My New Media Class - So Far

New Media is comprised of many different technologies and mediums. These include blogs, wikis, social networking, mash ups, web 2.0, flickr, twitter, facebook, myspace, email, instant messaging, virtual worlds, p2p, podcasts, ezines, VOIP, youtube, and more. The internet is an essential part of new media because it allows for the collaboration and interaction between people as well as the access to the new media for everyone no matter where they are. A big part of new media is communication and sharing which is able to happen through the internet. Many of the mediums of new media would be almost impossible without the internet. Flickr for example allows for sharing of tons of photos, no other medium could do this as well and as efficiently as the internet. Blogs also work on the net because anybody can contribute from anywhere and an accumulation of posts can be made easily. In the article "Publisher Rethinks the Daily: It’s Free and Printed and Has Blogs All Over" one man tried to take the blog technology and put it in the old media form of paper. But this didn't work out due to the costs and it was nowhere near as efficient as posting online. Online blogs can be updated real time, so news is out there almost instantly, or as fast as someone gets on their computer or cell phone and types it up. That article is also a great example of how new media is replacing old media. Newpapers and magazines are being replaced with blogs. Now anybody can be a writer and everybody has access to more creativity online. Networking in person is replaced by facebook and other social networking sites that can bring people of similar interests together. Television is being replaced by youtube where anybody can be the star and even the normal tv shows are going online with websites like hulu. Even something as simple as talking on the phone is enhanced with VOIP and video conferancing with skype. New media allows for the world to be a smaller place because anybody can interact with anybody else anywhere in the world. New media is for everyone and has limitless uses that are great for our society.