Describe New Media

There are many examples that can be classify as new media. E-book, e-mail, digital camera, 3G network cell phone, Voice Over IP, and the blogs are all examples of new medias. All these new medias have direct and indirect relationship with a computer or Internet. There isn't a correct definition for new media, because as technology changes new media updates itself. According to the lecture notes from Prof. Alder in "What is New Media?", there are 5C's unique characteristics about new media (communication, collaboration, community, creativity and convergence). A new media might not have all of these characteristics, but it must contain more than two. Many companies started to do business online, also known as e-commerce. This way, the company can have more interaction with their customers through comments and reviews of their products. According to the business journal of McKinsey & Company's "8 Business Technology Trend to Watch", many companies are using consumers as innovators to their company. After the company review consumers' opinion, they can immediately make some changes if needed. Many companies prefer advertisement online through websites instead of newspapers, magazines or TV (old media). Having advertisement over the Internet is more cost efficient because everything is virtual. As people are going "green", they do not favor the "old media" because most of the time “old media” deals with a physical object. Like books, newspaper, and even music, you would need to have a compact disc in order to play it. Most of the time “old media” is an object. The advantage of the "old media" is that you can bring it to anywhere you want but it also can be a disadvantage. For example, you have an important document for the morning meeting. For some reasons, you forgot to bring it or it was stolen from someone, then you might get in trouble the next day because you didn’t have it during the meeting. Now, the "new media" comes into play. If you have a copy of the file in your e-mail or you saved it somewhere on the web, you still present the document during the meeting.