what New Media means to Me

fossilWashington DCevergreen2008
Written By Leslie Bradshaw

(I have started this conversation over on this new social network, Know Me Now* in beta [yum yum, love me some inside track]… join the discussion here!)

*Full disclosure: This is a NMS client’s site, but one that I am proud to be working with.

NMS interior shot for our website taken July 14, 2008 (and relaunched circa January 2009, what a lead up all that was… Super Bowl “buzz” work and all). I have the glasses in the background, my friend to this day Jen is in the foreground.

What does New Media mean to you?

For me, the Internet is less about the technology and the codes behind it (though, I highly respect the beauty in both the front and back-end of any product, even though I don’t know how it all works… and I also highly respect the people who bring them to life)… *I digress*… for me it is about connecting on a deeper level, crossing boundaries of geography and background, and getting things done.

Whether it is fact checking or getting on-air apologies from the traditional media outlets (h/t ExMo) who have done wrong, or whether it is getting people to vote, be educated on the issues/candidates (and even how campaigns are using new media as well)… or even, make your “off-line” life more organized, stay better connected with friends (new and old) and family, and so on.

While I enjoy a little side game of [insert app du jour here] every now and again, and I definitely love attending a multitude of new media events… I really feel like new media, social media, social networks… however you want to phrase it… are truly about reality, real things, real change, real communication, real connections.

That is why I got involved in this industry just about three years ago. While I have spent a majority of that time monitoring, policing (legal/IP) and campaigning on behalf of larger brands, I am proud to be getting back to my true social science roots and working for sites like Know Me Now. My work at New Media Strategies has brought everything full circle and then some (and it is only month 4).

I would never position myself as an expert in this field — far from it — but rather, what I do have experience in is in people… getting people organized, getting people heard, breaking down stereotypes and taking care of friends in need. To back that up on the theory and methodology side, my background in Gender Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Economics, Psychology and Sociology from the University of Chicago allows me to understand micro and macro trends a bit more too. Add to this the time spent going to events, talking to more knowledgeable friends (esp. j3, Zvi, Bill, Jon Henke and Nick O’Neill) and working online and stumbling through it myself… and you’ve got a new media social scientist and eclectic innovator [read: gypsy].

Thank you for letting me be me and you be you. And I hope you now know me a little better, now knowing me like this (okay, I will stop trying to sound like Dr. Seus or appear to try and game the SEO on the Know Me Now client’s site name… tehehe).

Author’s notes:

Leslie Bradshaw
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