Blogs vs Wikis

New media tools like blogs and wikis have made the internet so much more user friendly. Anyone with a internet connection can start a blog or wiki, one can then share ones thoughts and facts with everyone.

These tools differ from one another in that blogs are [usually] created by one person. That person can then write a topic of interest and allow others to comment on what that person has written. You can personalize and focus your blog on about anything you wish, for instance if you are interested about celebrity news you can go onto one of these celebrity gossip blogs and catch the latest photos. The blog moderators can then have the complete freedom of saying whatever they want to say about these photos and the celebrities without being held back http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/26280/celebrity_blogs_the_impact_of_new_media_pg3.html?cat=49 .

Wikis function in a different way. Wikis allow multiple people to collaborate together on a field of interest. This allows people to fix and change information right on ones computer; once the information is changed other people in collaboration with the wiki can see the change right away, making things that much more convenient. Popular sites like Wikipedia has become the world's largest encyclopedia because of the vast amount of people contributing, a global collaboration if you will. You can even write a wiki about yourself and have people contribute and add to it as well http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/media/04link.html?_r=1.

Old vs. New

'New' media are basically the latest evolution of 'old' media. For example, the basic telephone attached to a cord are now wireless smartphones with various abilities, such as email push so that you can receive your email right on your phone the moment it reaches your inbox. Printed newspapers has now become blogs and web articles which allows you to get news as it's happening.

One of the major benefits of new media is that you are now able to get information extremely fast compare to that of old media. Staying connected with some friends and family has also become very easy. For instance networking sites like facebook and myspace allows you to share videos and photos with anyone you want; whereas normally with old media, you would have to email them and before that send through postal services.

Project description: 'Social Networking: Better or worse than the real thing?'

Some key points I will like to address are how people act one way in real life and a completely different way online. And how this is affecting the way everyone is communicating nowadays. I also want to address how social networking has affected the new generation, are they more privilege by it or more deprive because of it? Basically I want to have key points for both sides of the argument (advantages vs disadvantages) and then provide the outcome. I will do this by using the databases available, news articles, blogs, and personal and friends experiences.

What is New Media?

Some technologies that are part of new media would be social networking sites, google search, wikis, blogs, and recently mobile technologies. New media has made the world a smaller place by allowing everyone and anyone with a computer to get information and stay connected with each other anywhere and anytime. Information gets passed on within minutes of occurrence for instance, " Jackson died at 2.26pm, LA time. At 2.44pm, TMZ informed the world of his death." (Brook, Michael Jackson: how celebrity gossip site TMZ got scoop of the decade).

Mobile technology has really advance in the few years as stated in the recent Forbes.com article, which said how websites are using text messages to help earthquake victims in Haiti. "Found a school that sent an emergency text for a live entrapment of kids… SAR team now dispatched to the right location to five decimal places" (Forrest, Technology Saves Lives in Haiti), we can expect more people to be helped by utilizing this technology. Think about possible future use of this tech, such as helping wounded soldiers and lost hikers etc.

Before, only people with advance technological skills and mucho money can put things up on the internet, but now anyone who wants to post something or upload a video on the internet can do so with just a few clicks of their mouse. Tools like youtube and photoshop has attended to all aspiring and amateur producers and developers etc. The internet is now an open source for everyone to play and have fun with. But, with so many people doing this, there's bound to be a lot of useless and unreliable things on the internet as well.

CNN, New York Times, to name a few were all consider to be 'old media'. Newspaper prints and television programs wasn't enough for the new media world (along with the new consumer trend) resulting in these old media's to advance with everything else. When new news come out, these big companies can have their stories up on the web rather than having to print it on paper, making information that much more accessible. Old media is simply enhanced and not replaced because again with everyone putting things up on the web, there will be a lot of unreliable information, this is when we look toward old media. We look for names we're familiar with and use their information instead of the various other sources on the web when we need to make a critical decision.

There is definitely different oppositions one can take on new and old media such as, "No one is going to mistake their 13-inch laptop screen for a 50-inch high-definition plasma" (Holson, Who Needs a TV? I'm Watching on a Laptop). There are things that the old excels in and things that the new excels in, but ultimately I believe the future is New Media.