The new media

With the emergence of new technologies, new ways of communicating have appeared. If we used to learn what was happening in the world by reading the papers, listening to the radio or watching the news on television, this is no longer true. Thanks to the Internet, it is now possible to be aware of the situation in the world, even if we do not have a TV set or a radio at home. But what difference does it make ? We will answer this question below and we will also show that other media like street art or comics have their part to play, too.

To start with, we can say traditional media encompasses media like papers, the television or the radio, whereas new media is mainly related to the Internet. Physical vs digital could be a good summary. But are they opposed ? No, they are complementary in the sense that both convey information.
In fact it all depends on you. If you are sitting in a waiting room you can have access to lots of magazines and even a TV set to entertain you. You can watch/read or not, it is up to you. But this choice proves that everything is done to give you access to information, whatever it is. If you prefer watching/reading on a screen, why not ? The most important is to learn and acquire knowledge. Traditionally, the youth will prefer using a Smartphone and their parents a newspaper, because they grew up with it.

The main difference today is that everybody can spread news. It is so easy to make up a story and disclose it to the world. In just a few seconds, it can reach the most remote parts of the world. If the piece of news is true, why not encourage people to tell what they think as important, but if it is fake, it must be denounced. Well, some journalists also drop fake news, don’t they ? But this is another problem...

Another difference between both media comes from the fact that thanks to new media, the information can be relayed if you decide to spread it once you have heard it. The electronic devices used help us send the news to those we care for. As I told you, both media are complementary and must not be opposed. They have their advantages and drawbacks, but they serve the information.

They are media, too. Don’t they convey messages and make us think ? Comics were born a little before WWII and played a major part during the war.

As for street art, we can say that it is often influenced by social or political issues (Northern Ireland, South Africa...). Rather than writing articles in a newspaper, the artists express their hatred, anger or disappointment on the walls of their city, and even though it is a peaceful kind of protest, it is a political act which expresses the opinion of the artist. They want their fellow citizens to react to a situation. Note that street art is often used by big companies for advertising. This is true for painting, too (Guernica...) or sculpture (The Kiss of Death...). Well, art is also a type of media.

Media have existed for a long time under different forms (think of the Indians and the smoke clouds) and they evolve with time of course. We will always have information to spread and any media will be good enough to do it, old or recent.