Beyond New: Thinking about Media Change

How would you provide an account for new media?

Well, first of all before exploring or attempting to account for new media, the phrase ‘new media’ implies progression from ‘old media’. Old media today is often practically thought to refer to the traditional printed news or newspaper, books, the old analogue radio and television as technological means for delivering information to the public. ‘New media’ on the other hand, is often thought to include novel technologies and methods of generating and delivering the information using such converged and mobile technologies as the smart phone which combines radio, television, electronic books and news and telephone. Clearly, the emergence of the so called new media is heavily reliant on the Internet and the underlying technologies at its core.

Think beyond ' New Media'?

It is worth noting that, the so called ‘old’ media were once ‘new’ media in their time. As at now, it seems that the progression or development of old media into new has simply been a change in the methods, generation and delivery technologies of information for wildly changing and diverse societies. It therefore follows that principally, it is just the delivery mechanisms and technologies that change and not necessarily the content or the consumers. As such it seems there will always be new media. However, it also seems that there are no clear or absolute boundaries between old media and new media, at least not in all societies around the world. As it turns out, old and new media are not mutually exclusive and it seems this will always be the case; as long as the technological advancement is closely coupled with sociocultural evolution.

Image References:
1-http://davidroberts1992.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/media-studies-%E2%80%93-new-media/ [Accessed: 24/10/2011]
2- http://www.al-arabeya.net/index.asp?serial=&f=3340307519 [Accessed: 24/10/2011]