15-20 Minute Paper
Robert K. Logan
University of Toronto and OCAD University
Biography
Robert K. Logan is Professor Emeritus in physics at the U. of Toronto and Chief Scientist at the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has written about media and communications (The Alphabet Effect, The Fifth Language and The Sixth Language) based on his experience of collaborating and publishing with Marshall McLuhan.
Abstract
The focus of this paper is to identify the characteristics of the “new digital media” and contrasts them with the electric mass media that McLuhan dealt with. According to McLuhan the medium is the message so we begin our analysis by identifying the characteristics or messages of the ”new media”, which will help us understand how digital media differ from electric mass media. The fourteen messages of new media are:
1. two-way communication,
2. ease of access to and dissemination of information.
3. continuous learning,
4. alignment and integration, and
5. community.
6. portability and time flexibility (time shifting), which provide their users with freedom over space and time;
7. convergence of many different media so that they can carry out more than one function at a time;
8. interoperability without which convergence would not be possible;
9. aggregation of content and crowd sourcing, which is facilitated by digitization and convergence;
10. variety and choice to a much greater extent than the mass media that preceded them and hence the long tail phenomenon;
11. the closing of the gap between producers and consumers of media;
12. social collectivity and cooperation;
13. remix culture, which digitization facilitates; and
14. the transition from products to services.
Although one or two of these characteristics apply to some electric mass media what is unique about digital media is that all fourteen of these characteristics apply and help define the impact of these media.