What is New Media?

New Media is the intermingling and cohabitation of existing mediums for artists, journalists, information gatherers, and businesses to create new and innovative platforms for media production.  Because of the advent of new technologies, primarily the internet and Web 2.0, new media has an unparalleled audience surpassing even that of television, newspapers, and union/guild associations.  People are grouping together organically to create new user content globally in a way that has never been seen.  Through the use of streaming video, audio, cheaper cameras, audio interfaces, production, and editing softwares, and access to people's personal preferences from online activity, the marketplace for new media is growing exponentially with no end in sight.  New medias would have almost no audience today without quantum leaps in computing technologies and internet adaptations over the last 15 years.  The internet allows for musicians, video producers, and businesses to reach a broader audience with almost no overhead whatsoever.  In this regard, those people who make associations and partnerships that are mutually beneficial towards marketing and capitalizing on this new content will be the beneficiaries of the new technology revolution.  Similarly, those companies already established that use bloggers, social networking, preference gathering technologies, and internet based marketing strategies will grow stronger and continue to thrive within an ever changing and uniquely dynamic era in technological advancements in new media production.  Andrew Savikas makes it clear in his article for Forbes.com Magazine "Media: Don't Fear New Technologies", that there are plenty of examples for us to look at as technological innovation driving changes in the organization of industry and profiteers.  The old 'New York Times' motto was "don't get it fast, get it right".  Unfortunately, in a 24/7 news cycle, that changed to "get it fast and get it right" which has led to among other things, U.S. governmental manipulation of a very trusted news source for propaganda purposes based on uncorroborated information.  Savikas gives a simple example in his article.


[T]he system of communication introduced by print was so large, so fast, so powerful, and ultimately such a source of wealth that the defects of the system could be remedied as far as need be. Proofreading was labor-intensive and wasteful in manuscript scriptorium, but quite cost-effective in a print shop; and if the print shop is busy preparing stock prospectuses where tens of millions of dollars are at stake, proofreading of a madly obsessive-compulsive nature is both cheap and sane in view of the possible losses from error.


This is a great example of organic groupings then funneled through a mechanical group to create the best end result as Lopez Pumarejo describes in chapter 1 of "New Media and Business".