Packer, Jordan, and Manovich on New Media

Douglas Eyman knows that the term “new media” is still being debated amongst scholars. New media is ever-changing, so he cites two list of characteristics that had been proposed by Lev Manovich, Ken Jordan and Randal Packer.

Manovich

First, based on Manovich’s researc, Eyman list five defining principles of new media text:

• Numerical Representation– new media is always represented with binary code.
• Modularity– smaller aspects of new media can be combined with larger aspects without those smaller aspects losing their purpose.
• Automation– new media doesn’t have to be interacted with manually to be manipulated, created, or accessed to.
• Variability– new media is constantly subject to change, which causes there to be differing versions of that media. (Refer to my previous article to see examples of this.)
• Transcoding– digital files have two layers to it: one that is intended for humans to read and the other that is intended for the computer to read.

Jordan and Packer

Next, Eyman also list five defining characteristics, which distinguish new media from other media types, based on the findings of Jordan and Packer:

• Integration– new media has the ability to let it’s users combine technology and artistic expression to create unique kinds of expression.
• Interactivity– new media has the ability to let users be manipulate it directly, affecting their experience.
• Hypermedia– new media posses information that is non-linearly connected to each other (i.e. hyperlinks).
• Immersion– the ability that new media possesses to put users in an enviroment akin to a simulation.
• Narrativity– the strategies that result in nonlinear story and media presentation.

Importance

These proposed characteristics offer more structured and specific language to a very fluid and varied media category. By attributing these principles to new media it can make not only defining what even new media is less debatable but also make distinguishing it from traditional media easier and even aid in the creation of digitally based new media.