What is New Media?

It is easy to say that New Media is Web 2.0, or that it comprises blog, wikis, Facebook, etc.

But, if you're not familiar with these terms, you should first crawl out from under the rock you've been living under for the past 10 years. After that, you should understand that all the terms stated above refer to a level of interactivity and intercommunication unprecedented in the span of human existence. Never before has collaboration and feedback from such a large community been so quickly and easily attained. Not too mention the access we gain when journalists "tweet" from press conferences in real-time, or as in the article by James Dao, a soldier relays his experiences from the front-line for all civilians to see. That is what we truly mean by "New Media".

Of course, without the Internet, none of this would be possible. The Internet is, concisely put, the greatest collection of human knowledge and experience the world has ever known. Without the inter-connectivity of the online community, there would not be any New Media.

One interesting thing about the New Media "Revolution" is how much it has affected Old Media. In some ways it has enhanced it. For example, a person can now watch a television show and then go online to a message board or a blog and share thoughts and opinions about it with people that they would otherwise have no contact with.

That isn't to say that there haven't been negative impacts on Old Media. The newspaper and magazine, in their paper form, are virtually obsolete. Virtually every newspaper and magazine is available online these days (sometimes totally free), which decreases demand for physical copies. Also, as Melissa Gerry says in her article about Celebrity Blogs, the old horses, like Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, are being outdone by the Gawkers, TMZs, and Perez Hiltons of the online world.

In summation, New Media is all of these things and more. In fact, it is likely that New Media involves something that hasn't even been conjured up yet. The possibilities are truly endless.