New Media -Ashley Williams

       A large part of new media is social media. When people think of social media, they often come up with cites such as Instagram and Facebook where individuals share posts, videos, and images with any array of people. These sites offer a sense of privacy by offering different settings for who can view one’s posts. It is often then expected that only those who the user chose to share with will be able to see the posts and that its contents would not exceed that group.        This is where it is important to know the difference between privacy and confidentiality. According to the Institutional Review Board at the University of Pittsburgh, privacy is “an individual’s right to control access to their personal information” and confidentiality is “how private information provided by individuals will be protected by [another] from release”(University of Pittsburgh, 2014).        The settings on so...

@ash_wills16 one minute vlog for class ♬ original sound - ash_wills16 Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@ash_wills16/video/6808274865762684165 For this assignment, I made a one minute vlog using TikTok. TikTok has become famous for its 15-second dancing videoes but recently a new trend is to create one-minute vlogs encompassing one's entire day. I recorded about forty 3 second clips from activities throughout my day then edited the speed of the clips to fit into one minute. I then recorded a voice over which was hard to do in under a minute. It surprised me the amount of work that is put into tiktoks even though they are only seconds long. I used to always laugh at my friends who spent hours on them but now I understand the effort it takes and how fun it is to watch them.

The availability and accessibility of new media allow users to create whatever they may imagine. Users no longer have to wait for other people to resolve issues. They can remotely come up with solutions themselves. Cost is not a huge barrier.   Materials needed could be accessed instantly or almost instantly. Production and distribution can also be done remotely. One example would be musical mashups. New media allows users to find and create new songs from genres that are the polar opposite of each other. The samples used could be from songs others may not normally think to pair together. However, the ability to alter pieces to fit or to isolate uncommon similarities in the songs help create new material that is enjoyable to everyone. This could encourage people to create their own niches. If they are a fan of opposite genres then there may not be anyone song out there that combines their interests. Now they could take their favorite songs and make their own genre. An example w...

  Virtual Worlds are online stimulations that allow the user to assume an avatar, a cartoonized virtual representation of themselves. Uses Virtual worlds can be helpful in training and education. SecondLife, a popular virtual world, is used by ER nurses at the University of California, San Diego. Using their mouse and keyboard, the nurses walk through a virtual hospital. They can type to speak or use headsets. The nurses are immersed in a world with multiple patients with multiple problems. They may also face virtual natural disasters.   Throughout all of the pressure, they must perform their normal tasks and successfully help patients. In a virtual setting, this training helps staff become more knowledgable without taking the risk that their training could negatively impact a real-life if a mistake is made. In education, virtual worlds can be used to take field trips to faraway places. This allows students to visually see topics that they are learning about in ...

In addition to Facebook and Twitter, I also went on Instagram and LinkedIn. I’m on Facebook and YouTube every day, LinkedIn multiple times a week, and Twitter occasionally.   Overall, they all allow a user to share their views and lives to hundreds of people and more but the way in which they do so and the way users interact with them differs. Here are some more similarities and differences: Similarities: Users can post updates on their lives Other users can comment on their posts Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow tagging users All allow restricting who can see a user’s post and account Users can search for other users or specific topics They all have web and app versions  Differences: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have a status like posts, whereas YouTube is only video YouTube does not allow tagging Facebook is used more to connect with family and friends Twitter is used to connect with friends but generally reaches a larger au...

Twitter vs. Blackboard A twitter discussion is much more condensed than a Blackboard discussion due to the character limit. Responses must be more to the point because of this. Blackboard posts and responses often have additional information that may not directly relate to the topic because of the larger character limit. Twitter also notifies the user when a response is made to his/her post making it easier to have a discussion. This also allows quick responses. Twitter is good for quick and direct discussions. Blackboard is probably better suited for in-depth discussions that require more detail, research and thought. Twitter vs. In-Person Class Compared to in-person discussions, I find Twitter to be more interactive. In-person discussions are usually dominated by one or two people. On Twitter, anyone can response without accidentally cutting someone off. If someone comes up with an idea later, they could always respond using the retweet function. Twitter may help students...

Blogs are created by individuals on any topic of his/her choice. The bloggers, or authors of the blogs, may be “single-person operations (one to many); [or] have a community of authors (many to many)” (Gill, 2004). Collaboration is fostered through comments on posts from readers or emails. As time passed, blogging took on a participatory journalism concept. Readers and writers interact more and share their collective experiences. Blogs have no editorial oversight and have no cost barriers. Bloggers simply need access to a computer and can host the blog for free. Although a blog may start with a particular theme or topic, there is nothing stopping a blogger from venturing out to unrelated themes. This is shown in the Walmart blog “Check Out.” The blog is written by normal buyers who post on their experiences with products. It originally started as a review for tech products but has evolved to include blogger’s daily experiences such as their favorite authors or pets. A wiki ...