Classmate's Research Presentation

Jongkyung's presentation was about the impact of new media in Korea. I really liked his presentation because it contained very informative material regarding new media's effects in Korea. He started off his presentation by giving us an overall idea of the usage of new media in his country. He then went in depth about his topic, by talking about the various environments new media has had an impact in Korea. First he talked about new media in marketing, how new media has increased revenue numbers in that field. Next, he talked about how even the government is using new media to communicate with people and hear their opinions. Universities in Korea are now using new media as a tool to teach students. Jongkyung talked about cyber universities and how they have been increasing throughout the years. New media has also impacted the world of communication in Korea. In his presentation, Jongkyung also talked about Korea's public safety in the cyber world, more specifically about "Netian", a website that protects people from cyber crime. Lastly, Jongkyung brought up the negative effects new media brought to Korea, which regarded to lack of Internet restrictions among children and the violation of copyrighted material. Overall, I thought his presentation was interesting. He touched on the different ways new media has affected certain areas. He was able to give us specific statistics and examples of websites Korean people actually use. I also liked the fact that he provided us with the negative impacts this phenomenon has had in his country. 

My Term Research Project

For my term research project, I decided to talk about the role of new media in the process of self-promotion. In the beginning of my presentation I gave a quick definition of the term self-promotion, which is simply the promotion of oneself. I also mentioned the traditional ways people usually promoted themselves without new media as a tool. I then introduced the definition of new marketing, which mainly involves the use of the Internet. I spoke about various reasons why online self-promotion has become more popular among musicians, actors, writers, etc. My presentation also included more specific information on these groups of people, like where they promote themselves, how they do it, why they do it online, and which tools they use for self-promotion. I was also able to include information about a website dedicated to tricks and tips for self-promotion. Lastly, I wrapped up my research project with a quick comparison of off-line and online self-promotion. 

Advice to Baruch College

I think a cool way Baruch College can use new media to communicate with faculty and students would be to have text messages (for those who use text messaging) or blackboard alerts. I think it would be really useful to receive alerts straight to your phone or straight to blackboard about when the college is closed, certain deadlines, and which days follow a "monday" or "friday" schedule. It might be a little hard and complicated for Baruch to figure out a way to send text messages to those who can receive them. But it would be nice to get those alerts on Blackboard. Sometimes people forget to check the online calendar for those important dates, and I think that having alerts would easily help students and faculty remember them. 

Old Media v. New Media

Old media mainly represents newspapers, magazines, books, and televisions. On the other hand new media mainly consists of digitalized means like the internet and to some extent cellphones (text messaging). I think that one way the two medias can be distinguished is by how fast they deliver. New media delivers information faster than old media does. For example on the Internet, it would take less time for an individual to find and read about a certain article. What the person needs to do is go to a newspaper website or Google (whenever he/she wants) and type in information that relates to the article. With old media, the person has to wait for a certain time for the news on the TV or has to go out and buy a newspaper (unless he/she gets the newspaper delivered). New media definitely offers various means of communication faster than old media does.  

What have been some of the effects of the new media on society?

New media has impacted our society in different ways. I feel that the new media mainly changed the way we communicate with each other, facilitating and opening new mediums of communication. New media has not only impacted the way we communicate with friends and family, but it has also opened new types of communication among strangers. The different mediums of communication used in new media have allowed people to speak their mind and share knowledge and opinions with the rest of the world. New media has also made it easier for people to retrieve any sort of information. Within seconds, an individual can get answers to his/her questions. In some ways, new media is bringing people a little closer to each other, making it possible for them to interact with each other without the need of physically being in the same place at the same time. 

