Microsoft is as good a starting point as any in our study of new media as marketing communications tools, considering the company's symbolic and ubiquitous role in the consumer and business technology landscapes. In January 1975, the Altair 8800 microcomputer, a computer kit geared for electronics hobbyists, appeared on the cover of Popular Electronics.
In response, soon-to-be Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates developed and licensed an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that could be run on the Altair. The interpreter was stored on a tape that the Altair could read.
Flash forward to May 2008. Microsoft unveils Touchwall, a large touch screen display panel that includes the use of laser and infrared technology.
"We think it's time to amend our slogan of 'A computer on every desk,' because with this, we want a computer in every desk,"Gates said recently. In 30 years, Microsoft's technologies evolved from algorithms punched into paper rolls to virtual touch screens and embedded digital technologies.
How does this relate to new media? New media are not only byproducts of this technology revolution, but components of it. New media are innovations in their own right.
Consider, for instance, newspaper ads and blogs. Ads exist, and have always existed, as marketing and promotional tools, while blogs are intent and content driven -- and may have nothing to do with persuasion. And yet, digital media like blogs are rewriting the rules of marketing communications.
As society becomes increasingly segmented and distributed (in large part thanks to digital technologies), media become increasingly segmented and distributed as well. The most effective message is ultimately the most personalized, and digital technologies enable this personalization as never before. Forty years later, Marshall McLuhan is still right: the medium is the message.
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