Digital
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7079008 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Luke Goode (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-15 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosd066 |
| OpenAlex | W4249157888 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
To understand the significance of the term “digital,” we must place it alongside its “other” – the term “analogue.” The technical distinction between these terms is relatively straightforward. Each signifies a different method by which data are captured, transported, processed, distributed, and represented, that is, the means by which they are mediated . Whilst analogue media “encode” data using “traces” – such as light burnt on to chemical film stock, or grooves cut into vinyl records – whose patterns have a physical connection to the source data, digital media translate source data into strings of binary computer code lacking that physical connection. Like the written word, digital code is an “arbitrary” signifier. Unlike the written word, however, it is a system comprising just two “symbols” (the “on” and “off” states of an electrical current), making it unreadable by human beings (it first has to be translated back into analogue forms such as light or sound waves) and robust enough to encode many different types of data simultaneously, including words, images, and sounds
Arithmetic · Binary number · Code (set theory · Computer hardware · Connection (principal bundle · Data transmission · Digital data · Digital media · ENCODE · Linguistics · Physics · Programming language · Source code · Term (time · Word (group theory · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Diverse Musicological Studies · Mathematics
| Highly cited | No |
|---|