What are the characteristics of New Media?

Internet is a worldwide system of computers interconnected to each other. A person on any part of the globe can interact with any other person through internet. The basic feature of internet is its ability to share information and enable interaction. An internet user can share information, ideas and feelings through internet and receive a feedback.

1. Interactivity

Interactivity is a prominent feature of new media which allows a two way flow of communication between the user and the computer or any other digital communication device. It allows the user to be-come an active partner in the communication process. There are various devices and software’s that utilize the possibilities of interactivity such as, smart phones, computer games, smart classes, etc. The basic feature of interactivity is feedback. It depends on the two way communication system and requires a response from the user for flawless functioning. Interactivity is classified into three types; navigational, functional and adaptive.

Navigational interactivity

Navigational interactivity as the name suggests helps to navigate through hyperlinks and search engines which connect web pages and websites.

Functional interactivity

It enables the interaction between the user and the digital device. It is commonly used by websites for receiving feedback from the users.

Adaptive Interactivity

It helps the user to edit and update the information in a digital media. Some websites uses this feature to enable the audience to involve in the updating of content.

2. Multimediality

It refers to the co-existence of different media in a single platform. Website is the best example of multimedia. Multimediality is used in various electronic devices such as computers, smart phones, etc. It combines all form of digital Mediums such as audio, video, text, images and graphics in a single format. Hypermedia is another form of multimedia where multimedia elements are combined with hypertext or hyperlink.

3. Hypertextuality

It is the feature that allows a user to navigate through web pages and websites using hypertext. A hypertext is a word or sentence on a web page that is attached with a hyperlink. A hypertext will be linked with a web page or website or even another portion of the same web page. Hyperlink can be applied to text content or multimedia content.

4. Universality

Internet is a world wide system of interconnected computers. A person who can access a computer or any other device which supports an internet connection, can access any information that is available on the internet.

5. Immediacy

It refers to the capacity of new media to deliver information immediately from any part of the world. Nowadays online news portals are faster than any other news media in delivering news.