Media

• New Media

  Digital technology involving the integration of images, text and sound so it can be used for the distribution and consumption of new digitised media content
• Old Media

  Printed format of books, newspapers and magazines; different devices for different media content (radios and MP3 players to listen to music, TV to watch shows, phones for calls)
• The 5 key features of new media

  Technological convergence

  Interactivity

  Hypertextuality

  Dispersal

  Virtuality
• Technological convergence


  Where one decide can be used to access a wide range of media
• Technological convergence (Jenkins)


  Technological convergence brings about cultural convergence, where consumers are encouraged to seek out and share new information and make connections between content from a range of media
• Technological convergence (Livingstone and Bovill, 1999)


  Technological convergence may contribute to the blurring of boundaries between traditionally distinct activities (e.g. playing games) and other forms of entertainment
• Interactivity

  People being able to engage in some way
• According to Jenkins, what 2 things has interactivity in new media led to

  Participatory culture and collective intelligence
• Participatory culture

  Producers and consumers can interact with each other
• Collective intelligence

  A shared intelligence greater than that of an individual
• Hypertextuality

  The web of connections between different parts of media
• Dispersal

  New media is less centralised and more adaptive to individual choices
• Virtuality

  The immersion of virtual communities
• Criticism of new media (Cornford and Robins, 1999)


  New media developments are evolutionary, rather than revolutionary
• Criticism of new media (Boyle and Haynes, 2004)

  New media have added to what was available from old media rather than replacing it
• What percentage of the UK have a social media account

  Around 70%
• As of January 2023, what percentage of households had Internet access

  96%
• What percentage of households had Internet access in 2019

  93%
• What percentage of households had Internet access in 2006

  53%
• Perspective on new media in Britain (Curran and Seaton, 2003)

  Neophiliacs and cultural pessimists
• Neophiliac view on new media

  More informed consumers

  Greater democracy (McNair, 2006; Murthy, 2013)

  More access to more information

  Global village (McLuhan, 1962)

  Social life and interactions are enhanced
• Cultural pessimist view on new media

  Problems with validity of information

  Cultural and media imperialism

  Threat to democracy - powerful companies + censorship and control (MacKinnon, 2012)

  Lack of regulation

  Commercialisation

  Lack of consumer choice (Preston, 2012)

  Increased surveillance

  Undermining human relationships