Keywords

1 Theoretical Framework

1.1 Static Web 1.0

The initial version of the website was the static and unidirectional Web 1.0, which was created to provide information about corporate organizations, news or specific content of diverse subjects. Due to the high costs of web publishing, updating was performed infrequently, so the aim of Web 1.0 consisted of a presential strategy on the Internet.

In the new concept of web 2.0 as an interactive online community (Cebrián Herreros 2008), tools like content syndication, messaging services, forums, weblogs, wikis and social networks permit open communication to users.

1.2 Syntactic Web 2.0

The origin of the social web 2.0 is a collaborative work on Internet written by Levine et al. (1999) to examine the impact of the Internet, in both organizations and consumers. Their communication achieved the support of more than a thousand cosigners, including businessmen and Internet users. To define how companies speak with customers through the Internet, these authors published the Cluetrain Manifesto in 2000, consisting of 95 theses.Footnote 1

In 2001, the crisis of digital companies also contributes to the emergence of Web 2.0. However, it was not until 2005 when Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, provides theoretical foundation to define the concept in his article “What is Web 2.0” (O’Reilly 2005), which explains the evolution happening in internet: web pages become bidirectional platforms, where the receiver mediates in the network of communication, with the ability to share content, comment and collaborate (Fig. 55.1).

Fig. 55.1
figure 1

Original map of the web 2.0. Source http://www.oreilly.com/

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O’Reilly and Battle reviewed the basics of web 2.0 and after five years they redefined collective intelligence, reinforcing the value of communities in the construction of the online media. The Internet collective intelligence depends on the management, understanding and responding to a massive amount of user-generated data in real time.

From a conceptual revision, O’Reilly and Battle announce a transition to the semantic, social, mobile web and virtual reality:

Is it the semantic web? The sentient web? Is it the social web? The mobile web? Is it some form of virtual reality?

It is all of those, and more (O’Reilly and Battle 2010).

1.3 Web 3.0

From a basis on syntaxis and connection between users, Web 2.0 evolves into the semantic web or web 3.0, where a deep understanding is allowed and the user experience is developed by obtaining more accurate results in content search, introducing new applications, such as geolocation or biometrics, and developing artificial intelligence technologies. Berners-Lee (1997) predicted that machines would be able to read web pages as easily as humans in his book ‘Weaving the Web’.

Web 3.0 is based on artificial intelligence techniques using natural language in their searches, based on data mining, machine learning and attendance software agents to convert information into collective knowledge. O’Reilly and Battle (2010) explain that the inferential web 2.0 learning method is based on the explicit meaning of the processed data.

Thus, the semantic web uses language to find, share and integrate information. Among the advances in Web 3.0 are cross data or big data analysis, the use of 3D technology, based on the three-dimensional design, augmented reality, facial recognition in images, telematic applications for health monitoring or geolocation systems and triangulation used in mobile telephony.

Semantic web site keeps syntactic principles: decentralization, sharing, compatibility, accessibility and content contribution. But in addition, the semantic web ontology releases the notion of artificial intelligence.

According to Gruber (1993), the definition of ontology used in artificial intelligence application is “a formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualization” (Gruber 1993: 199). In Gruber (1995), the author specifies the principles of ontology oriented towards knowledge sharing. In the conceptualization of ontology, the following aspects can be identified to understand it:

  • Specification: description of characteristics and performance of concepts.

  • Explicit: it provides a detailed explanation of these concepts.

  • Formal: organization of terms and connections according to normalization.

  • Concept: a set of concepts, described by their entities, attributes and relations.

  • Sharing: common knowledge accepted by a group of users.

As Urrego-Giraldo and Giraldo Gómez (2005) explained, the ontology used to classify and index information filters out queries from users and facilitates their interaction with processors that can infer relevant information about their needs.

Metadata are required to organize and classify the information contained in the Internet. These texts are structured alphanumeric data representing bibliographic description of electronic resources and provide structured descriptions to locate objects.

1.4 Personalization of Contents for Users

Web 2.0 inspires the use of concepts as emerecs (emitters—receivers) or prosumers (producers—consumers). Both ideas refer to the active involvement of the receiver in the communication process, while that of emerec (emetteur—être—recepteur) was originally proposed by Jean CloutierFootnote 2 in his ‘Petit Traité de communication’ in 1973 and revised to analyze the effects of technology on the processes of human communication (Cloutier 2001).

Fernández Castrillo (2014) recognizes the increasing involvement of users, who called prosumers in content creation UGC or user generated content and the combined use of internet media, which contextualized storytelling in the transmedia, reasoning on the research conducted by Jenkins (2009) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a process in which the elements of fiction are systematically disseminated through multiple distribution channels in order to create a unique entertainment experience.

1.5 The Concept of Cibermedia

The proposal of Cibermedia is based on the research group Novos Medios (López García et al. 2003: 40) and refers to the online media using the journalistic techniques, the multimedia language, interactivity and hypertext to update information on the Internet.

