Understanding New Media

In order to understand and theorise New Media, Creeber takes us on a journey, beginning with the notion of modernism and how it relates to "old media", before going on to look at post-modernism and its links with New Media, as well as looking at structuralism and post-structuralism along the way.

To begin with, modernism is defined as an umbrella term, describing "how human society responded to changes of industrial revolution" and how, through science, it challenged the traditional "theocratic, God-centred notion of society" (Creeber, 2009, pp.11). Originally providing optimism through its potential to advance society, industrialisation came to be described as "the enemy of free thought and individuality" due to the negative effects well documented, for example, in the First and Second World Wars (Creeber, 2009 pp.12). In an attempt to capture this hypocrisy, the modernist art movement sought to "represent the fragmentation of this new world" (ibid.).

Another notable example of those sharing an antipathy for the media would be The Frankfurt School. Their perception of the media being "a standardised product of industrialisation" led to the development of what they called "The Culture Industry" with the simple the idea that every part of mass culture was the same; TV shows, magazines, films etc. and were simply consumed passively by the masses. (Creeber, 2009 pp.13) This idea was further developed in the structuralist movement which employed the use of semiotics to "decode media texts as signs (to show that) "individuals are shaped by structures over which they have no control" (Creeber, 2009 pp.14).

This ideology is effectively reversed when applied to the notion of post-structuralism, brought about by post-modernism, which is described as being associated with "changes that have taken place after the industrial revolution" (Creeber 2009, pp.15). In comparison to its modernist equivalent, post-structuralism "takes a less deterministic view about the nature of the media as a whole" (Creeber, 2009, pp.15) and this could be due to the fact that, within such a society, there exists a "distrust of a stable and fixed notion of the 'real'"(Creeber, 2009 pp.18).

Creeber, G. (2009) Digital Theory: Theorising New Media (Maidstone: OUP)

Cubitt, D. (2009) Case Study: Digital Aesthetics in Creeber, G. (2009) Digital Theory: Theorising New Media (Maidstone: OUP)