Digital media

[2] Digital media platforms, such as YouTube, Kick, and Twitch, accounted for viewership rates of 27.9 billion hours in 2020.

Combined with the Internet and personal computing, digital media has caused disruptive innovation in publishing, journalism, public relations, entertainment, education, commerce and politics.

[8] Owned media refers to digital assets and channels that a company or individual controls and manages.

This includes websites, social media profiles for example Facebook etc., blogs, and any other content platforms own and operated by the entity.

Entity means the owner or controller of the channel such as business or person managing their online presence[8] Earned media denotes public relations media channels like television, newspapers, blogs, or video sites that do not require direct payment or control by marketers but are included because viewers, readers, or users are interested in them.

Free media is essentially online word of mouth, typically in "viral" trends, mentions, shares, retweets, reviews, recommendations, or content from third-party websites.

Although the machines were designed to perform analysis tasks, Lovelace anticipated the possible social impact of computers and program writing.

[11] Though they used machine-readable media, Babbage's engines, player pianos, jacquard looms and many other early calculating machines were themselves analog computers, with physical, mechanical parts.

[12] Digital computers use binary code and Boolean logic to store and process information, allowing one machine in one configuration to perform many different tasks.

[15] Bush envisioned a system of devices that could be used to help scientists, doctors, and historians, among others, to store, analyze and communicate information.

[18][19][20] Personal computers and smartphones put the ability to access, modify, store and share digital media in the hands of billions of people.

Combined with the World Wide Web and the Internet, digital media has transformed 21st century society in a way that is frequently compared to the cultural, economic and social impact of the printing press.

[5] A senior engineer at Motorola named Martin Cooper was the first person to make a phone call on April 3, 1973.

[27] The impact of the digital revolution can also be assessed by exploring the amount of worldwide mobile smart device users there are.

What is also of relevance is the fact that the number of smart device users is rising rapidly yet the amount of functional uses increase daily.

This quality of digital media has led to significant changes in many industries, especially journalism, publishing, education, entertainment, and the music business.

This spike in user-created content is due to the development of the internet as well as the way in which users interact with media today.

[46] The release of technologies such mobile devices allow for easier and quicker access to all things media.

[49] Many governments restrict access to digital media in some way, either to prevent obscenity or in a broader form of political censorship.

This content is oftentimes not mediated by any company or agency, leading to a wide array of personalities and opinions online.

Over 1.5 billion users of tablets exist in this world right now and that is expected to slowly grow [52] About 20% of people in the world regularly watch their content using tablets in 2018[52] User-generated content raises issues of privacy, credibility, civility and compensation for cultural, intellectual and artistic contributions.

[57] Companies such as Netflix have even bought previously cancelled shows such as Designated Survivor, Lucifer, and Arrested Development.

As of 2024 there has also been a wave of those considered too controversial by main-stream media moving over to online platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) to keep spreading their messages.

One instance is Tucker Carlson leaving Fox News due to his controversial opinions and moving over to X.

[61] Digital media[62] encompasses numerical networks of interactive systems that link databases, allowing users to navigate from one bit of content or webpage to another.

These include posting pictures from someone else's social media account, writing fanfiction, or covering and/or using popular songs in content such as YouTube videos.

[67] To avoid or resolve some of these issues, content creators can voluntarily adopt open, or copyleft licenses or they can release their work to the public domain.

[69] To facilitate the collection and consumption of such licensing information and availability status, tools like the Creative Commons Search engine are used mostly for web images, and Unpaywall, or used for scholarly communication.

TikTok is a social media app that allows users to share short videos up to one minute in length, using a variety of visual effects and audio.

Thanks to the improvements in tablets and other personal electronic devices, digital magazines have become much more readable and enticing through the use of graphic art.