From 17-19 July 2013, the Coca-Cola Dome will transform into a digital playground, as this year's advanced technology trade show opens its doors to industry professionals and tech enthusiasts. Mediatech Africa has a dynamic spread of engaging products and services within AV system integration, film and broadcast, production and post-production, animation and new media, satellite and signal, as well as live event and studio technology. In particular, new media has become a fast-growing and constantly developing interactive platform for communicating in the digital age.
Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall on 14 October 2012 was not only a record-breaking skydive attempt that broke the speed of sound with the human body. It was also a record-breaking YouTube sensation, proving yet again that the expansion of new media technologies and devices has turned the average media consumer into a new breed of media mogul who chooses when and how they enjoy their content.
Broadcast live on YouTube, the social video sharing Web site revealed that Felix Baumgartner's supersonic jump is now the 'live stream with the most concurrent views ever on YouTube'. About 30 cameras on the capsule, the ground and helicopters recorded the event.
While it had been pegged as a live broadcast, there was an 18-second delay in case of a tragic accident. At the time of the jump, eight million concurrent live streams were broadcasting at one time over the Red Bull YouTube channel. There were many more viewers via a number of new media and mobile television portals as well as traditional television broadcasting.
New media is a 21st century universal term used to define all that is related to the Internet and the interplay between technology, sound and images, and refers to the various technologies that have emerged or seen rapid growth during the latter part of the 20th century and into the new millennium.
Most people who have an Internet connection are aware of some of the major types of new media, which includes social networking sites such as My Space, Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogs and video sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo.
Technologies described as new media are digital, allowed to be manipulated, are networkable and interactive. New media does not include television programmes, feature films, paper-based publications, magazines or books - unless they contain technologies that enable digital interactivity.
The emergence of new media has allowed the democratisation of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content, as well as the real-time manufacturing of new, free-for-all content such as public uploads to YouTube.
Media evolution
Until the 1980s, media relied primarily on print and analogue broadcast models, such as those of newspapers, magazines, television and radio. The last 25 years have seen the rapid transformation of media which rely on the use of digital technologies, such as the Internet and video games.
Digital computers have transformed the remaining 'old' media, as suggested by the advent of digital television and online publications. Even traditional media forms such as the printing press have been transformed through the application of technologies like image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and desktop publishing tools.
One of the first forms of new media that the general public became familiar with during the latter-20th century was cyber-chatting. Whether one-on-one or within a chatroom, chatting online quickly evolved from a mostly text-based tool to one which also included audio visual capabilities through applications such as webcams. Because of the anonymity afforded by the Internet, many people who engaged in online chatting began reconstructing the narrative of their real lives, posing online under a different name, age, gender or occupation.
Today, the notion of a new online identity first introduced in chatrooms has expanded to include visual recreation, for example, online gaming like Blacklight Retribution, a team-based multiplayer first person shooter game set in present day conflicts where you customise your character, weapons and accessories and play war with people you don't know from a bar of soap, online.
Another example is via the popular web service, Second Life. On Second Life, you 'enter a world with infinite possibilities and live a life without boundaries, guided only by your imagination'. Here members create their own 3D image, also known as an avatar, and interact with other members in a completely virtual world.
As weird as it seems living a second life, new media was partly responsible in getting Barack Obama elected as president of the United States. He raised a phenomenal $750 million for his presidential campaign via the Internet and created an enormously powerful online community that has changed politics forever. President Obama was the first president to use his Blackberry for daily communications and still conducts his weekly fireside chats on YouTube.
Profound effect
Other than politics, new media has had a profound effect on two other fronts of society in the 21st century: the exchange of ideas and economics. Economically, new media is the globe's commercial skeleton. Fibre optic wiring networks between the world's cities connect one to another to another.
Every time a customer goes online to shop for that iPod special offer, or the digital camera from a large cyber retail store, new media is on both sides of that transaction. New media is not only the product but helps to mould the process of electronic commerce. This means that the electronics and associated industries are largely focused on making the hardware that supports new media, while softer enterprises like news agencies, programmers, authors and artists adapt their crafts to the flows of the networks.
