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HHS Center for New Media

About

Who are we?

Our Mission

The mission of the HHS Center for New Media is to promote and support the strategic implementation of new media across the Department.

Our Goals

The goals of The Center are to:

  • Establish collaborations among HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs), Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs), federal agencies, and other partners.
  • Develop training and guidance to ensure strategic use and implementation of new media across HHS.
  • Maximize resources through pooled tools, assets, and resources.
  • Establish best practices for planning, implementation, and evaluation.
  • Provide information on new media developments across the federal government.
  • Maintain the domain newmedia.hhs.gov and ensure its use as a means of communication with the HHS community.

The HHS Center for New Media resides in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs with a small staff dedicated to maintaining the Web site and carrying out day-to-day activities. However, The Center is more accurately a collaborative entity supported by the community of those within the family of HHS agencies who work, or want to work, with New media. The effectiveness of the Center is dependent upon the collaborative efforts of the broader HHS NewMedia Community. 

Detail with Us

An Innovative Self-Starter

The HHS Center for New Media
The HHS Center for New Media is seeking members of the HHS community to participate in a temporary, full-time or part-time detail position. Those interested in social/new media, analytics, writing, web content, visual information/graphics, APIs, and digital marketing are encouraged to contact newmedia@hhs.gov for more info. 

What will you get out of a detail assignment with the HHS Center for New Media?

  • Baseline exposure to new media tools and strategies.
  • Increased core competencies in the larger world of new media.
  • Contributions to the HHS New Media blog on newmedia.hhs.gov.
  • Expertise in an area(s) of interest to you and your home office.
  • You will become the HHS resident expert in the particular topic area and able to provide guidance and give trainings.
  • You will document the experience and knowledge gained in a user-friendly guidance document, video, or similar product for HHS use and reference.  
  • Build connections with others across HHS, the federal government, and outside of federal government.

Make a lasting impact

This is a great opportunity to help build the digital presence of HHS and help improve the health of Americans. Upon ending the detail, you will become an ambassador for new media efforts in your home office and beyond, based on your expertise and contributions to the HHS Center for New Media. 

Details of the detail

This detail position is open to HHS employees only. It is unpaid and salary obligations will be fulfilled by the home office. The time and money invested by the home office will be returned through the experience, expertise, and connections built through the detail.  Time and duration are negotiable.

What is New Media >>

Good question. Definitions of many related buzz words differ depending on with whom you're talking. If you find yourself in conversation where these terms are used, you may want to ask for a clarification as to what is meant. In the context of our work here, we hold these working definitions for the following terms:

new media - tools and technologies whose applications are considered new (as in very recent and emerging) for the professional communication and transfer of information and ideas. This is a purposefully broad definition in recognition of the continually changing landscape of the internet.

social media - a sub-set of 'new media' characterized by online interactions and engagement. Social media does not refer to a specific platform or tool, but rather how the tool is used. For example: Twitter is a platform, but it is not necessarily social. A twitter account that pushes press releases out but does not interact with others is not using the medium socially. [Note that this may still be a proper use of twitter.]

There are other many terms (web 2.0, gov 2.0, web 3.0, etc.) that are sometimes used interchangeably or that may vary slightly in meaning. We will not try to to define these terms, as they are evolving almost as quickly as the technology and instead encourage you to explore their many definitions. Wikipedia is a space where the community continuously contributes and modifies the definitions, and you can see the evolution of term through the revision history of the definition. We recommend you begin your exploration here: Web 2.0