See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/215489586

The impact of new media on society

Article · January 2008

CITATIONS READS

0 13,331

1 author:

CiacuGrasu Nicoleta
GfK Group
29 PUBLICATIONS 16 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by CiacuGrasu Nicoleta on 16 June 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON SOCIETY

ASIST. UNIV. CIACU NICOLETA

Univeristatea “Constantin Brâncoveanu” Piteşti,

Facultatea de Ştiinte Administratie si ale Comunicării Brăila,
Brăila, România,
[email protected]

New media is an umbrella-term which includes different

technologies. In the opinion of some specialists are considerated as
new media1 both blogs, podcast, video games, virtual worlds, Wiki
encyclopaedia, and other mobile devices, interactive televisions, and
even the web-sites and e-mail.
Others2 consider that blogs and virtual worlds must be included in
the category of social media because they are encouraging appearance
of virtual communities and social networks.
In spite of the differences, some research workers3 identified two
common characteristics for majority of definitions. These are:
- spreading the information to a number of receivers which is
theoretical infinite, in customized ways, depending on specification
for endorsed categories;
- tenure of un equal control about information both of transmitters
and receivers.
Other definitions are even more vaguely, considering that new
media are represented by all the texts, sounds, images and graphic
forms transformed by the computer4.

THE CONCEPT OF MULTIMEDIA

The new media technology has generated massive social changes

in the behaviour and lifestyle patterns of the consumers. New media

1
http://news.bbc.co.uk./2/high/technology/6653119.stm
2
http://whatsnewmedia.org/2007/01/15/looking-back-looking-ahead/
3
http://rebuildingmedia.corante.com/archives/2006/04/27/what_is_new_media.php
4
Guţu Dorina, New Media, Ed. Tritonic, Bucureşti, 2007, pag. 16
have shaped modern culture, by affecting the way people behave,
communicate, learn and conceive of themselves and their world.
Giovani Sartori announced in the paper „Homo videns, Imbecility
through television and Post-Thinking” that we entered in a multimedia
period5. The concept of multimedia is explained by Sartori through the
union in a single media of the written and spoken word, of the sound
and the image.
In this multimedia period, that Sartori described, are living
together several media, and the television is not anymore the queen of
them for some time now. The new sovereign is from now on the
computer.
The personal-computer is not only unifing the word, the sound,
the image, characteristic specific of television, but introduces row the
visible simulated realities, virtual realities. Television is making us see
images of real things, she is the “photo” and “cinema6” of the real
things. In exchange for the computer makes us see imaginary images.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEW MEDIA AND MASS MEDIA

One of my objectives is to identify the characteristics of new

media and contrast them with the electronic mass media. Given that
the medium is the message, I began my analysis by identifying the
characteristics or messages of new media that are different from mass
media that Marshall McLuhan identified such as the light bulb,
telegraph, telephone, radio, phonograph, camera and television.
Studying the specialized bibliography, I identified the following
five messages of the Internet:
1. two-way communication;
2. easiness of access to and dissemination of information;
3. continuous learning;
4. alignment and integration;
5. community
Although one or two of these characteristics apply to traditional
mass media, what is unique about the Internet is that all five of these

5
Giovani Sartori – “Homo videns. Imbecilizarea prin televiziune şi post gândirea”, Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti,
2005, pag 35
6
Ibidem

2
characteristics apply and help define the impact of this medium. As it
turns out all of these characteristics also apply to the general class of
new media. But these five messages are not complete, and the
specialists7 revealed that there are also nine other additional properties
or messages that characterizes most new media. They are:
6. portability and time flexibility (time-shifting), which provide
users with freedom over space and time;
7. convergence of many different media so that they can carry out
more than one function at a time and combine -- as is the case with the
cameraphone;
8. interoperability without which convergence would not be
possible;
9. aggregation of content, which is facilitated by digitization and
convergence;
10. variety and choice to a much greater extent than the mass
media that preceded them;
11. the closing of the gap between (or the convergence of)
producers and consumers of media;
12. social collectivity and cooperation;
13. remix culture which digitization facilitates;
14. the transition from products to services.
Although some of the electronic media McLuhan studied had one
or two of these 14 characteristics, by and large these properties apply
primarily to new media. The telephone permitted two-way
communication but it was a stand-alone non-portable technology until
the emergence of the cell phone. The very first form of the cell phone
embraced two-way communication and portability but did not
incorporate the other 12 messages of new media. The smartphone
today, because of interoperability and convergence with other media
like the digital camera and the Internet, now aggregates content,
provides variety and choice and promotes social collectivity.
New media today seem to have 14 distinct messages that
intertwine and support each other. Digitization makes interoperability,

7
www.mediashift.com, Robert K. Logan - The 14 Messages of New Media

3
two-way communication, ease of access to information, continuous
learning, convergence, aggregation of content, remix culture and the
transition from products to services possible. Aggregation of content
leads to variety and choice, community, social collectivity and
cooperation. Remix and digitization helps close the gap between user
and producer, which in turn builds community, variety and choice.
Ease of access and dissemination of information leads to continuous
learning; social collectivity and cooperation; remix culture; and the
closing of the gap between user and producer.

