The Future of Communication: From new Media to Postmedia

Abstract

How is the world going to change in the near future, say, the next five years? This question has several answers, each bearing a different nuance depending on the area of interest. As far as communication and communications are concerned, a few elements are extremely probable. In my opinion, in the following period we are going to witness at least seven major changes concerning human interaction: 1) Integrated electronic equipment will be employed; 2) Generalization of interconnection; 3) Diversification of available services and applications; 4) Widening and generalization of the field of cloud computing; 5) Generalized communication, through exchange of information and generation of content; 6) Communication will become a large field, as people will move on from exchange of information to exchange of services and products; 7) Rewriting the principles of ethics. All components are taken in view, from the interpersonal to the global one, including mass-media and social media.

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 163 ( 2014 ) 36 – 43
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer review under the responsibility of the West University of Timisoara.
doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.283
ScienceDirect
CESC 2013
The Future of Communication: from New Media to Postmedia
Lucian-Vasile Szabo
*
West University of Timisoara, Romania, Department of Philosophy and Science of Communication
Abstract
How is the world going to change in the near future, say, the next five years? This question has several answers, each
bearing a different nuance depending on the area of interest. As far as communication and communications are concerned, a
few elements are extremely probable. In my opinion, in the following period we are going to witness at least seven major
changes concerning human interaction: 1) Integrated electronic equipment will be employed; 2) Generalization of
interconnection; 3) Diversification of available services and applications; 4) Widening and generalization of the field of
cloud computing; 5) Generalized communication, through exchange of information and generation of content; 6)
Communication will become a large field, as people will move on from exchange of information to exchange of services and
products; 7) Rewriting the principles of ethics. All components are taken in view, from the interpersonal to the global one,
including mass-media and social media.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer review under the responsibility of the West University of Timisoara.
Keywords: new media, online, information, convergence, social media, surveillance, virtual communication
1. The future and its image
I believe that, in the near future, the following changes will be taking place in communication:
1) Integrated electronic equipment will be employed: the wide screen mobile phone and the tablet. Under
these circumstances, landline telephony will see its role diminished, almost coming to a halt. There will be
increasingly less usage for personal computers and laptops, even though the latter were still fashionable in 2013
everywhere in the world. The mobile phone and the tablet stand apart due to their reliability, high operability,
increased data storage capacity, various and complex functions, as well as the ability to run a high number of
applications.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +40-735-788-929
E-mail address: e-mail: lucian.szabo@pfc.uvt.ro, lvszabo@yahoo.com
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer review under the responsibility of the West University of Timisoara.

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Lucian-Vasile Szabo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 163 ( 2014 ) 36 – 43
2) Generalization of interconnection. The spread of wireless connections and access to services provided by
satellites will become generalized, with costs dropping at the same time. The following years will bring
telephones and tablets with automatic Internet connection as a basic integrated service. It is going to be nearly
impossible to renounce this function, which will keep us constantly online. Communication will thus be
possible in almost any place and under any circumstances.
3) Diversification of available services and applications. The tablet and the mobile telephone will be used
both for communication proper, as well as for content creation. In this case, they will be used to edit, store,
process information, create communication products, modify and archive them. The new applications will prove
useful in surveillance and control processes, activity monitoring, elements that are essential in intelligence. The
area is wide; because there are already programs being developed that will boost the level of media and
technological integration. Health and education are top fields. Thus, the cell telephone and the tablet will be
taking x rays, also supplying the first clues on possible illnesses.
4) Widening and generalization of the field of cloud computing. Most people, some with poor training in
using computers and other electronic tools, will benefit from services and applications without needing to know
how they are built. These services and applications (from website hosting and the need for broad band, to using
mobile telephones for medical diagnosis) will be usable (some have already been accessible for a while now)
free of charge or for a fee (by buying or renting). Under these circumstances the online newsroom concept takes
shape, there no longer being a need for physical work space. The notion can be generalized, tracing information
from source to receiver, by typing, selecting and editing, in other fields, as well, such as education, public
relations and information services (intelligence).
