Here’s a great read from Robert Logan, “The 14 Messages of New Media,” on MediaShift about his extension of Marshall McLuhan’s statement that “the medium is the message.” He lists 14 characteristics of new media today that, “… seem to have 14 distinct messages that intertwine and support each other.” A very interesting read.

1. two-way communication
2. ease of access to and dissemination of information
3. continuous learning
4. alignment and integration
5. community
6. portability and time flexibility (time-shifting), which provide users with freedom over space and time
7. convergence of many different media so that they can carry out more than one function at a time and combine — as is the case with the cameraphone
8. interoperability without which convergence would not be possible
9. aggregation of content, which is facilitated by digitization and convergence
10. variety and choice to a much greater extent than the mass media that preceded them and hence The Long Tail phenomenon
11. the closing of the gap between (or the convergence of) producers and consumers of media
12. social collectivity and cooperation
13. remix culture which digitization facilitates
14. the transition from products to services