New Media and Old Media, Essay Example

The Difference between New Media and Old Media

The media technology which will be reviewed is the development of the Gutenberg printing press and the modern graphic user interface technology. The perspectives of Harrington (2009), Medhi (2013), Lake (2009), McKay (2009), Rogers (2011) Pipes (2005) and Simpkins (2009) will be explored. The difference between the established forms of media and the novel forms of media will be reviewed.

The members of society are presently in the midst of experiencing the information age. The proponents of technology have forecasted this change for years, literature has reviewed its potential implication with respect to all of the imagined undertakings reviewed, global commerce has become endeared to the Information age, national administrators are adapting to its implications and cinematic productions have been made in reference to it (Harrington 6). Is there any doubt that there has been a shift towards the new digital text media from the old text media?

This essay will review the implications of the development of new text media technology with regards to the conventional printed word. The impact of the digital processing software will be explored on the Information age. It is significant due to the attribute of new media technology exercising a profound influence on the manner that written communications are conducted. The computer initially began as a computing device. Today, the computer has evolved into a device which conveys text (Rogers 159).

The computer did not evolve overnight into a text transmitting machine. This aspect took place in four phases. The phases of computer production were the digital word processors, the word processing machines, the programs which had been applied for layout and the network processing machines which are applied in order to send SMDS messages (Lake 5).

The inventors of the computer continually searched for manners where the computing devices could be applied for the administration of text and the research of humanities related information.  Text editors had been created. There had been two new inventions which motivated the present day text media processing machines. These motivations were the office environments which included the application and the implementation of the initial IBM Selectric typing machines (Lake 5). The 1980s witnessed a jump from the application of typewriting machines to the digital computer with the graphic users’ interface of today (Simpkins 36).

The second invention which occurred is quantum leap in the typesetting industrial concerns. This quantum leap had occurred as a migration was made from the single character casting devices which were applied in the printing trade for centuries to offset lithography. This aspect was soon sequenced by computer typesetting. The computer typesetting witnessed the aspect of the application and the production of the ASCII computer code. The ASC II symbol set was applied for the coding of text (Pipes 252).

The primary jump in media technology in modern computers took place from the transition of the WIMP to the graphic user interface (GUI) (Rogers 158). In the late 1970’s a committee from Apple Computers were provided with an opportunity to visit the Xerox (PARC) facility. During the visit, the committee from Apple Computers, Inc. had been demonstrated a completely novel perspective on the manner by which the computers could receive instructions. Apple had been able to modify the technology which had been presented by Xerox and constructed the Lisa computer in the early 1980s. The Lisa computer featured the application of GUI and applied a windows system, mouse and the menus which are used in today’s computer software. The LISA created the framework for the Apple Macintosh system. The Apple Macintosh system was the predecessor of all present Apple products (Harrington 44; McKay 83).

The graphic user interface transformed the printed media. It enabled the aspect of cutting and pasting of text to be conducted. This aspect is accomplished by means of the graphical user interface. The graphics user interface delivered the comprehensive functionality of computerized typesetting. The graphic user interface is the aspect which caused Apple Computers, Inc. to gain a competitive advantage over Microsoft during the 1980s. Microsoft eventually had been able to develop a windows operating systems which became effective in the early 1990s/. The application of the graphic user interface forever changed the manner by which digital media would be transmitted. The decade of competitive advantage which had been experienced by Apple Computers, Inc. which the development of the graphics user interface provided, enabled Apple Computer to revolutionize the digital media industry (Simpkins 36).

An analogy can be made between the advances of the graphics user interface and the Gutenberg press. The Gutenbergprinting press established the era for the development of humanist thought, reform of the Church in Europe and the inventions which had been created during and after the renaissance.  The GUI became more efficient in digital next processing over its predecessor due to the aspect of being able to learn the application of the menu and the mouse features. This aspect of the graphics user interface simplified the use of the computer text processing system for many of the users.  The advanced items which are required to be accomplished in computerized text processing may still continue to have the requisite of the command line interface. The GUI simplified a significant amount for the conventional computer users who wish to digitally communicate text (Simpkins 36).

The GUI consumers apply windows which facilitate the multiple views of several things at the same time. This aspect facilitates the navigation of the text related components on the computer. The computer resources which are required by the GUI system require more memory than conventional applications. Notwithstanding, GUI has evolved into becoming the norm for the digital text producers around the globe. Each of the GUI possesses a distinct architecture with regards to accomplishing text processing endeavors (Medhi 1).

The identical editions of similar GUI may demonstrate substantial numbers of distinction in their functioning. Notwithstanding the keys which are connected to shortcuts can be applied as commands, the motion which occurs between the mouse and the keyboard in the processing of a digital media text is substantial. Research has demonstrated that the graphic user interface increases accessibility for the users who would normally be challenged by reading conventional printed media. This aspect demonstrates a change in the perception of literacy which must occur with the widespread adoption of digital text media (Medhi 1).

Conclusion

The new media will always be contrasted to the established media. The advent of many of the inventions of the twentieth century inspired awe and amazement in consumers. As a result, in the primary product of the personal computing systems, the digital media word processing came to evolve from the typewriting device. In correlation to the application of digital media technology, society is in the process of reviewing, reading and writing perspectives which have been established by centuries of the printed media. The transformation from the single character typeset devices to the graphical user interfaces is a transition which is essentially similar to the transition which had taken place from writing books in manuscript to the establishment of the Gutenberg printing press.

The perspective which is held by the members of society toward the application of digital media  are and will continue to evolve into becoming distinct from the perspectives which had been held by the members of society which held the approach of the former mechanical printing applications. The members of society must migrate from the conditioning which had been established by centuries of mechanical printed media and adopt the novel digital printing technologies. In a chronological perspective, the development of the digital printed media and the graphics user interface continue to progress although they are still in the early phases of production.

The change which will be required in order for the members to adopt the application of digital media is a form of hyper literacy. This implies that new methods of reading and interpreting the data in comparison to the generations which had been familiar with the mechanical printing processes must be developed. The application of digital media communication by text has been transformed from what had been initially the use of a plumed writing implement to a mechanical character press and typewriting device. In today’s knowledge motivated age of information retrieval, the application of digital text media has been transformed substantially by the graphics user interface.

Works Cited

Harrington, Jan. Technology & society. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009. Print.

Lake, Susan & Karen Bean May. The business of technology: Digital desktop publishing. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Mehdi, Indrani, Meera Lakshmana, Kentaro Toyama & Edward Cutrell. “Some evidence for the impact of limited education on hierarchical user interface navigation.” CHI’ 13 Paris France, 27 April- 2 May 2013, 1- 10.

McKay, Elspeth. The human dimensions of human- computer interactions: Balancing the HCI equation. USA: IOS press, 2008. Print.

Pipes, Alan. Production for graphic designers. London, UK: Laurence King Publishing, Ltd.2005. Print.

Rogers, Yvonne, Helen Sharp & Jenny Preece. Interaction design: Beyond human computer interaction. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011. Print.

Simpkins, Robert A. & Behnez S. Paknejad. Global crosswinds of change. McLean, VA; R Robert A. Simpkins and Behnez S. Paknejad Global Crosswinds LLC, 2009. Print.