When this class began, I knew that new media was a frontier that had yet to be really explored. I hadn’t realized exactly how wild that ‘wild west’ was. New media is a platform for everyone. New media is in many ways an egalitarian form. Everyone gets the chance to become a star if they have the skills. If you’re funny then you can find fame on a youtube comedy channel. If you know a subject very well then you’ll find a captive audience in how-to videos. If you can play video games with skill, then twitch.tv is the place for you. And that’s great.

New media can counter monopolies and bring down corporations. But as we’ve seen, new media is a fertile ground for new companies and corporations, both of which could be just as bad, or worse, than their predecessors. Google is scary. At all times. It’s a bit like the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park. We know that someday it will blow and change the world as we know it. We just don’t know when. It could be today. It could be tomorrow.

And youtube, being a subsidiary of Google, is under fire as well. Google plus integration, despite possibly fixing the dreaded Barrens youtube chat, is seen as an unnecessary feature. And youtube has become very much like Google – a platform so indispensable that it becomes difficult to find an alternative. If you have the power of popular web-series creators then you could host on your own site, free from the tyranny of youtube. If not then… There’s always Vimeo?

Video games are, and I truly mean this, my area of expertise. It’s exhilarating to discuss them with people and hear other people’s opinions on them, content or gameplay-wise. I acknowledge wholeheartedly that video games have a long way to go. Some are racist. Some are misogynistic. Some are homophobic. Some are both, all, none. It’s a rapidly growing art form (no matter what you say, Mr. Ebert). It’ll take time. But it’s important that people are taking up arms and talking about these issues. Awareness will bring acceptance, and video games have the potential to be wonderful narrative devices.

New media is here to stay. And that’s great. What we’ve talked about over the course of this class tells me that there is not only potential for great growth in this medium, but potential for a new phase of how we interact with, produce, consume, talk about, and study media and entertainment.