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HISTORY of Emerging Media

New mediums evolve everyday and must have dated back to the earliest moments of
humanity. So to begin and end with what emerging media we have today, it is safe to start
somewhere that is of closer relevance to what media we have at the moment and what's still
emerging.

PRINTING
3000 BC
The Mesopotamians use round cylinder seals for rolling an impress of images onto clay tablets.
In other early societies in China and Egypt, small stamps are used to print on cloth.
SECOND CENTURY AD
A Chinese man named Ts’ai Lun is credited with inventing paper.
ELEVENTH CENTURY
A Chinese man named Pi-Sheng develops type characters from hardened clay, creating the first
movable type. The fairly soft material hampers the success of this technology.
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Type characters cast from metal (bronze) are developed in China, Japan and Korea. The oldest
known book printed using metal type dates back to the year 1377. It is a Korean Buddhist
document, called Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Seon Masters.

FIFTEENTH CENTURY
In 1436 Gutenberg begins work on a printing press. It takes him 4 years to finish his wooden
press which uses movable metal type.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Aldus Manutius is the first printer to come up with smaller, more portable books. He is also the
first to use Italic type, designed by Venetian punchcutter Francesco Griffo.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
In 1710 the German painter and engraver Jakob Christof Le Blon produces the first engraving in
several colors. He uses the mezzotint method to engrave three metal plates. Each plate is inked
with a different color, using red, yellow and blue.
The Gentleman’s Magazine is published for the first time in 1731.
Alois Senefelder invents lithography in 1796 and uses it as a low-cost method for printing
theatrical works. In a more refined form lithography is still the dominant printing technique
today.
NINETEENTH CENTURY
In 1800 Charles Stanhope, the third Earl Stanhope, builds the first press which has an iron frame
instead of a wooden one. This Stanhope press is faster, more durable and it can print larger
sheets.
In 1837 Godefroy Engelmann is awarded a patent on chromolithography, a method for printing
in color using lithography. Chromolithographs or chromos are mainly used to reproduce
paintings.
Around the same time the American inventor Richard March Hoe builds the first lithographic
rotary printing press, a press in which the type is placed on a revolving cylinder instead of a
flatbed. This speeds up the printing process considerably.

TWENTIETH CENTURY
In 1903 American printer Ira Washington Rubel is instrumental in producing the first
lithographic offset press for paper.
In 1915 Hallmark, founded in 1910, creates its first Christmas card. Press manufacturer Koenig &
Bauer launch the four-color Iris printing press in 1923.
In 1938 Xerography, a dry photocopying technique is invented by Chester Carlson. The first
commercial xerographic copier is introduced in 1949 but it is the 1959 Xerox 914 plain paper
copier that is the breakthrough.
In 1967 the ISBN or International Standard Book Number started. This is a unique numeric
identifier for commercial books.
The first laser printers, such as the IBM 3800 and Xerox 9700, hit the market in 1975.
Desktop publishing takes off in 1985.
The print newspaper is one of the oldest elements of the contemporary media landscape.
According to Smith (1979), the first daily publication was Einkommende Zeitung[Incoming
News], established by the bookseller Timotheus Ritzsch in Leipzig in 1650.
With dozens of millions of new copies printed every day in the United States alone, it is not
surprising to find dailies almost everywhere. From living rooms to bathrooms, from offices to
factories, from hospitals to hairdressers, from libraries to coffee shops, and from trains to
planes, current issues of print papers are almost omnipresent inhabitants of modern life. Their
ubiquity extends to familiar practices unrelated to news and advertising needs: sellers use them
to wrap fish, painters to cover carpets and floors, homeless people to warm their bodies,
campers to start fires, waiters and waitresses to balance unruly tables and chairs. The creation
of such a ubiquitous artifact has implications not only for the information realm but also for the
natural environment: it is estimated that producing the Sunday edition of the New York Times,
for example, consumes about 27,000 trees (Baldwin, McVoy, and Steinfield 1996).
The ubiquity of newspapers is tied to their significant standardization.
Despite differences in yesterday’s and today’s news and advertisements, two recent issues of
the same paper tend to look remarkably alike. The same happens with different newspapers, to
the point that visitors to a foreign country are often able to get a basic sense of the day’s news
by simply glancing at the local paper’s headlines. This standardization results from a relatively
stable ensemble of technical, communication, and organizational practices. Such a stable
ensemble ensures that input consisting of information about often heterogeneous and
unpredictable events is turned into a relatively homogeneous and predictable daily product.

