See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/215489586The impact of new media on societyArticle · January 2008CITATION1READS116,4281 author:CiacuGrasu NicoletaVodafone30 PUBLICATIONS39 CITATIONSSEE PROFILEAll content following this page was uploaded by CiacuGrasu Nicoleta on 06 June 2014.The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON SOCIETY ASIST. UNIV. CIACU NICOLETA Univeristatea “Constantin Brâncoveanu” Piteşti, Facultatea de Ştiinte Administratie si ale Comunicării Brăila, Brăila, România, [email protected] New media is an umbrella-term which includes different technologies. In the opinion of some specialists are considerated as new media1 both blogs, podcast, video games, virtual worlds, Wiki encyclopaedia, and other mobile devices, interactive televisions, and even the web-sites and e-mail. Others2 consider that blogs and virtual worlds must be included in the category of social media because they are encouraging appearance of virtual communities and social networks. In spite of the differences, some research workers3 identified two common characteristics for majority of definitions. These are: - spreading the information to a number of receivers which is theoretical infinite, in customized ways, depending on specification for endorsed categories; - tenure of un equal control about information both of transmitters and receivers. Other definitions are even more vaguely, considering that new media are represented by all the texts, sounds, images and graphic forms transformed by the computer4. THE CONCEPT OF MULTIMEDIA The new media technology has generated massive social changes in the behaviour and lifestyle patterns of the consumers. New media 1 http://news.bbc.co.uk./2/high/technology/6653119.stm 2 http://whatsnewmedia.org/2007/01/15/looking-back-looking-ahead/ 3http://rebuildingmedia.corante.com/archives/2006/04/27/what_is_new_media.php 4 Guţu Dorina, New Media, Ed. Tritonic, Bucureşti, 2007, pag. 162 have shaped modern culture, by affecting the way people behave, communicate, learn and conceive of themselves and their world. Giovani Sartori announced in the paper „Homo videns, Imbecility through television and Post-Thinking” that we entered in a multimedia period5. The concept of multimedia is explained by Sartori through the union in a single media of the written and spoken word, of the sound and the image. In this multimedia period, that Sartori described, are living together several media, and the television is not anymore the queen of them for some time now. The new sovereign is from now on the computer. The personal-computer is not only unifing the word, the sound, the image, characteristic specific of television, but introduces row the visible simulated realities, virtual realities. Television is making us see images of real things, she is the “photo” and “cinema6” of the real things. In exchange for the computer makes us see imaginary images. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEW MEDIA AND MASS MEDIA One of my objectives is to identify the characteristics of new media and contrast them with the electronic mass media. Given that the medium is the message, I began my analysis by identifying the characteristics or messages of new media that are different from mass media that Marshall McLuhan identified such as the light bulb, telegraph, telephone, radio, phonograph, camera and television. Studying the specialized bibliography, I identified the following five messages of the Internet: 1. two-way communication; 2. easiness of access to and dissemination of information; 3. continuous learning; 4. alignment and integration; 5. community Although one or two of these characteristics apply to traditional mass media, what is unique about the Internet is that all five of these 5 Giovani Sartori – “Homo videns. Imbecilizarea prin televiziune şi post gândirea”, Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2005, pag 35 6 Ibidem3 characteristics apply and help define the impact of this medium. As it turns out all of these characteristics also apply to the general class of new media. But these five messages are not complete, and the specialists7 revealed that there are also nine other additional properties or messages that characterizes most new media. They are: 6. portability and time flexibility (time-shifting), which provide users with freedom over space and time; 7. convergence of many different media so that they can carry out more than one function at a time and combine -- as is the case with the cameraphone; 8. interoperability without which convergence would not be possible; 9. aggregation of content, which is facilitated by digitization and convergence; 10. variety and choice to a much greater extent than the mass media that preceded them; 11. the closing of the gap between (or the convergence of) producers and consumers of media; 12. social collectivity and cooperation; 13. remix culture which digitization facilitates; 14. the transition from products to services. Although some of the electronic media McLuhan studied had one or two of these 14 characteristics, by and large these properties apply primarily to new media. The telephone permitted two-way communication but it was a stand-alone non-portable technology until the emergence of the cell phone. The very first form of the cell phone embraced two-way communication and portability but did not incorporate the other 12 messages of new media. The smartphone today, because of interoperability and convergence with other media like the digital camera and the Internet, now aggregates content, provides variety and choice and promotes social collectivity. New media today seem to have 14 distinct messages that intertwine and support each other. Digitization makes interoperability, 7 www.mediashift.com, Robert K. Logan - The 14 Messages of New Media4 two-way communication, ease of access to information, continuous learning, convergence, aggregation of content, remix culture and the transition from products to services possible. Aggregation of content leads to variety and choice, community, social collectivity and cooperation. Remix and digitization helps close the