Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Next New Thing

  It hard to forecast the future of new media.  Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were all created within the last ten year and multiple new media tools seam to be introduced on a daily basis. The current uses of new media are to connect with friends, build professional networks, and discover new things.


  I think new media will shift towards putting together all of the uses of current new media tools. People use different social media sites because they have different purposes. This creates a barrier and Instagram is one of the better platforms for sharing pictures or Twitter is the best use of a micro blog, people are not allowed to share everything to everyone in their network or expand their network outside of the platforms they use.


  An issue with a single platform is privacy, however I think whichever new media platform that is the leader of the shift will have better privacy and security measures than all of the current platforms. While its hard to tell what this platform may be or when its coming, I think new media will ultimately bring all the functions of current new media together.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

P2P File Sharing

   File sharing is the use of devices or applications that allow users to give different kinds of files to others. Devices that could be used for file sharing are USB drives, CD's and SD cards.
Examples of files that could be shared are PDFs and MP3s but there are others. Peer to Peer file sharing are internet applications that gives people the abilty to share files.

  Many P2P sharing have been associated with illegal downloads of music, movies, book and other forms of entertainment.  Napster was one of the first P2p sites that allowed users to share and  download music files from others, but it was shut down in  2001 after lawsuits from various musically artists. According to The Motion Picture Association of America, in 2009, illegal downloads from P2P sites led to forty percent loss in total movie revenue (Stelter,Stone).One well known P2P file sharing app is BitTorrent, allows users to download files artist put on the site at various prices.

Stelter, Brian, and Brad Stone. "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Major Hollywood Studios." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Feb. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Advice

  New media is a great way to market different activities and services in Baruch College that is beneficial to the students but are sometimes under promoted. Email and posters are great way to inform students about different services but new media would bring bigger attendances and more interest to different events around the school.

  New media has helped promote sporting events in Baruch. We have about 15 sports teams in Baruch and over 200 student athletes who play on those teams. Baruch should help promote both the students's athletic and academic achievements. The athletic department already has a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which highlight athletes and various events. Admissions has also used new media to promote prospective students. They also use Facebook and Instagram to promote to new students. Its a great to show off different facilities and services in Baruch.
 
   My advise for the the College is use the resources that the other departments use. Also promote the College through out the school in other ways.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Creativity and Going Viral

 There have always been people who have creatively commented on society and popular culture in history with the use of cartoons, satire, parody, or through other ways of creativity expression. The well known examples are Voltaire's "Candide" and Saturday Night Live. In the past television, radio, newspapers, and other medias displayed these commentaries.


  With better technology to create material and new media like YouTube and social media, anyone can make and post their parodies or any creative works and it instantly reaches millions of people. This phenomenon, called Going Viral, makes videos, memes, and mashups, popular through sharing on the internet. One example of Going Viral, was the mashup of Disney and Nickelodeon shows with popular rap songs. Both companies are very protective of their properties but allowed people to create these mashup without having force YouTube to take them down (Barnes).


  I think Viral post can make people engaged with current events and new topics. While, there is an oversaturation of viral videos on the internet, the ones that are of really great quality, become memorable.


Barnes, Brooks. "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2007. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

  Virtual Worlds are computer programs created to emulate things people do in their lives  and build online communities. Users create virtual versions of themselves, usually called avatars. Avatars in these world can meet others, go to social functions, go shopping, or a bunch of other things that individuals do daily. People who are not familiar with virtual worlds may think of them as video games, but while games are created with a story which eventually ends and makes characters go through a progression system, Virtual Worlds do not have story and there is no leveling up for avatars.

  Many Virtual Worlds are used by people to mirror reality. The most well known example of this is Second Life. There are lots of virtual world that focus on one community; users are people who have interest in that community and can meet others with similar interest. One segment where virtual world have been successful is with children and tweens. Brands like Mattel, Hasbro, Russ Berrie have launched virtual portals. There have been Virtual Worlds that connect employees of different corporations. People are able meet others and share content with people they would have not met with the online communities.

