New Media and Communication”, Chapter 16 from the Book a Primer on Communication Studies (Index.Html) (V
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This is “New Media and Communication”, chapter 16 from the book A Primer on Communication Studies (index.html) (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This content was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header). For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there. i Chapter 16 New Media and Communication As we learned in Chapter 15 "Media, Technology, and Communication", media and communication work together in powerful ways. New technologies develop and diffuse into regular usage by large numbers of people, which in turn shapes how we communicate and how we view our society and ourselves. The transition over the past twenty or so years from “old media” to “new media” marks a significant change in how we use technology to communicate, as devices and the messages carried on them move from “mass” to “micro” and our relationship with new media becomes much more personal and social than it was with old media. This chapter is just an introduction to the dynamic area of research and development involving new media and communication. Given that this area of study changes rapidly, I will supplement the information in this chapter with content on my blog, which you can find through my website: http://www.richardgjonesjr.com. 913 Chapter 16 New Media and Communication 16.1 New Media Technologies LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Trace the evolution of new media. 2. Discuss how new media are more personal and social than old media. So what makes “new media” new media? When we consider “old media,” which consist of mainly print, radio, and television/movies, we see that their presence in our lives and our societies was limited to a few places. For example, television and radio have long been key technology features in the home. Movies were primarily enjoyed in theaters until VCRs and DVD players brought them into our homes. The closest thing to a portable mass medium was reading a book or paper on a commute to and from work. New media, however, are more personal and more social than old media, which creates a paradox we will explore later in this chapter, as we discuss how new media simultaneously separate and connect us. In this section, we will trace the evolution of new media and discuss how personal media and social media fit under the umbrella of new media. The Evolution of New Media New media, as we are discussing them here, couldn’t exist without the move from analogue to digital technology, as all the types of new media we will discuss are digitally based.Eugenia Siapera, Understanding New Media (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012), 3. Digital media1 are composed of and/or are designed to read numerical codes (hence the root word digit). The most commonly used system of numbers is binary code2, which converts information into a series of 0s and 1s. This shared code system means that any machine that can decode (read) binary code can make sense of, store, and replay the information. Analogue media3 are created by 1. Media that are composed of encoding information onto a physical object that must then be paired with another and/or are designed to read device capable of reading that specific code. So what most distinguishes analogue numerical codes. media from digital media are their physicality and their need to be matched with a 2. The most commonly used specific decoding device. In terms of physicality, analogue media are a combination digital code, which consists of of mechanical and physical parts, while digital media can be completely electronic 0s and 1s. and have no physicality; think of an MP3 music file, for example. To understand the 3. Media that are created by second distinction between analogue and digital media, we can look at predigital encoding information onto a music and how various types of analogue music had to be paired with a specific physical object that must then decoding device. To make recordings using old media technology, grooves were be paired with another device capable of reading that specific carved into vinyl to make records or changes were made in the electromagnetic code. signature of ribbon or tape to make cassette tapes. So each of these physical objects 914 Chapter 16 New Media and Communication must be paired with a specific device, such as a record player or a cassette deck, to be able to decode and listen to the music. New media changed how we collect and listen to music. Many people who came of age in the digital revolution are now so used to having digital music that the notion of a physical music collection is completely foreign to them. Now music files are stored electronically and can be played on many different platforms, including iPods, computers, and smartphones. In news coverage and academic scholarship, you will see several different terms used when discussing new media. Other terms used include digital media, online media, social media, and personal media. For the sake of our discussion, we will subsume all these under the term new media. The term new media itself has been critiqued by some for setting up a false dichotomy between new and old. The technology that made new Analogue media like videocassette recorders (VCRs) media possible has been in development for many years. are only compatible with specific The Internet has existed in some capacity for more than media objects that have been forty years, and the World Wide Web, which made the physically encoded with Internet accessible to the masses, just celebrated its information. twenty-first birthday in August of 2012. ©Thinkstock So in addition to the word new helping us realize some key technological changes from older forms of media, we should also think of new as present and future oriented, since media and technology are now changing faster than ever before. In short, what is new today may not be considered new in a week. Despite the rapid changes in technology, the multiplatform compatibility of much of new media paradoxically allows for some stability. Whereas new technology often made analogue media devices and products obsolete, the format of much of the new media objects stays the same even as newer and updated devices with which to access digital media become available. Key to new media is the notion of technological convergence. Most new media are already digital, and the ongoing digitalization of old media allows them to circulate freely and be read/accessed/ played by any digital media platform without the need for conversion.Eugenia Siapera, Understanding New Media (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012), 47. This multiplatform compatibility has never existed before, as each type of media had a corresponding platform. For example, you couldn’t play records in an eight-track cassette tape player or a VHS tape in a DVD player. Likewise, whereas machines that printed words on paper and the human eye were the encoding and decoding devices needed to engage with analogue forms of print media, you can read this textbook in print, on a computer, or on an e-reader, iPad, smartphone, or other handheld device. Another characteristic of new media is the blurring of lines between 16.1 New Media Technologies 915 Chapter 16 New Media and Communication producers and consumers, as individual users now have a more personal relationship with their media. Personal Media Personal media is so named because users are more free to choose the media content to which they want to be exposed, to generate their own content, to comment on and link to other content, to share content with others, and, in general, to create personalized media environments. To better understand personal media, we must take a look at personal media devices and the messages and social connections they facilitate. In terms of devices, the label personal media entered regular usage in the late 1970s when the personal computer was first being produced and plans were in the works to create even more personal (and portable) computing devices.Marika Lüders, “Conceptualizing Personal Media,” New Media and Society 10, no. 5 (2008): 684. The 1980s saw an explosion of personal media devices such as the Walkman, the VCR, the camcorder, the cell phone, and the personal computer. At this time, though, personal media devices lacked the connectivity that later allowed personal media to become social media. Still, during this time, people created personalized media environments that allowed for more control over the media messages with which they engaged. For example, while portable radios had been around for years, the Walkman allowed people to listen to any cassette tape they owned instead of having to listen to whatever the radio station played.