New Media Era – iPad Only?

Admittedly, the launching of iPad by Apple Inc. is fostering the new way for community to gain news information in real time. As compared to traditional media – newspaper, iPad is much flexible and accessible for people to get the information in anyplace, and anytime. Taranu et al. (2011, p. 354) in their article also stated that the Internet helps supplement the traditional news media outlets by providing additional access to news and information.

According to Trotter (2011), on Feb 2^nd, 2011, Rupert Murdoch announced new iPad-only newspaper, which highlights the transition of news from the traditional “hold and fold” format to the Internet. As compared to traditional newspaper, the Daily has the depth and quality of a magazine, but is delivered daily like newspaper, and updated in real-time like the web. In other words, this iPad-only newspaper has successful integrated the representational and interactive elements (i.e. magazine, newspaper, and web). As mentioned by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006, p. 177), a combination of those elements that are made to relate to each other into multimodal texts as the means of layout are much appeal to the audiences.

Traditional Newspaper vs iPad-Only Newspaper, Which one You Prefer?

(Source: Swissinfo 2011 & Bestofmicro 2011)

In my opinion, from the technological perspective, the iPad-only newspaper is much fulfills the status of citizens in the increasing growth in sovereignty, which the citizens is more actively participate in the media publication as compared to last decade. Through the iPad-only newspaper, the readers can make immediate responses and give suggestions to the topic discussion, and the publishers can take advantages by customise messages to the readers as interactions.

According to Naughton (2006, p. 6), the advanced information technology has provided formidable resources that make people become much more informed. As a result, they have always been articulate, thoughtful, and more controlled access to publication media. Therefore, iPad-only newspaper is fulfilling the reader’s habits and expectations as compared to traditional newspaper.

In new media era, the iPad-only newspaper is a new technology platform, which enables citizens actively create and exchange messages from interpersonal to mass communication. This movement is significant as it is the premise in the democracy society (Splichal 2009, p. 392).

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Chapter 1: The Semiotic Landscape: Language and Visual Communication, Reading Images, pp. 16-44.

Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystem’, University of Oxford, viewed 6 November 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

Splichal, S 2009, ‘'New' Media, 'Old' Theories: Does the (National) Public Melt into the Air of Global Governance?’, European Journal of Communication, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 391-405, viewed 6 November 2011, <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=9c2903ae-cc33-4a20-888e-f39ebeb1168e%40sessionmgr12&vid=4&hid=24>.

Taranu et al. 2011, ‘How Does The Internet-Based Media Restructure Communication and Subjectivity?’, Economics, Management, and Financial Market, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 353-362, viewed 7 November 2011, <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=21&sid=0dfad701-9684-4749-905c-66809d698827%40sessionmgr11>.

Trotter, C 2011, ‘iPad-Only Newspaper Furthers Media Trend’, The Cento, viewed 7 November 2011, <http://www.thecento.com/news/2011/feb/17/ipad-only-newspaper-furthers-media-trend/>.