Ow hospitals in the health care industries have used new media Essay

Ow hospitals in the health care industries have used new media technology and study the social effects and cultural impact of th - Essay Example In the last quarter of 20th Century computer has started to play its role in communication and with passage of time a new term emerged in the field of communication. This new term was â€Å"New Media†. New media technology is any type of application intended to transmit information through digital techniques, computerized systems or data networks. New media technology is normally associated with information transfers meant to be manipulated in some way. The most common examples of new media technologies consist of Internet-based concepts like websites or digital mediums such as CD-ROMs and DVDs. Anything that is considered old media, such as television, film or paper-based products, are not part of new media. According to Donna Chu (2009, p 337), ‘Although there is a growing literature on new media (Hassan & Thom as, 2006), there is little consensus on what it will actually bring us (see Gauntlett & Horsley, 2004; Lister, 2003). ..... The unsettling debates are largely d ue to the lack of concrete details and contextualized understandings of how new media are actually used on an everyday basis.’ According to experts New Media will be able to alter the meaning of geographic distance. Furthermore it will allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication and provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication. It will also provide opportunities for interactive communication. The rise of new media has improved communication between people all over the world and the Internet. It has allowed people to communicate blogs, websites, pictures, and other media. The new media industry shares an open association with different market segments such as software/video game design, television, radio, and mainly movies, advertising and marketing. Again Donna Chu (2009, p 338 & 339) is of the opinion that, ‘There are high hopes that new interactive media will add impetus to various social movements. It is in this light that new media a re cultivating a new social space, which is often linked to Habermas’ public sphere (Habermas, Lennox, & Lennox, 1 974), albeit in a virtual sense. Yet as noted by Papacharissi (2002), public space should not be confused with the public sphere. That new media provide forums for political deliberation does not automatically lead to the formation of a public sphere that facilitates democratic discussion. A crucial difference lies in the nature and quality of discussion found on the Internet (Fung, 2002; Tsaliki, 2002). In an era when new media is giving birth to a new social order, studies of the many for forms of collective behavio(u)r in evidence will yield a deeper understanding of how new customs and conventions are being created and maintained.’ Presenting Singapore as a model Terence Lee (2003, p 84) states that, ‘At present, Singapore's e-citizen portal, www.ecitizen.gov.sg, provides the best illustration of Singapore's successes in e-govemment. Launched in April 1999, the e-citizen website offers more than 180 e-services grouped in 16 online units based on categories that address family life, health, housing, education, employment, transport and other day-to-day issues (IDA, 2001).’ From the above paragraphs and quotations it is clear that new media is making huge inroad in the modern world. After looking at different aspects of new media, we will