Though the term “new media” enjoys wide use in the study of digital humanities and technical communications, there is no one agreed upon definition.

New Media Definitions

A Focus on Materiality

No Consensus

Though the term “new media” enjoys wide use in the study of digital humanities and technical communications, there is no one agreed upon definition.

A Difference

Hand written texts

Sculpture Cinema Photography Television Paintings

Websites Video Games Blogs Digital

Photography Flash Video

“OLD” “NEW”

Cultural Change

This “New Media” doesn’t just give us new forms of communication, it fundamentally changes every aspect of the culture that it’s introduced into.

Ann Wysocki’s Definition

“New Media texts are those that have been made by composers who are aware of the range of materialities of texts and who then highlight the materiality. Such composers design texts that help readers stay alert to how any text doesn’t function independently of how it is made and what it is made out of.”

Materiality

The physical substance of matter that something is made out of, or the physical components involved in transmitting information.

Invisible Materiality

An academic essay is obviously made out of stuff. But we’ve become so accustomed to it that we no longer think of its materiality as relevant.

And because of this, Wysocki would argue, authors rarely work that materiality to its advantages.

Invisible Materiality

Culture Shapes Materiality

Ancient Greek texts, and beginning in the second century GC, Latin texts, were written in capital letters without any spaces between words, without any punctuation, and without any division among sentences, paragraphs, or chapters

19 century Print Layout

Why did it look this way?

Industrial Revolution

Crayon Time

Grab a crayon. Spend 10 minutes writing a response

to the following question: › What world problem (political, social,

environmental, etc.) are you most concerned about and why?

Discussion Questions

What was different about the writing process with a crayon?

Did you find yourself thinking differently?

What adjectives would you use to describe the pages created in your group?

Discussion Question

Imagine a culture that only used crayons. How would that culture differ from ours? What would the culture be proud of or consider a sign of intellectual prowess? How would this affect the economical, social, physical, material design, or any other factors of this culture?