New Media

New media is evolving as we speak and therefore its definition is ever changing. However, I believe the 5 C's sum up the concept of new media the best. The 5 C's are communication, collaboration, community, creativity and convergence. While old media does posses some of these qualities, it doesn't bring them together like new media can. These principles are sort of the who, what, where, when and how of the world of new media. For example, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, they combine each of these 5 characteristics. They are all about the communication and collaboration, of creative ideas and concepts, within a given community to create convergence of these ideas and concepts. Wiki's, Blogs, Podcasts, Tags and Youtube are also primary examples of what new media consists of as they do posses the 5 C's in their inherent nature.
These new medias are all under O'Reilly's 2004 discovery of Web 2.0. This shows the difference between old media (Web 1.0) such as journalism, Polaroids and radio; versus the new media such as blogs, Flickr/Picasa and podcasts etc. These new found means of exchanging information has not only been a more quick and efficient means of communication, it has helped us expand as a society.
According to "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available fromhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf : "Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting — ever." This maybe one of the more relevant articles to our current job crisis since the use of social networking sites such as Linkedin and Craig's List have become such vital parts of the recruiting and job searching process. Long gone are the days of simply opening the paper for the classified section. Recruiters can now sift through thousands of resumes and those in need of finding a job, can blast their resume out to thousands of recruiters through a variety of sites and networking sources. Can social media be the answer to the job market crisis? Maybe.. But in Brooklyn, blogs were the answer to cracking the case of the crack houses that were operating day and night in Bay Ridge. "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" By MICHAEL WILSON The New York Times June 26, 2008 available at:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html proclaimed that a small neighborhood blog entitled Bay Ridge Talk, led to the arrest of a half dozen people who were dealing drugs and operating crack houses in this vibrant part of Brooklyn. As it turned out, the noise that one neighbor on 93rd street was hearing day and night turned out to be these drug dealing homes, this was later corroborated by several other people flocking to the small blog's site. Over time, the police were able to convict those violators by using the testimonies posted by several blog members. One woman said "there are more of us than them" and through the power of blogging, these sort of crimes came to a screeching halt! This sort of empowerment that this citizen felt over these crime commiserates, begs the question:
can new media lead to major convictions and result in a safer world? I think the answer there is definitely! The term "if you see something, say something" should be taken very seriously, and should be blogged about too apparently!