Wiki- So Far

As a marketing student, I am researching how new media can be used to market in the entertainment industry by keeping my eyes open for any related stories in the news. I am interested in how celebrities promote themselves through Twitter and Facebook to generate a larger fan-base. I am also looking into related I-phone apps and uses, such as those which help personalize news-feeds, since broadcast media has given way to the "virtual" word.

Peer-to-Peer File-sharing

I remember watching news stories in my home-country Ukraine about information piracy: a video showing thousands and thousands of illegal  cd' s containing music and film were being run over by bulldozers. Yet while cd's are something tangible, and as Eric Pfanner for the New York Times in Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access? puts it from the words of Dutch director of anti piracy organization- you can be arrested for selling pirated copies, but P2P sharing is only the free flow information. But is it? Because intellectual property is not tangible it is much more difficult to protect, especially with the internet technology available to us today. File-sharing has grown in popularity among younger generations. It is very simple, and seemingly innocent- someone buys a music cd, uploads it to his/her computer and sends a couple of songs to friends. While  companies like Apple take precaution to this practice by allowing i-pods and i-phones to synchronize with only with itunes run from one computer (or otherwise lose data), the prevention for file-sharing is virtually non-existent. First, it is very difficult to keep track of illegal file-sharing at all times, as it is going on constantly. Secondly, many websites have emerged, as mentioned in the NY Times article which allow for ease of P2P sharing- sites which stream movies, and have free mp3 downloads- many of which can hide your IP so it's harder to catch the piracy. The article mentions a site called Pirate Bay which is currently being sued for this reason. P2P technology connects various users into a network allowing people to gain access to files stored on your hard-disk in return for the same favor. For instance, any network connection which grants free access to users like a college network can be considered P2P based. But while this practice of downloading an mp3 or streaming a movie is viewed as virtually harmless by most, many fail to consider the implications. The entertainment industry generates profit from sales of music and movies, and it is what drives the creation of new content for our enjoyment. If the companies who produce the music lose revenue, we as end-users also lose in the end because of the decline of quality in the content being produced. Music artists are forced to turn in new material at a higher rate, since the speed of file-sharing supersedes the sales. Cd's were once popular, only to be replaced with mp3's because of companies like Napster in the 90's. Now artists are selling songs on I-tunes for .99 cents for lack of better choice. The entertainment industry for one has certainly lost its appeal for new talent due to file-sharing.

Advice

The campus has already made an effort to use new media in the registrar's office by using Twitter.Students can follow important updates through this service regarding deadlines and policies. Social media sites like Facebook can be also used to send invitations for school events and job fairs, since many students check their Facebook pages more often than their school's email inbox. School spirit can also be promoted through these sites, by creating group profiles for the school's athletic teams. A Twitter discussion with Baruch students and alumni as well as people who work for companies that graduates are interested in applying to for jobs can be created in order to ask questions and network. Facebook and Twitter alerts can be sent in any 24 hour period to alert of holidays or emergency closings (for example for snow days). Students can network with each other through social media for reselling their textbooks. A blog for the school can be created where everyone can contribute articles about the school and upcoming events, or review existing events, promote fundraisers (which can also be done using social networking, etc). A YouTube video offering guidance for freshman can be uploaded about the process of getting accustomed to college, and advice on what they should strive for academically. A virtual tour can be created to attract new applicants and promote the college.

Privacy in New Media

One of the first things you are prompted for when you sign up to create a profile on a social-networking site is your "basic information", i.e. your sex, age, location, school or work info etc. Although most information you give out on these sites is optional, and their are certain settings for guaranteeing that this information is kept private vs. seen by everyone, there is no guarantee that you are indeed protected from people who seek out to gather your information for their own purposes. These people can be anyone from advertisers, with whom the site may have a contract with (think about all those tailored ads that you receive on your FB page) or hackers, or people who simply see your profile as a way of getting your info, which could lead to potential identity theft. But identity theft can not be achieved through the info you put up in your profile alone. Rather your identity is comprised of a few different pieces of information- such as your social security number, name, date of birth etc. While it is highly unlikely that someone can obtain your social security number from FB or Myspace or Twitter, they can obtain your age and sex, or perhaps your parents names or pet name which many use as password reminders and additional security settings in bank account protection; and thus this information is just another piece in the puzzle for completing your full identity. This is why it is so important to monitor what information you give out while using New Media, especially in social networking since there is a high risk of exposing your personal info to strangers. Also, nowadays employers are monitoring social media sites, and what you say (or do and put up online in video) may even cost you your job if it is bad enough (think about the many Mrs. Universe scandals that ultimately cost the contestants their crown). A NY Times article about copyright laws and YouTube raises the question of how new media affects intellectual property. I believe this is more of a legal issue than an issue of privacy, since what is debated is the fair use of such property, and not whether it is kept private or not. The issues that are of utmost concern online is personal privacy, since the internet leaves many of us vulnerable due to the easy accessibility of information through it.

