All Lecture notes from the course New Media Challenges (S_NMC), year for the third bachelor year Communication science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Including example exam questions for the exam.
All lecture notes from the Van New Media Challenges (S_NMC) year of the third bachelor year o...
College Aantekeningen - New Media Challenges
College 1 - Introduction
Course objectives
In this course we will:
• Define, describe, and discuss important new challenges in media, the public and the individual
• Take a theory- and evidence-based approach to address these issues
• Focus on normative and ethical aspects of new developments/technological possibilities
Leading questions of today
• How has the media landscape changed over the past decades?
• Is our relationship with media technology a positive one or a negative one?
Changes in the media landscape
What are the changes that we have seen happening the last decade?
• How we entertain ourselves
• How we inform ourselves
• How we interact
• How we buy/consume
Changes in the media landscape: how we inform ourselves
• The news consumption landscape in Germany (main source of news consumption) has changed
throughout the years —> see graph (left image)
• The average number of minutes spent per individual watching broadcast television in the UK —>
see graph (right image)
, 2
—> There also have been changes in the media consumption of different generations (see image)
Trends in media and media use
• What is the role of old/new media for us, the public?
• What (or who) can we trust?
• How does a change in media diet affect us as individuals or our society as a whole?
• What will be the relation between ‘humans and computers’?
• Etc.
, 3
• From push to pull —> consumers choosing from large offering of media content (YouTube, on
demand, Blendle [discontinued])
• Dissolving media boundaries —> browsing internet on phone, listen radio on laptop
• Increasing interactivity —> online multiplayer games, chat functions on webpages
• Content creation by ‘consumers’ —> social media (writing reviews, blogs, vlogs, Instagram,
Facebook)
• Content creation bij AI —> ChatGPT, Bard, Bing, Jasper, etc.
• More?
Utopian/dystopian perspectives
• Utopia —> a community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for
its citizen
• Dystopia —> a community or society that is undesirable or frightening
Functions of utopian worldview
• Optimism about the future
• Strong belief in technological development
• Push to invest in technological developments
• Cultural change toward individuation and individual empowerment
“By the year 2000, we have set a goal of connecting every single classroom and library in the entire
United States to the Internet. I thank the Congress for funding that endeavor, and the private sector
for helping us, so far, to stay slightly ahead of schedule. We must redouble our efforts to make sure
that every one of our fellow citizens has the tools to succeed in the new century”
—> (Presidents Clinton speech: Remarks by the president of white house millennium event, 1997)
Prime minister of UK —> believes that technologies like AI will bring a transformation that is
similar to the industrial revolution, coming of electricity, or the birth of the internet. AI will bring
new knowledge, new opportunities for economic growth, new advances in human capability and the
chance to solve problems. But, it also brings new dangers and new fears:
- It could become easier to build chemical or biological weapons
- Terrorist groups could use AI to spread fear and destruction on greater scale
- Criminals could exploit AI for cyberattacks, disinformation, fraud, or even child sexual abuse
- There is even the risk that humanity could lose control of AI through the kind of AI sometimes
referred to as ‘super intelligence’
Industrial Revolution
• Industrial Revolution —> a rapid major change in an economy (as in England in the late 18th
century) marked by the general introduction of power-driven machinery or by an important
change in the prevailing types and methods of use of such machines
• Three or four industrial revolutions? For the sake of this story, we talk about 4 revolutions
(including one we might be in right now)
- First industrial revolution (1784) —> mechanical production, railroads, steam power
- Second industrial revolution (1870) —> mass production, electrical power, advent of the
assembly line
- Third industrial revolution (1969) —> automated production, electronics, computers
- Fourth industrial revolution (2012- now) —> artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, more to
come
, 4
• Fourth industrial revolution (2012-now) —> “we stand on the brink of a technological revolution
that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope,
and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.
We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be
integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and
private sectors to academia and civil society”
- Robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, 3D-
printing, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles
- So, is our relationship with (media) technology a positive one or a negative one?
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