Concept of remediation

By Priya Chetty on January 15, 2012

Bolter and Grusin (2000) pioneered the concept of ‘remediation’ in their book Remediation: Understanding New Media. They define the concept of remediation as “the mode in which the computer refashions older media and as well the mode in which older media refashion them in the environment of the computer (2000: 15)”. The co-existence, or to be sure co-evolution, of old and new media is recognized and proposed by them  as the structural proviso of every media , and in this course  of action  remediation   presents the dynamic  interchange stuck between past and present structures of a solo medium . In more clear words, remediation as new media form is inclined to befall associated with the computer.

Bolter and Grusin (2000) tell apart remediation in three models. The first model of remediation implies to a situation where an older media is demonstrated and represented in digital appearance devoid of perceptible incongruity or critique. In this model of remediation the purpose is to give access to the older media, and wishes to be crystal clear. In their own words,   the new media wishes to obliterate itself in order that the user stands in the similar link to the content as the user would be whilst coming across   the original media. Nevertheless they suppose that the experience is constantly dissimilar given that the existence of the computer is felt, for instance since the reader ought to click on a button or slide a bar (Bolter and Grusin , 2000). This model of remediation is the purpose for the common e-book, where for the making of an e-book the original book is digitised or the e-book comes in the digital form. In fact there is no other obvious differences stuck between an e-book and a material book apart from the fact that the e-book is digital. Bolter and Grusin’s (2000) second model of remediation is whilst the creator wishes  to give emphasis to the variation stuck between the media rather than obliterate it, nevertheless the new medium does not fancy to obliterate itself completely. For this model the electronic adaptation wishes to present perfection. In this example the new media is still warranted in relation to the old and attempts to continue realistic to the older media’s disposition. This second model can be understood through the example of the enhanced e-book of Penguin, where the e-book feature a filmography, reviews from the novel’s original publication, and notably the perfected e-book is yet a usual book, where the main book continues the similar. The main book is extended with extra information which connects to the main book nevertheless which is not branch of the main book.

The third model of remediation appears  more antagonistic than the  first two models , and this model  of remediation  attempts to refashion the older   media completely, whilst yet marking the existence of the older media and consequently keeping up  a common sense of variety or hypermediacy giving  a varied space, in which version is envisaged not as a window  onto the world, but somewhat as  windowed  itself  with windows  that open on to other versions or other media. This model embodies   the older media in a space in which the discontinuities are evidently noticeable, and these discontinuities may well be designated by means of the window frames and by means of controls in the forms of buttons and sliders which start and end the diverse media sections. In their own words, Bolter and Grusin (2000) put that “the graphical user border concedes and controls the discontinuities as the users move in the midst of media.” The diverse programs which correspond to diverse media come out in varied windows that are controlled through clickable tools. In the example of e-book in this model of remediation, in a hypermediated space, one window may well tender book, a different window sound and a third one pictures or film, nevertheless the users experience these diverse windows sternly one at time. The fourth and final model of remediation applies whilst the new media may well remediate through attempting to take in the older media totally, keeping that the discontinuities amid the two are curtailed. Nonetheless the older media might not be utterly obliterated; the new media is yet reliant in accredited or trying modes upon the older media. In relation to this model of remediation, Bolter and Grusin (2000) mean “engrossing the older media totally that the attributes of the old media are changed in such a mode that it comes out in a new media which is notably dissimilar from the older media.” For example, in the case of literary e-books the reliance upon the older media may well be the bookual facet of literature, and dissimilar to the former model of remediation this model does form an actually flawless space, it secures the user an unmediated experience. Multimedia e-books may well be an illustration of the third and fourth model of remediation, where multimedia e-books insert diverse media in the forms of music, video and games. Example of multimedia e-books is the iBook, where notably Penguin has launched quite a few iBooks, specifically in the form of children’s book.

Reference

  • Bolter, J. and Grusin, R.(2000),  Remediation: Understanding New Media, 1st Edition, The MIT Press

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