This paper summarizes the content of the article “What’s New About New Media?” (Gitelman & Pingree, n.d.), which includes coverage of the following main points listed here:
The internet and digital media have rapidly changed communication, and dramatically affected many of our ordinary daily activities such as reading or doing research.
Most media was once “new” – think about what that “newness” meant at the time.
Following the initial emergence of any new medium, it passes through a definition phase where it is compared with the functionality of existing and established media.
New media that failed to become established and are sometimes called “dead media”, still have an important place in history and should not be dismissed nor forgotten.
It is wrong to assume that all new media totally replace and supersede their predecessors (for example to assume that the typewriter would totally replace the pen).
We often forget about older media, and how our newer media were shaped from them.
Media history is an ongoing affair. There will always be newer media coming along.
After I had realized that this article was not at all about the accepted concept of “new media” (as the title suggested), but was about 200 years of media history since the 1700’s, I found it quite interesting. However, I found that several of the points made and the inventions and/or terminologies used were obscure and difficult to relate to my own life or experiences. It possibly “fitted” better as an introduction to a series of 10 essays, than as a standalone article.
Works Cited
Gitelman, Lisa & Pingree, Geoffrey. What’s New About New Media? From: Introductory Essay to New Media, 1740-1915 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003). 17 May, 2012.
