New media Flashcards
2021: What % of adults could access internet?
94% (OFCOM)
2021 What % of over 60s had internet access?
80% (OFCOM)
2021 What % of 18-34 year olds could access internet?
99%
“During the last 30 years more information has been produced globally than in the previous 5000 years”
Bauman (2007) - postmodernist
Lister et al: 5 features of new media
Digitality
Interactivity
Hypertextuality
Dispersal
Virtuality
Some types of old media have now
adapted to new media forms (eg online newspapers)
Neophiliacs/ cultural optimists (definition)
People who are positive about the benefits of the media
Cultural pessimists/ neophobiacs (definition)
People who are critical of the media
Cambridge analytica scandal (2018)
data of millions of facebook users was used without their consent, predominantly for political advertising purposes (US election)
Digital underclass - Helsper
Members of the WC unable to access internet
Differential internet access based on class (2021 - OFCOM)
51% of households earning between £6000-10,000 had home internet access compared with 99% of households with an income of over £40,001.
Young people are used to new media
because they grew up with it (Boyle) and are better at using it
Young people using internet differently
Spend longer online, use it for fun and info (news) (OFCOM 2014)
Gender differences in using media (OFCOM 2014)
men spend 3x as long watching videos and more likely to get news from internet
women more likely to use e-readers, socialise online, send texts etc
Li and Kirkup (2007) In China and Britain men have more positive
attitudes to the internet, are more confident in computer skills, use email more but are less likely to use internet to study
2015 - 28% of internet users were from
Europe, which makes up only 16% of overall population
Lister et al - features of the new media: Digitality
new media uses technology that uses binary code (distributed broadly and quickly)
can now be accessed through smartphones, laptops etc
Lister et al - features of the new media: Interactivity
consumers can engage with a variety of media, can engage with several types simultaneously, can customise what they consume and create their own content
Lister et al - features of the new media: Hypertextuality
media is spread through a variety of ways, links with other media content and can be very wide reaching (eg viral things)
Lister et al - features of the new media: Dispersal
media forms are less centralised and more adapted to individual choices, range of media available makes it very pervasive in daily life, more people are making media
eg algorithms show you what it thinks you’ll like - individual preference
Lister et al - features of the new media: Virtuality
people can present different identities using new media and can immerse themselves fully
Jenkins (2008) - 21st century media is marked by
convergence, changing how media is consumed and produced
Jenkins - technological convergence
distinct technologies come to share tasks and resources (eg smartphones that take pictures are a convergence of digital photography and cellular telephone technologies)
Jenkins - cultural convergence
the way media users engage with a range of media content delivered in various ways, and how they seek out, share, make sense of and make connections between content
Jenkins - participatory content
consumers can now also be producers and create their own media content (shift from information-reception to information-production)
Jenkins - collective intelligence
the way media users collaborate and share knowledge, resources and skills to build a shared intelligence that is greater than any one individual’s (eg shopping reviews, facebook groups discussing shared interests)
Jones - young people have more internet access but
young people from disadvantaged backgrounds don’t
30% of the global population are
‘digitally included’
Molinari identifies the need for
improved access and education around the new media for disadvantaged people
Curran and Seaton created the terms
cultural optimism/neophilia and cultural pessimism
Bivens - changes to the old media due to growth of new media
shifts in news flow cycles (citizen journalism means journalists don’t control it anymore, less time to produce news, more info + quicker spread)
heightened accountability (fact-checking and criticism)
evolving values (more immediacy)
Mcnair - elite groups have less influence
over traditional media - balance of power shifting to citizens due to development of new media
Philo - media influences what we don’t think about (gate keeping) but
more people have an influence over what the media shows
BBC deputy editor quote
“blogosphere had an immediate impact on Newsnight’s running order”
New media has led to a rise in churnalism due to
cost cutting and increased competition to attract audiences
“churnalism” term created by Zakir - lower quality content recycling/reusing information
Newman and Levy (2014): over 1/3 of 18-24 year olds
used smartphones as main source of news
500 TV channels and 172 million websites
in 2013 (Netcraft) - wide choice of new media (cultural optimists)
Cultural optimism view of new media - better informed consumers
can see product reviews, more info available etc
Cultural optimism view of new media - more user participation
Jenkins - participatory culture
can make media
Cultural optimism view of new media - greater democracy
through social movements eg petitions
more info available
Mcnair 2006 - “information,
like knowledge, is power”
