Principles of New Media

In The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich proposes five “principles of new media”—to be understood “not as absolute laws but rather as general tendencies of a culture undergoing computerization.” The five principles are numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability,and transcoding. 

1. Numerical representation: new media objects exist as data

Because all new media objects are composed of digital code, they are essentially numerical representations. That is, all new media objects can be described mathematically and can be manipulated via algorithms. According to Manovich, the key difference between old and new media is that new media is programmable. The closest we can get to the ‘materiality’ of a new media object is to talk about the numbers and formulas that constitute it. In new media compositions, the opposition between visual and verbal is bridged in the sense that both are code—both image and text are programmed and programmable.

2. Modularity: the different elements of new media exist independently

Pixels, images, text, sounds, frames, code—independent elements like these combine to form a new media object. These elements can be independently modified and reused in other works. The modularity of new media is related to the modular character of structural computer programming.

3. Automation: new media objects can be created and modified automatically

Automation is seen in computer programs that allow users to create or modify media objects using templates or algorithms.

4. Variability: new media objects exist in multiple versions

Different versions of same programmes is usable in all programmes. Manovich writes, “a new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions”

For Eg. Documents can be read in all versions of adobe reader i.e. Adobe 7,8,9. But the reading experience in each case differs. Adobe Version 7 and 8 has fewer features than Adobe 9.

5. Transcoding: a new media object can be converted into another format

Transcoding refers to the translation of a new media object from one format to another (for example, text to sound) or the adaptation of new media for display on different devices. Broadly, transcoding designates the ways in which media and culture are being reshaped and transformed by the logic of the computer. The computerization of culture is a process of transcoding, as “cultural categories or concepts are substituted, on the level of meaning and language, by new ones that derive from the computers ontology, epistemology, and pragmatics”

http://artfcity.com/2008/09/22/the-five-principles-of-new-media/

http://www.technorhetoric.net/8.2/coverweb/sorapure/five.pdf