The Role of Media

In order to determine the role of “new new media”, we must look at the role of media altogether. In an utopist model, media is created by the people to provide one another with objective and factual information about the world around them. Within this model, media is a tool for democracy and education as it makes information more accessible.


With the growth of media systems and the development of new technologies, information became much more attainable and immediate. We are able to share by the second endless amounts of information.

However, is the accessibility and integration of each of those media compromising the quality of information?

Is it contributing to the manipulation of facts to help sustain certain cultural and societal values? (such as the nationalistic sense of being American by harshly recriminating wikileaks)

Or is this integration of media generating more truthful insights and facts?

While so much integration may create a deeper sense of communication in which people can interact and instantly express their thoughts and feelings towards certain issues, this also causes an information overload.

People are forced to make decisions between the different media and the information provided and end up focusing more on entertainment or on shows that support their current points of view, for, with so much thrown out into the world and so much interaction, information loses objectivity.


In a sense, the role of media then becomes to integrate people and share experiences, thoughts and feelings. The media and technology make it easier for people to find others similar to them and live among that reality.

From these social gatherings, often facilitated through new new media, especially social networks, cases of political and public activism spread out vigorously. The media makes it easier to target and connect those who desire to join certain groups.


Although the media still provides access to information and helps connect ideas, the role of media in a society seems to shift. At the same time that media allows for greater interaction, it still remains controlled and tailored to the streams in which information exists.


Not every website can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Google and Yahoo, huge search engine websites, block some of the information depending on the internet code of someone’s computer, according to their physical location. Those in China have limited access, and, depending on what they type in the search box, the search engine website will report them to Chinese authorities which will then arrest those who deviated from Chinese expectations.


The media, based on its unquestionable power to spread knowledge, gains the benefit of people’s naive assumption that they can learn about anything they desire at any given time.

However, people seem to ignore the fact that the information on the media, especially after going through so much interaction, is bound to subjectivity. The information overload also makes it harder and more time-consuming to select more objective sources.


This whole idea brings back the thought of the true role of media in a society. Clearly, there are many different forms of media.

Potentially, each form could serve a different purpose. As long as the new new media provides the subjectivity and the general opinion and the general media the objective information, there would not be a conflict of interests and the media could still serve to promote democracy and education.