What does the term new media mean and how has it influenced the study of art history as it has grown over the past six years? New media means many things to many people but, simply put, it is an open to semi-open community for dialogue and interactive relationships. “[New] media […] are increasingly a place of coordination, because groups who see, hear, watch, or listen to something [that “something,” particularly in this essay, is art history] can now come together .” (Shirky) New media has become a kind of social communication tool, used in the ever-changing world of the Internet. New media in its most popular form, social media, has become an integral part of our culture over the past six years. It has changed the academic world in many and varied ways, so much so that many universities have added the study of New Media to their disciplinary offerings. New media have established a space within the Internet to establish a kind of community that transcends geographical and academic boundaries and allows members of different types of social groups with certain interests to connect, collaborate and create. Through the lens of the academic discipline that studies the development of the visual arts, known as the study of art history, we will focus on how new media has pulled back the curtain on this once somewhat dark academic world and brought it in the world of modern technology. At one time, the only means for a prospective student interested in studying art history to become familiar with various aspects of the discipline was to aggressively search library catalogs for scattered, scattered information that may or may not delve deeply enough into the question . This is because; the truly enlightening information as w...... half of the paper ......al-networking-with-a-brain-a-critical-review-of-academic-sites/>.Preston, Jennifer. "Appointment with art and the ardent". The New York Times Company. The New York Times Company, October 21, 2011. Web. March 26, 2012. .Schaffer, Neal. “What do I put on my LinkedIn profile if I'm a college student?” Windmill Networking: Maximize Social Business with Neal Schaffer. Windmill Marketing, March 30, 2009. Web. March 27, 2012. Shirky, Clay. “Clay Shirky: How Social Media Can Make History.” TED: Ideas worth spreading. TED Conferences, LLC, June 2009. Web. March 26. 2012. .