Inter-Magazine

I think the future of magazine publishing is a move towards digitally taking over the business. Personally, I read all my magazine articles on the internet. I look at pictures and it is much easier to scroll through them on a computer than through paper.

I think it is easier for magazines to sell ads for the web than it is to sell ads for print media. It is much more “with the times.” Advertisers are beginning to focus solely on social media marketing and this is a great way to incorporate it.

Additionally, not only can people read magazines on the web, but they can also purchase them for e-readers. What I specifically like about internet magazines is two things: (1) instant updates and (2) interaction with the author.

I think that internet news magazines are especially important. The instant updates allow for people to learn the key events at a moment’s notice. They also allow for news to travel over the globe in a much faster manor.

Interaction with the writer is also very significant. When people need clarification or have something to add they can just comment. This, too, may be instant or moderated. Either way it does not take a week or a month to read someone’s initial reaction.

One of the disadvantages of moving towards a digital magazine is the more gossipy magazines have become more invasive of popular stars; therefore, the magazines are more dangerous. Paper magazines have less space/date to fill and they are, equivocally less persistent. It is a “safer” genre for stars.

Though there are both pros and cons about moving magazines to a digital arena, I personally think it is a good thing. I like that I can just sit at my computer and find what I need to find.

The Nook Took. . .

Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color is a luxury model e-reader. The current model is one bug color touch screen. The Nook Color can be purchased at Barnes and Noble. It costs $249 at NookColor.com, as opposed to $139 monochrome Amazon.com Kindle. The Nook costs $100 more than last year’s model, and connects to the Web only using Wi-Fi. Despite the increase in price, the Nook Color has exceeded expectations of sales, both online and in stores, as of the second week in November.

The current model of the Nook Color is built on the Android 2.1 operating system. This is the same mobile operating system used to run on many smart phones. Currently users have access to a full web browser; early next year the Nook Color will upgrade to Android 2.2, allowing it to play Flash videos.

In order to access e-books, readers can use Barnes and Noble’s library of 2 million downloadable books and over 100 magazines and newspapers. ArticleView displays magazine articles in a clear, readable format. A LendMe feature allows readers to digitally lend books to their friends for 14 days.

The Beginning of the Galaxy

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is similar to the iPad. It uses Google’s Android operating system. The Tab is essentially a slick slate that performs the same actions as a laptop. In addition to the Google Android operating system, the Tab is also able to run a large variety of third party applications. The Tab was introduced by three major U.S. wireless phone carriers approximately three weeks ago. It costs $400 with a cellular date contract. The Tab costs $600 with cellular capability but no contract. The Tab does not come with a Wi-Fi only capability; you have to have cellular service to connect to the web.

The diagonal dimension of the Tab’s screen is 7 inches, as opposed to the iPad’s which is 9.7 inches. The area of the screens, however are significantly higher than those numbers would help predict. The Tab is less than half the size of the iPad. The Tab is much smaller and lighter, and you are able to navigate it with one hand. This makes the Tab sound less and less like a laptop and more and more like a cell phone! The Tab is two inches shorter and three inches narrower than the iPad.

The Tab claims it can last up to 13 hours on one charge – but this has been proven false. Walter S. Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal Online tested the battery life of both the Tab and iPad. He put the screens on full brightness and left the Wi-Fi on. The Tab lasted 6:50, but at 6:10 the screen dimmed so dark that the device was unusable. Last spring, Mossberg tested the iPad the same way and it lasted 11:28. Mossberg claims: “The Tab is attractive, versatile and competitively priced, though monthly cell fees can add up. It’s different enough from the iPad, yet good enough, to give consumers a real choice.”

Children Love Cell Phones

The way that cell phones work is quite complicated. I could not imagine explaining to a child. It is far more complicated than just stomping away on each key to force out a mean of communication; I could be referring to dialing or texting.

When you turn your cell phone on, your device is recognized by a “tower” and broadcasts its presence. The “towers” are set just as far apart so that you are ideally communicating with one at all times. When a call comes in, the system pages your phone through the nearest “tower,” which contains an antenna. A determination is quickly made regarding which channel on the network that the “tower” sets forth to place your call on. When you leave the parameters of a “tower” you call is not dropped, but instead placed on another channel from another “tower.”

