New Media Definitions

1. New Media Definitions A Focus on Materiality

2. No Consensus • Though the term “new media” enjoys wide use in the study of digital humanities and technical communications, there is no one agreed upon definition.

3. A Difference “OLD” “NEW” • Hand written texts • Sculpture • Cinema • Photography • Television • Paintings • Websites • Video Games • Blogs • Digital Photography • Flash Video

4. Cultural Change This “New Media” doesn’t just give us new forms of communication, it fundamentally changes every aspect of the culture that it’s introduced into.

5. Ann Wysocki’s Definition • “New Media texts are those that have been made by composers who are aware of the range of materialities of texts and who then highlight the materiality. Such composers design texts that help readers stay alert to how any text doesn’t function independently of how it is made and what it is made out of.”

6. Materiality • The physical substance of matter that something is made out of, or the physical components involved in transmitting information.

7. Invisible Materiality An academic essay is obviously made out of stuff. But we’ve become so accustomed to it that we no longer think of its materiality as relevant. And because of this, Wysocki would argue, authors rarely work that materiality to its advantages.

8. Invisible Materiality

9. Culture Shapes Materiality Ancient Greek texts, and beginning in the second century GC, Latin texts, were written in capital letters without any spaces between words, without any punctuation, and without any division among sentences, paragraphs, or chapters

10. 19 century Print Layout Why did it look this way?

11. Industrial Revolution

12. Crayon Time • Grab a crayon. • Spend 10 minutes writing a response to the following question: • What world problem (political, social, environmental, etc.) are you most concerned about and why?

13. Discussion Questions • What was different about the writing process with a crayon? • Did you find yourself thinking differently? • What adjectives would you use to describe the pages created in your group?

14. Discussion Question • Imagine a culture that only used crayons. How would that culture differ from ours? What would the culture be proud of or consider a sign of intellectual prowess? How would this affect the economical, social, physical, material design, or any other factors of this culture?