5) Generalized communication, through exchange of information and generation of content. Technology
becomes easy to handle, so that all people, even those of average education, are able to realize high level
communicational products. It is an on-the-go professionalization, practicing for fun or as a means of production,
to earn one’s living. Differences will be erased between professionals and amateurs. Up to a certain level, i.e.
college level, all users will be to a great extent familiarized with these tools turned into a necessity.
6) Communication will become a large field, as people will move on from exchange of information to
exchange of services and products. Electronic trade will become dominant, and financial systems will
emphasize their dependence on informatics systems. Physical money (coins, bank notes and securities) will be
in less and less numbers, as payments and banks transfers will become dominant. The educational system will
benefit even more from the new services, which in the meantime will have become interactive and more
stimulating. Entertainment will also change as there will be a great pressure for such products, and visual
culture will itself become interactive.
7) Rewriting the principles of ethics. The erasure of the differences between professionals and non-
professional will also involve a change in deontological codes. Obviously, the Internet has to stay a free space
for the expression of thoughts, ideas and for promoting people, products, services and values. As we cannot
formulate specific limitations, as is the case with professional ethics, access and manifestation in the virtual
space will involve a return to the fundamental principles of ethics. There is a great deal of concern regarding
some aspects considered negative in the virtual space. Protection can be achieved, however not by establishing
control, but by resorting to existing legal instruments and by promoting moral values which would be accepted
by as many as possible. The rewriting of ethical codes has already begun.
In this context we are talking about the postmedia phenomenon. It defines the change from the classic mass
media to the new (digital) media, assimilating the facilities of fast communication and of tightening bonds, but
also the tensions emerged as a consequence of generated dangers, or simply from the pressures exerted by fast
changes. We are going through a time of accumulations, but on a postmodern background, of superficiality,
fickleness and permanent undermining of values, but also of contradictions generated by the helplessness or
lack of will to act, as well as violent actions of protest in favour of or against democracy. We are living in a
media culture which is no longer understood as one belonging to the elites, to indisputable preeminences, but
one of mass (popular culture, according to a coined term in the English language), a culture which seems to
offer unimaginable possibilities to exploit creativity and imagination, often undermining itself in lazy or strange,
incomprehensible experiments. Postmedia offer the framework for all these hesitations and certainties.

38 Lucian-Vasile Szabo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 163 ( 2014 ) 36 – 43
2. Media: new or online?
Everything is media and anything can be propagated through the media. We are living in a society where
communication has become decisive, in that it is not only a linking tool, but an element which structures
society. Everything is placed under the sign of... totality, these being aspects identified by Altheide & Snow
(1991). Integration is explicit: “Today all institutions are media institutions. As more experiences are influenced
by media logic and discourse, our media is totally media”. What is surprising is that the statements of the two
authors were made a few years before the communication explosion in the Internet Era. The network would
come and simplify these forms of interaction and media structuring of the society. The suggestions formulated
by the two would be subsequently developed by other researchers. Among them, Peter Dahlgren (1996) would
add the technical dimension of media integration, beside the organizational one. An approach in the context of
new media explosion would be made by Deuze & Dimoudi (2002). Mark Deuze would approach the
characteristics of media logic by referring to the specialized field of journalistic communication. He would
estimate that integration, by what he called “convergence continuum”, would become a reality and a way of
work: “sooner or later all media organizations move towards a stage where integration of different parts of the
news-making process (including audio, video, text, images, graphics; but also marketing, cross-promotion,
sales, redistribution and inter-activity with publics) is achieved” Deuze (2007). It would even be signaled that
evolution towards integration is not linear, as some parts of the media organizations are slower. This is an idea
which can be extended to the whole society. Some organizations adapt more easily, by adopting the new
technologies, while others show a conservative spirit. Even states have different integration rhythms. It is not
necessarily an issue of choice. There are social, economic and administrative stakeholders who wish to become
part of the convergence trend, but lack the necessary resources for acquiring services and materials. It is a
delicate situation, also manifested on an individual level, because the new tools and technologies cost money.
