New Media Definition

Also called social media, the new media are internet-based (Web 2.0) technologies that collectively are characterized by the 5 c's: communication, collaboration (e.g., wikis such as this), community (e.g., social networking sites like Facebook), creativity (e.g., user-generated content), and convergence (e.g., mashups).

New media has greatly influenced the way information is received all over the world. The old media ways like television and newspapers were the way news got circulated. With the evolution of the internet we are now able to have news in real time. With the click of a button a news station can broadcast a live stream of breaking news. Even better than that, witnesses of any news worthy event have social networking accounts and use them to get the information others. We can view news today as a social experience. Some 44% of online news users get news at least a few times a week through emails, automatic updates or posts from social networking sites. In 2009, Twitter's monthly audience increased by 200%.&lt;ref&gt;"How Blogs and Social Media Agendas Relate and Differ from Traditional Press".Pew Research Center Publications. May 23, 2010.&lt;/ref&gt; More and more users are embracing new media everyday. Companies make products now centered on social media. They are aware of the millions of users worldwide and see it more as a need now. New Media has helped to bring people together which has helped them to work collaboratively. People are able to share ideas and thoughts which sparks creativity fosters progress.

New media has also entered the arena of medicine. Patients use social media as a main source of information and as a support network. Many pharmaceutical companies are using new media to educate the public and to spread awareness. It also increases revenue for them and puts businesses on the map. Companies like Comcast use sites like twitter to find people who need technical support. Gatorade acknowledges athletes with with electronic high-fives.&lt;ref&gt;"Friending: Patients, Industry &amp; New Media".SX Schedule.&lt;/ref&gt; New media is useful in all aspect of life it has totally revolutionized the way we all think and communicate.

A Transition from Old Media
The behavior(s) of human society is simultaneously changing in accordance with technological advancements. Old media (also known as traditional media) is consisted of printed newspapers, magazines, and books, and broadcasted television (shows and movies) and radio (music and talk) programs. The mass media, preliminary to the Internet, was limited to resourceful enlightenment of information, education, and entertainment. In comparison to new media, printed publications are distributed to the mass audience. It is not a one-to-one relationship, but a many-to-many relationship. There is a lack of personalization and customization provided, given that publishers have control over what is displayed within the context, as well as viewpoints on various issues. These mediums require more effort to edit, are slow to process and detached. One can argue that old media still exists because of a slow adjustment to new media. Reasons that people still read from a hardcover book or newspaper, are that it is a personal preference, Internet connection is limited to certain areas available with Wi-Fi (no Internet in a subway train), or are financially or competently incapable of surfing or browsing for information. Overall, the purposes of old media is constrained by its historical and technical parameters.

New media today now derives from the transition from or integration with old media, in a digital, more interactive, and accessible configuration. Some key factors with utilizing the Internet include reaching out to bigger masses, the rising demand for conveniently accessing information, interaction between online publishers and readers, and individual expression. Convergence combines several mediums into one channel or platform, the Internet. Newspapers, magazines, books, and cable television now are transitioning and adjusting in a digital era, providing more opportunities to expand their audiences with expedient and engaging content. Today, we have e-zines, e-books, and online-streaming multimedia websites. The underlying factor with new media is building and sustaining relationships with the growing online community. In comparison to old media, new media is more personalized, individualistic, and attainable. The costs of printing, manufacturing, product distribution, etc. transitioning to costs of website domain and development, information systems, “viral” advertising, and sponsorship. In addition, being physically present to buy a magazine or borrow a book from a local library is becoming less attractive proportional to purchasing a portable device such as smartphone or tablet with access to e-texts or music libraries.&lt;ref&gt; Savikas, Andrew. "Media: Don't Fear New Technologies." Information for the World's Business Leaders-Forbes.com. Forbes.com. Web.&lt;/ref&gt; With new media, there is an increase in interactivity, socialization, electronic information, and creativity.

New Media = Digital Divide?
New media has had a profound effect on three of the most essential categories of society in the twenty-first century: economics, politics, and the exchange of ideas. Of course, the scope of this article is limited in its ability to name the types of changes that are a product of new media, let alone a sufficient treatment of each category. However, it is important to sketch a brief schematic life of new media in the Information Age.

Economically, new media is the globe’s commercial skeleton. Fiber optic wiring networks between the world’s cities connect one to another to another…. Not only does this simple fact make global finance and trade a physical reality, since data networks between firms and investors are universally accessible, but it also impacts the possibilities and conceptions of so-called “old commercial” enterprises while giving rise to new ones. Every time a customer goes online to shop for that rare book title, or that overstocked iPod, or even the digital camera from a large retail store available down the block, new media is on both sides of that transaction. New media is not only the product but helps to mould the process of electronic commerce.

This means that manufacturing and production are largely focused on making the hardware that supports new media, while “softer” enterprises like news agencies, programmers, and artists adapt their crafts to the flows of the electronic current. If it seems abstract, that’s because it is. New media processes and communications add another dimension to the business and consumers’ practices we were already use to.

Perhaps the most interesting part of new media has to do with the restructuring of research, global economics, social interaction, and the currents of writing and dissemination of all information that have accompanied its emergence. Web and blog-writing in particular are not particularly revolutionary or ground-breaking because it changes the way people use language or construct basic sentences. It is ground breaking because it allows people to structure and nest information into documents differently. In today’s average web/blog post, news articles, op-eds etc. are not only entries in mixed media (photos, writing, video) format, but they are organized according to hyperlink organization.

Hyperlink organization is one of the definitive features of new media, and its implications run deep as well as wide.. Nesting, which is frequently in the form of hyperlinking, requires extensive interpretation and research. This organization is beneficial since old media representation often asserts an artificial context into an article or media piece in order to provide continuity. In nested new media, hyperlinking fosters the ultimate citation resource-apparatus. In traditional reporting found in a print newspaper, scholarly research article, or encyclopedia, information and references are contained within the body of the text. There are certain citations and allusions, but for the most part, the sweeping or narrow nature of the text depends on the structural organization of the piece as well as the reader’s contextual understanding of a given subject.

It is well known that data organization differs greatly in twenty-first century new media. Take for instance, the single most influential tool in casual research and data-storage: Wikipedia. It is virtually impossible to search an article that is published on Wikipedia without coming across a hyperlink to another page of data; in fact, it is more accurate to say that it’s difficult to come across an entry with fewer than ten hyperlinks. In addition to the classical mode of citing sources at the end of a document with trusted texts and data, Wikipedia exemplifies a style of information technology that is based on the interconnectedness of ideas and events.

Here it is important to note one way that “new media” may not actually be all that new: During the French Enlightenment, the authors of the famed Encyclopedie created a system of footnotes that referred to certain other entries. The subtle structure of such an organization underlies a profoundly partisan representation of facts and images. The same is largely true in hyperlink writing. While the content that is mentioned and presented within an article may be empirically accurate, it is important to note that the selection of sources and outside connections may still be highly subjective. This quality makes research a more shaded and complex enterprise and sometimes even enriches the reader’s understanding of a given issue.&lt;ref&gt;http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html&lt;/ref&gt;