What is New Media?

Manovich suggests that, “today we are in the middle of a new media revolution” (Manovich, 2002, p. p43) by this, Manovich is comparing new media’s cultural impact on society to the impact of the printing press, or photography.  He goes on to introduce new media as the age where media and computer finally meet. “All existing media are translated into numerical data accessible for the computers.  The result: graphics, moving images, sounds, shapes, spaces and text become computable, i.e, simply another set of computer data.  In short, media becomes new media.” (Manovich, 2002, p. 48) To elaborate, according to Manovich new media is born whenever “a computer becomes a media processor.” (Manovich, 2002, p. 48) By this he means that media can now be controlled, manipulated, or created by a computer; this is new media.

 Manovich outlines 5 principles of new media; each principle cannot exist without its predecessor, which suggests new media did not come about instantaneously, but was a process which took years to complete.  The 5 principles are as such, “Numerical Representation” (Manovich, 2002, p. 49): this principle suggests that all new media, both media converted from analog sources, or media created by computers, are composed by digital code.

 “Modularity” or the “fractal structure of new media.” (Manovich, 2002, p. 51) is the fact that all new media objects consist of individual parts, which consist from smaller parts, etc.  This is true in a world of media objects, for example; films consist of scenes, broken down into takes, and on the smallest level; frames.

 “Automation” (Manovich, 2002, p. 52) cannot exist without modularity of media objects, automation refers to a computer’s ability to dramatically manipulate a media object through a template or specific algorithm.  An example of automation at work would be using a filter on your photos with instagram.

 “Variabilty” (Manovich, 2002, p. 55) refers to the fact that new media objects can exist as different versions.  For example a film can exist as a DVD, as well as an online version (mpeg, wmv, quicktime etc). 

 “Transcoding” (Manovich, 2002, p. 63) cannot exist without any of the past principles, this is the notion that while “media still displays structural organization which makes sense to its human users” (Manovich, 2002, p. 63) in a base form, the material principles of new media objects do not consist of recognisable objects, but as lines of code, data structures like arrays and lists, or algorithms and data structures.

 Manovich times the introduction of new media to the moment where old media objects and more modern computer technologies combines to create a new media, where computers and media work together.

Bibliography

Manovich, L. (2002). What is New Media and Principles of New Media from The Language of New Media . MIT Press.