Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Social Media and Communication

Media itself is a vast topic and it has now developed more specifically into new and old media. New media "media that works not trough persuasion or impressions but through engagement and involvement" - Sutherland, 2009. Old media is transmission, it transmits ideas to an audience whereas new, is cybernetic - it engages with the audience via new media e.g computer, internet.

You can say that new media is a shift from mass media to 'my' media. For example there is now a voluntary passing of viral ads, it is up to us if we want to pass something along to someone else. Things have become more personalised as we ourselves can create spoofs of things we see and post them on the internet. We have more of our own choice and are not forced to view things anymore in the way of printed adverts or the ones on TV.

Viral ads are becoming part of our daily conversations, everything is so accessible these days that they are constantly being passed around. Something that we see one day can be passed across the world within seconds via the internet - Twitter, Facebook, Youtube - Social media. Take the KONY 2012 Campaign, on the 5th of March the video was released, in 3 days it reached 26 million views, by the 5th day it had reached 63 million. "The most successful manipulation of our new media ecosystem to date." Naughton, 2012. 

Digital media convergences opens up opportunities for creatives, the internet can be a way of collaborating with many different people, combining many ideas into one big idea. That one idea could make your career. There is not struggle anymore to find resources or to connect with people. In a touch of a button you can send things across the world in an instant. 

No medium is really dying, they are just taking on different roles. Old media is becoming more of a narrative and new media is becoming a place of distribution and expansion. Prior to new media, old media was more of an announcement, yet now new media is more like a meddle layer, we are able to sample something in a virtual way before possibly purchasing it.






There has always been the question to whether or not 2D animation is a failing industry, as technology has progressed 3D has become more popular. In previous generations parents would trust Disney films to their children, however now they seem to be diverting more towards Pixar. 3D animation is a fast growing industry and compared to the 2D animation studios, there are just outnumbering them. 2D could be seen as an old media, yet I don't think that it will ever die out. All animation started with 2D so why get rid of the source, at the end of the day an idea will always start out with a drawing and that in itself is 2D. New media is a progression and is a good thing in the way of technology and distribution, there should be a middle ground found between the two. Because of new media, it allows easier access to things, animations, films, games are more accessible and are opened up to a wider audience due to the internet and distribution platforms. It's a really useful thing, not only to get your work out there but also to contact people with ease.

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