Cultural optimism view of new media - more public input
Mcnair - “neither editors nor proprietors call the shots anymore”
Cultural optimism view of new media - more access to information
social media, news, other websites eg NHS symptom checker
Cultural optimism view of new media - world becomes a global village
McLuhan came up with term “global village”
Reduced space and time barriers in communication
Encourages cultural diversity
Cultural optimism view of new media - enhanced social life and social interactions
postmodernist view that new media contributes to social diversity
new channels of communication
OFCOM (2014) - 56% of UK population used facebook
Cultural pessimist view of new media - problems with validity of information
lack of fact-checking, fake news etc
Cultural pessimist view of new media - cultural imperialism
Fenton - the new media imposes western values
Cultural pessimist view of new media - threat to democracy
digital divide means unequal access to information
Cultural pessimist view of new media - increased power of commercial businesses
Mackinnon (2012) - “sovereigns of cyberspace” eg apple, amazon
hold great power eg amazon blocking wikileaks
Cultural pessimist view of new media - censorship and control
Mackinnon - examples of China and Iran which censor news and internet
surveillance present even in UK
Cultural pessimist view of new media - lack of regulation leads to undesirable things
drugs, identity theft etc
terrorist groups using social media for radicalisation
Cultural pessimist view of new media - commercialisation
pushing advertising onto consumers (“advertorials”, sponsored content)
Cultural pessimist view of new media - no real increase in consumer choice
Preston - people only see what they want to see
Curran et al - “dumbing down” of media content (poorer quality)
Baudrillard - postmodernist
we live in a media-saturated society and we identify more with media than reality
Baudrillard (postmodernist view) - hyperreality
media gives a distorted view of the world eg sanitised footage from wars
Baudrillard (postmodernist view) - media presents simulacra
media images which seem like reality but aren’t (eg soaps)
Garrod (2004) (postmodernist view) reality TV
blurs the distinction between reality and hyperreality - confusion about what’s real and media created
Strinati (1995) (postmodernist view) - power of media in shaping consumer choices
popular culture, adverts etc - we define ourselves in terms of media imagery
Strinati (1995) (postmodernist view) - quality of product is
less important than media presentation (branding etc)
film quality is less important than who’s in it
Criticisms of postmodernist view
- assumes people approach media with no prior views or experiences
- people question the media often
- many people can’t access media
- marxists - the extent of choice is a myth
- media only forms one element of what shapes our lives (gender, class, work, family etc)
Evidence the new media is revolutionary
- increased citizen journalism
- increased social interactions
- increased surveillance
- less variety of news?
Cornford and Robins (1999)
developments of new media have been evolutionary not revolutionary - interactivity existed in old media (eg letters to newspapers) and new tech built open old technology
Boyle and Haynes (2004)
new media has added to what was available from old media rather than replacing it (eg can watch TV normally or online or catch-up)
Both Cornford and Robins and Boyle and Haynes note
that the main change in new media is the speed of communication
OFCOM 2022 - 6/10 parents
agree that the benefits of the internet (eg information, news) outweigh the risks
OFCOM 2022 - 1/4 of 12-17 year olds who use social media
follow activists or campaigners for causes they care about
OFCOM 2022 - over 1/2 of 12-15 year olds
said it’s difficult to tell whether news on social media is true or not
OFCOM 2022 - 3/10 children
uploaded their own videos online in 2021
Example of fake news in new media - Kony 2012
viral video showing brutality in Uganda under Kony, but he had left Uganda years before
Example of impact of new media on politics - Arab Spring
anti-government protests across North Africa and Middle East in 2011
protests spread due to footage shared on social media
but evidence suggests impact of new media was limited - 93% of protesters relied of word of mouth/ TV for information and majority joined protests in Egypt after government had shut down twitter (US Institute of Peace Study)
Dutton and Blank - attitudes to internet in Britain (used interview’s in participant’s homes) - found 5 ‘cultures of the internet’
- E-mersives (12%) - positive attitude, use internet for entertainment, social and work
- Techno-pragmatists (17%) - use internet for instrumental and work purposes
- Cyber-savvy (19%) - understand and use all aspects of internet but are aware of risks
- Cyber-moderates (37%) - no strong feelings either way
- Adigitals (14%) - strong negative beliefs and attitudes to internet
Example of citizen journalism at work: Ian Tomlinson
was attacked by a police officer during the G-20 Protests while walking home. The police covered up this event. A passer by documented the events and was published by the media. The officer was then charged with manslaughter.
Bhattarcherjee suggests that instead of cultural imperialism
hybridisation occurs in new media, creating a new cultural syntheses between different cultures
Tomlinson suggests that globalisation of media
leads to the loss of local cultures or the changing of cultural identities
