Myth, Media, Meta

Three Information Epochs and What They Mean for Broadcasting

Dennis L. HaarsagerAssociate Vice President & General ManagerEducational & Public Media, Washington State University

Informatio

n

Wants To Be Free

But, what kind of free?

Free as in free beer? Free as in free inquiry or free speech? Free as in unhindered?

Entropy

Thermodynamic entropy:2nd Law of ThermodynamicsEnergy tends to disperse unless hinderedEntropy increases over time

Information entropy: Behaves the same way – it scatters

and grows in volumeThe math is the same (Claude

Shannon developed for Bell System)

Example: Ancestral DNA

12½% 12½% 12½% 12½% 12½% 12½% 12½% 12½%

25% 25% 25% 25%

50% 50%

You

250 years ≈ 10 generations = 1,024 ancestors = 0.01%

Example: Game of “telegraph”

A

BC D

E

F

Story begins

… Is passed on …

Revealed story usually differs from the original

Growth in human-generated info

Writing invented ca. 3500 BCE Moving forward to 1 CE, the Royal Library

at Alexandria had 400k-600k scrollsLet’s assume each was equiv. of 100 pp.And that they missed 90% of infoTotal then is 1 TB worldwide, 3 kB for each of

300M persons

Info growth, continued

A 2000 study estimated 12 exabytes total, increasing at 4 exabytes per yearA 2002 study estimated 5 exabytes that year

alone (37,000 Libraries of Congress)Makes 2007 estimate 45 exabytes, 6.8 GB for

each of 6.6B people In 2000 years, population has grown 22-

fold, but information per person has grown 2 million times

Human intervention

Desiring to retain value from information, we humans …

… “hinder” its free dispersion. In thermodynamics, we create low-entropy

“hindrances” like the head of a match, a balloon or tire, a Thermos®, et al.

With information, we do the following …

Information epochs

MythMetaphor, story-telling, poetry, music, art

MediaOne-to-many print, electronic communications

MetaMachine-assisted many-to-many

communications

Information epochs

Humans are in an “arms race” against information entropyFailings of memoryLimitations of dissemination

New epochs build on – not replace – what comes before, but not without changeDeath of legacy media – Not!Death of culture (Andrew Keen) – Not!

Myth: poetry, values

Early shall he rise who has designsOn another’s land or life:His prey escapes the prone wolf,The sleeper is seldom victorious.

Hávamál, The Sayings of Hártranslation: W. H. Audenand P. B. Taylor

Myth: poetry, metaphor

Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.

Ariel’s song in The TempestWilliam Shakespeare

Media

Rock paintings ca. 40,000 years ago Cave paintings ca. 32,000 years ago Earliest writing ca. 3500 BCE Johannes Gutenberg

(~1400-68) invents movable type printing inEurope (earlier in Asia),launching mass media

Mass media

A marriage between story-telling and mass distribution

One-to-many architecture permits broad distribution of the same message

The story teller “authority” continues to be king

Meta

In Greek – transcending, going above or beyond

As in metadata – data which describe other information in a useful way

Permits granular manipulation and dissemination of information

Permits tracking and acting on to what users pay attention

“Metamedia”

In the meta world, anyone can create and distribute – “authorities” are many

Good story-telling and comprehensive effort still prevails (only 12 of top 100 blogs are individual efforts)

Machines can learn user histories and respond

Implications for broadcasters

Don’t dig your grave just yet But don’t rely on the remote

control to save youViewers and listeners have many access

choices Good story-telling is important in more

than just 30-minute incrementsDoes this frame tell a story?

Implications, continued

Embrace the “meta” and social interactionEngage in a conversation with your audience

Manage production for archival value

Contact information

Dennis L. HaarsagerAssoc VP/GM, Educational & Public MediaWashington State Universitywww.haarsager.org/contact

www.technology360.com