Transition to Digital Media


THE EMERGENCE OF COMPUTERS
During the 19th century, an English mathematics professor named Charles Babbage designed
the Analytical Engine. It was from this design that the basic framework of today's computers
were based on.
Computers are generally classified into three (3) generations, each lasting for a certain period of
time and giving either a new and improved computer or an improvement to the existing one.
• 1st Generation (1937-1946)
Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer in 1937. Named
after them, it was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). An electronic computer named
the Colossus was built for the military in 1943. Further developments continued until 1946,
when the first general-purpose digital computer called Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer (ENIAC) was constructed. It was said that this computer weighed approximately 30
tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes used for processing. When it was turned on for the first time,
lights dimmed in sections of Philadelphia. Computers from this generation are known to only
perform a single task and have no operating systems.
• 2nd Generation (1947-1962)
The computers from this generation used transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The first
computer for commercial use was introduced to the public in 1951; it was called the Universal
Automatic Computer (UNIVAC 1). Around 1953, the International Business Machine (IBM) 650
and 700 series computers made their mark in the world of computers. This generation has seen
over a 100 of computer programming languages develop. Computers were then equipped with
memories and operating systems. Storage media such as tapes and disks were in use, as well as
printers for different outputs.
• 3rd Generation (1963-present)
This generation of computers came about by the invention of integrated circuits. With this
invention, computers became smaller. With more power and more reliability, they are able to
run multiple programs all at the same time. In 1980, the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-
DOS) was launched and in 1981, IBS introduced the personal computer (PC) for home and office
use. In 1984, Apple gave us the Macintosh computer. The 90s made way for the Windows
operating system.
1800s
Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage work on algorithms. In 1820s Babbage worked on the
‘Difference Engine‘, a machine which could perform mathematical calculations.
1930s and 1940s
Alan Turing, mathematician and code-breaker. Machines could read the information on
computers, even though this may seem strange to modern generations. highly influential in the
development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of
algorithm and computation with the Turing machine.
1940s
Colossus Computer at Betchley Park. Colossus was a set of computers developed by British
codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus
used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform ((Boolean and counting operations. Colossus
is thus regarded as the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer, although it was
programmed by switches and plugs and not by a stored program
1970s
Invention of Microprocessor. The microprocessor has origins in the development of the MOSFET
(metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor), which was first
demonstrated by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng of Bell Labs in 1960. The
microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock driven, register based, digital integrated circuit that
accepts binary data as input, processes it according to ((instructions stored in its ((memory and
provides results (also in binary form) as output.
1980s
IBM PCs. IBM's own Personal Computer (IBM 5150) was introduced in August 1981, only a year
after corporate executives gave the go-ahead to Bill Lowe. The generic term "personal
computer" ("PC") was in use years before 1981, but the term "PC" came to mean more
specifically a desktop microcomputer compatible with IBM's Personal Computer branded
products.
The internet as we know it doesn’t exist until much later, but internet history starts in the
1960s. In 1962, MIT computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider comes up with the idea for a global
computer network. He later shares his idea with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Work by Leonard Kleinrock, Thomas Merrill and
Lawrence G. Roberts on packet-switching theory pioneers the way to the world’s first wide-area
computer network. Roberts later goes on to publish a plan for the ARPANET, an ARPA-funded
computer network that becomes a reality in 1969. Over the following years, the ARPANET
grows.
In 1973, Robert Kahn (works at Xerox) and Vinton Cerf collaborate to develop a protocol for
linking multiple networks together.
Dave Farber of the University of Delaware reveals a project to build an inexpensive network
using dial-up phone lines. In 1982, the PhoneNet system is established and is connected to
ARPANET and the first commercial network, Telenet. This broadens access to the internet and
allows for email communication between multiple nations of the world. I
In 1990, ARPANET is decommissioned. Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN develop
