Next New

There are numerous fan clubs across the internet. If there was a new media tool that combined all the fan clubs in one website, it will eliminate the hassle of searching for fan clubs and it will be easier to join one. It would incorporate global fan bases. Fan clubs could be categorized based on a celebrities location, genre, gender, ethnicity, and so on. This would allow people to easily search for a fan club and look up information on a specific celebrity. Users can ""follow" specific fan pages for updates, which is similar to Twitter. Updates will also be displayed on the website's news feed and it will direct us to individual websites of the fan clubs. This is also great for those who are fans of multiple celebrities, so they can easily monitor the events of the celebrities that they follow.

P2P

With today's technology and the power of the internet, file sharing has become a big part of the internet. File Sharing is the sharing of digital content and sharing the access to these digital content. As a result of technology, P2P file sharing is something that is very common today. P2P file sharing is the sharing of digital content between many users. Users are connected through networks and content is shared within these networks. 

Books, music, video, movies are examples of files that shared in P2P file sharing. This often leads to the issue of illegal content downloads. In the article, "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios", users are using a peer-to-peer technology known as BitTorrent, which has a slow download process, making it easy for users to easily download free movies. Users are so knowledgeable about the internet that it is extremely easy for them to look for free content on the website (Stelter and Stone 2009).

Less and less users are spending money to buy copies of the real version due to the availability of content on the internet. 

References: 
Stelter, Brian, and Brad Stone. "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios." 
             The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Feb. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

Wiki So Far

I have not added content to the wiki yet, but I have decided to add to the Food, Beverage, and Hospitality page. I am currently researching about Open Rice, an Hong Kong based dining guide that has expanded to other countries in Asia. I am researching about it on its website and I have downloaded the app to see for myself how it works. It works just like Yelp, with reviews, photos, and food suggestions. I also plan to research about Open Snap which is part of Open Rice but operates as a photo dining guide and is based on pictures instead of reviews. I plan to also download this app to understand it more.

As for graphics, I will search up pictures of how the app looks or its icon. I also plan to edit someone's work in the Food, Beverage, and Hospitality page because I am very interested in Food Topics and I will research more about what's on the page and proceed to editing.

Privacy

New media has been known to lead to a loss of privacy and raises questions about the confidentiality of our information. As users of new media, we are used to just posting information up on the internet. Most new media tools have privacy settings to protect our information, but even with these settings our information is still not protected. For example, even if a user's Facebook profile page is private and is accessible to friends, people can still a user's name and their profile picture. Although we do not see information beyond this, the fact that a person's name and their picture is open to the public is already signaling a loss of privacy.

New media technologies are accessible to everyone and information is so readily available that it is hard to protect one's privacy. The purpose of New media is to post things publicly and efficiently,  therefore there are bound to be privacy issues that arise. But its positive effects outweigh such negative effects, which is why people continue to use new media tools despite privacy issues.  

Advice

If I was hired by Baruch College to use new media to improve the college, I help Baruch connect with its students more. Also, I think that Baruch can have more live chat sessions on its website. For example, each department can have a live chat option so that students can ask quick questions. Students at Baruch are always studying and sometimes finding the time to go to a department to ask a question may be difficult.This is also a good way for Baruch to become more personal to their students. I think this is also something Baruch is missing. This also eliminates unnecessary meetings at the departments. Live chat is more efficient and less time consuming. If it is unanswerable online, then the student should come in. But having a live chat option available will be more convenient. 

Aside from this, I think that there should be a CUNYFIRST and BlackBoard Facebook page. This allows for quick updates to shared easily and efficiently. Not everyone checks their email, so If the website is down, students may not know. Most students have Facebook so they will stay up to date with this. Announcements and remainders are also helpful if posted on Facebook. 

Creativity

New media fosters creativity because media outlets such as the telephone, computer, the internet, and more readily available. We are able to access it and even create it. In the past, media existed in the mind. Stories were either written down or spoken orally. But with new media and technology, that all changed to give us more creativity. Most importantly, new media's ease of use and accessibility makes it easier for users to be creative. If being creative was hard, no one would write books or film videos. But because it is a lot easier today than in the past to do this, creativity is fostered.

An example of new media fostering creativity is evident in the article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?". Creativity comes in the form of mash-ups of Disney characters by the rapper Soulja Boy. Mash-ups are created by editing snippets of animated movies and TV shows, resulting in music videos with cartoon characters singing. Music and lyrics are by the original artist while the images we see are of cartoons. These videos are humorous and are extremely popular, hitting the billboards ( Barnes 2007).

 Combining music and Disney characters is very creative, without the digitization of media, mash-ups would not be possible. It definitely makes a difference and creates lots of opportunities  for creativity.


References:
Barnes, Brooks. "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?"  
         The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.

Creativity and New Media

Virtual Worlds foster creativity and Second Life is a virtual World that allows for avatar customization as well as exploring an virtual world. I signed up for second life to see what exactly a virtual world is like. Surprisingly, it is similar to the online fantasy game, Runescape. Back when I was in middle school, I used to play Runescape and I think the graphics of the game and the movement of the avatar is very similar to that of Runescape. Unfortunately, I think there may be something wrong with the graphics of the game because all I saw was pink. But I didn't know how to fix this. But it still resembled Runescape. Second Life is based more on real life, while Runescape was more about fantasy and creatures. In both virtual worlds, users are allowed to interact with other users in another "world".