Reading Due September 8th
Media constantly changes. There are new forms of media, media is expressed and received in different ways, and constantly redefines itself. According to Lister, new media can refer to quite a wide range of changes. These changes may include production, distribution and use. I have always tended to look at media as a thing that I experience. It is something that I use. It is interesting to view it from other viewpoints that on might not experience very often (the experience of a distributor or producer).
New media itself is hard to classify. Where is the line drawn between new and old media. The answer is different depending on the generation in which someone is born. The answer could even be different for people that are the same age. I tend to think of new media as things that have not always been around, as things that I can remember emerging. I tend to think of emailing, podcasts, dvds, and all other types of high-tech technological ways of communication or of spreading information.
Media has sort of become less and less concrete. It is interesting to think of the lines drawn between new and old media and the lines between ownership becoming less and less concrete as well. Lister mentioned that as information becomes more and more easily accessible, becomes more and more interactive, and as it changes more and more, laws concerning the media become more and more confusing.
I wonder whether I am the only one that sees new media as becoming less and less concrete. I always consider new media to be more complicated and more technical, but really it just seems to be getting more and more vague.
According to Lister, new tends to go hand in hand with better. But is this really true? Some people would disagree. Some believe that this virtual, online world is ruining the concrete, written word. I know personally the new types of media have changed my life. A New York Times article published this August called, “New Media Stream Into an Old Tradition” discussed some of the advances in media that have been seen during the current presidential election. It was an interesting article, because I take many of these advances for granted, but really this is the first presidential election when they have come into play.
Adrienne said,
September 8, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Actually, Lister definitely thinks that there is problems with the “new is better” formula – he sees this as an oversimplification that many new media pundits make. I’m curious what you mean by the new media being “more and more vague” than the “concrete” media. Do you mean that the literacy required to understand the new media is tougher to grasp/hang on to? Or it the actual act of interacting with these new media require new technical skills that are difficult to learn?
gdenney said,
September 8, 2008 at 8:40 pm
By saying that new media is “more and more vague,” I did mean that it is harder to grasp and to hang onto, but also that the entire idea of cyberspace is less of a concrete medium than books for instance. Perhaps I am alone in feeling this way. Yes, there are many concrete items that go into new media (eg. computers, printed out emails, ipods, etc.), but it all seems rather abstract, I suppose, as compared to a book or a newspaper.
gdenney said,
September 8, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I would like to make a correction to the first sentence in the last paragraph of my post. I did not mean to imply that Lister believes that new goes hand in hand with better, but that new tends to be viewed as going hand in hand with better (important distinction…and thanks for catching it).
Alex Gerage said,
September 9, 2008 at 8:34 pm
My blog post was very similar to yours, addressing the modernist assumptions that new media assumes a better culture even though that may not be the case. I also found your article to be interesting with its ties to the Presidential election. I think we’ve definitely seen some new mediums emerge with this election, from the YouTube debates last year to the political parties sending major announcements through text messages. It sure shows how things have changed, even from four years ago,