Man’s everyday life is saturated by media. People have unrestrained access to various sources of information: radio, magazines, cable televisions, newspapers, books, Internet, and more. Today’s emerging media technology is known as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Speculations about the introduction of this media technology tend to neglect the potential impacts upon society. ICTs have been known to overload public citizens with information, revitalize democratic participation and deliberation, and put an end to the eminence of traditional media and communication (Karlsen, 2010). In the same way, the influence of media technology has both positive and negative impacts upon society, and the degree of its affect can be distinguished between those who have or use this technology and those who do not. This paper will discuss this issue on new media technology.
It is necessary to know the difference between the traditional media and the new media. As aforementioned, new media continually puts an end to the age of the traditional media. Traditional mass media typically involves one-to-many communication, having anonymous receivers, through one-way communication channels, and with a clear distinction between the senders and the receivers (Sagepub, n.d.). One example of this mass media is the newspaper, which a news organization sends to a wide group of readers. In the same way, the sender is known by the readers while the readers are anonymous to the sender. Also, this traditional media allows one-way communication channel, wherein the receivers are not capable of directly responding to the senders. Furthermore, the distinction between the sender and receiver is clear, whereas the senders are mostly companies, governments and renowned organizations while the receivers are mere ordinary people. In contrast, new mass media – which refers to digitization, the Internet, and the modern mobile devices – allows senders to remain anonymous to the recipients. For instance, an individual may put up a blog without providing personal information. Also, although new media even allows information to be send to anonymously large group of recipients, it allows communication and interaction to be controlled. Individuals can choose who can receive information he/she sends publicly. This is seen in the example of Facebook and Twitter. Lastly, new media allows communication to be interactive and discards the distinction between the producer and the recipient. Ordinary people can make comments and suggestions to the information sent by renowned group or even make their own media content.
The emergence of this new media technology has certain advantages. First is the ease of use. New media technology has “made the practicalities of production easier” (Burton, 2005, 206). The Internet contains various applications that allow users to make creative and productive things. For instance, one can easily make a professional business website through online website builders – without any website coding experience. Also, web browsing can now be easily done through modern mobile devices. Second, media technology developments have led to greater access to information. It is obvious that people can access a wide range of resources for information in the internet. With the use of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing a person can freely and easily obtain the information needed. Third, new media technology brought significant development on the speed of production. For instance, is as faster as easier to send, accumulate, and/or edit news materials from the other side of the world – all within minutes (Burton, 2005). Sending company messages to international recipients can be done quickly through email platforms. Fourth, media technology development resulted in enhancement of production values. Combining art and the Internet, advertisements can effectively reach audience. Another example is the emergence of cloud sharing and telecommuting solutions online. Professionals are able to store files online and can access them anytime and anywhere, as long as there is an access to the Internet. In the same way, companies are able to hire professionals from other countries without much risk like before. With new media technology, things are done easily, quickly, and more effectively. Furthermore, the development in the Internet has provided “virtual” kinds of community that forms together people with shared interests (Berger, 2012). New media becomes a complement to social living.
However, development in media technology also brought negative impacts upon social living. New media such as the television does not require high literacy at all and any visual representation in the television definitely gets stored in the intellectual of anyone exposed to it. Things that ought to be kept privately can be made public easily through the Internet. Lastly, new media development brought significant social divide. Exposure to media has become a fundamental part of this contemporary life (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). It is seen to be a social standard. Thus, less-developed societies and below-ordinary people would always desire to reach media technology developments in order to feel that they belong to the modern society.
Nevertheless, the impact and influence of media technology development is not manifested only in way of living but also in the economy – both locally and globally. Media and information technology has varied institutional roles in creating, sustaining, and representing up-to date financial issues (Chakravartty & Downing, 2010). Through media, updates on financial issues can be more accessible by the public. For instance, investors can easily see and analyze investment opportunities not only locally but also internationally. Financial analysts of banks and other international corporations can easily monitor the flow of financial conditions of the global economy with the use of media technologies. Another manifestation of this new media’s impact upon society has to do with ecological relationships. The discourse on the question on how ICTs change man-nature relationships assumes that this new media technology results in a shift toward ecological sustainability (Fuchs, 2013). Other organization leaders claim that the sophistication of ICTs brings them into better position that allows them to work out sustainable development. For this reason, companies and organizations adapted to this ‘new’ system – which they call as knowledge economy. Products and services are then sold online, given that these can be virtualized and transported digitally over the Internet – thus resulting in material and energy savings (2013). Data files such as paper works, music, videos, and books can be accessed, bought, and downloaded in the internet. Proponent scholars of this new media technology claim that compared to industrial production, ICTs reduce products’ negative impact upon environment by allowing more efficient ways of production and distribution (2013). However, they must have forgotten that computers and other technological products used for the maintenance and development of ICTs still constitute negative environmental impacts by themselves. In this argument, there is, indeed, a significant point where material and energy are saved. However, the ‘environment’ within this new media technology system shows the eminence of capitalism. It is argued that in capitalism services are transformed into physical products – which they refer to as ‘commodification’ – and that “capital accumulation is easier to achieve due to higher potentials for technological rationalization and outsourced/globalized distribution” (2013, p. 143). Profits interests of product and service providers seem to make contradictions with their claim for ecological sustainability. It is no wonder why, for example, not solar or wind energy or the reusable technologies that are promoted but the fossil fuels, the automobile, and the nonrenewable technological equipments (2013). They do not provide what benefits society and ecology at all. Knowledge economy simply enables one to have more capital accumulation.
Unfortunately, the emergence of knowledge economy significantly results in adverse effects – such as exploitation and social divide/alienation. ICT users are subject to levels of exploitation relatively consistent with industrial capitalism, whereas the structural nature of the knowledge economy associates profitability to a reduction in the intensity of social alienation (Rey, 2012). Capitalism in knowledge economy will always strive to attain the desires of consumers worldwide. Micromarketing and flexible specialization ‘commodify’ the desires of humans to be diverse, not letting them share common identities with others (Fuchs, 2013). Products and services are sold with unending cycle of diversification, and such difference becomes a new ideology for the knowledge economy capitalism. Moreover, this new media technology system gives way to social divide and alienation. Social divide refers to the gap between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not (Warschauer, 2004). Social marketing imparts upon the minds of the people that everything a human would ever need is available online: entertainment, social belongingness, products, services, education, employment, and so on. With the continuous emergence of new media technology, people come to consider that being exposed to ICTs makes one updated and socially belonged to this modern age.
Learning the various effects of ICTs and its implications is important since the way an individual thinks about it will significantly affect how he/she lives as he/she engaged to it. Moreover, it is essential since this technology system will increase even more in the future – and this is predicted in many ways. McKinsey&Company find that only 5 percent of all communications and content are use in the United States (McKinsey Global Institute, 2012), implying that the potential of this media technology has not yet been reached. Another prediction is manifested in the accessibility of quality tablets at lower prices, leading to wider addressable market (Deloitte, 2012). Another prediction is with wide accessibility of success and popularity in the internet. For instance, 10-year olds have been making thousands off their YouTube videos (Lejuwaan, n.d.). With all these, people will more likely engage to ICTs in the future.
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