The Purpose of Remediation and New Forms of Media - Essay Example

Remediation Remediation is the idea that all new forms of media contain older forms of media; old media and new concepts are combined to get what is the new media (Bolter, 2000). It is also the act of splicing and combining different forms of media to create a new one; in this case, taking a motion picture, letting it meet with Facebook, therefore getting a Facebook news feed about the same topic. Remediation was created as it is the belief that every form of media has already been remediated, as remediation tends to be an act that cannot be avoided when something new is created, especially in these times when technology and opportunity are increasing rapidly. Ideas are used over and over again, as they all still prove to be useful when trying to convey a message to a specific audience. The purpose of remediation is to take an original idea and make it presentable to various audiences, so that the message becomes more widespread and easier for certain audiences to understand, such as though that might be younger or older, or those that prefer a certain media medium. As times and technology changes, so do the methods of conveying a media message or story. Different audiences depend on the forms of media that appeal most to them, so each media medium must be taken into consideration when in regards to getting a message out to a specific population. The more appealing a medium is, the more appealing the message will be, if not easier to understand. The original bit of media used in this project is the "I am your father" scene from The Empire Strikes Back. The form of media is a motion picture, and the scene is one that is well-known, even amongst those who have never seen the movie. It is a scene that is often repeated and parodied in other media forms. The constant reusing of this scene is a prime example of remediation, as it shows the different ways that old media - in this case, a famous scene from a movie - is formed into a piece of new media that would be more appealing to a contemporary audience, such as when it is used on popular, contemporary television shows like Family Guy. The first form of media that I created using the aforementioned scene from The Empire Strikes Back is a Facebook news feed. The news feed shows the two different characters, Luke and Darth Vader, conversing, via Facebook, about the same topic that can be seen in the original media form: Darth Vader telling Luke that he is, in fact, his father. The communications are simple, yet it conveys everything that can be found in the scene in the motion picture - there is nothing left out, save for the bits that have been deemed unimportant. The rhetorical appeal that this form of media has is that it is done in "chatspeak," which is the shortening of words while writing on the Internet. It is a lingo that is not only common on the Internet, but it is appreciated as it allows room for more to be said, especially since places like the news feed on Facebook limits how many characters can be typed. It is also more appealing as it gives the Star Wars theme a more down-to-earth feel, as it is using as something as mundane as an Internet chat site. The audience that is most likely to be more attracted to this form of media would be people that are familiar with Facebook; which is to say, a younger audience. Facebook is a site that attracts people in their late teens and up, though the highest average age is approximately thirty. The site is also a popular one, so people would feel more apt to go there for news in regards to something like the altercations between Luke and Darth Vader. There is an appealing simplicity to using a site such as Facebook to share a story with an audience; it is not used in story format, but retold in a set of quick one-liners. The second form of media that I created was a magazine advertisement, which advertised Darth Vader looking for someone to "rule the galaxy as his apprentice." The requirements given in the advertisement were related to the scene from the original media form; this includes, at the bottom of the advertisement, the reference to the famous "I am your father" bit of the original motion picture scene. The rhetorical appeal of this media form is that the language is simple, yet it is catchy and grabbing for the audience. The catchiness of the advertisement is persuasive and informative, and it gets straight to the point without the use of filler, something that the audience would appreciate. As with any advertisement, it is essential to display all of the needed, important, required information, so that the audience does not have to go into further research to understand what the article is conveying to them. It is with this knowledge that I set out to make an advertisement that speaks along the same lines as the original media - I made sure to write down all of the important facts without displaying more than I needed to. The audience that this magazine advertisement might appeal to would be those that have access to any magazine that would house this advertisement. Though, of course, the appeal alone would be to the humor that was placed in the creating of the advertisement; while it is informative in regards to the original motion picture scene, it is also done as a sort of parody, something that is incredibly common when it comes to remediating a piece of media. The story is quite clear in the advertisement, so that those who have yet to see the motion picture can still get a gist of what took place, all by the information laid out in the advertisement. Remediation is a clever way to keep an old method or theory alive while looking and testing out new methods and theories. This can be seen in many different forms - the aforementioned advertisement, for example, used an image from the original media and a few well-chosen words to create the advertisement, which is the new piece of media conveying the old story. One of the greatest perks of remediation is that it allows old media and old methods to be turned into something much more appealing for a contemporary audience, much like the difference between an old radio show and a television program - different principals, same ideas. Works Cited Bolter, Jay David. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000. The Empire Strikes Back. Dir. Irvin Kershner. DVD Format. Lucasfilm, 1980. Read More