New Media-Will It Change the World?

With the mass proliferation of blogs, websites, podcasts, etc., it is apparent that these new forms of media are not going away. I would rather argue that these forms will continue to grow, change, and adapt and eventually spawn even new forms of media that we haven’t quite gotten to yet. The interesting thing about these new forms is that many of the producers of this new media are people outside the traditional world of media (books, newspapers, tv, etc.). All of a sudden, there’s an entirely new flavor of media, material and information. Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Workweek, has become immensely popular without advertising in the more traditional forms of media. Rather, he advertised and used word of mouth marketing via websites, meetings, blogs, etc. (in other words, new media sources). Can these new forms change the world? Can they move new ideas to the public? I would argue that they can and I would also state that they may already be more effective than the traditional forms today. The success of YouTube and MySpace are great examples of user generated media. What I find interesting is how these users and producers are going to be able to shift thinking and business in ways unknown previously in the marketplace. The proliferation of ideas is occurring at a rate previously unknown. Can it make for greater positive change? I guess we’ll see, but I’d be willing to bet on it.