Response1 – MatthewL
Response 1 MatthewL
I have been in the media department for a little under a year now and taken 5 new media classes. In every class I have been asked the question “What is new media?” I used to just say something along the lines of “Well it’s not old media”. At first I did not really care, I was just glad to switched out of my old major (computer science). I had always heard people describe new media as technology usually in the form for new devices with some art throw on top. Being what I call myself a nerd this caused me jump right in. As time however has progressed the definition has been contorted in my perspective and the meaning matters much more to me now. From assigned readings, discussions with professors and peers as well as searching the internet the meaning is not well defined. Everyone seems to have their own definition or understanding of what it is. This very reason of not having a sound definition is one reason why I enjoy new media. It allows myself to have some freedom within my own major that I would not get from others.
My favorite definition of new media is from an author that I do not remember the name of, but he said “New media is media that we do not currently know how to define.” To supplement this Mike Scott has told me several times that new media comes in waves of technology, the newest wave is the newest technology and is something that I should try to understand.
What really peaks my personal interest in new media is all of the technology and different media forms that it envelopes. This allows new media to make a lot of different things possible. It allows many people all interested in very many different things to do what they please. Something that I would like to see more out of new media in the future is those who would consider influenced by it to work on different projects together and together enhance what they produce.
One thought on “Response1 – MatthewL”
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The reason we ask about what is New Media is that unlike many established fields like history, biology etc, it is new as a field of study. So the way we define it will help shape what it will become. If you review the other responses & my comments you will see many different and useful definitions–all of which work.
Which one works for you?
The culture is built not by have one single truth, but by braiding all the different threads together. So what’s yours?