However, there are two considerations that need to be kept in mind.
First, new technologies don’t necessarily replace media that have been around for a while. Older media might adapt, become more technologically sophisticated, change content, and possibly shrink in size and importance. However, even though there is more fanfare and embellishments with newer media, all media will peacefully coexist.
Second, journalists must be adaptable to the changes in media, particularly the changes that media manufacture. “All media are active metaphors in their power to translate experience into new forms,” wrote Marshall McLuhan in his groundbreaking work Understanding Media.
Once we as journalists understand the above quote, we will be able to navigate around and even confidently control the media that is translating our lives today and, more importantly, tomorrow.
To understand metaphors, all that’s needed is a thorough reading of Sylvia Plath’s wonderfully illustrative poem "Metaphors."
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A prime example of old media being able to stand up against new technologies is an obvious one- books. Books have been around thousands of years and with the invention of television and the internet (the latter supplying a means of reading books for free if people search) yet hardcover and paperback books have not been taken off the shelf and people are still buying them. New media is simply making everything hands free for us. We have blogging, internet journals, ear pieces for our cellphones; all these advances in technology for media is simply freeing up our hands so that we can distract ourselves with other things and not particularly get the information come from the devices.
ReplyDeleteThere's something about the feel and smell of a freshly printed book or newspaper that quite a number of people aren't ready to give up. Just think of the 'Kindle' a new form of wireless reading that allows owners to download full books into their electrical device. Sure there is less profits for older media but we have to remember an important fact about technology. Technology is designed to break, just like any brand name vehicle, they are design to break after a certain time so you are forced to go out and replace it. When technology fails, people don't know what to do with themselves. Your Kindle breaks and now you've just lost all the books you had downloaded to the little computer module and you were far too into modern media to own hard copies of things. What does the world do when all their computers (their main device to connecting to the outside world) suddenly dies?
This is why old media will be sticking around because despite the fact that new media with technological advances are now powering the market, old media (tangible objects that we hold in our hands) won't disappear over the night and will be there as our 'Safety Valve' when all else fails. I myself use the 'modern' media over the old media but in instances where the electricity goes out I still have books on the shelf that are there for me to pick up when I'm left in the dark.
As for journalists however, the playing field is a bit more difficult to choose from. On one hand you could be for journalism in the papers where you'll get a limited amount of readers due to technology advancement. On the other hand you can combine the old with the new; set up a personal blog and create your own community; newspapers making their copies to the internet. The bad part of newspapers setting up readable copies on the internet is that profits will go down, but viewership will increase. Each new generation of people seem to enjoy spending most of their time hunched in front of a computer screen to read a digital copy of something they could get down the street.
But on the topic of online viewership, that will in turn increase profits, even those with personal blogs, because once you have a dedicated community you can get online Ads on the site that pay a price per view or click of their Ad. If you go on a well rounded personal blog site you will see them filled with online advertisements as well and there is no reason why businesses like the local newspaper can't do this. Online advertisement on their digital paper combined with their advertisements in their tangible paper. Media is all about profits after all; so finding means of increasing profits is something that will ensure the existence of old media as well.
I agree that the old forms of media will always be around. With time, they will be less common, and who knows, they might even diminish all together. In this day in age, the vast majority of people are using all the latest technology. These devices give us all of our information right now. The world has become impatient, and constantly on the go. Not only do we have cell phones where we can be reached at anytime, we now have the internet with just a click away. We literally have the world in the palms of our hands at any given point of the day. There may be some disadvantages to this, but come on now, it's pretty amazing. I think we should get used to the idea that technology will more then likely take over our older forms of the media.
ReplyDeleteI agree that new technologies will not replace old media. Zack points out that, “books are a prime example of old media and are able to stand up against new technologies.” This is certainly true and best explained by Marshall McLuhan when he said, “all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways; for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but a movie has to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it. So the medium through which a person encounters a particular piece of content would have an effect on their understanding of it.” Wikipedia’s Website. Of course, some would argue that we now have technology that gives us the ability to “rewind” or “fast-forward” a movie or television show. However, there is nothing simpler than rereading a passage in a book you are holding in your hands. For that reason alone I agree that, new technologies will not replace media that has been around; “all media will peacefully coexist.”
ReplyDelete“The term technological determinism owes much of its meaning to concepts introduced by Marshall McLuhan,” said Megan Mullen in her article, Coming to Terms with the Future He Foresaw. “As humans bring new media technologies into our lives, the ways we adapt those technologies to our needs help shape future practices and needs.” A good example would be the first cell phones that were both cumbersome and unreliable, but we still embraced them. As a result technology brought us a sleek reliable cell phone that is a high quality camera, video recorder, and can access online news and communication. McLuhan spoke of this when he said, “existing technologies call for future technologies – but without the uses determined by humans, there would be no development whatsoever.” We are a “tech-driven” generation never satisfied with what we have, but rather always competing to be the first to own the latest technology. While the iPhone may be in its 3rd generation, most of my peers are already talking about the prospect of owning the 4G device. Yes, we are a “tech-driven” generation most adaptable to change.
I also believe that most Journalists are adaptable to change and can confidently control the media. A good example would be Dean Baquet, former Editor of the Los Angeles Times, who explained the difficulty the Times had competing with other nationally circulated papers like The New York Times. However, when people on the Web realized it was a great paper they gained over one million new readers from all over the world. Megan Mullen points out that, “Although McLuhan’s name is no longer a buzzword in the popular vernacular – we are living in the era when the predictions of Understanding Media are in evidence all around us.”