New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century that refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. Another important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. Another aspect of new media is the real-time generation of new, unregulated content.^{[citation needed]}

Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, and interactive.^[1] Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, video games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New media does not include television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications – unless they contain technologies that enable digital interactivity.^[2] Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is an example, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors and donors for the benefit of non-community readers. Facebook is an example of the social media model, in which most users are also participants.

History[link]

In the 1960s, connections between computing and radical art began to grow stronger. It was not until the 1980s that Alan Kay and his co-workers at Xerox PARC began to give the power of a personal computer to the individual, rather than have a big organization be in charge of this. "In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, we seem to witness a different kind of parallel relationship between social changes and computer design. Although causally unrelated, conceptually it makes sense that the Cold War and the design of the Web took place at exactly the same time."^[3]

Until the 1980s media relied primarily upon print and analog broadcast 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 video games. However, these examples are only a small representation of new media. The use of digital computers has transformed the remaining 'old' media, as suggested by the advent of digital television and online publications. Even traditional media forms such as the printing press have been transformed through the application of technologies such as image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and desktop publishing tools.

Andrew L. Shapiro (1999) argues that the "emergence of new, digital technologies signals a potentially radical shift of who is in control of information, experience and resources" (Shapiro cited in Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 322). W. Russell Neuman (1991) suggests that whilst the "new media" have technical capabilities to pull in one direction, economic and social forces pull back in the opposite direction. According to Neuman, "We are witnessing the evolution of a universal interconnected network of audio, video, and electronic text communications that will blur the distinction between interpersonal and mass communication and between public and private communication" (Neuman cited in Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 322). Neuman argues that New Media will:

• Alter the meaning of geographic distance.
• Allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication.
• Provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication.
• Provide opportunities for interactive communication.
• Allow forms of communication that were previously separate to overlap and interconnect.

Consequently it has been the contention of scholars such as Douglas Kellner and James Bohman that new media, and particularly the Internet, provide the potential for a democratic postmodern public sphere, in which citizens can participate in well informed, non-hierarchical debate pertaining to their social structures. Contradicting these positive appraisals of the potential social impacts of new media are scholars such as Ed Herman and Robert McChesney who have suggested that the transition to new media has seen a handful of powerful transnational telecommunications corporations who achieve a level of global influence which was hitherto unimaginable.

Scholars, such as Lister et al. (2003) and Friedman (2005), have highlighted both the positive and negative potential and actual implications of new media technologies, suggesting that some of the early work into new media studies was guilty of technological determinism – whereby the effects of media were determined by the technology themselves, rather than through tracing the complex social networks which governed the development, funding, implementation and future development of any technology.

Definition[link]

Although there are several ways that New Media may be described, Lev Manovich, in an introduction to The New Media Reader, defines New Media by using eight simple and concise propositions:^[4]

1. New Media versus Cyberculture – Cyberculture is the various social phenomena that are associated with the Internet and network communications (blogs, online multi-player gaming), whereas New Media is concerned more with cultural objects and paradigms (digital to analog television, iPhones).
2. New Media as Computer Technology Used as a Distribution Platform – New Media are the cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition. e.g. (at least for now) Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, Blu-ray disks etc. The problem with this is that the definition must be revised every few years. The term "new media" will not be "new" anymore, as most forms of culture will be distributed through computers.
3. New Media as Digital Data Controlled by Software – The language of New Media is based on the assumption that, in fact, all cultural objects that rely on digital representation and computer-based delivery do share a number of common qualities. New media is reduced to digital data that can be manipulated by software as any other data. Now media operations can create several versions of the same object. An example is an image stored as matrix data which can be manipulated and altered according to the additional algorithms implemented, such as color inversion, gray-scaling, sharpening, rasterizing, etc.
4. New Media as the Mix Between Existing Cultural Conventions and the Conventions of Software – "New Media today can be understood as the mix between older cultural conventions for data representation, access, and manipulation and newer conventions of data representation, access, and manipulation. The "old" data are representations of visual reality and human experience, and the "new" data is numerical data. The computer is kept out of the key "creative" decisions, and is delegated to the position of a technician." e.g. In film, software is used in some areas of production, in others are created using computer animation.
5. New Media as the Aesthetics that Accompanies the Early Stage of Every New Modern Media and Communication Technology – "While ideological tropes indeed seem to be reappearing rather regularly, many aesthetic strategies may reappear two or three times ... In order for this approach to be truly useful it would be insufficient to simply name the strategies and tropes and to record the moments of their appearance; instead, we would have to develop a much more comprehensive analysis which would correlate the history of technology with social, political, and economical histories or the modern period."
6. New Media as Faster Execution of Algorithms Previously Executed Manually or through Other Technologies – Computers are a huge speed-up of what were previously manual techniques. e.g. calculators. "Dramatically speeding up the execution makes possible previously non-existent representational technique." This also makes possible of many new forms of media art such as interactive multimedia and video games. "On one level, a modern digital computer is just a faster calculator, we should not ignore its other identity: that of a cybernetic control device."
7. New Media as the Encoding of Modernist Avant-Garde; New Media as Metamedia – Manovich declares that the 1920s are more relevant to New Media than any other time period. Meta-media coincides with postmodernism in that they both rework old work rather than create new work. New media avant-garde "is about new ways of accessing and manipulating information" (e.g. hypermedia, databases, search engines, etc.). Meta-media is an example of how quantity can change into quality as in new media technology and manipulation techniques can "recode modernist aesthetics into a very different postmodern aesthetics."
8. New Media as Parallel Articulation of Similar Ideas in Post-WWII Art and Modern Computing – Post WWII Art or "combinatorics" involves creating images by systematically changing a single parameter. This leads to the creation or remarkably similar images and spatial structures. "This illustrates that algorithms, this essential part of new media, do not depend on technology, but can be executed by humans."

