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The distinction between old and new media emerged with the internet in the 1990s. Old media includes TV, radio, books, magazines, and newspapers, while new media includes mobile devices and social networking. New media is interactive, low-cost, and constantly evolving. It enables anyone to capture international attention overnight and gain readership through blogging.
The distinction between the old media and the new media emerged with the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. Old media generally refers to pre-Internet news outlets such as television, radio, books, magazines, and newspapers. New media not only include the media unique to the internet but also include mobile communication devices such as cell phones and smartphones. Examples of new media communications include websites, chat rooms, message boards, directory servers and social networking platforms.
Generally, old media is considered unidirectional. While a single source of information broadcast on television or radio has the potential to reach a worldwide audience, audiences typically cannot interact with the source. At best, any interaction is limited and exchanging information could take a long time.
New media communications include websites, chat rooms, bulletin board services (BBS), and email list servers. This new format also includes social networking or video sharing platforms. Cell phone technology has created the ability to send text messages via a short message service (SMS) or via a more sophisticated multimedia messaging service (MMS) where users can share pictures or video clips just as easily with which text is used.
Where old media required large sums of money invested in printing presses or broadcasting towers, new media communications are available at relatively low cost to anyone who can afford an Internet connection. Enabling everyone to have equal access to distribution can enable almost anyone to capture international attention overnight. Video clips made from a US$50 (USD) cell phone can record something so funny or historical that millions of people need to see it. This type of infectious content has led to the term “viral” to describe the way video clips posted on video sharing sites are transmitted via email and other social networks.
Authors who would never have been recognized by the old media publishers can quickly gain thousands of readers by publishing a blog. The term blog is a portmanteau of “web” and “log” that originally described the concept of posting one’s thoughts on the Internet. Bloggers who get enough readership can quickly find themselves borrowing from old media profit-making strategies by charging sponsors a fee for advertisements on blog pages.
As the Internet is constantly growing and adapting to new innovations, new media communications are constantly evolving. The original social networking sites that were once all the rage are being replaced by newer websites with richer feature sets – for example, MySpace has given way to Facebook. There is a common dynamic among all forms of new media: the gathering of different individuals around a shared interest or relationship, and then using the power of those relationships to share information with others.
