Perspectives on New Media Technology



Perspectives on New Media Technology

As in other areas of Media Studies, we need to get away from viewing NMT as some kind of all- powerful force which has changed our society and culture beyond all recognition. Certainly the world we live in is a very different one from the one lived in 50 years ago, but technology itself is not responsible for the changes. It is more useful to focus on the ways in which our culture engages with the technologies and the ways in which NMT has been incorporate in our workplaces, leisure time and domestic lives.

Curran and Seaton (1997) pointed out that one of the key debates in the area of New Media Technology is the one between the neophiliacs who welcome NMT in optimistic terms, and the cultural pessimists who view NMT with scepticism and concern. Whilst it is not particularly useful to simply view NMT as “good” or “bad,” it is important that you understand and can discuss the issues in the debate.

|Neophiliacs |Cultural pessimists |

|Questions of choice | |

|1. Many more channels- “Communacopia” |1. Market forces, especially when deregulated, squeeze out |

| |minority tastes, unless rich consumers. Competition for |

| |popular market restricts actual choice. |

|2. Segmentation and narrowcasting |2. Rental and purchase costs lead to exclusion of poor and |

| |powerless. |

|3. Experimentation, growth and innovation |3. Costs of production lead to more imports and cheaper forms|

| |of output. |

|Democracy | |

|1. More information and services available to consumers. |1. Increased control by media barons and multinationals. |

|2. Interactive uses (voting, www sites etc.) |2. Loss of public service principles and public sphere, |

| |issues of regulation. |

|3. DIY and community production leads to autonomy |3. Increasingly privatised culture, reliance on advertising |

| |revenue. |

|Demand | |

|1. Technological determinism? |1. Failure or low take-up of some new technologies, cost |

| |exclusion. |

|2. IT “revolution”, the “wired” society. |2. Video growth and decline of terrestrial, public service TV|

| |viewing (displacement) |

|3. Growth of private commercial culture. |3. Quality of existing services eroded. |

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