We the [sociable] media

The “Social Aspects of New Media Technologies” by Williams, Strover and Grant brings up interesting parallels between that era’s “new media,” such as cable television and VCRs, and modern internet-based communication tools. This article is similar to Paul Haridakis and Gary Hanson’s 2009 “Social Interaction and Co-Viewing With YouTube: Blending Mass Communication Reception and Social Connection,” which I covered as a discussion leader. It would appear that the two articles use several similar sources, most notably Katz, Bumler et al.’s “Utilization of mass communication by the individual,” which defines the Uses and Gratifications principle that both articles mention.

The Haridakis and Hanson article brings up the interesting point that YouTube has an extra social dimension because people can share both the video and their thoughts on it by either linking to the video in an email or blog post or leaving a comment on the page. This makes me wonder what other unique uses for internet-based media might exist.