The new media era widens the horizons of the communication. Let one remember how complicated it was to communicate in the 1950s since the era of the telephone lines was just developing. However, the era of the media appeared with the occurrence of the television. On the one hand, the television made the barriers in the face-to-face communication since people were interested in spending more time watching TV. On the other hand, the television set was a luxury in the 1950s. Therefore, people, who owned the TV, invited their neighbors so that they could watch it together and communicate as well (Steele, 2009).
However, times are changing, and the new media plays another role in the establishment of the communication boundaries. The contemporary scientists are investigating the role of the new media and its impact on the cultural identity. Moreover, the intriguing question, which the scientists are working on, is the intercultural communication and its different aspects in the modern society. The new media enables people from different countries to communicate and accumulate the information from the people from the other countries. Besides the new media establishes a link between people all over the globe, scholars hesitate whether the intercultural communication is possible in the modern society all over the world. The problem covers the inability of the modern communicational world to achieve the needed goals since the understanding is challenging among the people from different countries because of the chaotic balance of the cultural differences (Chen, 2012).
On the other hand, the new media makes the process of communication between the nations easier. Since the new media provides the consumers with the necessary information, they are aware of the facts and material needed for the understanding among the other nations. Therefore, it should be mentioned that the new media era not only enhances the intercultural communication but also wipes the possible limits and border in the process of the intercultural communication. Yet this issue is not examined enough from the different perspectives and aspects, though, it is too early to come up with the appropriate conclusions concerning this phenomenon. Hence, it should be mentioned that the further investigation will provide the audience with the decent outcomes.
The new media gives the audience the opportunity to watch the TV shows or listen to music without buying them. The digital media enables the customers to get the access to these files without having a TV set or Music Center. Nowadays, the ability to listen to music free is presented with the streaming Internet possibilities. Days after says, more companies are producing the digital equipment, which promotes the era of the digital new media and makes the audience’s life easier (Socha & Eber-Schmid, 2017). Therefore, I do not remember the days when I was buying the music discs or music files since they are in the free access via YouTube or the other Internet sites.
The citizen journalism is highly effective in terms of the political sphere. The outcomes of the political elections could be predicted by the Facebook groups and their popularity. The citizen journalism enables the audience not only to participate in the political events of the country but also to observe and understand the events and their circumstances. As an example, one may mention Barack Obama and his popularity while running for the presidentship. He achieved his level of the popularity among the average people by applying the active involvement of the certain synchronized responsibilities and duties on the media (Lockrey, 2011). However still, the impact of the citizen journalism is controversial since it may provide the audience with the fake and inappropriate information, and blur the lines of the understanding of the true facts and events. Besides, some issues may be far away from the ethical accordance of the media and may be found as harmful for the society and its wellness. The problematic aspect of the citizen journalism also consists of the fact that the citizen journalism may be based on bias (since there is always a possibility of the subjective opinion) and may provide the audience with the only one perspective of the complicated issue.
References
Chen, G. M. (2012). The impact of new media on intercultural communication in global context. China Media Research, 8(2), 1-10.
Lockrey M. (2011, July 28). Citizen Journalism and the Democratisation of News Coverage. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBcgU0Qu2bM
Socha, B. & Eber-Schmid, B. (2017). WHAT IS NEW MEDIA?. Newmedia.org. Retrieved 21 January 2017, from http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html
Steele, R. (2009). Traditional and new media. In W. F. Eadie 21st century communication: A reference handbook (Vol. 2, pp. 489-496). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412964005.n54
