Manovich and New Media

Described by Manovich as 'the most substantial consequence of media's computerization', transcoding is to translate into another format. For example, e-books are a form of transcoding as they use an old media text and digitalised it to recreate the same text on a new format. Although it is the exact same text from print to digital, cultural categories and concepts are substituted as the computer has its ontology, epistemology and pragmatics. So what is the difference between using old media and new media and do we loose some of the enjoyable factors when using new media? I think this is a key part to new media and understanding what is different from old media.

Transcoding has changed the way we live our lives.Instead of printing photos we are uploading them, instead of going to the cinema, we are streaming films. New media has received criticism as William Mitchell backs up this argument by stating “Digitization involves inevitable loss of information. In contrast to an analog representation, a digitally encoded representation contains a fixed amount information.” (page 6 Mitchell,1982) But is this really the case? surely as modern technology moves on, we aren't loosing information, we gaining it?

For instance, we have more flexibility and choice when viewing photographs online instead of printing them. Music is much more accessible and it opens up more possibilities when listening online. The same cannot be said for analog media. “In contrast to analog media where each successive copy loses quality,
digitally encoded media can be copied endlessly without degradation.” states Mitchell. (page 6 Mitchell,1982)

I disagree with Mitchell when he states this as if we want to share a high quality image online we have to compromise and decreases the quality of the image. "The technique involves a compromise between image quality and file size -- the smaller the size of a compressed file, the more visible are the visual artifacts introduced in deletinginformation." Manovich (page 70,Manovich) This can also be said with watching film online as we will settle for a lower quality of picture because it is easier and more accessible than going to the cinema.

In "The Language of New Media", Manovich compares and contrasts transcoding and for now old media will continue to be an important part of our lives today.

Bibliography:
Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1982), 6.
Manovich, The Language of New Media, 70