New Media and Communities

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New Media and Communities
Milagros (Millie) Rivera, Ph.D. Associate
Professor and Head Communications New Media
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What is new Media?

• Term used to describe emerging digital
  technologies
• Internet
• Mobile phones

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What is new Media?

• Also refers to some applications you can use when
  you are online

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Attributes of New Media

• Highly social
• Brings together people who share similar
  interests
• Easy to learn
• Anyone can create and share content
• Easily accessible, mobile and wireless

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Online Communities

• You can freely choose your neighbors
• You can reach more people
• Time and location are not a problem
• Relatively easy to deal with troublemakers

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• Overview of Online Platforms

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Blogs, Forums, Social Networking Sites

• Forums are particularly good for people to
  discuss issues, share information, complain about
  problems, and help each other
• http//www.sengkang.com/

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Wikis

• Wikis are a type of encyclopedia
• But content is a contribution of those interested
  in the subject
• You could create a community Wiki and include
  events, services, shopping information, etc.

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Blogs, Social Networking Sites

• You can use these to share news and events about
  the community
• Boon Lay has an online community in Facebook

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Other applications

• If you want to share photos or videos of
  community events you can do it in Flickr,
  YouTube, Facebook

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How do you create an online community?

• Approach youngsters who attend JCs, ITEs, Polys,
  Universities
• They live in your community and know new media
  well

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Some ideas

• Start a Youth Club (like Boon Lay did)
• Coordinate with the schools to have the
  development of the online community as an
  approved CCA
• Use door-to-door visits to recruit youngsters who
  can help develop the online community
• Have youngsters run workshops to train community
  volunteers

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Benefits of creating an online community

• Would create a platform for communicating and
  exchanging ideas/information
• Would create ties between older and younger
  community members

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Benefits of creating an online community

• Could increase the diversity of the community
  network, bringing in people who would otherwise
  not have participated

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Benefits of creating an online community

• Could improve the way the real community
  interacts
• Would create a record of the communitys work,
  its history and its achievements
• New neighbors could learn about the community
  more easily

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Potential dangers

• New media provides access to all kinds of
  informationsome of it anti-social
• Example Its easy to find information about
  terrorism and radical points of view
• The good comes with the bad, all in one package

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Potential dangers

• Just like some people could join community groups
  to help develop closer ties, some could join
  radical groups
• Important!
• While new media can provide opportunities for
  self-radicalization, those seeking to create
  chaos through terrorist acts will use any medium
  at their disposal

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Bottom line

• You should be aware of the dangers without losing
  sight that new media could create a kampong
  spirit in your community

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Cost

• Pretty inexpensive
• Hosting could cost around 300-500/year
• 1st year would cost more due to cost of
  developing the online community
• Afterward cost would be mostly hosting fees

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Acknowledgements

• Graduate students from Communications New
  Media, NUS
• Aaron
• Elmie
• Jodie
• Joshua
• Meimin
• Siti

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• Thank you!