What is New Media?

As we learned in class, new media is basically what is referred to as Web 2.0 which is a combination of technologies. It includes blogs, wikis, video, audio, mobility, among others. An example would be Flicker, which is a site that allows you to upload and share pictures with the people you want so they can view and print them as well. Google maps and social bookmarking sites are also a clear example of Web 2.0 and New Media. The difference between old media and new media can be seen by looking back at newspapers and turning them into e-magazines, watching tv series over the internet, blog posting instead of emailing, media sharing, instant messengers, and even reading online versions of books. Furthermore, collaboration and convergence are two of the key characteristics of New Media.

Description of Research Topic

"Facebook: Social Networking or Social Threat?"
My term project will focus on social networking and basically, its social consequences. It will be based on the analysis of Facebook as one of the most popular Social Networking sites. I will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of joining the site and how loss of privacy is involved. Furthermore, I would try to find statistical information to determine how many users does it have and how much of the population it accounts for, in order to be aware of how many of us have become part of this "virtual society" and how some of us are addicted to it. Moreover, I will try to include how new media takes place through "Facebook Mobile".