From this concept, several perspectives arise:

  • The first point of view focusing on the media, with their own editorial, narrative and discursive structures.

  • The perspective of the subject who broadcasts informative, commercial and entertainment communication or infomediation.

  • The public, which provides a personalized and individualized communication in which “the user leaves the passive role that often plays in the mass media, becoming active (and interactive) subject” (Díaz Noci and Salaverría 2003, p. 41).

  • The professional criteria, structure, writing and ethics relating to journalism.

  • The hypertext, multimedia technology and interactivity.

  • The update.

This definition of online media has recently been reviewed and concretized by Díaz Noci and others, in order to provide a methodology for studying digital media or online media: “A medium that uses a digital interactive online platform in the form of web site or as a mobile web app” (Codina et al. 2014).

Díaz Arias (2009) distinguishes between digital media (which refers to newspapers and magazines) and online media, since the source of the content is directly published on the Internet, the diffusion and the interaction occur in the context of Cyberspace (Díaz Noci et al. 2014).

While characterizing the online media, López García et al. (2003) detected the degree of dynamism of cibermedia, which determines four dimesions: hypertextuality, multimedia, interactivity and refresh rate. With the new version of semantics, this academic proposal adds the personalization of content, which considerates the user profile and preferences.

In content writing for online media, Pavlick (2005) explains that adaptation to the Internet has led to the emergence of contextualized journalism, which meets five conditions: communication modes; hipermediality; increasing audience participation; dynamic content; and customization.

According to Mayoral Sánchez and Edo Bolós (2014), terms such as hypertext, interactive or multimedia have been employed often to characterize cyberjournalism.

2 Methodology

The method applied for this research is qualitative content analysis, using as sources academic publications in electronic scientific journals, academic literature and Internet fonts.

3 Results

The purpose of the present research is to update the evolution of online media during the period between 2010 and 2015, which corresponds with the arrival and evolution of the semantic web.

Díaz Arias (2009) finds the distinction in the historical development of the online media, for which the author classifies three stages: during the first five years newspapers were the first generation of network information, with minimal input, a second phase in which newspapers, magazines, radio and television create their own Internet publication for professionals who use technical language and multimedia resources, and a third phase that gives prominence to the audiovisual and interactive content, media convergence and online media. The collaborative, dialogic and interactive nature of Web 2.0 opens the way to a new vision of journalism, as Díaz Arias recognizes: the right to freedom of expression and information, namely the right to seek, receive and disseminate ideas, opinions and information. But in the media society, the individual is a consumer of the information. Therefore, access to relevant public information allows him to become a citizen (Díaz Arias 2009: 6).

The web 2.0 users can be editors, customizing their access to information, and community broadcasters, assessing, discussing and sharing content published by consulting sources. In addition, they can create their own content on social networks and blogs.

Many theorists see citizen journalism as an opportunity on global integration, rather than a threat. According to Rheingold (2002), this collective intelligence finds resources in social networks and aims to produce user-generated content (UGC).

The growing influence of social networks has been undertaken by public and private agencies. The user-generated content have recently been integrated by institutions and considered by the political parties in their campaigns, since they consider social participation through networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube to prepare their agendas and electoral programs.Footnote 3

At this level, it is required to introduce the category of digital native cibermedia classified by Salaverría and Negredo (2013).

If the advent of computers and internet represented a paradigm shift with the transition from the mainstream media to online media, the expansion of mobile terminals and tablets also involves changes in the design, editing and digital content consumption, which adapt to portability and multiple screens, according to Aguado and Castellet (2013).

In the same way that the online media had evolved from adaptation of content to the creation of multimedia, hypertext and interactive online creation, the evolution of mobile devices and tablets has experienced two stages: at first, they only offered text messaging services (SMS) or multimedia (MMS), email and web browsing, but similar content to those offered in the web; the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the advent of digital tablets led to the development of specific content more dynamic and adaptive design for ubiquitous touch devices (responsive design).

Meso Ayerdi et al. (2014) speak of mobile as the fourth screen and conclude that this new channel of communication poses new challenges for journalism to increase competitiveness: the development of narrative forms and adapted genres and effective formulas for participation of active and prosumer audiences. However, mobile applications favor the consolidation of brands, a new form of advertising revenue and user loyalty. Thus, they affirm that the future of online media goes through a strategic approach to multiplatform content.

4 Discussion and Conclusions

4.1 From Semantic to Intelligent Web

Technological advances in infrastructure and applications allow us to mention a new version of the web, known as intelligent web. The potential uses and applications of this new website are in an experimental phase.

4.2 Customization in Cibermedia

The development of applications of artificial intelligence and advances in mobile media and tablets promote the diversity of formats and customization of content in online media or cibermedia, which can improve usability, considering the user-generated content.

4.3 Coexistence of Diverse Web Generations

In the current Internet ecosystem, there are four coexistent generations of web (static, syntactic, semantic and intelligent), whose phases of development, characteristics and applications are specified in the Table 55.1.

Table 55.1 Evolution of the web to the artificial intelligence (1990–2015)
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