1996 Converge

The main impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has been the converging of companies to create larger companies that would basically run the communication of that specific area. “The Telecommunications Act triggered a merger frenzy among infrastructure companies intent of offering “one-stop shopping” for conventional phone service as well as cell phone, cable TV, and Internet and making themselves big enough to compete globally. . . The Telecommunications Act had other impacts besides the enabling of mega-mergers. Long distance is perhaps the biggest success story, with hundreds of competitors slashing rates in half their 1996 levels. Internet telephony (calls placed over the Internet instead of conventional phone networks) is an innovative technology that further cut costs” (374). As you can see the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was influential in many communicative ways. In fact, now companies that once offered only traditional telephone services currently also offer cable TV, and Internet services.

New Media Ideas

If I were a PR practitioner hired to promote the New Media Area of Study, I would most likely utilize the tools that the courses allow for to enhance a reaction.

I would:

• Use CCTV to play a commercial for the department, but I would mandate that only New Media students could be a part of this project – both in front of and behind the camera


• Hire a second professor to offer more introductory courses, allowing students to experience the area of study, without yet committing to it


• Turn KAC 212 into an open MAC Lab for all students to use, regardless of their majors; in said room I would hang digital artwork done by New Media students to promote their talent and what they have learned


• Hold additional receptions in the spring semester; probably in late March, because the course schedule comes out in early April for the next year and people would be more likely to remember and register


• Talk to the registrar and get Intro to New Media / Intro to Digital Film Making listed as one of the Distinctive/required Discipline Support Courses – why would we promote Christian Perspective, Mathematical Reasoning, World Cultures, Human Behavior and Physical Wellness and not promote the arts?


• Revamp ConcordiaNewMedia.com, in order to use it as an updated resource for all (both past and present) New Media students at Concordia

I would take these ideas and morph them following a further evolution of the techniques that would take place.

Models to Attract an Audience

“The model of early press agentry is most commonly associated with P.T. Barnum’s style of publicity. . . He used creatively almost any means to attract audiences to his enterprises” (315). There are two one-way models of communication and two two-way models. Press agentry and publicity are used to manipulate the public’s opinion and behavior. Public information and journalism are used to disseminate information to the public. These are the one way models. The two way models consist of symmetric and asymmetric. Two-way asymmetric is used to persuade and find out how the public reacted. Two-way symmetric is used to gain a mutual understanding and find a win-win common ground.

I think that two-way asymmetric makes the most sense, because you are persuading and evaluating, something I mentioned earlier was a specialty to public relations.

Keys to the Public

There are key elements to public relations. Four elements combine to form a successful system. First is the research. This includes public opinion polls, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and literature searches. There are three basic phases to research – preparation, implementation and impact. The second element of public relations is a detailed strategy. One cannot play guessing games when it comes to the public’s reaction. Additionally, public relations coordinators have the goal of gaining and keeping public support. They are the liaisons for their clients. The final step is an evaluation of the campaign. What has worked? What did not? Public relations uses all facets of our media communications – digital, electronic, print and personal. “They are vehicles that carry information back and forth between private and public interests” (317).

Public Relations Specialties

Public relations is a demanding a hectic job. One must be on the move and act on their twos at all times. Why? “Public relations practitioners advise and counsel the organization’s management on communications questions affecting its publics, they serve as an early-warning system on emerging issues related to its success, and they respond to a crisis.” How else does PR respond? “PR departments and agencies also provide technical support for other management functions with an emphasis on publicity, promotions and media relations. In addition they act as gatekeepers with the press, legislators, and government officials. Most managers prefer their PR person to be their representative to the public” (314). Other specialties of public relations include publicity or media relations, promotion or selling, community relations, government relations, public information, special events, employee relations, issues management, reputation management, crisis communications, and lobbying.

I think on of the most hilarious examples of someone who works in public relations is Billy Crystal’s character, Lee Phillips, in the movie America’s Sweethearts. Despite the persona he hold with this clients, the job always comes first – in this case promoting a movie; and Lee Phillips is willing to sacrifice Eddie and Gwen (the stars of the movie, played by John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones) to do so.

Mash, able?

Do not let Mashable.com fool you. It is not your average news site. Though it is organized and contains many articles, it is a much more specific site. Mashable.com promotes social media and internet trends. For example the site shared “Google, Facebook & Yahoo CEOs Speak at Web 2.0 Summit” by contributor Ben Kerr. In the brief article, Kerr describes how the Web 2.0 Summit is a premiere technology conference. The summit began in 2004, and this year will be streamed live. The conference is from November 15th to November 17th. This is just a very small example of what Mashable.com has to offer. A second example of internet trends, and ironically live streaming videos, is ““Harry Potter” NYC Premiere to Stream Live on MTV.com” by Radhika Marya. The premiere of the movie was being held at Lincoln Center in New York. The article explains that this is not the first live premiere streaming – it was done with past two Twilight movies, receiving over 100,000 hits. Mashable.com is a great website for social and internet trends.

