New Media Flashcards
What did old media rely on? name examples
Print and analogue based communication
Newspapers, magazines, analogue TV, radio
What is new media based upon? name examples
Digital technology
Internet, mobile phones, digital TV
Name an example of old forms of media taking on elements of new media
Guardian newspapers has an accompanying website
What are the 3 characteristics of new media?
Convergence: Boyle - digitalisation allows information to be delivered across a range of media platforms, what were once separate and unconnected technologies are now blurring together in terms of how we use them - This has caused social and economic convergence (mobile phones)
Compression: there has been an increase in radio and TV channels etc. as many signals can be sent through the same cables - enabled new markets to emerge based on narrowcasting - the focus of many media companies is creating a personalised experience
Interactivity: Jenkins - interactivity has been brought about be convergence - media producers/consumers interact in constantly evolving ways
How will new media impact contemporary society according to Neuman?
Produce a high increase in the volume of communication
Change the meaning of geographical distance
Media based communication will become interactive
Previously separate forms of communication will interconnect
Blur the distinction between personal and mass communication and between private and public communication
What are the arguments for new media creating a positive impact upon contemporary society?
K: argues that new media has a ‘democrasting’ potential - this new public sphere encourages non-hierarchical interaction and debate
New media allowing interactivity: means audiences will play an active role in creating and responding to media content. Instead of vertical forms of communication found with old media, new media allows for horizontal communication - this allows virtual communities to develop
Interactive Gaming: Flew - argues that the rise of interactive gaming means that people can actually live their lives through games like sims and can also establish relationships - X - gaming can be socially isolating, Marxists: people live a virtual life and can gain the fulfilment they cannot achieve under the capitalist system
New Media helping the developing world: people in developing world don’t have access to constant new media (can’t afford it), however access is on the rise as internet access is more available and mobile phone use is more common (Mxit social networking site helps people in refugee camps/displaced people to get back in touch (10 mil active users in once country)
What are the arguments for new media creating a negative impact upon contemporary society?
M: less optimistic, points to the fact that media is owned by TNCs and is therefore controlled by a few media conglomerates
‘Not so new media’: Conford and Robins - new media is not so new - old technology is integral to the use of new media and interactivity has always been part of the media (letters, newspapers, TV)
Threat to a democratic public sphere: ordinary people cannot participate as much as is suggested by neophilliacs, cross media ownership means that TNCs own and control new media, the internet in particular is dominated by a small number of media corporations (Microsoft, AOL)
New media spreading damaging/dangerous information: the relative freedom of the internet has the potential for crime and harmful information to be spread - terrorist tactics/extremist information can spread globally by the internet, Taliban in the Iraq war have been accursed of using mobile phones as a way of detonating bombs
What are the arguments for a globalised new media spreading democracy and helping those living in the developing world?
New media can help create a democratic public sphere: a place where a variety of views/ideas can be expressed by all groups around the world (inc. developing world) - e.g. if governments are not allowing basic human rights, it can be captured through new media and alert global attention
New media has allowed the rise of citizen journalism: an alternative form of newsgathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media constitutions
New media also makes it easier for groups to carry out their democratic right to protest: internet can help virtual communities which can come together in the physical world to protest and times and places of protests can be sent out very quickly - protest in Seatle in 1999 was organised on independent media centre (radical media website)
What are the arguments for new media having a hindered democracy and it not benefitting the developing world but just increasing control by governments/TNCs?
New media is not free from government control: governments are increasingly starting to censor/control the internet (China has a firewall - no FB, Egyptian government closed down internet services to try prevent a revolution during the Arab Spring), governments are also increasingly using the internet as a way of find out information about potential dissidents and state agents have been known to set up fake facebook accounts so they can create misleading info/division within online protest groups
Ownership of new media: it has been arguest that new media is being brought by traditional media conglomerates which allows the westernised capitalist views of TNCs to dominate all parts of the world. This makes cultural optimism even easier so people in the developing world will come to see capitalism as inevitable/beneficial (making them easier to exploit) - they will also be manipulated into valuing consumerism and competition
What does Boyle argue about the generation divide?
New media is often associated with young people
He notes that adult anxieties about the media remain the same - but inappropriate material is easier to access than before, and cyber bullying adds to existing concerns
New media is now more accessible and immediate
16yo spend more time online, and less time watching TV than previous generations
What did Haste find young people use their mobile phones for?
Personal safety (parents)
Organise social lives
Texting to seek information
Females are more likely to write letters and emails to say thank you, and preferred to flirt using text - while boys flirted using phone conversations
What is the Gender divide? what did Li and Kirkup find?
Girls interact with media in all its forms more than boys - only in relation to online gaming do boys overtake girls
Girls are more likely to use web as a tool of communication
L&K: found gender differences in the use of media - men were more self confident about their computer skills and felt that computer skills were more male than female
Describe the global divide
What does Seaton note?
G7 countries have 15% of the worlds population of 50% of the worlds internet use
America and W.Europe generate most of the content of the internet
85% of content is written in English although only 10% of the worlds population can speak it
S: the economic and social inequalities of the offline world mirror the online world
