New media differs from old media in the way information is communicated and consumed. To distinguish the two, you must ask yourself the following questions:
1. Am I using the internet on a computer (or cellphone) to send/receive the information, or am I using something else? If the answer to the question is the former, it's likely that you're using new media. Many forms of new media like wikis, social networking sites, and video sharing websites rely on the internet to store and retrieve the information.
2. Who controls the message? For old media like newspapers, television, and radio, the parent company controls the message that is being communicated. In new media, however, everyone is allowed to publish their thoughts and opinions. Information is user-generated and contributed "by the people."
3. How fast can information be relayed? New media trumps old media in the speed at which information is communicated/received. The process of information gathering, fact-checking, and editing is what slows old media down.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds is an amazing form of new media that allows users to create self-representative avatars to put in a virtual environment, where they can interact with with other users from around the city, country, or world. The aforementioned virtual environment can be modeled after a real-life counterpart, from a tropical island, to the LES, to the Rayburn House Office Building.
So far, people have used virtual worlds to chat with real life acquaintances and strangers. These online interactions, however, differ from instant messaging in that, now, there's an added level of sensory perception. In a virtual world, one is placed in an explorable 3D environment. Aside from reasons of personal enjoyment, virtual worlds have been used by businesses to hold virtual conferences.
IBM uses virtual worlds to conduct employee training and to encourage community building. Ed Frauenheim discusses this further in his article IBM Learning Programs Get a 'Second Life,' where he writes,
So far, people have used virtual worlds to chat with real life acquaintances and strangers. These online interactions, however, differ from instant messaging in that, now, there's an added level of sensory perception. In a virtual world, one is placed in an explorable 3D environment. Aside from reasons of personal enjoyment, virtual worlds have been used by businesses to hold virtual conferences.
IBM uses virtual worlds to conduct employee training and to encourage community building. Ed Frauenheim discusses this further in his article IBM Learning Programs Get a 'Second Life,' where he writes,
"New IBM employees separated by thousands of miles will be able to mingle, interact and share ideas in the virtual world before their first day on the job,” Ted Hoff, IBM vice president of learning, said in a statement. “They can learn real-life working skills such as signing up for benefits, developing code as part of a global team, and ramping up sales skills before they meet with IBM clients."Aside from aiding businesses, virtual worlds can also benefit autistic individuals. People with autism, who often struggle with socialization, use virtual worlds (Second Life, specifically) as a way to practice communicating with others. This was highlighted Nicole Saidi's article, iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction. In the article, Simon Bignell, a psychology lecturer at the University of Derby, says
"For people with autism, we've found it's a very nice way of setting up situations they might come across in their everyday lives," Bignell said. "For people who have social, emotional, communicational problems ... we can get them familiar with an environment before they actually try it out in real life."Despite the great benefits that virtual worlds can provide, there may be a "dark side." At a Congressional hearing about virtual worlds, congressmen wondered whether virtual worlds could be used to launder money, and whether children would be safe in virtual worlds. ( At Hearing, Real and Virtual Worlds Collide) In regards to the latter, it is definitely possible, as predators lurk in every corner of the web.
Monday, March 23, 2009
New Media in the News
I read two interesting New York Times articles over the weekend, and thought I'd share them with you guys. Check them out below:
NYT: As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up
NYT: As Rights Clash on YouTube, Some Music Vanishes
NYT: As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up
NYT: As Rights Clash on YouTube, Some Music Vanishes
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Social Networking
Social networking is a powerful form of new media that can be used in a variety of ways.
Individuals can use it to:
There are "dark sides" to social networking, however, and we probably hear more about them than we do about the benefits. Sadly, there are people who use social networking as a means to bully, stalk, harass, and prey on others. An example of this misuse was demonstrated in the MySpace suicide case of Megan Meier. Megan Meier was a Missouri teenager who committed suicide in 2006, after receiving horrible messages from a teenage boy who she had friended on MySpace. This teenage boy turned out to be a 49-year-old mother (of one of Megan's former friends), who created a phony MySpace account to harass Megan.
MySpace, Facebook, and other similar social networking sites are also homes to thousands of sexual predators. Early last month, "MySpace provided two state attorneys general the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders it had banned from its site in response to a subpoena." (MySpace Turns Over 90,000 Names of Registered Sex Offenders) This number is quite frightening!
Individuals can use it to:
- stay connected with family and friends
- rekindle relationships with former classmates/coworkers
- establish new relationships
- tell the world what you’re doing (via Twitter)
- look for jobs
- maintain customer relationships
- “encourage collaboration and communication across teams,” like at IBM (Is MySpace Good for Society?)
