Remediation within new media

 “Media technologies constitute networks or hybrids that can be expressed in physical, social aesthetic and economic terms. Introducing a new media technology does not mean simply inventing new hardware and software, but rather fashioning (refashioning) such a network.” (Bolter, 2000, p20)

Drawing upon the works of Jay David Bolter we can look at the how the process of remediation is used within new media technologies and their effect on other technologies. Focusing on the media as more than just the software and hardware that makes the technology but rather the uses and traits it takes on after its creation.  This is the key to how media technologies progress within a new media culture by reforming from older more contemporary media. World Wide Web for example isn’t just a search engine it is defined by the things it can be used for. For example Marketing, advertising, personal expression, data sharing and communication are all traits that the World Wide Web is known for, not the singles of code that physically make it.  “Media have the same claim to reality as more tangible cultural artifacts; photographs, films, and computer applications are as real as airplanes and buildings.” (Bolter, 2000, p20)

Because of the new media culture that we live in these components have allowed this software (www) to continue to be refashioned to meet even more needs of its users. Therefore expanding its uses and adapting to cultural needs.  These cultural needs can depend on the use of other technologies. Social networking sites such as Facebook have gone through a number ‘reformations’. The technology itself is just a platform to which allows the user to fill with content, it doesn’t therefore count as new media as a platform until it starts to use remediation methods of ‘refashioning’  certain aspects such as organised content, and their own reused techniques. Overall Facebook is ‘unique’ because of its control of networking content through different mediums, yet sites like tumblr, myspace and twitter have all used the same controlling methods before and so they have ‘refashioned’ themselves around the already established new medias. They have used remediation to read the cultural social and economic concerns of the new media culture. Remediation makes us aware that every medium is; at the core level, a “play of signs” (Bolter, 2000, p20)

Bibliography:

Bolter,J.D. (2000). Remediation: understanding new media. New Ed. MIT Press. (p20 -50)

By: Jonathan Milliken