Next New

The new media I believe could happen in the future is VR television and books. There are going to be digital books and televisions that are going to be compatible with various VR headsets so you could be immersed in the book you are reading and the tv shows you are watching.  For instance, you are reading a science fiction book, and after you have followed the procedures to connect your headset to the book, you can see the characters and the scenes that are playing out while the narrator speaks. It would be amazing to see something like this happening in the future. 

Wiki So Far

So far, I have been working on the Marketing page on our class wiki, even though it had a lot of content already, I decided to edit and remake the page. I felt that the page needed up to date information on marketing, like the marketing trends that are happening now, such as the marketing tools, the new avenues marketers are going, and how it is being seen in today's world. I am not finished with the page as yet; there is still some more information that is needed.

P2P

File sharing is the public or private sharing of computer data in a network. The files that are shared can be accessed by individuals that are on that same network. File sharing allows a number of people to use the same file, being able to read or view it, write to or modify it, copy it, or print it. P2P, on the other hand, is a type of file sharing that allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program that searches for other connected computers on a P2P network to locate the desired content. For example, a film called 'Steal This Film' was shared on P2P sites such as Pirate Bay, BitTorrent, etc.., allowing over 3 million people to watch the film, according to Jamie King. Another example of P2P sharing is downloading music on sites like BitTorrent, and Free Music Download, when they aren't even available to be downloaded for free.

Take Advantage of P2P - not fear it by Jamie King, New Media Age. London: Nov 22, 2007. pg. 19

Privacy

In this new media era, there have been an increasing amount of alarm for data protection. It is easier than ever to collect personal data of consumers/everyday people, and big internet driven companies such as Facebook, Google, etc use this to make  a profit. Google for instance, uses our search history to find patterns and habits and then sell them to companies that offers products and services that they think would be a fit for us. Since most things are digital now, most people's data are in a system, and those data are at a high risk, because hackers can breach the system to collect those data. For example, Target had a data breach and approximately 40 million customers credit card information was stolen. Now, websites require you to enable cookies, which stores your data, so next time you're on that site it will be easier for you, but they could use this data to sell it to companies that are interested in selling products and services to you. Recently, the question of  'do we really have privacy?' have been resurfacing very frequently.

Advice

If I was to use to new media Baruch College to improve the college, I would try to create this online class where you can see the professor and other classmates, like a Skype for class. If the professor can't meet in a physical classroom that day, he or she would have the option to do an online classroom. This would be a unique feature for every class in Baruch. 

Creativity and New Media

With new media, I was able to create a fake message room and add it to a screen, so that I could show a snapshot of  how I would like a current sorts application to look in the future. I used a program called Photoshop that allows you to create new images from older ones. In the past, it didn't existed, or you would have to go to a professional, but now anyone can do things like this. And to show you what I did, I'll show you screenshots of the beginning to the end of what i did with Photoshop. 

As you can see I combined 3 photos to make it one, so it could seem as if it is a real thing, and I've also changed the words in the chat so it could seem as if they were talking about the game.

Creativity

The media has gone a long way to be what it is today. In the past, books, magazines, television, etc were considered to be new media, but as time passed technology has been a huge influence over these mediums; now we have things such as social media, Skype, electronic books, and many more evolved media. These new medias emphasize connectivity, interactivity, and freedom of expression. These three things I believe to be important components to be creative; with the ability to connect with others from all over the world, and to able to say whatever your mind conjure up, makes it possible to get new ideas and create a bond with others. Creating new ideas, doesn't always happen with one brilliant moment, but through the borrowing of other ideas and adding to it. For instance, in the article Creators, Audience and New Media they stated that, "Creators may be inspired by the ideas of a particular audience... the audience may use these works in their own creations. This shows how the sharing and expression of multiple ideas with each other could lead to more new ideas, thus making media a hub of creativity.





Creators, Audiences, and New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment 

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual reality maybe limited right now, but it has some use for today's society that ranges from video games to simulations of real life situations. For instance, there is a virtual reality program that prepares nurses for future situations that would occur in the hospital and the emergency room, according to the Wall Street Journal. Virtual Reality helps with creativity, by allowing participants to take more risks to actually do what they believe they are capable of. It helps to prepare someone for real life situations, and also to connect with each other in ways that we didn't think was capable. It also has its cons as well. A prime example of this is that it could influence someone's behavior, especially if that person is an impressionable kid. For example, "The researchers recruited 194 undergraduates to participate in two supposedly unrelated studies.The participants were randomly assigned to play as Superman (a heroic avatar), Voldemort (a villainous avatar)...Participants who
played as Superman poured, on average, nearly twice as much chocolate as chilli sauce..Participants who played as Voldemort, on the other hand, poured out nearly twice as much of the spicy chilli sauce than they did chocolate."(Virtual). Virtual Reality may have its hiccups but I believe it can grow exponentially, and take over social media space, even to the way that business hold meetings.







"Avatar II: The Hospital" by Stephanie Simon, The Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2010

http://www.health24.com/Mental-Health/News/Virtual-world-may-impact-real-world-behaviour-20140210 or below.

Blog about Twitter

A discussion on twitter is very different compared to a discussion on blackboard and in class. Unlike blackboard, you can't just write under someone else's post and they'll see it, you would have to @ the person who you are talking to, so that they will know that you're mentioning them in your response. Also it is way harder to get all your thoughts down in one go, compared to an  in-class discussion because of character limitations. In class you can talk as much you want, so you can say all your thoughts and ideas without having to write as much in one post then start a next post to complete it.

