JOUR1111 Lecture 2: Attack of the New Media

Our second lecture came with the intriguing sub-heading of 'New News.' What is this 'New News', you might ask? As many of us suspected, and all of us shortly discovered, this lecture was focussed on the ascension of media to the Web, and its evolution since.

We started with a brief overview of 'Old Media', which includes newspaper, television and radio platforms. It was interesting to learn how quickly these forms of media have been labelled as 'old' with the appearance of the internet. However, it's not entirely surprising; 'New Media' on the web allows you to experience all of the old, and then some on top.

Even so, 'New Media' has gone through several iterations itself. Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 all show major differences, and some very clever innovations that I'd say very few of us expected. Ten years ago, if you told me it wouldn't be long before I'd be part of an online social craze along with millions of other people, I would have laughed in your face, called you dumb, and gone back to watching Dragon Ball Z. Because I would have been almost eight, and that's the kind of thing I did at that age. Nowadays, the vast majority of my friends and acquaintances are connected to Facebook along with countless other forms of social media, and I watch Dragon Ball Z online.

Before this lecture, I didn't understand just how much media on the web has changed over its short life. In my eyes, the internet's change from a storage space for advertising friendly information repurposed from old media into a living, thinking mechanised behemoth capable of keeping you connected with friends across the globe and informed about the best local restaurants is nothing short of amazing.

New Media has advanced by leaps and bounds, and it seems to only be going further. Another point Bruce raised that I found extremely interesting was the prospect of 'hyperlocalisation' of news. What does this mean for our media intake? Will we be able to choose what news we wish to receive, based on our own interests? Or will Skynet decide for itself what knowledge should be imparted on our feeble, organic minds? Only time will tell!

Lastly, there was the jelly bean scenario. Now, I love jelly beans. I crave them. So yes, you can imagine my displeasure when I was told to hand them back after only consuming one of the delicious treats. I was quite upset, to say the least. In other words, I walked right in to the glass door that is the concept of entitlement. While I found the idea of paywalls to be interesting, the vast majority of people will be as outraged as I was with my jellybeans. Having experienced the news online for free for so long, we'll no doubt find it difficult to adjust to the concept of paying to receive content.

It is indeed a very exciting time to be a journalist! With the above thoughts racing through my mind I exited the lecture theatre, jelly beans clutched tightly in hand, demanding to be eaten. I wasted no time in fulfilling their wishes.


I'm not sure if I'm meant to include reflections on tutorials in here, so I'll do it quickly to be on the safe side.

I may have made a mistake picking an 8.00am timeslot. Getting there that early SUCKS. Oddly enough, as my bus pulled to a halt. I noticed people already lining up to catch a bus elsewhere. At 7.30am. Dear god, why?!

Funnily enough, my fellow tutorial members did not seem overly enthused to be there either. It took us a while to get going, but we finally managed to get engaged when it came to creating and designing our Twitter accounts and blogs. Well, I did, anyway. I was too engaged to see what anyone else was doing. I could already tell that the social media aspects of the course would be of major importance, not to mention fun! After a quick debate on the definition of journalism, during which we learnt there wasn't one, it was already time to finish. It'll be interesting to see how our 'group dynamic' evolves over the semester, especially seeing as we only meet once a fortnight!