PowerPoint Presentation Slide 1

Characteristics of New Media

• Convergence of telecommunications and entertainment/broadcast media industries
• Wire or wireless communication
• Point to point or addressable
• Interactive ( two way) ( now multiple conferencing)

Characteristics Continued

• Interpersonal: ie. The terrain of telephony treats telephone calls ( discretionary contact between two consenting persons) as PRIVATE not PUBLIC communication ( where telco distributors are not responsible for content of message)
• Multiple: can be Mass/Broadcast which is PUBLIC communication ( broadcasters are responsible for message in exchange for spectrum monopoly: hybrid character)
• Now a grey area of semi public/private communication ( can monitor cell phones, amass, monitor and store unprecedented personal communication)

Digital Communication

• Where image text or sound is converted into binary numbers- ones and zeroes ( 0/1)
• Digital codes can duplicate, track store or play back complex kinds of content
• Strong when combined with ever greater chip capacity in computers, and bundles of glass fibre ( fibre optics) capable of carrying large quantities of information
• Current “revolution”: the Digital Video Disk
• DVDs: higher resolution, no rewinding,now coming recordable for storage and intending to replace CDS
• Also: wireless Internet ( games on the cell phone)

Implication of Digitization

• Drive to animation and special effects
• Actors worried about cyber simulators replacing them
• Domination of nature: totally simulated worlds?
• Question of authenticity of image

The Role of the Media in the Age of Digital Reproduction

• Walter Benjamin, a noted cultural scholar, suggests that the infinite reproducibility of the communication product ( CD, video, internet) due to its low marginal cost of duplication changes the nature of the work of art
• But western capitalism has conceived of the realm of ideas and expression as proprietary
• Books, stories or photos may be copyrighted so they ‘belong’ to the author and no one may borrow or copy them without permission, attribution or payment
• The high risk nature of entertainment ( so called hit rule) calls for imitation or ‘clones’ in popular culture ( riding the next so called fad or wave)
• Infinite reproducibility, repackaging,repurposing and presenting information as original
• There are many pressures on ‘news’ or ‘entertainment’ manufacture for cutting corners on production: ethical standards to prevent recycling content and presenting it as original are weak– digital watermarking is a weak barrier