Key elements of digital media

Main difference between broadcast and new media is that new media is active, whereas old media is passive. Broadcast media Associated with modernism, part of the development of modern industrial capitalism and the nationstate. Structure reflects its role in the modern nation state: a small elite group of producers (because of their wealth and privilege) had the access and ability to shape the public sphere of broadcasting- one way communication to the much larger mass of receivers Hierarchical model of communication; those in power represents the interests of those in power (hegemony through ownership and distribution of a popular culture that encouraged audience outlooks that were favourable to the status quo) Promotes a passive audience vulnerable to the herd mentalities (nationalism and even fascism thrives)

New internet model: More active and critical Interactive two-way communication Collapse of distinction between consumers and producers More decentralized model of media production (less hierarchical and more akin to a network) Allows audience the affordances of increased choice and the ability to answer back or produce their own media Upsets logic of the first media age More active, engaged and aware audience or subject; one has to make choices and formulate opinions from the wide variety of information sources at his/her disposal Media in the digital age: lean forward instead of lean back medium More critical thinking actively engaged subject with the contexts of multiple and diffuse identity formation associated with postmodernism. Electronic culture promotes the individual as an unstable identity in a continuous process of multiple identity formation Lister (2009)- more mainstream: new media is digital, interactive, hypertextual, dispersed, and virtual, whereas Manovich (2001)- more novel: builds from technical elements of digital media production and turns them into cultural categories (new media is numerical, modular, automated, variable and transcoded) Digital media can be seen as innovative in comparison to the media of the past: technical processes, cultural forms and immersive experience. Technical processes: technological building blocks of digital media. Cultural forms: the ways in which digital media objects are created, encountered and used. Immersive experience: environment that digital media can create.

Key elements of digital media

Computer has moved from being a tool to being a filter for all culture and has started to be our primary interface with mediated culture, with the Internet itself being a repository for all culture and cultural forms. Technical processes Technological aspects of production, distribution and consumption which contribute to the shape, character and potential of digital media Digital: By nature a numerical representation in that all information is represented in 0-1 digital code Makes digital information programmable, alterable and subject to algorithmic manipulation (extremely difficult with traditional media) Transferable between different sources and means of technological delivery

Networked: In a variety of ways Broadcast media: one-way analogue infrastructures Follow a more decentralized network architecture with many producers and consumers in constant dialogue, as opposed to a more pyramidal model of broadcast media in which an elite of producers sends out one-way communications to many receivers Greatly enlarged element of choice; fundamental characteristic of new media Follows on from networking, convergence, and the blurring of producers and consumers Digitisation and convergence: user has capacity to choose from all available forms of media and content which are deliverable over any device or channel

Interactive: responsiveness of a media object or piece of information to the preferences, needs or activities of the user. a measure of medias potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the context and/or form of the mediated communication (socio-technical relationship) one of the more value added characteristics: useful to garner feedback and suggestions Can be seen as implicit in the technological structures of computer mediated communications Deterministic structure of the technology which creates the affordance of interactivity and interactive media (technological potential for user to modify their mediated environment as they use it More sociologically oriented: relates to the context in which communication of any sort occurs, and the results of that communication

Key elements of digital media

Pay attention to context The way people adapt their actions to a particular social situation More psycho-socially oriented: relates to the perception of the user or the state-of-mind of the audience in terms of taking a passive or active role in relation to the media, or the extent to which they feel invited to participate in an interactive experience Eg. When evaluating web design

Hypertextual/hypermediated Non-linear form of text that is composed of nodes or blocks of text which form the content, the links between these blocks of content, and the buttons or tags that enact the link from one node to another Blur distinction between writer and reader Combines traditional text with interactive branching Authorship: production of meaning resides within the author and the reader is obliged to follow under convention Linearity: the sequence of events is set up and determined by the author and presented as a material whole which itself constitutes a beginning and an end. Attempt at enclosure of meaning by allowing the author power to present an authoritative, definitive, linear voice of reality Erase authority of author by opening up text and giving readers a chance/forcing them to feedback, produce and create meanings from it Reader not necessarily encounters the pure theoretical freedom of hypertext, but the text as it is inflicted through the medium and conventions of the website.

