HW Creativity

New media fosters much creativity, and the biggest reason why is because of the freedom that it allows for ALL users. We are no longer in an age where our content is being delivered by a select group of individuals that are trained or are professionals working on behalf of a bigger organization. In today's new media, we are our own content providers and viewers. This claim is further emphasized in an article entitled, “YouTube Traffic Characterization: A View From The Edge,” in which the writers state, “Web 2.0 [or new media] changes how users participate in the Web. Instead of consuming content posted by a single administrator, users are now able to post their own content and view content posted by their peers (Gill, 2007).” A great example of this is from the American online video-sharing platform, YouTube. YouTube is a platform that presents user generated content for other viewers around the world to see, comment on, and further share. YouTube allows users to upload, view, rate, share and comment on videos, while subscribing to other users. It offers a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos for promotion and awareness. The available content on YouTube includes video clips, TV shows, music videos, documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. Most content on YouTube is uploaded by individuals which fosters much creativity. There are no real guidelines to make a YouTube video, all one needs is a camera and time. And depending on how creative and popular your videos are, you can amass a fan base, that will regularly check in on your profile to see if any new content has been uploaded. The competition to have the most “viral” video encourages others to remain innovative, always looking and thinking about the new way to engage and entertain viewers around the world.
          
New media such as YouTube, allows users to generate their own content for others to see. Photos, videos, blogs, and so forth are all a part of the new media user generated content that is so prevalent today. The freedom that these new media platforms provides encourages all to generate their own creative content. The competition to remain relevant and viewed also encourages innovation and creativity.  

Gill, P. (2007). YouTube Traffic Characterization: A View From the Edge. Enterprise Systems and Software Laboratory.