Post-It Notes

A Post-It Note is a piece of paper with a stick adhesive strip on one side of the paper, used to leave notes and reminders for yourself and others. This simple idea was not invented until 1968 by Dr. Spencer Silver, an engineer at 3M. I know how important this tool is because growing up I used these on a daily basis. I am one that if my head were not attached I am positive I would lose it, so these Post-It Notes are great to set on my front door with whatever reminder I may need for that day. My freshmen year my two closet doors were covered with Post-It Notes because my roommate and I decided to keep a "quote wall" with funny quotes from the year. The video below also shows some tricks that you can do with these "sticky notes."



















History of the Post-It Note

The Teleprompter

A teleprompter is a text display device that can be used to aid in reading text instead of a paper script of some sort. It was invented in the 1950's by Fred Barton Jr., Hubert J, Hub Schlafly, and Irving Berlin Kahn. Fred Barton was an actor who was in search of something to aid him in remembering his lines. This was a big step in media because it became a tool used regularly by presidents, news anchors, and actors/actresses to eliminate the need of memorization. It cleaned up speeches and acting making what we watch on TV easier to understand and overall more entertaining to watch. It can even be used in concerts for artists who have trouble remembering lines to songs while performing. Teleprompters have aided TV, Movies, and music, which are 3 of the biggest media concepts in our world today. However sometimes the people reading the teleprompters can have trouble... check out the video!

History of the Teleprompter

Portable DVD Player

A Portable DVD Player is a device that you can watch DVD's on and bring with you on the go. Movies are a big part of our media, they have been since first created "Roundhay Garden Scene" was made in 1888. However it was not until 1998 that Panasonic had created the first ever portable DVD Player, which started a whole new tool for the world to view its movies. This player had a five inch LCD screen and built in speakers. Now when waiting for your airplane at the airport or waiting for a ride to pick you up wherever you were at you had the ability to watch your favorite movies to make the time go by faster. The fact that this invention was created shows how important movies are to our media, because of the fact that this item has been so successful and has advanced on to other technological devices. 

History of the Portable DVD Player

First Movie Made

Poster

A poster is a large printed piece of paper that usually has a picture or words or both that can be used as decoration, advertising, and many other things. The poster is a great form of mass communication, and this is how they began to come popular in Paris in the 1890's (When all the advancements had been made for posters to be all color posters). The streets of Europe and Asia became "streets of advertising" due to the many posters that lined them up and down. Today posters are used for all the same reasons, however they just have many more posters to choose from, and you can actually create your own poster. Posters are a way of showing your personality in something like your room or household, or are great for advertising any type of product in any type of place.

History of Posters

The Grill

The grill is a cooking device that can be used outside, commonly used to cook such things as burgers, brats, hot dogs, chicken, steak, basically any type of meat or food you want to grill. The first step to the grill being invented was the indigenous people who cooked there meat on a rack in the middle of a smoky fire, it evolved to the advanced grills that we have today. This is a source of media because the grill brings people together. Families are known to have "barbecue's" where everyone gathers and food is made on the grill, this applies to team gatherings, graduation parties, or any other type of gathering that involves food. If people are coming together, the grill is the perfect thing to cook with to please the crowd.



History of the BBQ Grill

Electronic Message Boards

An electronic message board is something with a digital screen that can display any type of information to people that cross its path. It is commonly used in front of banks telling the temperature, in schools to display current school news for students in the hallways, and many other reasons. These boards are convenient because they can be changed to say whatever is desired, and are also very easy to operate. It saves the hassle of having to write something down on a big board, hope it doesn't get erased, and then go through the hassle of doing that all over again. These message boards are a great resource of information to people that cross their path, and can be very valuable depending on what information is given on it.

