Harry McNeary
2/5/2016
COMM 202 6382 Media and Society
Professor Stephen Johns After studying the assigned reading 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook: Chapter 54: Traditional and New Media, considering the statement that “technologies are simply tools” answer the following questions or prompts.
A) Explain how that statement relates to the key words describing new media: manipulate, converge, and instant. To better understand the connection, consider that taking a class online is not a different class, it’s simply offered in a different format—a format that uses technology to aid in teaching the course. The statement “technologies are simply tools” from 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook: Chapter 54: Traditional and New Media relates to the new media terms manipulate, converge and instant very literally. As new forms of technology emerge, they become tools providing new was to manipulate, converge and instantly transmit different forms of media. New technology has allowed media to be manipulated in a multitude of ways since its previous renditions. A CD is much easier to burn and create than it was to make an analog disk. Media can be digitized thanks to new technologies and through that manipulation can be presented differently. In the same breath as the physical forms and presentation of media have been able to be manipulated so has the types of media that can be presented. Convergence represents the changing of one type of media to another. One of the ways the principle of convergence manifests itself is through digital telephone calls. This practice has become so common because of new technologies that it’s offered by every major telephone company. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Xfinity Triple Play deal that offers digital voice, digital Television and Internet all on the line for a lower price than all three offered