Social Networking Sites

There are many social networking sites out there nowadays, but some are a cut above the rest. For instance, these 4 sites are regarded as the top social network sites right now, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Each of these platforms has a feature that makes them very unique, and sort of gives them the edge. Twitter has its 140 character posts , which is unique to that website. Facebook has posts, photo sharing, messaging, and a lot more features that would make it the ultimate social network site. Snapchat, has it instant photo and video sharing feature with a lot of cool filters, and Instagram has same feature as snapchat but it gives the option of liking and commenting. First time I went on twitter it seemed cool, but its very limiting in terms of what one can say in one post. I look at twitter as a site for people who just has a little thought on their mind they want to share. For that reason it didn't really stuck on me, but Facebook on the other hand, was really impressive. You can post without any character limitation, photos and videos with ease, chat with one person or groups, there were a lot of things that  appealed to me, but now it has a lot of ads which got annoying. Snapchat was a great idea, a great site to post a quick photo or a video with the utmost ease. Instagram to me is the best one out of the 4, because its about photos and videos and you can get likes and comments on your photos or videos. On Instagram you'll see mostly people taking pictures of mostly food, new places they have been to, and lot of stuff you won't normally see, so that site is the best for that. Plus with its filters, it makes the posts look even better.

Blog Social networking

Social Networking technology has made a more convenient world today as compared to the past. Social Networking created a small world with billions of people being able to connect and reach out to their intended target, without bumping into a lot of bodies. Social Networking technologies have a wide range of use, for instance, connect with friends, promote your business, tell the world your opinions, and also business uses it to recruit employees. For example," Linkedin, a network of 8 million professionals spread across the world. Linkedin says users include executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies. Typing keywords into a search engine, Crawford can scrape the entire network to dig out high-quality candidates that she can't find elsewhere." It makes businesses reach out to more qualified prospects, instead of filtering out the many applications they receive daily. Usually when something is so beneficial, there must be a downside to balance it out so to speak. Along with the convenience social networking brings, there also problem that involves scammers. A double-edge sword it can be, since these platforms allow people to be whoever they want to be, so it is difficult to decipher who from who. Another problem social networking faces, is that the opinions being posted can have a huge impact on someones life and decision making. In the case of cyber bullying; usually in the past one could go home at the end of school and not be bullied, but since modern times the bullies could reach their victims through cyberspace and it could cause serious psychological problems for that person. Or even something as giving a bad movie 5 stars, could change the viewers decision making process. If that person sees that 5 star rating enough, they will go out and see that movie, and that movie doesn't even has to be a good movie. For instance, "When searching online for a new gadget to buy or a movie to rent, many people pay close attention to the number of stars awarded by customer-reviewers on popular websites. But new research confirms what some may already suspect: those ratings can easily be swayed by a small group of highly active users." Social Networking has its pros and cons, but I believe it could develop more in the future. Maybe it could develop into this virtual reality realm where connecting feels very real and authentic.


1. Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

2. Can you trust crowd wisdom? by Kristina Grifantini, MIT Technology Review, Sept 16, 2009. Available at: http://www.technologyreview.com/web/23477/?a=f

Blog v Wiki

In the world we live in today, there are various forms of communication platforms that are used to share information. For instance, Blogs and Wikis are two of the many platforms used to share information. Blogs are websites that are updated ever so frequently with information of wide ranging topics, and so are Wikis. But make no mistake these platforms are also different. The things that separates blogs from wikis, are the ways in which this information is presented and controlled and the features of the websites. Blogs are more personal logs of information, doesn’t have to be factual information, it is more like opinion based. For example, Wal-Mart had an unfiltered blog where employees and customers criticized the various products they offer through their suppliers. One of the employees posted, “Is it really all that and a bag of chips?” he wrote on his blog. “My life has not changed dramatically — well, for that matter, it hasn’t changed at all.” Blogs also enable users to interact with each other through comments, so they could engage in conversations. This function could allow companies to use blogs to interact with their target market, and be able to collab and create a product or service of value. This could save businesses a lot of money on research, when they could simple start interacting with their consumers. However, Wikis are factual information driven. Wiki doesn’t give the luxury of commenting, so interaction would be non-existent, perhaps it’s mostly factual information and one cannot argue against a fact. Business wouldn’t be able to use wiki to engage with their consumers like how they can with a blog. But, what they can do is present information in a form of a background about their organization. For instance, “Tony Pagliarulo, VP of application development with information technology vendor EMC, and his team were building a knowledge management system three years ago and needed a way to organize in one place all of the schedules, code and other details of the project. He chose a wiki—a software application that allows groups of users to create, edit and comment on online documents—so that each team member could contribute and access up-to-date information on the project.”For right now, wiki is very limited, but maybe it will develop a new feature that will prove very beneficial, such as a way to interact with the contributors.

Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write a Blunt and Unfiltered Blog, NY Times, march 3, 2008, p. C1, at:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03walmart.html
Wiki While You Work; The technology popularized by Wikipedia can help companies gather and manage their own collective knowledge. Here's how to get started by Margaret Locher. CIO, May 1, 2008. Vol. 21, Iss. 14. Available at: http://www.cio.com/article/336818/More_on_How_to_Build_Your_Own_Wikipedia

Social Media and Football

I will be doing a research on how social media outlets have had an impact on the game that has been cherished by billions for centuries. In this research, I will hope to show physical changes of how the fans and athletes themselves approach the game in the modern era versus the past, before all the new media platforms emerged. I also want to uncover if these changes are instrumental or detrimental to the sport. Interviews, simple exchanges between athletes and fans on these new media, and observations of the fans while watching the games will be vital for this research to be as accurate as  possible. Social media is everywhere, in almost everything; let's see if it is doing more good than harm, if any at all.

Introduction

Hey! This is Stephon's Blog, it is a new one, where I will be posting interesting content. I can't wait to see how this turns out.