Globalization and new media[link]

The rise of new media has increased communication between people all over the world and the Internet. It has allowed people to express themselves through blogs, websites, pictures, and other user-generated media.

Flew (2002) stated that as a result of the evolution of new media technologies, globalization occurs. Globalization is generally stated as "more than expansion of activities beyond the boundaries of particular nation states".^[5] Globalization shortens the distance between people all over the world by the electronic communication (Carely 1992 in Flew 2002) and Cairncross (1998) expresses this great development as the "death of distance". New media "radically break the connection between physical place and social place, making physical location much less significant for our social relationships" (Croteau and Hoynes 2003: 311).

However, the changes in the new media environment create a series of tensions in the concept of "public sphere".^[6] According to Ingrid Volkmer, "public sphere" is defined as a process through which public communication becomes restructured and partly disembedded from national political and cultural institutions. This trend of the globalized public sphere is not only as a geographical expansion form a nation to worldwide, but also changes the relationship between the public, the media and state (Volkmer, 1999:123).^[7]

"Virtual communities" are being established online and transcend geographical boundaries, eliminating social restrictions. Howard Rheingold (2000) describes these globalised societies as self-defined networks, which resemble what we do in real life. "People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk" (Rheingold cited in Slevin 2000: 91). For Sherry Turkle "making the computer into a second self, finding a soul in the machine, can substitute for human relationships" (Holmes 2005: 184). New media has the ability to connect like-minded others worldwide.

While this perspective suggests that the technology drives – and therefore is a determining factor – in the process of globalization, arguments involving technological determinism are generally frowned upon by mainstream media studies.^[8][9][10] Instead academics focus on the multiplicity of processes by which technology is funded, researched and produced, forming a feedback loop when the technologies are used and often transformed by their users, which then feeds into the process of guiding their future development.

While commentators such as Castells^[11] espouse a "soft determinism"^[12] whereby they contend that "Technology does not determine society. Nor does society script the course of technological change, since many factors, including individual inventiveness and entrpreneurialism, intervene in the process of scientific discovery, technical innovation and social applications, so the final outcome depends on a complex pattern of interaction. Indeed the dilemma of technological determinism is probably a false problem, since technology is society and society cannot be understood without its technological tools." (Castells 1996:5) This, however, is still distinct from stating that societal changes are instigated by technological development, which recalls the theses of Marshall McLuhan.^[13][14]

Manovich^[15] and Castells^[11] have argued that whereas mass media "corresponded to the logic of industrial mass society, which values conformity over individuality," (Manovich 2001:41) new media follows the logic of the postindustrial or globalized society whereby "every citizen can construct her own custom lifestyle and select her ideology from a large number of choices. Rather than pushing the same objects to a mass audience, marketing now tries to target each individual separately." (Manovich 2001:42).

As tool for social change[link]

Social movement media has a rich and storied history (see Agitprop) that has changed at a rapid rate since New Media became widely used (Chris Atton).^[16] The Zapatista Army of National Liberation of Chiapas, Mexico were the first major movement to make widely recognized and effective use of New Media for communiques and organizing in 1994.^[17] Since then, New Media has been used extensively by social movements to educate, organize, share cultural products of movements, communicate, coalition build, and more. The WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity was another landmark in the use of New Media as a tool for social change. The WTO protests used media to organize the original action, communicate with and educate participants, and was used as an alternative media source.^[18] The Indymedia movement also developed out of this action, and has been a great tool in the democratization of information, which is another widely discussed aspect of new media movement.^[19] Some scholars even view this democratization as an indication of the creation of a "radical, socio-technical paradigm to challenge the dominant, neoliberal and technologically determinist model of information and communication technologies."^[20] A less radical view along these same lines is that people are taking advantage of the Internet to produce a grassroots globalization, one that is anti-neoliberal and centered on people rather than the flow of capital.^[21] Of course, some are also skeptical of the role of New Media in Social Movements. Many scholars point out unequal access to new media as a hindrance to broad-based movements, sometimes even oppressing some within a movement.^[22] Others are skeptical about how democratic or useful it really is for social movements, even for those with access.^[23] There are also many New Media components that activists cite as tools for change that have not been widely discussed as such by academics.

New Media has also found a use with less radical social movements such as the Free Hugs Campaign. Using websites, blogs, and online videos to demonstrate the effectiveness of the movement itself. Along with this example the use of high volume blogs has allowed numerous views and practices to be more widespread and gain more public attention. Another example is the on-going Free Tibet Campaign, which has been seen on numerous websites as well as having a slight tie-in with the band Gorillaz in their Gorillaz Bitez clip featuring the lead singer 2D sitting with protesters at a Free Tibet protest. Another social change seen coming from New Media is trends in fashion and the emergence of subcultures such as Text Speak, Cyberpunk, and various others.

