New Media

A few notes toward an understanding of the study of new media.

New media are defined in at least two ways: the digital devices that network our lives, and the study of the change in scale, pace, or pattern of human affairs brought about by these gadgets. New media studies involve the digital technologies of human participation and communication, and the study of the social and cultural changes that these technologies precipitate. The study of new media asks: how are digital technologies impacting our lives — how are they changing what it means to be human?

When we discuss new media, we are talking about networked digital technologies, like computers and mobiles devices: anything that has a digital component that can communicate in some way with another digital device. New media is often contrasted with the media industries of the 20th-century: film, television, and radio. These “old media” sell products that are easily controlled under a centralized authority of production and law. In other words, they sell atoms: physical containers that have material value and are difficult to copy or change, like a book, video tape, record, or television. Using these media, the audience become consumers who purchase products and agree to use them in certain ways. This system benefited the media industries and supported a professional culture of producers, while promoting passivity, isolation, and unresponsiveness in the consumer.

In contrast, new media decentralize media control and production. They promote an amateur culture of remix that shares the power of production with the consumer. No longer are the products of professional culture married to their physical containers; the new media are bits: free of atoms that seek to control their dissemination. The power of centralized authorities that benefited from the old media culture are called into question by the ubiquity of networked digital gadgets that promote action, community sharing, and individual creativity. The implications of this switch on economic and political systems are far-reaching and still in question.

The new media are characterized by convergence: that is their ability to bring together what used to be separate and distinct media forms, like prose and video, photography and music. Sometimes called “multimedia,” new media are the gadgets that bring bits together in user-configurable ways. Media which was once separate and compartmentalized can now be combined into new forms; this is the practice and potential of new media. It allows users the freedom to play and explore and could one day offer an immersive experience as meaningful as a Shakespeare tragedy.

Another consequence of convergence is that the consumers have more influence on producing the culture they have a passionate connection with. Thanks to new media, communities of fans may now speak with a collective voice to resurrect cancelled television shows, to crowd-fund major motion pictures, and to communicate with artistic professionals. This democratizing power of new media has also helped to topple governments.

Part of the reality of new media is that it’s just that: new. Its power and implications often remain unclear to those of us who adopt them until they change us, for better or worse. Just in the last two decades, the new media have had profound implications on the production of culture, the nature of politics, and basic human connection.

Additional Resources

• New Media an Introduction on Prezi.
• Intro to New Media on Soundcloud.

Bibliography

• Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0814743072. Introduction (PDF) available.
• Lessig, Lawrence (2008). Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: Penguin. p. 2008. ISBN 1594201722.
• Lucas, Gerald R. (Fall 2011). "Norman Mailer and the Novel 2.0". The Mailer Review. 5 (1): 248–263.
• McLuhan, Marshall (1964). Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415253977. Very important work. In particular, see "The Medium Is the Message" (chapter 2, reprinted in NMR) and "The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis" (chapter 4, reprinted in Spiller).
• Murray, Janet H. (1997). Hamlet on the Holodeck. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684827239. A seminal work theorizing the cyberbard who can bring to bear yet-known talents in crafting the digital expression that will define our time.
• Negroponte, Nicholas (1996). Being Digital. New York: Vintage. ISBN 0679762906.