Nature of the New Digital Media Networks - Report Example

NATURE OF THE NEW DIGITAL MEDIA NETWORKS by (Name) The Name of the Class (Course) Professor (Tutor) The Name of the School (University) The City and State where it is located The Date Nature of the New Digital Media Networks Introduction Significant technological advancements undoubtedly marked the onset of the 20th and the 21st century. Technology today is not only bridging the communication gaps between the general public but also, it is redefining the business activities. This made a majority of the people to actively participate in the online activities, both men as well as women. The key contributor in pulling more people towards the digital world is the readily available information, quick access to people, available for services round the clock, and online banking facilities. Also, the ease in production and distribution of digital content over a large number of devices have led to the exponential growth in the field of digital media networks. With the continued expansion of interactive applications and networks, with the falling cost of their access, and devices to access them, millions of people from developed as well as developing countries have become producers of media content. The paper will focus on cause for building and utilizing the new digital media networks’ nature and for whom it is done. Discussions Digital media and networks did not play such a significant part of the everyday lives of people in the 80’s and early 90’s as it is doing today. Unlike the early years of development of the computers, or other digital gadgets, when the cost of the gadgets, internet access, and communication was too high, today these costs have fallen to a great extent. Digital communication over the network was also limited to a small number of people at those days. The network services, the costly computer systems, and digital media was mainly used by professionals working under an organization. This made the digital communication be highly formal in nature. The digital media was also under the sole practice of professionalism and, as it was used for governmental, academic, and industry purposes. As this involved only a limited and verified people using the network, therefore, it involved less concern aligned to security, bandwidth, ease of use, the speed of data flow, integrity, and much more. The digital media and network were also not of interactive nature, as it is today (Buckingham, 2008). Many developing and developed countries in the past 50 years were independent of the technology for its economy. But, with the rise of the home computers and the time-sharing computers in the 1970’s with the ability to connect to the internet, the economic structure started to change. Business started to use the internet to spread their wings, initially on domestic grounds, and later across the international borders through digital networking. As the digital technology started to grow, it brought a significant change in the economies by making their place in the businesses. Almost all business houses at that age started to make a presence on the internet with a static website. This way, they directly communicate with their customers. Apart from a business perspective, the new digital media network also enabled to progress in the field of technology, online security, defense mechanisms, gaming and entertainment, and much more. The US Census Bureau collected data about the use of computers and the internet use in the developed nations such as the United States. This survey showed that about 8.2% of all the households in the States owned a PC (personal computer) in the year 1984 as seen in fig. 1 (Rise in digital technology use, 1980–2010, n.d.). Figure 1. Computer and internet users As technology raced quickly, many households, both in the developed as well as developed countries started using computers and the internet every day. The ways in which the digital media network was used changed its forms significantly since then. With the advancements in technology, easy access to the internet, and its exponential use across household and business purposes, the nature of digital media networks changed in the developed as well as across developing nations. As for the current situation, we are now living in a digital world where smartphones have even replaced laptops. The internet and other networks have spread their boundaries to even remote locations and enabled even the naïve users to interact on the digital platforms. This rapid shift towards communication, digital networks, and technology have also led to a revolutionary change in the basic underlying infrastructure of the digital network (Sadowsky, 1993). In the current world, the new fragmented model of information is attracting the society as it eliminated the gap between content, technology, and business which is creating various challenges in the ecosystem. These changes are causing the emergence of new native digital companies and forcing them to face this phase through the shift and use a viable model to address the needs of the changing technology and user demands. The rise of mobile users have also grown to a significant number in the past 30 years as seen in fig 2. The digital media have understood the new ecosystem which is digital, mobile, global and social in nature. They nowadays are open, changeable and dynamic and hence are experiencing historic transformations which require them to understand the informative ecosystem elements such as mobile and social media (Cerezo, n.d.). Figure 2. Cellphone users in the past 30 years After the emergence of smartphones and social, the main demand of users has been to access information through any medium, at anytime and anywhere. A research “State of the news media 2015”, by PewResearch Centre showed that the USA online media received 39 out of 50 audiences from mobile phones. Most of the companies are moving to “digital first” to score a good rank in the race. Not only mobile but social media has also impacted the way information is being accessed. It has become a centralized location to post information as it is a very important source of driving traffic. Around 70% of the Reddit users and 2/3 twitter users stay informed with these platforms as in fig. 3. Hence the strategies have developed from “SEO first” to “Social Media Mix” (Cerezo, n.d.). Figure 3. Usage percentage of Social Sites Smartphone and social media have started converging and is changing the habits of the users. Nowadays the information is flowing as feeds on Twitter, wall posts on Facebook, chat on WhatsApp, Snapchat and much more. These flowing information is fragmented and is multiple, diverse, and unstructured. Moreover, the introduction and exponential usage of bots have resulted in infinite conversation. The future of the information sector is expected to change due to the new role of digital platforms. Some of the new revolutionary initiatives such as Apple News, Facebook Instant and Snapchat Discover could change the business. After the boom of chatting apps and Facebook, the bars of difficulty levels in the media sector have increased. The digital platform could turn from information carrier to distribution owner (Cerezo, n.d.). The complexity and the changing demand of the consumers due to the change in the technology have forced the media to digitize themselves. Thus, they are setting up a new model for information flow. Even the decisions depend on the administration and analysis of the data. The customer media is successfully putting the data into the service of media. The companies now are aware of the methods of channeling all the social media networks. They are now creating communities, directing the reader to their official website and offering the data to users which can be accessed anywhere and anytime. One of the main foundation for business success nowadays is the usage of social media which also proves to be beneficial. For example, media like BuzzFeed are getting up to 150 million unique viewers which are five times greater than what comes from research. Moreover, the information has turned mobile. More the sixty percent of the audience comes from mobile devices such as smartphone and tablets. Moreover, the audiovisual nature of the information has created more hype. They have become the greatest demand for both the announcers and users. Business Insider, in one of its research, identified that the publicity in the online video would increase the income by 19.5% each year for the next three years. The importance of video has been talked about for a long time. The demand for videos has always been more. Both the content and the commercial team prefer videos over the traditional type of information. Organizations such as BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, or Vice are the leading in the case of online media while tech giants such as Google and Apple are taking steps to reinvent television (Cerezo, n.d.). The nature of the digitized media not only targets the youngest generation but also focuses on the millennials. The millennials on observing the youngsters have also started getting information in the new digital way. In America, 2/3 of the media audience are aged above 55. Apart from fashion and beauty magazines the rest of the traditional information careers have started facing problems. The digital media seems to have satisfied the millennials with their approach to information delivery. Sites such as Vox, BuzzFeed, Upworthy, Circa, or Vocative have the youth audience. With 71% of the audience falling between the age group of 18 and 34, the Elite daily has become the voice of the Y generation. Similarly, Mic.com has also achieved a great following from the same age group (Cerezo, n.d.). Conclusion Evident from the above discussion that digital media has transformed from the initial footprints in 80’s until the domination of smart era today. The entire cycle of transformation began from the communication ways taking into account speed of data flow, security, integrity and the evolution is still in progress. The major influence towards the transformation was due to the Internet and Home Computer that were first found in the US. Therefore, the ability to access the Internet in the household began to increase with the arrival of a completely new era of the digital media. Since the Internet was taking up the media, the market started to experience evolution in devices and gadgets. There came smartphones and laptops unlocking the way to communication and interact with people situation far off. Today, a preferable means to inform the audience is videos and user-oriented content, which is supported by an organization like BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and much more. Thus, the speed and magnitude of digital media are forcing the companies to evolve business models rapidly. References Buckingham, D. (2008). Youth, identity, and digital media. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Cerezo, P. (n.d.). The new digital media ecosystem. 1st ed. [ebook] Evoca, pp.1-6. Available at: http://evocaimagen.com/dosieres/dosier-evoca-02-en.pdf [Accessed 18 May 2017]. Rise in digital technology use, 1980–2010. (n.d.). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://eclass.aueb.gr/modules/document/file.php/OIK101/%CE%A7%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BF%20%CE%BC%CE%B5%20%CF%83%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AC%20%CE%B3%CE%B5%CE%B3%CE%BF%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%84%CE%B1/%CE%94.pdf [Accessed 18 May 2017]. Sadowsky, G. (1993). Network connectivity for developing countries. Communications of the ACM, [online] 36(8), pp.42-47. Available at: http://denninginstitute.com/modules/acmpkp/security/texts/PEM.PDF. Read More

