Dawud's blog

There are tons of New Media out today that cater to very niche groups of people. If I were to create a new type of New Media, it would be an site that allows people to be paired with hosts on vacations. I find that when I go to a new place, I would get to see a lot more if I had someone with me that knew the area. This will also allow people to connect with one another and potentially make a new friend in a random city. This site will also let users review their host and suggest them to their friends. This site's target audience will be for people who enjoy traveling and those who enjoy showing their city around to people.

After researching several different topics, I found that the topic that peaked the interest the most is Social Networking. I wrote my term paper on this topic and I believe it is a very relevant topic in today's society. Being an avid user of social networks, I can provide real life examples as to what happens on these sites and what to avoid. I plan to add different ways we can avoid scammers and dangerous activities on social media. A large portion of the population is uneducated on this subject so I would like to provide people with examples of what can happen if we are not careful on Social Networks.

File sharing is the ability to share files from computer to computer using the internet or a local network. You can share items such as videos, pictures, e-books. P2P file sharing has been on the rise in recent years and allows users to access different types of multimedia files using a specific platform. A great example is shown in the Wired article, "The Bittorent Effect", Clive Thompson wrote, " BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3." There are countless other platforms, BitTorrent is a great example that has gained popularity as of late. 

With all the new outlets of new media, privacy has become one of the major talking points today. It has become increasingly difficult for users to understand how to protect one's self on social media and there are several ways people's accounts can be breached. In the article, " Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private", the author describes how Facebook's privacy settings are so confusing that even the family of the founder has trouble understanding it. I can see how this may be a problem and with the increased amount of time spent on new media nowadays, we put a lot on the internet. All the information we put on new media and the interactions we have can potentially be leaked. 

With the rise of new media, I believe there are several areas where Baruch can improve. I think the most important and relevant area that needs improvement is communication. More specifically, being able to get messages to students in real time. With a new added feature on Blackboard, students can chat with professors without having to send lengthy emails or resort to calling. I think this will benefit students immensely because it will eliminate any lost time and students can get an answer when a deadline fast approaches. Students will also be able to save themselves the trouble of trying to get in contact with a fellow classmate for a group project.

For this blog post, I used a website called Cartoonify and I created an avatar that I think looks somewhat like me so I have an idea of what I would look like if I were ever in a cartoon. I used a picture of myself and opened it next to the website so I had a reference as to what I should make my cartoon look like.

New Media  encourages and  promotes the development of creativity by giving users a platform to express themselves through their work. In the article, " Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?", Nickelodeon has taken a laissez faire approach when it comes to people using their content and a spokesperson said, " By the way, that was a very nice edit job by whoever did the SpongeBob mash." This shows that Nickelodeon does not want to inhibit people from making funny videos out of their content. I have seen hundreds of videos that are mashups or parodies online with millions of views and it is cool to see that such a huge company like Nickelodeon allow it to happen. I hope that this trend continues and more companies allow people to use their content because I enjoy watching them and it helps people use their creativity and imagination.