hypertext markup language (HTML) and the uniform resource locator (URL), giving birth to the
first incarnation of the World Wide Web. A watershed year for the internet comes in 1995:
Microsoft launches Windows 95; Amazon, Yahoo and eBay all launch; Internet Explorer
launches; and Java is created, allowing for animation on websites and creating a new flurry of
internet activity. In 1996, Congress passes the Communications Decency Act in an effort to
combat the growing amount of objectionable material on the internet. John Perry Barlow
responds with an essay, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Google is founded in
1998. In 1999, the music and video piracy controversy intensifies with the launch of Napster.
The first internet virus capable of copying and sending itself to a user’s address book is
discovered in 1999
2000 sees the rise and burst of the dotcom bubble. While myriad internet-based businesses
become present in everyday life, the Dow Jones industrial average also sees its biggest one-day
drop in history up to that point. By 2001, most publicly traded dotcom companies are gone. It’s
not all bad news, though; the 2000s see Google’s meteoric rise to domination of the search
engine market. This decade also sees the rise and proliferation of Wi-Fi — wireless internet
communication — as well as mobile internet devices like smartphones and, in 2005, the first-
ever internet cat video.
And as Print media becomes ubiquitous, it has now developed digitally. They now have sites to
read their papers. The use of digital computers has transformed the remaining 'old' media, as
suggested by the advent of digital television and online publications. Even traditional media
forms such as the printing press have been transformed through the application of technologies
such as image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and desktop publishing tools.
EARLY 2000’s
Smartphones. The development of the smartphone was enabled by several key technological
advances. The exponential scaling and miniaturization of MOSFETs (MOS transistors) down to
sub-micron levels during the 1990s–2000s as predicted by Moore's law and made it possible to
build portable smart devices such as smartphones, as well as enabling the transistor from
analog to faster digital wireless mobile networks leading to Edholm's law. Other important
enabling factors include the lithium-ion battery, an indispensable energy source enabling long
battery life, invented in the 1980s and commercialized in 1991, and the development of more
mature software platforms that allowed mobile device ecosystems to develop independently of
data providers. Smartphones pushed us towards the age of artificial intelligence. When the
smartphone rose in popularity in the early 2000s, web designers need to fit websites onto a
much smaller screen. Now, we can converse with technology. Cars, TVs, stereos, and even
washing machine and other Wi-Fi devices have been entering our lives.
The first wave of artificial intelligence was first seen early in 2016 in the form of
chatbots. This goes all the way back to 1980s when technology companies started to present
graphical user interface as a means to make technology user-friendly. Chatbots provide icons,
buttons, toolbars, other graphical elements, and a conversational interface so that the
computer could be easily consumed by a mass market (Bayerque, 2016). They are “software
applications that mimic written or spoken human speech for the purposes of simulating a
conversation or interaction with a real person” (Wordstream, 2017). Through this, we can now
easily replace mobile apps, email marketing, and costumer care agents. These cut one’s cost
and time to increase revenue (Cooper, 2019).
Artificial intelligence are machines that act as rational agents which can simulate
realistically human communication. In the 1950s and 60’s computer scientists Alan Turing and
Joseph Weizenbaum contemplated the concept of computes communicating like humans. They
invented the first chatterbot program, Eliza. It went under the Turing Test which was developed
to test a computer’s ability to display intelligent behavior. However, in the past, we lacked the
technical knowledge for it to become a reality (Bayerque, 2016).
Chatbots will become the next big thing as we move away from relying so heavily on
apps, according to Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella. “Social media platforms like Facebook
allowed developers to create a chatbot for their brand or service so that consumers could carry
out some of their daily actions from within their messaging platform” (Bayerque, 2016).
Facebook Messenger has a chatbot that converses with 1.3 billion people who use the
application every month.
80% of businesses want a chatbot placed by 2020 because: 1. They reach your audience
directly 2. It saves time and money on customer care 3. It can identify leads to costumers’
needs. 4. It can handle e-commerce transactions and; 5. Re-engage customers (Cooper, 2019).
Another technology branched out from artificial intelligence is Automated Journalism.
According to Corina Underwood of emerj.com (2019), here is the overview of how newsrooms
are now being enhanced by AI:
Streamlining media workflows: AI enables journalists to focus on what they do best:
reporting as illustrated by BBC’s Juicer.