Obsolete books?

Recently there has been a question as to whether or not books are obsolete. I think it depends on your definition of a book. Are E-readers books? Kindles? Hardcovers? Paperbacks?

I do believe that with the emergence of electronic media into the print word, the book will in fact expand. Writers will be able to publish their own material via PDFs. (Portable Document Formats). They will then be available to load onto computers and electronic readers.

Although I am a big, BIG fan of electric readers, and I mean for pleasure not scholarly material, I can also appreciate a good paperback novel. I notice my tendencies are to purchase new authors, one’s I have never heard of, for my E-reader. Meanwhile, I will purchase a paperback in support of my author that I may or may not have been following for many books or years.

I also do not believe that pleasure books are obsolete because many authors now write in series and draw readers in. Readers eventually become fans of the author and not just the characters, plot, setting, etc.

I think that the 2007 release of the Kindle and the mass sales it caused just proves that reading is not dead. Neither is a good book. My personal E-reader is pretty awesome. It is ink pressed against a page. I have an early model so things have changed and Sony now releases touch screen apparatuses, but I still like the original model.

I suppose, like I said earlier, the book may be obsolete but that depends on your definition of a book. Personally I think a book is text or photos, not a physical object.

What I am Going to Do to Kill my Internet Connection?

I was searching the web and horrified to how easily you could find information on me. This is specifically true in terms of photographs. It is sickening and frightening how you can just google and search to find a photo of me. I do not like it.

Although it is probably too little too late – and I will throw this up to naivety – I am going to change my passwords through the completion of college and then probably shut down my blogs and facebook.

What is unsafe, and I am going to continue to do regardless, is I am going to own my own domain where I will place my resume and portfolio. This is probably more detrimental than a facebook page for example, but at least I will be in complete control of it, and no one will be able to change that.

I hope to be able to use the internet to my advantage and still remain safe. I believe it is professional tool and should be treated as such. I do not like the idea of unsafe people scooping through my personal connections with other people. I will no longer update my status on facebook for my own safety. No one needs to know where I am or what I am doing.

Conglomera-Bookstore

Conglomerates in print media are especially are especially an issue with book stores. Stores range from the small, independent, local store to the national chains. Waldenbook is an example of medium sized nationally ranged bookstores. Medium sized stores like those tend to be located in malls. Larger stores tend to stand alone; this may include Barnes and Noble, Schuler’s, and Borders. The stores excel by selling large numbers of books and magazines, offering knick-knacks and coffee and having available reading areas for costumers. “By 2008, however, there was a crisis in bookstore budgets that led even superstores, like Borders, to consider closing some locations” (79). I know that Waldenbooks closed some locations around my area.

I think there is a benefit to conglomerate bookstores. Customers are able to find new releases at a faster pace. One of the negatives of large bookstores, however, is the loss of older material. Generally you cannot find something published in the 1940s on book shelves in stores like Barnes and Noble. I think if you were able to merge the pros with the cons, you would be more likely to have an extremely popular bookstore.

Call Me Copy, Right?

Copyright issues have emerged since the introduction to print media. One of the main issues is intellectual property. Even professors and students run into a problem with this when photocopying materials that have been copyrighted by publishers. When going to a print shop, they are charged additional fees. Also, with the change in types of media, “if you copy a photo of your favorite star onto your website from a magazine, by law, whoever holds the copyright-the photographer, her photo agency, or the magazine itself-would like you to pay for the use of the photo. After all, they had to pay the celebrity and the photographers for the photo shoot and foot bill for travel, rental of set, and lighting and camera equipment” (84). So as you can see the idea of copyrighting print media is very fuzzy.

Trending Publishing

There have been three major trends in publishing. The first trend was print publishing. This excelled in the 1846 with the emergence of the rotary press. This contraption would use rotating cylinders to print on both sides of continuous, large rolls of paper. Typesetting was an issue, despite this emergence, until linotype machines were introduced. Additionally images became an issue in publishing. “After World War II, offset printing was introduced so an entire page of print, complete with illustrations, could be photographed and then photographic image transferred to a smooth metal plate” (72).

