Gane and Beer: New Media: The Key Concepts musings part 1

As for Gane and Beer’s New Media: The Key Concepts, I’ve encountered some of these ideas before, though not as widely filled-out with the scholarship they have done. The concept most interesting to me right now is the idea of the network. I’ve been a proponent of the rhizomic model ever since I had read “Introduction Rhizome” from Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1980). Since my dissertation ideas are ruminating around the idea of expanding an audience through social media, it becomes readily apparent that each of us is a hub of some sort. I like the term “node.” However, they are wise to point out that some of our connections are stronger than others.

Piecing this idea that each of us possesses a “node-ness” (I can make up academic terms too!) along with Deirdre Breakenridge’s work on PR 2.0, not all of us possess the same level of power, impact or reach within each connection. Some people have more impact than others. Some networks are stronger than others.

I guess that idea also filters back into the idea of “flow.” Some information or influence flows freely through some nodes, where other information meets with resistance or even blockages. You can just as easily become un-friended on Facebook as you can become friended on Facebook.

I liked Gane and Beer’s take on interfaces. I think we all have a concept of what an interface is, but I liked how they boil down the basic idea that an interface is a translator of sorts that stands between two different (nay, VERY different) entities and allows for communication and information to flow from one to the other. I remember Liza Potts saying that she fully expected that user manuals would and should become completely obsolete as interfaces became more intuitive. I think we’ve already seen that start to occur.

Breakenridge, D. (2008). PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.

Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus. Retrieved January 20, 2012 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/62514172/deleuze-guattari.

Gane, N. and D. Beer. (2008) New Media: The Key Concepts. New York: Berg Publishers.