New new media is defined by Paul Levinson as any media that has grown in importance over the last five years and although is known in and out by students and young professionals, it has not caught up with the world of higher education or trickled upwards to board rooms on a large scale. The first half of the books focuses on blogs, YouTube, Wikipedia, Digg, and MySpace. All of these activities are characterized as New new media.
As Marshall McLuhan noted electronic media has turned our world into a ‘global village’. We have interactive participants from across the world who create and interact on a daily basis. Some examples of this that we have discussed in class are the World of Warcraft and Second Life, as well as more consciously used examples such as Facebook and Wikipedia. In every form of new media the consumers are now the publishers. They have the means and drive to create and accomplish a plethora of activities online or in digital form from creating a new Wikipedia page about themselves or a famous person they like, or writing and interacting with other interested people about a topic on a blog.
Media tend to survive if they uniquely satisfy a human communication need. This is why technology such as VCRs and silent movies are no longer mainstream or in many cases not even popular. I feel that one of the most basic communication needs that we humans have is the feeling or need to be heard. New new media fills this void. A personal example of this is my ‘semi’ addiction to the television “Fringe”. Not only do I enjoy watching the latest episodes on Friday night but if I miss an episode I watch it online a few days later. Their blog site has interesting information, trailers from new episodes and an opportunity for ‘people from the other side’ to communicate with each other about the latest episodes or theories as to what will happen next. We have a voice that is found in all of these mediums, able to converse and communicate satisfying our need to connect and socialize from the comfort of our wireless devices.
I like that you pointed out the relevance (or in this case irrelevance) of older forms of media delivarence. The mention of the VCR which was over taken by the DVD is a poignant lesson in the rise in quality of our media devices as well as its evolution of its delivery system. As it stands right now the DVD is being overtaken by online sources of entertainment like netflix. Change is always constant and the area of Media is not immune from it.
ReplyDeleteNew new media is an interesting phenomenon. How many academic subjects are there where the students have a head start on the professors. When I started on the path of higher education about four years ago, I didn't expect to take a course about Understanding New Media. I didn't think these fun new technologies would take off like they did. Especially, it's impact on more seasoned generations.
ReplyDeleteI find that higher education can be very behind the times. They often take many years to become up to date with the things that students are doing. Honesty, my undergraduate statistics classes were a waste of time because the models we used and software packages are seriously out of date. That's why I was happy to see this class as an option last semester.
ReplyDeleteIn my position at work, its interesting to see when the senior management turns to research on teens for help with what's new and upcoming. Senior management held a major event last year where students between certain ages would come in an answer questions and give input on what they thought about our website, tv shows, special events, etc. It's incredibly important to know your audience and the opinions of a diverse group.
ReplyDeleteI very much like your point about having a voice, that's why new media are also known as participatory media.
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