CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Little is not known about how today youths use the rapidly developing new media nor about the impacts are these new media technologies having on their individual, social and cultural development. There are many concerns and many interesting questions surrounding young people and these new media most importantly the internet, multimedia computing and emerging information technology services.

Worth noting is the fact that the coming of information and communication technologies gave a new dimension to journalism. Sites like face book, twitter, you tube and others serve as means of education, entertainment and information amongst the youths of the University of Buea.

New media is a generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. It is an interactive form of communication using the internet service .New media are often, viewed through potable platforms such as cell phones and Mp3 devices. The new media forms such as Face book , Twitter, My Space, just to name a few is used for connecting with friends and relatives.

New media refers to on- demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device as well as an interactive user’s feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content.

The term new media also refers to various technologies that have emerged or seen rapid growth on a global scale during the later part of the 20th century and into the new millennium.

New media is defined according to Collins, Martino and Shaw is, content created and delivered through the internet including social networking and other specialised kind of websites, as well as content delivered on other digital platforms such as cell phones

Lev Monovich (2001) describes new media as all writing of audiovisual production intended for internet mobile devices, evolving technological devices such as the IPAD or any other platform.

New media according to Michael J. (2007) refers to the recently evolved technologies involved in the creation, delivery, and consumption of media content. This pertains especially to digital media such as satellite, internet-link Pcs, MP3 players etc. New media deviate from traditional media in several ways, as it is cheaper to use, the number of users is limitless, there is no geographical barrier, and communication is in two ways and the audience have a high power as to how and when the content is been consumed.

The youth is generally the time of life between childhood and adulthood. It should be noted that today’s youths do not know how to socialize outside of a computer or television screen. Within the past few years, the internet has skyrocketed from something exclusive to a most have something   .New media has seemed to be an incurable addiction as time passes in the lives of the youths as visible in recent years.

The origin of New media could be traced as far back as the 1960’s when connection between computing and radical art began to grow stronger .It was not until the 1980’s that Alan Kay and his co-workers at Xero PARC began to give the power of a personal computer to the individual rather than have a big organization to be in charge of this .In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, however we seem to witness a different kind of parallel relationship between social changes and computer design. Until the 1980’s, the youths depended primarily upon print and analogue broadcasts models such as those of television and radio. The last twenty –five years have seen the rapid transformation into media which are predicated upon the use of digital technologies such as the internet and computer games.

Worth noting is the fact that the idea of New media came very  obvious in the 20th century, and also most technologies described as New media are digital ,often having characteristics of being manipulated ,network able, dense, compressible and interactive. Some examples are internet, websites, and computer multimedia, video games, CD-ROMs and DVDs. Worthy of note is the fact that most youths who have an internet connection are already aware of some major types of new media which includes social networking sites such as face book; twitter as well as blogs and video sharing sites such as You-tube.

One of the first forms of new media which came in the 20th century was cyber chatting .whether one-on-one or within a chartroom, chatting online quickly evolved from mostly text-based to one which also included audio-visual capabilities through such applications as webcam.

Blogs are another form of new media which have expanded our nation of the level of interactivity made possible by new media. The ability of bloggers or citizen journalist to posts any text, photos or videos for other internet users could initially be seen as a breakthrough in global communication. The youths are seen as the ones mostly in-use of this new media. Every day in  the University of Buea, one can find the youths at the school cybercafé either using one of the new media forms such as face book, You tube, twitter, and Skype.

1.2 Statement of Problem

New media which became popular only from the year 2000 has been used by most youths in the University of Buea and from the very first years when the new media was created it was done to foster development in the world. The youths of UB are seen as very actively involved in the use of one or either of this new media form the goal of this project is to develop a working knowledge based on the use of this new media such as (Internet, social networking sites ,video games) amongst the students of the University Of Buea.

1.3 Research Questions

1. Do the UB students know and use new media?
2. Why do UB students use new media?
3. How do the UB students use the new media?
4. Does the new media satisfy the needs of UB students

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