the new media vs traditional media Flashcards
traditional media
- homogenous messages to a very large mass audience
- one way and non interactive
- traditional broadcasting like terrestrial TV channels, mass circulated national news and sunday newspapers
- little consumer choice, beyond a few channels, radio stations or newspapers
- scheduled, ordered output of media
new media
- new media refers to the interactive, screen based, digital technology involving:
- images
- text
- sound
- technology used for distribution and consumption
- enables customised, individualised TV viewing with a choice:
- hundreds of TV channels
- on demand scheduling, downloads of films, music onto phones
- user generated content: twitter, facebook and youtube
- interactive videogames on ps and xbox
8 characteristics of new media: 1- digitalisation
information in all formats put into binary code and this is the way information is used and transmitted
8 characteristics of new media: 2- technological convergence
multiple technologies being combined into one device which does it all
8 characteristics of new media: 3- economic convergence
- digitalisation reduced the boundaries between media sectors, and thus distinct media industries have now formed economic alliances with each other.
- eg Sony produces music as well as entertainment (film and TV)- conglomerates and integration
8 characteristics of new media: 4- cultural convergence
- JENKINS notes that media convergence has changed the way that people interact with the media and each other, creating cultural convergence
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6/10 british adults use the internet to consume a vast range of products from clothes to holidays- OECD, 2012
-96% of adults online use facebook as default social network- Ofcom 2024
-9M people in UK communicate using Twitter
8 characteristics of new media: 5- interactivity
- the internet is the epitome of interactive media because audiences can choose what to watch, when and where, different sources etc.
- Media is responsive in real time meaning it is democratised
- prosumers
- streaming services= choice
8 characteristics of new media: 6-choice
-JENKINS argues audiences have more choice than pre 1990s audiences (development of digital tech).
- we can interact with a variety of media using only 1 device in our search for uses and gratifications
- Boyle (2005)- tv evolves supply-> demand because the main idea is that people can choose what they want and when rather than being constrained by supply of TV schedule
8 characteristics of new media: 7- participatory culture
-Jenkins argues that convergence and interactivity have poduced this.
- producerd and consumers have the same roles- interacting with a constantly evolving set of rules
8 characteristics of new media: 8- collective intelligence
-Jenkins argues that participatory culture has produced a collective intelligence which is a combination of people’s knowledge and skills
- this challenges official and top down ways of seeing the world provided by institutions, and is critical of it.
criticisms of these being the features of new media
- people have always been able to develop their own view of the world informed by the range of media messages they consume, media may have been more straightforward and uniform in the past but is not monosemous (critique postmodernism?)
- people have always been able to combine intelligence and discuss their differing ideas about the world- the only difference is that this now happens online
The digital divide
- digital natives are people who are born into the digital era and therefore more likely to use new media than those born into the age of traditional media
- Boyle (2015)- new generation brought up in an immersive interactive culture, immediate gratification for information, entertainment and news.
The digital underclass
- limited access to internet impacts on quality of life of those excluded- digital underclass
- ability to pay bills, book tickets, make appointments and access services such as benefits is limited by access to the internet
- OFCOM 2015-> 54% of lower soc classes have access to smart technologies, comp w 86% of all soc classes
positive impacts of new media
- increased consumer choice
- growth of online commerce
- revitalising democracy
- spreading social movements
negative impacts of new media
- decline in the quality of cultural entertainment as quantity replaces it (candyfloss culture)
- cheap programming to fulfill greater demand for content
- lack of reliability of sources
- increased isolation
ownership of the new media
- despite claims, new media increasingly is controlled by a smaller range of companies
- closure of services like facebook and twitter during russia and ukraine conflict
- ban on google, facebook, youtube, wikipedia in China
- power of large corporations to control the market remains
