New Media in Everyday Life

Overall, I think the effects are positive with new media in our daily lives. The Pew Internet report claims we use the Internet to both reinforce and challenge our beliefs. Personally, I feel the Internet is far more effective in transmitting useful information than television, especially cable TV. I've used it for many political queries, such as finding which presidential candidate is closest to my beliefs - www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html. I like that the study finds there is no more reason to worry about this kind of polarization than with other media based on their look at new media in the last presidential race, perceptions on Iraq, gay rights and free trade. 

McMillan writes about content analysis techniques for the web, an area I'm sure is a bit confusing to those studying a medium that is constantly changing. She concludes the web doesn't pose any truly new challenges to analysis and interpreting data but that it is necessary to remember the basics of researching, like finding appropriate sample sets. 

Bargh and McKenna discuss the Internet and social life, finding that a person's mental health relies on the reason a person interacts online. They ask us to remember that people are not passively affected by technology but actively shape its use and influence. Their interesting question at the end of the article is asking what makes face-to-face interaction so different - is it the immediate responses, physical features, settings, combinations of things?

The article on convergence culture made me laugh to find out that Bert was on Bin Laden posters in the Middle East! Besides the light-hearted intro, the article delves into convergence, intelligence, distribution, innovation, big business, vertical integration and questions whether or not we can even call 'mass media' by that name anymore. All the things we'll see in the U.S. in a few years are likely being tested overseas now and vice-versa for other nations. I believe Japan has had text messages as part of the norm since the mid 1990s. 

Steinberg knows that Macs rule or he wouldn't have owned them since 1984. The only big drawback I see is the cost. If Macs can't run faster than PCs, how can they advertise that a Maco Leopard runs Windows Vista faster than any PC can? Anyone else see that commercial with the Mac and PC guy? I did not know of Bootcamp, but it is a sign that Mac has innovated much more than PC makers in recent years. The Times piece also admitted the same, claiming that Mac has all but won the war now that Windows can be run on Mac platforms interchangeably. I do miss one thing from my PC - a mouse that can right-click. 

Reingold's examples of people uniting through cell phone interactivity was more compelling than I was originally going to give credit but I still think it is a bit over-exaggerated. The truth is that most of us are either too busy or lazy to care about citizen journalism, civic duties, protests or exchanging strategies. I realize he is talking about large and small groups and in some cases, I can see the benefit. His book on the virtual community and village starts small in scope and then covers the big picture of the Internet only to point out that the Well is a small town with a doorway that opens into the confusion and elaborate chasm of the Internet. Switching between dire and light-hearted, he says the Internet has the power to imprison us or set us free. I also agree with him in that the words we write on a screen through the Internet have the reach and permanence of a publication. 

Poster's cyberdemocracy argument is all over the place about the stakes of government involvement including the net as a tool for public commodity, gender roles, control of information, etc. But he doesn't address a big issue - do we legislate things like net neutrality or do we not? Castell's has a good paper on the culture of the Internet broken into four layers of techno-mericrats (those who created the Internet), hackers (those who innovate and keep the Internet free), virtual communitarians (those who have expanded the networking of the Internet), and the entreprenuerials (those who cash in on the audience with goods and services). In reality, they all rely on each other in a symbiotic environment. You can tell he believes this but doesn't come right out and say it. 

Chapter 5 of 'Web Theory' breaks down website designs, which is something we unconsciously do every time we're on the web. Some sites rely on old standards of design that are tried and true in advertising, newspaper layouts, TV graphics, etc. The content also changes due to the audience and because of technology innovations from the digital revolution like video, podcasts, blogs, etc. All sites provide hints on what they're about based on their design. For example, a black background is somewhat rebellious or counter-culture. It starts to be a bigger issue once you begin designing and you don't see sites in quite the same way again. Cindy, you've ruined the Internet for me ;-)