LED Sign Authority

GPS (Global Positioning System)

A GPS or Global Positioning system is something that was first invented by Ivan Getting and the U.S. Government and used to pinpoint anything ships and submarines, could measure Mount Everest, and make overall measurements and pinpoint locations within only a centimeter! In today's world GPS is used commonly in cars to help navigate you to where you need to go. It is much easier than the previously used paper map, that you have to read and follow. In many cars the GPS system will literally tell you when to turn, making it much easier and safer to drive. This is an example of media because the GPS uses the voice of a person to aid you in where you are going. This video is a spoof on the power and intelligence of the GPS, but I would not doubt that in the future this is possible!

History of the GPS

WNBA

The WNBA (Women's National Basketball League) is the professional level of women's basketball. It was developed in 1996 and play began in 1997. The league was a success, being played in the summer which was the time that had the least amount of professional sports being played, and being televised on three big name television stations (ESPN, NBC, and Lifetime), more than 50 million viewers tuned in to watch the games live. This shows that media, sports media specifically, is not only a male category. It was a big step for women to have this league created, and then proceed to have it be successful, and media made this possible. The video link shows that the WNBA is no joke, and it is just as intense as the NBA.





History of the WNBA

Blogs

If I am going to create a blog about the tools of media, I definitely have to include blogs. A blog is a website usually run by an individual, that becomes a persons online diary of some sort. A blog is something that people can come on to and post whatever they want, and others will have the ability to view it and in most cases comment on it. The first ever blog was made by Justin Hall, a student at Swarthmore student in 1994, which evolved into the first blog-creation webpage made by blogger in 1999. Since then blogging has become a common theme in the world. Giving people the ability to write whatever they want whenever they want, on their own personal webpage. I feel the quote on the posted picture explains blogs well.

How Blogging Started
What is a Blog?

Projectors

The projector is something that takes images and displays them in a bigger fashion for a group of people to see. You may have thought the old slide show projectors and those "overheads" that your teachers used in grade school were the first projectors invented, but they were around long before that. It is unclear about who, where, and when it occured, however in 1645 Athansius Kircher described and illustrated a device for reflecting sunlight from a mirror, through a lens and onto a screen. In today's world the projector has evolved into something that has made displaying still images and videos simple and easy, and there could soon be a phone with the ability to work as a projector. The tagged video shows how life like these big projector screens can be! The projector is a tool of media because without it, it would be much more difficult to spread important information to a large group of people.

History of Projectors

Ringtones

Ringtones are what saved people from having to hear the simple "ring ring..." of a phone that usually would go off when you were receiving a call. A ringtone is a type of alert that you will hear when you are receiving a phone call. However there are many differences from the normal "ring ring.." of old phones.
With ringtones you can choose the ringtone you get, whether it is a song, words from a movie, or something you personalized yourself! Ringtones are a way people can use media to show their personality in the way their phone rings, and also a way media can spread with the ability of others to hear your ringtone.

Explanation of Ringtones 

Picture Messaging

Picture messaging is a good example of how different types of media can combine to make a more advanced media source. Picture messaging (also known as Multimedia Messaging MMS) is the ability to send pictures from phone to phone like a text message, therefore combining text messaging and taking pictures. It gave people the ability to send a picture of whatever they saw, were doing, or felt was important to share at that time.  One of the first phones capable of picture messaging was the Sony Ericsson T68i in 2002, and now in today's world it is hard to find a phone without picture messaging.



History of Picture Messaging

Survivor

The show Survivor was one of the main reasons reality TV is as popular as it is today. In the show people are brought to a small area somewhere in the wilderness where they must compete in numerous challenges, while at the same time voting people off the island. The last person standing at the end of the show would receive 1,000,00 dollars, so people would do whatever it took to win the game. After Survivor, many shows did what they could to create shows like Survivor and to compete with Survivor, and that is when the Reality TV fever hit the United States.


Information for Survivor

Reality Television

Reality TV is something that has become more than popular in our culture in the last two decades. It is a form of television with no scripts or plots, it is just a bunch of cameras following the people or "cast" in whatever situation the producers have put them in. The first big reality show was MTV's The Real world which was played in 1992, which took seven people from different backgrounds and put them in one house to live. Reality TV was not much of a hit until 2002 when Survivor premiered on CBS. In 2011 there are at least 7 reality TV shows on the big four networks ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. This doesn't even include the numerous amounts of reality TV on MTV, VH1, and many others. Reality TV is an example of the type of media entertainment can change drastically. Before the 1990's, sitcoms were very poopular, however 20 years later reality shows are a top source of entertainment for people in the world. 

