Wikis Vs. Blogs

Blogs and Wikis are both phenominal advances in media that sum up the pros and cons in my last post about New Media. The big plus of both of them is the access they allow for everyone. However, there is a big difference between the two as far as access is concerned. Blogs allow for everyone to read them as well as comment on them. Wikis on the other hand allow people to read and not only comment on them but actually edit them. Blogs are somewhat of a hybrid of new media and old media because of the fact that not anyone can edit it. Blogs are run by an entity, whether it be a person or a group of people, and that entity has more control than other people since they control the website. Wikis on the other hand are left to the users, who are trusted to provide accurate information. This is a concept reviewed extensively in John Sutter's article 'No Longer the Wild West.' Sutter notes that the concept of giving more power to the users has been adopted by Youtube and Digg. Cnn's iReport on the other hand has managers who monitor content and decide what is appropriate. The question in relation to blogs are whether the owner of the blog has too much control. The ability of users to comment somewhat checks that power, however most people do not view all the comments on blogs, stopping after the first couple, if that many.

A possible new use for Wikis could be in the gaming spectrum. Most online games foster competition between people and the concept of collaboration of the minds are generally not seen in the gaming arena. People working together, however, is the essence of blogs and wikis and perhaps wikis can find an area of brain teasers or word games where people can collaborate in order to achieve the best possible result.

Old Media vs. New Media

In my opinion the biggest difference between Old and New media is that the latter is faster while the former, up until this point, continues to be more accurate and more scholarly. The biggest reason for the differences are the amount of people and what type of people have access to each. Old media is dominated by paid professionals who have often been schooled in reporting and fact checking and rarely report false information. On the down side the due diligence they must complete in order to be more scholarly and accurate means that it takes them longer to produce and distribute their articles. They also often expect to be paid for their information and therefore will not freely distribute it, which means it takes longer for it to get out. New media has therefore become much more apparent as it is constantly updated and almost always available. However, the fact that the majority of new media is run my amateurs it is more susceptible to having untrue information. The ideal thing would be to combine the two and allow them to work together to achieve a perfect balance.

My Research Project: New Media's Impact on Politics

As a political science major I thought it would be interesting to look at New Media's impact on politics. The two main areas in politics I will focus on are campaigning and public policy. Campaigning is a tremendously competitive area of politics in which candidates are always looking for an edge. I will first talk about the media's affect on campaigns until now and then analyze the up and coming trend of politicians using new media in their campaigns. Finally, I will attempt to predict the future of new media on campaigns. I will analyze policy from a new media perspective. The idea behind American politics is that we are a democracy, in which the people should have a say about the issues. Politicians have increasingly been using new media to gain public support for their policies as well as defend the policies they have implemented against criticism. While these issues will be the focus of my research I hope to discover other impacts new media has had on politics and include those in my paper as well.

What is New Media

New Media has become a term used for the various innovations in technology that allow for information to be distributed differently than it used to. A couple of technologies that are part of new media are blogs, social networks, video sharing websites, portable electronic devices that can connect to the internet, and websites in general. The internet is really the key to new media as it allows for widespread access to information in a variety of areas at a variety of times. With old media people would be required to take time out of their schedules to go to a store and buy a newspaper, magazine, or any other object containing news. With the rise of the internet people have access to this information almost wherever they are, nearly whenever they want. Essentially there are newspapers being reprinted with new news every couple of seconds; it is a great upgrade from the limitations of old media. New media also allows for everyday folk, as opposed to professional journalists, to publish articles and information they deem newsworthy. There are also advantages for businesses. James Manyika notes that business are now able to involve customers in their business process much more easily, allowing the companies to gain important feedback and improve their products. Video websites are also important as they are shifting the way television is watched. Youtube and Hulu allow people to watch tv and listen to music whenever they want, whatever song they want. Laura Holson notes that the necessity for a tv in one's household is decreasing to the point where some people will only watch tv online, saving money on cable bills. From a personal perspective New Media seems to be beneficial as it makes life less complicated, but the impact New Media has had and will continue to have on businesses should be watched closely as it could completely shift the way businesses operate.

Favorite Topic in School

Since I have been a student for as long as I can remember and the fact that I am starting this blog for a class in school, I decided to talk about my favorite subject. After years of learning I have decided on a major of Political Science, which also happens to be my favorite subject to study. Government is a man made structure that has greatly influenced the way people live, regardless of it's form. The science behind choosing the correct government fascinates me, partially because it has had such an impact on history and partially because it will have such an impact on the future. Under my blog posts you will find a poll: what is your favorite subject? Feel free to comment on this post and explain what it is and why.

Welcome to Danny's World

Hi World,

My name is Danny and this is my blog. The goal of this blog is to inform you of the news that I care about. Some of it might involve me and some of it might be something I just feel is important. I hope you enjoy getting a different perspective on the world and am always open to comments or suggestions.

Let the blogging begin...