- “attract and screen potential new employees through virtual world interactions” (IBM: What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking)
- scout new talent
- “allows users to share their online rolodexes” (NPR: Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting)
There are "dark sides" to social networking, however, and we probably hear more about them than we do about the benefits. Sadly, there are people who use social networking as a means to bully, stalk, harass, and prey on others. An example of this misuse was demonstrated in the MySpace suicide case of Megan Meier. Megan Meier was a Missouri teenager who committed suicide in 2006, after receiving horrible messages from a teenage boy who she had friended on MySpace. This teenage boy turned out to be a 49-year-old mother (of one of Megan's former friends), who created a phony MySpace account to harass Megan.
MySpace, Facebook, and other similar social networking sites are also homes to thousands of sexual predators. Early last month, "MySpace provided two state attorneys general the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders it had banned from its site in response to a subpoena." (MySpace Turns Over 90,000 Names of Registered Sex Offenders) This number is quite frightening!
My New Media Class – So Far
What kinds of technologies are part of the new media?
New media encompasses a variety of websites and web applications that can be utilized via computers and mobile phones.
People use computers to consume and contribute to a myriad of new media, ranging from social networking websites, blogs, wikis, and sites that rely on user-generated content (ie: Youtube, Flickr, etc). More recently, people have used computer technology to watch television content online. Laura M. Holson discusses this phenomenon in the New York Times article, Who Needs a TV? I’m Watching on a Laptop. As Holson describes, “So many online “Gossip Girl” fans showed up to watch last season’s shows, they threatened to crash cwtv.com.”
Great progress has also been made in mobile technology. Two years ago, Yahoo launched a mobile application called OneSearch, which “relies on speech recognition software to interpret your verbal request, and then pumps the answer to your phone's screen in the form of a Web link to the answer.” (Pogue, Yahoo’s Answer to Speech Recognition for Your Cellphone) The company has also made instant messaging, mapping, checking email, and much more available for its mobile applications.
How important is the Internet to the new media?
The Internet remains an essential tool in facilitating the consumption of new media, because much of new media involves websites, which require Internet connection to access. However, the Internet is not required in the use of podcasts, which “sends audio content [that you subscribe to] directly to an iPod or other MP3 player,” according to Daniel Terdiman's New Twist on Net Audio.
Why and how are the new media replacing and/or enhancing the old media?
New media hasn’t reached the point where it’s replacing old media in its entirety. This is certainly applicable to the television! As Holson notes in her article, the time delay for online television content is a deal breaker for fans, who would much rather watch shows on their original air date.
New media encompasses a variety of websites and web applications that can be utilized via computers and mobile phones.
People use computers to consume and contribute to a myriad of new media, ranging from social networking websites, blogs, wikis, and sites that rely on user-generated content (ie: Youtube, Flickr, etc). More recently, people have used computer technology to watch television content online. Laura M. Holson discusses this phenomenon in the New York Times article, Who Needs a TV? I’m Watching on a Laptop. As Holson describes, “So many online “Gossip Girl” fans showed up to watch last season’s shows, they threatened to crash cwtv.com.”
Great progress has also been made in mobile technology. Two years ago, Yahoo launched a mobile application called OneSearch, which “relies on speech recognition software to interpret your verbal request, and then pumps the answer to your phone's screen in the form of a Web link to the answer.” (Pogue, Yahoo’s Answer to Speech Recognition for Your Cellphone) The company has also made instant messaging, mapping, checking email, and much more available for its mobile applications.
How important is the Internet to the new media?
The Internet remains an essential tool in facilitating the consumption of new media, because much of new media involves websites, which require Internet connection to access. However, the Internet is not required in the use of podcasts, which “sends audio content [that you subscribe to] directly to an iPod or other MP3 player,” according to Daniel Terdiman's New Twist on Net Audio.
Why and how are the new media replacing and/or enhancing the old media?
New media hasn’t reached the point where it’s replacing old media in its entirety. This is certainly applicable to the television! As Holson notes in her article, the time delay for online television content is a deal breaker for fans, who would much rather watch shows on their original air date.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Blogs vs. Wikis
Compare and contrast
Similarities
Differences
Convergence in today's networked world
Convergence of old media and new media has become absolutely essential in the news industry today, because in order to "stay alive," publications (newspapers and magazines) and broadcast stations (tv and radio) must be able to compete with online entities that can publish news by the minute.
Melissa Gerry demonstrates the aforementioned beautifully in her article, "Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media," a piece about the changing landscape of celebrity news. To put it succinctly, celebrity bloggers were able to effectively compete with [entertainment] news organizations due to their ability to get the news out earlier in the day (and with less commentary restrictions!). Nowadays, entertainment news organizations have online counterparts that publish celeb news as soon as they are press-released.
