What is New Media

          New media is a rapidly evolving interactive communication vehicle with digital access to and use by a technology savvy global user base. Unlike old media companies driven by mechanization technology, new media businesses utilize new media communication technology  to  penetrate and grow worldwide markets and implement marketing strategies to maximize user activity and maintain a competitive edge. Like old media, new media focuses on politics, economics, and cultural/social topics of interest. However, the level of interaction from new media’s secondary contributors, specifically bloggers and wiki writers has facilitated an expansion of the principles of communication. Additionally, the innovation of new media has dynamically increase human interaction, especially social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

          The candle preceded electricity and the internet, the foundation of new media, will experience a similar degree of dominance over old media. To illustrate the point, the newspaper article, “Who Needs TV? I’m watching on a Laptop,” The New York Times, Tony Cenicola, writes that a segment of network television shows are available on the respective network TV websites and a small but presumably growing percentage of television viewers access television content with online devices. Personally, I am an online subscriber to the New York Times and I have daily delivery of the newspaper. In my opinion, old media will continue to participate in the marketplace and maintain a level of relevance in the future. Likewise, writer Clive Thompson reveals in his piece titled, “”How YouTube Changes the Way We Think” that old media presented video in the form of moving pictures primarily for news, documentaries, and information dissemination. Currently, in the new media space, online video serves both as a medium for mass communication with cyber participants and intercommunication on a one-to-one basis.    

         The level of success attainable by new media is primarily dependent on advances in electrical and fiber optic connectivity, computer chip technology, devices/hardware and software. In some cases, the software and related applications are ready for implementation but not all providers are able to integrate new functionality in their respective offerings. For example, Facebook recently acquired the photo sharing company Instagram but has not implemented the photo sharing app in its infrastructure. In my opinion, new media has achieved significant milestones and has benefitted billons of  users worldwide.