The introduction of computers vastly changed the publishing world. Computer-to-plate technology includes software such as PageMaker which could be used on any personal computer. Another interesting facet, following the information age, was the communication between book sellers and publishers. Print-on-demand became highly popular. The use of cash registers and electric scanners allowed for best-sellers lists to be compiled.

E-publishing, something I am a big fan of, has introduced the e-book. People can read books on their computers via the internet. In 2007, the introduction of e-readers allowed for users to take a mobile device a place their books on them allowing them to be readable. Currently, thanks to e-publishing, it is very easy to publish your own book. Now it is just an issue of marketability.

ISOC, see?

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a nongovernmental international membership society. It promotes the orderly use and development of the Internet. The Internet Architecture board is a committee within the ISOC that makes important policy decisions about operations and future developments. “Its members are, for the most part, employees of large corporations (such as Microsoft) that have important financial stakes in the Internet” (281). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) oversees technical matters. All these forces and boards are responsible for what happens on the internet.

Service vs. Content

“Internet service providers (ISPs) connect users to the Internet and provide email accounts. Telecommunications giants AT&T, cable TV giant Comcast, and AOL (now subsidiary of TimeWarner) are the industry leaders and account for nearly half of all U.S. Internet subscriptions among them” (281). Internet service providers differ from content providers. Content providers are mainly designers. They provide the layout and design of Web pages, and opposed to providing the service such as email and communications. Content providers – web designers – have popped up all over. You can do this service remotely, which is pretty awesome. There is no specific reason for a web designer to be in the same room as the owner.

Robbing the Web

Leading software and hardware providers include Apple, Microsoft, etc. Similar to John D. Rockefeller and other Industrial Age “robber barons” Bill Gates’ the owner of software giant Microsoft was found guilty of monopolistic practices. Microsoft Corporation “was forced to change its business practices by unbundling its browser and media player from the Windows operating system” (291). That is very interesting, because as a Windows user, I am still a user of Windows media player and Internet Explorer. But since this finding, Bill Gates has been able to change is image from “robber baron” to global philanthropists. Copyright laws and patents have changed the way that people react to the web.

Design the Web

Media design is the key to a “good” webpage – not the amount of time a user spends on the page. That would reflect thinking of the “old media.” They believed that they needed to deliver people for the advertisers. “From the perspective, the key to having a good Web page is lots of empty dark space (or blank white space or gray space) with small print, intriguing Flash animations, and large graphic design space” (290). I think this is very intriguing because earlier I mentioned the Cannes Lion Web page being poorly designed. They used way too much color and your eye moved from one side of the page to another trying to find a place to land. A good example of a well designed page is Apple’s home page. Your eye is immediately drawn to the logo and what they are selling - their graphic design.

Sticky Web

The major types of content on the web include electronic publishing, entertainment, online games, portals, and search engines.

Electronic publishing includes formal “old media” such as news papers and magazines – this includes the extremely popular New York Times.

Entertainment also includes “old media” such as music, television and movie. For while people were illegally file sharing for free; larger entertainment companies have responded with charged responses. Hulu, also for example, showed their (NBC Universal, Fox, etc.) large hits with limited commercials on the web.

Online Games includes MUDs and MMOs. MUDs are Multi-User Dungeons; they evolved from text-based fantasy games to multi-user graphical interfaces. Sorcery and fantasy games are most popular. In addition to MUDs, there are also variations on classic card and board games and puzzle games.

Portals combine directories, interpersonal communication, and information into an all-purpose, customizable “launch pad,” This will be used when visitors go on the Internet. Leading portals include Yahoo!, AOL and MSN. Now portals include social networking.

Search engines are equally as important as the other four. This category includes Google, ProQuest, YouTube, etc.

Advertising Promotes Society

One of the great things that that advertising does for me and society is that it communicates a brief message. It allows for me and other members of society to briefly watch a commercial or look at an image and immediately get the message. If an advertiser is good, you do not have to think to hard about the message it is portraying.

Websites can also be advertisements; much more in-depth ones. Like I mentioned with the Cannes Lions website – it is really not appealing to the eye, nor is it up to date. Sites like MediaBistro.com are consistently updated and allow for users to log in and use their resources for their own personal gain. The site is clear and straight forward.

Advertising also creates jobs. In order for there to be ads, there needs to be a team of people involved in creating it. From marketing to research, the team is a key essential to why advertising it good for society.

Also, in some cases, advertising is socially responsible. On the Ad Week post, I discussed how the site challenged six companies to fight cyberbulling. Their ads will hopefully make a difference, no matter how small it may be.

