6.3.1: Understanding new media: sociological issues

characteristics of new media

• digitalisation:

  • growth of digital technology in the 1990s resulted in changes in information storage and transmission

  • translation of all information into a universal computer language

• convergence:

  • result of digitalisation

  • different ways of presenting information combined into a single delivery system

  • separate and unconnected technologies now converged

  • blurred lines about how technology is used

• compression:

  • enabled by digital technologies

  • proliferation of radio and TV

  • many signals sent through the same mode

  • narrowcasting - transmission of particular types of media content to niche audiences

• interactivity:

  • web 2.0

  • two-way communication

  • interactive sharing

  • participatory collaboration

the new media, globalisation and digital divides

• globalisation

  • all parts of the world become increasingly interconnected

  • national boundaries become less important

• new media

  • played a part in globalisation by compressing space and time

  • instant communication with those that are geographically distant

  • people become a part of virtual communities of like-minded individuals

  • information transmitted via internet across national boundaries

• digital divides

  • inequality in access to new media

  • 48% of world population connected to internet

  • developing countries - 35% of population with access to the internet

  • LDCs - 10% of population with access to the internet

• prensky

• access to new media dependent on ownership of appropriate hardware

• digital technology gendered as more masculine

  • more congenial to males

  • 3:1 male to female graduates in ICT

  • gender inequality in the digital sphere is a result of the persistence of strong unconscious biases about what’s appropriate and the capacities of each gender

digital optimism vs. digital pessimism

• mcluhan

• digital optimists

  • hopeful new tech will lead to greater global understanding, interconnectedness and fellow feeling as people in different countries become more aware of what unites them

  • negroponte

  • digital technology empowers the ordinary citizen and reduces the extent to which power is centralised in the state

  • people are able to cooperate with each other globall

  • greater cooperation = greater harmony, strengthened international social bonds

  • Jenkins

• digital pessimists

  • doubtful whether new technologies will transform international relations in the face of inequality

  • sceptical of technology as a means of promoting democracy

  • keen

    • some argue that the open source nature of the digital revolution means everyone has an equal stake in reliability (falsehoods corrected)

    • prescient take on spread of rumours

  • mcchesney

  • smaller newspapers have closed and remaining are financially vulnerable

NA

NA