Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero - Latest Comments in What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Guest — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:06:31 -0000

Can whatsapp also be considered as a formof social media?

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Amanda Morrissette — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:41:30 -0000

I am not going to lie I love old media (not TV as much). I like to physical hold a newspaper or book and read. I don't know what I would do without my morning radio show (Walton and Johnson) that I listen to everyday. Those things are lacking the 'social' aspect though and I love that as well. Being able to participate in news and respond definitely takes it to a whole other level.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Angelo Battaglia — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:44:14 -0000

They are different in many ways however similar in some ways as well. I agree that social media does require participation thus making in a "social". The so called "New" media seems to be the same as old media just in a different dressing, simply delivered in a new technology. My Question is it possible for "Old" media to reinvent itself, possible have you local news station with Twitter comments running across the bottom on a ticker as we are now so a custom to seeing on the national news channel broadcast. If a local broadcast news station respond to twitter feeds for example during the broadcast sort of creating a hybrid media outlet. does anyone see something like that happening in the future?

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

JENMEDIA — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:36:32 -0000

THANK YOU ...about time someone declared this. i've always considered social media to be a sub-set of new media; having it's own purpose ... to be "social." you did a great job of explaining it here. -j

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Zoe, Bosnia — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:35:22 -0000

Well, yes and no... I agree that people use all those terms rather loosely, or as they say in my country : they mix frogs and grandmas...
I am just doing paper on new and social media for my college, and I am also trying to figure out the same, since there are so many terms, and there are no strict definitions. It's still a new field for the scientists - though you have number of "new" sciences emerging to research the field of information technologies and their impact...
Anyway, what I think is that the new media can be social ( and in most cases are!) just because of the fact that by using their communication channels - anyone can produce and disseminate media content ( printed, audio or video material) , which was not the case with the traditional, "industrial" media such as : newspapers, radio, TV...

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Isha Edwards, Brand Mktg. Mgr. — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:13:47 -0000

Even though a dated blog, great breakdown and still relevant. When the dust finally settles between old and the current ‘new’ media, it’ll all be media as Chris advised. In the meantime, I believe it’s up to media and marketing pros to minimize the confusion by speaking the same language. Keep it simple and just use the two primary terms: old (or even traditional) and new media regardless of use.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

CarolineDangson — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:53:04 -0000

I like this post. So many people are confused by these terms. I admit to getting confused myself. Thanks for the post because it clearly articulates the differences - you should add this to Wikipedia. (;

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

kcarruthers — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:06:09 -0000

Chris - really good explanation of the difference between old, new, and social media. Especially that social media requires social participation. Very insightful.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

WRSELL — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:00:44 -0000

Chris - this is one of the best (possibly THE best) description of these terms I've seen or read. This "space" is full a jargon, but also full of 'real stuff'. Sometimes a simple diagram and 300 words can explain the meaning of the 'new media' life.

Well put, and I look forward to your commentary and insight at our upcoming conference New Marketing Summit in October! There you can help carry this same message to an eager-to-learn crowd!

Best regards,
Bill Sell
CrossTech Media

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Ari Herzog — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:40:59 -0000

As Guy Kawasaki tweeted to me in response to a question about differentiating Web 2.0 from Enterprise 2.0, "Either you have something good or you don't...The rest is just spin."

http://twitter.com/guykawas...

Similarly, I'll offer that on behalf of the general populace who need boxes and diagrams to be explained differences of then and now, I'd use one term, not two. While *I know* what you mean, Chris, comparing new media to social media, Joe Public doesn't without a diagram, so why make the diagram? Just use one term.

And we're not even discussing digital media.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Arie — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:59:20 -0000

Chris - love the distinction between requiring interaction and those forms that can be (but don't have to be) passive. Really helps to think about how the different forms of new media would be useful in very different ways depending on the level of interactivity, too...

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

KeithChilds — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:38:30 -0000

I've tried various ways to map out new/social media and for me the key is the level of personal engagement- for example a company on Facebook is not really social as I define it- only individuals from the company can be social, with opinions and ideas. Throwing a video on to YouTube and seeing comments build up has a social element- but if the only thing you have done is to stimulate a conversation- and you ignore the comments then I think that's pseudo-social. If you have a blog with comments enabled, but nobody comments- maybe because you haven't said anything interesting- is it social?

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Andy Sternberg — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:23:15 -0000

I think the social aspect of the box on the right is still morphing. All of these things can have various degrees of interaction depending on the user / audience. For example, YouTube can be quite social with the multimedia calls and responses and conversations, and Twitter, for some, is still a one-way street. Nice shout-out to the Wasilla Frontiersman, btw - I've gotta check out their web presence (btw, what was Cheney's hometown newspaper?)

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

billdeys — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:31:58 -0000

awesome stuff but I think Blogs, Podcasts and YouTube can very much be part of "social media" it all depends on how it is used and what the content calls for. When used by "us" it's social, by "old media" it's them using new media and not social.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Christopher S. Penn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:29:52 -0000

Bingo, Dan. That's exactly it - after a while, it will all be media, period.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Daniel Johnson, Jr. — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:28:34 -0000

Where would you put the newspaper site that is online and has comments enabled? I think that over time that line in the middle is going to go away, and eventually the "new media" will just be media.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Francis Wooby — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:01:17 -0000

I'm not sure I can think of any new media that works without a social component of some sort. Blogs are not blogs without comments. Video sharing includes comments and/or easy linking/embedding features. Podcasts that don't involve audience feedback are just broadcasts. Thus I think of "new media" and "social media" interchangeably. The fundamental element to this new way of communicating is the two-way conversation. As long as that's in place in some form, I don't know if it matters so much what we call the medium.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Christopher S. Penn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:50:16 -0000

@Susan: audio and video have that capacity to a degree, but enabled by other mechanisms, like comments. It gets grey and fuzzy to be sure!

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Rob Blatt — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:48:34 -0000

I don't think that you can classify a conference as social media. It's a conference. Everything that people do there fits into one of the three categories, so if you're really looking to include PodCamp for some reason, it would stretch across all three or at least straddle the line between new and social media. I would also list is as "PodCamp content" and not PodCamp.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Susan Murphy — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:47:00 -0000

I agree, Chris, but there is an important distinction to make, in my opinion.

I see "new media" as the whole, encompassing all forms of content delivery via the Web. I actually see social media as more a subset of new media, a form of content delivery not unlike audio or video. It's true that social media is inherently two-way, but then again video and audio have that capacity as well. So does that make video and audio social media, or new media (In the case of your blog, perhaps, yes, because I can leave a video comment!)?

In the end, it's a real grey area, I think. We are all in this space, inventing it as we go along. I guess it's up to us to some how define it too.

Posts like yours are great because they get people thinking. I'm going off to ponder now. Thanks!

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Christopher S. Penn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:46:22 -0000

It's not, no more so than the postal service is a form of media. Direct mail is a form of communication, but not media to me - after all, whether postal or digital, there's an awful lot of mail I get that I do *not* want others reading!

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

AnnKingman — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:44:52 -0000

Like the breakdown. Where do you put email marketing in the mix? Or is that not "media" at all?

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

Jason Jarrett — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:42:24 -0000

Great article, going to digg it. I agree I don't think that social media and new media are the same thing and I think that articles like yours will help people navigate this new environment and make better informed choices about how to use it.

Re: What’s the difference between social media and new media?

kosso — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:40:33 -0000

Good points.

But I call the whole box on the right 'Social Multimedia'

as seen at http://podcamp.phreadz.com ;)