Defining “new media” is a tricky thing to do since it is a subject with many competing interpretations in the academic world. The concept of “new media” is ever evolving and changing in ways that should be exciting to anyone, both inside the literary field and out.
The New Media Debate: Object vs. Process
The heart of the debate is whether or not “new media” describes a specific object, like a website or game, or rather if it is a term for the study of those objects.
As Packer and Jordan (2001) argue, the peculiar nature of digital media means our current definitions are temporary. These definitions are contingent and will inevitably be replaced as new applications emerge.
Key Approaches to Defining New Media
Below is a list of the different approaches that various academics took to give “new media” a more concrete definition.
1. The Multimedia/Digital Text Approach (Selfe, Packer & Jordan)
- New Media ≈ Multimedia: This approach views new media as texts created primarily in digital environments. These texts are composed of multiple media (film, video, audio, text) and designed for digital exchange.
- Ultimately, the key takeaway here is the need for multiple literacies (seeing, listening, manipulating, reading, and writing) to both create as well as engage with these non-alphabetic, hybrid texts.
2. The Remediation Approach (Bolter and Grusin)
- This perspective shifts the focus from unique features to relationship and context. New media is defined by how it refashions and reconfigures “older” media when drawn into the digital space.
- The core idea: No medium works in isolation. The “new” comes from the particular ways digital forms reshape older forms and how those older forms, in turn, adapt to the digital challenge.
3. The Computable Data Principles (Manovich)
- Lev Manovich offers one of the most comprehensive, yet technical, definitions. He argues that the foundation of all new media is computer-accessible numerical data. All media, images, sounds, text, become computable.
- This foundation leads to his Five Principles of New Media:
- Numerical Representation: Media is digital code, making it programmable.
- Modularity: Texts are composed of discrete units that maintain independence (like an embedded image).
- Automation: Coding and modularity allow for the automatic creation and manipulation of media.
- Variability: New media is non-fixed, mutable, and liquid, giving rise to many different versions.
- Transcoding: The computer layer’s logic influences the cultural layer, fundamentally changing media’s traditional logic.
4. The Observable Characteristics (Packer and Jordan)
- Focusing on features rather than Manovich’s underlying principles, Packer and Jordan identify five observable characteristics such as: Integration, Interactivity, Hypermedia, Immersion, and Narrativity (leading to non-linear story forms).
5. The Designer’s Awareness (Wysocki)
- A counter-digital view, Wysocki suggests that “new media texts” are those made by composers who deliberately highlight the materiality of texts.
- Also, this places the “new” function in the hands of the designer and implies that new media texts do not have to be digital. This view is about the reader/viewer being aware of how the text is made.
Why Does the Definition of new media Matter? A Rhetorical Perspective
Above all, when it comes to digital rhetoric, new media is a very important topic for us to shift our focus towards. The text from Eyman shows how each of the various frameworks offer a methodological approach for analysis
Furthermore, understanding each of these competing definitions and draw your own conclusion from them is important. This exercise gives us the tools for creating and analyzing modern communication forms. “New media” is a term that forces us to constantly question what we create, how we interact, and where communication is heading next.
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