National security[link]

New Media has also recently become of interest to the global espionage community as it is easily accessible electronically in database format and can therefore be quickly retrieved and reverse engineered by national governments. Particularly of interest to the espionage community are Facebook and Twitter, two sites where individuals freely divulge personal information that can then be sifted through and archived for the automatic creation of dossiers on both people of interest and the average citizen.^[24]

Interactivity and new media[link]

Interactivity has become a term for a number of new media use options evolving from the rapid dissemination of Internet access points, the digitalization of media, and media convergence. In 1984, Rice defined new media as communication technologies that enable or facilitate user-to-user interactivity and interactivity between user and information.^[25] Such a definition replaces the "one-to-many" model of traditional mass communication with the possibility of a "many-to-many" web of communication. Any individual with the appropriate technology can now produce his or her online media and include images, text, and sound about whatever he or she chooses.^[26] Thus the convergence of new methods of communication with new technologies shifts the model of mass communication, and radically reshapes the ways we interact and communicate with one another. in "What is new media?" Vin Crosbie^[27] (2002) described three different kinds of communication media. He saw Interpersonal media as "one to one", Mass media as "one to many", and finally New Media as Individuation Media or "many to many".

When we think of interactivity and its meaning, we assume that it is only prominent in the conversational dynamics of individuals who are face-to-face. This restriction of opinion does not allow us to see its existence in mediated communication forums. Interactivity is present in some programming work, such as video games. It's also viable in the operation of traditional media. In the mid 1990s, filmmakers started using inexpensive digital cameras to create films. It was also the time when moving image technology had developed, which was able to be viewed on computer desktops in full motion. This development of new media technology was a new method for artists to share their work and interact with the big world. Other settings of interactivity include radio and television talk shows, letters to the editor, listener participation in such programs, and computer and technological programming.^[28] Interactive new media has become a true benefit to every one because people can express their artwork in more than one way with the technology that we have today and there is no longer a limit to what we can do with our creativity.

Interactivity can be considered a central concept in understanding new media, but different media forms possess different degrees of interactivity,^[29] and some forms of digitized and converged media are not in fact interactive at all. Tony Feldman^[30] considers digital satellite television as an example of a new media technology that uses digital compression to dramatically increase the number of television channels that can be delivered, and which changes the nature of what can be offered through the service, but does not transform the experience of television from the user's point of view, and thus lacks a more fully interactive dimension. It remains the case that interactivity is not an inherent characteristic of all new media technologies, unlike digitization and convergence.

Terry Flew (2005) argues that "the global interactive games industry is large and growing, and is at the forefront of many of the most significant innovations in new media" (Flew 2005: 101). Interactivity is prominent in these online video games such as World of Warcraft, The Sims Online and Second Life. These games, which are developments of "new media," allow for users to establish relationships and experience a sense of belonging that transcends traditional temporal and spatial boundaries (such as when gamers logging in from different parts of the world interact). These games can be used as an escape or to act out a desired life. Will Wright, creator of The Sims, "is fascinated by the way gamers have become so attached to his invention-with some even living their lives through it".^[31] New media have created virtual realities that are becoming virtual extensions of the world we live in. With the creation of Second Life and Active Worlds before it, people have even more control over this virtual world, a world where anything that a participant can think of can become a reality.^[32]

New Media changes continuously because it is constantly modified and redefined by the interaction between users, emerging technologies, cultural changes, etc.

Industry[link]

The new media industry shares an open association with many market segments in areas such as software/video game design, television, radio, and particularly movies, advertising and marketing, through which industry seeks to gain from the advantages of two-way dialogue with consumers primarily through the Internet. The advertising industry has capitalized on the proliferation of new media with large agencies running multi-million dollar interactive advertising subsidiaries. Interactive websites and kiosks have become popular. In a number of cases advertising agencies have also set up new divisions to study new media. Public relations firms are also taking advantage of the opportunities in new media through interactive PR practices. Interactive PR practices include the use of social media^[33] to reach a mass audience of online social network users.

Youth and new media[link]

Young people tethered to their cell phones to text and access social networking sites on the street, on transportation, in school and at home are common scenes in the United States. Based on nationally representative data, a Kaiser Family Foundation Study conducted in five-year intervals in 1998-1999, 2003-2004 and 2008-2009 found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among Black and Hispanic youth.^[34] Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media in a typical day (more than 53 hours a week) – about the same amount most adults spend at work per day. Since much of that time is spent 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to spend a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content in those 7½ hours per day. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 96% of 18-29 year olds and three-quarters (75%) of teens now own a cell phone, 88% of whom text, with 73% of wired American teens using social networking websites, a significant increase from previous years.^[35]

See also[link]

• 2000s in the music industry
• Collective intelligence
• Cybertext
• Digital media
• Digital art
• Electronic media
• Global Editors Network (GEN)
• Interactive media
• Interactive PR
• Mass media
• Mass collaboration
• Multimedia
• New media art
• New media artist
• New Media Caucus
• New Media Film Festival
• New media studies
• Old media
• Social media
• User-generated content
• Web 2.0

References[link]

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010)

• Orgad, Shani. (November 2006). This Box Was Made For Walking. Nokia, 21.

