[new]S[media]

A common theme that is discussed in my New Media class is the concept of credibility on the Internet, and what society can believe to be the truth since it is so easy for anyone to post anything online.  A prime explain of this is the phenomenon of the free encyclopedia called “Wikipedia.”  In the book The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it, there is a section on the lessons for Internet users that can be learned from websites such as Wikipedia.  The main quote that summarizes the main point that I found interesting is on page 133.  “Like the development of the Internet’s architecture, then, Wikipedia’s original design was simultaneously ambitious in scope but modest in execution, devoted to making something work without worrying about every problem that could come up if its extraordinary flexibility were abused.”  This quote explains what is the side effects of constantly trusting the Internet as a source, but most of society will find it to not out weigh the benefits.  Personally, I constantly use Wikipedia, and trust it as reliable more than I should.  But I’m sure that it will someday come back and haunt me for it.

As most forms of communication are constantly being evolved and pushed onto the Internet, newspapers have followed with what is now known as “online newspapers.”  Sales of print newspapers have been increasingly being low since newspapers have begun to offer most articles in bigger newspapers are now all being posted online.  Newspapers have had to adapted to the new computer mediated communication, and they changed by creating online subscriptions to their newspaper monthly/yearly.  The issue that I found may be controversial in the future is how advertisements will be involved in this evolution.  Of course, advertising takes up most of the revenue newspapers recieve, so where is there a place for ad’s in an online newspaper?  And also, how can newspapers decide how much to charge advertisers when it is different for space on a print newspaper?  Although I am unaware of the solution to this issue, I believe that in the future, newspapers will begin to have to regulate and analyze the use of the subscriptions through time and occurrence.

In a recent New Media class I had with Dr. Strangelove, the creator of Microsoft and billionaire Bill Gates was discussed.  I haven’t ever really been taught or studied Bill Gates, other than to know him as the inventor of Microsoft which changed computer technologies all over the world and as being one of the richest mans in the world.  After reading over his biography, I learned that he was on the ”Forbes 400″ from 1993-2007, and when his wealth surpassed a certain point, the media labelled him as a “centibillionaire.”  And all of this, mostly because of his creation against the information appliance (the typewriter.) Dr. Strangelove comments that Microsoft is “first in making a reoccurring pattern network device, generative platform that generates culture connections.”  It’s shocking to think that this all started to develop in the early 1980′s.  Although it is possible that someone like Bill Gates could have come up with a similar concept such as Microsoft, it’s interesting to wonder what our society would be like if he hadn’t been around.

So as everyone is aware of, and this subject was recently discussed in my New Media class, the newest revolutionary product from apple- the iPhone.  According to Wikipedia (an incredibly reliable source…) “The iPhone is an Internet-connected multimedia smart phone designed and marketed by Apple with a flush multi touch screen and a minimal hardware interface. The device does not have a physical keyboard, so a virtual keyboard is rendered on the touch screen instead.”  The concept that was recently discussed in Dr. Strangelove’s New Media class is that the iPhone the model for what the Internet threatens to be.  By this, I think he means is that producers and innovators looking to advance Internet technology are trying to condense every product to one device.  An iPhone is a prime example of this, it is a cell phone, an MP3 player, a camera, a video player, a radio, and available for Internet use.  This makes it so much accessible for anyone who owns an iPhone to connect with others faster and more often.  Now is this a good thing or a bad thing…you decide.