New Media(isms)

Although I have been published in traditional print outlets, my preferred medium has become the internet, and in particular, Web 2.0-enabled New Media.  So, what the heck is “New Media”?

In laymen’s terms, “New Media” is media in which there is no audience: we are all content-creators.  “Old Media” is defined by its one-to-many relationship of creator and recipient (audience).  “New Media,” however, is defined by  its many-to-many relationship between receiving/sending creators.

Blogging is interesting because it exists in the gray zone between the two medias.  On the one hand, it’s just me talking to you, but on the other hand, it’s part of a vast digital round-table.  Readers can leave comments on my posts that are just as involved as the originals themselves, hence claiming space on what’s supposed to be “my” conversational territory.  Not quite monologue, not quite forum, the blog is tricky, isn’t it?

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Back in 2009 I presented a lecture entitled, “Log on, tune in, blog out: citizen-journalism, New Media, and subversive activity.”  I’ve made it available for download in four parts (click on the thumbnail to the left).  I invite academics and journalists, as well as friends and readers, to make use of it and pass it around!

The lecture is a general survey of the darker side of Web 2.0-enabled New Media.  In particular, I explore some of its frightfully hilarious/hilariously frightful uses by subversive and revolutionary groups on the fringes of contemporary global society.  My case studies:

• the French National Front on Second Life;
• the Stormfront White Nationalist Community;
• the global anticapitalism movement (specifically, the IndyMedia Network);
• radical Islamism (specifically, AqsaTube);
• and the Second Life Liberation Army.

I lightly get into some of the theoretical issues, in particular the nature of New Media and today’s internet, and the role culture plays in determining the extent to which a subversive or revolutionary organization goes “high tech.”

The lecture is decidely “low tech,” intended for non-specialists and all-around end-users.  It’s also a bit hyperbolic and very simplistic, but I forgive myself because I was aiming for the shock factor.  Incidentally, for that very reason it might also be of value to those with technical or journalistic backgrounds but who aren’t aware of the various fringe subcultures forming around the new technology.