Men, Women, Children, and the Age of New Media
There is a new substantial form of media that has been popularized in recent years that has changed how we as individuals and a society, think, live, share, and create. From the most influential politicization, to the vagabond on the street, every single person is affected by this new form of media and it becomes more substantial in our lives every day. The movie Men, Women, and Children, and the first chapters of New Media, and New New Media, all share a common theme: the attempt to shed light on this medium, called new media, and explain how it affects our lives. In the movie Men, Women, and Children, the film follows four families as they navigate ideas of self worth, popularity, and relationships
…show more content…
Flew explains that the internet is a network of devices that share information using a signal, which allows them to communicate with one another, and individuals use this connection to complete all sorts of tasks and services, one of which is creating and sharing content; labeled as web 2.0, social media (13), and New New Media (Levinson, 1). This form of new media has been popularized by the creation of social media websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter in the early 2000 's, but Web 2.0 is not really an invention of a new product, or merely social media, but rather a new way of utilizing new media to allow users to take control and create their own content; putting them in control of the distribution of information (Flew, 13). Previously, individuals could only be consumers, receiving whatever the large distributors deemed worthy of sharing. Now, New New Media allows anyone to share with others on the internet, creating a brand new environment that allows users to interact like never before; becoming not only consumers, but producers as well (Levinson, 2). For instance, in the film, Brandy took pictures of herself in costumes to create an alternative identity for herself on tumblr, Don 's wife used New Media to create a profile for herself on Ashley Madison, and Donna posted pictures of her daughter to private subscribers – each producing content which others then consumed. Likewise, they consumed media created by others, completing the cycle of New Media. New Media is naturally convergent, evident in the overlapping and intermingling of the individual 's stories in the film; each person 's interaction with new media affected the story of someone else in some way or another, ultimately linking nearly all of the stories into one (Men, Women, and
Dizard, Wilson, Jr. Old Media New Media: Mass Communications in The Information Age. New York: Longman, 2000.
In Steven Pinker’s article, “Mind Over Mass Media” he argues that every advance in media technology has charge of declining intelligence and morality. Pinker supports the idea that there are intellectual benefits obtained from mass media and that there are positive effects of new media technologies on mental development using some great examples related to our daily life.
The film suggests that men have the carefree role of the family unit where the women are viewed as the responsible
In the past couple of decades, media has been emerging to become a major part of human civilization; it certainly has changed and shaped our lifestyle, culture, and future. Media brings variety of things to our lives, both positively and negatively. It has made our lives more entertained, resourceful, engaged, connected, updated, and abundant. It is nearly impossible to find someone living without a smart phone, laptop, tablet, and or television. People are so connected to media and technology for various reasons, and one being the access to media content. It is harder and harder to see an individual carrying a newspaper with him or her; instead, we see people read news on their devices and television. Furthermore, people can also access to
1. Introduction Technological advances have changed the way we enjoy popular culture. Every day a vast number of new entertainment contents products are created. If one wants to relax after work or school, there are plenty of options on multiple platforms, one can choose what they want to watch, read or listen to. However, the Internet and other inventions not only change how we consume popular culture but also change how media is made.
Currently, social media plays a significant role in our everyday lives and the way people in society interacts with one another. A few years ago, before its influence reached the point where it is now, the large platforms such as Facebook or Twitter which function was merely to keep family and friends connected no matter where they were or what they were doing, and the requirements were an internet connection and a smart phone or a computer. People would share pictures or posts to keep others “updated” on their lives and what they were thinking. Now social media platforms are far more complicated. In various of them, such as Instagram or Snapchat, it is not enough to only share a picture or video of your day, but it is almost a requirement and people are pushed to take an extra mile further away and make yourself appear interesting in the eyes of others. The “feed” requires to be eye catching, the captions should be memorable, the places one goes to ought to look way better than they actually are, you have to include friends in such posts to prove one have a social life outside of the phone. The importance of the number of followers, likes or viewers
First, it is important we define what is meant by media panics. Danish media scholar Kirsten Drotner (1999) defines it as “emotionally charged reactions on the appearance of new media” (p. 593). She continues to explain media panics as a power struggle between adults and how they push to control the media choices of youths. These media panics develop because people fear their children will only learn through technology and not thr...