Ian Hargreaves would use the expression ambient news to highlight the fact that, presently, we cohabit with
media products and are surrounded by them: “Today surrounds us like the air we breathe. Much of it is literally
ambient: displayed on computers, public billboards, trains, aircraft and mobile phones” (2003: 3)”. We place
ourselves in this network through the connections made, and contemporary existence and quality of living
depend to a great extent upon the utilities at hand (Szabo 2011, 40-41). Media content can be accessed with
relative ease, sometimes overwhelming us with the multitude of offers aimed at us, however it is difficult to
establish, under optimum circumstances, how many are useful and how many are harmful. This is an issue also
underlined by Bob Franklin: “But, paradoxically, because so much news is available, people are not always able
to discriminate between the good and the bad” (Franklin 2005, 16).
“What’s new about the new media?” was a question posed by Sonia Livingstone in 1999. The answer given
at the time placed technology at the centre of attention. Television, with its several channels available,
terrestrial, via satellite and cable, was at that time the pole of attraction. A second new sector had at its core the
computer, with games, Internet access, but especially through its opening to online trade (Livingstone 1999).
The two fields of development were possible by way of interaction. Thus, technological convergence was taking
place, which in turn favoured media convergence. A fundamental change was being reached in people’s homes,
through social convergence, undermining traditional ways of communication, so that the question now needs to
be reformulated: What’s new about the new media and in the social area? After more than a decade, the
landscape was almost unrecognizable. First mobile phones, then laptops, wireless technology and tablets
modified yet again the way we communicate. The TV set in the living room or bedroom, the computer in the
study or at work lost ground to the newcomers. It was a new face of convergence, bringing changes to the public
and private sectors, especially by the integration offered by social media. But what is presently the place of
mass media in this framework?
3. Challenges for journalists
Journalists use social media for two precise purposes: 1) promoting their own journalistic productions; 2)
gathering information, according to a recent study. However, if we look at the percentages we see reason for

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worrying: 84% of journalists use the opportunities offered by social media as sources of information and only
81% of it for publication. The data are presented in Social Journalism Study 2012, a report drawn up by Cision
& Canterbury Christ Church University (UK), which has the purpose of highlighting the impact of new
technologies on the work of journalists. It is a serious research, with respondents from Great Britain, but also
from other states with an advanced media market. 84% documentaries in social media leave very little space for
the other professional communication techniques. Another relevant change of rapport shows a decreasing trend
of the trust professionals have in the quality of social media products. While in 2011 33% appreciated the
quality of these products, in 2012 the level was of merely 24%. Explicably, young journalists are the most
active in this sector, qualifying themselves as cyberspace information “hunters”, as termed by the quoted study.
At this stage one needs to make an analysis of what is happening before the news reaches the printed page, or
the television or computer screen. Research of various types, applying the methods and tools of several sciences
(social and engineering) have brought forward relevant answers about how the world has changed under the
influence of mass media and what the consequences are in small communities or in the global village. However,
media communication changes even the way we perceive the exchange of information. Modifications take place
because there are important evolutions regarding the way of doing and understanding journalism. Bardoel &
Deuze (2001) would advance the expression new information in relation to the Internet and the offensive of
other new technologies. The new information has a polyvalent meaning here, because it expresses: 1) the
fundamental character of knowledge offered for the first time to the various categories of the public; 2) the
development and use of updated methods and techniques for the editing and dissemination of information, and
for its propagation throughout the media; 3) the multiplying of communication channels and the reconsidering
of some already existing ones, an operation carried out in the context of technological evolution.
