New Media - What is it?

Is it surfing the web and browsing all the information? Or is it just another Facebook or Twitter to keep ourselves socially busy? Is it some kind of geeky language or AI away from mainstream life? Does NM even help us anywhere? To understand New Media (NM), it is important to understand what NM does.

What are the tools of NM?
An answer to this will clarify a bundle of questions.
Some examples of NM are:
- Cell phone
- Interactive TV
- Computer
- Software, databases
- eBook readers from Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Nobles' nook

What are the tools of Old Media? Some examples are:
- Rotary phone
- Radio
- Books and magazines
- Calculator

How are the old tools enhanced by NM?
To give some examples from class readings on Old Media vs. New Media, and as is common knowledge now, books are being replaced by eBooks that can be carried around on Kindle or nook. One eBook reader can carry hundreds of books in a digital format. Traditional paper journalism is being replaced (although not entirely) by blogs like this one where anyone can express and publish without any restraint (Claire Cain Miller). Land line phones are being taken over by VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) making it dirt cheap to talk to your friends or family in any part of the world. Printed photographs are on the verge of extinction and being replaced by online albums on Flickr or Picasa for sharing and commenting. This is actually making photography a lot more affordable for ordinary people compared to just 10 years ago. A calculator was also a NM at one point of time. Same with the invention of radio. But today's NM consists of interactive devices, a TV where we can send our responses to a poll originated in a TV studio or digital radio where song information and lyrics are relayed along with the song and if you like that song you can mark it for future download from the radio station's website. Or better yet, use a Podcast service to bring it directly to your listening device (Daniel Terdiman).

How has Internet helped fuel the development of NM?
However, NM is not just a tool, not just a device, not just an idea or phenomenon. NM is a collective concept of all the above that changes the way we communicate, gain knowledge, interact and inform others by using the latest innovations and technologies. Speedy transfer of information/interaction plays a very important role. An invaluable tool/medium is the Internet. You will not be able to read this if it were not for Internet web sites or browsing. As if watching TV on a computer is not enough, today even an air-conditioner or oven or DVR or TiVo in your home can be turned on or off by a few clicks from your office miles away - made possible by networking and Internet (Holson Laura). Almost all of the tools of NM are dependent on the Internet. Take for example the song marking action. This would not even exist were it not for Internet. And nor would Facebook where people grow vegetables and cultivate crops on cyber farms to satisfy their need for creativity and increase their social connections (online).

In today's world, we can safely say that NM tools and techniques facilitated by the Internet are revolutionizing the way we humans live.