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!

The Next New Thing

You've all heard of, or most likely even own the social media, Instagram. What if they took Instagram a step further and created Instaclip? Now your Instagram can be clicked on to give more to the picture itself by adding a ten second clip. 

Consider taking a picture of Madison Square Garden, posting it with all your favorite filters, and then being able to click on it to get a glimpse of the event inside. Now your followers can turn that stationary image into a mini experience while they join you at your favorite event!

In thinking of the future of media with platforms such as Prometheus on the horizon, it only makes sense that we start sharing the experience rather than just the moment. I believe this is simply the next evolution in an already vibrant area.

New Media & Society

In today's world, your class mate from high school is a click away. 15 years ago, you had to look in the phone book to track someone down. This can be viewed as a great tool, depending on how and for who it is used.

In my opinion, social media has had more of a positive affect than a negative one. You have LinkedIn helping to create a vast business network, filled with referrals, resumes and resources. On Twitter, we're able to gain access and follow our favorite movie and sports stars, giving us more insight into their off the camera personalities . Facebook allows us to share comments, pictures and events with anyone we choose to share it with, including that old friend/ classmate, or even that cousin in California you haven't seen.

So how can this ever be a bad thing? Seems like a great tool to bring our world closer together to build a bright future of idea sharing and expressions with anyone we choose. The cons in all of this are things like divorce, invasion of privacy, negative influences on our youth and violence. Social media can be used as a weapon when abused. It can cause hurt feelings and broken families. Connecting with people that you shouldn't perhaps? All these things are concerns, especially as these sites continue to grow and more people join? When is it too much?

As someone who hasn't had any issues, I perceive social media as a great tool for me to grow and stay in touch with loved ones and those who would normally be distant. I appreciate social media and pray for those who have abused it to come to grips with the fact that you will get caught. One article I read that due to blogging, five drug dealers were arrested in Brooklyn. This can be used for good, empowering people to make a difference in their own communities and beyond . 

Privacy & Confidentiality

When discussing privacy and confidentiality in relation to social media sites, you often find the LACK THEREOF. This specifically comes into play with sites like FourSquare. For those who are not familiar, FourSquare is a social media network where you can "check in" to places and  you receive awards/badges for checking in the most. One can earn the title of being the Mayor if they have checked in more than anyone else.

There are a few articles about how dangerous it is to check in to a place and have other social media sites accessible by the public. After discussing this with a group of friends, I have found a simple scenario of how one might con you into a situation you should not be in.

John Doe (a stalker and con artist) sees that Jane is attractive and has checked into the bar he is sitting at. Sees her full name and does a search for her on Facebook. Here, he can see an album from 2 years ago about her trip to Italy with friends and sees that she is a party girl who enjoys taking shots. Next, he notices she has a brother named Chris and she attended Fort Hamilton High School. Another in. Now he knows where she went to school and a sibling connection. This is basic information that is usually accessible to the Public. Pending the rest (relationship status, current job, status saying why they are at the bar) he can gather enough to lay the ground work of a super interesting guy who has a lot "in common" with her. Now he can strike up a conversation, mention he went to that school, say he was friends with her brother in college, throw in that he just got back from Italy, and would like to buy her a shot. BOOM. Jane feels like she meets Mr. Right meanwhile he is simply trying to make her Ms. Right Now.

Social Networking privacy issues have been in litigations since they have began. Identity theft, stalkers, divorces, and criminal work all have used these sites for their advantage and unfortunately in this world - there is not much one can do about it. In Facebook's case, you can have extremely strict guidelines on who can see what on your page. You can make yourself unsearchable and hide specific posts and pictures from specific people. They have created all of these settings with your safety in mind with hopes that people think twice about "putting it all out there". I, for one, have certainly used precaution when posting anything a future employer can see or my family can see. You should too.....

Twitter

Twitter is extremely different from both an in class discussion and a blackboard discussion. Twitter discussions (as long as they are tagged correctly) can be seen by all people who follow you, who follow the people you mention, and people who click on the hashtags (if any) that are specified. Others who are not involved in the class or conversation can jump on and reply to those who are discussing the topic. It leaves for a very broad network of communication, un-limiting it to the class alone.
Also, twitter (and all other social media sites) will "follow" you forever - pun intended. 5 semesters from now a new student in this class could hashtag something that we used in our discussion. They can then easily find it for reference. Voila! The class comes full circle, even years later!
The benefit of an in class discussion is that you can actually hear and see the way a person is expressing their thought/idea. When reading the status, a lot could be lost in sincerity, passion, or any real emotion. As wonderful as twitter and social media is for social networking, you can lose a lot in translation as well.

Social Networking Sites

Social Networking has become such a broad way of describing the leisurely online activities people do. While a grandmother might throw them all in one "bucket", I truly see the difference between them all. 

Twitter only allows you to express yourself within 160 characters. To some that is pointless, especially those who have much to say. What I do love about twitter is the introduction to hash-tagging  They created a way to compile all tweets/messages when referring to a specific topic. #brilliant . This allows a huge span of promotions and advertising to be done. I often look at what is trending worldwide out of pure curiosity what people half way around the world care about. (follow me @rjm29). I find it very interesting that people can "follow" you but you don't necessarily have to follow them.

Facebook put a control on what Myspace did not. You have to abide by their profile standards whilst Myspace literally allowed you to create the space however you wanted. In comparison, I preferred the ability to change my profile based on what I was interested in at the moment. In fact, my first impression of Facebook was not good at all because of this. I truly enjoyed choosing a song to play when you arrived at my page. I guess they wanted a more uniform way to compare and contrast pages? Not really sure the purpose of the strict timeline rules. Comparatively to Twitter, on Facebook your friends work both ways rather then one way and you can post anything from pictures, videos, essays, and statuses. Recently, Facebook lifted the 160 character limit on statuses to separate themselves from Twitter.

Through all of this comes a huge dent in the social media market, Instagram. Whoever thought of this was #brilliant. A true collaboration of Facebook and Twitter where you can share your pictures and have followers not friends.

Social Media is only growing and is expanding to the younger and older generations that it might not have touched before. I look forward to seeing the evolution of it. 

Blogs vs. Wiki

For me, I have always looked at my blog as a diary or journal, but kept online. I initially intended to update it daily or weekly, but I lacked the initial inspiration I had. On the other hand, a wiki is a platform that is meant for anyone to update in real time. A blog is owned by an individual whereas wiki is being updated by many people around the world. So personal versus sharing.

For blogs, the timeline is more important. For wikis, when an article was published matters less, because articles are supposed to be updated as new information becomes available. Blog posts are usually one persons' opinion, followed optionally by comments. Wiki articles represent consensus, but can have an associated discussion/talk page. 
A wiki is a superset of a blog. A wiki can host a blog, but not viceversa. Too emulate a blog in a wiki, the wiki page needs to be protected against editing by other users than the author, and a comment widget (e.g. Disqus) needs to be added to the page. 

A wiki allows multiple users to create, modify and organize web page content in a collaborative manner. 
A blog is a Web site that maintains ongoing posts. A blog is frequently updated,a personal Web site featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles or other Web sites. 

Wiki: 

• Multiple Authors, 
• Edited by a group or team, 
• Contains links to other Wiki pages, 
•  Continuously changing and growing rapidly, 
•  Many-to-many communication. 

Blogs:

•  Usually a single author. Sometimes can have multiple contributors, 
• Author posts, user comments, 
•  Opinion Sharing , 
• One-to-many content.