Blogs v. Wikis

Blogs are online journals that anyone can see and (usually) comment on. Wikis are online encyclopedias that anyone can edit and contribute to. At their core, both are new media technologies that encourage collaboration among the communities that gather around them. Their similarities include being accessible from anywhere and by anyone, being able to be changed (to different degrees) by any users, and requiring no HTML knowledge to use at a basic level.

Although blogs and wikis are both new media technologies that do have some similarities, there are several key differences between the two.
In terms of control, blogs can only be changed as far as the comments go since commenters can't edit the actual layout or the posts of the blog. Wikis, meanwhile, can have entire pages changed by any registered user.
Blogs are also more personal reflections on whatever subject they cover from the blog owner's point of view while the comments are usually left as they are. Wikis, meanwhile, tend to be more objective in nature because they have to match the expectations of the most common user so the articles aren't changed because of inaccuracies. Wikipedia, for example, requires citations for nearly every part of its articles to ensure their accuracy.

This isn't to say blogs can't be used for community collaboration, however. Although the blog owner is the only person able to make posts on the blog itself, it's still possible to encourage collaboration among groups through inventive uses of tags and blogrolls. Each collaborator may have their own account that links to one central account that contains all of their posts that contain a certain tag relevant to the group's interest.

As stated at the beginning of this post, wikis are essentially online encyclopedias. In comparison to actual encyclopedia software, however, they still lack media functionality outside of displaying images. Music and videos, for example, can't be embedded into a wiki and can only be accessed by outside links. One potential addition to wiki software could be to allow for the embedding of such media files to give them that extra functionality.

Old vs. New

Presently, new media can be described as any web applications coming after Web 2.0: Software that emphasizes community participation and collaboration among users over the internet. Social networks (Facebook, Playstation Network, Xbox Live), wiki software (MediaWiki), and weblog software (Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal) are all examples of new media that allow the individual user to communicate freely with other users. Web 2.0 applications also aren't simply finished once they're consumed by the end-user. They can be modified and updated by either the users themselves or by the original creators to meet the changing needs of the users and creators.

Old media can be described as anything coming before Web 2.0. Books, newspapers, radio, television, and even Web 1.0 all fall into this category. Web 1.0 qualifies as web applications that did not have any true community aspects to them. They were simply produced, provided to the end-user, and consumed. Updates were limited to creator-made updates without any real input from the user.

Project proposal

Title: The Changing Face of Video Games and Mass Media

Description: My project will focus on how the video game industry has changed over the past two decades, especially in relation with new media (then and now). The growth of both MMOs and non-MMOs will be analyzed in this project, as well as the video game industry's overall image and how it went from being seen as a hobby and children's activity to a serious competitor for television and movies.

What is New Media?

"What kinds of technologies are part of the new media? How important is the Internet to the new media? Why and how are the new media replacing and / or enhancing the old media?"

New media is just that: A new type of media for communicating. Books, phones, radios, televisions, and even Web 1.0 were all considered new media at some point. Although they're not considered new by today's standards, they were new in their time and changed the way people experienced the world. Today, new media comes in the form of community interaction with whatever media they're involved with.

The Internet is one of the biggest technologies involved in new media. Wikis, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and even the social platforms in modern video games are all forms of new media that rely on the Internet to function. Without the Internet, none of those social platforms would be able to function.

Just because new media is "new" doesn't mean that it has to replace the old media, however. Just as Apple's WYSIWYG interface and Adobe Photoshop made publishing and picture manipulation accessible to anybody, new media is making it easier for anybody to express themselves and contribute to the online community.
(Clive Thompson on How YouTube Changes the Way We Think)

Similarly, just because TV shows are popping up all over the Internet and can even be watched from a laptop in bed doesn't mean that actual TVs and TV broadcasts are going the way of the dinosaur. The convenience factor is definitely there, but people still want to watch their shows the day they're broadcast on a 50-inch HDTV.
(Who Needs TV? I've Got a Laptop)

First post

First is a strange word. Second sounds more like a real word.

Seh was from awayu and we was worry of her?