Further reading[link]

• Poynter Institute: New Media Timeline (1969-2010) created by David B. Shedden, Library Director at Poynter Institute
• Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Nick Montfort, ed. (2003). The New Media Reader. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23227-8. 
• Leah A. Lievrouw, Sonia Livingstone (ed.), The Handbook of New Media, SAGE, 2002
• Logan, Robert K. (2010) Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan, New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
• Croteau and Hoynes (2003) Media Society: Industries, Images and Audiences (third edition) Pine Forge Press: Thousand Oakes.
• Flew and Humphreys (2005) "Games: Technology, Industry, Culture" in Terry Flew, New Media: an Introduction (second edition), Oxford University Press: South Melbourne.
• Holmes (2005) "Telecommunity" in Communication Theory: Media, Technology and Society, Cambridge: Polity.
• Scharl, A. and Tochtermann, K., Eds. (2007). The Geospatial Web – How Geobrowsers, Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping the Network Society. London: Springer.
• Turkle, Sherry (1996) "Who am We?" Wired magazine, 4.01, published January 1996,[2]
• Andrade, Kara, Online media can foster community, Online News Association Convention, October 29, 2005.
• Mark Tribe and Reena Jana, New Media Art, Taschen, 2006. ISBN 3-8228-3041-0.
• Robert C. Morgan, Commentaries on the New Media Arts Pasadena, CA: Umbrella Associates,1992
• Foreword. Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media, Cambridge: MIT Press/Leonardo Books, 2001. ISBN 0-262-63255-1.
• Kennedy, Randy. "Giving New Life to Protests of Yore", The New York Times, July 28, 2007.
• Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances : A Study of the Affinity Between Artistic Ideologies Based in Virtual Reality and Previous Immersive Idioms by Joseph Nechvatal 1999 Planetary Collegium
• Oliver Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, MIT Press/Leonardo Books, Cambridge 2003
• Oliver Grau (Ed.): Media Art Histories, MIT Press/Leonardo Books, Cambridge 2007
• Why New Media Isn't: A Personal Journey by David Shedden (2007)
• "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” by Clay Shirky
• New media research company in srilanka

Look up new in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.

New or NEW may refer to:

Film and music[link]

• New (film), a 2004 Tamil movie
• "New" (song), a song by No Doubt from Return of Saturn
• New, an EP from Australian alternative rock band Regurgitator

Acronyms[link]

• Network of enlightened Women, a conservative university women's organization
• Net economic welfare, a proposed macroeconomic indicator
• Net explosive weight, also known as net explosive quantity

Identification codes[link]

• Nepal Bhasa language ISO 639 language code
• New Century Financial Corporation (NYSE stock abbreviation)
• New Orleans Lakefront Airport (IATA airport code: NEW)
• Newcraighall railway station (National Rail station code: NEW), in Scotland

Other uses[link]

• New (surname), an English family name
• new (C++), a built-in operator in the C++ programming language
• NEW (TV station), the callsign of Network Ten's station in Perth, Western Australia
• New River (disambiguation), various rivers

See also[link]

• GNU (disambiguation)
• Neo (disambiguation)
• News (disambiguation)
• Nu (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "New"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up media in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Media may refer to:

Communications[link]

• Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
  • Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
  • Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass electronic communication networks
  • Digital media, electronic media used to store, transmit, and receive digitized information
  • Electronic media, communications delivered via electronic or electromechanical energy
  • Hypermedia, media with hyperlinks
  • Mass media, all means of mass communications
  • Multimedia, communications that incorporate multiple forms of information content and processing
  • New media, a broad term encompassing the amalgamation of traditional media with the interactive power of computer and communications technology
  • News media, mass media focused on communicating news
  • News media (United States), the news media of the United States of America
  • Print media, communications delivered via paper or canvas
  • Published media, any media made available to the public
  • Recording media, devices used to store information
  • Social media, media disseminated through social interaction
  • MEDIA Programme, a European Union initiative to support the European audiovisual sector

Computing[link]

• Media (computer), used in computer data storage devices
• Media player (application software), a piece of software designed to play audio and videos

Fine art[link]

• Media (arts), materials and techniques used by an artist to produce a work

History[link]

• Median Empire, an ancient Iranian kingdom of the Medians (Medes) in north-western Iran

Life sciences[link]

• Growth medium, objects in which microorganisms or cells can experience growth
• Media filter, a filter consisting of several different filter materials
• Tunica media, the middle layer of the wall of a blood vessel
• A group of insect wing veins in the Comstock-Needham system

Places[link]

• Media, Illinois
• Media, Pennsylvania

Music[link]

• Media (album), the 1998 album by The Faint

Mythology[link]

• Medea, the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis in Greek mythology

Ships[link]

• RMS Media, a Cunard Line cargo liner in service 1948-61

See also[link]

• Media ecology
• Media meshing
• Media psychology
• Media studies
• Medium (disambiguation)
• Multimedia learning
• Kaus Media, a star system in the constellation Sagittarius

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Paul Levinson
Born	1947 Bronx, New York
Occupation	Professor, Author

Paul Levinson (born 1947) is an American author and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. Levinson's novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into twelve languages.

