The New Media Paradigm

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The New Media Paradigm
Designers guide to the new media
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A paradigm shift
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A paradigm shift
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Welcome to the new media paradigm!
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overlap

• communication science
• social and cultural aspects
• The transmission of information between humans

computer science electronic aspects, information
technologies The transmission of bits between
computers
human to computer
computer to human
computer to computer
human to human
Interactive Multimedia
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Studying MultimediaDeveloping a New Media
Literacy

• Tony Sampson
• Senior Lecturer
• University of East London

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A paradigm shift
Old media Discrete analogue media forms Print,
TV, Radio
Revolution Digitisation
New media All media digital now Increasing
choice and access
Crisis Need to re-skill for digital
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paradigm shift

• increases levels of
• Convergence
• Interactivity

Websites, Games, eCommerce, Virtual Communities,
Mobiles, CD-ROM
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Historical shifts in communication

• Face to face the spoken word one to
  a few
• Mass communication the printed word, broadcast
  media
  one to many
• Computer mediated the Internet many to
  many

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Complex New Media

• New Media Forms
• Networked Computer
• Internet
• Video conferencing
• Games
• Email
• Mobiles
• Infotainment
• Edutainment

• Types of Communication
• Intrapersonal
• individual use of mass information
• Group multi-users
• Face-to-face -Interpersonal
• Above all new media is
• interactive

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New Media-New Literacy

• New media producer
• require a new literacy
• Learning to produce and consume new media

• Creating new communication experiences
• Using new applications
• Designing navigational information spaces
• Exploiting the potential of interactivity
• Understanding the market for new products

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Academic overlapWhat we teach at University

• communication science
• social and cultural aspects
• The transmission of information between humans

computer science electronic aspects, information
technologies The transmission of bits between
computers
human to computer
computer to human
computer to computer
human to human
Interactive Multimedia
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New Media-New Literacy-New Student

• Multimedia education is designed for students who
  want to understand computers media
  communication
• Renaissance
• Technology
• Creativity

• Can design an interesting game or engaging
  website
• Can use the tools to producer it
• Ability to find technological solutions to
  creative problems

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Specific Key Skills

• Plan, design and produce interfaces and content
• Web pages and CD-ROM
• Interactive virtual environments and games
• Manipulate and edit
• Digital images
• Digital sound video
• Manage and maintain
• Working with clients on major projects
• Working in groups
• Develop an understanding of
• The culture of new media and its place in society

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• Examples of student work

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1940-50s

• We are little switchboard centres handling and
  rerouting the great endless current of
  information....
• Schramm W. (1954) quoted in McQuail Windahl
  (1981)

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(No Transcript)
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Paradigm shifts in communication

• Face to face the spoken word one to a few
• Mass communication the printed word one to
  many
• Computer mediated the internet many to many

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Paradigm shifts in communication

• Games intrapersonal
• Email mobile phone interpersonal
• Video conferencing group communication

• Internet individual use of mass information
• Above all new media is
• Highly interactive

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Interactivity
Seen by many as the central component of the new
media paradigm shift
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interactivity
Interactivity is based on changing roles of
sender/receiver
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Interaction defined
message
Communicator A
Communicator B
Response/reaction
response
Communicator A
Bretz (1983) Hanssen, Jankowski and Etienne 1996
Contours of Multimedia
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Three levels of interactionRafaeli (1988)

• Bidirectionality
• (CD-ROM)
• Reactiveness
• (Web page)
• Responsiveness
• (email, computer game)

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Users and interactivity

• Research by Hanssen, Jankowski and Etienne in
  1994
• Participants regarded control over sequence as
  interactive

• The greater number of choices meant the greater
  amount of interactivity experienced

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Users and interactivity

• Too much control on one side of the communication
  is experienced negatively

• Decision-making moments functioned as obstacles
  to use
• A degree of linearity and editorial structure
  aided user orientation

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The truth ismost multimedia

• Is not very interactive

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going back" and going to the previous page
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Design

• Linear
• Grids

• Hierarchical Semantic Network

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Linear Sequence
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Grid
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Hierarchy
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Hierarchy
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Design for growth
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Design for growth
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Design for growth
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Web or semantic net
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Confused mental model
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summary
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Apply to audience
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Should multimedia strive to be interpersonal?

• Key ingredients of interpersonal communication
  (Borsock and Higginbotham Wheat, 1991)

• Immediacy of response
• Non-sequential access to information
• Adaptability
• High levels of feedback

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What should multimedia be?

• Tannenbaum argues that a good mix of

• interactivity
• social presence (telepresence)
• makes good multimedia

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Assumptions about face to face communication

• Jones (1995)
• CMC has become a race to provide the most
  lifelike interaction possible

• However, problems exist with interpersonal
  face-to-face interaction
• absence of information
• the silence and pauses between words and phrases
• It does not necessarily break down barriers of
  communication.

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Should all multimedia be interactive?

• from the perspective of functionality, it is not
  necessary to always strive for a high degree of
  interactivity Hanssen, Jankowski and Etienne,
  1996

• Technology can often get in the way of clarity of
  message