 Automating mundane tasks: An application such as Reuter’s News Tracer can


track down breaking news, so that journalists are not tied down to grunt work.
 Crunching more data: Research can be performed much faster, as shown by The
New York Times Research and Development Lab’s Editor application.
 Digging out media insights: Information can be correlated quickly and efficiently,
such as The Washington Post’s Knowledge Map.
 Eliminating fake news: Fact checking is speedy and reliable. Facebook is using AI
to detect word patterns that may indicate a fake news story.
 Generating outputs: Machines can put together reports and stories from raw
data, such as Narrative Science’s, Quill platform, which turns data into intelligent
stories.
On the other hand, Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a
simulated environment. The term was first used in the mid-1980s when the gear was just
started to be developed. The computer uses sensors whereas if the user’s head turns, the
graphics react accordingly. VR technology creates a convincing, interactive world for the user.
Not to be confused with Augmented Reality (AR) which renders 3D graphics from the viewpoint
of the camera such as IKEA’s Mobile App or Nintendo’s Pokémon Go App.
“The New York Times VR app is a good example of VR, and its launch was accompanied
by sending 1.2 million Google cardboard viewers to subscribers. The all-engrossing VR video
experience builds a deeper level of connectedness and empathy with news stories,”
(wibbitz.com, 2019).
In the Philippines, the country had just have the country’s first “diorama-turned-VR”
360-degree exhibit entitled “Emergence of the Filipino Nation”, a ten-minute VR film directed by
award-winning filmmaker Marco Biemann and fact-checked by famed historian Prof. Ambeth
Ocampo. “The idea of using this technology for educational purposes is hardly new, even in the
Philippines. Earlier this year, Philippine Airlines revealed that it has started using VR simulations
for cabin crew training. News agencies such as Rappler are also taking advantage of VR to
produce immersive and informative content. And now, local tech startup I Am Cardboard
Philippines (IAC PH) has partnered up with the Ayala Museum to enable visitors to see history in
a whole new light. In other words, to relive it, literally,” (Francisco, 2019).

