Computers are developing into a powerful medium integrating film, pictures, text and sound, and the use of computers for communication and information is rapidly expanding. The Computer as Medium brings insights from art, literature and theatre to bear on computers and discusses the communicative and organizational nature of computer networks within a historical perspective. The book consists of three parts. The first part characterizes the semiotic nature of computers and discusses semiotic approaches to programming and interface design. The second part discusses narrative and aesthetic issues of interactive fiction, information systems and hypertext. The final part contains papers on the cultural, organizational and historical impact of computers.The broad and rich coverage of this book will appeal to scholars in cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, semiotics, media studies and mass communications, cultural studies and education.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Interactive Television, EuroITV 2007, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in May 2007.

The 24 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 80 submissions. The volume combines papers from academia and industry covering a wide range of areas such as media studies, audiovisual design, multimedia, human-computer interaction, and management. The papers are organized in topical sections on social TV systems, user studies, the future of TV, social TV evaluation, personalisation, and mobile TV.

Computers are developing into a powerful medium integrating film, pictures, text and sound, and the use of computers for communication and information is rapidly expanding. The Computer as Medium brings insights from art, literature and theatre to bear on computers and discusses the communicative and organizational nature of computer networks within a historical perspective. The book consists of three parts. The first part characterizes the semiotic nature of computers and discusses semiotic approaches to programming and interface design. The second part discusses narrative and aesthetic issues of interactive fiction, information systems and hypertext. The final part contains papers on the cultural, organizational and historical impact of computers.The broad and rich coverage of this book will appeal to scholars in cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, semiotics, media studies and mass communications, cultural studies and education.

The concept of aesthetics is traditionally connected with art and high culture (e.g. literature, theatre, pictorial art etc.) whereas mass media such as television are usually associated with a lack of cultural quality, originality and authenticity - and consequently with a lack of aesthetics. And, undoubtedly, most television programmes will fail if judged by the aesthetic standards and valuation criteria of traditional art forms. However, television as a medium also has aesthetic aspects. The aesthetics of television concern the medium's means of expression, its forms, conventions and ""styles."" But it also concerns the content and the relationship between content and expression, as well as the relationship between programme and genre, programme and audience etc. The aim of the anthology is to describe and analyse television as an aesthetic phenomenon. It addresses the question from different approaches and in a variety of ways: general, aesthetic problems concerning the audio-visual media, the special aesthetic means of expression belonging to the television medium, the quality of the individual programme, the distinctive features and aesthetic codes of individual TV genres, enunciation and forms of address in television etc. Among the TV genres and programme formats dealt with are: talk shows, television documentaries, police series, TV sport, TV fiction, TV advertising, everyday talk on television, comedy series, TV journalism, and interactive programme formats.