Also political advertisements notify people of what they need to know in order to make an informed decision.

Advertisements must be pleasing to the eye, no matter what type of media they are.
As you can see, advertisements are a key essential to our lives and create a unified message across the spectrum.

Ad(d) a Week

Ad Week is a site for advertising news and analysis. After scoping around the site I can tell that the writers are strong bloggers – they understand that they need a style that is relevant and constant – and very smart people.

One of the articles is entitled Bully Pulpit: Shops Battle Cyberbulling Teen-targeted campaigns aim to silence the crescendo of abuse. It explains that our lives are shifting to online lifestyles but we are still dealing with real world problems – thus bullying. One of the most current examples is the bulling of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi who had such a difficult time dealing with the bulling, he committed suicide. The fact that there is a Cyberbullying Research Center shows that this is truly a mass problem that has not just begun and is not going away. Ad Week challenged six companies to start campaigns to fight cyberbullying. These companies are Arnold, Colossal Squid, Cramer-Krasselt, Fathom, Globalhue and Pereira & O’Dell. One can only hope that they succeed in their endeavors.

Eating at the Media Bistro

MediaBistro.com is a great site to find a job in the media business. It also advertises However it also links to brief blog posts that share about media influences. I personally am a member of the site – looking for a job!

One of the articles on the site explains how Amanda Hesser, former food editor of New York Times Magazine used a social media site – Food52 – to create a cookbook to be released in 2011. This idea is called crowdsourcing. Her co-editor is Merrill Stubbs, a freelance writer. The duo also used social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to collect the best homemade recipes.

Another article shares how one can use the social media site LinkedIn.com to create connections and hopefully job opportunities. The article opens by asking when was the last time you updated your LinkedIn page. “Most job seekers have been told the benefits of LinkedIn. More than just Twitter on Ritalin or Facebook without Farmville, the social network is an invaluable tool for researching companies, networking, and discovering new opportunities.” It is so key to finding a job; despite that, buyer beware. One of the commenters shared examples of how he or she was scammed in the past short period of time.

Can(nes) you fight Lions?

Cannes Lions is an international advertising festival. The site is flashy, and distracting. The color scheme is yellow-green-blue; absolutely not my first choice. There appears to be no articles, but rather just a plethora of videos. The site is primarily European; if you want to register for a class you must pay is Euros. The classes appear to be huge. The Essential Information page also has not been updated since at least July. It is hard to fathom that a site a international renowned as Cannes Lions would allow this to fall to the way side.

Lone Star Alaska

New Season Brings Strong Ratings - for Most

I can not comment much on Lone Star, but I must say FOX must not have been predicting good results for it if they were to cut hit such as House short just to drag in viewers. When DVRs were first becoming popular and, like FOX, NBC was sneaky about it’s show time and ran the Friends finale over by, I believe, five minutes. Because this was not scheduled programming it was not recorded and many fans missed the first airing of it.

Sneakiness does not gain viewers, it tends to put a sour taste is people’s mouth.

I was also thinking about Dancing With The Stars. First of all – season eleven? I remember when this show premiered as a late summer hit. And a soap star won! This season will be interesting, though. I have heard of, for the first time, every contestant except one – I am embarrassed to admit which one. He/She may be terribly popular.

I think Dancing With The Stars is trying to appeal to a younger audience, and it is working; however, why is Bristol Palin on this show? I think the nation would rather see her mother make a fool of herself, oh wait. . . But really, similar to Kate Gosselin, should she not be at home caring as a mother. Please do not misread this, I am all for working mothers, but when you have the money that these women already have do you really need to hop onto the reality show bandwagon? I truly believe not.

Television Surfs Fast-Forward

If the conventional TV model is dying, I think that the internet is going to replace it. The computer has become a one-stop shop for all types of things. You can communicate on sites like Facebook and Skype. You can journal/scrapbook on sites like Blogspot and Tumblr. Now you can watch television shows on the networks' websites. A prime example of this, which is explained in the textbook, is that The Office can document that one-fifth of their viewers watch the show online. Speaking directly to this, I have never seen a new episode on the television, but I have watched seasons one through three, and season five. The computer – the internet – is what will take over. Advertisers can also control that a viewer sit for thirty seconds and watch their ad. So although consumers are not additionally paying for the product, the way they pay for cable television, they are still receiving a service they would have paid a lot of money for otherwise. Also for clarification, it is realized that you pay for the internet, but as proven by earlier examples, you would be paying for it anyway.

