Defining The Characteristics of Network Societies

According to Van Dijk, the New Media is defined by its characteristics of integration, interactivity, and digital code. This blog endeavours to examine and elucidate these characteristics. As part of the preparation and research of this particular post, I studied Van Dijk's 'Introduction' in The Network Society.

Integration
The most important structural new media characteristic is the integration of telecommunications, data communications and mass communications in a single medium. It is the process of convergence. (Dijk, 2006: 6) It is for this precise reason that Dijk often refers to new media as multimedia. He identifies five main levels in which integration can take place:
1. Infrastructure
2. Transportation
3. Management
4. Services
5. Types of Data

Van Dijk illustrates the process of integration in his Figure 1.2 on page 7 in The Network Society. The figure demonstrates how public and private networks of data-, tele- and mass communication are flowing together to create multifunctional, high-speed networks that have been called electronic superhighways in the 1990s, but that nowadays usually carry the name of broadband (networks). (Dijk, 2006: 7)

According to Van Dijk, the process of integration is enabled by two revolutionary techniques: the full digitalization of all media and broadband transmission through all connections by cable and by air. This is the presence of the sophisticated: almost exclusively digital technologies of networked communication and information management. These technologies form the basic infrastructure for mediating social, economic and political practices. Or, as maintained by Barney, the reproduction and institutionalisation of network as the basic form of human organisation and relationship across social, political, economic configurations. (Barney, 2004: 25)

Interactivity
The second structural new media characteristic of the current communications revolution is the rise of interactive media. In a very general definition, interactivity is a sequence of action and reaction. (Dijk, 2006: 8) In other words, the audience's ability to interact and bring something to the new media. It is a process of individualization. Van Dijk identifies four levels of interactivity. According to Dijk, the levels of interactivity are supposed to be appropriate to define how interactive a particular digital medium is.

For reading purposes, I have decided to outline these levels in point format:
1. The most elementary level of interactivity is the possibility of establishing two-sided or multilateral communication. This is the space dimension. All digital media offer this possibility to a certain extent.
2. The second level of interactivity is the degree of synchronicity. This is the time dimension. This can be separated into two categories: an interrupted sequence of action and reaction, for example, instant messenger, and devices such as electronic mail that allow producing and receiving messages to be done at self-chosen times.
3. The third level of interactivity is the extent of control exercised by the interacting parties. This is the behavioural dimension, or the element of power roles in the process of interaction.
4. The fourth and highest level of interactivity is acting and reacting with an understanding of meanings and contexts by all interactors involved. This is the mental dimension.
(Dijk, 2006: 8-9)

Digital Code
Digital code is a technical media. In essence, it means that in using computer technology, every item of information and communication can be transformed and transmitted in the form of strings of ones and zeros called bytes, with every single 1 or 0 being a bit. This artificial code replaces the natural codes of the analogue creation and transmission of items of information and communication (e.g. by beams of light and vibrations of sound). (Dijk, 2006: 9)

Conclusion
The new media are defined by all three characteristics simultaneously: they are media which are both integrated and interactive and also use digital code at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. (Dijk, 2006: 9) Based entirely on my interpretation of the Van Dijk text, I would agree in saying that media has been divided into that of old and new due to new media technology. Devices such as television and the old telephone may enable interactivity but have failed to revolutionise into digitalization. In contrast, the new medium of interactive television adds interactivity and digital code.

In retrospect, the development of this study on new media has led me to conclude that the future is alight with the ever enhancing possibilities of media technologies. The question still remains whether this increasingly digitalised world is a positive or a negative occurrence. The future will undoubtedly reveal the answer to this question. Until that time, it is essential we do not exploit this growing phenom om, but use it effectively to better our world.

References used in this post:
1. Barney, D. (2004) The Network Society: 1-34
2. Van Dijk, J. (2006) 'Introduction' in The Network Society(2nd Ed.): 1-17