Useful overview of the debate between new media critics such as Todd Gitlin and David Shenk and supporters of new media such as Mitchell Stephens (I tend to fall into the latter camp). The critics, of course, argue that "society has reached its threshold and is overwhelmed by the media blitz." But proponents of new media say that the direct access into someone's point of view provided by, say, video allow us to "reshuffle" our world view. To me, new media provides us with direct access to information. This speeds our comprehension, a necessary countervail to the increasing volume of data sent our way every day. Of course, if you try to comprehend information in the old, linear fashion you will be overwhelmed no matter what you do. To comprehend new media you need to create in your own mind what may be called concept maps (or some similar graphical representation of textual data).
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