What is ‘New Media’?

[John Patterson]

New Media is a term for technologies and content that fosters the evolution of a convergent network of audio, video, and digital communications. The Internet has brought about a long-term shift in the way we inform, entertain and do business. New Media is the content glue putting old models “on their ear”; introducing new social, economic and business models made possible in an information-rich digital age.

What do you say it is?

For more see the ever changing definition of 'New Media' on Wikipedia.

[Kevin Burrell]

One should also understand what "Media" is. According to wikipedia media (Singular: Medium) are the storage and transmission tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used to communicate any data for any purpose.

Examples include anything thing that humanity can create that delivers information or messages. Think Art, Architecture, Music, Print, Analog Broadcasts and now Digital leading the way for "New Media". Essentially it is doing everything all over again except in an "imaginary" (since we cannot see the internet) invented public space.

Media can also be mashed up and used in a larger sense. People who combine intermediary methods can facilitate contract between two other parties. This is what we currently do in the Summit forums or almost any media that allows for two (or more) way communication.

Check out the Univeristy of Iowa's progressive vision of intermediary use and New Media...

http://research-intermedia.art.uiowa.edu/intermedia/

[Jameson Wallace]

"New Media" much like "Modern Art" is stuck in time. It will soon be a historical term that means technological art created around the turn of the century. The "New" directly references the forms of media that are outside the traditional popular mediums of: Cinema, Television, Radio and Telephone. If it's one of those 4 then it is Traditional Media, otherwise, it is New Media.

[Edward Seaton of ReCurve Media]

It seems to me that the term "new media" is just one of the those over used, new-fangled hipster terms for "old" media, that we are all quite used to like audio and video clips, text, and pictures, that are simply being delivered to the masses in a new way.

This "new" way of delivering media is something to be proud of. I know that I was when I humbly accepted my "Person of the Year" award from TIME, and no, I do not wish to thank the academy.

I often hear, when discussing potential projects with new clients, "we'll build the site, with lots of flashy stuff, and then our members will provide content, you'll see, it'll be great". I liken this approach to building a cathode ray tube television set out of spare parts, setting in the middle of a busy street and then hoping that someone with the right skill sets will come happily along, plug it in, and start creating amazing content.

"Yeah but, youtube sold for like 75 bazillion dollars!"

Yupe, tis true, but that ship has sailed my friends, and if you are reading this, chances are you were not on it.

I've seen large corporations, in a desperate attempt to be apart of the feeding frenzy, spend money hand-over-fist on the newest gadgets the market has to offer only to be disappointed when the master switch is thrown and the content is sub par.

"We spent thousands! Why does our content look so cheap?"

I think that as we all plunge headfirst into "New Media's" tempting waters, we should consider, or perhaps help our clients understand, that despite its new car smell, New Media is still an exercise of Old Media skill sets. We still need to know our f-stops and db levels. We still need to know the difference between A-roll and B-roll. And we absolutely still need to know how to tell a good story.

All that being said, I think that "New Media Summit 08" is a much better name than "New Way of Delivering Old Media Summit 08", so cheers to the hipster who came up with that one.


E.

[Heather Ronkoske]

I like the mention above about how corporations are spending all kinds of money to only realize their content is subpar.....just because we have all this great technology and ways of reaching a billion people, doesn't mean we always should. It is great to see an amazing new band make a name for themselves due to all their myspace friends but this is not the norm...for every great thing we discover, and illuminate due to new ways there are 1000 bad we overlook. We now have "new" overly saturated mediums which is both good and bad.

[Bonnie]

Hi all.

I prefer the terms modern marketing and classic marketing.
Ditto for modern media and classic media.

Modern media = cultural creation and control
Classic media = business/organization creation and control

The two terms will blur within a decade.

What do you think?

bonnie larner

[Kevin Burrell]

I think the difference is so ambiguous that we all have become ambivalent about the differences between marketing and media really are.