How much merit does technological heft hold in ensuring the new media dominance?

MySpace and News Corp: The Battle of Technology

The Gurdian reported prominent entrepreneur Michael Wolff as having said that the MySpace acquisition by Rupert Murdoch did not turn out to be a success tale because it lacked the technological heft needed to fit MySpace into his company seamlessly.

This statement is vital for the rapidly emerging new media and the question of how important technological heft is in terms of ensuring new media dominance begs to be answered.

Technological heft is IMPORTANT.
Murdoch acquired MySpace when he felt that his company, News Corporation, has not been engaging with the online world. MySpace was brought it for that purpose but his strategies were not realized because News Corporation was a ‘digital immigrant’ whose knowledge of the online world and new media ecosystem were below par. This is in accordance with Schaefer & Durham (2007) who stressed on the importance of companies being competent technologically in order to incorporate itself into the inevitable new media culture.

Is it still worth the risk?
Yes. There is a shift of paradigm in terms of communicating and reaching audiences from the traditional media to the new media. Livingstone (2004) noted that failure to capitalize on this could result in a relatively low reach-rate and inefficiency on the part of the particular media member.

Another important point to note would be the business of the media. Recognizing the emergence of the new media, many online firms have placed huge sums of investments and engaged in business dealings. For example, the internet search agreement deal between News Corporation and Google worth $900million in condition that MySpace guarantees a minimum volume of traffic (McIntyre 2009).

Lesson to be learnt?
Technological heft is important to be able to sustain in the ecosystem of the new media. Media should start embracing it to avoid the risk of being consumed in the rapidly emerging and evolving phenomena. Furthermore, Lessig (2004) asserts that the shift in paradigm towards the new media looks inevitable given the fact that it is very much in line with the modern, fast-paced and digitally-oriented contextual lifestyle that we, the audiences, lead today.

Remember, it is not a mere aspiration to be technologically savvy. It is essential to fulfill this requirement to be able to continuously maneuver communication strategies based on the factors of audience, context and purpose (Bhuiyan 2006).

Reference List

Bhuiyan, S. I. 2006, “Impact of new media technology on society”, The Daily Star, September 5 2006, viewed November 12 2009,

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=52164

Guardian 2009, “Murdoch and Google eye Twitter as moguls gather in Sun Valley”, July 8 2009, viewed November 12 2009,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/08/twitter-rupert-murdoch

Lessig, L. 2004, Free culture: How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity, Penguin Press, New York.

Livingstone, S. 2004, “Media literacy and the challenge of new information and communication technologies”, Communication review, Vol. 1, Iss. 7, pp. 3-14.

McIntyre, D. 2009, “MySpace in trouble on $900 million Google deal”, Daily Finance, November 5 2009, viewed November 11 2009,

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/05/myspace-in-trouble-on-900-million-google-deal/

Schaefer, P. & Durham, M. G. 2007. "On the social implications of invisibility: The iMac G5 and the effacement of the technological object." Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 24, Iss.1. pp. 39-56.