Automated Can be automatically modified or created through softwares and programs instead of by people Increasing personalization of media Automated processes of personalization and profiling are fundamental to the digital environment (e.g. google, amazon) Essential for our navigation through the vast amount of information present on the internet Buzz monitoring: automated programs to troll the internet looking for topics, trends to read popular culture for marketing purposes Demonstrated in the form of modelling behaviours and environments Removes human intentionality from the creative process within digital culture Large amount is unique in the sense that it has been created specifically for us but it is not original in the sense that these unique creations are not composed of bespoke, human-created material, but elements of already- existing data in database, and compiled by a machine using an

Key elements of digital media

algorithm Databased: Database- a structured collection of data Database system- storage element, means to retrieve and filter data, means to turn that data into meangingful information Distinguished by its flexibility Almost infinite set of possibilities Objects often have little or no meaning on their own (same significance as any other object), but have the potential to be related to other bits of information and thus together, can obtain a layer of meaning Cultural forms The way it is organized creates implicit hierarchies around who has a right to use information How we organize and who has the ability to organise Narratives: attempt to create order, lend themselves to the notion of an author Antiethical: present the world as a list or a collection without any dominant order Effects of the shift towards a database logic in the fields of science, social work and criminal justice Tend to suppress narratives and get rid of authors Allows user to answer back, in addition to being able to contribute through individual or collaborative efforts. Easy production of original works or the easy copying or manipulation of existing works Hypertextual and hypermedia environments allow an autonomy to the user to select his or her own path through available materials Databases allow users to retrieve and recombine existing data in an infinite number of ways Therefore, power geometry in media has begun to shift away from the hegemonic position of the producer towards the antihierarchical position of the consumer Unique cultural forms one can associate with digital media objects (lack of context, variability and rizomatic organization) Digital media seen as processes rather than objects (I dont really understand the above: go read page 21 and 22!) Context (or lack of it): With the advent of photography, film and phonographic recording, works of art and cultural objects could be mass-produced Brought a democracy of culture (more accessible) Upset power geometry of the past Spread into everyday life is pervasive, despite going relatively unnoticed Becoming a/the dominant cultural form of our times (almost every practical act)

Key elements of digital media

Aura can be lost: the feeling of awe created by being in the presence of unique or remarkable objects Technologies of reproduction (photography, film and sound recording) uproot objects of art and nature from their situational contexts Mass production created the potential for any object to be seen anywhere Small optics: viewpoints based on geometric perspective (distance) Big optics: ability to communicate in real time on a global scale Instantaneity: a situation where distance and space no longer have meaning and thus, a depthless and horizon-less world is created. Wealth of digital information at disposal- people encouraged to take a disengaged view where all types of information become leveled into an equivalence (a universal equality of information which makes no distinction in terms of importance or relevance to personal or geographical contexts) Databases contribute to the lack of context within digital culture Narrative provides a context, database provides a temporary relationship Accessibility created by the age of networked digital reproduction has accelerated the demise of the contextual link between cultural object, space and time. Variability: Uniqueness of digital media objects also arises from how they change over time old media tend to be finite: narratives and authored works have a set composition or sequence of events media fit the times, as old media is associated with the methods of production associated with modern industrialism (mass production) now under the rubric of post-industrial informational capitalism, just-in-time production caters more towards individual choice as opposed to mass demand and less focused on the production of physical goods digital media objects tend to be characterized by variability, not finite or finished products, are continually updated, reassembled and are potentially infinite Digital media = digital numeric code and not a physical object Left open to all kinds of manipulation Continually reconstructed when used Digital media tends to be networked and interactive Often altered by the efforts, needs and wants of the user (personalization) Digital media is often hypertextual or hypermediated Composed of a variety of linkages where the order of execution can be determined by the user

Key elements of digital media

Usually change over time Much of new media now is automated E.g. direct user to different region/language-specific sites (using IP address) The form of the database itself, central to the way digital media is constructed, is amenable to variability Configure information in a variety of ways Conceptually, tend not to be finite Narratives: static Databases: temporarily useful, flexible and expand