Checking Out Some Social Networking Sites

There are various types of social networking sites available on the internet. People can choose which ones to join based on their interests. The few networking sites that I have tried so far are MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and YouTube. MySpace was the very first social network I joined. My friend told me to join it, so that she could make me "a friend on MySpace". I really got into at one point because it made it easier for me to quickly keep in touch with friends and share photos. Just before I stopped using MySpace, I noticed that artists and aspiring singers/musicians started promoting their work on the website, making MySpace grow. Facebook was mainly created for college students, but it was quickly made available to anyone who had an e-mail address. Facebook is a little different from MySpace in the sense that it made sharing pictures easier. Facebook allows "tagging" which simply consists of naming the people who are present in the picture. MySpace later picked up on the popularity of "tagging" and made it accessible for their users to tag. Besides the fact that Facebook makes it easier for people to share photos, it also makes it easier for people to comment on "the wall". One downside that Facebook might have is that it doesn't let you customize your page, you are stuck with the plain white and blue default colors. Friendster has been around since 2002 and it is considered to be one of the first social networking sites that got popular. Personally, I feel that it is harder to upload pictures on this website. It recently gave people a chance to add fun applications to their personal pages. One application that MySpace and Facebook do not have, but that Friendster has is that it lets you see who visits your page and how many views your page got throughout the whole month. In the United States Friendster is not that popular, but in the Philippines it is the number one social networking site. Many people may not consider YouTube to be a social network because it was strictly made for videos. I feel that is not the case anymore, and YouTube has turned into another social network. People communicate and meet other people on YouTube by commenting and rating other people's videos. YouTube lets you be friends with other "youtubbers".  This website may not seem like your typical social network, but it is rapidly evolving into one. 

Our Class Wiki- So Far

 I am a contributor for the Entertainment and FAQ pages, but I haven't added any new material for our class wiki yet. I have been doing research on how new media has been slowly increasing the number of people using computers instead of televisions to watch shows, movies, brief documentaries, ect. I will have examples of websites offering videos. I was also thinking of going in depth with how YouTube has given people a way to be entertained by simply searching videos of their interests. For the FAQ page I am planning to add material on what people might ask about our new media class. 

Rough Outline of Book Review

Book: Rule the Web

Author: Mark Frauenfelder

I. Introduction

A. Brief overview

i. Title and author of book

ii. Thesis of the book

iii. Brief introduction of topics in the book

II. Body - Analysis of the major points made in the book

A. Overview of book

B. Analysis of Creating and Sharing

C. Analysis of Media and Entertainment

D. Analysis of Work, Organization, and Productivity

III. Critique of book/ Relation to New Media

A. Audience of the book; how well author carried out the theme 

B. Contributions of book to new media

C. Relation of the the book to what we learn in class

IV. Conclusion

A. Personal opinion about the book

Social Networking and Virtual Worlds

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used?

Social networks and virtual worlds can be used to keep in touch with people and meet new friends. On the corporate level, these technologies can be and in some cases are used to the business' advantage. Some firms use social networks to recruit people as mentioned in the reading, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting". A popular website used to find new employees is Linkedin, that as shown in the website has "Over 25 millions professionals" using it. Other companies may use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to advertise their products. These ads can be seen on the sides or top and bottom of a user's page. Virtual worlds like Second Life can be used in the corporate world to hold virtual meetings. It would be easier and cheaper for employees to log on a program like Second Life and privately hold meetings. IBM uses virtual worlds to mentor and sometimes even train their new employees. 

What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Be specific.

As explained in the article, "Naughty Auties Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction", virtual worlds can help autistic people improve their social skills. By using these types of technologies they can slowly learn how to comfortably communicate and express their feelings with other individuals. 

Is there a "dark side"?

Yes, there is definitely a dark side to social networks and virtual worlds. These technologies give multiple chances for predators to target innocent users with their bad intentions.

Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future.

I think that social networking and virtual worlds will definitely change the way we communicate with one another even more. I feel that the usage of telephones or cellphones, and live conversations may decrease because of these technologies. Social networks and virtual worlds make it easier for people to communicate because in some cases it is instant and less formal.

Term Research Project Sources

http://selfhelpsalon.typepad.com/painless_self_promo/2007/03/using_my_space_.htmlhttp://www.weberbooks.com/2006/11/using-myspace-for-book-promotion-and.html

Bloggers insight on the usage of MySpace to promote a book.

http://marketingsellingbooks.suite101.com/article.cfm/using_the_web_to_sell_your_book

Using the internet to promote a book.

http://emusician.com/tutorials/emusic_myspace_musicians/

A How To promote yourself as a musician on MySpace. 

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2004/12/65927

An article about a study on how internet is a helpful promotional tool for musicians. 

http://www.craftedweb.com/website-content/how-to-use-online-video-to-promote-your-art/

How posting up videos can help promote your art. 

http://selfpromotion.com/

A website giving people tips and facts on how to self promote your site. 

http://www.youtube.com/

I have been watching several individuals promoting themselves through the internet. Through this research I have been taking down notes on how people try to promote themselves through videos. 

