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Scott King
Dr. Rybas
New Media and Writing
2 September 2015
Peters Assessments
After reading Peters assessments regarding the subject of new media, I felt he has some
very interesting observations.
To begin with, it was certainly a fair point for Peters to state that sometimes it can be
difficult to define the term new media. Especially in this day and age, technology and the means
of communication are changing so rapidly that new media quickly becomes old media. One
aspect that defines new media, according to Peters is the emerging communication and
information technologies. I definitely agree with this assessment because what becomes new
media is certainly the technology that is surfacing. For example, at one time the printing press
was new media because print media had never been fathomable until it was invented. Then
after an era of the newspapers dominance of media, the invention of the radio quickly became
the popular medium. Consequently, the newspaper became old media and radio became the
new media. The same goes for the television, which surpassed the radio in the same fashion.
Since the televisions surfacing, the Internet quickly took over in the same fashion as well. In the
modern world, we have Internet apps that serve as the primary media as it is currently considered
new. It will be interesting to see what is to come that will surpass the apps that currently reign.
This most recent point leads us to Peters second defining aspect of new media. That new
media is actually what we have yet to realize or mediums that have yet to be invented. This also
is an accurate statement because at some point in time, each of the aforementioned mediums
(newspaper, radio, television, Internet) was all non-existent or hadnt been created yet.

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Another thought that caught my attention was the observation that medium can be
understood as renewable. One example that comes to my mind is the Internet and how it has
adapted to the changes in technology. Internet began solely on desktop computers which then
evolved into laptops. Today, Internet has adapted with the progression and innovation of the
phone in order to stay alive, so to speak. Today, we can access the Internet on our phones,
watches, and tablets. Therefore the Internet has been renewed in that it has innovated with the
times in order to be accessible and present with the changing times.
Peters had some strong observations that were interesting to consider in the broad
spectrum of time in terms of the characteristics of new media.
What did you think about Peters definition of new media?