New Media

Is New Media Really New?

New media refers to on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation. Another aspect of new media is the real-time generation of new, unregulated content

Where the above statement captures mostly all the aspects of new media, I would like to point out a few of the most intrinsic characteristics pertaining to it.

Firstly new media is virtually limitless or infinite. Well this doesn’t mean to have found infinite space but even infinity is a relative concept, the interaction with information through new media for any individual is so huge that it could be safely now considered infinite.

Secondly, New media is soft, mouldable with very few norms followed and allowance for any and every one to contribute something to the big fat Data Belly now existent.

The last characteristic of new media fascinates me the most, it is its self-sustenance. Many of the new media forms have now attained the property of finding its way to sustain and reach the audience in but the most efficient ways.

Is the experience of Virtual Community any different from the experience of a Real community?

Communities are formed as a result of bringing together multiple individuals for a certain time. Within this time frame the community itself starts to behave as an individual. Such qualities are visible in the virtual as well as real world. However defining the entire experience of both the forms of communities is difficult per se, there have been many direct pickings of them in the virtual scenario.

Let me explore the interactions of individuals in the different worlds, real and virtual. The face of an individual in virtual world has a more dynamic feature than that in the real world. Where looking at the face of a person, (humans are programmed to be face readers by nature) one may tell a dozen things about him/her of which 10 would be mostly accurate, doing the same in virtual world is rather difficult. Not that its impossible, for an active user of the internet, one can know them by closely examining the various faces one possesses on different platforms (Social networks, blogs, accounts in Rich media sites like youtube, pinterest and tumblr)

Where there are many direct imitations of real world experiences into the virtual, most of them are not fulfilling like the real world. That is because the medium plays far more important role in conveying an experience than we have ever considered. So while designing any experience for a virtual world, rather that blindly imitating the experience of a real world, we must understand the advantages and shortcomings of the virtual medium and only transfer the key aspects so as to capture not the entire experience (that can’t be done) but only its essence.

How does interactivity change the way in which we communicate with authority?

Interaction with Authority has been influenced (largely in a positive manner) due to the bringing together of information at a single platform like the internet. Nowadays when there has to be a word transferred to the authority, a proper research and direction can lead to effective results with just one application. Relevant information as media and references can be embedded in the plea or letters which reach the authority so as to make the matter seem more genuine and actable.