What is New Media?

If someone asks you, What is New Media? Sometime its hard to answer some questions but the easiest way to answer this question is by just telling him/her Facebook, Wikis, Youtube, and Blogs. And I am sure they will understand what you meant. Well That's how i understood in easy way when my Professor told us this three things in class. However according to one of the website New Media is defined as an "interactive forms of communication that use the Internet, including podcasts, RSS feeds, social networks, text messaging, blogs, wikis, virtual worlds and more". One of the greatest things about new media is how the public is able to get up-to-minute coverage about nearly anything in the world. In my New Media class i learned that New Media composes of 5 C's: Communication, Collaboration, Community, Creativity, and Convergence. As we all know that until late 90's the primary source of media was print newspapers and magazines, and radio which is also known as old media. However in past few years, we can see the transformation from old media to new media. To name few, New media includes: Web sites, streaming audio and video, chat rooms, e-mail, online communities, Web advertising, DVD and CD-ROM media, virtual reality environments, integration of digital data with the telephone, such as Internet telephony, digital cameras, and mobile computing. Most of this New Media is free if not it is really cheap, easy to access from anywhere in the world, relatively easy to communicate for any kind of reason and its fast. One of the article that i was reading for the class states that, people don't need cable nowadays because "the major networks and many other broadcasters have made it easy to find their shows free online". Another interesting thing that i read in that article and experienced was: "ABC.com demands viewers be engaged, requiring them to click a button to continue watching the program after an ad ends...I was forced to sit through a 30-second commercial — and click — to find out whether Mike Delfino actually died from smoke inhalation on “Desperate Housewives.” It’s only 30 seconds I figured (and I can watch the countdown) which kept me in my seat".

I personally felt that New Media is a new way of doing business too. Above example is the great way to explain this. People are forced to watch that 30 second commercial and in that 30 seconds you have to convince your customer to buy your product or service and not from your competitors. It is one of the best way for organization to maximize their profit and they are taking full advantages of new media. Placing ad's where ever they can such as social networking, chat rooms, watching shows online, e-mailing and so on.

New Media somehow makes our lives easier but we should also not forget the risk that are related to it.

Sources:

http://www.aids.gov/using-new-media/basics/what-is-new-media/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/technology/personaltech/04basics.html?_r=1&emc=eta1