An Analysis of 'Steganography in Digital Media: Principles, Algorithms, and Applications'

Introduction

This article aims to provide an analysis of ‘Steganography in Digital Media: Principles, Algorithms, and Applications’ by Jessica Fridrich. It demonstrates my practice in analysing a book and my fascination with the subject of steganography. This analysis attempts to put into practice Doctor Adler Mortimer’s ¹ method of analysing a book.

Classification

The first question that ought to be asked is whether the book is practical or theoretical. This means asking whether it solves practical or theoretical problems.

It is not immediately apparent from the title what sort of problems the book addresses. This is especially true if one is unfamiliar with the terms steganography, digital media.

The subtitle offers limited guidance in determining the nature of the book. Principles give rules on how something works (theory) or how something is done (practice). Similarly, algorithms show the steps for how a system completes a task (theory) and guide individuals on how to replicate a result by following a set of steps (practice). Finally, applications could refer to existing software (theory) or practical demonstrations of how to use the technology. The term ‘digital media’ suggests that the book concerns software or electronic technology.

The preface

The preface is long. This can make it easy to lose track of its meaning and our goal in analysing the book. We will employ the same tools used to analyse the book itself, treating the preface as a whole and analysing it accordingly.

Preface classification

Skimming the preface reveals that this is an introductory preface. It is written by the author and summarises the book’s content by explaining the subject and its context, and outlining the book’s structure. We can infer from this that the preface is theoretical in nature, informing the reader about the book’s content and allowing someone new to the field to quickly get up to speed.

Preface structure

We will begin by assigning each paragraph its own topic. Although Part 1 is not explicitly labelled in the preface, its chapters (1–9) are grouped together under this heading for clarity. Part 2, however, is mentioned directly and has its own paragraph.

1. What is steganography?
2. The history of steganography
3. Steganography vs digital watermarking
4. Scope of the book
5. Who is the book for?
6. How did the book come to be?
7. General structure of each chapter
8. Focus on digital images compared with other digital objects
   Part 1:
9. Chapter 1 summary
10. Chapter 2 summary
11. Chapter 3 summary
12. Chapter 4 summary
13. Chapter 5 summary
14. Chapter 6 summary
15. Chapter 7 summary
16. Chapter 8 summary
17. Chapter 9 summary
18. Part 2:
19. Chapter 10 summary
20. Chapter 11 summary
21. Chapter 12 summary
22. Chapter 13 summary
23. Appendices
24. Appendix A
25. Appendix B
26. Appendix C
27. Appendix D
28. Appendix E
29. Further reading

Each paragraph will be revisited, with attention to its terms, propositions, arguments and problems it seeks to solve.

Preface unity

This section will be developed in later stages of the analysis.

Problems the preface is trying to solve

As the preface is introductory in nature, it tries to solve the following problems:

1. Readers who are completely new to the subject may struggle to find an entry point
2. Relying on multiple texts to understand the book’s content can create a barrier to entry.

Unity

This section will be developed in later stages of the analysis.

Structure

This section will be developed in later stages of the analysis.

Problems the author is trying to solve

This section will be developed in later stages of the analysis.

Footnotes

1. Adler Mortimer ↩︎