Media Landscape in the World
The New Modern Media Watching TV while having morning coffee, listening radio on the way to work, checking Facebook before work, tweeting in the lunch break, and googling information related to work; that is the way the new modern media has changed our lives. To understand the term modern media more, Debashis Aikat(n. d. ), Associate Professor and Media Futurist, has come up with a definition, “Modern media refers to mass communication characteristic of recent times, or the contemporary communication relating to a recently developed or advanced technology(Aikat, n. . )” So that basically means that modern media is the media which is connected to new technologies. Nowadays that is so easy to access different kinds of modern media; however, this new type of media continuously excludes different groups of people. We are used to say that is so easy to access the internet. Just take your computer, tablet, or Smartphone and you are connected. Wait! How many people are not able to do that? To have the connection, the basic thing we need is electricity. We need to charge all of the devices in order to use them.
According to a newspaper Arabia 2000, in the year 2011 about 20 percent of world’s population still lived without electricity(Arabia 2000, 2011). So these people are totally excluded from the modern media. Actually, the number is even bigger. Because electricity is just the basic thing we need. But there are people who have electricity, but they cannot afford the devices to be connected to internet. Some could argue that all kind of media cost, and old media is even more expensive because, for instance, newspapers do not have that much of information but cost almost a dollar a day.
There is a difference if you have to pay a dollar whenever you decide to have a newspaper or you have to spend a few hundred dollars for device, and then you have to get the internet connection, and of course pay for electricity. Not only people with a low income are excluded from access to new media. Age and religion can be the reason why people stick to old media as well. If I ask my grandma to turn off my computer, she would get scared because she would see that computer is not connected to electricity but still works.
She is used to see calculator which has to be connected to electricity. There are many older people who have no ideas how to use new devices. Martin Beckford(2011), the journalist of the news website “The Telegraph” in his article writes, “A charity report found that older people have trouble getting information about public services, such as details of libraries and public transport, because so much of it is kept online(Beckfors, 2011). ” This article truly shows that because of the changes in media older people are isolated from the world.
People could say that when the next generation gets old, that is not going to be a problem anymore. I do not agree with that. Technology changes even faster than people get older. These are the people who do not know how to use devices, but there are also people whose believes do not allow using new technology. For example, in some places in the world we can still find groups of people called Amish people. These people do not use new technologies at all. The reason is their religion and believes. It is not expensive to reach people by using media as long as they share the same characteristics.
For example, that is not hard to get some information if you speak English, Russian, or French. But if information needs to be translated in the language which is not that popular, companies are not willing to spend money for that. So let’s look at the country called Latvia: small country with a few million people, and with their own language. Recently “The National Latvian News Agency LETA” posted the article about the findings of scientists’ group called “META-NET” which is made by 60 research centers in 34 countries.
Findings showed that Latvian language with other 20 European languages are going to disappear because of the fact that new devices are not supporting these languages(LETA, 2012). That means that if you do not know other, more popular, language you cannot chose the Smartphone you want. Or you have to learn the language, but that takes time, and modern media is not waiting, it is already here. In brief, world is changing so does media. The new media allows to reach people in a very fast way, but there are still groups of people who would not get the message.
It is connecting billions of people and the same time forgetting billions of people. After my research I strongly believe that my theses statement in proved, and the new modern media is excluding people with different languages, believes, ages, and financial levels.
References
- Aikat D. , (n. d). Traditional and Modern Media. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. Retrieved from: http://www. eolss. net/Sample-Chapters/C04/E6-33-02-04. pdf
- Beckford M. , (2011). Elderly People Isolated by Technological Advances.
- The Telegraph. Retrieved from: http://www. telegraph. co. uk/health/elderhealth/8867767/Elderly-people-isolated-by-technological-advances. html#
- Latviesu Valodai Draud “Digitala Izmirsana” [Latvian Language Is About to Disappear], (2012). Latvian National News Agency LETA. Retrieved from: http://www. tvnet. lv/tehnologijas/zinatnes/437469-latviesu_valodai_draud_digitala_izmirsana
- UN: 1. 6 billion People Still Have No Access to Electricity. (2011). Arabia 2000. Available from: Newspaper Source, Ipswich, MA.
