journal of digital research & publishing - The Sydney eScholarship ...

1 P M J O U R N A L O F D I G I T A L R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING
New media revolution: personal ads
expand to the Internet
By David James Misner
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Abstract
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Each new technology introduced into society has some effect on the way people live their
lives. Throughout recent history this seems to have been the case with innovations such
as the printing press, radio, television, telephone, and, most recently the Internet; all
reconstituting society, how we view ourselves in it, and the actions we take to maintain that
position. Manovich contends that ‘Today we are in the middle of a new media revolution
– the shift of all culture to computer­mediated forms of production, distribution and
communication.’ (qtd. in Deuze 2006, p. 63). A clear example of this shift can be seen in
the evolution of the personal dating advertisement from print to digital, online contexts.
What was once only possible by means of face­to­face meeting and communication became
commonplace in print publications and now has expanded onto the Internet.
In order to investigate the reasoning behind this format shift of the personal advertisement,
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the two are one in the same. This assumption can be based on characteristics shared by
both formats of the personal advertisement including goals of publication and outcomes
anticipated, author’s presentation of self, and implementation of common content strategy.
Additionally, similarities can be seen in the sequence of relationship development for
written correspondence, one which differs greatly from that of face­to­face relationships.
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