new media

Question 1

what are 5 characteristics of new media?

Answer 1

1. technological convergence
2. interactivity
3. accessibility
4. audience
5. digital divide

Question 2

curran and seaton

Answer 2

argues that within the new media, there are neophiliacs and cultural pessimists

Question 3

what are neophiliacs?

Answer 3

• they are positive about the emergence of new media
  -increases choice
  -ecourages political engagement
  -increases interactivity

Question 4

what is arab spring and how does it relate to neophiliacs?

Answer 4

it was a political uprising in the middle east in 2011. it consisted of anti-government protests with the aims of political reformation, democracy and human rights. it was partially sparked by interactions through the new media such as facebook and twitter

Question 5

what are limitations of the neophiliac perspective of media?

Answer 5

-it ignores the negatives of new media
-cornford and robbins argue that new media isnt actually ‘new’
-some don’t have access to new media, which creates inequality

Question 6

what are cultural pessimists (8)

Answer 6

• they are people who are critical about the emergence of new media
• they argue that new media isn’t actually ‘new’
• dominated by conglomerates
• provides little opportunity for political discussion
• enables access to online criminal activity
• the internet is a form of surveillance
• it is a method of exploitation through advertising
• it increases inequality
• there is a decline in quality of popular culture

Question 7

what is cambridge analytica, and how does it relate to cultual pessimists?

Answer 7

cambridge analytica was a company that harvested the data of millions of peoples facebook profiles and used it for political advertising purposes to encourage people to vote for Ted Cruz. this supports cultural pessimist’s view that new media is used to exploit people through advertising, is a form of surveillance and is dominated by conglomerates

Question 8

what are limitations of the cultural pessimists view of new media?

Answer 8

-they ignore the positives of new media
-it assumes we are passive as an audience and have no choice
-it doesn’t recognise the choice and diversity in media today
-it ignores the fact that trends in popular culture are a result of audience choice
-it ignores the fact that political discussion has increased online