1. New Media

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

1. Defining New Media
2. Digital Revolution and Convergence
3. Compression
4. Interactivity

Question 2

1. Defining New Media

Answer 2

• New media refers to two trends that have occurred over the past 30 years.

1. Evolution of existing media delivery systems
   - E.g. a decade ago, most people received TV pictures from aerials and analogue-signal television sets with only 5 channels.
   - Today: people buy digital, high-definition, flat-screen TV with hundreds of channels.
2. Emergence of new delivery technologies
   - Cheap personal computers and mobile phone technology offer new forms of communication (Accessibility of texting / Worldwide Web)

Question 3

2. Digital Revolution and Convergence

Answer 3

• Growth of digital tech in the 1990s led to the changes in the way information is stored and transmitted.

• Digitalization led to translation of all information into a universal computer language.
• Digitalization resulted in convergence
• Convergence: different types of information (e.g. texts, films etc) could be combined into a single delivery system.
- Boyle: digitalization allows information to be delivered across a range of media platforms. This ‘blurs the lines about how we use technologies’.
- E.g. possible to watch TV through a mobile phone and send emails on an iPod

• Technological convergence has led to economic convergence.

• E.g. Media and Telecommunication industries previously produced separate systems of communication. (Telephone, computers etc)
• Now make alliances with each other (digitalization reduced the boundaries)
• Jenkins: mobile companies don’t make single function phones anymore.
• Cornford and Robins: digital convergence future would see the emergence of the ‘holy grail’ of the information age.
• Jenkins: Disputes this as there will never be a black box that does everything because our needs are dependent upon different social contexts (e.g. age)

Question 4

3. Compression

Answer 4

• Digital Technologies enable the compression of signals.
• This has led to a spread of radio and TV channels because it means that many signals can be sent through the same cable, telephone line etc.
• New markets are not organised around ‘narrowcasting’
• Narrowcasting: the broadcast of particular types of media content to niche consumers. (Digital TV proucers have targeted young audiences by setting up channels aimed at their interests)
• Boyle: focus of media companies is now creating a personalized experience.

Question 5

4. Interactivity

Answer 5

• New media is interactive and is responsive in ‘real time’ to user input
• Internet lets users select the stories they want to watch and the order they want to watch them.

• Jenkins: argues interactivity has been brought about by convergence.

• Interactivity and convergence have produced a participatory culture
• Participatory Culture: producers and consumers now interact with each other
• E.g. Fanzine magazines have now migrated to the online world of bloggers.

• Jenkins also suggests that interactivity has produced a ‘collective intelligence’ because consuming new media tends to be a collective process.
• Internet is the main means through which people can interact with each other in a participatory culture and build collective intelligence
- E.g. People can engage in online discussions, play online games etc

• Jenkins: Fans of TV programmes have become influential because of the internet (programme makers take their views into consideration)
• Boyle: we have evolved from a supply-led TV (available to all) to a demand-led TV (viewers decide what they want to watch). Not restricted by schedules
- E.g. Freeview is a good example of this. We now construct our own schedules.