Electronic media

We use machines to see and hear.

These machines use power to work. They show us videos. They play music for us.

Some machines use wires to send signals. Other machines use waves through the air. This lets us talk to friends. We can even use the internet to share things. These tools help us learn and play every day.

Electronic media are tools we use to see and hear.

These tools use electricity to share information. You might use a phone, a radio, or a computer. Some media are static. This means they do not move, like a printed book. Other media use electronics to work. These can be live, like a radio show. Or they can be recorded, like a video on a CD.

Long ago, people used wires to send signals. Samuel Morse invented the telegraph in 1832. It sent electrical signals over long wires. Later, Alexander Graham Bell helped start the telephone in 1876. This let people use their voices to talk.

Today, we have many ways to send data. We use wireless waves to send signals through the air. We also use fiber optics. These are thin strands that carry data. The internet is a huge part of our lives. Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1989. This made it easy to share things using hyperlinks. Now, we can even stream live video through the internet.

Electronic media are tools that use electricity to share information.

You might use a television, a radio, or a handheld device to access them. These tools are different from static media like printed books. Static media do not need electronics to be read by a person. Electronic media can be live, such as a radio broadcast. They can also be recorded on things like a CD-ROM. Most new media today use digital formats to work.

Digital media uses electronic data to show sounds or pictures.

Information travels through many different paths to reach you. In the past, people used wires to send electrical signals. A telegraph uses wires to send messages over long distances. The telephone allows people to use their voices instead of writing. Some signals move through cables called coaxial cables. These cables help signals travel even longer distances. Today, we also use wireless waves to send data through the air. Fiber optics use thin strands to carry information very quickly.

Many clever people helped build these systems over many years. Samuel Morse invented the telegraph in 1832. Alexander Graham Bell pioneered the first successful telephone transmission in 1876. Elisha Gray developed a successful fax machine in 1861. Guglielmo Marconi invented radio transmission in 1897. In 1958, the United States launched Explorer 1 for satellite communication. Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1989. This invention made it much easier to share information.

There are many specific facts about how we store data. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph to record audio. The first video tape recorder was created in 1952. In 1982, people began using compact discs, or CDs, for digital audio. DVDs were introduced in 1993 to hold even more video data. Computer monitors became common in the late 1970s. High-definition television, or HDTV, became a standard in the 1990s. Even barcodes were invented in 1952 to help grocery stores.

Electronic media connect to many things you see every day. When you watch a movie, you are using video recording. If you listen to music, you are using audio recording. You might use a computer to look at a web page. These devices use signals to turn electricity into sound or light. The internet lets you stream live video in real time. This is possible because of the Real-Time Transport Protocol. It was introduced in 1996 to help people enjoy live events.

Electronic media refers to tools that use electricity or electromechanical means to help an audience access content. This is different from static media, such as printed books. While modern books are often created using digital tools, they do not require electronics for a person to read them. In contrast, electronic media includes items like video recordings, audio recordings, and online content. It also includes the hardware used to access these things, such as telephones, game consoles, and handheld devices.

Electronic media can be recorded on a storage medium, but it can also be live, such as a radio broadcast or online networking.

Information in electronic media is processed using either analog or digital formats. Analog electronics use continuous signals, while digital electronics use discrete data.

To manage these signals, engineers developed several complex processes. For example, electronic multiplexing allows multiple signals to travel over a single channel. This was first achieved in 1853 using a technique called time-division multiplexing (TDM). In 1903, pulse-code modulation (PCM) was invented to help digitize signals for telephone use. Later, between 1935 and 1945, electronic encryption was developed to keep information secure during transmission.

The history of transmitting this information began with wires and transmission lines. In 1832, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph to send electrical signals over long distances. By 1844, the first successful telegraph line was established in the United States. In the 1850s, telegraph cables were even laid across the Atlantic Ocean. As technology grew, Elisha Gray developed a successful fax machine in 1861 to transmit printed images. Alexander Graham Bell pioneered the first successful telephone transmission in 1876, which allowed voice communication. To improve how these signals traveled, Oliver Heaviside patented the coaxial cable in 1880. This cable allowed for longer distances and greater bandwidth.

In the last seventy years, transmission methods have changed significantly. Guglielmo Marconi invented radio transmission in 1897, which used electromagnetic waves instead of wires. The United States pioneered satellite communication in 1958 by launching Explorer 1. This allowed data to travel much further than previous methods. Fiber optics, which were first developed in the 1950s, became commercially viable in the 1970s. Free-space optics (FSO) uses lasers to send data through the air. Although developed in the 1960s, FSO did not become commercially viable until the 1990s. The internet emerged in the second half of the 20th century, with Tim Berners-Lee creating the World Wide Web in 1989.

Display and output technology has also evolved to show this information. Early tools included the galvanometer, which measured small electrical currents. In 1844, the telegraph sounder used an electromagnet to create clicking sounds for signals. By the 1920s, the cathode-ray tube (CRT) became widely available for television and computer displays. In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers developed LED and LCD technologies for more efficient displays. The first commercial PC monitor arrived in 1976. High-definition television (HDTV) standards were finally established in the 1990s. More recently, head-mounted displays (HMD) allow for immersive virtual reality experiences.

Storing information is a vital part of electronic media. Early methods included punched cards from 1725 and paper tape from 1846. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph to record and play back audio. Moving images were recorded using film starting in 1876. A major breakthrough occurred in 1941 with the invention of random-access memory (RAM), which allows for high-speed data retrieval. For consumer use, compact discs (CDs) were invented in 1982 for digital audio. DVDs followed in 1993, offering even more storage capacity for video data.

Today, electronic media is organized into many different formats. Audio can be found in vinyl records, magnetic tape, or digital files like MP3s. The MP3 format was made possible by an encoder developed at the Fraunhofer Institute. Video formats have shifted from analog systems like Betamax and VHS to digital formats like MPEG-4 and H.264. In the 1950s, Charles Ginsburg created the first video tape recorder. Digital text formats also play a role, such as ASCII, which used only 128 code points, or the Rich Text Format (RTF) developed by Microsoft in 1987. These systems all work together to connect people through information.