Module: Definitions and Terms of New Media

Introduction to New Media

• Conceptual Foundation: New media is defined as any media delivered digitally, primarily through the internet. This digital delivery is the critical distinguishing factor separating new media from older forms like newspapers, films, music, and television.
• Examples of New Media forms:     * Websites.     * Emails.     * Mobile phones.     * Streaming services.     * Applications (Apps).     * Social media networks.     * Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).     * Any other internet-based forms of communication.
• Evolutionary Nature: New media is not a finite or static term. It continues to evolve alongside advancements in surrounding technology. It can be practically thought of as the "newest media."
• Technological Interplay: A vital component of new media is the synergy between the internet, digital technology, images, and sound.

The Principle of Synergy

• Etymology: The term originates from the Greek word "synergia," which translates to "joint work and cooperative action."
• Core Definition: In the context of media, synergy refers to the interaction between elements—groups of people, companies, or technologies—which, when combined and working together, create an enhanced impact more powerful than the sum of their individual effects.
• The Formula of Synergy: This concept is often described as $1 + 1 = 3$.
• Applications in Media:     * Combined types of media and technologies.     * The combined effect of media activities on consumers being greater than individual effects.
• Economic Motivation: Media experts and practitioners seek "synergistic bonuses" to create effective combinations that maximize impact on media sales, consumer consumption, and return on investment.

New Media Studies and Significant Scholars

• Field Definition: New Media Studies is a field exploring the intersection of technical invention and cultural expression starting in the late $20^{th}$ century.
• Interdisciplinary Engagement: It engages concepts from communication theorists, computer programmers, educators, and technologists to examine changes in human relationships since the digital and internet eras and global connectivity.
• Prominent Theorists and Giants in the Field:     * Marshall McLuhan: Studied media communication before the internet was invented. His theories regarding how media content is impacted by its delivery method were highly prophetic and remain relevant.     * Lynn, man: Writes about the language of new media and established five general principles:         1. Numerical representation.         2. Modularity.         3. Automation.         4. Variability.         5. Transcoding.     * Henry Jenkins: Wrote about "convergence culture" in new media. This includes:         * The flow of content across multiple media platforms.         * Cooperation between various media industries.         * The "migratory behavior" of audiences searching for specific entertainment experiences.

Distinctions Between Old and New Media

• The Role of the Internet: The internet is the central focus for scholars and practitioners in the development of synergistic practices and new social/cultural practices.
• Historical Division:     * Old Media: Forms invented before the arrival of the internet, such as print, radio, cinema, and television.     * New Media: Forms invented after the arrival of the internet that depend on technologies like computers, smartphones, and tablets.

Essential New Media Terminology

• Strategies vs. Tactics: This refers to the creator's intended methods of use (strategies) versus the actual methods used by individual consumers, regardless of the creator's original intent (tactics).
• Hyper-mediation: Occurs when indirect sources create a direct connection between different types of media. Examples include:     * Hyperlinks in readings that lead to other sources or pages.     * Links on shopping sites suggesting related items for purchase.
• Web 2.0: A concept for websites geared toward user-created content where users control their own data. Examples provided include BitTorrent, Flickr, Napster, and Wikipedia.
• Networking: Defines the transformation of old media into new media through communication that allows users to produce/compute their own material and share ideas globally.
• Commodification of Experience: The packaging of human experiences into forms sold back to the consumer. Examples include:     * Cable subscriptions.     * Vacation resort packages.     * Memberships.     * One's presence on social media (abstract).
• Simulation: An imitation of something existing in the real world. While it may be a highly accurate likeness, it is not the actual thing. It is frequently used for teaching and training.
• Virtual: The quality of being almost the same as something, but not quite. In gaming and new media, it refers to an interactive world created by a computer and accessed by a user.
• Virtual World: An interactive digital space created as a simulation of the physical world. It relies on simulation to imitate but not totally reproduce real experience.
• Virtual Reality (VR): A computer interface that immerses the user completely within an experimental and experiential simulation of reality, making it feel real even though it is not.

Post-Cinema and Cultural Shifts

• Definition of Post-Cinema: Refers to what follows cinema as the dominant medium. As noted by Steven Shapiro in "Post-Cinematic Effect," cinema was the dominant aesthetic form/medium of the $20^{th}$ century but no longer holds that position in the $21^{st}$ century.
• Historical Hierarchy:     * Cinema was dominant in the first half of the $20^{th}$ century.     * In the second half, television became the mass medium with more viewers and revenue, though cinema retained cultural prestige.     * Television initially became important for live news and broadcasts, but in recent decades, television drama has equaled or surpassed cinema in cultural relevance and quality.
• Role of Digital Innovation: The rise of television quality was made possible by electronic and digital innovations, introducing a new cultural "technological regime."
• Perspectives on Post-Cinema (Shane Denson and Julia later):     * The term is a "catch-all" used to conceptualize components of new media.     * While potentially reductive or uniform, it is useful for viewing the new media field as a landscape to be navigated by scholars and practitioners.
• Two Purposes of the Term Post-Cinema:     1. Designates what occurs after cinema.     2. Points to the next and newest phase in media, marking a transformation rather than just the "death" of the old form.
• Continuity and Change: Post-cinema highlights how old and new media overlap in the $20^{th}$ and $21^{st}$ centuries across technological practices, industrial practices, formations of capital, social concerns, distribution, and reliance on aesthetics, genres, and narrative systems.