To me, there are both pragmatic and personal reasons of learning about writing for new media.
On the practical side, new media writing is turning to be a popular trend, with ever-increasing number of participants. Among the newer participants are the government and business companies, who see new media as an increasingly important promotion platform. It is undeniable that new media is an extension of the real world. With smartphones, tablets and notebooks, we are just constantly connected to the Internet. Technology just allows us to stay unplugged. In this sense, if we aspire to contribute meaningfully to the new media community, and gain meaningful rewards from it (such as making money for online business companies, or getting his works published for aspiring authors), it is necessary to know how language works in this context by active participation, which means responding to others' contents, and creating our own. As time goes by, one would manage to grasp a good idea of what new media writing is, and why it matters.
On the personal side, new media writing is the way I connect to my friends, no matter the intimate ones or just acquaintances. As a busy student who works part-time and studies at the same time, it is quite difficult for me to fully devote myself to the real social life. New and social media is therefore a good solution for me, though not the best. When I read about friends' feedbacks on my posts, I feel like I am not lonely. I feel like they understand me what I am doing, and this feeling is stronger when they move a step forward to message me or even call me, just to know further how am I doing.
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After all, writing improves our language. For me, no matter how busy I am, I would squeeze time updating about myself in a meaningful way - I don't want to be considered an annoying user, right? :)
Interesting post - I'm particularly interested in the points about business and social media: the million dollar question is how to tap into these social networks to support business ventures. Do you have any thoughts about that?
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, We can see new media have been widely adopted in business, various large brand set up their Fans page in Facebook, online voting and drawing lots can be seen very often to match with offline activities.
ReplyDeleteOffering the chance of interactivity, which may not be easy for "old media",new media has became not only a communication platform but also an important tool in branding and marketing.
As you may notice, this made new media development a concern for wide range of industries! This explained why new media writing is important and we are here in the course!
@Christoph: Thanks! I think the amount of money businesses could make online depends on medium and audiences' reading habits. In many websites, ads are placed on relatively less prominent corners, most probably on the sidebars. On one hand, this ensures readability, and on the other, it implies that ads are considered less important information. So, in short, if businesses want to make real money, they might need a comprehensive online business model, like having their online stores, instead of just posting ads to other webpages.
ReplyDelete@Ken: I agree! Interactivity creates many more opportunities that one might never expect. It just makes 'new media' a fast-changing, vibrant and dynamic landscape, which makes studying about the issue (and our course) challenging. :)