Impacts of New Media

New media refers to any interactive media and communication methods usually developed in electronic forms, such as the Internet and Blogs. The impact of new media is evident in the fields of technology, economics and politics. Some impacts are positive while others are negative.

New media constantly changes at a rapid rate as it can be changed from any number of sources. Hence, it can be hard to keep up with the pace and may be difficult for companies to remain competitive in today’s digital markets. Major television channels such as BBC1 and 2 have seen increasing trends of attracting a much larger audience compared to other channels because of the switchover from analogue to digital television. According to a Professor Gunter, “In the future, TV reception will become increasingly available in other technologies such as personal computers linked to the internet and mobile telephones. TV sets themselves will become increasingly computerized and develop enhanced functions meaning the sets will be used more interactively.”

Another disadvantage of new media is the cost. As new media forms are almost entirely digital in nature, the cost of initial establishment and then the maintenance of the equipment, resources and manpower needed may pose a consequential problem for smaller businesses.

However there are many positive impacts of new media as well. Firstly, it is extremely convenient to buy products on the web from the comforts of your home. For example buying movie or concert tickets can be as easy as a few clicks away. Online auctioning is also very popular through websites such as Napster and eBay. All this is so common now, when just some time back the concepts and technology behind them did not even exist.

The new media also allows for freedom of speech through blogs or online diaries. It ensures that there are multiple sources of truth and hence a benefit of this media reformation is the flow of creativity. For example, the media coverage of American politics includes bloggers providing information to readers together with reporters from typical media. This illustrates new communications technology emerging as a medium through which such news is brought to readers which was formerly only accessible to the primary provider.

So, we can see that because of the progress new media has made, it is increasingly being used due to globalization. Thus, the impacts it has on technology, economics and politics are mostly positive with exceptions here and there.

http://www.24dash.com/education/20374.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media

http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/new_media_old_politics.html