New media has opened many doors, created many new opportunities, and enabled an infinite number of people to receive live news feeds via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. New media have also blurred the lines between personal and public information. For example, “Spanking Judge” William Adams is recorded by his 16-year-old daughter Hilary, who spanks him for illegally downloading music and games from the Internet (Heinz, 2011). Seven years later, when Judge Adams tries to confiscate his daughter's Mercedes after she misbehaves, Hilary posts the video on YouTube to teach her father (Heinz) a lesson. Although his daughter has since said she regrets posting the video, the damage done to her family is irreversible (Heinz). Considering examples like this, the question arises of the solvency of new media compared to traditional media sources. Despite Judge Adams' remorse for his actions and his apology to his daughter, he was publicly reprimanded and humiliated. Posting video content via YouTube is a simple and painless process, which required little effort for Hilary Adams: a few clicks and her family's private life became internationally public. While abuse should never be tolerated, transparency on social media sites prevents individuals from recovering from poor choices. These media sites can publicly broadcast situations that are supposed to remain private, situations that would never have been witnessed otherwise. “The highly decentralized nature of the Internet makes it tempting to think of social activity in cyberspace as completely autonomous, free from the kinds of conventions that guide the production of traditional media forms” (Croteau, Hoynes, & Milan, 2012, p. 14...... middle of document ......become the source of news, challenging and eventually replacing traditional sources.Works CitedCloud, J. (2011 When Secrets go Viral Time. ). 62. Croteau, D., Hoynes, W. and Milan, S. (2012). Judge William Adams accused of beating disabled girl. .nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Judge-William-Adams-Accused-of-Beating-Disabled-Daughter-133090233.htmlRoettgers, J. (2011). http://gigaom.com/video/youtube-vs-cable-stats/YouTube (2011). Fresh footage of huge tsunami waves devastating a city in Japan. watch?v=TRDpTEjumdoYouTube. (2011). A talented father-daughter duo! Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLu73iGs-Ws&feature=rated