Individual characteristics of new media

What is digitalisation?

The conversion of information, such as text images and sound, into digital data. This allows content to be stored, edited, copied and distributed electronically (dissemination)

What are the disadvantages and advantages of digitalisation?

Advantages:

• Makes content easier and cheaper to distribute.

• Allows instant access to information.

• Enables content to be shared globally.

Disadvantages:

• Increases the risk of misinformation.

• Can encourage piracy.

• Creates a digital divide between those with and without access to technology.

What is interactivity?

Interactivity is the ability of audience to engage directly with media content

Shirky - rise of the active audience

Audience may participate collectively with content and challenge the traditional one way model

What is hypertextuality?

The ability to connect different pieces of digital information through hyperlinks. It allows audiences to navigate between different websites and content rather than consuming information in a fixed order.

What is a prosumer?

A prosumer is an individual who acts as both a producer and consumer of media content

What is increased audience choice?

Digital media now provide the audience with a wider range of content and platforms

Shirky - heightened autonomy may lead to individualised consumption or information overload

Gauntlet - greater abundance eliminates weakness of the previous traditional gate keeping model

What is personalisation?

Occurs when digital platforms use audience data and algorithms to recommend content based on individual interest and viewing habits

What is networked communication?

Allows individuals to connect and exchange information through digital networks. It enables many to many communication rather than relying on traditional one to many broadcasting

What is simulation in new media?

Simulation is when digital technology creates artificial versions of reality or experiences that imitate real-life situations.

Examples: include flight simulators, virtual reality, computer games and digitally generated environments.

Which theorist is associated with simulation?

Jean Baudrillard, a postmodernist sociologist. He argued that modern society is increasingly shaped by simulations and images that can become difficult to distinguish from reality.

Hyperreality: when representations of reality become more influential or convincing than reality itself. For example, people may understand a place through its carefully edited social-media images rather than through actually experiencing it

What is an example of simulation in everyday life?

Social media filters and edited photographs can create idealised versions of people’s lives and appearances. These representations may influence what people believe is normal or realistic.

What are virtual worlds?

Online, computer-generated environments where people can interact with others, create identities and experience activities without being physically present.

Example: multiplayer games, virtual reality environments and platforms such as Second Life.

Which sociologist is associated with identity in virtual worlds?

Turkle explored how people use online environments to experiment with different identities and versions of themselves. This suggests new media can make identity more flexible and less tied to someone’s physical appearance or offline life.

How can virtual worlds affect people’s identities?

People can create avatars and experiment with different personalities, appearances and social roles

This can allow greater freedom of self-expression, but it can also create a gap between someone’s online identity and their offline identity.

Example: In The Sims, people create characters, build homes and experiment with different lifestyles and identities.

What is a criticism of virtual worlds?

They may encourage people to spend more time in artificial online environments, potentially reducing face-to-face interaction.

Online identities can also be misleading because users may present themselves inaccurately.(catfishing)