Media Technology and Communication

Technology has had a tremendous impact on media today. Working in broadcast media for well over a decade, I’ve watched how “new media” has emerged, and changed forever the way consumers and the media interact with each other. New media is interactive and Internet driven. With it, companies and consumers can communicate quickly and easily through cell phones, computers and more! According to author Sarah Trenholm, these new forms of media have “not only changed what information we experience,” but they’ve also changed “how we experience that information” (2008, p. 332).

Sarah states that there are six characteristics that will distinguish new media technologies. One characteristic is that they “employ digital technology” (p. 337). A second characteristic is they make it easy to combine many different kinds of information in a single format. A third is “time and space will no longer act as barriers” to information consumers want (p. 336). A fourth characteristic is media consumers can communicate anytime, anywhere. Fifth, new media allow greater levels of interactivity than ever before. Finally, the sixth characteristic of new media technologies is “consumers have more choose over what they see and hear, because media gatekeepers no longer have as much control over media content” (p. 337). Some of these new media platforms that media companies and consumers are interacting through include podcasts, weblogs, streaming, and more!