Traditionally, constraints in communication prevents us from really knowing things the moment they happen. Even the phrase “hot off the press” means nothing to us nowadays – just take a saunter down to your neighborhood’s 7-Eleven store at 3 in the morning, and you’ll notice freshly-stacked copies of the day’s newspapers. If that doesn’t strike you as unusual, just consider that the articles in them were probably only edited hours ago. So the paper over which we peruse with our cup of morning java isn’t really freshly pressed, is it?
Enter: the digital age.
"Mommy, what's happening in the world today?"
It has obliterated the formerly-pertinent barriers of time, distance and speed. The news of pop superstar Michael Jackson’s passing, for instance, was so quickly disseminated, that a crowd gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center (where he was admitted earlier) within minutes. It is a good indication of how information transmission has evolved into a form so rapidly fluid, that halfway across the globe, we seem to get these updates instantaneously. Well, not quite – since the bytes and kilobytes of information still need nanoseconds to travel through this cyberspace; but it could still be described, with sufficient accuracy, that these packets of information are received almost instantly.
Entertainment website TMZ.com’s news manager Mike Walters described how “1,000 comments (were generated on our story) within minutes. That’s how fast people could write in.” CBS News reported that Google “shut down” for a period of time due to the sudden wave of search activity, perceived as a viral attack (Sieberg, 2009). On the mobile telecommunications front, AT&T recorded a 60 percent spike in cell phone texts - almost 65,000 per second.
Should it come as a surprise then, with the onslaught of digital media that traditional methods of communication have become obsolete? I guess I could still spread the newspaper over my lap while I enjoy my breakfast of fried egg and noodles, but I’m all dosed up on AsiaOne, and my hands are already occupied texting my friends over the latest gossip-worthy tabloid.
Ed said
Its a good thing that news travels fast isn’t it? on the very day that Michael Jackson passed, I switched on my favourite channel for 15-year-olds (according to Ms Hui) and they had already started playing tribute videos for the legend. I’m glad that I can be informed of the latest news. some things need to be known asap.
Thank you for mentioning Michael Jackson. Gone Too Soon…
Kiwi said
might be a slip of the tongue (or should I say fingers), but I wish to dispute this particular line of yours anyway – “…that traditional methods of communication have become obsolete?”
Have they really become obsolete? As history has shown with many of the technological ‘communication revolutions’, no technolgoy ever truly goes obsolete – TV boded the death of Cinema, Cassette tapes and CD’s boded the death of radio, but none of these communication technologies ever truly died. What happened instead was they adapted and we found ourselves with an increasing amount of methods and channels with which to communicate.
I’m not throwing too much flak as there is mention of this in the comments regarding personal communication. This idea of obsoleteness is not an unforgiveable one anyway – a threat to the existence of a beloved communication device should always be met with initial fear and apprehension…
Currently there is talk of the death of TV due to mobile networked devices. But, I know of no other medium that can showcase sporting events like Television, and if you have ever seen Aussie Rules footy, you’ll understand. TV just has to adapt if it (or rather the TV executives) want to survive the new media blitzkrieg.
The question I have is, with so many ways, shapes and forms that we can consume the world (and vice versa), how can we escape? If you want to escape at all…
commsboy said
Without a doubt, TV will be an integral mode of dissemination for a long time in our lives, albeit in newer forms as technology allows and time passes (a couple of mein freunds have found new reasons for watching sports with the advent of ‘The Sports Channel, in HD’; everything is laid almost-bare to see
Provocation aside, perhaps I was channelling a subconscious fear that the newer media forms could actually create such hype in a short amount of time; where traditional print media had a time lag and various interfering factors such as noise and physical location that make it that much more a challenge to disseminate at a similar intensity and reach, these flashy up-and-comers are just strolling into our virtualspaces, just EDUCATING and INFORMING us. The audacity!
And I don’t know about you, but i’m not escaping off to anywhere!
I’ll try to find a way to decode that employs the old and new, as complementary media forms and not ruthless competitors. Maybe an audio podcast that gets distributed bi-hourly to supplement a newspaper’s currency?
Shawn said
Let’s us remember the network lags we encounter whenever we try to send New Year greetings at 12am. We got irritated by it, didn’t we? The digital age have made us impatient. Gone are the days we expect news or mail to come to us within 3 working days. What is 3 working days? Now, we expect 3 working seconds. With that, we can get on the latest news and gossip. On the positive note. The seconds in delaying traffic alerts will cost us both money and time. The digital age allows us to avoid that, and it is high time we further capitalise on it …
Kev said
Shawn is right that “capitalise” is the verb we need.
In spite that we have become faster and savvier beyond previous imagination, think about the sea of voyeuristic celeb tosh/porn/bimboblogs generated in ratio to each newsworthy article.
So really I think it’s a double edged sword that the public has this new found liberty in the virtual world. It simply allows for raw unadulterated expression for such as bouldering intellectuals on the cusp of philosophical epiphany. Then on the other side of the dime are those such as XiaXue. Need I elaborate?
commsboy said
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Even though the medium (media companies) controls the content released to the masses, the general online populace plays a big role in manipulating and transforming/re-interpreting the messages – whether merely to simplify it and create a clearer picture for one’s self, or the more insidious motive of polluting the message for selfish reasons, e.g. scandal creation or propaganda.
commsboy said
haha! maybe we’ll try and give FOUR seconds instead!
