What are new communication methods? How do we now reach the public that requires information and entertainment?
How do we do it so that the information is accurate?
Every communication medium seeks, in a regular and organized manner, to communicate a specific type of content to the broadest possible audience.
In the case of new communication methods, this purpose is organized around computing and the Internet.
It is our way of reaching the population since habits and customs about the consumption of information and entertainment have changed, and what we currently find is a range of possibilities and pluralities of communicating.
We have a very wide population range, where we find content consumers in traditional formats such as radio, press and television. While on the other hand, the youngest people are bursting in with new consumption habits through streaming platforms.
What Do We Talk About When We Talk About New Media?
For communication sciences, a new communication medium refers to any publication format that emerged in the digital field and, therefore, responds to particular characteristics in terms of the organization of the content and the different formulas to develop its content—activity for a specific target audience.
Here is one of the fundamental problems: it is the academic training that is taught in universities where communication standards from decades ago are maintained. At the same time, the creation of content and its consumption have changed.
If you look for a more precise definition, however, things get complicated. There has yet to be an official consensus today regarding the characteristics of new media precisely because technological development advances faster than conceptual and investigative development.
There is, at the same time, an ambiguity regarding the use of the middle term. Generally, this is used interchangeably to refer, on the one hand, to companies and cultural organizations dedicated to the creation of digital content, such as newspapers, magazines and blogs of all kinds, and, on the other, to talk about the medium in which said companies operate the Internet, in this case.
Also Read: Importance Of Corporate Communication
Is It Just An Academic Question?
The emergence of media of this type coincides with the development not only of telecommunications and the Internet but also with the advancement of home computers and computer technology in general.
The confluence of mobile devices, the speed of the Internet connection and computer products – software, programming processes and protocols, etc. – are the fundamental axes for the emergence of new digital media.
There is a technological generational leap that we had not anticipated. The advance of the Internet is unstoppable, and we have encountered some facts that mark the evolution towards new methods of communication, such as:
- Obsolete programming concerning new generations
- Emergence of new entertainment models
- Digitized society
- Professional and creative opportunities through the Internet
At the time, it was considered that blogs had no future, that YouTube videos were a few geeks wanting to make television and with respect to podcasts, we have been taken as simple amateurs without ideas or training in radio.
Characteristics Of New Media
The characteristics of digital media depend on production initiatives, which no longer only have their communication channels and technologies — such as platforms, applications, websites, social networks and podcasts, to name the main ones. —but they also have the computing infrastructure to merge and multiply in a virtually infinite way.
It can be said that the new communication methods are organized based on the following:
- digital exchange and user participation;
- the low cost of production and dissemination of information;
- the possibility of creating new media, brands and labels;
- the immediacy of the content and the fractional attention of the audience—which determines the content itself.
At the same time, with regard to the formal organization of companies and legal or natural persons that own these media, there is a heterogeneous market that favors the expansion of digital media and the demand for content —a process that is accelerated with the expansion of covid-19 and confinement.
This market, although saturated by a multitude of independent media, depends mainly on a large-scale computer infrastructure controlled by a few multinational companies and giant corporations that own both the fibre optic laying and the telecommunications services (broadband, 4G, 5G, etc.).
The media conceived in this way are best represented in social networks, in which the habitual permanence of the user and the interaction are complementary: at the same time, the user receives information, he curates and shares the content, becoming himself a producer of what you consume.
Main Singularities Of The New Communication Methods
The following well-marked characteristics of the new media can be highlighted :
- Intermediation is found in providing the internet service or the platform on which the medium is created.
- The process of creating and distributing content is faster.
- There are very fragmented times and very low levels of attention.
- Immediacy replaces careful content.
- There are no authorities regarding the curation of content, and the costs associated with cultural production in general are reduced.
- Information can circulate independently of the medium that produces it, and its consumption does not represent the end of the circuit.
- Authored content and sponsored content need to be clarified.
- Computer engineering for analyzing patterns, content and trends in search engines.
- Content marketing and search engine optimization drive content creation and influence the editorial outlook of new digital media.
Particularities Of The Podcast Format
If all this seems insufficient, I also want to remind you of some particularities and singularities of the podcast as a medium.
One of them is that through RSS subscription, podcast platforms notify subscribers of new content they can listen to, so the listener can relax knowing that they will be informed of new content.
Podcasts, at least until recently, are primarily available on all podcast-enabled platforms. Look, I’ll give you an example with one of my podcasts that you can listen to at:
- Spotify
- Ivoox
- Spreaker
- ApplePodcast
- GooglePodcast
New communication methods are based on computer technology and telecommunications to produce and distribute content on digital platforms of all types.
Also Read: Importance Of Corporate Communication