Note: More sources will be used as I continue my research. 

Blogs vs Wikis

Blogs and wikis are tools used to share information with people about certain subjects. Blogs though are a little different from wikis because they are less formal, therefore more personal. When a person blogs, he or she usually expresses opinions about a certain matter along with some facts. Comments are accepted on blogs, giving the writer and the reader a chance to interact with each other and exchange thoughts. Also in blogs, people can add photos, music, and videos. Unlike blogs, wikis are mostly based on facts of a certain subject. As said in Wikipedia, anyone can add and edit information on a wiki. 

My New Media Class- So Far

The New Media course that I am taking turned out to be quite interesting. No, I'm not saying that to please anyone, but this class has given me a different perspective about new media. In this class I am challenged to think about how new media and its' components play a big role in many different topics, such as entertainment, business, politics, and so on. 

New Media is made up of different technologies. The main new media element that is used worldwide is the internet. As mentioned in the reading "The New Media Technologies: Overview and Reseach Framework", some new media tools used on the internet include blogs, virtual words, social networks, and wikis. Other new media technologies include cellphones, computer games, and computers in general. 

As I have mentioned before I feel that the Internet is the main component that represents new media. If the internet did not exist, new media would be very limited. The internet is the main tool that lets us communicate faster and easier and the internet made it extremely easy for people to retrieve any sort of information. New Media is digital and computerized technology  and that is what the internet represents. 

New media is quickly enhancing old media. Old media such as books, magazines, newspapers, and television, are being replaced by blogs, wikis, search engines on the internet, and cellphones as well. Unlike old media, new media gives us what we need quicker. Nowadays people want things right away,  and that is what new media provides us. Today we can even get information from our cellphones. The article "Yahoo's Answer to Speech Recognition for Your Cellphone" tells us that now it's possible to get your questions answered with just the use of a cellphone, thanks to a free service called Cha Cha. New media is definitely saving us time and maybe that is why right now it is more popular than old media.

"The Blogging Show"

This morning I turned on the TV while getting ready for school hoping to catch the last few minutes of  the TODAY show, but instead The Martha Steward Show (not really a big fan, but the topic of the show caught my attention) came up and guess what the topic for the day was? BLOGS. She basically dedicated the entire show to blogs, talking about what they are, the method of blogging, and she also had a few bloggers as her guests. I couldn't really watch the whole show, but I found some clips on YouTube and I will also post her show's website.

I thought it was kind of funny that this came up on TV after we learned and talked about blogs in class. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/affiliateinfo

My Definition of New Media

In the world we live today, most people want to do things in a fast and easy way. I feel that new media has enabled us to do exactly that. New Media, more specifically the internet, mainly allows us to get information and communicate by simply clicking a few buttons. Websites like Google, Yahoo, and Wikipedia make finding information about anything and everything easier than it was before. New Media also cut out the difficulty in communicating with one another. E-mail, communication programs like MSN Messenger or AIM, and websites like MySpace and Facebook, are just a few means of communication available on the internet. More specifically New Media as mentioned in Wikipedia is, "the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the latter part of the 20th century."

Term Project

The title of my term project will be, Self-Promotion: The New Media as Agent. I will mainly discuss how new media has impacted the way people such as actors, singers, comedians, photographers, and others promote themselves. New Media definitely improved and made it easier for people to put themselves out there. Whether you post a video on YouTube, upload your music on MySpace, or simply write something on a blog, someone out there will read or see your work. I will go into detail about the different ways people decide to promote themselves using new media, and also have a couple of specific examples of people who started putting their work for the public to see through new media and who are now recognized by people. I don't want to give my whole project away but I hope this brief description gave you an idea of what I will be talking about. I will update you guys here and there about how it's coming along. 

Intro

Hey guys. 

Wow, I think the last time I wrote something on a blog was during my xanga days. It feels a little weird to be writing my thoughts again since I haven't done it in a while, but I feel like this is going to be an interesting assignment. I'm looking forward to read what you guys have to say about new media and also share my opinions with you. 

-Abby