New Media Theories

Humankind have made technology immortal. Technology, which includes all the aggressive characteristics of technique, pursues the development of communication. In search of practices that will make life easier, today, people use the information they obtain to increase the process and quality of communication, as in other needs. At this point, it is a fact that the main element of development is technology. However, determining the advantages and disadvantages that have arisen during this rapid transformation is a significant problematic within the context of person and society.

It is seen that the benefits provided by the computers and the internet together are fast and effective and spread rapidly as long as they are simple and cheap to use. Yet, when it comes to harm caused by them, the impact occurs over a long period of time and after a certain point, it starts to have palpable destructive characteristics. For instance, in the early days of social media, its effects, particularly on young people, were ignored by many or perceived as a normal situation. Today, however, we are witnessing that the destructive features of social media can reach a dominance that is difficult to reverse.

The fact that communication is a necessity for human beings shows that it will develop uncertainly in an environment where the benefit–harm boundary is ambiguous. This situation necessitates caution on the part of all those who care for the benefit of people and society. The effects of communication should be studied thoroughly, especially in academia, which is a significant step in young people’s participation in society. In this sense, this book serves as a viewpoint to observe the limits of new media, which is a new initiative in communication. Believing that it is first necessary to define a problem so as to understand it, we have found it necessary to compose the institutional structure, which has the nature of passing on the torch, together within the framework of new media. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Deniz Yengin, who has guided me with his meticulous, systematic and positive efforts. We would also like to thank Halil İbrahim Yakut for supporting us in the academic translation of this work.

Challenges thrown by life sometimes force us to build our life practices focused on work. That’s why I’m so lucky to have the unquestioning and unconditional support of my spouse Eda. I thank her for the enthusiasm and perseverance she has provided me in every work I have done and, most importantly, for her precious love.

Communication is a constant component of the human’s journey of life struggle. Communication plays a decisive role from the day a person is born until death. The medium that connects the source and the target in communicative action continues with technical developments from past to present. Communication can be defined as the technique of producing information in line with people’s needs and transferring the information produced. Today, however, explaining the concept of communication as a mere linguistic technique or method of transmission is not enough. Now that technology directs offline life practices and brings different approaches to these practices, communication is also considered an “interdisciplinary” science among social sciences. Therefore, although communication emerged as a social invention, it plays a vital role in transforming social communication networks from the moment it comes into contact with technology. In the digital age, information research and the methods of transferring information are developed simultaneously with communication tools. The definition above is supportive in presenting different approaches, especially considering the rapid development of communication tools since the 20th century. In this process, it is analyzed through different disciplines how the developing communication tools affect social life and how the phenomenon of language and meaning is constructed through these tools.