In his article “The Myth of Interactivity,” Len Manovich discusses not only the aspects that make a new media interactive, but he also gives us a better understanding of what it means for something to be interactive. Manovich explains
New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with a media object. In the process of interaction the user can choose which elements to display or which paths to follow, thus generating a unique work.
This new phenomenon of interactivity allows the viewer to not only to view pages, as they could in the past, but to add, subtract, comment on, reply to and alter the pages they are viewing. In this sense, as Manovich puts it, the viewer becomes a “co-author” of the page they are viewing.
Another point that Manovich makes in his article is that of the propaganda that these interactive sites entail. By this, I mean that even when a viewer is simply reading an article online, they not only need to turn their focus away from the advertisements flashing all around the screen, but they also need to have great focus just to read the article through! Within most, if not all, online articles there are links throughout leading the viewer to other segments, articles or even websites.
However, with user-generated content and customization options, viewers can potentially avoid this propaganda all together. A great example of this interactive new media is The Subservient Chicken. In this platform the viewer is literally dictating exactly what they would like to see the chicken perform. In this sense the viewer is the primary author, because they are deciding exactly what they will be viewing.
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| The Subservient Chicken |
Another great example is the BBC website. On the bottom of the page there is a link for the individual viewer to customize the page. The viewer can add or remove their preferred topics, as well as choose the color scheme for their page. Igoogle also has a similar format, allowing the viewer to select their interests, choose a theme for their homepage and linking them to the news, their e-mail and YouTube videos that match their interests and previous searches.
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| The Igoogle homepage customization page |
These examples of use generated content help to steer away from the propaganda that Manovich refers to by allowing the viewer to control the path in which they wish to take. With all of these interactive new medias, one has to wonder to what extent people are receiving the same information. In other words television and radio news stations would dictate the same information to all of the viewers or listeners respectively. How will it change our society to be able to choose what news and information we want to hear?
As I was reading this article the one thing that stood out to me as well was when Manovich stated, "What was unique became mass produced. What was hidden in an individual's mind became shared." Personally this got me to see New Media in a totally different light. I felt that all kinds of interactivity was something that got me thinking on a psychological level and i did not realize that an author of a site could actually cause me to unconsciously become distracted from the text. Now thinking about it, even though I eventually focus on the familiar and read what I want to read, the flashing lights or the hyperlinks still continue to draw my attention. For a viewer to be able to customize a page such as on Igoogle, I think the outcome would definitely be beneficial. Each viewer sees things their own way so for one layout to appeal to a variety of different viewers, it is clear that the main focus for each person could be entirely different. Taking control of new media is something that is extremely important so that we do not get lured into the mistake of confusing somebody else's ideas with our own. By being programmed to follow what is on the page, our creative input has been limited. In order to choose what we want to see it would be something entirely new. I think that it would definitely change the way our society works. It could be great or it could cause disorder and chaos. I guess we will have to see what ends up happening in the future as the New Media industry continues to grow.
ReplyDeleteTaylor,
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up a point about new media that is very interesting. Something I had not thought about before is that with new media, the user is able to pick what they want to see. When you said that interactivity "allows the viewer to not only to view pages, as they could in the past, but to add, subtract, comment on, reply to and alter the pages they are viewing," I realized something. With say a powerpoint presentation, there is no way to "change things up" because the slides are going in a certain order no matter what you try to do. With the Subservient Chicken, or most websites, the user is able to go wherever they please. I think a major plus of new media is that it really puts the user in the driver seat in that they control the content they view, which I think makes it easier and faster to access news and even educate yourself and others. Before I get back into bed and enjoy my snow day, I want to make a quick hypothesis: as new media progresses and becomes more advanced, the faster and easier people will be able to navigate through new media content. Happy snow day!