Jia Xin Wang's Blog

I will be contributing to the marketing and privacy section because I researched that in my paper. In the privacy section I want to discuss more about recent cases which have jeopardized people's privacy.

File sharing is the ability to transmit files over the internet from one computer to another. File sharing has been a very common practice for people searching the internet for specific files such as music, movies and much more. A P2P file sharing is when certain individuals share files with peers. Certain file sharing software programs and applications make it desirable to share among peers who have desired files. According to the article, " Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access", P2P file sharing can include direct download of the file or online streaming such as for movies and other videos. An example of a P2P file sharing site is RapidShare which allows peers to find and share files such as movies and music.

As people increase their presence online their personal information becomes less private and more public. The problem with privacy and confidentiality with new media is that once something has been posted online, that piece of information becomes part of the internet and anyone can find it. Even though there are privacy settings that can limit how much the public can see, the fact that your private information is being recorded on public servers generates possible complications. People frequently do things that they in turn regret and with new media, that regret can be greater if other people use the information against you. Another complication can be that some personal information is just not meant to be seen by others as it can be inappropriate information about you for another person. 

One suggestion I would make is Baruch should be more active on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Most of the news announcements that the students receive comes through the form of weekly email. This is insufficient in keeping an engaged community. As a suggestion I recommend more frequent posts of events as this would help the students become more familiarize with the school. Daily news feed can engage students in activities and this can generate more awareness for Baruch College. Another suggestion for using new media to improve the lifestyle at Baruch College is to have each professor actively use social media to engage students in class. Social media in general helps improve the awareness of the community and in Baruch College it is greatly needed.

One way that new media allows people to foster their creativity is through the creation of avatars online. Through these avatars, people are able to alter the facial features, clothing, and many others. In this specific MMORPG, avatars can embark on a quest of their choosing or they can just explore the vast virtual world exploring the different experiences at different locations. Another great feature available in MMORPG is the ability to choose what type of adventurer you want to be. 

New media grants people unlimited access to information of all kinds. Since it is so easy to access whatever you want with new media it makes it more likely that a "new" idea has its roots in something else. The article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" discusses Nickelodeon and Disney's toleration of mashup videos created of their copyrighted characters. Personally I believe that these mashup videos can be considered to be free marketing for the original content. Although the mashup videos are not depicting the image the companies had originally intended, the fact that ordinary people recognize that the characters are from Disney and Nickelodeon shows that they are part of popular culture. With this people it would not be surprising if people get creative and started experimenting with things they can easily connect to.