About My Project

I wrote about the role of New Media in a Globalized world. I found out that new media has been successfully applied to promoting global activism, like helping raise funds for Tsunami victims, as well as helping people in protesting against their government, and in some instances aiding revolutions (which we witnessed during these past five months in the Middle East). My topic was very broad, and I used Academic Search Complete to help me with finding articles, and this allowed me to narrow down the issues I wanted to discuss in my paper. I concluded that New Media is indeed a powerful force that can bring about political change and help de-construct old stereotypes while bringing people together.

Creative Use of New Media

As a marketing student, I find New Media to be a great tool for promoting business and reaching out to customers. Nowadays, we no longer have to rely on word-of-mouth about the quality of a particular product, or ask friends if the new restaurant down the block is any good. We have New Media tools to aid us in our research of such matters! We can screen through countless reviews on sites such as Yelp or Citysearch which are great because they put the tools provided by New Media to local use. Our previous assignment required us to explore about the various uses of Twitter, which prompted me to create a Twitter account for a local business I am helping to promote. As of now, I believe I am the only follower, but I hope that soon that number will grow. The business is a jewelry store and piercing parlor in the East Village called "Jewels 32." New Media is very versatile when it comes to creative marketing: I have helped  generate a page and write content in Yelp and Google for Jewels32 and create small web promotions (a feature available on both sites). Yelp, Google and Twitter make it very easy to "get your business out there." All I had to do was fill in the pre-generated text fields in the content wizard to provide some interesting and useful info about Jewels 32 and add a few pictures to make the page more appealing. What is also great about these sites, is that they incorporate the social networking aspect into them. Users can post reviews, and the business owner can post responses, etc. In Yelp, there is a whole community of Yelpers, where the number of reviews you post is counted and you can even upload a pic of yourself. Here are the links to the webpages for Jewels 32 where I've helped write the content:
Yelp! for Jewels 32, Place page on Google Jewels 32, Twitter for Jewels 32.

Creativity and New Media

New Media provides an amazingly simple way for us to share our creative ideas with others. Because new media is so accessible it becomes the perfect tool for fostering creativity. Youtube provides us with great examples of how ordinary people can create original content. All someone needs to produce a Youtube video is already available to them in their homes, and does not involve much more than a webcam and a computer. That is why user-generated content is so great- the person has full control over their creativity, being the writer, director and producer all at once. The distribution of user-generated content is also easy, and does not cost anything, since millions of people are already flocking to sites like Youtube on a daily basis. An article featured in The New Yorker "The New Math of Mashups" by Sasha Frere-Jones addresses some issues which arise when users choose to modify original content produced by someone else into a creative remake. The modification can be anything from layering music onto a video that is not its original soundtrack, to completely "mashing" two separate contents together, like two (or more) songs that become one. Because of many governing copyright laws, it sometimes becomes difficult to distinguish what should be deemed as original creative content. On one hand, the content used in creating the mashup is often protected under copyright and is the original creative idea of someone else, and therefore it is sometimes seen as piracy to redistribute it without the permission of the artist. Yet on the other hand, the person who put the mashup together expressed creativity through the process of editing the content, and recognizingly altering it without denying its source. Therefore it becomes difficult to define mashups as piracy, while it also remains difficult to say that the artist no longer has a creative claim over the content. An example of this mentioned in the article is the famous remake of Jay-Z's Black Album, remade into The Grey Album by adding content from the Beatles White Album. While the album was very popular on the charts, EMI records was unhappy with the distribution of it, as the content used to create the music album did not originally belong to the person who created the new album. Yet others seem to recognize the creative effort put into remaking existing content into  new content. The New Yorker article mentions a remake of Madonna's "Ray of Light" and the Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen" which gained recognition and approval from both artists. The most interesting point made by the author, is that these remakes can be seen as a sort of consumer-dissatisfaction, wanting to improve on something already existing to become better. New Media certainly plays an important role in fostering such creativity by enabling us to share content more freely when we choose to make those improvements, or simply express new ideas through the use of old content.