Newspapers and magazines also have online counterparts these days to maintain their readership. The New York Times, in addition to archiving their articles online, boasts a myriad of blogs, with topics ranging from politics, to economics, to fashion, to food, to technology, to the environment, etc. It's nothing short of impressive; and, to be honest, quite overwhelming.
Blogs being used for collaboration
Using blogs to collaborate is not entirely unheard of. Many blogs rely on the efforts of multiple contributors. Mashable, a blog about web 2.0 and social media, is one of them. Another is The Cut, New York magazine's fashion blog. The contributions of multiple bloggers leads to more updates, more perspectives, and more traffic.
A new use for wikis
This is a tough one, because wikis are used in so many fields now - politics, business, education - that I don't think there's much left to be done. Perhaps, we should expand wikis into the field of medicine so researchers can pool together their knowledge?
Similarities
- Both are used to communicate information about various topics (there are no topic constraints).
- Information posted on blogs and wikis can be edited.
- Both allow for community building.
Differences
- Blogs are usually run by individuals, while wikis rely on the collaborative effort of many people.
- Communities are built on blogs when people read, comment on, and link one another's blogs. On wikis, however, the sense of community emerges when people work together to expand, update, and edit the wiki.
- Content on blogs can only be posted and edited by the administrator, thus providing a very narrow and limited perspective on things. However, content on wikis can be edited by any registered user, each contributing their own knowledge and perspective on a topic.
- While blogs use HTML coding, wikis "favour plain text editing." (Wikipedia on Wikis)
Convergence in today's networked world
Convergence of old media and new media has become absolutely essential in the news industry today, because in order to "stay alive," publications (newspapers and magazines) and broadcast stations (tv and radio) must be able to compete with online entities that can publish news by the minute.
Melissa Gerry demonstrates the aforementioned beautifully in her article, "Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media," a piece about the changing landscape of celebrity news. To put it succinctly, celebrity bloggers were able to effectively compete with [entertainment] news organizations due to their ability to get the news out earlier in the day (and with less commentary restrictions!). Nowadays, entertainment news organizations have online counterparts that publish celeb news as soon as they are press-released.
Newspapers and magazines also have online counterparts these days to maintain their readership. The New York Times, in addition to archiving their articles online, boasts a myriad of blogs, with topics ranging from politics, to economics, to fashion, to food, to technology, to the environment, etc. It's nothing short of impressive; and, to be honest, quite overwhelming.
Blogs being used for collaboration
Using blogs to collaborate is not entirely unheard of. Many blogs rely on the efforts of multiple contributors. Mashable, a blog about web 2.0 and social media, is one of them. Another is The Cut, New York magazine's fashion blog. The contributions of multiple bloggers leads to more updates, more perspectives, and more traffic.
A new use for wikis
This is a tough one, because wikis are used in so many fields now - politics, business, education - that I don't think there's much left to be done. Perhaps, we should expand wikis into the field of medicine so researchers can pool together their knowledge?
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Checking Out Some Social Networking Sites
When MySpace became a big thing for my peers back in 2003, I found myself hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. Something about tweens who posted inappropriate pictures of themselves for all the world to see was pretty off-putting. Since then, things haven't changed all that much; people still post questionable photos of themselves. However, one thing that has changed for the better is the implementation of privacy settings. Younger MySpace users are wising up and making their profiles private.
Facebook, in comparison to MySpace, has an older demographic. While MySpace is populated with 13-21 year olds, Facebook has more users in the 16-35 age brackets. Though this doesn't equate to a squeaky clean image, Facebook users tend to make more well-informed decisions about what they post onto their pages. Although...I do stumble upon the occasional photo of college students having "a good time."
LinkedIn, in stark contrast to both MySpace and Facebook, is strictly professional. As a social networking site for people in the workforce, it contains information regarding education, employment history, etc. It's pretty much devoid of the personal touches you can find in MySpace and Facebook like photos, videos, and information about people's favorite bands.
From my observations of the aforementioned sites, one pattern has emerged: content found on social networking sites are extremely dependent on the demographic of users (and of course, the overall purpose of the social networking site).
Facebook, in comparison to MySpace, has an older demographic. While MySpace is populated with 13-21 year olds, Facebook has more users in the 16-35 age brackets. Though this doesn't equate to a squeaky clean image, Facebook users tend to make more well-informed decisions about what they post onto their pages. Although...I do stumble upon the occasional photo of college students having "a good time."
LinkedIn, in stark contrast to both MySpace and Facebook, is strictly professional. As a social networking site for people in the workforce, it contains information regarding education, employment history, etc. It's pretty much devoid of the personal touches you can find in MySpace and Facebook like photos, videos, and information about people's favorite bands.
From my observations of the aforementioned sites, one pattern has emerged: content found on social networking sites are extremely dependent on the demographic of users (and of course, the overall purpose of the social networking site).
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