Sarahilal's Blog

We reached a point where we no longer depend on traditional media, we, nowadays, tend to depend more on what we call  new media; it is what the internet has been providing us with the last few years. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, WordPress, and Blogspot are some on many tools that are considered to be part of new media. It is time for you to make the news, you no longer have to wait for them, it is time for citizen journalism. You are the journalist now!!!

Ayman Itani asked us, the LAU social class, to interview three people from three different age group and ask them what does new media mean to them.

I chose Hussein Wehbe, he is 19 years old, and he is majoring in business. Hussein, as many others, is mostly interested by Facebook, he thinks that it is a cool way to look for news and to say in touch with his friends. Fatima Farhat, 24 years old journalism student, and Haytham Zein, 29 years old, couldn’t agree less with Hussein,. All three of them happen to look at Facebook as a took to keep in touch with old friends.

But we can see some differences, when it comes to other new media tools. Hussein likes twitter and considers it a very good source for instant news, he also has an account on Flickr. That reflects how Hussein is sort of sucked in the new media world. Haytham, on the other hand, doesn’t know much about it, but he is trying to explore it and he is learning to like it.  29 years old, Haytham, doesn’t know anything about Flickr or WordPress. I can notice how his knowledge about new media is limited with facebook and Twitter. Fatima Farhat, who happens to be a journalist at Hibr newspaper, seems to be very familiar with new media and with the different tools that it provides. She exploits the internet world for her won interest, not only to communicate with others, but also to do some research and to enrich her knowledge about a certain topic. She also looks at it as a platform where she can express her thoughts and worries and let the whole world listen to her.

It is nice to see how from one person to the other, the concept of new media differs. Some are aware of its multifunctional tools, while others are satisfied with some of its basic use. I believe that all three are familiar with Facebook, because it is the most popular site, especially here in Lebanon. On the other hand, i think that their background, and their major, defines how much they know about new media. The problem here that universities don’t offer the students an opportunity to explore this world, lucky enough, LAU, took another path, and included in her schedule a social media class. Being part of it, i feel that i am, somehow, more absorbed into new media, and i find myself more attached to it everyday. Hussein, for example, started tweeting when he first joined the Hibr team. Fatima did it on her own, last year, she is majoring in journalism and she knows where to go to fond some useful information, while Haytham joined Twitter because a friend of his asked him to do so. I believe it mostly depends on the occupation of the person and how he/she looks at the internet and the different aspects it offers them.

Each of these 3 videos was recorded with my phone camera (E71), i sent it to my computer by bluetooth and then i uploaded it on my Youtube account. For the subtitles i used the method of annotations. At the beginning i added an annotation to introduce the interviewee and at the end, an annotation to thank him/her.

The best part of this project was listening to three different opinions about new media, and i enjoyed recording the videos as well. When you watch the video you will definitely notice how the interviewees were acting all natural, and they were talking about their experience at ease. There was nothing that i didn’t like it about this project, maybe the annotation part, not because it is hard but just because it takes some time to do it and include it in the videos.

In conclusion, i believe that every person has a different perspective of new media, some might not know about it, because unfortunately they haven’t been exposed to it, while others are completely aware of it and they try their best to use it to their own benefit.

Hussein Wehbe-19 years old-Business student

Fatima Farhat-24 years old-Journalist

Haytham Zein-29 years old-Employer at an insurance company

Maya Zankoul, 23 years old graphic designer, was our guest speaker during our New Media class. She came to the class with a smile on her face, ready to answer all our questions. She first started by showing us her blog, her twitter account and the different media tools she uses online. She is a very energetic person who has a lot of enthusiasm for her work.

Maya Zankoul during class showing us her illustrations!

Then she posted, live, on her blog a post about the new numbering service used at banks and Liban Poste. We asked many questions, we learned a lot about her relation with New Media, she  addresses a lot of time blogging, and she spends many hours tweeting.

Ayman Itani recording the session!

I liked what i saw, how Maya was going from one media outlet to another with rest, she made it look easy and she made me eager to be like her…..one day! She was smiling all the time, i don’t know i am not being able to find the right words but i enjoyed the session a lot, and personally i would like to have her again in class because i am sure that she will have new things to teach us and show us! The whole class was recorded by Ayman Itani, and Karim Bekdashi was taking pictures along! I hope that we will have “tweetups”with her, i am sure that would be great! So Maya see you soon…i hope : )

On June 5, 2009, Time magazine’s cover article, How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live, was about Twitter ( http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html).

The article talks about a conference in Manhattan that the writer attended earlier this year.It was about education reform; 6 hours conversation about “the future of schools” as it is mentioned in the article.

Ayman Itani, teacher of New Media class, asked us (his students) to read this article and assigned us to answer some questions related to it.

What is #hackedu?

During the conference, all people who wanted to tweet anything related to the conference were asked to include #hackedu in his/her tweet. The hashtag was used to claim that the tweet that is being posted has to do with the conference topic. First it was the people within the conference, later on it exceeded people outside “the room” to reach a larger number. The conference ended with hundreds of tweets that is being used as an archive of what had happened during the conference, all under #hackedu.

Name three industries mentioned in article that are being dramatically changed by twitter

The internet industry as in some websites are being more visited thanks to the links posted on twitter.

The telecommunication industry (iphones and blackberry phones) with all the phone applications that are directed solely to twitter.

The advertising industry: Twitter has become a major tool in the advertising business, you simply tweet what is new on your twitter main page, and the more followers you have the more people would know about it.

What type of content do you suggest we hashtag with #lausocial ?

I believe that it should be anything that we do during New Media class, or anything about new media as any interesting article related to Web2.0 ( twitter, facebook, blogging, bookmarking….). Students should hashtag #lausocial anything that happens to them on the way to class maybe, or after class they should post if they liked the class, if they found it interesting or if they think that they didn’t learn much during it. Maybe that way Ayman would know if the students are benefiting form the class or not.