Interactivity+ New Media

From these readings, the concept of interactivity is defined in many different ways. From the humble definition of two way communication to the use of interactivity in the Internet, the definition isn’t so clear cut. From communication exchanges to role exchanges, this concept can be defined through which context it is being used. In my opinion, the best definition is Jensen’s: “a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication.” For certain, interactivity is a two-way communication through a channel in which the roles of sender and receiver are interchangeable.
My definition of interactivity is the concept of the user interacting with the medium that will both send and receive messages tailor made to the user’s use of the specific medium. It is much like an interaction in person-to-person communication, but in the realm of new media, the computer acts as the recipient of messages. As we have seen throughout the course of the history of the Internet, websites have been becoming more and more interactive. You can now click and watch a webpage change to your specific needs in a matter of seconds. With these content rich sites becoming more and more popular, interactivity on the Internet has endless possibilities. When I think of a hyper interactive site,
Interactivity has an important role in regards to the Long Tail theory. As we have seen with Amazon and other business models like it, what you search for and buy changes what the webpage shows you. This is interactivity at it’s finest. If Amazon and ITunes can suit your favorite niche market by identifying what you have searched for and bought, then the user can pick something new and cool he/she hasn’t been exposed to. The content changes with clicks of the mouse.
The Long Tail has a place for future business models because of it’s ability to create that niche market everyone is looking for. Sure we may all like the popular music and movies, but some of us like documentaries, B movies, and foreign films just as much. Businesses cannot become complacent with churning out the boring, normal movies every month without accommodating those superfans. Nintendo has released its massive back catalog of video games from the original NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, and so on with massive fan fare and positive review. If more companies would do this, it would create a huge demand for out dated, but in demand retro media.