Old vs. New

How do we distinguish “new media” from “old” media? List and explain several ways to do this.

In order to distinguish new media from old media, there are five factors that we must place importance to. These factors are the 5 C's: convergence, communication, collaboration, creativity, and community, all of which helped morph old media into new media. Old media used to only be provided by private and limited amount of companies, who control various information from being leaked into the public, but now, through the 5 C's, many including the public are able to share information with others via blogs, forums, wikis, and social network services (to list a few). Although new media has been seen to replace the old new media, it isn't so. All they do is transform old media into a better way of communicating with others through collaboration, creativity, and community by converging different types of new media. For example, old media as newspapers and television has been revolutionized by online newspapers and Tivo, through which many are able to comment on the specific show and article and also be able to read and watch past episodes and articles. This helps many people who are busy to go back in time through the internet and watch their favorite episodes and read their favorite newspapers, while conveniently fitting it into their schedule. In new media, everyone is included and counted in, along with their collaboration, contribution, and opinions. The big gap between these two distinct forms of media is how the information is shared, sent, and received and how fast the information gets reported and displayed to the public. Obviously, with the breakthrough in technology, new media has a greater advantage in distributing information to the general public, making it way too easy to share information with the single touch of a button than with old media and people's opinions and the information they contribute matter and are not ignored.

Examples of old media transforming into new media:

• Television - Tivo. Hulu
• Newspapers - Online Newspapers/Ezines
• Diary - Blogs
• CD Player - Mp3 Player
• Radio - Podcasts
• Books - Ebooks
• Face-to-face Interaction - Social Networking (through Facebook (etc.), Texting and Talking through the phone, and IMs)