This document discusses the development of new media and the information society. It defines an information society as one where the predominant economic activity is the exchange of information, and where society is driven by rapid changes in information and technology. It notes that we are becoming a service-based society rather than one focused on manufacturing. The document also discusses how various communication technologies like newspapers, television, and computers are converging due to digitization and the internet. It provides examples of how technologies and industries are merging through this process of media convergence.

1. Communication
Technology
Week 2
Development of the
“New Media”

2. Information Society
 We are living in an Information Society
 Originated from Japan (1960s) and was
referred to ‘post-industrial’ society
 An objective description of our time
and the type of society which is
emerging (driven by information)

3. What is information society?
 In Information society, the exchange
of information is the predominant
economic activity
 Society is driven by information – the
latest international news, the creation
of computer databases….
 It is also driven by rapid changes in
technological developments -
information can be equated with
power

4. Information Society
 We are becoming a society based on
service (service industry) rather than
manufacturing
 We no longer distinct various mass
media (i.e., books, newspapers,
magazines, radio, TV, film, telephone,
and computers) –because of
convergence activities
 “Information superhighways” - relay
vast amounts to information to our
offices & homes

5. Understanding information?
What is information?
 A collection of symbols that, when
combined, communicates a message
 When we write a note – we combine
letters & numbers to convey your
thoughts/ideas, a message that has
meaning to both of you
 E.g. lecture note, memo, computer
languages, slang, gesture

6. Understanding information?
 To understand on the exchanged
information (message) – both parties
need to have share understanding of
the message or information - created
by culture or society
 F-I-F-A W-o-r-l-d C-u-p – is not just
a collection of letter: it’s a concept
 E.g., UTAR, KTAR, KLCC, EU,

7. Communication System
What is a communication system?
A) A concept where information, coded
in signal form, can be exchanged
 e.g. to phone a friend, the
communication system include
telephone receivers, telephone line,
and other component
B) Communication Tools= their
applications, the implications that arise
from the production, manipulation, and
potential exchange of information

8. Changing Media Technologies
 21th Century – a digital era where the
entire world is “going digital”
 Analog – communication uses
continuously varying signals
corresponding to the light of sounds
originated by the source
 Digital - conversion of sound, pictures,
and text into computer-readable
formats by changing them into strings
of electronic 1s and 0s
 Name examples of analog and digital

9. Changing Media In A Changing
World
 Media Convergence – integration of
mass media, computers, and
telecommunications
 Advances in computers &
telecommunications networks have led to
their merging [convergence] with
conventional mass (print / radio / TV /
telephones)

10. Media Convergence
 This convergence is apparent in many
different ways – the rise of the Internet /
the integration of communication
technologies / the merging of media
empires / new lifestyles / new careers /
changing regulations & shifting social
issues
 Merging of technologies
 Merging of industries

11. Merging of technologies
 Technological changes shake up
conventional media
 E.g., Napster Website, internet radio,
DVD, digital camera, the Internet
 New digital media will coexist with
conventional media
 E.g., The Internet with newspaper –
The Star and Star.com, Sin Chew
Daily and Sinchew-i.com

12. Merging of industries
 Telephone, computer, cable television,
and media firms are merging and forming
partnerships
 E.g., American Online and Time Warner,
Microsoft in videogame, broadcasting,
cable television, publishing, and Internet
 What about in Malaysia?

13. Changing Media Throughout
History
Preagriculture Society
- Most people lived in small groups
- Hunters or gatherers
- Depended on spoken word
- Many people are illiterate
Do we still have society like that?

14. Agriculture Society
- Economy based on farms or resource
extraction (fishing, mining, logging)
- Societies are more settled and complex
- Introduced written language
- Only religious orders and merchant can
write and read
- Primary mass media was hand-copied
“books”

15. Industrial Society
- 1712 – Industrial Revolution – Steam
engine by Thomas Newcomen
- Gutenburg Bible 1455
- Improving the speed of book
production - Mass production of books
in large cities
- Triggering mass migration
- Encouraged the speed of literacy
- Urbanization, literacy rate and the need
of advertising the first mass medium -
newspaper

16. Information Society
- Can be found in preagricultural
societies
- Growing information workers in 1960
- Dominant medium in an information
society is one that helps to create,
store, and process information:
computer

17. Tutorial Questions – Week 3
1. What is media convergence?
2. List four examples of the
convergence phenomenon in
Malaysia, two in technologies and
two in industries
3. What is information society?
4. How does the role of the media
differ between industrial and
information society?

18. References
 Green, L. (2001). Communication,
Technology and Society. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
 Straubhaar, J.D., & LaRose, R.
(2002). Media Now: Communications
Media in the Information Age.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson
Learning.
 Mirabito, M. M. & Morgenstern, B. L.
(2004). The new communication
technologies (5th ed). New York:
Focal Press.