Media
What is New Media?
Vin Crosbie, 1998 (revised to include world usage figures and Napster example, 2002
Only its simplicity makes its difficult to understand.
To work successfully in New Media, you must understand what the New Media are.
There is a saying about Einstein's Theory of Relativity — that what makes it difficult for some people to comprehend is its simplicity. That you don't need to acquire more information to understand it, but that you must instead discard preconceived notions to understand it.
The New Media are a lot like that.
What generally stand in the way of people's understanding of New Media are the very terms media and medium. As commonly used, those terms are misnomers that block understanding.
Simply don't confuse a Medium with its Vehicles Very few people understand the New Media simply because what most people think are media are actually vehicles within a medium.
• Magazines aren't media nor is a magazine a medium. • Television isn't a medium nor is radio nor are television stations media. • A personal computer connected to the Internet isn't a medium and the many computers that comprise the Internet aren't media. • Neither is the World Wide Web a medium nor is e-mail a medium nor is the Internet itself a medium. •
Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, telephones, billboards, personal computers, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and e-mail all are vehicles for conveying information within a medium or media. They aren't the media or a medium in which they operate.
To understand the difference between a communications vehicle and a communications medium, you merely need to understand how the terms medium, media, and vehicles are correctly used when discussing transportation.
Indeed, you will then also understand that only three communications media exist, what those three are, and how to use them.
The Analogy Between Communication and Transportation Media
Here is the
Vin Crosbie, 1998 (revised to include world usage figures and Napster example, 2002
Only its simplicity makes its difficult to understand.
To work successfully in New Media, you must understand what the New Media are.
There is a saying about Einstein's Theory of Relativity — that what makes it difficult for some people to comprehend is its simplicity. That you don't need to acquire more information to understand it, but that you must instead discard preconceived notions to understand it.
The New Media are a lot like that.
What generally stand in the way of people's understanding of New Media are the very terms media and medium. As commonly used, those terms are misnomers that block understanding.
Simply don't confuse a Medium with its Vehicles Very few people understand the New Media simply because what most people think are media are actually vehicles within a medium.
• Magazines aren't media nor is a magazine a medium. • Television isn't a medium nor is radio nor are television stations media. • A personal computer connected to the Internet isn't a medium and the many computers that comprise the Internet aren't media. • Neither is the World Wide Web a medium nor is e-mail a medium nor is the Internet itself a medium. •
Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, telephones, billboards, personal computers, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and e-mail all are vehicles for conveying information within a medium or media. They aren't the media or a medium in which they operate.
To understand the difference between a communications vehicle and a communications medium, you merely need to understand how the terms medium, media, and vehicles are correctly used when discussing transportation.
Indeed, you will then also understand that only three communications media exist, what those three are, and how to use them.
The Analogy Between Communication and Transportation Media
Here is the