The Next New Thing

I believe that one of the next types of new media that will be released in the future is going to be in the form of the virtual world on mobile devices.  For example, in the near future cell phones will be able to have a screen can be used as a projector as well as the actual phone screen popping out of the phone as a hologram and you can be able to watch movies and do many other things with it.  It will bring movies and other forms of images and videos into a multidimensional world for us the consumers.  It will give us the consumers a new way to watch movies and also view different types of forms of media through the three dimensional world and the palm of our hands.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

Unfortunately, I have yet to contribute to the class wiki.  However, I am looking forward to adding to it and finding very useful information for college students on ways that we can save so much money by just presenting our student identification cards when we go to purchase something.  Many students do not realize that many places give discounts to students such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, Modell's Sporting Goods, and many other locations.  I have experienced these savings first hand and know how tight the dollar is for a college student.  However, I will perform further research in trying to gain more information on how students can save more while attending school.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing is the practice in which you are distributing or providing access to digital media such as, computer software, music, videos, movies, images, documents or electronic books.P2P file sharing allows users to access and function without the need for special server devices such as books, music, movies, and games.  Google is a great example of a peer to peer lender.  The nations largest peer to peer lender, gets borrowers and lenders together outside of the basic or traditional banking system. Although peer to peer file sharing is a great thing it is also becoming increasingly problematic for media companies, as stated in the New York Times' article "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios."  However some find it to be something great for everyone in the world, especially for receiving loans.  For example in the article "Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each other", it states how Chanda Lugere, received a loan from a peer to peer source and received that loan within a week and with only a 6% interest rate which was about half of that of the banks.  

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are major factors in the world of new media.  Today, a large portion of civilizations information and records are online or performed online.  For example, banking online has changed the banking industry.  We are now able to deposit a check using your own cell phone through certain banks applications.  Although this is a great luxury for citizens, certain situations occur that can make people see negatives about these doings.  For example, to get access to your bank account online you must log in with a username and password which is extremely easy.  It is also easy for hackers to gain access to your information.  Not only just for bank websites but for email accounts as well as online shopping accounts.  This is a major issue of privacy and confidentiality that is related to new media as computers and the internet are parts of new media.  These hackers can gain access to your financial records as well as other parts of your information that was meant to be kept confidential.  New media such as social media also has some issues with privacy and confidentially.  For example, people can find out where your exact coordinates of where you are at at just the tap of a button.  Most people enable their location on their phone for the use of navigation and car service applications such as Uber and Lyft.  With these locations enabled, also gives people the knowledge of knowing where you are through Facebook, Instagram, and other forms of social media.  These are just two of the many issues that privacy and confidentiality come across through the use of new media.

Advice

New media can improve Brooklyn College and all other colleges or universities in many different ways.  One way in which I believe it can improve classes is in which lectures during common hours should be recorded either by audio or film.  If a student misses a class due to an unfortunate circumstance, that child suffers because he is not gaining the knowledge and information that was taught during that class.  Although you can read through the textbook or powerpoint to review the lecture that you missed, it is still not the same as gaining a direct explanation from a certified professor.  Another way in which I would introduce new media into the College is by introducing a new application in which you can get in contact with your professor at anytime and the notification would be as if you are receiving a text message on your phone rather than an email.  Although it is similar to emailing a professor, majority of the time, professors do not see those emails or take time in responding to them. With this new application, the receiver of the message would be notified right away with a notification on their home screen of their phone.  An app that I would use for this would be one called Schoology.  Schoology was introduced to myself in my microeconomics course and was extremely helpful.  It was similar to blackboard however, you were able to submit homework, message a professor or classmate with getting an update to your home screen, and so much more.  

Creativity and New Media

I'd like you to show me how new media fosters creativity by creating an example. This assignment is up to your imagination. Whether you want to create a YouTube video or show me snapshots of an avatar in Second Life that you created, I will leave the definition of "creativity and new media" up to you, and let you surprise me.

To get credit for this assignment you must post a blog entry with the above title and explain exactly what you did using new media tools and display it either with screenshots or by providing a url in your blog.

New Media is an amazing thing because it enable us to create a virtual life.  There are many different ways to create a virtual life such as through websites, softwares, and video games.  For myself personally I created a virtual account for this assignment because I do not comply myself to the virtual second life.  Ironically the virtual world game is called "Second Life" and the first thing that I did was get to choose my avatar.  You can choose from fictional looking characters as well as normal every day looking people.  

After I had chosen my avatar I downloaded the game and logged in through my username.  After logging in I had been connected to a server in the world which connected me to an interactive cultural exhibit on Dia de Los Metros, created by Mexican Folklore Students at the University of Texas at El Paso.  

When connected to the server, these were some of the virtual images that have been brought to my eyes.  

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds is something that we look at today and imagine what it really can do to benefit the world through education as well as by enjoyment.  Virtual worlds have both pros and cons but in my opinion have a lot more pros towards it.  For example, it can help the education in this world like crazy as we can try and virtually bring students back in times where there was dinosaurs as well as through specific times in history so that they can get a better knowledge of what actually happened rather than by just reading textbooks.  In a virtual world you are getting a first hand experience to the history of the world itself.  Possibly even the future depending on how your creativity and imagination want to work.  In the article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot?" by Diane Mehta, she conducts an interview with Jacki Morie, a Senior Scientist and Project Director for the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies.  During this interview Morie explains how she had conducted a training facility for the U.S. Army and put a U.S. Army Vet to try it out and the veteran stated that it is so real that if other vets were in here they would need a therapist by their side.  Virtual worlds can also be used to go places by actually never visiting them in person.  For example in the article "I've Been in That Club, Just Not In Real Life" by David Itzkoff of the New York Times, he talks about being in a music club getting ready to listen to a band.  A couple of minutes into the show it started to get extremely packed and started to smell like stale beer so he decided to leave.  He walked home and went on his computer and attended this show virtually without having to deal with the packed capacity and dirty smells of stale beer but in his own comfortable home.  The past couple of months he has been traveling the streets of Manhattan virtually.  

