New Media & Society

Right off the bat, two things mentioned in Marshall (2004, chapter 6) made me pause and reflect. The first is that film is actually a series of still images that give the viewer the effect of motion. I knew this already, but sometimes, movies can be so compelling that it is very easy to forget. Secondly, I thought about the way Toy Story made me feel when I first saw it in theaters. Digital animation was unlike anything I had ever seen before – it looked so real! It’s true that most animated films are now assisted by computer imaging and while I think it’s visually very appealing and realistic, I have to say that I am happy that I knew a time before digital animation, so that I can better appreciate how far filmmaking has come.

It’s interesting that The Blair Witch Project cost only $45,000 to make, but made $145 million at the box office, while Titanic cost $250 million to make and generated $1.3 billion at the box office. The handheld camera techniques used in The Blair Witch Project were unfamiliar to many viewers at the time, yet it captured the essence of the storyline well. However, if filmmakers had tried to produce Titanic on a small budget, it wouldn’t have been worth it. The special digital effects, the digital animation, and – let’s face it – James Cameron, are what made the movie great and did justice to the dramatic story.

Marshall (2004, chapter 7) connects new media with the evolution of television in an interesting and succinct way. As he points out, “new media is very much connected to the development of something beyond the active audience into various forms of cultural production.” Television has attempted to embrace this new media culture by incorporating the audience into television programs – thus, reality television shows were born. If anything, the popularity of reality television shows indicates that new media and prosumption are, indeed, what interest many consumers.

von Lohmann (2012, chapter 12) clearly distinguishes between the ways that traditional media and Internet intermediaries handle copyright laws. For traditional intermediaries, the expectation is that permission must be obtained for every copyrighted work that appears in a video. On the other hand, Internet intermediaries do not have to be consulted before a video is uploaded; they only need to get involved if complaints arise. In this way, von Lohmann likens traditional intermediaries to “doormen minding the velvet rope”, while Internet intermediaries are like “bouncers at the bar.” This is a great analogy that represents the differences between the more bureaucratic ways of traditional media and the faster-paced ways of new media. As traditional and new media stake their claims and evolve in modern society, it is certainly an exciting time to be a scholar or practitioner of new media technologies.

In today’s society, colleges and universities are utilizing the digital world to send out their message. As many platforms of social media come without financial cost on the institution and have easily quantifiable results in reach, it makes fiscal sense for institutions to take advantage of these platforms. In doing so they not only push out information about themselves to a wider audience, but also to have an increasingly interactive exchange with students researching options for continuing education. This is significant because 68% of college bound students are using social media as a resource for information about higher education institutions (Inigrals & Zinch, 2012).

In “Social Media in Higher Education: A literature review and research directions”, the authors give a comprehensive review of student and institutional usage of social media technology within higher education. Interestingly, the authors point out that today’s traditional age college bound students, born in the mid nineteen nineties, have never known a world in which they did not have access to high speed internet at home or school (Nyangau& Bado, 2012, 6). It would never occur to these millennials to research their options in any other way than through the internet first. In addition to being internet natives, this age group expects a communicative interaction online, not simply a display of information as has previously been provided on university websites. It becomes important then for those in higher education to understand the attitudes of this group of potential students towards new media platforms and online interaction.These can lead institutions to ask relevant questions about their audience and how to address the needs of that audience online.

By understanding how this group of students is using new media, institutions can develop the type of online presence that is attractive to this population of prospects and fills their needs. As Alexandra Tilsley reports in her piece for Inside Higher Ed., “the way to get a high return on investment is to focus on engagement”(2012). Her article includes results of a survey titled “2012 Social Admissions Report” which surveyed more than 7000 students. A look at how students are using the social media in their college search, the survey provides concrete evidence that needs vary from one demographic group to another (Inigral & Zinch, 2012). Through application of this audience awareness, these institutions can increase not only their enrollment figures but can even capitalize on the specific demographic groups their institutions have missed reaching in their prior recruitment initiatives.

One of the largest influences in today’s digital world has been brought on by mobility. Mobility has brought with it the ultimate facilitator of convenient interaction, those that can happen at any moment the student chooses. Smartphones have brought internet usage to a new level, and prospect to institute interaction is no exception. “Mobile 101 for Higher Ed”, another study by Inigral, Inc., looks at the current mobile market and how higher education is adapting (2012). It goes as far as to provide a “cheat sheet” for how institutions can be successful with a mobile plan (Inigral, 2012). Using this type of mobile plan, institutions can be at the fingertips of its desired audience at any time they or the student chooses.

Unfortunately, simply providing more interaction online and stopping the practice of providing hard copies of materials does not mean that institutions have reached their audience. The article “Social Media and Marketing of Higher Education: A Review of the Literature” reviews sources looking at the usage of social media by higher education institutions for recruitment, and if students are using social media in their college research. Evidence showed that college bound students were still using traditional sources such as university printed material and college visits before they were consulting online interaction(Canche, Davis, Charles, Deil-Amen, Rios-Aguilar, 2012). Additionally, the article cites the need for institutions to have a plan in place for using social media, which they don’t always have (Canche et al., 2012). In an article on return of investment through social media in higher education, 78% of the institutions it surveyed said that social media had changed the way it recruited but 29% had no social media plan (Barnes & Lescault, 2012). The message taken from this is to develop a strategy, not simply a social media presence.

As previously mentioned, many of these new media platforms can provide actual reporting on an institution’s reach through that specific outlet. For example, when using Facebook pages or Twitter’s Tweet Deck, administrators receive back data on exactly how much exposure was created as a result of a posting. These features take the guess work out of what is and is not working as a result of online presence utilizing those platforms. Using this data, institutions can tailor the version of themselves to present on each platform that will garner them the most beneficial interaction and exposure to prospective students. Without understanding how to utilize the voice that these forms of new media facilitate, institutions run the risk of being silent and invisible to their prospects.

Barnes, Nora Ganim. & Lescault, Ava M. (2012) Higher Ed Documents Social Media ROI: New Communications Tools Are a Game Changer. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. Retrieved from http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/socialmedia/socialmediagamechanger/

Canche, Manuel Sacramento Gonzalez., Davis III, Charles H.F., Deil-Amen, Regina., Rios-Aguilar, Cecilia.(2012).Social Media in Higher Education: A literature review and research directions. The center for the Study of Higher Education at The University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University. Retrieved from http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hfdavis

Inigral, Inc. (2012) Mobile 101 for Higher Ed. Inigral Insights. Retrieved from http://www.inigral.com/research/mobile-101-for-higher-ed/

Inigral, Inc. & Zinch, Inc. (2012). 2012 Social Admissions Report. Slide Share. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/inigral

Nyangau, Josiah. & Bado, Niamboue. (2012). Social Media and Marketing of Higher Education: A Review of the Literature. Journal of The Research Center for Educational Technology. Volume 8, Number 1. Pages 38-51. Retrieved from http://rcetj.org/index.php/rcetj/article/view/180/264

Tilsley, Alexandra. (2012). Social Networks and College Choices. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/24/survey-examines-how-prospective-students-use-social-media-research-colleges

Class blog for the graduate seminar COMM 7806/8806 at the University of Memphis.

Tag Archives: new media

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