New Media : The New Frontier for the Creative Mind

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IN the dynamic world of the media, change is a constant constituent and according to Lee & Price (2007), the pace of change in the media industry today is extraordinary, faster even than we can readily comprehend.

This is an era of the new media, a media that is both digitally empowered and convenient. Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) also acknowledge this by stating the shift in the context of our semiotic landscape, signaling the change of our understanding of the media.
Manifestations of new media publication such as blogs, mash-ups, P2P sharing, podcast and social networking sites are slowly becoming a staple of our media consumption today.

Additionally, one can never mention the new media without touching upon the topic of user-generated content. Gone are the days when the media industry is monopolized by media conglomerate as user-generated content now refers to material on websites, and occasionally other media sources that is produced by the users of the website. In user generated content, it is the amateur, in most cases, who contributes the content. (Wisegeek.com, 2009) In short, it is by the people, for the people.

Source Leonard Leao & Google images

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The benefits of such new media as stated by Kalyanaraman & Sundar (2006) are that they appeal five different psychological needs to the internet readers, namely:

Perceived relevance - Customization can generate positive communication outcomes by presenting content or information that is perceived by users as relevant or salient.

Perceived involvement - Customized sites offer content that is built around user tastes and specifications will tend to involve users more than non-customized sites.

Perceived community - Customization strategy is largely premised on the belief that the interactive nature of the web can help create dialogue between the user and the portal.

Perceived interactivity - The ability of customized media to personalize messages can lead to a sense of community or “psychological bonding”.

Perceived novelty - Customized portals have the ability to offer many channels of user-focused information are a departure from traditional media and relatively this seem much more innovative.

Successful application of such elements in the conventional media can be seen in the establishment of Media Prima’s hip and trendy urban TV station, the 8TV. The station employs these features in the form of an interactive website which include video postings, blog and also a Facebook page! In this sense, the new media has now open up a limitless world for those whose are brave enough to venture into this new but promising frontier.

The online equivalent of 8TV.

Website with many interactive features.

They even have a Facebook page!

And a blog by their CEO, Ahmad Izham Omar.

References

Kalyanaraman, S & Sundar, SS 2006, ‘The psychological appeal of personalized content in web portals: does customization affect attitudes and behavior?’, Journal of Communication, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 110 – 118.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, Routledge, New York.

Lee, Y & Price, D 2007 , ‘Future of media report 2007’ , Future Exploration Network, Sydney, Australia.

Wisegeek.com 2009, What is user generated content, viewed on 8th June 2009, < http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-user-generated-content.htm>