As a commentator on media, popular culture, and science fiction Levinson has been interviewed more than 500 times on local, national and international television and radio.^[1] He is frequently quoted in newspapers and magazines around the world and his op-eds have appeared in such major papers as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,^[2][3] New York's Newsday,^[4] and The New York Sun.^[5] He was interviewed in a short weekly spot early Sunday mornings on KNX-AM Radio in Los Angeles, from 2006 to 2008 on media-related news events and popular culture. He hosts four podcasts and maintains several blogs. In April 2009, The Chronicle of Higher Education named him one of Twitter's top ten "High Fliers".^[6]

In 1985 he co-founded Connected Education, offering online courses for Masters credit. He served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 1998 to 2001.^[7]

He has been a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University since 1998; he was Chair of the department from 2002 to 2008. He previously taught at The New School, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hofstra University, St. John's University, Polytechnic University of New York, Audrey Cohen College and the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI). He has given lectures in classes and conferences at many universities including the London School of Economics, Harvard University, New York University, and the University of Toronto and authored over 100 scholarly articles.^[8]

Prior to his academic career, Levinson was a songwriter, singer and record producer in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with recordings by the Vogues, Donna Marie of the Archies and Ellie Greenwich. As a radio producer he worked with Murray the K and Wolfman Jack.^[9]

Levinson's work is influenced by Isaac Asimov, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, Marshall McLuhan, Harold Innis, Karl Popper, Carl Sagan, and Donald T. Campbell.^[10]

Education[link]

Paul Levinson graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, attended the City College of New York (CCNY) in the 1960s, and received a BA in journalism from New York University in 1975; an MA in Media Studies from The New School in 1976; and a PhD from New York University in media ecology in 1979. His doctoral dissertation, Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media (1979), was mentored by Neil Postman.^[11]

Author[link]

Levinson writes science fiction, fantasy, and sf/mystery hybrids with philosophical undertones as well as non-fiction about the history and future of communications media, the First Amendment, the importance of space exploration, and popular culture themes.^[7] His work has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Macedonian, Croatian, and Turkish.

He has received acclaim for his writing, including multiple nominations for the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Prometheus, Edgar and Audie Awards. His novella Loose Ends was a 1998 finalist for a Hugo, a Sturgeon, and a Nebula. His novel The Silk Code won the Locus Award for Best First Novel of 1999.

The central character of The Silk Code, NYPD forensic detective Dr. Phil D'Amato, made his first appearance in Levinson's novelette, "The Chronology Protection Case", (published in Analog magazine, September 1995). D'Amato returned in "The Copyright Notice Case" novelette (Analog, April 1996), "The Mendelian Lamp Case" novelette (Analog, April 1997), and in subsequent novels The Consciousness Plague (2002), and The Pixel Eye (2003). An adaptation of Levinson's "The Chronology Protection Case" (radioplay by Mark Shanahan with Paul Levinson & Jay Kensinger) was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Award for Best Play of 2002.

Levinson's most recent novel is The Plot To Save Socrates, a time travel story. Entertainment Weekly magazine called it "challenging fun".^[12]

Media commentator[link]

Paul Levinson is a frequent guest on local, national, and international cable and network television and public, commercial, and satellite radio programs.^[9]

These have included:

• Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, The Big Story with John Gibson, Fox Magazine; News special, The New Millennium: Science, Fiction, Fantasy
• PBS: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
• CBS: CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, The Early Show
• ABC: Nightline, World News Now
• MSNBC: Jesse Ventura's America, Scarborough Country
• CNN: American Morning, Daybreak, Sunday Live
• CNBC: Bullseye, Squawk Box, On the Money
• The History Channel: Modern Marvels, "Fantastic Voyage: The Evolution of Science Fiction"
• Discovery Channel: The Inside Story of..., "The Cell Phone Revolution"
• BBC: NewsNight (TV); Thinking Allowed (radio)
• CBC: Canada Now (TV); Newsworld International (TV); Special, McLuhan: Out of Orbit (TV); Cross Country Checkup (radio); CBC This Morning (radio)
• NPR: All Things Considered; Talk of the Nation; Morning Edition; The Diane Rehm Show; On the Media; The Connection; On Point; Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi; Tech Nation with Moira Gunn; New York & Company; Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions and Odyssey; Wisconsin Public Radio; Minnesota Public Radio
• satellite radio: Sirius
• other radio and TV: Los Angeles CBS radio KNX-AM; New York CBS radio WCBS-AM and WFAN; Bloomberg radio; AP radio; Detroit's WJR-AM Mitch Albom Show; CNN radio; Voice of America (radio & TV); C-Span; Reuters TV; Wall Street Journal Radio Network; WABC-TV; Today in New York, WNBC-TV; WCBS-TV; Good Day New York, Fox 5; WB-11; UPN-9; CUNY-TV; Inside Edition

Paul Levinson has been quoted thousands of times in newspapers, magazines, and news services around the world. Some of these are: USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, U.S. News and World Report, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, Newsday, Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Houston Chronicle, Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Wired, Smithsonian Magazine, London Daily Mail, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Associated Press, Reuters, and UPI.^[13]

