Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Writing For New Media: My View




Now is the time of year for me to summarize a deluge of gained knowledge into one useful blog post. I can’t help but think how apropos this truly is to the given topic of new media. At the very epicenter of New Media is the very process of condensing a world’s worth of knowledge into one headline, two pictures, and a video clip. It truly is an absolute wonder.

Writing for new media has evolved from a verb into a culture. The blog is no longer just a noun, but the embodiment of all that is modern in the face media. The blogger has quite literally become the source from which information flows. Media moguls have risen from their below-level apartment computer chairs to stardom and fame throughout the digital world, all without ever putting on a pair of pants. News is instantaneous, even before it has time to hit the printing press; it already has had a million hits in the cyber world.

To take a step back and marvel at what society has created for itself, you can’t help but stand amazed and how it flows so well together. The world of new media is in a constant state of flux and yet the new media participant has evolved to be so adaptive to this disorder that he expects, anticipates, and encourages the ordered chaos that flows through the information super-highway (if it’s even called that anymore).

What am I really talking about? I’m talking about new media. The convergence of video, pictures, sound, writing, games, and computer code that have bonded together in one giant act of fusion to create the single, multi-headed medium that we humans in the 21st century rely on to extract our information. Some would like to label it the Internet (which by all accounts should not be capitalized). But this hydra is so much larger and more powerful than what “Wikipedia” defines as the Internet. It is the blogs, social networks, MPORGS, podcasts, forums, websites, and online newspapers that we as humans create, nourish, and then feed off of.

Information used to come from a single sourced the Newspaper guru, then the radio, then TV, all of which had an untouchable, omniscient method of disseminating public information.  Internet was the catalyst to a revolution.  Now information comes from everywhere. It comes from laptops, desktops, phones, MP3 players, and even satellites; blasting from numerous anonymous sources into compartmentalized niches of information, accessible to all but only seen by those who avidly participate within that compartment.

The real issue, however, is not why or how. It is how do I get in? The creature known as new media is here and she will stay as long as devices continue to stay connected and people continue to feed her. The only option is to take what you can from the plethora of information and filter through to find what you need. Then, share what you know to the world.

Start with a blog. Not your blog, someone else’s. Find and interest and follow it. Comment on stories, videos, and pictures. As soon as you hit submit, you’ve become part of the medium. You have just written for new media. Your comment will be read, responded to, and internalized (maybe even shared) by millions that you will never know exist outside of the medium. Next, after you’ve gained a hearty amount of information, start to share. Join a social networks, share with your friends. Allow the cycle to continue, share and receive. When you have attained more. It is time to begin your own blog. Share your knowledge, link to other blogs, stories, videos, and web pages. Link them back you. Then, wait for your own comments to begin. There always is room to expand in every direction then find your niche in any compartment that you choose. The options are quite literally endless. The more you share the more you gain. It is the very soul of New Media. Good luck. I’ll see you out there.

-Jeremiah