Journalists generate the change, and the new communicational reality is also reflected upon them, causing
other evolutions. Challenges seem greater than at other times, as the multimedia implications are more obvious.
Following a few coordinates of the new status of journalists in the era of digital media we notice two important
traits of those who edit and process news: (1) the professionals of this genre are compelled to undergo a
overspecialization, becoming what is designated with an already existing term videojournalists or even
universal, integrated journalists; (2) the borders between professionals and outsiders of the citizen journalist
type tend to diminish, due to a specialization of the latter. At the same time, we notice the emergence of the
virtual editorial concept (online newsroom), as the old gathering place for reporters and editors becomes a mere
memory.
4. Social media and surveillance
There is also pressure coming from social networks, with their wide offer of blogs and portals, having a great
permeability between journalistic genres and a much higher subjectivism of approach and content. The future
will bring along yet another important change, already visible, by the fact that the equipment used will be
increasingly integrated, so that soon journalists will use the same equipment for everything they have to do. And
there’s a lot they have to do. The new multimedia tools are, however, available to the wide public, and various
people are presently involved in news production either for traditional media institutions or for the ones freshly
emerged in the electronic environment.
The new technologies also allow the intensification of the surveillance process. Development is seen in two
directions, which can become contradictory: (1) surveillance of the environment for the identification of
challenges and of those who make attempts to disrupt society and quiet, safe life; (2) use of data to induce
control of society, to determine a certain obedient social behaviour. In this context, the future of mass media
outlines itself in a thought-provoking and challenging way. The opening offered by digital media, translated
into the transmission speed of signals and the establishing of links between people, in large or smaller
communities, but animated by specific interests, requires an essential note to be made: the Internet is in itself
neither bad nor good, just as new media is (or should be) morally inert and impartial. In reality, the advantages
of instantaneous communication and of the possibility to establish contact, even over great distances, also
benefit those who wish to undermine judicial and social values, to exploit the new communicational
convergence in order to fulfill reprehensible purposes.

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We are mentioning here two of them: 1) cyberbullying, which translates as the exposure of children to subtle
or direct psychological attacks, often with sexual implications; 2) ideology-based violence, which can imply
terrorist, anarchistic attacks, meant to undermine democracy and the values of open societies. A recent study,
carried out by 13 American researchers, which is going to become one of reference regarding communication in
ideology-centered groups (often violent ideology), shows the way new communication possibilities facilitate
their activity and increase their cohesion: “The internet provides an outlet for these groups to spread messages
that are not typically socially acceptable or would not be welcomed on mainstream media outlets. Consequently,
the internet has quickly become the preferred method of communication for these groups” (Byrne et. al. 2013).
These activities come, most of them, to the attention of information services. The field of intelligence has
itself undergone significant mutations in the digital era. The challenges are numerous and real, especially after
the bloody attack of September 11th 2001 on the United States. Surveillance of cyberspace activity has
extended, has become more complex and has gained in depth. The Internet and multimedia allow intensification
and broadening of contacts within groups of criminal intent, but they also offer government agents more refined
methods of surveillance, which helps several threats, but not all, to be identified in time.
5. The terminological and technological offence
The investigated field, with focus on journalism, uses concepts typical of this area of practical evolution, but
also of research: new media, digital media, cybermedia, mobile media, multimedia, technomedia,
inter(net)media, global media, social media. Some have overlapping meanings, others designate various fields,
but with some junction points. Some designate rather the technical toolbox; others also include structuring
elements of some areas of human activity. It is, however, an evolution which cannot be separated from the
present’s media culture, from the moldings in the fields of scientific research and education. I am reiterating
here a (short) work definition for new media, following which I’ll lay down in context the analyses which give a
wholesome meaning, closer to reality. New media “includes online communities, social networking (e.g.
