Journalism and Communication Design in New Media

Background

Developments in communication technologies and widespread use of the Internet have made it easy, fast and economical for individuals to access information. Today, many individuals see the newmedia as an indispensable part of their lives since the Internet offers a variety of information free of charge as well as giving users a variety of communication possibilities (Balcı & Tiryaki, 2018, p. 11). The new media environments have become important for individuals as new social mediums with the popularity and prevalence of internet technology. For this reason, when talking about the new media, new features added to internet technology become significant. The Internet has enabled individuals to reach information easily and quickly and provides interpersonal communication opportunities independent of time and place (Satar, 2015, p. 55). However, the new media tools are also criticized because many face-to-face and real-life actions are carried to virtual environments through an interface, social relations are weakened, digital addiction has become an issue, the mind is instrumental zed and people are more alienated. Although criticized, “the new media” where the media meets the Internet and creates a new medium, is considered to be a new power that can bring masses together for specific purposes and manipulate masses, beyond being a means of personal and mass communication.

Internet technology, which enables the exchange of information between all computers connected to the network via the global computer networks in the world, was first used for military purposes in the United States Department of Defense in 1962. ARPANET which provided information flow among only four computers in 1969 met with www (World Wide Web) technology in 1991 and has become globally widespread ever since (Kahraman, 2014, p. 17). Only print was shared until 1989, which was then transformed into posts that included visual content by Tim Bernard Lee as a result of the developments in World Wide Web (Sine, 2017, p. 50). However, the widespread use of internet technology took place in the 2000s. In 2004, users’ limited activities became interactive and participatory with the help of Web 2.0 technology. Thanks to Web 2.0, usersare able to produce their own content. As a result of participants’ active content production, the new media has started to be defined as “social media”. Poynter states that there are many definitions to explain the concept of social media. According to Poynter (2012, p. 208) social media defines a new medium broadcasting for a large number of people from a large number of points as opposed to broadcasting by the traditional media from a single point to a large number of people.

Social media channels, called social media tools, are increasing day by day in terms of both the number of users and environment diversity. Allowing users to share content without any limit is the most fundamental feature of social media tools with different technological substructures. In this context, a participatory media process has emerged with the help of Web 2.0 technology and as a result of easier access to social media which extensively increased interaction (Kahraman, 2014, p. 21). In other words, the static structure of Web 1.0 which allows users only to read and do research has turned into a dynamic structure with Web 2.0 application and enabled social interactions among participants. Web 3.0 application has given the web technology a portable feature thanks to the newly developed interface for mobile devices (Sine, 2017, p. 53). Thus, the new media has become an integral part of our lives by allowing everyone to access and share any content, anytime, anywhere without the constraints of time and space.