In modern research, the concept of new media often receives contextual content through opposition to old media. Until the 1980s, the media consisted of television and radio (Noordegraaf et al. 5). Under the influence of the development of computer technology, it began to change due to digital information encoding technologies. The introduction of new technologies into mass communication made it possible by the end of the 20th century to transmit a variety of digital content over vast geographic distances (Denson and Leyda 27). A big step in modern media development was the phenomenon of Web 2.0. O’Reilly defines it as the principle of organizing a web system when its optimization and maximum efficiency are achieved by attracting the maximum number of users (Stevenson 1093). This paper provides an overview of key media transformations in the context of the transition from traditional to new media, focusing on the issues of interaction, complex storytelling, and database structures.
New media differ from old ones in such features as decentralization, interactivity, the flexibility of form, content, and use. The offer and choice of information are no longer solely determined by their suppliers. Technology can overcome the limitations of broadcasting, and the recipient can choose information and respond to it, exchange it, and interact with others (Denson and Leyda 30). New media provide the user with the ability to generate content, while the old ones give this opportunity to the producer. The communicative task that combines old and new media is to deliver a message; only the methods and forms of this delivery differ. New media create the preconditions for information to be disseminated through a variety of channels and to reach different target groups, thus directing the consumer’s attention (Stevenson 1100). The special characteristics of various media do not lie in the content, but in the way it is represented. Since media was digitized, its producers began to create content aimed at a new audience.
Database cinema is one of the best examples of new media, in which the original media format is preserved, but new visual representations are created from actual objects or their parts. The database is a privileged symbolic form of the modern era, which is based on interaction and opposed to the narrative. The genre of interactive cinema was invented by filmmakers and only then was appropriated by the creators of video games (Bleidtet al. 30). Experimenting with the involvement of the viewer, they implemented the idea of plot branching and choice. One of the brightest examples is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, an interactive movie, in which the plot and end depend on the viewer’s decisions (Conley and Burroughs 127). The film tells the story of a developer who creates a game with a choice of options based on a book. The interactive part of the film is provided by the Twine platform, which allows writing computer games. The most complete outline of events currently has eleven endings and more than two hundred potential plot ramifications.
A new format of storytelling breaks down the wall between the cinema and the viewers and draws them into social and philosophical reasoning. Black Mirror is a sharp social cocktail through which the problems that already exist in modern human society, arise in a harsh ironic manner. While watching the movie, the viewer is allowed to choose one or another faction of the character, for example, get a job, or create a game at home, take drugs, or not (Conley and Burroughs 122). Thus, the viewer is allowed to open a new event thread and see another piece of the plot. Choice situations stimulate creative thinking since it is possible to predict the possible outcomes. Bandersnatch offers many different endings and many options to choose from (Conley and Burroughs 128). In some cases, the viewer can go back to the previous scene to see a different scenario. It allows curious people to look at the possible consequences of choice in seemingly insignificant situations. Some of the endings turn out to be frankly gloomy and differ only in how many people die as a result.
In modern media, users create their content, and the success of the online dialogue now depends on the number of users. Traditional media producers, namely professional writers, journalists, filmmakers, broadcasters, and publishers, created content and offered it to the public (Denson and Leyda 35). The new phenomenon of user-generated content reflects the growth of media production with the help of modern technologies available to the public. This content removes barriers to collaboration, skill development, and discovery. Thus, consumers become producers who can generate content in the way they like.
Another example of database cinema is Julian Palacz’s interactive digital installation Algorithmic Search for Love that works like a search engine. The viewers can search for a specific phrase in the collection of films, and the program reproduces a montage of all these successive moments (Noordegraaf et al. 18). The program works by analyzing English subtitle tracks, and the software edits films in real-time by selecting items from the database by using a set of rules defined by the authors. Each databased cinematographic works offers a unique viewing experience for the audience (Bleidtet al. 30). The software works with some parameters that allow almost every part of the movie to change. New media, mainly based on digital technologies, opens a new milestone in the history of communication design.