NEW MEDIA CULTURE

Nowadays, the TV viewers can attend the favorite TV

transmissions on the screen of the computer. The PC is exceeding by
far the native function and now it plays the role of television and
multimedia center. It is used in the same time for downloading the TV
transmissions from the Internet and to program the digital registration
of high definitions and also to see the programs.
In a converged media world, consumers use Apple iPods to make
their own music playlists. Personal video recorders allow them to
customize television schedules. These consumers8 pull stock-market
updates, text messages, wallpaper, ring-tones, and short-form video
into their mobile phones. They come together in online communities,
generate their own content, mix it, and share it on a growing number
of social networks.
In this new-media culture, people no longer passively consume
media (and thus advertising, its main revenue source) but actively
participate in them, which usually means creating content, in whatever
form and on whatever scale.

THE BEST PLAYERS OF NEW MEDIA

Today's media revolution, like others before it, is announcing

itself with a new and strange vocabulary: Blog, Podcast, Wikis,
Wikipedia and Vlogs.

8
www.asiamedia.com, Serajul I. Bhuiyan, Impact of new media technology on society

4
 A blog, is a type of website where entries are made (such as in a
journal or diary), displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs
often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as
food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online
diaries9. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other
blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.
Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as
audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the
RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and
personal computers. The term podcast, like radio, can mean both the
content and the method of delivery. A podcast however is
distinguished by its ability to be downloaded automatically using
software capable of reading RSS or Atom feeds.
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely
create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki
supports hyperlinks and has an simple text syntax for creating new
pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is
unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the
organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content
itself.
Wikipedia is an international Web-based free-content
encyclopedia project. It exists as a wiki, a website that allows visitors
to edit its content. The word Wikipedia itself is a portmanteau of the
words wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by
volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with
access to the website.
A vlog or videoblog is a blog which uses video as the primary
content. A typical vlog entry combines an embedded video or video
link with supporting text, images, and metadata.

THE EFFECTS OF NEW MEDIA ON SOCIETY

The impact of this new media on society is varied in both positive

and negative outlooks.
Internet makes everyone a publisher and everyone a librarian, in
that anyone can both produce and retrieve an unprecedented amount
9
Ibidem

5
of information. The gate-keeping and agenda-setting functions of the
traditional media establishments are bypassed in favor of search
engines and directories. Ideally, this means that any person with
Internet access (still a fairly small number, confined primarily to the
developed world) can gain information about any issue, event, or
place, without the restrictions of time, expense, geography, and
politics that used to limit such information gathering.
By chatting with strangers in chat rooms and reading
internationals newspapers online, we believe that we are learning
about foreign cultures and perspectives directly from the sources.
What is new in this type of communication is that young people
today, and not only they, are happy to decide for themselves what is
credible or worthwhile and what is not. The old media model was:
there is one source of truth. The new media model is: there are
multiple sources of truth, and we will sort it out. The mass media
audience is no longer a captive, today's media consumer is unique,
demanding, and engaged.
This has profound implications for traditional business models in
the media industry, which are based on aggregating large passive
audiences and holding them captive during advertising interruptions.
In the new-media era, audiences will occasionally be large, but often
small, and usually tiny.
In fact, the Internet does provide ample opportunity to gain
knowledge about far away places, and offers a means of interacting
across geographical expanses. In this sense, it is an ideal medium for
establishing the sort of "cyber-peace" that is so earnestly desired. By
personalizing news portals, web search guides, etc., the user is able to
completely isolate himself or herself from issues that require
knowledge and experience outside his or her own.
There is a loss of personal one-on-one interaction with real-time
voice calls being replaced by multimedia messages. However real-
time video calls are empowering people to not only talk to each other
while on the move, but also see what each other means through their
facial expressions and mannerisms10. Camera phones and recorders
permit users to abuse the technology by taking away privacy rights,

10
http://m/cyclopediaofnewmedia.com, Mobile phones - convergence - social impact

6
however they also allow the opportunity for the moral user to capture
special moments.
Furthering this, mobile phone convergence enables greater
freedom for the user as they can access their emails and
videoconference without being chained to the office, however it
makes them answerable to the workplace as they can always be
reached through any communication.