History of Reality TV

Words With Friends, Game or Advertising Trick?

Words with friends is a very popular game that can be played on Iphones and all Android phones. It is basically scrabble that you can play back and forth with others who have the right type of phone. However, do we know how much is actually being shared when this game is played? Besides the words that are formed between the two participants. Some people are searching deeper to see what advertisers can see when you give your information for "Words With Friends." One person believes that when playing words with friends advertisers are able to view numerous things, but more importantly your E-Mail address, phone number, and unique phone fingerprint. Now we can't be sure that this is a reliable source. Someone with the username "Smackywolf" may be hard to take seriously, but his words have definitely got me thinking... This is an example of one of the problems of media, the fact that it is so easy to be tricked into giving some random person or thing your information.

Words With Friends Sharing Personal Information

Tap Shoes

Tap dancing is a form of dance that involves clicking of the feet created by a metal plate that is attached to the bottom of the shoe at the toe and the heel. It was originated and made from elements of many different countries, and is very popular in the U.S. today. This is another topic that may be thought of as having nothing to do with media, but I will give a step by step explanation of how it is clearly connected. Tap shoes are needed for tap dancing, tap dancing can't happen without music, and music is a key part of media! Without tap shoes, we would not have this interesting type of dance that many people are entertained while performing and while spectating. The video attached is of two men tap dancing outside of something like a clothing store, and you can see the amount of people that are watching. This proves that media happens in extraordinary ways in many places. 

History of Tap Dance Shoes

Lebron James "The Decision"

As an athlete, there may come a time when you have to decide what team you are going to play for. However in most cases when choosing the team to play for, they don't get to decide on national television with millions of people watching. Now many people felt that Lebron James was wrong for making his decision broadcasted for millions, but there was a lot of good that came out of it. Even though Lebron did choose to go away from his hometown of Ohio, he did raise more than 2 million dollars for the boys
& girls clubs of Akron. Bringing 60,000 in to fix a leaky roof, refurbished a beaten down gymnasium, and paid for a new playground. Now this is just 60,000 of the 2 million. It is amazing to see that a simple choice can change the lives of so many people, and the change was able to be made because of TV and media overall.

Benefit of Lebron James "The Decision"

Pool Tables

One thing that brings people together is sports. Whether it be a athletic sport game or a small recreational sport. One recreational sport that I feel can be connected to media is the game of billiards or "pool." Now at first thought you may not think that these two are connected, however when it comes to media the game of pool is important. When you think of a game of pool you have to think of where it is played. One obvious option is in a household, which can be played alone or with other people. Say you have a gathering at your house, one of the things that people would be doing is playing pool and conversating at the same time. Therefore, making media! Another common place that a pool table is seen is in a bar. This is a source of media because it brings people together at the bar, again making it media. It is hard to say when and where the game of pool was started, however it was started as a game on the lawn. It was then moved to a table so it would be easier on people's backs. The game of pool has come far from when it was played on the ground back in the day, check out the video attached for some pool trick shots!

History of Pool Tables

Sirius XM Radio

Music is a key part of media, and now there are many different ways of listening to it. One of the top music resources in today's world is using satellite radio. Some top names in the Satellite radio world is Sirius radio and XM radio. In 2007 the two major companies merged together forming a satellite radio superpower. The benefit of this radio is that you can choose the genre of music you want to listen to, or a talk show hosted by big names including Howard Stern. The merger was a big deal because according to company executives it will soon lead to major cost savings and the first-ever profits in the fledgling industry. The combination brought 18.5 million subscribers to the company making it making it the second largest radio company in the country. Thanks to this merger people can enjoy the superpower of radio, in their vehicles or homes.

Merger Information Website