With these pros also come some cons, such as the biggest of all being the dangers of the virtual world.  A prime example of this is criminals such as pedophiles.  These criminals trick people with their identity because you cannot know who a person is through a virtual world.  Some people do lie to people and mistaken their identities to trick others such as children into doing things that they are not supposed to be doing.  These criminals have very creative minds as the virtual worlds foster their creativity.  Once again a prime example are the criminals who are using mistaken identities to sucker in children.  By getting these children to do things that they don't want to do, you would have to use your creative mind from the virtual world to influence them and make them comfortable in partaking these actions.  

I think the future of the virtual world is bright for many reasons but the main focus as I stated earlier being education.  I feel that with the virtual world learners of the world today can forget about the textbooks and actually experience everything they are learning through the virtual world.  A first hand experience will definitely sink in to a child's brain of learning more than reading from a textbook.  It will also teach them how to prepare for these situations if they were to happen in life today.  A prime example being the United States Army Training that was mentioned from the article titled "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot?" that I had mentioned earlier preparing the youth of the United States military for combat before they have reached the field. 

Creativity

In today's world, new media has changed the way us human's minds think creatively.  New media and new technology has given us the capability to change and edit materials in subjects such as music and films through what we call mashups.  For example in the article by The New York Times titled "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters.  But Why?", the author Brooks Barnes tells us how someone on Youtube.com has made an edit to a song using Disney's characters as well as Nickelodeon's "Spongebob Squarepants".  A spokesperson from Nickelodeon and saw the mashup with Spongebob and the 2007 summer hit "Soulja Boy" and stated himself that it was a very nice edit whoever had created the mashup.  The mashup had been seen by over 7 million people since the time that this exact article was written in 2007.  That same spokesperson from Nickelodeon added  “Our audiences can creatively mash video from our content as much and as often as they like" giving the public the freedom to use their characters even with the copyright laws that are in effect.  Without new media, youtube.com in general would not be around, but for sure the creative minds behind these edits on videos using characters would not be around for the public to enjoy. 
Even from another creative aspect that happens today is the mashup in the music industry.  For example, in the article from The New Yorker titled "1+1+1=1 The New Math of Mashups"  written by Sasha Frere-Jones discusses the mashups with how producers in the modern music world use music from earlier times to mashup with their creativeness.  For example in the article it states that a song from 1999 titled "Debra" by the musician Beck was later taken apart and edited by DJ Reset.  DJ Reset also did the same thing with a song titled "Frontin" by Jay-Z and producer Pharrell Williams.  When taking apart both of these songs he realized that they had the same vocals, not the same exact words but had the same flow and then he collaborated both of these songs into one titled "Frontin on Debra".  Without the help of new media, the creativity to perform these edits by DJ Resets and others around the world would most likely not be possible, at least not to the extent that they are in today.  

Blog About Twitter

A twitter discussion is very similar to a blackboard discussion.  In both of these discussions, students are posting their thoughts and assignments and it gives other students the chance to read through each of their post and leave a comment toward their posts.  In my opinion, you cannot get any better then an in class discussion because of the fact that facial expressions and emotion cannot be felt at the extent on a post online as if you were discussing face to face.  During in class discussions you are also speaking freely of your mind instead of second guessing what you are typing on a post.  Although after doing this Twitter discussion for this assignment, I believe that it is easier to perform a discussion through twitter with the help of the hashtag rather than blackboard.  On blackboard you have to click on each link to bring you to a students actual post, on Twitter you click on the hashtag and everyones posts are right there with one click. 

Social Networking Sites

In today's world, social media plays a major role in our everyday life.  In my opinion, people spend at least an hour a day on their social media accounts, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even SnapChat.  These four are at the top of the social media mountain as they are the most popular. Although they are all at the top, each of these social media outlets are unique in their own way, however, they are very similar in the same sense.  Twitter's "tweets" are very similar to Facebooks "status post" as is Snapchat's "story" and Instagram's "story".  However, Facebook lets you do much more than these other social media outlets.  Through Facebook you can video chat, make phone calls, and even stream a video live for the whole Facebook community or your Facebook friends to see.  Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter do not give you those options.  Snapchat is mainly to take selfies or pictures of things and share them through your story or directly with a message to specific people.  Instagram is very similar in the sense that you can direct message someone a picture of some sort but you can also add a picture to your account for your friends(if your account is private) or the world to see.  Whenever posting on your Snapchat story, the photo or video only stays up for 24 hours and then comes off of your account.  That is Snapchats big difference from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as when you post a photo on your profile on these three, it stays there unless you delete it, does not have a 24 hour limit.

Research Paper Topic

The title of my research paper is "The Negative and Positive Effects of the Impact of New Media on Old Media".  As you can see through my title I will be talking about the negative and positive effects that new media has on old media.  For example, I will like to research and discuss how new media applications such as the Kindle app and the Nook app have changed world of newspaper publishers as well as book publishers.  Has the newspaper industry really been hurt by this mass increase in technological appliances or has it actually helped?  Just because people do not physically purchase the hard copy of the paper, they can still be subscribed to the electronic version of it.  I will like to research the facts behind publishing companies and really see if their income is decreasing because of the increase of electronic book sales over physical hard copy sales.