LinkedIn, friendster, Facebook), social bookmarking, blogging (including vlogging and microblogging), video
and photo sharing, mashups, wikis, podcasts, tagging, RSSfeeds, apps, interactive maps and other online based
tools” (Wolf & Archer 2012). In a paper on the fundamental concepts in the field of journalistic communication,
Hamer would paradoxically give a short definition, which would however prove adequate: “This is a broad
communication concept which can refer to any of the following related terms: emerging digital technologies and
platforms; online journalism; and electronic and multimedia publishing (particularly on the Internet and world
wide web) (2005b, 160-161).
Mark Deuze (2004) would make a distinction between online journalism and multimedia journalism. For the
first term he would add synonymous formulae: cyberjournalism, e-journalism and internet journalism. For
multimedia he seems to reserve the field of technological convergence, where one acts with unique equipment,
but having multiple functions, capable of ensuring communication on several panels. The reference is to
existing or possible links, to channels, and not to media contents. Also, it can be understood as an integrated
form of presenting various contents. These can function independently or can be assembled into more ample
constructions, such as websites or even portals (large media and communication platforms). Online journalism
makes one think of a real time link between user and author. Contents are accessed as soon as they are posted,
which means there is a relationship, one facilitate by multimedia. Understanding things this way, we see that
multimedia can function as a part, as composing element, of online journalism. By analyzing the various
meanings given to multimedia, sometimes contradictory ones, as well as the contexts where it appears, Martin
Hamer seems to favour rather the manifestation of multimedia as hypermedia, but also as a possibility to
disseminate contents over networks: “Multimedia online news can also offer specific features such as
webcasting, can provide maps and diagrams, and polls, in addition to nurturing partnerships and resulting in
mergers between different media companies” (2005a, 156).

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6. The complex context of communication
Evolution is explosive, in the sense that the present is marked by a large sphere of challenges.
Communication becomes complex, being propagated throughout media to an ever larger extent. Paradoxically,
it is not a gain for journalism as a type of specialized communication, because in the era of digital media anyone
can be communicator, and professionalism becomes an option, not a necessity. Anything is transmitted,
although it is hard to believe that there is a public, as small as it may be for each content placed into the
electronic environment. However, perspective is important. There are virtual data in a dormant state, unsearched
by anyone. Sometimes, quite rarely, they may come to the attention of a larger public, being propelled by
mechanisms that are not very easy to understand. It is a paradox: there is a whole lot if data made public, but
also a lot of data which find no public, no users. Under these circumstances, it is clear that it does not suffice to
publish on a website, but one needs to ensure the elements which would make this content interesting for the
others. Increasingly, the Internet becomes a storage place (ever larger, of course), which is however mostly
filled with useless things.
A constant influence in this field comes from the new philosophical and thought investigation theories.
While most of us live in a communicational “bath”, subjected to influences and influencing in turn, at the
junction of radio and electromagnetic waves, it is equally true that the world is influenced by the results of
various epistemological surveys, but also by ideologies or influencing strategies. In this context, I bel ieve that
the manifestations of communication in correlation with new technologies call for an approach which would
also take into account the impact of theoretical thinking, in an ensemble identified with the term postmedia. As
can be seen from the enumeration of specific terms above, these took shape either in opposition or in agreement
with other dominating concepts in present day public debates. The mechanisms of change are not always
obvious and there probably is a complex of factors and influences which mark evolution. Bruun (2011)
formulated this issue as a question: “Is it systemic forces, for instance, technology, economy and competition, or
is it the change producing forces of human agency, for instance, creativity, artistic vision and imagination?” The
answer has to be an integrating one, to contextualize all the factors mentioned, but also others.
