Wk2 Reading (Social Aspects)
Frederick Williams, Sharon Strover and August Grant. "Social Aspects of New Media Technologies." University of Texas at Austin.
Uses and Gratification Theory: this theory posits that 'new media' allows for individual choices and thus departs from the traditional "medium is the message" mentality to communication studies. This assumes and active consumer, but I think we must be careful not to over emphasize this change. Blend the two theories please. Gratification allows for choices within a media, and traditional study tells about how the medium affects the communicative process and effects.
It is also a 'old school' model that says that a medium will inherit the content of the past. But, as you'll notice each time a new media comes about, it starts out with few options. For magazines to survive they had to become target oriented, so did radio, and so has TV in response to the internet. But, the nature of the internet was to provide independent content, so it was already at the end of its life cycle (as a medium) early in its 'life.'
So analyzing the net under traditional models yields us with the face of new models. Uses and gratification is the eventual model of any 'medium is the message' new media lifespan study.
I hope I'm making this clear. To fully understand how media really relates to people's lives, researchers must pinpoint the most poignant theory.
Another point, if medium loyalty is dwindling... brand loyalty has to take over. I mean to say, radio/TV station or magazine name loyalty.
With traditional media trying so hard to maintain it's audience, and the social aspects of media keeping people comfortable with their interactions with it, why would anyone move to a new media. Why make the choice? It seems like media has progressed fairly rapidly over the course of the last century. But, I can see now that the media leaps, that has brought widespread market saturation of new technology, across the board adoption or critical mass, have been huge jumps in technology. There was surely a radio 2.0 or an improved TV set that was available and never spread because it could not prove an advertising base and couldn't break into an audience. The only new medias we see are those that provide a whole new dimension of experience. Without such drastic change, there is no motivation for consumers, and thus no guarantee for the backing producers of hardware, content or advertising.
The fact the FM radio and cable TV ever made it big is rather remarkable. It's easy to see why both were slow processes.
This process has several names, but the consumer end of the equation is known as adoption. Luckily for new media, this has been studied as a phenomena for quite a while with varying technologies. But... will these models prove accurate in new the digital world. As previously stated, internet technology already possesses the characteristics of media which is ending its life cycle and settling in for its long term self-sustaining phase.
The adoption of "new" technology enhancements perhaps may benefit from analyzing them within their intermediate role. Adoption is based less upon the device and more upon the social effects and factors. It seems also that in order to market new media to people (post large change) it is key to recognize them as now target markets not for general adoption. Also, gratification comes into play rather than more traditional models. New models seems to more accurately describe intermittent technology adoption rather than sweeping changes.
Media system dependency theory: seeks to explain the many factors that affect the many levels of media adoption. The Social Information Process Model: seeks to explain the intertwining world of perceptions of new media. As, this affects the media usage as much, or more so, than the actual factors of a new medium.
Uses and Gratification Theory: this theory posits that 'new media' allows for individual choices and thus departs from the traditional "medium is the message" mentality to communication studies. This assumes and active consumer, but I think we must be careful not to over emphasize this change. Blend the two theories please. Gratification allows for choices within a media, and traditional study tells about how the medium affects the communicative process and effects.
It is also a 'old school' model that says that a medium will inherit the content of the past. But, as you'll notice each time a new media comes about, it starts out with few options. For magazines to survive they had to become target oriented, so did radio, and so has TV in response to the internet. But, the nature of the internet was to provide independent content, so it was already at the end of its life cycle (as a medium) early in its 'life.'
So analyzing the net under traditional models yields us with the face of new models. Uses and gratification is the eventual model of any 'medium is the message' new media lifespan study.
I hope I'm making this clear. To fully understand how media really relates to people's lives, researchers must pinpoint the most poignant theory.
Another point, if medium loyalty is dwindling... brand loyalty has to take over. I mean to say, radio/TV station or magazine name loyalty.
With traditional media trying so hard to maintain it's audience, and the social aspects of media keeping people comfortable with their interactions with it, why would anyone move to a new media. Why make the choice? It seems like media has progressed fairly rapidly over the course of the last century. But, I can see now that the media leaps, that has brought widespread market saturation of new technology, across the board adoption or critical mass, have been huge jumps in technology. There was surely a radio 2.0 or an improved TV set that was available and never spread because it could not prove an advertising base and couldn't break into an audience. The only new medias we see are those that provide a whole new dimension of experience. Without such drastic change, there is no motivation for consumers, and thus no guarantee for the backing producers of hardware, content or advertising.
The fact the FM radio and cable TV ever made it big is rather remarkable. It's easy to see why both were slow processes.
This process has several names, but the consumer end of the equation is known as adoption. Luckily for new media, this has been studied as a phenomena for quite a while with varying technologies. But... will these models prove accurate in new the digital world. As previously stated, internet technology already possesses the characteristics of media which is ending its life cycle and settling in for its long term self-sustaining phase.
The adoption of "new" technology enhancements perhaps may benefit from analyzing them within their intermediate role. Adoption is based less upon the device and more upon the social effects and factors. It seems also that in order to market new media to people (post large change) it is key to recognize them as now target markets not for general adoption. Also, gratification comes into play rather than more traditional models. New models seems to more accurately describe intermittent technology adoption rather than sweeping changes.
Media system dependency theory: seeks to explain the many factors that affect the many levels of media adoption. The Social Information Process Model: seeks to explain the intertwining world of perceptions of new media. As, this affects the media usage as much, or more so, than the actual factors of a new medium.
posted by joshua at 4:48 PM
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