Social Networking Technology: New Public Sphere

                Danah Boyd examines the phenomenon of mediated public life, what kind of characteristics it has and how it is different from traditional public life. Today’s youth engaging in public life through social networks sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. In his article Boyd examines “social dynamics of mediated public life” in order to understand the role of technology in shaping public life.

Characteristics of New Media

The reading for this week is “The Language of new media” by Lev Manovich is crucial for understanding of media evolution. From the first sight we might not even think about the complexity and the logic of new media structures. In his Book Manovich explores the phenomenon of new media vs. old media. He is stating that the logic behind new media, the laws of its structures are tremendously different from characteristics that were presented in old media. The author presents to the reader 5 main characteristics of new media which make it unique and very different from old media. Here are the main characteristics of new media: