Understanding of the Contemporary Media Landscape by the Concepts of Networks Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Castells writes that technology is not the only aspect that defines societies, but other factors like economy, culture, and politics also form the framework of network societies, while religion and social status, help in shaping these societies. A network that collectively forms the societies, is a series of links between basic unitary social elements, known as the nodes. When a single link between two unitary elements is established, the formation of a relationship takes place, and many such relationships form a complex web, known as network societies. Van Dijk in his book had delineated "network society" as entity that is framing its relationships within the media networking to replace the traditional form of face-to-face communication. (van Dijk, 1999, 220-223). Van Dijk's opines that the modern society is in the process of transforming itself into a network society, implying that the Internet is the space where all forms of organizational, interpersonal, and mass communication s converge. This image, as envisioned by van Djik, is something that we are already experiencing in the 21st century, where we find that Internet has already turned into the normal media, used for commutation and gaining information by a large section of the global society, from all domains of life. Contemporary media and network societies: New media is the concept which theorises that the new processes of communication within the virtual world allows small groups to assemble online and sell, share, or exchange goods and information (Castells, and Gustavo, 2005). We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding of the Contemporary Media Landscape by the Concepts of Networks or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page This includes buying and selling from almost any part of the world and thus dispensing off with the traditional practice where the shopper or seller must necessarily come to a common physical marketplace to trade. Here virtual shopping portals are replacing the real or physical marketplaces.