Old Media VS New Media

Old Media VS New Media

What is new media? There are so many different definitions about the term ‘new media’ on the internet. One of them said that the term of ‘new media’ is an electronic communication that used in computer technology, such as websites, streaming audio and video, chat rooms, e-mail, online communities, web advertising, DVD and CD-ROM media, virtual reality environments, integration of digital data with the telephone, such as I-phone, digital cameras and mobile computing such as laptop. (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/new_media.html)

However, what is old media? Old media means some static representations of text and graphics, such as books, print newspaper, radio and magazines. (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/new_media.html) Along with the advent of digitization, more and more people believed that the new media had replaced the old media. They are sitting in front of the computer and just read information and news free everyday on the internet, which instead of spending money to buy books and newspapers on the street. They use the digital camera to take the picture and they can see the picture from the camera immediately. They watch the DVD instead of the heavy video tapes. Etc. “Digitization makes media files highly amenable to manipulation by a computer” (Richard Wise, 2000)

Actually, there is no single answer for new media or old media, because even old media were once new, and new media are constantly changing and evolving. (Steve Jones, 2003) So the term ‘New Media’ is related with old media.

Today, especially in such developing countries, along with the improvement of computer technology, a new product will be changed and improved in a short time. Thus it is more difficult to define what new media is. Just as Sue Thomas said that “In recent years the ‘newness’ of new media has attracted an increasing groundswell of rebellion against using the term at all” (Sue Thomas, 2006)

Reference

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/new_media.html 03/11/2008

Richard Wise, Jeanette Steemers, Multimedia: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, 2000. Page 2

Steve Jones, Encyclopedia of New Media: An Essential Reference to Communication and Technology, SAGE, 2003. Page 1

Sue Thomas, 2006 (From Breo lecture handout)