New Media Blog

 Hello, my name is Jac and like a few others, this is my very first Blog ever. I have lost my Blogging virginity this 22 of January 2008. I have spent the past fifteen years working in a mass media environment and decided a few years ago to finish my degree in Mass Communications at Texas State University. I graduated in December 2006 with a BA in Mass Comm. 

 New media is a hard subject to define. Everyday it seems Steve Jobs is introducing new and improved technology for us to better communicate and share information with each other. That is not a shot at Mac, I'm anxiously awaiting my new MacBook Pro to arrive any day now.

 So my definition of new media deals with how this information is being conveyed from point-to-point. The digitalness of the content if you will. Nicholas Negroponte writes that mass media will be redefined systems for transmitting and receiving personalized information and entertainment. That is no doubt true. The digital era has allowed the content of music, books, photos and video to seperate from the physical constraints of the page, record album, radio or TV and be used in multiple formats. These atoms Negroponte that were once attached to a one format have turned into 1s and 0s and afforded us the luxury to produce our own works of art like this.  The digital world make it possible for wireless communication between each other, downloading videos to watch in hand-held devices and sharing of music files. The atoms are now bits of information that deliver information in multiple formats for reading, viewing or listening with just one piece of technology.

 It was also interesting to read the comparison of the daguerreotype created by Louis Daguerre and the Engine created by Charles Babbage. Later, in How Media Became New, Manovich also talks about the variability of the digital format. This is another advantage the new media of the digital era allows amatures like myself to easily create videos and music with software programs that make the procedures of such creations a possibilty.

 In New Media from Borges to HTML Manovich states new media are the cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition. That too would reflect my definition of new media, the 1s and 0s that make it possible for content to be distributed and exhibited in multiple formats. 

 New media have also changed the ways in which existing media have had to adapt to this new media of 1s and 0s to maintain contact with their audiences. But that's a Blog for another time. 

 peace...jac