Displacement or enhancement effect: a review of the application of 'creative destruction' theory on issues in communication and society

Abstract

Early proponents of creative destruction theory argued that something new brings about the demise of whatever existed before it. This reasoning is, probably, derived from two different perspectives: structure-centred and medium-centred perspectives. These perspectives, however, negate the common premise that 'nothing in life can shoulder a complete functional alternative to another'. Everything, including new media and old media; if one reflects from a user-centred vantage point, has its own uniqueness and distinctive characteristic to serve and satisfy different users' needs, at different ages, societies or geographic entities; pithily, implying that a thing that is considered as an old thing, can yet be useful and irreplaceable to a user, despite the availability and accessibility of something new. Therefore, within the context of displacement-complementary effect debate, it becomes imperative to review the application of creative destruction theory in developed, underdeveloped and developing economies, with reference to new media-old media functional vicissitudes cum nexus, on issues in communication and society. This paper, using literature review approach, is a critique of the assumption of creative destruction theory; and, by extension, a scholarly appraisal of what is new about new media and what is old about old media. We argued that while new media technology (something new) could displace old media that existed before it, predominantly, in developed worlds, this displacement consequence could be unfeasible in underdeveloped and developing climes, where research has shown that the old does not easily give way to the new; but, alternatively, new media play enhancement role to traditional media.