New Media: Difference between revisions

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== Definition ==
== Definition ==
New Media is media that provides interactivity for the user of the media.  The interaction with the media provides new and innovative ways to format the media for the needs of the user.  This is much different than traditional or what we call ‘old media’ in that old media does not allow the same interaction with the user.  What makes this interaction possible is the digitization of the media into mathematical binary code.  Once the media has become digital code it then becomes bits transcending the fixed from of analog media.
New media provide [[interactivity]] for the [[user]] of the media.  The [[digitality]] of new media provides innovative ways to format the media for the needs of the user.  This is much different than traditional, or “[[media|old media]],” in that old media does not allow the same interaction with the user.  What makes this interaction possible is the digitization of the media into mathematical binary code as distinct from physics and chemistry (Lister 15).  Once the media has become digital code it then becomes bits transcending the fixed from of analog media.
 
New media are characterized by a sense of change since the mid-1980s:
* [[modernity]] to [[postmodernity]]
* intensifying [[globalization]]
* [[industry]] to [[information]]
* [[decenter|decentering]] of established political orders
 
The study of new media focuses around several key terms:
* [[digitality]]
* [[interactivity]]
* [[hypertextuality]]
* [[dispersal]]
* [[virtuality]]
 
Though much has been done within the study of new media since the 1970s, current critical thought is frequently grounded in the theories of [[Marshall McLuhan]] and [[Raymond Williams]].


== History ==
== History ==