Key concepts relating to new media

Digitality:

This is a new way of coding information in a series of 0's and 1's. This is called a binary system. A huge amount of information can be delt with in this format.

Interactivity:

New ways of streaming information, compressed. Whether this is through the air (a satelite system), ISDN (broadband), telephone cables or a cable satelite system. This was means more width can be given i.e. we can now send multiple strands of information via 1 feed, this is because it is made compressed. This is why when we are on the internet saturday night, it is slower than it was tuesday night (for example), because we are sharing it with other people in the street. The more people using it, the more band width used, which means less space for everyone else as there is a limited amount of band width. Because it is interactive, it's a field that can go both ways. You can: interact with eachother, you can respond to it or make it respond to you, say yes or no to it. This changes the way that text can be made, text can work, meaning we can upload aswell as download.

Hypertextuality:

Organisation of text is no longer linear, now you can access it anywhere you like, rather like a DVD. We are able to jump whichever way we like, whenever we like, from one text to another. The people who produce the text no longer have control how we read it (in which order), they must also ensure you are able to jump around and realise that you may jump out of their text and into someone elses. For example, this is why TV is broken down, not only for adverts, but to keep interest and stop you from changing the channel.

Dispersal:

This is how information can be and is shared and communicated. It's to do with the market share and size, aswell as the take up (who's using it). You may look at how much access users actually have, and how the producers target those users and how they maximise their markets. The dispersal might be across a wide network, which coupled with the digitality, increases the market expenentially. It makes a huge market for producers.

Virtuality:

This is the idea of leading and linking with the real and representation. For example, cartoons are representational, and so are virtual worlds. This leads to questions such as, what is real? Who is representing the world, how, and why?

Convergence:

This is a very large issue related to new media technologies. New technologies are converging into one, for example, mp3 players can now show photographs, and you can send e-mails from your mobile phone. The debate with this is over where it will take us next, and whether people will use it. This is also related to size, how much small data can be stored, the size of some of these gadgets (how they converge). Before, it was impossible to make all these things into one because it was too big in the first place, but now, because of the size, we are able to make these things into one device. For example, my phone is now my camera, e-mail station, brouser etc, and it is as thin as a CD case.

WE ALSO NEED TO CONSIDER:

Audience:

• How does the audience use the technology?
• Do they actually use it?
• Does it change the way they use it?
• Did they used to use it?
• Does it change the way they used it before (if it is a new version)?
• Has technology developed due to consumer demand or has it been led by the industry? (have people demanded it or have the people who make it made use think we want it?)
• Who has actually got access to these things? (for example, many people in Africa don't have internet access)
  
• Who doesn't have access and is being cut out of these new markets?

Regulation & Control:

• Is there any control over the technologies use? If so, by who?
• Should there be control?
• What do they do about copyright issues?
• What are the implications?
• Is it realistically possible to control things?
• What's the impact of this having on producers? For example, we can all copy music and share it, so CD prices have been pushed down.
• What potential impact is there for the government?

Ownership:

• Who owns the technology and does that make a difference? For example, if Sony or Microsoft owns something:
• How much money they've got
• Whether they're able to close out the market
• How they compete with eachother
• How do they use their money and their brand to sell something

Games console manufacturing is a classic example of who owns what and why it makes a difference and how they compete.

• Who's got control on their messages, products, brands, and how does that affect the way they sell it to you?
• How does your buying it, or not, and the competition affect what they sell and how they organize themselves?