In Douglas Eyman’s “Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric” he goes on and on… and on about the concept of new media. However, I’ll give Eyman a pass this time considering how tricky defining new media can be.
Defining New Media
While Eyman provides many definitions, one key source he draws from is Cynthia Selfe, who defines this as “Texts created primarily in digital environments, composed in multiple media (e.g., film, video, audio, among others), and designed for presentation and exchange in digital venues” (51-52). Simply put, it generally refers to digital forms of content like websites, video games, digital art, or really anything on the internet.
However, Eyman points out that defininig this is far from straightforward. Eyman brings up a crucial question when he asks “When do particular media stop being ‘new’? And are the “media” of “new media” necessarily or obviously digital?” (Eyman 51). These are all great questions that invite us to think critically about the term “new” and whether something is truly ‘new” after its been around for a while. Also how long is a “while”? These are all very good questions that I do not have the answer to and apparently neither does Eyman.
What is also interesting is that not everyone agrees that this has to be digital. Some might argue that non-digital things can be new media if they have a certain characteristic like interactivity. This adds another layer of complexity to the definition that honeslty makes my brain hurt a little.
Everything Old Influences Everything New
Eyman brings up this reoccuring conversation that we always have about remediation when he says new digital content “Re- shape and reconfigure ‘old’ media”. Take for example, traditional print books versus Ebooks. Ebooks often maintain the same structure as physical books — they have chapters, page numbers etc. However, Ebooks offer a different kind of experience. Readers can adjust text size, add bookmarks, search words up and many other things. This flexibility is a feature that print books can’t offer, yet it doesn’t completely replace the traditional book format, it just remixes it.
This leads us to an important question: If new media remixes the old, can it still be considered “new”? In my opinion, the answer is sort of. While it takes elements from the old, it also presents them in new and innovative ways. New media doesn’t just replace, it enhances and transforms.
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