My New Media Class - So Far

So far, I realize this class is not a typical course that involves memorizing facts and taking a cumulative exam based on those facts. This class is based on facts that change over time so there is always new information to learn about New Media. The class incorporates the impacts of computer technology and social networking. It's purpose is to give you insight on how you can "broaden your horizons" and use New Media to your advantage. Instead of studying from a textbook, you learn by exploring the internet. Besides computers, New Media involves other technology such as cellphones, televisions, radios, etc. The internet is actually crucial for the new media since it allows people to broadcast just about anything to everyone. In fact, the new media has a lot to do with advertising and using the internet for business purposes. A good example of someone who used new media to his advantage is David Levy. According to an article by Tom Lowry called Turner's Secret Web Weapon, Levy used a broadcasting system to connect television to the web. He teamed up with popular organizations like Nascar and added certain features on the internet which helped Nascar advertise to a broader band of fans.
The new media today has improved advertisement in general. With the old media you might just see a commercial on TV that a certain company created, but with the new media that same commercial can be viewed by millions of people who, lets say, do not watch TV (or that particular channel). With old media, companies would pick which channel and what time they wanted their commercial to air based on the preferred target audience that would be viewing the commercial. With new media, marketers can place ads on the web as well TV, and place ads on the websites that are visited by the targeted audience. And thanks to search engines such as yahoo and google, those same ads can pop up to a random viewer who is just browsing and draw his/her attention.
To sum it all up, the new media has helped many marketers improve their business and it has revolutionized advertising. I think that anyone who takes the time to learn computers and the way programs are run can incorporate some of their interests with that knowledge and continue to expand new media.

NEW MEDIA

New Media, according to me, has a lot to do with people communicating/interacting via the internet. "New Media" definitely makes the world a little smaller because everyone can create something and broadcast it for others to view. People even meet their future spouses on the internet nowadays!?! On one hand New Media is good because it triggers creativity. People like the idea of creating something on the internet that is all about them: their pictures, their hobbies, their whole life story...etc. and people also like the idea of other people viewing what they created. No one is forced to use the internet; people choose the websites they log onto and the things that they view. On the other hand New Media allows for fewer social interactions (physical communication).

YouTube - Harmless to Broadcast Yourself?

YouTube, as we all know, is a website that allows people to upload videos onto the internet, onto this website. This website was created in 2005, which is not that long ago, and has greatly increased in popularity since then. Anyone can upload practically any video (except something like porn) so that anyone that goes on YouTube can view it. That means there is a wide variety of videos out there. You can search the word "dog" and hundreds of videos with dogs or related to dogs will pop up. You can view funny videos, informative videos, scary videos, just plain disgusting videos, etc. But is it harmless to allow people to broadcast themselves (and others..)? Does this website serve any productive purpose? That is what I would like to analyze in my term project. I want to discuss the different types of things people upload on YouTube such as videoblogs, embarassing videos of friends, etc. and if there is any harm in such things or if it actually serves any good purpose.