‘Media Revolutions’ brings Internet studies, lectures

New student group, expert probe impact of technology on society

Ilene Rosenblum

Steve Jones has seen technology take over people’s lives.

When the lights went out at a Coldplay concert in Chicago, he said the audience replaced the traditional flip of a lighter with the flip of a cell phone, lighting up the pavilion with blue light as people text-messaged each other.

“It was disconcerting in a way,” said Jones, who is the head of the department of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jones, who has followed computing since its infancy, said he is blown away by how Internet communication infiltrates everyday life. The social historian of communications technology gave the inaugural lecture of a guest speaker series held by the new Northwestern graduate student group called Media Revolutions.

Many group members are earning doctoral degrees in NU’s Media Technology and Society program, a branch off from the School of Communication and its radio-TV-film department. This is the first year of the program.

In his talk, entitled “Internet Studies — New Site or 404 Not Found?” Jones, the author of six books on Internet research and culture and editor in chief of The Encyclopedia of New Media, discussed the emerging field of Internet studies.

According to Jones, the field asks questions such as “Who are we online and what do we do there?” and “Is there such a thing as an online community?”

One of the most important things for Internet studies to immediately focus on is Internet history, Jones said. Because it is so new, we have the opportunity to trace it from the beginning.

But looking to the future is important as well, Jones said. He gave an example of a 3-D, full-immersion experience called “The CAVE.”

“You feel bodily immersed in the space,” he told the 20 people assembled in Frances Searle Hall. “It’s really hard to put in words.”

In “The CAVE,” images project onto the white walls of a 10-by-10-foot room, and the user — equipped with what look like safety goggles — can move around hologram-like images and even interact with other users on a network.

Jones predicted the development of this technology likely will begin with the entertainment industry. He said Nintendo’s GameCube system already has the capability for 3-D gaming, but gamers are held back by 2-D video technology.

Immersion also has important implications for the arts and education, Jones said. He showed how a CAVE program called “Virtual Harlem” allows users to walk the streets of a 3-D recreation of the city during the Harlem Renaissance. Users can hear the music of the period and interact with local people.

The goal of this educational technology is not only to interact with the environment but also to eventually “have the environment work with you based on who you are,” Jones said.

In future programs users will be able to see how people of a certain place and time react to different attributes, such as skin color. Determining how different shades of skin color are discerned could have major implications for race studies, Jones said.

Technology isn’t the only thing that changes as the Internet evolves. The effects of Internet usage will cause a noticeable social rift between those who embrace it and those who voluntarily or involuntarily stay inaccessible, said Dan Weisberg, a Communication graduate student.

“There is going to be a real split between people in the way they talk, they interact,” said Weisberg, who is also a visiting assistant professor at UIC.