Blogs Vs. Wikis

A blog is very similar to a journal or diary that is kept on a website, that is not subject to change. People are able to post new blogs, comment on existing blogs and read existing blogs that have been posted by others. There are many professionally written blogs that can be seen at MSNBC, Slate, The Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor, the Seattle Tiems - almost anywhere Big Media produces online news. In addition media have enticed bloggers to transition from amateur to professional, for example, Mickey Kaus, who inspired Marshall to start his blog, now writes for MSN’s Slate [1]. This shows the rapid emergence and growth of blogs and also that anybody, not only professionals have the ability to start one.

A wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content, unlike a blog. An example of a very popular wiki is "wikipedia", which is a collaborative online encyclopedia that is used daily by almost every internet user.


[1] http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill

"Checking out some social networking sites"

Myspace is one of the 2 major competitors from these networking sites alongside facebook. Myspace is better with music and video capability is gained much of its popularity over the other networking sites due to this reason. *"Nitin Gupta, an analyst with The Yankee Group in Boston states that this site is rooted more towards radio, music and television and is used by many bands to gain a greater fan base ". This is probably its greatest advantage over its competition as the other sites aren't targeted at the music industry and music networking. I personally don't like myspace because its a little complicated to set up, as it requires you to use skins and other types of codes. I also find it to be targeted to an adolescent audience, rather than an adult one as most of the user profiles are provocative, excessive and immature.

Facebook is also one of the top competitors from these networking sites. I use facebook daily and find it to be the most entertaining and appropriate out of all these sites. I like its privacy settings, its layout and its professionalism. Almost everyone I know is my friend on facebook, even my childhood friends that I had lost total contact with are now easily reachable.

Orkut, which was created in 2004 by google is little known in the United States but is widely popular in Brazil., where 70% of its users are based. For this reason this site isn't very popular as most people americans have orkut accounts, so it is useless to have one unless you have a lot of friends that live abroad.

Friendster is very useful for meeting people with similar interests to you. You first must know someone in order to be accepted into the group, very much like in real life. Just like when you go out to a bar and you approach someone with the intention of becoming their friend, thus risking rejection. It isn't as popular as the other sites as most people either have facebook or myspace accounts.


*http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article

"My New Media Class - so far"

New media has introduced many types of new technologies that facilitate its use. Broadband, bluetooth, blogs, blueray, digital set-up boxes (These boxes can receive digitally transmitted TV and Radio transmissions via satellite), digital storage mediums (generic term for a wide range of storage media such as mini-disc, CD, CD-ROM, Hard disc, floppy-disc etc), encryption, firewalls, flash memory and many more technologies are all part of new media.

New Media primarily relies on the internet, because it allows one to send, access and create vital information instantly. Location and distance are irrelevant as one can transfer any kind of data anywhere around the world, in the blink of an eye. Without the internet it would be impossible to access blogs, wikis or social networking sites.

New Media is constantly changing as improvements are being made to existing media which in turn replaces the old as it becomes obsolete. For example, in the past cassette tapes were used to record and listen to music, then tapes became replaced with CDs and now CDs have been replaced by MP3s which can store much more data, are easier to use and have better quality. If New Media never replaced Old Media, our lives would be very different than the way they are today.



Citations:

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/glossary_for_new_media/