Songwriter, recording artist, and record producer[link]

• Writer of over 100 songs published in 1960s and 70s by major music publishers including Bourne, Chappell, Belwin Mills/Warner Brothers, Bobby Darin's TM Music, and Sunbury ^{[disambiguation needed ]}/RCA
• Recordings of his songs were produced by Ellie Greenwich, Jimmy "the Wiz" Wisner, and Paul Leka for other artists
• Songs he wrote, performed and/or produced were released on record labels including Columbia, Decca, Philips, Atlantic, Buddah and London Records
• Twice Upon a Rhyme, 1972 LP released on HappySad Records, as principal artist, writer, and producer; re-issued on CD by Beatball Records (2009), and on re-pressed vinyl by Sound of Salvation Records (2010)
• Levinson's song "Hung Up On Love" (co-writer Mikie Harris, produced by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow) was recorded by Levinson's trio The Other Voices and released on Atlantic Records in 1968; this recording was included in Rhino Handmade's 2004 compilation CD Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults, compiled by Andrew Sandoval. Levinson sang falsetto harmony on many of The Other Voices' recordings.

Bibliography[link]

Novels[link]

• The Silk Code (1999) Tor Books ISBN 0-312-86823-5
• Borrowed Tides (2001) Tor Books ISBN 0-312-84869-2
• The Consciousness Plague (2002) Tor Books ISBN 0-7653-0098-2
• The Pixel Eye (2003) Tor Books ISBN 0-7653-0556-9
• The Plot To Save Socrates (2006) Tor Books ISBN 0-7653-0570-4
  • Unburning Alexandria, a planned sequel to the above (first two chapters published as a novelette in the November, 2008 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact)

Non-fiction books[link]

• In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday (editor and contributor) with Forewords by Isaac Asimov and Helmut Schmidt (1982) Humanities Press ISBN 0-391-02609-7
• Mind at Large: Knowing in the Technological Age (1988) JAI Press ISBN 0-89232-816-9
• Electronic Chronicles: Columns of the Changes in our Time (1992) Anamnesis Press ISBN 0-9631203-3-6
• Learning Cyberspace: Essays on the Evolution of Media and the New Education (1995) Anamnesis Press ISBN 0-9631203-9-5
• The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution (1997) Routledge ISBN 0-415-15785-4
• Bestseller: Wired, Analog, and Digital Writings (1999) Pulpless ISBN 1-58445-033-9 [includes fiction and non-fiction]
• Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium (1999) Routledge ISBN 0-415-19251-X
• Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet (2003) Routledge ISBN 0-415-27743-4
• Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything! (2004) Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 1-4039-6041-0
• New New Media (2009) Penguin/Pearson ISBN 0-205-67330-9

References[link]

External links[link]

• homepage
  • Articles and Columns
  • Short Fiction
  • Music career; MP3s
  • Awards and honors
• personal blog
• writing and music pages
• podcasts
  • "Light On Light Through"
  • "Levinson News Clips"
  • "Ask Lev!"
  • "Words and Music by Paul Levinson"
• In-depth video interview on new/old media with Paul Levinson on The Alcove with Mark Molaro
• Paul Levinson on Twitter
• Interview with Figure/Ground Communication

• Paul Levinson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• quotes

Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart speaking at CPAC on February 10, 2012.
Born	(1969-02-01)February 1, 1969 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	March 1, 2012(2012-03-01) (aged 43) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Residence	Westwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Tulane University (B.A.)
Occupation	Writer, Columnist, Publisher
Spouse	Susannah Bean (m. 1997–2012); 4 children

Andrew Breitbart (pronounced /ˈbraɪtbɑrt/ (February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American publisher,^[1] commentator for The Washington Times, author,^[2] and occasional guest commentator on various news programs, who served as an editor for the Drudge Report website. He was a researcher for Arianna Huffington, and helped launch her web publication The Huffington Post.^[3]

He ran his own news aggregation site, Breitbart.com, and five other websites: Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace. He played key roles in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, and the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy.

Early life[link]

Breitbart was the adopted son of Gerald and Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively, and grew up in upscale Brentwood, Los Angeles. He was raised Jewish (his adoptive mother had converted to Judaism when marrying his adoptive father).^[4][5] He had explained that his birth certificate indicated his biological father was a folk singer. He was ethnically Irish by birth, and his adopted sister is Hispanic.^[4] He changed his political views after experiencing an "epiphany" during the Clarence Thomas hearings, and later described himself as "a Reagan conservative" with libertarian sympathies.^[1]

While in high school, Breitbart was a pizza delivery driver; he sometimes delivered to celebrities such as Judge Reinhold.^[6] He earned a B.A. in American studies from Tulane University in 1991, graduating with "no sense of [his] future whatsoever".^[7] His early jobs included a stint at cable channel E! Entertainment Television, working for the company's online magazine, and some time in film production.^[5]

Public life[link]

Authorship, research and reporting[link]

In 1995 Breitbart saw the Drudge Report and was so impressed that he emailed Matt Drudge. Breitbart said, "I thought what he was doing was by far the coolest thing on the Internet. And I still do."^[3] Breitbart described himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch"^[8] and selected and posted links to other news wire sources. Later Matt Drudge introduced him to Arianna Huffington (when she was still a Republican)^[5] and Breitbart subsequently assisted her in creating her website.