Drone or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a basicall an aircraft without a human pilot
on board. It is written in the Senate Bill No. 1723 (2018) – Senate of the Philippines that drones
are defined as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or any component of an unmanned aerial
system (UAS) that has no pilot and is controlled by an operator from the ground.
The concept of drone varies from era to era based on specific uses. It is once used as a
messenger for goods and messages for militaries when they are at war. But as time progresses,
drones are adapting to human’s necessity quicker than anticipated. The first ready-to-fly drone
which can be controlled entirely via Wi-Fi by a smartphone was released on 2010 by a company
named Parrot and named it Parrot AR Drone. It was released for the sole purpose of it by being
a flying video game but due to its difficulty to use and having easily dismembered parts, it is not
ideal for its purpose.
A lot of companies find drones a great market for emerging technologies. The most
popular among other companies is DJI. They are the market leader for developing easy-to-fly-
drones for today’s generation. They revolutionized the use of drones from being a flying video
game to a device that can be used to captures delicate moments and astonishing views from the
sky.
We’ve come to this era where emerging technologies are profoundly evident and fast-
spreading. From televisions to internet and then smartphones. The emergence of the three
create a big impact on the history of emerging media.
Livestream is basically live media coverage of what you are doing at the same exact
moment. Arguably, the first live stream platform that introduced livestream is Livestream, which
was launched in 2007.
It is widely known that Youtube changed the pace of live television since it started on
2005. But we can say that Youtube didn’t invent the idea of live video streaming because we
cannot say that videos uploaded to Youtube are one takes and it is not real time.
Technology is a fast-paced concept changing through time and relying on human
necessities. This is where Facebook Live comes to the market and offer a wide array of
possibilities with using livestreaming as a platform. Having said that they are created by
Facebook, the largest social media platform of today’s generation, they are paired with tons of
broadcasting platform and companies that can execute livestreaming in the most easy and
efficient way possible.
Next on the list are wearable technologies. “There was a sense that technology was
going to move onto the body,” Alan Dye, the man in charge of Apple’s human interface group,
told Wired. This is where Apple Watch started. First introduced on September 9, 2014, during
the media event of revealing iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ to the public.
Like other emerging technologies, the tailor fitted wearable technologies to improve the
life of every individual. They add features that helps you check your heartbeats from time to
time. Wearable technologies are also being used on our clothing especially to athletes where it
can improve their abilities and to monitor their training statistics.
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https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/10/04/chatbots
10 emerging technologies that are revolutionizing the media industry. (2019, October 1).
Retrieved from https://www.wibbitz.com/blog/examples-of-emerging-technologies-
revolutionizing-media-industry/
7 Incredible Examples of Augmented Reality Technology. (2020, January 17). Retrieved from
https://www.inap.com/blog/7-incredible-examples-of-augmented-reality-technology/
Bardi, J. (2019, July 3). What is Virtual Reality? VR Definition and Examples. Retrieved from
https://www.marxentlabs.com/what-is-virtual-reality/
Bayerque, N. (2016, August 16). A short history of chatbots and artificial intelligence. Retrieved
from https://venturebeat.com/2016/08/15/a-short-history-of-chatbots-and-artificial-
intelligence/
Chua, K. (2019, March 6). Apple devices led the wearables market in Q4 2018 - report. Retrieved
January 22, 2020, from https://www.rappler.com/technology/news/225080-apple-
devices-led-wearable-market-q4-2018
Cooper, P. (2019, May 15). Facebook Messenger Bots for Business: A Guide for Marketers.
Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-messenger-bots-guide/
Craigi. (2015, July 27). Parrot AR Drone 2.0 as your first drone? Retrieved from
https://www.droneflyers.com/parrot-ar-drone-2-0-as-your-first-drone/
Darcey, M. (2016, June 19). The History and Rise of Live Video Streaming. Retrieved from
https://fmgsuite.com/market-in-motion/live-video-streaming-history/#
Dormehl, L. (2019, April 24). Today in Apple history: It's time for Apple Watch official release.
Retrieved January 22, 2020, from https://www.cultofmac.com/477727/apple-history-
apple-watch-release/
Francisco, M. (2019). (2019, February 25). A learning environment, literally: Virtual reality as a
tool for education. Retrieved from https://www.flipscience.ph/technology/vr-virtual-
reality-learning-tool/
History of Virtual Reality. (2019, December 19). Retrieved from https://www.fi.edu/virtual-
reality/history-of-virtual-reality
Underwood, C. (2019, November 17). Automated Journalism – AI Applications at New York
Times, Reuters, and Other Media Giants. Retrieved from https://emerj.com/ai-sector-
overviews/automated-journalism-applications/
Engard, B (2016) FROM ARPANET TO WORLD WIDE WEB: AN INTERNET HISTORY TIMELINE
https://online.jefferson.edu/communications/internet-history-timeline/
Li, X. (2015) Emerging Media: Uses and Dynamics
History And Evolution Of Digital Media. (2017, October 23).
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James, Rahana, Singh, K. J., Laurens, Cole, F., Clarkson, & Hasim, M. S. (N.D.). The History of
Printing: The Evolution of Erint from Gutenberg to Now. Retrieved from
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Pimentel, A. K. L. OWNERSHIP AND OPERATION OF DRONES, OWNERSHIP AND OPERATION OF


DRONES (2018, March 05). Retrieved from http://senate.gov.ph/lis/bill_res.aspx?
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