At the same time, we need a unifying term, capable of guiding us in the maze of these challenges and quick
changes. We use the name postmedia, which is defined in three areas of understanding: (1) New (digital) after
old media, the one before the Internet and mobile telephones; (2) New media (the one in the present) depending
on the generated effects and in confluence with the elements of the public and social spheres; (3) New media in
contemporaneity and the implications of the changes it brings about, which can be defined as a new
communicational ethics. All these aspects contextualize in the field of human existence and of challenges for
the future. Postmedia can offer elements for a correct anticipation of what will follow from the point of view of
what is typical of media, of integrating with social media, but also with political media, that liquid and pulsating
field where decisions are taken. Both information, as well as decisions in postmedia, can facilitate increasingly
easy access to direct sources of information, but can also imply an increase in control, by surveillance and
imposing rules of compliance. Not for a second must we omit the great discrepancy emerged, the challenge
between efforts for generalized access to information, even strategic ones, and the trend to turn them into
merchandise and trade them.
The exploring of these two media contexts mentioned above (what happens in journalistic activity before
publication and how technology is influencing this activity) is defined in relation to a particularly important
element in communicational space: the deadline. It remains a traditional pressure factor for professionals in
printed press editorial offices or for electronic publications with a set date of posting. There is a moment when
any given newspaper has to be printed, in order to arrive in time and meet the readers (Szabo 1999, 12). In the
case of electronic publications, the deadline is the moment until which all editorial operations have been
concluded, and the articles can be posted on sites or can be reproduced on various platforms in order to be
distributed through these.

42 Lucian-Vasile Szabo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 163 ( 2014 ) 36 – 43
7. The speed of information
One of the basic rules of media communication is the quick dissemination of new information obtained. A
quick review of the way this happens, from a historical point of view, gives us the context for adequate
understanding. When it was about events having a major impact on community life, newspapers printed special
editions. Thus, one did not wait around with the fresh news until the usual edition would be printed. Radios, and
later televisions, stood apart due to this very ability to quickly transmit new information. When ne ws is out of
the ordinary, the current programme is interrupted to give way to news. The heavy digitalization of
communication imposes a new kind of pressure on presenting news quickly. The strict framework of media
communication is overstepped, as media workers are compelled to specialize in connected fields in order to deal
with the informational flow and new professional challenges. It is the postmedia dimension, because several
traditional aspects of the way journalism is practiced disappear. There are periods of transition between the
various stages of evolution, but they are much faster than in the past, which allows us to speak of a balanced
radicalism.
The participants of the PR News Media Relations Next Practices Summit of December 2012 concurred
among other ideas regarding the evolution for 2013, that the deadline exigency has lost some of its importance,
so instead the always-on exigency was formulated (Pressfeed 2012). Always live implies a permanent link
between the reporter and the media institution, in order to transmit or post information. Ottosen & Krumsvik
(2012) retain some of the old formula, but suggest a new expression: continuous deadlines. However, changes
are profound depthwise, because the presenting of truly interesting news really means new ways of writing, and
upgrading classic techniques. Working on the field and the relationship with sources (face-to-face, by e-mail or
telephone) also becomes structured as a continuous state. We are not only online with the public, but also with
the suppliers of information. Thus, reporters are redefined as universal journalists. They discover the news
bearing potential, establish and maintain the relationship with the sources, edit texts, gather and process images,
then send everything to the editorial office (which can also be online) or post it themselves directly onto the
press institution’s site. The managers’ trend in media organizations is to select personnel capable of doing all
these operations (Deuze 2004). In editorial offices there has occurred an overlapping of tasks. The differences
between reporters, editors and other staff has blurred, all of them also undertaking technical tasks, which were
before not typical of them. There is a trend in this respect, of the journalist-of-all-trades: “In newsrooms the
focus is changing from working for a single medium towards a situation in which journalists are required to
produce news for several media platforms simultaneously” (Hermans & Vergeer 2009). It is a good thing up to
a certain point. Too great a diversification and the carrying out of operations in different fields can overload the
personnel, leading to a decrease in performance and poor results. Then again, it is obvious that certain jobs need
to be done by specialists, because a good journalist cannot be equally efficient as an operator, image editor and
newsroom director.
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