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Gyasti Averia
Professor Foster
Communication 001
6 April 2015
The Old Media vs. The New Media
The battle between the old media, such as newspaper, television news, and magazine, and
the new media, such as blogs, Internet portals and channels, has started in the early 90s, when the
first Internet browser was invented. Since then, the print media, or the old media, has slowly
started to disappear, and replaced by the digital versions. But aside from the conveniences and
advantages of digital media, or the new media, it has a dominant contribution to the era of
information overload. With the ease of sharing information on the Internet and the demand to
diversify media contents, the digital generation was born. Although a few similarities still
apparent between the old media and the new media, the inevitable differences of each medias
that occur in the era of information overload have made the new media superior than the old one
in certain aspects, because fractionalization of audiences has required more diverse contents to
be available in mass media.
With the world of information that is going in a lighting speed today, people demands
information and news to be easily accessible at all times. Using the new media, audiences are
able to access the information conveniently, having them just a press of a button away. This new
media includes online newspaper and magazine, podcasts, and blogs. The journalists that work in
the print business also contributes to the blogging trend. Alan Pell Crawford, an American author
and a political and historical journalist, wrote in Innovative today, conventional tomorrow?
Changing times alter pitching focus between new and old media, (2006) that Albee, whose

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local paper is the Boulder Daily Camera, estimates that up to 50 percent of its business reporters
have their awn blogs, which means they canpost content that doesn't fit into the print edition.
More reporters can be expectedto have blogs too, either by choice or because employers require
them to supplement the print edition (14). This affirms that the new media allows people to
have more variety of news contents that simply would not fit in the old media. Having a blog for
these journalists also acts as a good PR to promote themselves, because they can put their work
into an archive that would forever be stored, unlike the online newspaper website that sometimes
only kept an article for a certain amount of time (Rogers). In addition to being convenience and
archival, the new media also serve people in new generation that required news to be fast, not
requiring a lot of attention time.
News in new media facilitates audiences of the new generation that have a limited
attention span and allowing them to multitask with ease in their daily lives. For new generation
of audience living in the metropolitan area, the need to have information as quickly as possible
increased. Although, the new media often criticized as lacking credibility, it still helps to get the
basis information of a topic faster than ever. For instance, the statistic data in research journals
could simply be written more understandable in new medias, without compromising the actual
research journal itself. Karen Friedman, the head of Karen Friedman Enterprises, Inc., a
communications coaching firm, stated in Limited attention spans: How to stand out in the new
age of media (2008), that by humanizing the information and offering context, this person
increases his or her chances of becoming a reliable resource (19) in regards to reporters having
their own blogs, podcasts, and social networks. Once one understand and aware of the audiences
needs and established their contents to fulfill the needs, one will have no issue to be known and
relied on as a reliable source (Friedman 19). Moreover, the new media also allows people to

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access information with little or no cost at all.
The new digital media has reduced the cost of information, not necessarily making it
worthless, but again more convenient to access. One of the main issues of the old media is cost
inefficiency. The cost of storing and archiving are the costs that the new digital world could
spare. Not only the new media reduce cost of archiving and storing, in political and cooperation
world, the new media also reduce the cost of promoting and campaigning. Lloyd Davidson, and
American bibliographer, stated in The End of Print: Digitization and Its Consequence
Revolutionary Changes in Scholarly and Social Communication and in Scientific Research
(2005), that The influence that blogs have acquired should not be underestimated by industrial
leaders and politicians. Their open visibility, coupled with the willingness of their creators to discuss such delicate private topics as their personal experiences with various medicines and
medical treatments, combined with the authors' tendency to publicly criticize specific institutions
and companies, make this group one of the more volatile, influential, and unpredictable forces on
the Internet and one that companies and politicians ignore at their peril (30). Its proving the
effects of new media for politicians and corporations, and if they would use the publication for
their advantages and to gain more exposure, it would cut their promotion cost a significant
amount. But with the advantages of new media, there are possible downsides despite of all the
advantages.
With the unstoppable streams of information in new media, the truth is sometimes hard to
find, or more commonly encountered, the truth is slathered with advertisements. One of the main
tendencies in the new media age is over-sharing information. The unnecessary information has
become a noise that is inevitable to be heard. But despite of all the noise, corporations are still
demanded to have social media accounts to help the customers with any issues of their products.

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Having social media also humanize the corporations and make their customers felt more
involved and heard. As stated by James Andzulis, Nikolas Panagopoulos, and Adam Rapp in A
Review of Social Media and Implications for the Sales Process (2012), Similarly, the
product/service strategy is a beneficiary of the social media push because customers are now
provided with one more mechanism, or channel (perhaps the most responsive), for direct
interaction with the firm when it comes to issues related to what they purchase. The customer can
often provide immediate feedback to the company based on current products or services (310).
Therefore, it is up to the audiences to look past the herds of unnecessary information, and keep in
mind the true importance of the new media.
In sum, the new media has shown many beneficial aspects that the old media didnt come
with. The information posted in the new media is conveniently accessible at all times. This also
means raising the bar for journalism, and when the bar is high, people could expect better news
contents. Information in the new media are fast, short, and cut to the point, making it even more
convenient and easy to digest. Equally important, the new media has managed to cut the cost of
information storage, and access a very significant amount, making it universally accessible.

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Works Cited
Andzulis, James "Mick", Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos, and Adam Rapp. "A Review Of Social
Media And Implications For The Sales Process." Journal Of Personal Selling & Sales
Management 32.3 (2012): 305-316. Business Source Elite. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Crawford, Alan Pell. "Innovative Today, Conventional Tomorrow? Changing Times Alter
Pitching Focus Between New And Old Media." Public Relations Tactics 13.5 (2006): 14.
Business Source Elite. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Davidson, Lloyd A. "The End Of Print: Digitization And Its ConsequenceRevolutionary
Changes In Scholarly And Social Communication And In Scientific Research."
International Journal Of Toxicology (Taylor & Francis) 24.1 (2005): 25-34. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Friedman, Karen. "Limited Attention Spans: How To Stand Out In The New Age Of Media."
Public Relations Tactics 15.12 (2008): 19. Business Source Elite. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Rogers, Tony. "More Reporters Are Making Their Own Websites to Build an Online Brand."
About News. About.com, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.