ABSTRACT
The first point to make about computer-centered mass media is that the crucial difference between them and other media technologies is that they are digital rather than analog. A simple way to understand the distinction between digital and analog is to think about what distinguishes an old-fashioned vinyl record from a CD. If you look at a record, you will see grooves. When the phonograph needle moves through the grooves, it picks up vibrations that were made by the sound coming from the singer’s vocal cords. When the record was made, a machine cut grooves
that reproduced these vibrations into the vinyl. The record grooves, then, hold a literal physical reproduction-an analog-of the singer’s sound that can be reproduced with the right equipment.
