New Media
The remaining concepts are discussed in the last chapters of the text (click on each term to go to an example of each): Archive, Interactivity, and Simulation.
Archives are the places in which data is stored. Archive has changed from old to new media. Archives used to be physical places with paper and books. Now they are individualized spaces in new media that are more accessible and user-oriented. The ability to store many different types of data make new archives more evolved, although the threat to security of information is there with the collaborative and unsecured nature of the internet based archives.
This is a Wikipedia Archive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Today%27s_featured_article/September_2014
Interactivity is broad concept related to new media. The relation is something of a controversy in that some scholars view it as not as incorporated as it is considered to be. The author of the text argues opposite in the nature of the idea that interactivity provides a good understanding into new media for us. The ideas that it incorporates other concepts makes a lot of sense. Interfaces are inherently interactive based on their structure and networks interact with one another. A good example of interaction would be Google Documents, because users can all edit and add information on a document at the same time in real time. That is a super helpful collaborative tool that utilizes interactivity.
Simulation is prominent in technology, engineering, mathematics, business and gaming. The concept is rooted in that virtual spaces are tied to material technology and not “free floating”. So a component of them is real and the rest is virtual. The author argues simulation is very beneficial to the world in culture and production. The video below shows how games such as the Sims can allow you to simulate various things for fun. This one simulates life.
The author concludes with revisiting the problem of the world new in describing media. The complications it brings up with ideas that components of media aren’t always new so the recommendation is made to use a new term that incorporates all aspects of media.
What’s in a Name? and Terms
One the same page is the author of these articles regarding the choice of names in describing similar if not the same concepts in media. New is brought again as a problematic term for describing media. The argument is that names are relative to context and audience. So the examples from the Terms article that are mentioned in What’s in a Name? are multimodal and multimedia. The audience difference for these terms is said to be that multimodal is used more so by academics in the context of rhetoric and composition and focuses more on the process and the design. Multimedia is a largely used public term by a wider audience in industry and public venues. The focus is more on the production.