INFLUENCES OF NEW MEDIA ON TELEVISION

Statistics shows that traditional television is the media that lose

more supporters that any other media in favor of the Internet as the
broadband connections to the Internet are spreading. In the same time,
the Internet opens new possibilities for the evolution of classical
television. So that, a few years ago, after the resounding success of
Youtube, (famous for his huge collection of video clips that are seen
by millions of visitor everyday), there came out the first television
which are broadcast only on the Internet.
Today, the scenery of the TV audience is changing in the whole
world and began to look like a desert11 are telling the specialists of the
industry. And the first guilty in this case seems to be the Internet
which has created so many parallel channels.
Media experts also recognize that there is a revolution in media
industry everywhere in the world brought by new media technology or
convergent media that changes the way of communication in society.
In the last three years, in the Romanian media landscape there
came out some televisions which are broadcast only on the Internet.
Some of them have personal contents, others are collecting videos
from varied sources, and organize them for the Internet viewers.

ONLINE TELEVISION IN ROMANIA

11
www.zf.ro, Mihai Musatoiu - Telespectatorii schimbă canalul: de la televizor, la Internet din 8 Feb 2005, aşa
cum a fost recepţionat la 14 Mar 2008

7
 I will review the most important online televisions from Romania.
Until now there have come off Evo TV, Liber TV, Brain TV,
HappyFish, Shock TV, Metalhead TV, Arena TV and Tv Copii. The
first three of them are the most visited and important online televions
in Romania, consequently the presentation below will refer to those
three televisions.
Evo TV was launched a year ago, in april 2007. The site has
interesting column as: News4Aliens, Exclusiv Evo, Ro.Mania,
Entertain Tv, Beauty Tv, Inside Evo Tv, Green Tv, No limits Tv, Girls
Tv, Good music, Training Tv, Business Tv, Imobiliar, Sănătate Tv,
Show Tv, Reality Tv, Monden Tv. The videos are EvoTV creation,
their topic vary from high society to music, cinema and entertainment,
whole of them having the young public as target.
LiberTV has an impressive collection of movies, transmissions,
documentaries and podcasters some of them realized by Romanian
people. The novelty in this case is the possibility of downloading the
videos, but the visitors must install Liber TV Player to reproduce them
afterwards. For the moment, all the videos are free for downloading
but in the future, the manager of Liber TV is planning to add some
sections accessible only for a rate.
BrainTV is the youngest of the three, she started on June 2007.
The target is made of intelligent people who are avoiding the soap
operas and the “ultramegasensational”. For the moment the videos are
reduced to interview on different themes: Internet, Business,
Advertising and Showbiz. The comments which are accompanying
each video are clear so that the choice is very simple.
The online televisions in Romania are still developing. Under the
circumstances is a matter-of-course to ask us if online television can
replace traditional television. For the future, precisely in the next two-
three years, the chances for the online television to replace of the
traditional one are minim.
The online televisions must still fight to form their own public
and to equalize at least in diversity the classical tv channel. For all
that, online televisions are an alternative which will gain ground
thanks the public who is targeted and the new media latest trend.

8
 REFERENCES
[1] Guţu Dorina – New Media, Ed. Tritonic, Bucureşti, 2007
[2] Sartori Giovani – “Homo videns. Imbecilizarea prin televiziune şi post
gândirea”, Ed. Humantitas, Bucureşti, 2005
[3]http://news.bbc.co.uk./2/high/technology/6653119.stm
[4]http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mainstream_media_web20.php
[5] http://whatsnewmedia.org/2007/01/15/looking-back-looking-ahead/
[6] http://m/cyclopediaofnewmedia.com, Mobile phones - convergence -
social impact
[7] www.asiamedia.com, Serajul I. Bhuiyan, Impact of new media
technology on society
[8]
http://rebuildingmedia.corante.com/archives/2006/04/27/what_is_new_media.ph
p
[9] www.bloombiz.ro, Televiziunea prin internet va aduce 12,2 miliarde de
dolari pe plan global in 2010, din 30 Martie 2007
[10] www.adevarul.ro, Ana-Maria Vieru, Arina Avram, Viitorul aparţine
alianţei televiziune 3D- internet, aşa cum a fost recepţionat la 13 Mar 2008
[11] www.jurnalul.ro/ Alina Radu - Televiziune online, conţinut românesc
din 10/08/2007 de aşa cum a fost recepţionat la 11 Mar 2008
[12] www.wall-street.ro, Alexandra Teodorescu - Videoclipurile urmărite
pe Internet iau locul programelor televizate în SUA, din 26 Februarie 2008
[13] www.wall-street.ro, Internetul ameninţă televiziunea prin cablu din 11
Ianuarie 2007
[14] www.wall-street.ro, Laura Culiţă - Clipurile video online ameniţă
televiziunea tradiţională din 14 August 2007
[15] www.wall-street.ro, Mihai Musătoiu – Homo Internetus, 30 noiembrie
2005
[16] www.zf.ro, Mihai Musătoiu - Telespectatorii schimbă canalul: de la
televizor, la Internet din 8 Feb 2005, aşa cum a fost recepţionat la 14 Mar 2008

View publication stats