Geaux LSU Tigers!!!!!!!!

Hi there everyone! Once again, this is my last semester in what has been a long journey in education from the Bayous of Louisiana to the Hills of San Marcos. I did my undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University. I have worked for the State of Texas and currently work in the “corporate world” doing PR for now. My real interests in life are politics and social responsibility – specifically, how do we create the “perfect” society in which every individual has the opportunity to succeed? So, yes, I am a fan of the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan, Clinton, Kofi Annan, Obama, the Gates’ and mushy concerts about making the world a better place, (Sometimes it feels like Bono from U2 is on every TV show I watch, I swear that guy is everywhere!)

My first problem with defining new media is that the word “new” is always changing. Ten years from now, there will be new media and it may not look anything like what we have today. So for me, today’s new media is basically media that empowers the individual and encourages interactivity. One of the things that struck me most in the readings for class was Manovich’s principles of new media particularly variability. It is fascinating to see how new media, which is more targeted at the individual rather than the masses, has changed our society. It seems that literally in the last few decades we have steadily moved from mass media where information was channeled to the audience with little or no opportunity for feedback to a new media in which the “unique individual” exerts a certain influence/control/choice as to what/when/how he or she is exposed to media. In fact, today's new media is basically “You Media!”