Creativity

New media has the ability to foster creativity due to its open-endedness and extensive features.  One way is through mashups.  According to "1+1+1=1:  The New Math of Mashups" and "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters.  But Why?", individuals are using new media to compile together songs that already exists.  They are using programs to use existing songs and mix them together in order to create a remix or a mash-up.  They may or may not be making new songs all together but they are mixing beats and voices to create something different, original, and possibly unexpected.  These mashups are most of the time made available on iTunes for purchase, played to the public via the radio, or shared on YouTube.  However, the content that is being used has to be done so with carefulness to ensure that there's no copyright infringement.  For example, content that companies find contain unauthorized content may be removed from such sites as YouTube, depending on how it was used.  Additionally, new media has allowed users/customers be in control of what becomes popular on sites like Twitter.  For instance, users have been responsible for the popularity of # (hashtags), @, and the word "tweets".  Twitter uses these ideas that appeal to the masses and turns them into features.  Similarly, Flickr moved solely to photo-sharing once they saw that it was more popular than the accompanying online game.  This just comes to show that new media has the power to turn ideas into the next big thing!