Breitbart's work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and the Weekly Standard Online, among others. He wrote a weekly column for The Washington Times, which also appeared at Real Clear Politics. Breitbart also co-wrote the book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon with Mark Ebner, a book that is highly critical of U.S. celebrity culture.^[9] On January 19, 2011, the conservative gay rights group GOProud announced Breitbart had joined its Advisory Council.^[10]

In April 2011 Grand Central Publishing released Breitbart's book, Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, in which he discussed his own political evolution and the part he took in the rise of new media, most notably at the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post.

In June 2011 Breitbart was involved in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal when his websites broke the story that Weiner was sending women revealing photographs of himself.^[11]

Commentaries[link]

Breitbart appeared as a commentator on Real Time with Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. In 2004 he was a guest commentator on Fox News Channel's morning show and frequently appeared as a guest panelist on Fox News's late night program, Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Breitbart also appeared as a commentator in the 2004 documentary Michael Moore Hates America.^[12]

On October 22, 2009, Breitbart appeared on the C-SPAN program Washington Journal. He gave his opinions on the mainstream media, Hollywood, the Obama Administration and his personal political views, having heated debates with several callers.^[1]

In the hours immediately following Senator Ted Kennedy's death, Breitbart called Kennedy a "villain", a "duplicitous bastard", a "prick"^[13] and "a special pile of human excrement".^[14][15]

In February 2010 Breitbart received the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. During his acceptance speech, he responded directly to accusations by New York Times reporter Kate Zernike that Jason Mattera, a young conservative activist, had been using "racial tones" in his allusions to President Barack Obama, and had spoken in a "Chris Rock voice". From the podium, Breitbart called Zernike "a despicable human being" for having made such allegations about Mattera's New York accent.^[16] At the same conference, Breitbart was also filmed saying to journalist Max Blumenthal that he found him to be "a jerk", and "a despicable human being" due to a blog entry posted by Blumenthal.^[17]

Activism[link]

Breitbart often appeared as a speaker at Tea Party movement events across the U.S. For example, Breitbart was a keynote speaker at the first National Tea Party Convention at Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville on February 6, 2010.^[18] Breitbart later involved himself in a controversy over homophobic and alleged racial slurs being used at a March 20, 2010, rally at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., by asserting that slurs were never used, and that "It was a set-up" by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party. Breitbart offered to donate $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund "for any audio/video footage of the N-word being hurled", claiming that the several Congressmen made it up. Breitbart insisted Congressman John Lewis and several other witnesses were forced to lie, concluding that "Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement."^[19][20]

Websites[link]

Breitbart launched a number of websites, including Breitbart.com,^[22] BigHollywood.com,^[23] BigGovernment.com,^[24] BigJournalism.com,^[25] and BigPeace.com.^[26]

Breitbart launched his first website as a news site; it is sometimes linked to by the Drudge Report and other websites. It has wire stories from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, PR Newswire, and U.S. Newswire, as well as direct links to a number of major international newspapers. Its Blog & "Network" links tend to run to the right within the U.S. political spectrum (e.g., National Review and Townhall.com). The site also has a search engine powered by Lingospot and a finance channel powered by FinancialContent. In 2007, Breitbart launched a video blog, Breitbart.tv.^[27]

In 2008 Breitbart launched the website "Big Hollywood," a "group blog" driven by some who work within Los Angeles, with contributions from a variety of writers, including politically conservative entertainment-industry professionals.^{[citation needed]} The site was an outgrowth of the Breitbart's Washington Times "Big Hollywood" column included issues conservatives faced working in Hollywood.^[28] In 2009, the site used audio from a secretly recorded conference call to accuse the National Endowment of the Arts of encouraging artists to create work in support of Barack Obama's domestic policy agenda.^[29][30]

Breitbart launched BigGovernment.com on September 10, 2009.^[31] He hired Mike Flynn, a former government affairs specialist at Reason Foundation,^[32] as Editor-in-Chief of Big Government.^[33] The site premiered with hidden camera video footage taken by Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe at Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now offices in various cities, attracting nationwide attention resulting in the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy.

In January 2010, Breitbart launched Big Journalism. He told Mediaite:^[34] "Our goal at Big Journalism is to hold the mainstream media's feet to the fire. There are a lot of stories that they simply don't cover, either because it doesn't fit their world view, or because they're literally innocent of any knowledge that the story even exists, or because they are a dying organization, short-staffed, and thus can't cover stuff like they did before." Big Journalism was edited by Michael A. Walsh, a former journalism professor and Time magazine music critic.^[34] It is now currently edited by Dana Loesch. The site has a fictional contributor named "Retracto, the Correction Alpaca" who posts items requesting corrections from the traditional media.^[35]

BigPeace.com debuted July 4, 2010. The site covers topics such as international issues and foreign policy, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism, Islamic extremism, espionage, border security, and energy issues.