I think regardless of the advanced state of communications today, we will never be satisfied with the speed. and you’re right, we’ll just keep expecting faster rates of dissemination and more information packets (we don’t want just printed news any more, now we want video coverage!)
so what happens when the media decides to shut down for a day? do we first stamp our feet in righteous indignation or start rant threads on our forums?
Landy said
Hmm, personally, I find that with such easy communication, society does tend to lose the ability for its individuals to communicate personally and face to face. It also makes individuals less able to express themselves and to do relate and empathise with others. With facebook, SMS, MSN, its so easy to speak to people, or to plan or collect our thoughts in a processed and packaged way before sending it to the other party. What happened to “being yourself”?
‘Traditional methods of communication’ always gives us the personal touch when we speak to person face-to-face. It shows how comfortable we are with each other, how our body language speaks, how much we lie
In essence, we should never forget that while advanced methods of communication are handy when it comes to keeping in touch or sending information instantly, we must also never forget the importance of our inter-personal communication skills. These, if not carefully practiced, will slowly fade away.
commsboy said
i think it made the transition to “being the idealself”
i definitely agree that actual personal/visual contact is vital in honing interpersonal communication skills in the traditional sense. but now that we’re moving into a new media-heavy society, it would be imprudent not to adapt to that too. balance is key – we don’t want to neglect the impact classical concepts had on the development of modern communication models or stubbornly hold on to obsolete theories.
charmaine said
Even with the onslaught of digital media, there’s nothing like flipping through the papers over breakfast. Sure, reading news over the internet is convenient, fast and you get the the latest updates. You can even get news updates via your phone! How much faster can you get updated?
Also, we have email now, and there is hardly an lag time…well at least when both parties are online. With the transactional model, feedback generated is a lot faster, and there is hardly any lag time. If you ask me however, I still enjoy the thrill of getting snail mail in the postbox.
I guess people take technology forgranted, imagine life without your phone. You wouldn’t be able to contact people as quickly or receive notifications. Imgaine you travelled all the way to school and realised that class has been cancelled because there was no fast enough way to notify everyone. Such a waste of time is it not?
commsboy said
There are some things that can come only from my mailbox: snail mail, bills and – in some cases – online orders of products such as Threadless.
Some people though, can survive for extended periods of time without mobile phones, electronic mail or even Facebook accounts. Say Hello to Ed.
whatbluebird said
It’s true that in this new digital age, information can be sent back and forth more quickly than you can click your mouse at. However, what about those who do not have access to the internet or even a cellphone? Despite the widespread use of new media technologies to spread information, nothing beats the good ol’ newspaper. For now, at least!
commsboy said
if you’re referring to those from less industrialized countries then i think they wouldn’t have to worry about the onslaught of new media, since print media and other traditional forms are really all that they have and use currently!
Aud said
With the advance of new media, communication has definitely become instanteneous. With the internet, all you need to do is just type out an article and it gets published to the world within a matter of seconds.
Things like Twitter especially lets you know what is happening instantly especially with its 140 word limit that one can type in the textbox. I get my news updates from Twitter almost everyday when i’m online. News agencies like Reuters, BBC, CNN, NEw York Times and even our local news, which were traditionally newspapers and broadcast, such as Straits Times, ChannelNewsAsia and Today have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.
I think Twitter has definitely revolutionized the speed of communication and how fast news and info gets disseminated. Michael Jackson’s death was tweeted by people all over the world on Twitter and his name was one of the most popular search topics on Twitter.
As long as you’re constantly wired up, you’ll get that info instantly as long as people continue to update on platforms such as Twitter, which may sometimes be even faster than the press!
I dont think traditional methods have gone obsolete. Not yet at any rate. Radio still plays an integral part in disseminating info in less developed countries and in developed countries, i guess it depends on one’s preference whether you’d like to read the papers at your own time or have your eyes glued to the computer screen the whole time.
commsboy said
Hey Aud, I haven’t jumped on the twitter bandwagon yet, but that’s what i said about facebook and myspace way back then, haha!
It’s surprising how quickly our attitudes change, and how rapidly we jump from one social networking platform to the next (Friendster-whaz?). Digital media has enabled us to access uptodate news with ease, not to mention keep up with our social lives in the hectic mess we call ‘life’.
Sandy said
I think most people like me would appreciate the quick news updates we get from the internet. Freshly downloaded news (especially headlines) can be retrieved within a short duration of time with a click of our mouse. We are well informed even without stepping out of our comfort zones (be it in office, home or in school)…thanks to the creator of new digital media!..:)
commsboy said
Definitely, working professionals benefit greatly from the vast resources new media forms bring to us from the comfort of a workdesk or during transit on public transportation. All the phones and gizmos with mail-sync and tele-communication functions let us keep track of worklife and social life, as mentioned in the above reply to Aud. It’s how much we’re immersed inthis new world that defines our attitudes towards the New Media Invasion..
sildaria said
Speed counts for one aspect of communication but quality is as important as well. While the internet has enabled news to be spread quickly in a matter of seconds (versus hours/days via print media), the quality of news may not be as substantive. Well-articulated news still has its place in society.
Moreover, news analysis and critics take more time and more thought in their creation. Mere proliferation of news is not enough for the educated reader; he wants the news behind the news, the analysis and evaluation. Such articles are better carried by print media with its payroll of analysts, editors and writers. However, the internet has also allowed the voice of the alternative to heard. Blogs, in particular, have become soapboxes for people whose voices are neglected or even suppressed in mainstream media.
For myself, if what I want is the latest updates or alternative analysis, I will turn to the internet. But for regular news and analysis, I will still reach for my daily newspaper with its tactile comfort.