To introduce the notion of "New media" I have to start with the "mass media" definition.
For me, Mass media is defined by various means to communicate. It allows several way of communication to reach large number of people.
Before the second world war the notion of mass media was generally restricted to print. Print media use physical object such as a newspaper, a book, pamphlet or comics.
After this : radio, television, and video were introduced and used by "Mass media".
The mass media is composed by several powerful organisation which control television, publicity, internet and many others. Nowadays, human kind is surrounded by promotion through the media.
‘ Publicity is the life of this culture. In so far without publicity capitalism could not survive and at the same time the publicity is its dream. Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom its exploits, to define their own interest as no narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation. Today in the developed countries it is being archived by imposing a false standard developed countries it is archived by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable.’ By the powerful book Ways of seeing" by John Berger an assertion of the need to analyse our mass media in the early decades of twentieth century.
‘New media technology’ seems to be seen as a new way of communication But Burton Graeme, in his book "media and society : Critical Perspectives", argue that is actually just a regeneration of old media and so therefore isn’t new.
"Truly new technologies are usually not the creation of media themselves. It is often the technological pressure-cooker of military innovation which provides the opportunity for later civil applications."
Since the early 90's and the popularisation of computers and internet, Mass media push the consumer to use New media through different social network.
An other example who make me think that new media is growing up and going faster each day is when I have see this caricatural french TV show. The first thing the presenter says to the audience is : «you are watching internet ancestor, good evening!».
I actually find this sentence effective and true. I personally have a TV in my flat. I never watch it. Whereas I often watch video or film on internet. I ask my friend about it, they could all live without TV but not without laptop moreover internet.
In recent times, the Internet has become the latest and most popular form of mass media. For instance, the social networking services Facebook and Twitter have over 900 million active users.
The Facebook Inc source also says: "it had 665 million active users each day on average in March 2013, up 26 percent from a year earlier, and 751 million using Facebook from a mobile device each month, up 54 percent."
The new media in our society produces a continuous and fascinating flow of information, which is growing at an increasingly fast rate, controlling the way we think and see. Where is our liberty of thinking? When do we step backward from what we see?
It is way to difficult to stop these huge organisations. The only way for us to escape this lobotomisation is to step back with our own culture/education and discernment.
Images condition our lives, our dreams and our minds.
According to Baudrillard in his book Simulacra and Simulation : “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”
What is new media about?