Manovich and New Media.

New media is a growing field and skill in the world where the entire wealth of human knowledge can be accessed in seconds from almost anywhere. The academic world is trying to make sense of this few found ability. New forms and models of news and entertainment are coming up from everywhere. People can now associate an emotion with a single picture. It is hard to define exactly what new media is.

What is new media?

New media is something that lacks a certain definition.  Manovich says that it’s anything distributed in an electronic format. He claims that ANYTHING on a computer, Ipod, phone, or any other outdated bit of technology is new media, Even if the original text, music, movie, or image exists in a hard, tangible format in the real world. 

I disagree, the term new media should only be applied things that only exist on the internet. There is a whole electronic world at our finger tips and a lot of does not exist on paper. That material, that original content, should be considered new media. Before the internet and computers there was a thing called a “newspaper”.  “Newspapers” relayed world news and events, and entertainment to many people in an unprecedented manner. Soon they were wide spread and common. Before the printing press books were not common and literacy was rather useless. Folk stories were the only way people were entertained. News was spread by people telling other people what happened and hopefully the people affected would hear. It was that or maybe “letters” that news was spread. After much research I could not discover the purpose of “letters” beyond a personal dialogue between two people.

Information technology has evolved over hundreds of years. What is happening with computers and other similar technologies is progress. Here is a new idea, newer than newspapers, all about new media. Technology has evolved language and media. Artist and film makers and musician all have to consider the internet as a medium for them to conquer. 

Type 0.5 and Empathy

All around the world people are begging for change. Some people want more food, others want more education, or a safer place to live, or they want other people to change. I challenge you to think of literally anything and I know that someone, somewhere, wants that something to change.

We are divided.

In the all of the desires across the world there is no unity, even though empathy lets us feel the pain of others. We are capable of knowing some of what a total stranger feels because of our ability to empathize and we don’t help each other. We all have our struggles and most of us deal with them alone. Eventually we will collapse from this weight. Author and social thinker Jeremy Rifkin asks if global empathy can be achieved. Empathy was originally only felt towards the people in your tribe, then people of the same faith as you, and then it was felt towards ones countrymen. The next step must be empathy felt on a global scale. One of the few examples of global empathy is when the earthquake razed Haiti to the ground. The world rushed to give aid in only a few hours. Other than that global empathy has not happened very often.

Can global empathy be achieved? What will happen if it isn’t?

Unity is required for advancement, without advancement humanity will die. Michio kaku has theorized that that there are 4 types of civilization. Type 0 is a lack of global unity, with war and violence. Type 1 is total global unity. Type 2 is a civilization spread out over multiple solar systems, at this level, civilization is immortal. Type 3 is a civilization across a whole galaxy and beyond. Humans are at type 0.5, we still fight and kill. However there is hope, a singular thing connecting the world that grows every day, the internet and electronic communication. We feel empathy on a global scale more and more. We embrace technology and science, through that unity is created. Fundamentalists that embrace theology want us to remain the way we are.

Will we remain stationary?

I hope not. I hope we can move on and accept this opportunity to end such violence. The more we connect and communicate with others. The larger we build our web the greater our unity and empathy will be. We will go beyond a type 0.5 civilization.

Humanity > 0.5

McLuhan and Technology

Marshall McLuhan’s and Quentin Fiore’s   graphic novel, “The Medium is the Massage” made some very interesting points.  They claim that that written language has destroyed oral communication and that the printing press and technology has unified the world and we are living in a “small village”

When people say that written language has destroyed oral communication I have agree with them.  When people write compared to speaking they have the ability to revise and edit. The ability to go back and correct any mistakes before other people here you say it does not exist. When you speak the mannerisms that people are full of come out. In writing people often write in a very technical manner. It is true that good writers have voice but really good writers are hard to come by. Also meaning can be lost in writing because sometimes the tone one uses when they speak changes the meaning of the words. For example sarcasm is very dependent on the tone and cadence of the speaker. In writing, poets are really the only people who can get tone and cadence, even then getting those qualities perfected takes lots of work.

The printing press and other technologies have unified the world in many ways. Before the printing press books and the newspaper weren't available for most people. When the printing press was invented people across the world could be be reading the same thing. That created a unity among people that were literate.

With the invention of electronic communication one can talk to someone thousands of miles away. This means that there is a connection between people that would otherwise not know that the other existed. Instead of only being able to communicate with people in your area like a "small village" one can speak to almost anyone they choose.