I’m a little embarrassed to tell you that I have been using the phrase “New Media” without ever thinking about the definition very much. You see, “New Media” is one of those things you know when you find it, but when it comes to explaining to someone else we can stumble. Let me try now and see if you agree.
First let me describe what I believe New Media isn’t.
- It’s not just the internet or web – New Media could be a PDF, a multimedia CDROM, a DVD, a mobile application …
- It’s not just publishing, I would include applications and tools
- It’s not just something marketers ought to be interested in, New Media is valuable for education and socializing too.
The problem we have is the people who talk about New Media most tend to be marketers or people moving from traditional mass media so those are the areas with the richest discussion. Of course one of my main focuses is on New Media in business, but as I say above, some of the most innovative uses of New Media is in education.
It seems that while most of us can agree if one thing or another is New Media, we can’t always describe what it is about the thing that makes it New Media. There tends to be two things in common between New Media versus old media:
- Digital
- Interactive
Anything that is delivered digitally and can be interacted with (even pause/ffwd could be “interaction”) could be described as New Media.
Perhaps we really ought to call New Media “Digital Interactive Media”?
What do you think? How do you define it? Is the term pointless or does it still have meaning? I would live for you to share you thoughts … I could end up renaming this blog 🙂