With technological developments society is witness to media changes, which influences a cultural shift in terms of media usage. This culture shifts has resulted in the ever-present societal desire for enhanced technology in term requiring being ‘pervasively aware’ and ‘perpetually connected’. This creates a cycle of ‘New Media’ and the ubiquitous nature of the media landscape.
In many of our subjects previously taken and certainly courses in this semester, it is highly emphasised to us that we should prepare for changing media outlets. Whereby the fact that media interactions have changed dramatically over time, suggests it will keep dramatically changing. The changing nature of media outlets has therefore considerably changed the way in which people interact with media. It changes the power roles within society, whereby technology moderates sousveillance from within society of the media industry.
Mary Catherine Bates says media is made up of “delicate interdependency’s of an ecological system that give it, its integrity,” (An Ecology of mind, 2011). By this she is meaning that everything our media industry is made up of, its people, its companies, its evading and changing culture, and its technology, are completely related, whereby, one effects another, and affects all.
Through this you can see that definitions in an ever-changing industry, are hard to determine, even academic studying the media industry are struggling to find a concise definition of media change, this is because of its dynamic and entirely encompassing nature, where “Media change refers to the change of media (media technologies, institutions, production, content, formats and audiences) and at the same time to the change caused by media (in society, culture, politics, life worlds and work environments),” (Kinnebrock et al, 2013).
For example networking used to involve communities; it was focused on “small, densely knit groups” (Rainie, & Wellman, 2012), and socialising was done in person. This contrasts the present, with the term ‘Networked individualism’ having emerged, this is characterised with looser more fragmented networks, but more access to other networks. It connects people in a completely different way and a variety of ways. It is defined as allowing the individual to be the centre of their own world and their own connections, rather than as an embedded group member of a singular group.
This cultural shift is present because of the technological changes that have pervaded the last few decades, they have created a new way of socialising, and accessing media. It has changed the definition of media, and created it’s ambiguous nature. The fact that these changes have considerably changed our culture is testament to the fact that media and journalism and culture, come hand in hand, and saturate our lives.
References:
An Ecology of Mind. 2011. An Ecology Of Mind. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.anecologyofmind.com/. [Accessed 09 March 14].
International Communication Association. 2013. Theorizing Media Change. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.icahdq.org/conf/other/Theorizingmediachange.asp. [Accessed 09 March 14].
Rainie, L & Wellman, B 2012, Networked Individualism, MIT Press, Cambridge
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