I’m currently working on my Master’s in Mass Comm at Texas State University. My previous career was as a high school economics teacher and coach, but after seven years, it was time for a change. The interim goal is to acquire a sports internship, followed by the long-term goal of eventually landing a position as a sports writer for a major publication. I enjoy traveling, playing several different sports and attempting to cook something edible. If you’re interested in sports, check out my sports blog! Also, a more detailed professional background can be found at my Linkedin site. For my random musings, follow me on Twitter.
My definition of new media is a form of information that is interactive for users. Today, users can manipulate their searches like never before, controlling which links to click and which sites are “favorites.”
I also view new media as content and info that can be acquired digitally in real time. New media is the unlimited access of data, both public and (sometimes) private, according to Berners-Lee (2009). Berners-Lee believes that people should provide more of their information to the public in order to share a wider array of knowledge with one another. This grandiose idea may be implausible because there are so many people who are weary of sharing their information to the public because of identity theft.I personally am not paranoid like many people out there because I have nothing to hide, but I do understand their apprehension because some wonder when (or if) the drive to acquire personal information will ever stop.
To me, new media also means easy access and availability, an important component of Negroponte’s drive to deliver laptops to every child in the world (2008). This was very inspiring to watch, a dream of his that came true decades after his predicitions in the 1980s. A school that I once taught at had personal notebooks for each student, yet the quality of the notebook — including the WIFI strength and speed — was subpar. Hopefully these children who are receiving the laptops in impoverished countries are getting enough WIFI strength.
New media is also threatening to many different walks of life. Baron does a fantastic job of articulating how writing (Plato’s contrarian approach), pencils, erasers, telegraphs, telephones, computers and many more innovations were not initially universally loved (1999).
It goes without saying, but new media is also innovative. It is the ability to imagine the future and assess which direction one thinks society should be headed from a technological standpoint. Engelbart believes that the use of technology — including his own development of the mouse, hypertext and networked computers — can help the world cope with numerous complex and urgent issues (1962). We clearly see this today, as several Middle East nations have utilized social media to enact protests and seek national reforms. McLuhan (1964) corroborates this notion of media being a galvanizing force for social change, as he wrote his article during a time when the Civil Rights movement was inspired by television images broadcasted worldwide. McLuhan writes that “the globe is no more than a village,” primarily because the proliferation of various technologies have brought the world closer together than ever before.
It was also incredible to see how several of Negroponte’s predictions, including the iPhone interface, came true some 25 years after his TED talk (1984). Visionaries like the men from the readings and videos are not enough for our future, however, as technology will need new leaders to step forward to help change our planet for the better. I cannot wait to see what technological innovation is thought of next!
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