NEW MEDIA

New Media Technologies and Society

New Media Technologies and Society

Introduction

Advent of new technologies into a society initiates an endless series of effects, especially for those who have and use the technology compared with those who do not or cannot. For all media stakeholders, the need to understand, participate in, and capitalize effectively on technological advancements is a constant challenge (Graham 2002). For regulators, the task of protecting and promoting public interest concerns associated with mass communication is greatly complicated by ongoing technological change.

This paper critiques how the technologies broaden the gap between haves and have-nots. The paper first explores the historical, social and political perspectives relating to the emerging media technologies and proceeds to assess how these technologies are creating and promoting a digital divide that has long term consequences in the economic, cultural and societal landscapes.

Historical Perspective

An account of the history of media is done with the story of the techniques (manufacturing techniques; distance communication techniques, economics of production, dissemination and consumption, etc). In a brief approach to the phenomenon from a diachronic perspective, the history of communication technologies must distinguish three different moments in their evolution: the invention of the technique itself, the early use in the form of prototypes and the mass production and marketing, which corresponds to its widespread use by the population (Karger & Levine 1999). Electronic media technologies have not ever found their balance, as they have relentlessly pushed to a significant development for technical progress and dynamism of the commercial and political interests that support them (Kuttan & Peters 2003). However, it is precisely this idea of progress that has served the industrial capitalism to avoid saturation of the market, an accelerated replacement of produced goods.

Today, new technologies are a factor in structuring and articulation of social dynamics to impact on all social and economic activities. The processes of technological change cannot be explained only by internal factors and economic factors, but we must take into account social factors. For modern technology to have trade effects, it is necessary to produce social change in which to respond to new needs and new forms of behavior involving new forms of formal organization.

Social Perspective

From the eighties, the revolution of technological and socio-economic impact has broken through to the information society; model of society in which the workforce is involved in the production, processing and distribution of goods or services informative. To Timothy Alvarez, "the information society is a society of social services (education, health, social security) and professional (scientific research, systems analysis, computers, etc.). The role of technology in this phase of informational capitalism is crucial in shaping the media landscape of the next century, and, in turn, on the model of future society (Collins et al, 1988). Scientific-technical change will be increasingly central in the life of our societies more responsive to policy decisions and informed public participation in making those decisions, and-considered-that the media are the only instrument able to influence in this direction (Kuttan & Peters ...