Previously disparate media are now combined into one, for example, text, sound, static, and dynamic images. Due to the automation of several processes, the issue of efficient storage and access to data has become relevant. According to Lev Manovich, access of the end-user to the capabilities of an electronic product by automatic methods can be carried out as soon as the user visits the page (Manovich 477). At the user’s request, the necessary information from separate electronic databases is generated on the page. Depending on the capabilities of the product, the necessary search and sorting of information by several parameters can be performed (Manovich 478). Ultimately, the user can get an essentially unique page with the needed data. The database cinema allows more efficient use of existing information.
In addition to the already considered examples of new media, which are based on interaction, many others have emerged in the past decades. Although their content has not changed, the form of its representation has been transformed. New media such as digital magazines, blogs, wikis, and podcasts have their special characteristics. For example, the weblog is a new media that provides the publication of comments and news on a particular subject (Stevenson 1105). Some of them are used as more personal conversational diaries. A typical weblog is a combination of text and images and interacts with other blogs, websites, and other related media. Providing readers with the ability to interact is an important characteristic of many blogs. The blogosphere as a new form of media reality is a strong competitor for traditional media (Stevenson 1095). The role of blogs in various spheres of society is growing more and more. Not only ordinary users but also representatives of various professional communities, public, and political figures actively use the network as a tool to achieve their goals and to express their own opinions.
Cross-media is one of the newest forms of media, in which the sender of a message is not limited to the specifics of just one media. The message can be transmitted via multimedia channels that re-broadcast the same content in different forms. TV shows like Pop Idol, Big Brother, and others are examples of cross-media production, where the necessary interactivity is provided through text messages, as well as video and text content of websites (Hauer 3). Every citizen can make news using digital videos or photos accompanied by text commentary. The Netherlands has a website called Skoeps, which has created a platform for publishing civil content. More authoritative news agencies pick up these messages and transmit them through other media channels. Well-established cross-media interactions add value to communication. The level and depth of user involvement in the subject matter of the message are more personalized and, therefore, more relevant and effective.
Traditional media also use this resource to reach a larger audience. One of the features of the functioning of new media formats is the inclusion of the audience in the creation of news. Through social networks, many media units include the audience in the process of creating the next news program. Many TV channels offer readers to tweet under a certain tag, to write news that they might discuss (Denson and Leyda 40). A lot of mass media units use the blogosphere and social networks to attract an audience, thus expanding the area of their influence. Online news creators can follow audiences, their trends, changing interests, and form the subsequent information content posted on the Internet resources (Hauer 2). The viewers or readers, in turn, can not only get acquainted with the event, as it was before but openly express their opinion and instantly discuss the situation in the comments.
The main features of new media are interactivity, complex storytelling, and database structures. The technological innovations of the world are firmly entrenched in the life of a modern person and reflect the changes in society and the role of the media. Now everyone who has access to the Internet has the ability not only to consume information but also to modify it, generate new content, and publicly discuss it. Modern media resources are characterized by the principle of interaction with the user and free content creation. Not only the forms of media have changed but also the appearance of modern society. All spheres of public life are influenced by technologies, and the person’s connection with reality has changed a lot. As a result of the interaction of the media and users, the phenomenon of the formation of media reality arises, which forms a new picture of the world.
Works Cited
Bleidt, Robert L., et al. “Building the World’s Most Complex TV Network: A Test Bed for Broadcasting Immersive and Interactive Audio.” SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, vol. 126, no. 5, 2017, pp. 26-34.
Conley, Donovan, and Benjamin Burroughs. “Bandersnatched: Infrastructure and Acquiescence in Black Mirror.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 37, no. 2, 2020, pp. 120-132.
Denson, Shane, and Julia Leyda, editors. Post-cinema. Theorizing 21st-century Film. Reframe Books, 2016.
Hauer, Thomas. “Technological Determinism and New Media.” International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, vol. 2 no. 2, 2017, pp. 1-4.
Manovich, Lev. “100 Billion Data Rows per Second: Media Analytics in the Early 21st Century.” International Journal of Communication, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 473-488.
Noordegraaf, Julia, Kathleen Lotze, and Jaap Boter. “Writing Cinema Histories with Digital Databases: The Case of Cinema Context.” Journal for Media History, vol. 21, no. 2, 2018, pp. 1-22.
Stevenson, Michael. “The Cybercultural Moment and the New Media Field.” New Media & Society, vol. 18, no. 7, 2016, pp. 1088-1102.