no audio information to digitize. And it matters only because in our day in age, it's growing into a largely discussed and experimented subject.

3. You could expect anywhere from 3-5 career changes in your lifetime based on family issues, job availability, and personality. In the 21st century you can also be positive that most of the jobs in the information industry are going to move out of the paper-information arena and into the area of the internet and web-administration. As a college student it would be incredibly wise to focus on computers and the internet as core studies.

Nathan Pfleger said...

1. They all communicate with many people on a regular basis. Sometimes for help and sometimes for information.

2. To digitalize information is to basically put it on the internet to be accesable at any time. The way you could tell if your significant other was giving you the silent treatment is by basically hearing nothing on the phone. Dead silent would mean that she isn't talking to you. It doesnt have a shape or form or anything. It is like an electrical current.

3. I can say that I probably expect two to three career changes in my life time. I want to work in a hospital which is always digitally up to date. Plus you have to interact with many people and many new things in technology. Medical records are now being placed on hand-held laptops and can be brought up in a click of a button.

Pete said...

Hint: In traditional societies, a shaman is somebody who communicates with the spirit world. So that makes them communications workers.

Who do we have in today's society that function like shamans?

Pete said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
aneshaH said...

2. Todigitize information is to input information into a computer or into a cellphone as a text message. Basically typing instead of writing. If i was given the silent treatment it wouldn't look like anything because there are no words. Ex. .

aneshaH said...

2. Todigitize information is to input information into a computer or into a cellphone as a text message. Basically typing instead of writing. If i was given the silent treatment it wouldn't look like anything because there are no words. Ex. .

sbelch1 said...

1.They all communicate with people on a regular basis.
2.According to Wikipedia, digitizing or digitization is representing an object, an image, or a signal (usually an analog signal) by a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called "digital representation" or, more specifically, a "digital image", for the object, and "digital form", for the signal.

Analog signals are continuously variable, both in the number of possible values of the signal at a given time, as well as in the number of points in the signal in a given period of time. However, digital signals are discrete in both of those respects, and so a digitization can only ever be an approximation of the signal it represents. The digital representation does not necessarily lose information in this transformation since the analog signal usually contains both information and noise.

A digital signal may be represented by a sequence of integers. Digitization is performed by reading an analog signal A, and, at regular time intervals (sampling frequency), representing the value of A at that point by an integer. Each such reading is called a sample.

A series of integers can be transformed back into an analog signal that approximates the original analog signal. Such a transformation is called DA conversion. There are two factors determining how close such an approximation to an analog signal A a digitization D can be, namely the sampling rate and the number of bits used to represent the integers.

Should your mate give you the silent treatment, I doubt it would show anything when digitized. For there would be no audio information to digitize. And it matters only because in our day in age, it's growing into a largely discussed and experimented subject. If their is not comunnication their is no digitizing.
3.According to careergoddess.com the average person can expect 3-5 career changes. In the 21st century the internet will be the source of jobs.Fitting that into your career is important bc that's the future for you so you should be aware of how to use and browse the internet for information about careers and jobs.

Jared Zueck said...

1. They all communicate with people on a regular basis.

2. Digitalizing Information is when information is anything that is on the internet. This means information that is "digital" can be viewed at anytime by anyone. There are no restrictions for anyone viewing the information.
Information could be given to eachother via e-mail, text messaging and instant messaging to name a few. The information wouldn't physically look like anything, but letters and numbers on your cellphone or computer. It matters because now no matter what anyone can talk to anyone at anytime without opening their mouth.

3. There is no definite amount of job changes in a lifetime, atleast not in my opinion. Most jobs in the 21st century will be in computer technology. This would help us plan as college students because computers are now in our everyday lives and since we are using them more often now than ever we will be able to adapt to our jobs easier later on in life.

J-Stan said...

1. They are all apart of a visible world and an invisible world.

2. It means to transform that information so that it can be used on the computer. This could be conveyed by text messaging or multi-media messaging.

3. I'll only have one career, but my jobs can change in that career. All the jobs in the 21st century in the information industry are probably going to be with cellular phones. Apply for a job there.

Tim said...

I do not exactly knwo what they all have in common but if I had to guess i would say that all three are in charge of something and are all in a position of power.

I believe it means to digitize is to put into the computer or in print. To give a silent treatment in digitize form would be to put nothing or ---- with a smiley face with the crossed out mouth saying the other person is not talking. It doesnt really matter.

I believe that in my lifetime I will have maybe 1 or two carear changes. The jobs are going to be in newspapers and internet writers in the 21st century. I will learn alot about computers to keep up with the times.

Andrew said...

1. They use their sources of media such as writing or speaking to communicate to people.

2. Digitizing information is converting data into a computer. The silent treatment would look blank if it were digitized. I really don't think that it would matter that much if the silent treatment was digitized. (9)

3. 4 or 5 jobs. Jobs such as journalism, radio, film, television, and computer science will be needed jobs in the 21st century. While studying in college, classes can be taken to give you certain skills in these fields. (130)

aneshaH said...

3. Two maybe three career changes in one lifetime. Would be average for most people. A lot of information in the 21st century is going to come from the internet mostly.

angela_n26 said...

1. A shaman, a webmaster and an advertising copywriter all deal with information. Each one works with a client or person who they may not be able to see, but are able to reach regardless. A shaman is able to work with invisible spirits, a webmaster creates a web page that reaches countless people over the Internet, and an advertising copywriter is able to influence people through ads.

2. To digitize means to code information in number format so that a computer is able to read it. On the phone, an electric current is being turned on and off to convey silence or conversation. Silence registers as a "0", and conversation is indicated by a "1". (Information found on page 6.) If the information were not digitized first, then conversation could not take place.

3. "Most people entering the workforce today will have four or five different careers - not just jobs, but careers - in their future" (page 13). The jobs that are the fastest-growing today include actor, writer, producer, advertiser, systems analyst, writer, and editor(page 15). If I were wanting a job in communications, I would gear my studies toward one of these jobs, that way I could be fairly certain that a job would be waiting for me as soon as I graduate from college.

mbrown said...

3. According to page 13 a person can have four or five careers, not jobs, but careers in a life time. Job growth is going to be in occupations requiring an undergraduate degree and technical degrees. As a college student you may want to look towards a computer technology degree

Pete said...

We're off to a good start here!

Some of the answers --

1. They're all communications workers ... a lot of the first chapter, and the whole book, is about how we've evolved into an information society.

2. You're all right about digitizing. Look at the little box on how digital information is combination of 1's and 0's ... and silence on the phone would look like 00000000.

3. You're all in the ballpark on the number of careers ... not jobs but careers ... you can expect to have. The jobs are going to be in production, and they're going to involve technologies that haven't even been invented that.

I started out in the newspaper business using manual typewriters, and now most of my writing is for web publication, in a medium that haden't even been invented yet. And I'm not that old.

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.