With all the technological advances in the last twenty years and the rise of social media in the last ten, it is not unreasonable or inconceivable to suggest that the electronic media devices present in children and adolescents’ bedrooms are inhibiting normal sleep processes and resulting in tiredness at school and the onset of Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD). There have been a growing number of studies conducted all over the world that support this theory, only some of which will be cited in the following essay. Increasingly, the evidence found shows that children and adolescents with electronic media devices in their bedrooms have poorer bedtime and sleep habits and a worse quality of sleep than those without.
The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of living and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.
How media literacy is defined is important for it exerts influence on the framing of the debate, the research agenda and policy initiatives (Livingstone, 2004). However, its concept has always been controversial (Luke, 1989). The definition of media literacy first appear in the 1992 National Leadership Conference on Media Literacy, which described it as: “The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages” (Rubin, 1998, p.3). Based on this definition, many researchers are putting efforts to redefine it from different aspects. Some definitions of the last decade involved the understanding of how media functioned in society (Messaris, 1998). Others pointed out that media literacy instead depended on the understanding of the technological, political, economic constraints affecting the transmission of mediated messages (Lewis and Jhally, 1998). According to Tyner (1998, p17), definitions range from the tautological (computer literacy is the ability to use computers) to the hugely idealistic: “The term literacy is shorthand for cultural ideals as eclectic as economic development, personal fulfillment, and individual moral fortitude”. One of the definition that is more related to daily practice puts emphasis on critical thinking and the ability to distinguish media content form social reality, as Potter (2001, pp4-5) put it: “Media literacy is a perspective that we actively use when exposing ourselves to the media in order to interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter.” While popular US textbooks on media literacy have an interesting description, which says, “we build our perspectives from knowledge structures; to build our knowledge structures, we need tools and raw materials-the...
In today’s society, there is a strong indication that the status of images is improving. We live in a mediated blitz world of images. They fill our newspapers, magazines, books, clothes, billboards, computer monitors and television screens as never before in the history of mass communication. We are becoming a visually mediated society. For many, understanding of the world is being accomplished, not through reading words, but by reading images. Ever since I became a Mass Communication major, I noticed that the television culture is replacing words as the important factor in social communication. Words will be reserved for only bureaucratic transactions through business forms and in books that will only be read by a few individuals. Reading is losing to watching because viewing requires little mental processing. Visual communication has the ability to convey messages, but this “language” means nothing to those who can only read words and not images.
Imagine someone born in the early 1900’s entering a modern-day classroom. They would likely be confused as to what televisions, computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices are. It is also likely that they would be overwhelmed by the instant access to information that the internet provides. Digital media has become a large part of people’s everyday lives especially with the rise of digital media in classrooms. Digital media is growing so rapidly that people who are not adapting to this shift in culture are falling behind and becoming victims of the “digital divide”, this is leaving people misinformed. Digital media has a large effect on the way that people communicate, this is especially evident in the way that students interact with
Media is one of the most powerful tools that a communicator can have. Media can build up empires and also tear them down. It has proven to society time and time again that its power is untamable, as well as unpredictable. It shapes who we are personally and it shapes everyone around us. In order for one to truly understand the concept of media integrated into our culture, we have to first discern what media is, the elements inside of media, and finally how media connects to us and our culture as well as how it shapes it and our responsibility in utilizing this power.
The evolution of media, from old media to new media, has transformed the way we understand the world around us. New media is interactive and is user-generated while old media is a more traditional way of communicating through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, etc (Lecture Notes. January 12, 2011). New media gives us a new perspective by allowing us to interact with one another through the Internet. Media has become much more personal and diverse as user-generated content becomes more prominent in our lives (Lecture Notes. January 24, 2011). We are exposed to various viewpoints shape our understanding and knowledge of the social world, but does the form of media actually affect the way we understand the content which is presented to us? For my paper, I will determine whether or not the medium is the message by analyzing two different types of media sources and how they affect our understanding of the content. For my old media source I have chosen a news clip from the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric that deals with the ongoing Egyptian uprising. For my new media source I have chosen a video blog, or ‘vlog’, by an Egyptian man named Omar who discusses the crisis in Egypt from a personal point of view. Both media sources deal with the same topic, but result in different understandings of the crisis.
Rosen, senior editor if New Atlantis, on her essay published in Wilson Quarterly in autumn 2009 “In the Beginning Was the Word,” points out how digital technology, especially in communication and entertainment, affects negatively on our lives socially and cognitively. She believes that although technology might appear as sign of our progress as humans, it is withdrawing us from the core literature. Rosen explains th...