The World Wide Web is a really cool thing, but almost even cooler is the new media that is available to us now. Most of the technologies that make up new media have been around for a while. Digital camcorders, digital still cameras, digital audio recorders, cellular telephones, computer animation, and all manner of strong production technologies are all basically the same as we have used for years. However what has brought new media to the forefront is new means of distribution of the things created by these production technologies.
Besides millions of amateur videos on YouTube.com, there are a number of independent news and information video channels that have emerged as an alternative to standard newsgathering operations by television networks. These new media channels use very similar standards and practices to traditional media but are not constrained in the way that traditional media seems to be. This is good.
The main thing about new media is that it is content -- content is information. The what the framework of the web offers is a platform to communicate the sites content to a site viewer.
Re: video: it has been said that "people believe 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, but 50% of what they see and hear you." The web is television. That's important to be aware of, because a lot of information can be presented in a very understandable way using video. Video includes both real-world video as well as graphically animated video.
Video teleconferencing, using applications such as Skype, is a form of new media. Video telecom is generally a direct communication between individuals, or in some cases groups, but the same basic principle applies to content on a webpage.
