The age of permanent net revolution

John Naughton, TV reviewer turned internet guru, foresees the end of traditional broadcasting and the rise of a new media ecology.

Sunday March 5, 2006
The Observer

1. "endism" = the perspective that sees new technologies as replacing older ones.
2. "media ecosystem" = an ecosystem is never static, it's always changing, so this term refers to the belief that the changes between new and old media technologies are constant. The "organisms" in our media ecosystem include broadcast and narrowcast television, movies, radio, print and the internet.
3. "narrowcasting" = specialist content is aimed at subscription-based audiences and distributed via digital channels.
4. The difference between the internet and the web: (Information taken from This website) The Internet is a network of networks, a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols.
   The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use the the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, to access Web documents called Web pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video.
5. "Pull medium" = The web is an example of a "pull" medium. Nothing comes to you unless you choose it and click on it to pull it down on to your computer. You're in charge. "Push medium" = Broadcast TV is a "push" medium: a select band of producers (broadcasters) decide what content is to be created, create it and then push it down analogue or digital channels at audiences which are assumed to consist of essentially passive recipients.
6. Blogging software has given people the platform they need to be thoughtful, articulate and well-informed.