With the rise of home computers and the time-sharing computers in the 1970s with the ability to connect to the internet, the economic structure started to change. The business started to use the internet to spread their wings, initially on domestic grounds, and later across the international borders through digital networking. As digital technology started to grow, it brought a significant change in the economies by making its place in the businesses. Almost all business houses at that age started to make a presence on the internet with a static website. This way, they directly communicate with their customers. Apart from a business perspective, the new digital media network also enabled progress in the field of technology, online security, defense mechanisms, gaming and entertainment, and much more. The US Census Bureau collected data about the use of computers and internet use in the developed nations such as the United States. This survey showed that about 8.2% of all the households in the States owned a PC (personal computer) in the year 1984 as seen in fig. 1 (Rise in digital technology use, 1980–2010, n.d.).

As technology raced quickly, many households, both in the developed as well as developed countries started using computers and the internet every day. How the digital media network was used changed its forms significantly since then. With the advancements in technology, easy access to the internet, and its exponential use across household and business purposes, the nature of digital media networks changed in the developed as well as across developing nations.

As for the current situation, we are now living in a digital world where smartphones have even replaced laptops. The internet and other networks have spread their boundaries to even remote locations and enabled even naïve users to interact on digital platforms. This rapid shift towards communication, digital networks, and technology has also led to a revolutionary change in the basic underlying infrastructure of the digital network (Sadowsky, 1993). In the current world, the new fragmented model of information is attracting society as it eliminated the gap between content, technology, and business which is creating various challenges in the ecosystem. These changes are causing the emergence of new native digital companies and forcing them to face this phase through the shift and use a viable model to address the needs of the changing technology and user demands. The rise of mobile users has also grown to a significant number in the past 30 years as seen in fig 2. The digital media have understood the new ecosystem which is digital, mobile, global, and social in nature. They nowadays are open, changeable, and dynamic and hence are experiencing historic transformations which require them to understand the informative ecosystem elements such as mobile and social media (Cerezo, n.d.).

After the emergence of smartphones and social, the main demand of users has been to access information through any medium, at any time, and anywhere. A research “State of the news media 2015”, by PewResearch Centre showed that the USA online media received 39 out of 50 audiences from mobile phones. Most of the companies are moving to “digital first” to score a good rank in the race. Not only mobile but social media has also impacted the way information is being accessed. It has become a centralized location to post information as it is a very important source of driving traffic. Around 70% of the Reddit users and 2/3 twitter users stay informed with these platforms as in fig. 3. Hence the strategies have developed from “SEO first” to “Social Media Mix” (Cerezo, n.d.).

Smartphone and social media have started converging and is changing the habits of the users. Nowadays the information is flowing as feeds on Twitter, wall posts on Facebook, chat on WhatsApp, Snapchat, and much more. This flowing information is fragmented and is multiple, diverse, and unstructured. Moreover, the introduction and exponential usage of bots have resulted in infinite conversation. 

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