Democratize the People!
Part 1 in further discussion on New Media
Throughout my study in college courses has there frequently been the discussion amongst other members of my community regarding what “it” is that I am studying. I often tell passer-bys that I am studying New Media and Communication, and low-and-behold the, “Oh… So, you want to be a news reporter?! That is cool. You definitely could pull that off!”
The dreaded reply I have heard so often descibes the very nature of our collective existence and understanding of the changing — “new” — world of media. People often do not understand the most basic implications of the terms, “new,” and “media.”
I like to think about the subject in a very different manner. New Media functions in being all that is still unsure in containing content, or the new rules and guidlines for information delivery in the ever more democratic Web.
Gerald Lucas’ podcast, “Intro to New Media”, covers these basics serves as an information point which could be used for people to digest the “what is?” New Media are the “containers” that shape the interaction due to political and cultural rules, and expectations. As Kevin Spacey questions in his James MacTaggart keynote speech, is a T.V. show a T.V. show if it is watched straight through the entire season in one day via Netflix binge?
Th content changes societal practices and events. No commercials, and the timeline is altered. Spacey contends that the medium allows instantaneous access to “story,” per podcast on a smartphone, or full-length movies on a tablet while riding in the car. New Media are changing the way we behave.
Eye contact is no longer a requisite when eating dinner, in a meeting, class lecture, or when a waiter is taking your food order! It is acceptable to be “waiting for a special phone-call…”
To me, New Media serves as the democratizing mechanisms allowing individuals to have power, thus taking power from somewhere else, ie. there is no longer a trickle-down, predesignated media consumption diet for the masses. The masses have the power to select the very information, useful or not, that they see fit.
Much to be a representation of the growing media, it changes, and as with that — even Twitter is susceptible. Millions of dollars are poured into Twitter by the elites, but if the people, users, the selective creatures do not contend an affirmation for Web existence, existence will cease.
With New Media, we are everywhere, doing everything, doing nothing, and nowhere all in the same paradigm. The future is coming, and we need to decide what is being active.
