Reflection of New Media

When embarking on this journey through new media technology, we knew nothing about topics we did know about them but did not reflect on how they affected everyday life and society. Just like Alexander Gram Bell and the telephone to radio and television. New technology from centuries past has evolved into everyday life for most. It seems like yesterday, remembering the bag cell phone was the absolute most astonishing invention, but how that would change the landscape and life as we know it forever. This blog post will review some topics covered in this course and reflect on how that has impacted society today and possibilities for the future in communications and life.

In the beginning, we curated a Wix portfolio of our achievements, resume, and introduction, essentially, an item that will be useful when searching for new employment. From there, we analyzed five media networks and identified a timeline of usage and for what purpose we utilized those networks. In reading the article from Benjamin Peters, here was where we discovered “media was not merely emerging media technologies as it was media with uncertain terms and use. New Media is thought to be new but old media can be considered renewable or constantly changing to meet new needs. Modern Media we discovered passed through five stages:

1. Technical invention

2. Cultural innovation

3. Legal regulation

4. Economic distribution

5. Social mainstream

We reviewed and came to terms with how we use new media and what impact that has had on our lives. Most analogies have utopian representations, but some valid points about new media from a dystopian perspective. However, with anything, it is all about education of the new media and intent for usage. Baym discussed seven concepts, Interactivity, Temporal structure, social cues, storage, replicability, reach, and finally, mobility.

To further expand on some dystopian views, some alluded to the fact that new media would lead us down a dark path. There would be a societal collapse. Violent video games would increase gun violence, robbery, and murder. Sexting leads to teen sex after reviewing debates over dystopian versus Utopian views. Most of the discussion among class members appears to side with the utopian point of view. Teen sex was happening regardless; sexting did not cause it. There was also no direct correlation between video games violence and actual violence or crime rates. These were just ways for populations of people to blame these actions on something since society seems always to want an easy way out., Much easier to blame than to address and tackle the real issues. Gun violence today is still prevalent, and that will always be an ongoing debate.

We reviewed how these new forms of media were assimilated into our culture, continue to advance, and add to their affordances, reach, mobility, camera, microphone, GPS, Gyro meter, internet, and easy to access with a click, swipe, or tap. We reviewed platforms, code, form function- what one can do, interface. Now companies are incorporating the monetary aspects to their platforms. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok. How can the companies make money from these platforms with advertising, likes, and shares? How have platforms changed the lives of some rather ordinary people and raised their popularity to the level of stardom? Advertising existed on these platforms initially, but over time, the developers of the platforms came up with new ways to use the user’s data to perform targeted advertising and algorithms to capture a user’s attention.

We discussed how online communities are developed, what types of people join those communities, and what purpose. Social communities allow for social support, emotional support, esteem support, and building. We also discovered that despite the anonymity of members, there is still online harassment and social inequalities. We touched on gamergate and aspects of doxing, catfishing, and how online dating has changed the fabric of dating in general: social media activism and slacktivism- political purpose with no investment. An example, Black lives matter and Hacktivism, which uses technology to break down government messages specifically: example 4 Chan Generation came to light with YouTube stars emerging, Brands sponsoring YouTube, and how that fame ultimately affected some negatively and others positively.

Five categories of industry practice are Technological, Economic, Cultural, Transmedia, Global and social. We discussed how our media platforms are a form of self-representation and have become a selfie culture. Marwick’s article the state of being famous discusses micro-celebrity celebrities like Tyler Oakley. It further discusses how these micro-celebrities expand their platform followers with collaborative blogs or postings to increase that like or share.

In closing, we all now have a digital footprint, from what we like, search, buy and maybe even say if Alexa is listening. The evolution has genuinely just begun; the future is bright, and one can only imagine the possibilities.