New Media! - Allysia Sulaiman

New media and creativity go hand in hand. There are so many forms of new media that I could have chosen to express what I am passionate about. Growing up I never really used social media and I still don’t really use it. Instead, I created a Medium blog for one of my previous courses, but I still post updated content once in a while. I was told to write about something that I truly care about and am passionate about. This is why I chose to have a fashion blog with a more political and socially aware twist. The beauty and fashion industries are constantly changing and evolving to become more diverse and inclusive, which is amazing.  To get started, I had to create a profile and write a little bit about me. This is when I decided to make it a fashion blog. Using Medium is pretty similar to posting here on Blogger. For each entry, I listed a title with a brief description of what I would be writing about. Within the body of the text is where I got into my main points of what...

New media is a means of mass communication using digital technologies. There are so many different forms of new media, it is hard to keep up sometimes. Whether you are blogging like me, playing a virtual reality game, listening to a podcast or just tweeting, you are using a form of new media. Since there are so many options, each one fosters tons of creativity differently. Creativity can be both good and bad depending on the point of view that you take.   In the New York Times article, “Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?”, Brooks Barnes writes about how Disney keeps a close eye on all of its content. Disney usually does not approve of making their cartoons explicit or alternating something to change the meaning. If these videos are not harming anyone or the reputation of Disney, they are usually left alone. This specific video put “Crank That” by Soulja Boy over clips of Winnie the Pooh. I ended up watching a whole bunch of videos that utilized th...

Virtual worlds are becoming an amazing phenomenon. Virtual reality or augmented reality is combining the real and digital worlds together. It is an artificial environment created with software to represent a real environment. These worlds can be used in basically every industry. For example, VR can be applied in the classroom, for military training, and just entertainment in general.  Like with all types of new media, there are pros and cons to virtual worlds. I think the biggest positive from these virtual worlds is that they enhance education. “It’s pretty cool,” said St. Pius X Catholic School social studies teacher, who last year led four 22-student history classes on a virtual tour of Versailles when they were studying King Louis XIV. “It’s pretty cheap, too. Normally a field trip to France costs several thousand dollars” (Earle). Advancements in technology allow learning to grow to limits beyond traditional teaching. I also believe that this gets kids excited to...

Twitter discussions, Blackboard discussions and an in-class discussions are all forms of communication, but in different ways. Blackboard discussions are more formal than those on Twitter. On Blackboard, you typically address who you are speaking with in a format of a professional email. On Twitter, you just type up your comment and tweet it. You also get notified when someone replies or retweets your tweet unlike Blackboard where you have to constantly check if someone responded to you. Twitter discussions can also include people who aren’t in your specified class. In-class discussions and Twitter discussions show how the advancements in technology and all these new media websites change the way we communicate with our peers. It is sort of like new school vs. old school. Today, you do not have to be in the same room to have a meaningful discussion, it can all be done online. In the end, all of these discussion ways are a great way to communicate with your peers. ...

The popularity of many of these  social networking sites  started to pick up as I was entering high school. My parents did not grow up with electricity let alone technology for social media, so they did not know what to make of this. Due to their uncertainty about these sites, I never really used them. I made a Facebook in high school for a school program and literally made a Twitter last week for this class. That’s all of the bigger social media accounts that I have. However, there are a few more applications that I have been using in the recent years. I made a  Facebook  account senior year of high school to join the graduating class group to know about all the upcoming events. Ever since then I just use it to read articles on the news, watch videos that are of interest to me and to see what some of my friends post about. I never post anything myself. For me, this site is either seeing some breaking news or seeing what my Aunties are doing. I’ve also reali...

Social networking is using internet-based programs such as, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YELP, to make connections with friends, family, classmates, customers and clients. Social networking also occurs for social purposes, business purposes or both. As technology has advanced over the last past decades, social networking has expanded on a global level that has truly changed the way that we do things in the world today. These technologies have numerous benefits to society but can also have a negative impact when used improperly. Social networking can be utilized by anyone. Since this platform is technically everywhere, it connects one part of the world to another. Nothing is ever out of reach because of this. So many opportunities are now possible. The job process has been impacted by these advances and is something that I have definitely seen as I have been trying to obtain an internship for this upcoming summer. In Frank Langfitt’s article, “Social Netwo...

Blogs and wikis are forms of new media that anyone can utilize. A blog is a website where a person or group of people share their views on a specific topic that intrigues them. Blog posts are usually displayed with the most recent post at the top of the page. Many bloggers use this platform as their daily journal. Fun fact is that the name blog is a short version of weblog. Some of my favorite blogs to read vary from food to fashion to what is happening in the stock market.  A wiki on the other hand is a website where users can collaboratively modify content directly on the site. They are typically written very simplistically, for anyone to be able to read (“Wiki”). If I went on to Wikipedia right now, I would be able to change information on a particular site. Most corporations and businesses utilize wikis. “Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs” (Morse ...