New media is an ever-changing, broad term used to describe the emerging digital, computerized, and information technology. Continually evolving, new media brings with it not just new information, but the accessibility of new information in an easier and more user-friendly way. Using Lev Manovich’s principles, new media has “tendencies” to remain modular, meaning that new media can be broken down into smaller components. Additionally, new media has a great amount of variability as one webpage can be transformed into another by changing the HTML code. A recurring theme about new media is the amount of customization that we are presented with. In contrast to old media, which was more geared toward mass production, now we are a more individual-focused society. Consequentially, this is demonstrated through a main component of society’s culture-technology. When I googled “new media” this definition came up: “means of mass communication using digital technologies such as the Internet.” While this definition highlights the use of information accessibility, it does not go deep enough to convey the interactivity and variability that Manovich cites as critical components of new media. 

Sources besides Manovich:
http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html
http://www.festoonmedia.com/whitepapers/images/New_Media_Branding.pdf