  Virtual Worlds allow people to get to know one another and collaborate without the physical interaction. According to Annie Ok, who has created avatars in many Virtual World, interactions in places like Second Life are just like ones in reality because people are communicating as themselves (Itzkoof). It also allows brands to promote and sell products. The tween store, Limited Too, 11% of store transaction were from a virtual portal product in one quarter of 2007 (Hindo).
 
  However there are issues with virtual worlds. Often you can buy clothing, and other amenities for your avatar. Many Virtual Worlds use actual currency, which may lead over spending for things that aren't tangible. Also the success of the Virtual World may depend on how many users the world has. Without a large community, users can meet the same people over and over. Lastly being part of a virtual world may take a lot of time. While users can log on anytime, but they may feel connected to their avatars and the online communities and spend more time in virtual world than doing things outside of them.

  For me the future of Virtual Worlds seem to be a niche one. Not only are there many other ways to connect with a many people, the other ways are easier to use, much less time consuming, and have a specific purpose other than creating a life online to mirror your own. So while, I think they will exist in  the future, more people would prefer to use multiplayer games and social media to connect to new people.

Works Cited
Hindo, Brian. "Toys with a Second Life." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 19 Dec. 2007. Web. 19
 Itzkoff, Dave. "I've Been In That Club, Just Not In Real Life." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Jan. 2008. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.


Monday, October 13, 2014

Twitter discussion

Twitter is a great way to have a discussion on the all kinds of topics. There are over 200 million users who post on Twitter, so there is a constant dialogue about things that people care about. Its easy to post to Twitter and it only allows users to post with only 140 characters. With the use of hashtags, anyone can search all post that are about a particular topic.

Twitter is a good tool as opposed to discussion board or in class discussion because anyone can easily connect with other and post their opinions.Since there are hashtags, users can search what other people in Twitter are saying about a certain topic. The ability to connect to people gives Twitter the advantage over discussion board and in class.

The ability to connect to a lot of people can also be an disadvantage Twitter has.  Only people with access to the discussion board or people in the class would know about the discussion that is taking place. While Twitter accounts could be set to private, Tweets could be seen by a large amount of people. Also since Twitter limits post to contain 140 characters, someone opinion may not be fully represented.

There are situations where Twitter is a better tool to use than discussion board or in class. It could be accessed anywhere and anyone can see what others have posted. However, since not a lot of information can be post and because the ease for people to have access to it there may be certain topics that are better to post on other forms of media.

The Social Networks

 Facebook, Myspace, Twitter,  and Instagram are part of a large group of websites and applications called social networks which connects people all over the world through common interest and mutual friends. These social networking have similar functions but do not work the same and there are clear distinctions between how each social networking app works.

 Facebook connects people with their friends and and friend of friends. Anyone signed on to the site can write post on their own timeline or their friends' pages . It allows its user to add pictures, videos   and links to their post. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites, as of June Facebook claims to have 1.32 billion users. It's creation was also the subject as an Academy Award winning film, the Social Network.

 Myspace is a site that went through changes through out the years. It was created in 2003 and what arguable the most popular social networking sites until the rise of Facebook. At its height it had about 300 million users. On Myspace people connected with others by posting links on their bulletin board. It also had a lot of customization features and many users posted their art work and music to the site. However the difficultly of using the social networking site and the rise of Facebook, lead Myspace to re brand itself a couple of years back.

 Twitter is allows users to publish post and allows for the public to view them, similar to a blog. Unlike a blog however, only 140 characters can be posted. It was the first social networking site to use hash-tags, which users could use to find multiple post about one topic. Many organizations, politicians and celebrities use twitter to connect with the public. According to Twitter, there are about 271 million active users monthly and about 500 million tweets are sent each day.

 Instagram is a newer social networking site. Post consist of pictures that sometimes have a caption and in 2013, Instagram allowed users to post fifteen second videos. It launched in 2010 and has over 200 million users who post about 60 million photos a day according to Instagram. Like Twitter, it many of its users are organizations and celebrities who share pictures to connect with the public.