When it comes to the exchanging of ideas, perhaps the most interesting part of new media has to do with the restructuring of research, social interaction and the currents of writing and dissemination of all information that have accompanied its emergence. Web and blog-writing in particular are not particularly revolutionary or groundbreaking, but it changes the way people use language or construct basic sentences. It also allows people to structure and nest information into documents differently like using hyperlinks. Take for instance, the single most influential tool in casual research and data-storage: Wikipedia. It is virtually impossible to search an article that is published on Wikipedia without coming across a hyperlink to another page of data. Wikipedia exemplifies a style of information technology that is based on the interconnectedness of new ideas and past events in a new media mould.
TV on the go
New media has given birth to technologies that have made access to information easier and more convenient. Take for example mobile television, it is not uncommon to see spectators at a rugby or cricket match watching or listening to their mobile TV devices for quick access to action replays or quirky commentary provided by the broadcaster covering the game.
During the Currie Cup semi-final between the Bulls and the Sharks, Odwa Ndungane was shown checking the score of a PSL Soccer game on a DStv Walka while sitting on the bench having been replaced for fresh legs! During Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, thousands of mobile TV users standing in the streets on London watched the parts of the ceremony that they could not physically see, on their handheld devices. Here in Johannesburg, it is not uncommon to see commuters glued to their Drifta or Walka devices on the Gautrain on their early morning journey to work.
New media has also greatly advanced cellular communications in the past 20 years, through devices and applications that connect with the Internet and other technologies.
Africa is in the midst of a technological revolution, and nothing illustrates that fact better than the proliferation of mobile phones. More Africans have access to mobile phones than to clean drinking water. In South Africa, mobile phone usage has gone from 17% of adults in 2000 to more than 76% in 2011. Today, more South Africans (29 million) use mobile phones than radio (28 million), TV (27 million) or personal computers (six million). Only five million South Africans use landline phones and four million use hard wired Internet, according to Nielsen, the American global information and measurement company.
Other applications
As in other countries, mobile phones are being used in a range of ways aside from talking. South Africa ranks fifth in the world for mobile data usage, ahead of the US, which ranks seventh. The mobile phone as an Internet device is also on the rise - 11% of South Africans use their mobiles to go online, and consumers aged between 25 and 34 are the heaviest users.
Facebook was the most popular social media platform in 2011 in South Africa, used by 85% of mobile subscribers, according to Nielsen. Half of all users of Facebook in South Africa access the site via their mobiles. MXIT, a mobile instant messaging platform, is also popular in the country, with 61% saying they access the site.
SMS text messaging is practically ubiquitous among South African mobile customers, and is used by almost 4.2 times more people than email. More than two-thirds (69%) of consumers prefer sending texts to calling, in large part because it is less expensive, and 10% believe texting to be a faster way of communicating.
The majority (60%) of South African mobile users said they are aware of mobile banking services offered by banks, but only 21% say they use such services. A much larger number of those aware of the services said they would never use them.
When one considers that just three years ago, there were no smartphones being used on the continent, the pace of change is stunning. South Africa is the biggest market, but other countries on the continent are likely to catch up fast.
What fascinates me about new media is that all businesses have become media companies no matter what they offer in terms of services or products. In order to survive in today's tough economic environment, a company has to disseminate information - you have to Tweet and Facebook, and show off your services via a video on YouTube.
Everyone has become a master in new media publishing and mastered the technologies needed to create new media content.
It has become apparently vital, not only to participate in the benefits of these tools but to stay ahead of the pack in terms of the latest trends in cutting edge technology. Mediatech Africa is an interactive hub where visitors are invited to engage and experience technology in keeping with leading industry developments. By providing unique access to workshops, live demos and international speakers, the exhibition remains a must see on everyone's calendar. Join in on the action by registering online at www.mediatech.co.za, before the 7th July to avoid paying R50 at the door.
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