An audience is a spectator of media information which can be conveyed in various ways including analog and digital means. The new media is a form of media system which utilizes computer systems for relying and distribution of news and information. The new press includes websites, computer games and animation, mobile apps, virtual worlds, and multimedia. Essentially, the new press emerged courtesy of the advancement in technology and innovation of the internet to revolutionize the way people gather and disseminate information.
The new media is always discussed alongside the old media such as televisions, films, radio, print media which constitute the mass media which are centralized or monopolized by enterprises or the government and communicate with one-way technologies to a mass audience. Consequently, the old media has been exploited by government authorities and influential personalities to pursue self-interest and manipulate information. The old media, unlike the new media, does not have the features of interactivity and freedom in the media space that could give room for creativity and entrepreneurial ambitions.
However, the old media including television still are in existent and will prove influential in matters regarding the politics of a country. For example, the political news and development are often aired on the televisions and radio and featured in print media because of their dominance in coverage and reliability of reaching most of the people. The characteristics of the old media are its ability to reach a large base of an audience with influential information that impact on the society (Uwe Hasebrink 2011, p. 321). This type of media has three critical roles n the community which involves informing, educating and influencing opinion. The emergence of the new media courtesy of technological advancement and the consequently enhanced audience participation has challenged the old media relegating it to the periphery.
The changed audience role respective to new media Prosumer is a concept which has occasioned the collapse of the old media and rise of the new media due to the changing nature of the landscape and the role of the audience in the media industry. Unlike the passive nature of audience in the old media, the new media has audience actively participating in streaming knowledge and content thereby shaping issues, decisions and collective memory of the people through their input (Rolle 2016, p. 243). The audience has shifted from the traditional recipient of news to consumers and actively disseminating information and creating content for the consumption of the public. Media content through the mainstream systems was created for personal consumption of news updates concerning many topics including politics and economy (Jennes et al. 2014, p. 245). Also, the mainstream media featured films and other forms of entertainment meant to give the viewers a thrilling experience. However, the modernization of media and tech-savvy generation has expounded the roles of media to integrate commercialization purposes. Currently, many firms have leveraged the capability of social media to aggressively campaign for their business to create awareness in the market and increase the market-share.
Social media and blogging
The social media is a form of modern media which has impacted on how information and news are gathered, shared or dissemblance to the public. The social media has emerged as a vital tool which is also utilized by individuals for commercial purposes through advertisements and blogging (Luehmann and Tinelli 2008, p. 325). Some of ways the social media has proved valuable to commercial activities will include marketing campaigns for a firm, improving its public relations, interaction with the customers and providing a platform for issue resolution and updating the consumers of the anticipated changes in the firm
The modern media has also been exploited by individuals and professions to partake activities like blogging which serves to earn them a living. Ideally, bloggers capitalize on the strongholds of the internet to create their accounts and operate social sites which earn them recognition and elevate their social status in the community. Ultimately, these individuals will become popular increasing their prospects of being contracted to market companies or enhance their public relations (Dvir-Gvirsman 2016, p. 1073). The invention of blogging has emerged to challenge the traditional journalism by far. Blogging is a form of new media whereby and individual crates their online portal website which they will continuously update the audience on new matters instantaneously. Basically, bloggers are very much influential and contribute hugely to shaping a peoples memory, decisions making and judgment on issues of public interests.
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The modern media inform of social media has been extensively explored and employed by virtually every firm to market their business through creating awareness and promotional programs. Most companies create online accounts which provide a platform for client interactions, issue resolutions and marketing campaigns.
New media and public policy
Public policy is a purposive and consistent course of action which is formulated by a specific political process to respond to an identified issue in the society or community. The policy-making process is impacted by the social and economic aspects of our society, therefore the influence of media in shaping the context in which the policies are formed (Jennes, Pierson, and Van den Broeck 2014, p. 243). The new media has become an effective watchdog to the activities of the government by exposing to the public domain thereby controlling actions of authorities and other bodies or companies. Importantly, the new media with its real-time capability can reveal controversies instantly to the reach people who will utilize the media space discuss and critique the issues. Consequently, the government will concede to the public demands.
The media impacts on policy-making through facilitating information on specific issues of public interest shaping the public opinion through influencing attitude and beliefs and providing information to policymakers (Luehmann and Tinelli 2008, p. 323). The new media also puts the government to check by giving the civil societies and other groups agitating for good governance an avenue to criticize the government online. Thereby, the state due to pressure will often engage the public and reach a compromising decision for the wellness of the society.
Some of the recent controversial issues which the new media has influenced efficiently decision making include abortion laws, gun control and death punishment. In the past, information and news had been monopolized by few media enterprises and therefore making them vulnerable to manipulation by the government and influential individuals (Dvir-Gvirsman 2016, p. 1072). People could tune into the old media and consume news and information which solely formed their collective memory and impacted on their judgment and decision making. The government capitalized on this opportunity to spread narratives that supported their interests. Also, accountability was an issue because of the powerful nature of the government and its ability to dictate on the mainstream media regarding what will feature as news and matters to conceal to the public.
The advent of the new media as a result of technological advancement and innovation dramatically changed the fate of the old media through popularizing access to media outlets thus enhancing media quality. The fast developing technology is speeding information revolution through centralizing the audience and making them active participators and producers of content (Rolle 2016, p. 232). Additionally, the new media is growing people's capacity and creativity through facilitating an avenue which supports real-time information access and sharing and also an intelligent and interactive platform for the participator.
Conclusion
The modern media is technically cyber culture supported by the latest and fast developing communication technologies. Most of the technologies described as the new media are mainly digital which characteristic of being interactive, impartial and networkable; therefore dramatically changing the roles of the audience making them active participators through consuming and producing information. The new digital mode of information gathering and sharing has revolutionized the media space to increase independence, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship through individuals accessing information and sharing unlimitedly. The new media also take the form of the social media whereby users create their accounts and use the platform to access numerous and instantaneous information as well as sharing information unlimitedly. Examples would include, Facebook, whats-app, live chats, and YouTube. In the new media, the creativity of individuals comes to play because everyone is virtually a journalist because of the content they share regarding an occurrence or expose into matters of public interest.
References
Dvir-Gvirsman, S., 2016. Media audience homophily: Partisan websites, audience identity and polarization processes. New Media " Society, Vol. 19, no.7, pp.1072-1091.
Jennes, I., Pierson, J. and Van den Broeck, W., 2014. User Empowerment and Audience Commodification in a Commercial Television Context. The Journal of Media Innovations, Vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 243-246.
Luehmann, A. and Tinelli, L., 2008. Teacher professional identity development with social networking technologies: learning reform through blogging. Educational Media International, Vol. 45, no. 4, pp.323-333.
Rolle, D., 2016. Mass media and bureaucracy-bashing: Does the media influence public attitudes towards public administration?. Public Policy and Administration, Vol. 32, no. 3, pp.232-258.
Uwe Hasebrink (2011). Giving the Audience a Voice: The Role of Research in Making Media Regulation More Responsive to the Needs of the Audience. Journal of Information Policy, 1, p.321.
