Wednesday, 28 January 2009
What is new?
New Media is criticised by Kevin Robins. In products such as the iphone the convergence of already existing products are brought into one ‘new’ product. In this particular example, Mp3 player, camera, video camera, maps, internet etc are brought together in one product. All of these capabilities did exist before the iphone was released. However, the promotion of the iphone being shown as a highly technological and fashionable piece was because of its ability to handle all of these pieces of technology together. This follows Listers idea (p38) that something appears to be new but already exists. Therefore, the iphone isn’t transforming any specific piece of technology and still fits into the pre-existing capitalist society. This isn’t saying that technology altogether hasn’t changed society, because emails, chartrooms etc has changed communication in society compared to pre-internet days, but some pieces of technology which are involved with ‘new media’ are merely for commercial gain and marketed at people who want to seem fashionable.
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I do understand this point that Robins makes, however, who can blame Apple for producing this product?? It has to be said that most of technology today is made and up-graded to make money, so I believe that Apple did a good job in putting together all these aspects of technology and forming the iphone. They have made A LOT of money from their idea.
ReplyDeleteTechnology development is about making things easier for us. Many would argue that we as a society are becoming lazy, this may be so, whether a positive or negative thing, Apple saw this opening and came up with a product which accompanies everyday "necessities" into one phone making life for many people that little bit easier.
Perhaps I am biased but I just think that Apple have managed to do what every other technology company wanted to do, but Apple have done it first, and good on them!!