Integration of information services

Alongside the joining together of technologies, there is also a tendency toward the integration of common public information services.

Digitaldigital: data measured at discrete intervals, eg a digital watch typically moves from displaying one second to the next without displaying the values in-between television by satellite, cablecable: a data communications technology that provides broadband Internet speeds over the cable television infrastructure or terrestrial aerial now gives access to many channels that have interactive content, which can be used in a similar way to the web. DAB digital radio provides large amounts of text datadata: information without context, eg a list of students with numbers beside their names is data, when it's made clear that those numbers represent their placing in a 100 metre race, the data becomes information to be transmitted along with the signal. The InternetInternet: a global network connecting millions of computers now enables broadcasts from radio and TV stations to be 'time-shifted' by the user, who watches or listens to the programme whenever they want to.

News services and the mass media such as newspapers, radio, and television are making themselves available so that people can access them when they want and wherever they are. Two of the key reasons for this are:

1. The growth of broadbandbroadband: high speed Internet access Internet access that allows lots of information to be viewed quickly and effectively.
2. The success of digital broadcastingdigital broadcasting: Soon to replace analogue broadcasting in this country altogether. A greater number of channels can be offered as well as interactive services, eg the red button., the signals of which can carry very much more content than old style analogueanalogue: continuous data, eg the second hand on an analogue watch displays each second and the space in-between TV and radio.

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