Mourning Old Media’s Decline

Here's very interesting article in the New York Times about the declining fortunes of some of the old media companies. A very telling quote, however, is below:

At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism — the trusted news sources readers have relied on — were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a “cesspool” of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings.
But in this case, it wasn’t an old journalism hack lamenting his industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.

Maybe we all should be a little more worried about the decline of old media.

Social Networking and Virtual Worlds

Social Networking and Virtual Worlds can be used in many different ways by corporations.
Corporations can use social networking sites to recruit new employees (see Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting) and virtual worlds (see IBM's Virtual World for its Employees: IBM LEARNING PROGRAMS GET A 'SECOND LIFE') to train them.
Also companies are using virtual worlds to help drive sales and build brand loyalty (see Toys with a Second Life).
Society benefits from these new technologies because they facillitate greater participation in many different communities (work, school, political, cultural to name a few). Engaged users have a stronger sense of community and therefore responsibilty.
There is a dark side. The stronger communities could also be of a criminal element and with the anonymity of the web this could give unintended support to groups of criminals.

I think social networking sites will evolve to include more ways of contacting people in the "real" world. With the use of map and mashups and the technological advances in the mobile phone market I think this is a logical step.
For virtual worlds I see more businesses exploring their usefulness within the business, but I don't see them becoming a great way for businesses to reach consumers.

Checking Out Some Social Networking Sites

There are many different social networking sites and they are as varied as their members. I'll admit to joining a few but mostly because I had friends who had joined earlier invited me to join.
Some thoughts on the some of the most popular:

MYSpace: Early on designed for teens and therefore not as popular with the over 30 crowd. More recently a venue for bands, and other artists (actors, painters etc.) (established and new) so increased popularity with a wider demographic. Still geared towards a younger audience.

Friendster: This site was popular early (I became a member in August 2003) but has lost ground to rivals. Lets friends make connections thru shared friends, schools, bookmarks of favorite websites and membership in online groups.

Facebook: Originally open only to students and those with a .edu email address now open to all.
Has a robust set of tools and applications to keep users at the site. Users can join networks organized by region, workplace, school, and interest. Has a "twitter" component that asks "what are you doing right now?" that promotes frequent updates and checking by users.

LinkedIn: Considered the premier career related social networking site. Used primarily for professional networking and career advancement. Used by recruiters to recruit and research prospect job candidates.

Also interesting is a site called Spokeo.com that " leverages your existing social network and email relationships to quickly and easily grab content across the web." It checks 41 different social networking sites and the user's email address book to look for connections.

Book Review Outline

Understanding Global Media by Terry Flew

New Media's Relationship to Global Media, A Review

Major points
A. discussion of key concepts of Global Media:
Media and Power (economic and political)
Media Markets, an analysis
New Media Technologies
B. An outline of Theories of Global Media
Critical Policy Economy
Cultural Studies
C. Global Media, the Knowledge Economy and New Competition

This is a very scholarly work for a largely academic audience.

This book gives an in depth look to Media from an historical and global perspective. A very Macro look at new media and helpful in gaining a larger perspective to the media landscape.

Term Research Project Sources

Analysis of the Index to the 2008 Media 100 Advertising Age, Advertising Age
http://adage.com/datacenter/article?article_id=131191

Analysis of New York Times Website
http://www.nytimes.com/

Analysis of NPR Website
http://www.npr.org/

Analysis of NBC Website
http://www.nbc.com/

Anne Becker, Old Media New Media, Brodcasting and Cable, Feb 26, 2007
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419245.html

Scott Kessler, Old Media and New Media: Friends, Not Foes, Business Week, Nov 8, 2006
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2006/pi20061108_232958.htm

Jean Yung, Newspapers use YouTube video previews to attract readers, Knight Digital Media Center, Jan 24, 2008
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/080124yung/

Jon Fine, Old Media's Mobile Future, Business Week, Jan 16, 2006
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_03/b3967047.htm

Anthony Bianco, John Rossant, Lauren Gard, The Future Of The New York Times, Business Week, Jan 17, 2005
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_03/b3916001_mz001.htm

Jan Schaffer, Citizen Media: Fad or the Future of News? 2007
http://www.kcnn.org/research/citizen_media_report

