In his 2001 book, The Language of New Media, on new media Lev Manovich describes their difference from old media according to five principles:

What all this boils down to is that the features (sometimes called “affordances”) of new media have allowed us to move from an era of mass/industrial media to an era of interactive/networked media (see also Julie Lytle’s Faith Formation 4.0). In turn, the ubiquity of interactive media made possible what media scholar Henry Jenkins calls participatory cultures, in which viewers/listeners/readers don’t just consume—they also create. Whereas in the era of mass media, most people were fairly passive consumers, in this age of interactivity, individuals have the capacity to create, to invent, and to personalize.(Although it’s technically an oversimplification to do so, we will use “new media,” “interactive media,” and “digital media,” relatively interchangeably. )

When mass media ruled, people of faith could read religious books, listen to religious radio, and watch religious television. Now they can contribute to religious websites, record religious podcasts, and produce religious videos—without expensive equipment or access commercial distribution.

As the Lee Rainie video above argued, the ubiquity and interconnectedness of new media technology have also had a profound social impact. Religious educator Mary Hess has gone so far to say that digital technologies now mediate “almost all of our daily practices”—and that was in 2005!