Digital Media in the Modern Society Research Paper

Introduction: Reinventing the Modern Society

In 2013, it was hard to believe that a mere two decades ago, the Internet was a completely new and wondrous concept. With the advent of the digital era, it has finally become obvious how small the world really is and how easy it is to reach out to the people in the remotest corners of the planet. Digital media affected both the lives of individuals and organizations, which resulted in exploring new opportunities and fighting new problems. Despite the fact that new media offers ample chances for expanding the business and building relationships, it must be used with due care because of numerous threats, the key one being the inability to maintain relationships with as many people as modern media allows for.

Digital Media Affecting Individuals and Organizations: Real-Life Examples

To understand how badly modern media has altered the lives of individuals and the processes within organizations, one must consider several aspects of human life, i.e., business sphere, marketing, and social life. The first and the last examples introducing the experience of an individual, while the second being the story of a company, the given news articles will allow taking a broader look on the role of modern media.

A revenue stream for all media products: a perpetual motion machine

As soon as digital media made it clear that marketing can reach out to the remotest corners of the earth, new opportunities for using digital media as a means to boost selling and promote to even more people in new and original ways. Moreover, the entire business model as people know it has been challenged by Andrew Sullivan (Aravosis, 2013), a man who decided to prove that a subscription-based revenue model was enough to fuel an entire blog: “Sullivan initially set a revenue goal of $900,000 a year to maintain the standard of the blog” (Luger, 2013). The rules were quite simple yet efficient: “He asked readers to sign up for an annual subscription that costs a minimum of $19.99, and gave the readers the choice of paying more if they wanted” (Luger, 2013). The results speak for themselves: “As of March 12th, The Dish had collected over $660,000 from nearly 25,000 subscribers” (Luger, 2013).

It must be admitted that the given idea has its flaws. To start with, considerably dependent on the human factor, the suggested model is pretty unstable. Keeping the audience amused is not easy, and once they are out of reasons to have fun, they simply unsubscribe and move to a different entertainment site. In addition, with different visitors having different browsers and types of connection, Sullivan has to abstain from animation and other gimmicks that can possibly low down the download process. However, as a means to maintain a site on a budget of the owner’s pocket money, this is a truly worthy discovery. To give credit to Sullivan’s invention, it did prove that subscribers alone can fuel a site as long as it provides decent content, which has opened doors to many online entrepreneurs.

Content marketing: Wendy’s Web Design and the future of the Internet

It would be wrong, however, to consider digital media a tool for a one-man business only Apart from personal profit, digital media can easily provide the means for an entire company to grow, which the case of Wendy’s Web Design proves efficiently. The leader of the company, Wendy specified that the mission of the new strategy adopted by the company was to prove that HTML5 must be used in creating small business sites: “HTML5/RWD sites are the future of the Internet. Your company needs one now” (Horton, 2012). Content marketing was used as the means to prove the given statement.

One of the doubtless advantages of the strategy chosen by Wendy is that she split the web content into several types, therefore, allowing for a very accurate analysis of the modern web. It is important that Wendy has come up with an integrated strategy for attracting the customers, using not only audio blogs, but also YouTube and Instagram (David, 2010). Thus, the audio, visual and mixed content is being provided to the potential customers. However, Wendy’s plan is not without problems. For example, the fact that Wendy “simply reads out each blog, recording and uploading it as an embedded MP3 file with a link placed next to her written blog title” (Horton, 2012) begs the question whether the recording can be easily understood by ESL visitors. Other than that, there seem to be no flaws in the scheme proposed by Wendy, which the results of her work have proven: according to the recent updates, “Thanks to WWD’s use of HTML5/RWD, Wendy’s web-based content plays well on most mobile devices” (Horton, 2012). Therefore, the idea that HTML5 is the optimum technology for sites creation has been confirmed.

When a catastrophe strikes down: keeping in touch with the world

As hardly believable as it is, sometimes a message sent to the world does not concern any business or economic issues and is created solely for reaching out to the humankind. Naturally, the new media fits perfectly for the purposes of taking a specific piece of information worldwide. Seeing how people have recently become environmentally concerned once again, which the recent series of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe have contributed, one can easily guess that the environmental issues are the third main reason for people to appreciate the digital media. Created by a has-been student at Loyola University, It’s our environment blog has become the herald of a new movement for treating the environment in a more careful way: “The blog you are reading is part of this new dimension. [… ] Since blogs are statements from a personal perspective, they are a great tool to quickly strike a resonating chord with the reader” (Tomassini, 2009).

Much like the previously described methods of using the new media, the given one has its flaws. On the one hand, the given method allows for live communication between the members of an organization and its target audience or between a person and his/her friends, which leads to the more efficient delivery of the intended messages. On the other hand, the system of real-time messaging presupposes that news must be refreshed constantly; otherwise, people’s interest in blogging will inevitably drop (Rowse, n. d.). As a result, copywriting specialists must be hired to come up with up-to-date issues, which will cost a pretty penny. With that being said, one must admit that the given method of communicating the message to the world is rather time-consuming; moreover, it requires a lot of effort and the adoption of an original approach, which will keep the audience in their seats long enough.

Conclusion: Watch New Media Changing the World

Digital media is shaping modern society towards a globalized and a more integrated community. Therefore, the question is not if, but when the modern media will finally change every single sphere of people’s lives, starting with business making to personal issues.

There is no doubt that the new media has not only positive but also negative effects, as it has been shown above. It is a very powerful weapon that, when used carelessly, can do much harm to both the sender of the message and the target audience. Therefore, new media must be used responsibly. However, when used responsibly, it can provide impressive results.

Reference List

Aravosis, J. (2013). Andrew Sullivan goes Indie, subscription-based, raises $100K first day. Web.

David, A. (2010). The impact of design and aesthetics on usability, credibility, and learning in an online environment. Web.

Horton, C. (2012). How to use content marketing to convey your brand message. Web.

Luger, J. (2013). Inside Andrew Sullivan’s attempt to turn the digital media business model on its head. Web.

Rowse, D. (n. d.). How to write great blog content. Web.

Tomassini, B. R. (2009). Convey the message: How social media helps us serve you better. Web.