push media

messaging A model of media distribution where items of

content are sent to the user (viewer, listener, etc.) in a

sequence, and at a rate, determined by a server to which the

user has connected. This contrasts with pull media where

the user requests each item individually. Push media usually

entail some notion of a "channel" which the user selects and

which delivers a particular kind of content.

Broadcast television is (for the most part) the prototypical

example of push media: you turn on the TV set, select a

channel and shows and commercials stream out until you turn

the set off.

By contrast, the World-Wide Web is (mostly) the prototypical

example of pull media: each "page", each bit of content, comes

to the user only if he requests it; put down the keyboard and

the mouse, and everything stops.

At the time of writing (April 1997), much effort is being put

into blurring the line between push media and pull media.

Most of this is aimed at bringing more push media to the

Internet, mainly as a way to disseminate advertising, since

telling people about products they didn't know they wanted is

very difficult in a strict pull media model.

These emergent forms of push media are generally variations on

targeted advertising mixed in with bits of useful content.

"At home on your computer, the same system will run soothing

screensavers underneath regular news flashes, all while

keeping track, in one corner, of press releases from companies

whose stocks you own. With frequent commercial messages, of

course." (Wired, March 1997, page 12).

Pointcast is probably the best

known push system on the Internet at the time of writing.

As part of the eternal desire to apply a fun new words to

boring old things, "push" is occasionally used to mean nothing

more than email spam.

(1997-04-10)