Week 2: "Let Me Entertain You": the New Media Amusement Arcade

One of the first questions asked when referring to New Media: ‘what qualifies as new media?’ or more favourably ‘what is new about new media?’ According to Levy (2006, p.25) “the ideas of defining oneself by what you listen to isn’t exactly a new concept.” Levy adapts the functions of the iPod as a tool for socio-cultural exchange “because the iPod amplifies such concerns in the media and in Web sites like Myspace.com... we seem to be immersed in an age of musical voyeurism” (Levy 2006, p. 23). The underlining question is what would your music playlist or library says about you? “Obviously, exalted status comes from cool music libraries” (Levy 2006, p.23).

With iTunes each music library distinguishes an individual as different types of people ‘the thinking person, a discerning individualist, a lover of fun or a blender of high and low culture.’ McLuhan (1965) examines the ‘medium is the message’ that the personal and social consequences of any medium is an extension of our self. “For the ‘message’ of any medium or technology is the change if scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs” (McLulan 1965, p.8).

Another form of entertainment that makes similar connections to what Levy and McLulan discuss are the relations between identity, reputation and social capital is the iPhone. The iPhone is a form of new media which has used ‘convergence’ in a form of combining three different devices all in one: a revolutionary mobile phone, an iPod and a breakthrough internet device. The iPhone is a form of ‘mass communication in the way the content of communication message is carried’ (Turow 2009, 3).

The identity of the iPhone is stylish and sophisticated and has made a new era in Apple technologies, Apple’s reputation has exceeded since the iPod’s first release date in 2001. Ultimately, the social capital for the iPhone has revolutionised modern society since the first release date to date.

Reference list

Hormby, T. (2007). A History of the Ipod: 2000 to 2004. Retrieved March 5, 2010 from
http://lowendmac.com/orchard/05/origin-of-the-ipod.html#0

Levy, Steven. (2006). Identity in Levy, Steven, The perfect thing: how the ipod shuffles commerce, culture and coolness, New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, pp.21-41. (accessed March 5, 2010).

McLuhan, Marshall. (1965). Chapter 1 : The Medium is the Message in McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding media : the extensions of man, New York: McGraw Hill, pp.7-21. (accessed March 5, 2010).

Turow, S. (2009). “Understanding mass media and the importance of media literacy,”
Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication, New York: Routledge, pp. 4-37. (accessed March 5, 2010).