New ideas will emerge only if old ideas can be challenged that leads to latest communication revolution the Internet. This new era is so significant that it seems it may soon be a main source for information. John Givens however argues that “new media technologies and services supplement rather than replace their predecessors, radio threatened newspapers but didn’t destroy them. Television threatened radio and the cinema, but left them standing.� (Given, 1998: 46)
The “convergence arises out of growing linkages between media, information technology and telecommunications.� (Flew, 2004:10) hence digitisation of tradition formats such as newspapers or photos. Technology is making life more convenient and enjoyable. The advantages of the Internet as a new media enables the building of the world biggest virtual shopping mall reduces the hassle to queue up in the bank or searching for news and information. The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers. The Internet allows online communications for example the popular internet messengers or internet replay communication, Flew points out that when compared to other media the Internet stands out because “it is networked, interactive, enables two way communication, and allows its users to be both producers as well as consumers of content.� (Flew, 2004:1)The Internet acts as a public sphere where is “dominanted by mass media conglomerates or oligopolies.� (Devereux, 2003:66)
Technological convergence of industries of media, computer and telecommunication creates a new audiences. This new audience is the area of focus, how has the Internet as a form of a new media effects society today. The nature of the media audience is not very well understood. Commercial concerns interested in creating audience and media analysis often judge wrongly the nature of the audience. As a result audiences in Asia and America may experience either the same or different views after watching the same movie. An action film is prone to be experienced the same way, but comedy films may be interpreted differently due to cultural representation. That is why it is important to study audiences. According to Devereux, audience may have differing expectations about different media gernes (Devereux, 2003:7). Sue Turnbull argue that the major problem for “media audience research is how to pin the audience down, just how can the entire range of media practices in which people engage be limited and defined.� (Turnbull, 2002:86) In other words the audience is not one big mass. Rather, it consists of very different groups of people with different expectations of the media, different backgrounds and age groups, and different media consumption.
In the past the media producers thought audiences were passive receivers of relatively discrete media messages, it is increasingly apparent that people today encounter many different and often contradictory media messages in wide variety of different context. A passive audience is one that accepts everything, and is easily manipulated by the media. Internet material is heading towards a more interactive approach where audiences are different; they pull rather than push media. According to Madanmohan Rao surveys “found that online audiences go to the internet news sites to get more information about subjects that specifically interest them rather than to seek out general enlightenment.� (Rao, 2003: 80) Hence, Internet has resulted in a radically changed on media landscape for media audiences.
Stuart Hall and Denis McQuail are key theroists in the field of understanding media audience.Stuart Hall proposal a model of encoding and decoding that suggest the examination of the producer and the reception of media messages. The model outlines four main codes, dominant/hegemonic code, professional code, negotiated code and oppositional code. Denis Mc Quail provides an overview in diverse array of important media situation and discussing on media audience. Media research on what the audience use the Internet and the gratification they receive. McQuail summarised uses and gratifications theory into four general areas, information, personal identity, integration and social interaction and entertainment.
However all these benefits, that are disadvantages, the “brave new world of cyberspace will be an increasingly lonely, isolated and dehumanised.� (Stoll, 2004) The time the users sit and stare in front of the computer screen, the time spent on typing and clicking on the keyboard and mouse.
Education exploits the Internet as assignments are to be submitted online. The amount of time students spent working on assignments online. Lecturers and tutors take advantage of the Internet to send electronic mails to notify students on upcoming lectures or discussion. The users are drawn into it benefits, at an expense of their social life. Internet, consumes a lot of time not that the downloading is slow, but the amount of applications and information that is available. In support of that statement, Kraut stresses that “using email leads people to spend more time online and discourages them from dropping Internet service.� (Kraut, Mukhopadhyay, Szczypula, Kiesler, & Scherlis, 2000)
In regards to online relationships, survey research indicates that “online social relationships are weaker than off-line relationships (Parks & Roberts, 1998), that people who use email regard it as less valuable than other modes of communication for maintaining social relationships (Cummings & Kraut & Attewell, 1996) that people who use email heavily have weaker social relationships than those who do not (Riphagen &Kanfer, 1997) and that people who use the Internet heavily report spending less time communicating with their families. (Cole,2000)
See also
Kelvin Khoo 16:45, 8 Sep 2004 (EST)
