New%20Media:%20Status%20and%20Implications

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New Media Status and Implications

• Wendy Cukier
• Communication and Culture
• Information Technology Management
• Ryerson University
• wcukier_at_ryerson.ca

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Overview

• Basic Concepts
• Diffusion
• Impact on New Media and Policy Issues
• Transformation of Journalism

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BASIC CONCEPTS

• New media is multidisciplinary
• Arts design and production of new media products
• Technology development of hardware and software
  for design, production, and delivery of new media
  products
• Social Science research on the production and
  consumption of new media products

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Definition of New Media

• New forms of communication that emerge from new
  technologies
• New communication formats, genres and styles
  resulting from social, economic and technological
  change
• CONVERGENCE linking of television (content),
  telecommunications and computers

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Technology Drivers

• digitization conversion of analogue (text,
  music, image, video) content to digital
  (0101001001)
• growth in bandwidth (capacity/transmission speed)
• new forms of transmission (eg. wireless)
• network intelligence
• standards (TCP/IP Protocol)
• price/performance
• new devices (eg. RIM)

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• This technological development has come to be
  linked to horizontal and vertical industries in
  the communication and cultural industries often
  also called convergence, especially when the
  mergers are driven by expected synergies or
  economies based on technological convergence.

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Key Characteristics

• Alteration of time and space
• - on demand services
• - delivered anywhere
• Interactivity
• Broad access
• User driven structure

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Internet

• A new medium?
• An overlay for all media?
• New media add new layers, not displace old media

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DIFFUSION OF NEW MEDIA

• Diffusion is the process by which an innovation
  is communicated through certain channels over
  time among the members of a social system
• -- Everett Rogers (1995), p. 5

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The S-Curve Model of Diffusion Process
Decline
Adoption
Saturation
Later Majority
Earlier Majority
Laggards
Takeoff
Earlier Adopters
Innovators
Time
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decay
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Diffusion Curves of Selected U.S. Media
Lievrouw (2000)
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Facilitators and Barriers of Diffusion Process
Personal traits
Social influences
Technological traits
Perceived traits
Communication
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Mediamorphosis

• Mediamorphosis is The transformation of
  communication media, usually brought about by the
  complex interplay of perceived needs, competitive
  and political pressures, and social and
  technological innovations.
• -- Roger Fidler (1996), pp. 22-23

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Principles of Mediamorphosis

• Coevolution and coexistence (e.g., films)
• Metamorphosis (from videotex to www)
• Propagation (from mac to windows)
• Survival (magazines radio)
• Opportunity and need (VHS vs. Betacom)
• Delayed adoption (cable fax)

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Film New Business Model
Cash flow in U.S. movie industry
Box Office Sales
Theaters
Concession Sales
Independent Producer
Video sales /rental
Marketing/ Ancillary
Cable/TV
Exports
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Videotape VHS Beats Betacom

• Beta is a higher quality videotape format than
  VHS, and has been used by pros
• Sony treated Beta as a proprietary technology,
  whereas JVC made VHS public
• Because every manufactory can make VHS, the price
  of VHS tapes kept dropping, which immediately
  promoted VHS VCRs.

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Fax

• Invented at the same time as telegraph
• Graphic potentials hindered by technology
• Exploded with development of standards (Group IV
  Fax)
• Value increased dramatically with the increased
  number of users (person to person communications
  different than broadcast or other media)

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IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA

• DISPLACEMENT for first time since advent of TV,
  viewing has declined among children (US data -
  2001)
• BUT
• - hours using TV 24.8
• - hours on internet 9.8
• For information 91
• For entertainment 30

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Access Issues

• internet Canada households with internet
  access (2001) 47
• about 25 have high speed internet access (about
  8 have broadband access)
• growing rapidly

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What do Canadians use broadband for?

• Sending digital photos (65)
• Watching video clips (50)
• Downloading music (44)
• On-line gaming (43)
• Streaming music (42)
• Date source Industry Canada.

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Policy Issues

• Do these applications justify a 8 billion
  investment (hype versus the reality) OR
• If we build it they will come

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Other Policy Issues

• digital divide (information rich / poor)
• community vs. individual values
• corporate control / regulation
• surveillance / privacy
• mobilization / social movements
• concepts of citizenship
• electronic democracy

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• Within Canada, internet use strongly correlated
  with household income
• Income quartile using internet
• Bottom 32
• 2nd 52
• 3rd 70
• top 87
• Urban households have greater access

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Effects of the New Media

• Knowledge Gap Digital Divide
• Media Dependency Internet Addiction
• Cultivation Virtual Identity
• Third-person Effects Internet Police
• Agenda-setting Social Divergence

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TRANSFORMATION OF JOURNALISM

• 58 think most information on internet is
  reliable
• New newsgathering and distribution techniques

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New Opportunities for Journalism

• LAYERING
• - For example, headline brief summary more
  detailed report source documents
• SATELLITE IMAGERY
• CONSTRUCTED REPORTS
• ON-LINE SERVICES
• - Important in less developed countries
• IMMERSIVE MEDIA
• EXPERIENTIAL (SENSATION) vs. AUTHENTICITY /
  ACCURACY
• LOSS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE

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Critical Issues the Pubic Interest

• ATTRIBUTION / PROVENANCE
• - News stories increasingly use many sources,
  often unattributed
• VERIFICATION
• DISINFORMATION / MANIPULATION
• MANY UNRELIABLE SERVICES
• WHAT CAN WE DO IF WE CANNOT TRUST OUR SENSES?

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Business Issues

• RELATIONSHIP OF CONTENT AND PLATFORM
• SOURCES OF REVENUE
• ADVERTISING
• SPONSORSHIP (INCLUDING GOVERNMENT)
• SUBSCRIPTIONS
• DIRECT SALES
• DAYMAPPING (when, where, and by what means of
  delivery do potential audiences want specific
  kinds of content time / location / device /
  content
• LIMITATIONS OF STREAMING
• - Capital intensive
• - Lack economies of scale