Controversies[link]

Anthony Weiner[link]

On May 28, 2011, Breitbart posted a sexually explicit photo on his BigJournalism website of New York Representative Anthony Weiner obtained through Weiner's Twitter account.^[36] Weiner initially denied that he had sent a 21-year-old female college student the link to the photograph, but after questions developed, he admitted to inappropriate online relationships. On June 6, 2011, Breitbart reported other photos Weiner had sent, including one that was sexually graphic. On June 8, 2011, the sexually graphic photo was leaked after Breitbart participated in a radio interview with hosts Opie and Anthony, though Breitbart stated that the photo was published without his permission.^[37] Weiner subsequently resigned from his congressional seat on June 21, 2011.

Shirley Sherrod[link]

In July 2010 Breitbart was accused of smearing USDA official Shirley Sherrod with the viral video "Proof NAACP Awards Racism". Breitbart's video showed Sherrod speaking at a NAACP fundraising dinner in March 2010 admitting to a racial reluctance to help a white farmer get government aid. The NAACP condemned Sherrod video comments and approved her July 19 dismissal from government service. After being criticized for presenting Sherrod out of context, Breitbart posted the full 40-minute video of the speech.^{[38][39][40][41]} In the full video Sherrod said the reluctance to help a white man was wrong, and she had ended up assisting him. Following the release of the full video, the NAACP also reversed their rebuke of Sherrod,^[39][40], and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack apologized and offered Sherrod a new government position.^[42] In 2011, Sherrod sued Breitbart for defamation,^[43] Breibart said that the point of the piece was not to target Sherrod, but said the NAACP audience's reception of the parts of the speech demonstrated the same racism the NAACP's President had accused The Tea Party of harboring.^[44]

ACORN undercover videos[link]

Breitbart was also involved in the 2009 ACORN video controversy. Hannah Giles^[45][46] posed as a prostitute seeking assistance while James O'Keefe portrayed her boyfriend, and clandestinely videotaped meetings with ACORN staff.^[47] Subsequent criminal investigations by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office and the California Attorney General found the videos were heavily edited in an attempt to make ACORN's responses "appear more sinister",^[48][49][50] and contributed to the group's demise.^[51][52]

GOProud[link]

Breitbart was also embroiled in a controversy within the conservative movement related to the participation of gay group GOProud in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual conference held in Washington, D.C., by the American Conservative Union. In 2011 he was the primary host of a party that served to "welcome" the "homocons" to the convention (though it was the second year they had been participants). This flew in the face of a boycott staged by a few social conservative groups that were offended by the inclusion of GOProud within the conservative fold. Writer, producer, and publisher Roger L. Simon referred to the group as a "game-changer" for the Republican party, and asserted that it represented a turning point in the appeal that the conservative movement might hold for young people. Breitbart was on the Advisory Board of GOProud until he stepped down in the wake of the group's inadvertent outing of a senior Rick Perry aide.^[53][54]

Confrontation with Occupy protesters at CPAC 2012[link]

In February 2012 a YouTube video showed Breitbart yelling at Occupy D.C. protesters outside a Washington D.C. hotel hosting a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The video showed security escorting Breitbart back to the hotel while he told the protestors to "behave yourself", and alluding to reported assaults of women at Occupy encampments, he repeatedly yelled "stop raping people" and called the protestors "filthy, filthy, raping, murdering freaks!”. David Carr said with the incident Briebart had caused his last "viral storm on the Web".^[55][56]

Personal life[link]

Breitbart was married to Susannah Bean, the daughter of actor Orson Bean, and had four children.^[3][57]

Death[link]

On February 9, 2012, Breitbart while in Washington, DC was quoted as saying, “wait til they see what happens March first.” Breitbart was referring to his plan to release "damning" footage of President Obama that he had been promising to reveal throughout the month of February.^[58] However, on March 1, 2012, Breitbart died at the UCLA Medical Center after he collapsed while walking in Brentwood.^[59] He was 43 years old. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office showed that he had cardiomegaly and died of heart failure.^[60] The toxicology report showed "No prescription or illicit drugs were detected. The blood alcohol was .04%. No significant trauma was present and foul play is not suspected."^[60] Personal friend of Breitbart, Bill Whittle, had said that Breitbart had a "serious heart attack" just months before his passing.^[61]

In remembrance, Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich praised Breitbart.^[62] Santorum called Breitbart's passing "a huge loss" that strongly affected him,^[62][63] while Romney said Breitbart was a "fearless conservative", and Gingrich called him "the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America...."^[62]

His funeral was held March 6, 2012, at a Jewish cemetery in West Los Angeles. Attendees included his father-in-law Orson Bean, Matt Drudge, Herman Cain, Thaddeus McCotter, Greg Gutfeld, Ed Morrissey, Guy Benson, and Rob Long.^[64][65][66]

Authored books[link]

• Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World. Grand Central Publishing. April 15, 2011. ISBN 978-0-446-57282-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=SUPaO3y-hqkC&pg=PT2&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• With Ebner, Mark C. (March 10, 2005). Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon – The Case Against Celebrity. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-70624-3. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andrew Breitbart

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• Official website
• Andrew Breitbart on Facebook
• Andrew Breitbart on Twitter
• Andrew Breitbart at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Andrew Breitbart in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Andrew Breitbart at Find a Grave