Discussion Questions

Food for thought...

• How do you think New Media will look in 10 years? Would it have grown greatly, stayed the same or just changed a bit?
• How great do you think market penetration will become for New Media in the next 10 or so years, in retrospect to digital based advertsing?
• Do you care if everything goes digital? Would you prefer Mass Media to stay the way it is, or for New Media to revolutionize it, and help it evolve?

The Introduction

In the year 2009, we are completely engulfed and surrounded by New Media, or Digital Media as some would call it. We read the news on the internet, we text 24/7, we download music, we network with other people. New Media has connected us in a way we never imagined. Although very different from all other types of media, New Media is in actuality, very similar to that of "Old Media". It has taken the essence of the best of every other type of media, and brought it together, to deliver to us in a easy and very convenient package.

Questions With A Professional

Interview with local Sports Blogger, Travis Hughes.

1. What is the New Media company you work for?

Travis: I work for SportsBlogs Nation (sbnation.com), a network of over 200 team-specific sports blogs that cover pretty much every professional and college sports team in America. My site is Broad Street Hockey (broadstreethockey.com), SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog.

2. What is the exact job in that Company?

Travis: I'm the editor and head writer of Broad Street Hockey.

3. What's your job title and what does it include?

Travis: ^ Above. And to clarify, I'm part of SB Nation and they pay me, but my site is independent in that they don't tell me what to write or anything like that. I have complete editorial control over my site, as does every other site that is part of the network.

4. Why is your job important?

Travis: Well, sports blogs in general are important because they provide the voice of the fan. In most mainstream sports media, the voice of the fan is the one that most often goes silent. That's not a knock on the media necessarily, but they are bound by certain things that bloggers aren't -- mainly, they aren't allowed to show bias. As a blogger, I can openly be a fan of my team while still be a journalist.

5. Why did you start working in the New Media world?

Travis: I started my original blog because the Flyers are a team that is covered very well in the media and they are a very popular team, but in the "blogosphere" they were severely under-represented. The voice of the fan, as I mentioned in the last question, was essentially absent.

6. Why do you feel that New Media is more important than other media types?

Travis: I wouldn't say that sports blogging is more more important than other sports journalism, but it fills a void that the mainstream media cannot fill (again, the voice of the fan).

7. What is special about the New Media industry?

Travis: We're not held to the same constraints as the mainstream media. we can express our opinions more freely. Of course, that can be a negative thing too. Often times, the word "blog" or "blogger" is looked at as a negative thing. and there are a lot of "bloggers" out there that give us all a bad name by starting up sites and reporting "news" without substantiation. But there are a lot of bloggers, like myself and the rest of us at SB Nation, that take what we do very seriously, and we hold ourselves to the same standards as other journalists.

8. If you had special powers for a day, and could change one thing about the New Media industry,what would it be and why?

Travis: I would change the perception of sports blogging among the majority of people in this country. It's getting better and through our collective hard work we're getting more legitimate each and everyday, but there is still work to be done. I have not been able to get a press pass to cover my team, but some teams are more open to us than others. For example, our Washington Capitals site has complete access to their team. The National Football League recently gave SB Nation two press passes to cover the NFL Draft this upcoming weekend. We're syndicated on Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated's website, and most recently, we struck an agreement with the National Hockey League themselves to provide content for their website. Just today, one of my stories was published on the NHL website. So we might not be looked at by everybody as completely legitimate just yet, but we have very large audiences that are constantly growing and that's because we do quality work just as mainstream journalists do. If we keep doing that, the teams and the league won't be able to and won't want to ignore us.

9. What media resources do you consume on a regular basis? How does that media source affect your life?

Travis: Wow, too much. I'm consuming some kind of media all day long, practically. I watch ESPN and local sports channels all the time, I read all the Philadelphia area newspapers that cover the Flyers everyday. I also read a ton of mainstream media websites that cover the Flyers and the the NHL as a whole. I have about 300 different internet sites in my internet reader that I keep tabs on all day, and those sites vary from other blogs from other teams to other Flyers blogs to other hockey sites and other general sites for social networking, news, and entertainment.

Successful New/Digital Media Provider

Google Case Study

Google was first created in 1998. It began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin who at the time were students at Stanford University. It has since become the internets top rated search engine. It earns its revenue from advertisements related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services. Its main headquarters, Googleplex is located in Mountain View, California. Google has been the headquarters of the internet for a while now though, and it continues absorbing many other successful media properties, such as the acquisition of YouTube on October 10th, 2006 for a gigantic sum of $1.65 billion. It has become many people's homepage, main source of finding things online, email, and has even been added to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as it's own verb. Google continues to grow, and piles of money keep running through it. For example, just in the 2008 4th Quarter of the fiscal year alone, Google posted a revnue that was upwards of $2.25billion. It has hardly reached it's full potential yet.

Survey of 25 ACCC Students

These are the results after surveying 25 Random ACCC students.

• 3 of 25 said they did not use the internet daily
• 7 of 25 said they did not have their own personal computer
• 9 of 25 said they did not use one specific site daily
• 8 of 25 said they did not make plans or communicate with others daily using internet
• 2 of 25 said they did not have a Facebook/Myspace/Blogging account
• 23 of 25 said that schooling is made easier for students today using new media
• 18 of 25 said they use a computer in their workplace
• 21 of 25 students think that business' run more efficiently with the use of new media
• 23 of 25 students think new media is doing good for our society, and 2 people are against that idea
• All 25 students agreed that new media will continue to evolve

The majority of the students surveyed, seem to be living in a digital world.

New Trends In The Industry

Twitter.

Twitter has become an internet and new media phenomenon. What is Twitter exactly? It's a social networking site, like that of Facebook or Myspace, but much simpler in it's design and functioning. The website allows for friends to update their profiles with quick, frequent answers to the popular question, What are you doing? Twitter has grown immensely as of late, and it's easy to see why. Some people don't really want to sift through all the nonsense on Myspace, or navigate through Facebook, they just want to see what friends are up to. It has become so popular, that many friends update their pages via text messages, emails, and smart phone applications.

Why Twitter wants to be used by you?

Because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues—especially when they’re timely.

• Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know.
• Running late to a meeting? Your co–workers might find that useful.
• Partying? Your friends may want to join you.

There are endless uses for this social networking tool, and it has proven successful.

Here's a quick look at what Twitter does.



With it's simplicity, Twitter looks to have an extraordinary outlook for 2009 and beyond with many new members joining everyday. The very user-friendly interface with all portals of Twitter have made it so easy for new members to jump in and get started.

Conclusion!

With our research and known facts, New and Digital Media have proven to be a powerhouse in the media world. 92% of all Americans have at least used the internet or a New Media form once in their lives. It is the best of every media rolled into one, and is not even fully established in our society. That is what power New and Digital Media holds for the future. It aims to grow exponentially in the next 10 years. It will take over the world, and soon most everything will be run or programmed by computers, and the usage of the internet. The statistics from just our survey alone are projective of the impact that New Media has. It has imapacted our society by creating millions of jobs, controlling our workplaces, government, and schools. The best thing we can do, is to grow and evolve with it and learn to love this digital world. It only gets better from here.