Rhizome: Describe a form of organization that is not based on hierarchical structure, but a kind of horizontal network of relations Principle of connection: connects any point to any other point; random in relation to each other (connect to the internet from any point) Principle of multiplicity: neither a collection of individual things nor one large thing; composed of dimensions and lines of connections, therefore no point can be altered without altering the whole Principle of decalcomania: operates by variation etc, does not reproduce, transforms both itself and what it encounters Principle of cartography: akin to a map that must be produced and is always modifiable, one can enter at any point and must construct their own path through. (traverse it freely from one hyperlink to another) Principle of heterogeneity: acentered, nonhierarchical system without a central automation, nothing akin to a centre which is more important than other parts of the system (chaoti c networked structure) Principle of asignifying rupture: made only of lines that can be severed or broken, do not impede its function but can instead create new lines for growth In a continual state of transformation in response to the surrounding environment However, through the imperatives of commercialization, search engines now follow a more hierarchical structure by returning commercially valuable sites higher up in results lists Therefore, knowledge may be ordered in a way to privilege mainstream voices, atrophying the internets cartographic and heterogenic potential for resistance. Dependence on commercial entities introduces arboreal structures into the web experience

Key elements of digital media

Compromises rhizomatic principles and limits degree to which the internet can be seen as truly rhizomic in terms of its epistemology and potential for resistance (e.g. China-based Google) Process: Internet is in a continual state of transformation No material form New media products more than conversations than material objects

Immersive experiences Transformation of the audience or consumer experience from a static role (viewer) to an active, mobile role (user) Telepresence: Experience of presence in an environment by means of a communication medium Communication technologies have the potential to alter our feelings of presence Ability to simultaneously exist in two different environments at the same time (physical location and the conceptual/interactive space presented with through the medium) Experience varies between technologies as well as being influenced by social factors Extent that telepresence is experienced: Vividness- ability of a technology to produce a rich environment for the senses in terms of sensory depth (quality or resolution) and breadth (number of senses engaged) Interactivity- degree in which the user of a medium can influence the form and content of their mediated environment Importance of contextual or emotional factors in the experience of telepresence More emotionally engaging interactions create a greater sense of first person-ness Normally limited to discussions of digital technologies Inclusive of all sorts of social constructions and imaginings Exist as an abstraction Real, but not actual

Virtuality:

Simulation: Virtual reality seen as simulations of reality Technical or mathematical process often performed by computers Simulation defined as a mathematical or algorithmic model, combined with a set of initial conditions, that allows prediction and visualization as time unfolds Tradition in visual culture Representation tradition: exemplified by the painting and relies upon the immobility of the spectator, allows for the creation of aesthetic objects that are fixed in space and time

Key elements of digital media

(refer to something outside of themselves, attempt to portray things usually located elsewhere) Simulation tradition: relies on a mobile spectator, possess immersive quality since there is a blending of the virtual world and the physical space As part of a historical progression away from the real within media-laden contemporary culture Emphasise mobility of the viewer Representation is seen as a genuine attempt to portray in a truthful manner while simulation is portrayed as something deceptive and takes us away from the truth Historical progression in western culture away from representation (something fundamentally real) to simulations (no longer real)- series of stages referred to as the orders of the simulacra Pre-renaissance: fixed system of signs that reflected a basic certainty of life, intimately tied to the concrete realities of nature Beginnings of industrial society: notion of imitation, idealization Middle of 20th century: link between people and nature more distanced; age of machines, problematic notion of an original with the prevalence of mass production, modifi ed into new, completely unnatural things Present: hyperreality, cannot tell difference between original and copy, may even prefer copy- real and imaginary collapse into each other E.g. politics based on opinion polls, Google street view etc Simulations have an ideological function; they work as distraction or alibis Line between the actual and virtual is continually being crossed Losing touch with the real but that what used to constitute the real has undergone change

Case Study: What are video games? A conundrum of digital culture Page 39 to 42

Conclusion Basic elements of digital media compared to traditional broadcast media within wider technological and cultural contexts 3 themes; technical processes, cultural forms and immersive environments As much process as object