Southern California Broadcasters Association, Market Research Reports 2008
Radio and the Internet with stories 2008
Facts about Newspaper
iPods and MP3s

Brian Stettler, Web Site’s Formula for Success: TV Content With Fewer Ads, New York Times, Oct 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/business/media/29adco.html?ref=business

John Koblin, Special 'Investment Fund' to Increase Business Coverage at The Times?, The New York Observer, Oct, 28, 2008
http://www.observer.com/2008/media/special-investment-fund-increase-business-coverage-i-times-i

New York Times Press Release, NYTimes.com Announces New Video Platform with Deeper Integration Throughout the Site Oct 24, 2008
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317&p=irol-pressArticle&ID=1217038&highlight=

Christopher Lawton, TV+Social Network=?, The Wall Street Journal, Oct 27, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122461909287855339.html

Jennifer Graham, YouTube tosses 10-minute limit to show full TV episodes, USA Today, Oct 24, 2008 http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2008-10-23-youtube-tv-episodes_N.htm

Baruch New Media-Our Class Wiki- So Far

We are making good progress on the New Media Wiki. I have been editing the Marketing and Advertising in New Media page. I have also added a piece on mobile marketing. Looking to add a piece on a marketing pitch to a large beverage company. The pitch includes many new media components.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Compare and contrast blogs and wikis.

Blog attributes:
Usually single author
Reverse chronological structure
Usually personal
External links

Wiki attributes:
Usually many authors
Incremental structure determined by content and users
Usually objective
Internal and external links

Blogs seem best suited for the individual. One is able to express a passionate opinion, and control the content and comments.
Wikis are best suited for collaboration. It is scalable with little centralized control.

Comment on the importance of convergence in today's networked world.

The importance of convergence in today's networked world cannot be overstated.

From Wikipedia: " Convergence, simply put, is how individual consumers interact with others on a social level and use various media platforms to create new experiences, new forms of media and content that connect us socially, and not just to other consumers, but to the corporate producers of media in ways that have not been as readily accessible in the past."

Wikipedia has a very informative page on the topic.
As more people use different devices to send and receive information convergence will become key to having the message heard.
Convergence also allows the consumer to interact with the message, to personalize it. It empowers the user create his own content.


How can blogs be used for collaboration?

Collaborative blogs are becoming more and more popular. Mutiple users are able to combine time and resources and this in turn helps attract larger audiences. Audiences benefit from the collaboration with more timely and frequent updates and a greater pool of information found on the blog. Huffington Post and Pajamas Media are two of some of the more popular examples of a collaborative blog.
Businesses also use this type of blog, Walmart uses blogs to receive feedback from customers about products.
Collaboration in the blogosphere is another example of convergence, and will probably continue to increase in popularity.

My New Media Class – So Far

A few questions:
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 / enhancing the old media?


Cutting edge technologies are at the heart of new media. New hardware and software is being constantly created and improved for new media. The current trend is toward the mobile platform (see Google's Android ). Some of the newest technologies include location sharing (see Brightkite). Gawker has a celebrity location sharing feature on its website called the gawker stalker. Some mobile technologies more successful than others at the moment. Another important part of new media is the RSS feed. This allows for a push of selected content by the user. Blogs, news organizations and even some commercial websites are using this technology to ensure content delivery to the user.



The Internet is the backbone of new media. Both computers (laptop and desktop) and mobile devices connect to the Internet to share information. SMS is growing in popularity but the Internet is main vehicle for distribution of new media.



New media is enhancing old media with its new technologies by providing it new opportunites in brand building, marketing, advertising and distribution. Old media is reallocating resources to new media technologies to save money and become more competitive. The New York Times is creating its own social network for Times readers. That level of market segmentation is attractive to advertisers. The podcast and the blog have been thoroughly embraced by the old media to enhance its reach. Old media may have been late but most are understanding that to survive now, a mix of new media technologies must be used to communicate with consumers/users.

New Media Wiki

We are working on a New Media Wiki for class. I am editing the page "Marketing and Advertising using New Media." I'll have to work on the title.

We have as topics now:

• Use of Data Mining in Marketing
• Advertising in Blogs
• Use of Virtual Worlds in Marketing

And plans to discuss Mobile Marketing and the boom in that space.