Next New

Coming up with an idea for a form of new media that doesn't exist is a lot harder than it seems.  Alot of ideas have been done already.  What I personally would like to see is new media being used for academics in a better way.  I think a better digital chatroom for school would be interesting.  Let's say I launch this new app and my class is about to start, I get put into a video conference with the other students in my class (this works from phone or computer).  I can ask them questions and we can interact with each other and the professor whether it be by messages, file sharing, or even screen sharing if we need help.  I know things like google hangout exist but it is very slow with screen sharing.  And to work on documents or send files you have to use a separate app. 

Wiki So Far

I have not added anything to the blog yet but I have been doing research to expand on the following sections, Twitch.TV, and health and fitness.  For Twitch, it has recently been in mainstream media a lot with big celebrities appearing on there so Id like to discuss how the platform makes this possible.  Under the health and fitness wiki, id like to specifically work on Instagram fitness and
Social Media’s Effect on Consumer Purchasing.  In the last couple of years new media has made it possible for hundreds of these tiny fitness companies to come to rise, and some end up very successful.

P2P

File sharing is the sharing of computer data, whether it be text, video, music.  Basically any type of digital media can be file shared. P2P file sharing stands for peer to peer file sharing.  Computers on a P2p network can share files with one another easily.  Some examples of P2p file sharing are Spotify and torrents.  Torrents work in that when you try to download them, your system downloads small pieces from multiple uploaders (people who have decided to be a part 0of the P2P network) at the same time.  This is way faster than traditional downloading.  "a user's computer sniffs around for others online who have pieces of the movie. Then it downloads a chunk from several of them simultaneously. Many hands make light work, so the file arrives dozens of times faster than normal" (Thompson).  This is how the torrenting process works.  P2P sharing is very beneficial to anyone who deals with downloading files of any kind.


Thompson, Clive.  "The BitTorrent Effect." https://www.wired.com/2005/01/bittorrent-2/

Privacy

An important part of new media is someone's privacy.  You want to be able to control who views the things you post, and if you wish to remain anonymous, you would like to do that as well.  I think that growing up with new media developing around me I took privacy for granted.  I did not see the big deal in websites getting information like my address, and full name.  I did not even have a password protected phone for most of my life.  I also out no thought into the things I posted when I was younger.  I had absolutely no filter because I figured social media was supposed to be fun.  What I never thought of was the potential of one of my posts coming back to haunt me.  I wasn't thinking about making myself look good.  But the fact that once you post something its on the internet for anyone to see means real privacy is hard to obtain.  Sure I could limit my posts to my friends, but whats to stop them from screenshotting my post, or saving it and showing it to other people.   With new media, new laws need to be introduced to help privacy concerns.  "Ownership, privacy, reputation and decision making are intertwined in subtle ways. What if I posed for a reunion photograph but one of my crazy cousins was dancing on the table behind me? Who controls that family reunion photograph, me, the drunken dancer in the background, the photographer with the smartphone, all of us" (Reed).   Our current laws don't really make it clear whos in possession of the photo in this case.  If its available on the internet does it belong to anybody?

https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/108232-information-privacy-changing-norms-and-expectations/fulltext

Advice

There are a couple ways I believe Baruch could use new media to its advantage. First of all, it is no secret that having a strong social media presence would be beneficial for the school.  They can use social media as a way to market themselves.  In a way, Baruch is a brand.  They want to sell themselves to potential students.  By using a platform such as Instagram or Facebook they can connect with students before they even arrive.  Simply increasing their follower count would go a long way in exposure.  They can use these to feature photos, highlight different professors, students, even courses that are interesting.  Another thing they can do is venture into Snapchat.  A lot of people in the school use it and it could be used for the features mentioned above, and even to promote all the career fairs, internship opportunities and clubs that are going on at the school.

HW Creativity

New media allows for its users to each be creative in their own way.  With so many forms of social media, there are countless ways to express ideas.  You can do it through text, through pictures, through an Instagram story.  Social media provides a medium for anyone to be creative.  This in turn helps social media because it can get ideas from its own user base.  In the New York Times article, "Twitter Serves up Ideas from its Followers," it says the following; "Technology companies have been the most active in relying on others to innovate for them. This is in large part because the Internet lets people exchange ideas easily and rapidly with large groups, and computing tools let people design new products cheaply."  Twitter like many other tech companies, is leaving change and innovation to its users.  With so much software being open source, and almost everyone having access to a computer, the age of new media lets others who couldn't be creative before, express their ideas on a platform where it can be easily seen.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

These virtual worlds can be used in a couple of ways.  They can be used for training purposes.  You wouldn’t need to pack 0 employees into a room for training now when they could all just log in and have their virtual avatar complete the training.  They can also be used just to experience new things or demonstrate new products.  Like in the article “Ive Been in that Club Just not in Real Life,” if someone wanted to visit a place but couldn’t get there physically, it would allow that to happen..  I think the two main pros are the accessibility and the creativeness this offers.  It opens up a whole new platform for artists and designers because now they can design actual worlds.  In the Forbes article, “After second life can virtual worlds get a reboot,” it says “Basically we envisioned it, collected ideas, had brainstorming meetings, and said to ourselves, what if we did this?”  It basically has opened up a new creative outlet.  I do believe that there are some cons though.  The main one being that people can get too immersed in these virtual worlds.  These virtual worlds are not a substitute for human interaction in my opinion. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html?module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Television&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/#41493907735a