New Media

Definitions

New Media is a generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. The term is in relation to 'old' media forms, such as print newspapers and magazines, that are static representations of text and graphics. Use of the term new media implies that the data communication is happening between desktop and laptop computers and handhelds, such as PDAs, and the media they take data from, such as compact discs and floppy disks.

What Does 'New Media' Mean?

A short discussion of the denotation and connotations of the phrase 'new media' from the Studio for New Media at Iowa State University

Websites

M/Cyclopedia of New Media

The M/Cyclopedia, first published in November 2004, provides a backdrop to many of the debates conducted through M/C - Media and Culture, but also stands as a publication in its own right. In the ever-changing new media environment it is important to track the development of key issues and terms; the M/Cyclopedia helps with task. It is updated every year with the help of students in the New Media Technologies unit in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology.

New Media

A page of useful links to New media in the Voice of the Shuttle series.

Netdiver

Netdiver is a new media design portal and digital culture magazine. Feed your eyes! 'Devoted to tutoring, empowering and stimulating creativity as well as excellence in design projects by the international community involved in the design industry and beyond!'

Breaking New Media News

Robin Good's blog with all the latest new media news. It's available as an RSS feed if you want to be kept up to date.

New Media Consortium (NMC)

NMC is an international not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

Expression

A college for the visual arts in San Francisco. 'In a sentence, here's what Expression is all about. We teach artistic technology to enthusiastic students who want to make their passion their profession. We all experience the technology of creative expression every time we enter a theater, listen to a CD or DVD, play a videogame, watch a live concert or TV show, or surf the Web. Expression believes that it takes great teachers and the latest equipment in a surrounding that lives and breathes the technology of artistic expression to turn enthusiasm into a solid career.'

ABC New Media Showcase

Links to our own Australian Broadcasting Corporation's most innovative online productions.

Elements of digital storytelling

This project of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication's Institute for New Media Studies and The Media Center at the American Press Institute looks at storytelling in digital form. The Elements of Digital Storytelling website attempts to identify a taxonomy of digital storytelling and an analysis of current practice. The terms 'interactive', 'experiential' and 'multimedia' are used to describe digital storytelling but the project starts from the premise that these terms are too broad. Thousands of digital stories have been looked at and five elements identified: media; action; relationship; context; and communication. The site has a showcase of innovative story forms, a research page consisting of studies and papers concerning the effect of digital storytelling on the user, and a resources area, which includes links to digital stories considered good, and articles about the development of storytelling.

Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC)

The Institute of Network Cultures (INC), set up in June 2004, caters to research, meetings and (online) initiatives in the area of Internet and new media. The INC functions as a framework within which a variety of studies, publications and meetings can be realised. As indicated by its name, the INC is also active in setting up and maintaining networks. Not only does it facilitate, but also initiate and produce its projects. Its goal is to create an open organisational form with a strong focus on content, within which ideas (emanating from both individuals and institutions) can be given an institutional context at an early stage.

Interactionfield

nteractionfield is an online information forum about the relationships between new media and public space, created by Mirjam Struppek, a researcher based in Berlin. The website has information about Struppek's research, including links to past and current projects. The Information Forum section has links to other groups and projects using new media and also outlines the aims of Interactionfield and the questions that it is addressing. Lecture Notes for Interactionfield are available to download in PDF format.

Mediamatic.net: new media, art, culture, theory

The Mediamatic Foundation is a funded non-profit organisation that cultivates new media artists. It is based in Amsterdam, but aims to operate internationally. Mediamatic offers a variety of events, exhibitions and training related to the new media arts, and also publishes an occasional paper magazine. The website offers: a calendar of events; calls for papers/artists; details of jobs and internships at Mediamatic; and a large number of short illustrated reviews and reports on recent creative research and exhibitions. Visitors can subscribe to a promotional mailing list and an RSS newsfeed, to obtain news from Mediamatic.

MIT communications forum

he website of the MIT Communications Forum acts as an open archive of conferences and panels sponsored by the forum, especially its Media in Transition series of major conferences. The Forum places particular emphasis on the interactions between democracy and new media, and the effects of rapid technology change on a variety of media and creative issues. Topics range through storytelling, copyright, videogames, mobile culture, science fiction, internet politics, to 'Remixing Shakespeare' and beyond. The website contains around 70 full-text papers from the late 1990s, in addition to the proceedings of 16 major conferences that were held between 1997 and 2007. The conference proceedings offer the full-text PDF files of many, but not all, papers. Recent conferences are also documented by a significant amount of audio and video material. In addition, there are audio recordings of the MIT communications forums events, from 2002 and 2007. Video and audio is delivered using the RealOne Player software, and visitors might consider the free Real Alternative player as a less invasive alternative to RealOne.

The Network: new media art project network, Cologne

he Network [NewMediaArtProject]:cologne is an experimental platform for new media arts that describes itself as a 'hybrid between a New Media art project, a research & curatorial project, a multiple New Media event environment and a virtual & physical network'. Set up and curated by Agricola de Cologne, a new media artist, the Network has a section with artist's pages, the Artists Network database, a blog section and a projects section, with archives, featuring new media art projects. The website also has a download section where interviews, lectures and articles are available to download, requiring Adobe Reader, the majority of these downloads are in English with a small number in German. There is general information about The Network along with opportunities for artists and numerous links to relevant organisations and web-based projects.

newmediaFIX

newmediaFIX is a website devoted to new media culture. The website recommends projects and other online resources and also publishes articles, reviews and longer essays on new media culture. The website's main page is in three sections: reviews and features; opportunities and projects; and texts and interviews. There is a synopsis of each current item with has a link to a new Web page with more information. There is general information about the website, its staff, contact details and how to contribute on the website.

Print material

Because the New media are so new there isn't yet a dedicated Subject Heading for books on this topic. I suggest you use the Keywords option on the Library Catalogue and search it as a phrase - you have to type it in double quotation marks like this: "new media".
You'll also find relevant books under Subject Headings such as Mass media and technology, Mass media - Technological innovations, Digital media, and Communication - Technological innovations.

A couple of excellent introductions to the topic are The new mediareader, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2003, and New media: a critical introduction, 2nd edition edited by Martin Lister and others, N.Y., Routledge, 2009.

This page was created and is maintained by Alan Keig