Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data are stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission (e.g. hard disk drives or computer networking) of information or to the "end product", such as digital video, augmented reality, digital signage, digital audio, or digital art.

Florida's digital media industry association, Digital Media Alliance Florida, defines digital media as "the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction and education".

There is a rich history of non-binary digital media, computers, and their rise to prominence over the last couple decades.

Data conversion
The transformation of data to digital data via an analog-to-digital converter is called "digitizing" for either static or dynamic data, or "sampling" specifically when converting analog signal to digital signal. Most digital media are based on translating analog data into digital data and vice-versa (see digital recording, digital video, television versus digital television). It is estimated that in the year 1986 less than 1% of the world's technological capacity to store information was digital and in 2007 it was already 94%. The year 2002 is assumed to be the year when human kind was able to store more information in digital than in analog format (the "beginning of the digital age"). In 2007, humankind was able to store 2.9 × 10 20 optimally compressed bytes, communicate almost 2 × 10 21 bytes, and carry out 6.4 × 10 18 instructions per second on general-purpose computers. General-purpose computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58%.

Data processing
Once digitized, media may be processed in a variety of ways using standard computer hardware and software or, where performance is critical, in high-performance digital hardware such as an ASIC. Processing can include editing, filtering and content creation, access control devices

Digital media and Global Communication
According to the article by Lars Qvortrup on the European Journal of Communication published in 2006, Chaos Theory has been widely acknowledged as the reality within the field of media and communications. However, if this is actually true then the theory made by Manuel Castellis on global network societies would be made true. There are many critics who would argue against this case. Lars Qvortrup believes that the society we live in is not an anthropocentric society, which is to say, there is no rational man in a control room pulling all the strings. He believes that we actually live in a poly-centric society where many people control how things function. Some people believe that we do not live in a single global society, but that there are many loosely coupled networks that influence and disturb one another. With this in mind, the cartoon theories in the Danish newspaper affect cultural and social networks in Libanon and Syria, but this in itself is an exception. Only under very special circumstances can a wave of self-perpetuating interference occur.

Post-Network Era
This is the fast pace era through the use of technology. Home recording of television increasingly advanced this medium. Digital programming can be downloaded instantly. This technology enables broadcasters to use the digital technologies available today to create numerous channels. Service providers offer on-demand that gives people the opportunity to have the power of when and where they watch or hear their media. Digital technology has converged television and computers into one single medium.

Several design houses are active in this space, prominent names being

 * Publicis
 * McCann Erickson
 * Tribal DDB

Companies offering training in Digital Media:
 * JISC Digital Media
 * Digital Media Academy
 * Giant Campus
 * John Lennon Educational Tour Bus
 * Sterling Ledet & Associates

Articles

 * Timothy Binkley (1988-1889). "The Computer is Not A Medium", Philosophic Exchange. Reprinted in EDB & kunstfag, Rapport Nr. 48, NAVFs EDB-Senter for Humanistisk Forskning. Translated as "L'ordinateur n'est pas un médium", Esthétique des arts médiatiques, Sainte-Foy, Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 1995.

Books

 * Wolfgang Coy, "Analog/Digital". In: Warnke, Martin et al. (2005): Hyperkult II - Zur Ortsbestimmung analoguer und digitaler Medien (in German), Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2005. ISBN 3-89942-274-0.
 * Jörg Pflüger, "Wo die Quantität in Qualität umschlägt". In: Martin Warnke et al., Hyperkult II - Zur Ortsbestimmung analoguer und digitaler Medien (in German), Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2005. ISBN 3-89942-274-0.
 * Paul Long and Tim Wall, Media Studies: Text, Production and Context, Pearson Education, 2009.
 * Dictionary of the digital medias, trilingual edition in English, French (Dictionnaire des médias numériques) and German (Lexikon der digitalen Medien), Swiss Media, 2002, 280 pages.
 * Ted Nelson, Literary Machines, Sausalito: Mindful Press, 1990.