Another thing, one I did not catch in the text book, is that the sale of seasons of shows on DVD are probably driving down ratings. Production companies are most likely making the money off this, but where are the advertisers in this? Networks are not making money in that way, but rather they are collecting it directly from the consumer.

P-p-popular

The history of popular music shows that music is on the track to a rash change. Music is especially popular thanks to iTunes. Apples sells not only music, but music playing devices as well. Artistically I believe that there will be an emergence of another genre in the next ten years. Politely, I believe more and more lawsuits will take place. Personally, putting all morality aside, I think the government is wasting its time. It will never catch and fine/punish all legal downloaders,so why single out that twelve year old who never knew any better?

Copy Right

The internet did not allow for copyright music to be shared. At this point in time, artists recieve only$.075 per song. Challenges include iTunes becoming a monopoly. Places like Walmart would play the game, too, and attempt to sell CDs. This began in 1997.

Nap(ster)

Due to the immergence of MP3s, music could be downloaded (shared from one computer to another) from user to user. The copied would not be paid for, and therefore would be a loss to the music industry. Napster, founded by Shawn Fanning, was the first of biggest file share system of its time. It was developed in the late nineties and became a phenomenon in 1999. In 2000, the government forced, under pressure from music companies, Napster to close and made sharing digital music files illegal. Nowadays Limewire, and other social networking programs allow for illegal downloading – this is a huge copyright violation. In 2001, iTunes came out thanks to Apple.

Breaking Up Large Radio Groups

I actually think breaking up large radio groups would be a bad idea. I love when I listen to the radio and affiliates from other stations across the country tune in with their two cents. In this case I think the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a good thing. “It eliminated previous station ownership limits. For radio there are no national limits, and local ownership caps increase with market size” (186).

I also think that keeping large radio groups together would help save money, because when they wanted to purchase the rights to a song or syndication, they would most likely get a cheaper deal for many stations across the nation.

Others would disagree because people would argue that there is not enough diversity on the radio. If it went national, what people in New York were listening to, people in Texas would be listening to. They would lose their culture identity and thus their diversity. According to the text, if there is not enough diversity on the radio for you, you can visit the website: http://www.freepress.net/.

Personally I am happy with my radio experience and there is very little which I would change.
“Fewer radio stations owners than ever are local residents of the area their stations serve, which presumably limits their ability to understand local interest. Fewer owners are minorities or female. Fewer stations are programmed locally because group owners often supply programming from a central source. The local stations are automated and play just the prerecorded programming” (182). That statement saddens me. What does this mean for local radio jobs?

Understanding Podcasts, Internet Radio, and other Audio Media

Guglielmo Marconi created a “wireless telegraph” that may be traced back to the first form of radio. Marconi was forced to sell his American assets to General Electrics. Broadcasting then began. “Frank Conrad, Westinghouse engineer, began the first regularly scheduled radio broadcasts in the United States in the 1920s, attracting interest and newspaper coverage” (161). In reference to modern day commercial forms “AT&T become the first broadcast network, as it used its phone lines to link several of its station” (163). As television’s polarity began to rise, radio’s began to fall. This greatly affected advertising. Radio stations shifted from a national format to a more local one.

Politically, “the Radio Act of 1927 created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). It defined the broadcast band, standardized frequency designation, limited the number of stations operating at night, when AM signals carry farther during the day and are more likely to interfere with other stations” (163). FM radio took off in the 1960s.

“Early network radio programming in the late 1920s and 1930s was focused on music, but also included news, comedy, variety shows, soap operas, detective dramas, sports, suspense, and action. Thus, many kinds of programming that we now see on television were developed on radio” (163).

Broadcast radio is taking off as well. “Both broadcasters and industry observers fear that satellite radio could lead to a decline in both number and variety of locals radio stations, plus a concentration of programming decisions in the hands of fewer companies, as wekk as few jobs in the radio industry” (168).

Internet radio began to take off in 1995. “Full-time stations started in 1995 when hobbyists, and agencies, and regular broadcast radio stations began to create Internet radio stations. Near-CD-quality stereo can be had if you have fast enough network connection” (173). I know that I personally listen to internet radio, because it is a live broadcast and rich in quality. It does not sometimes lose signals like a regular radio. “Podcasting goes even further by letting almost any individual create audio programs that can be downloaded into computers or ever directly onto iPods” (170). I, personally have never listened to a podcast, but they are very popular on my favorite website.

Today’s New Media Issues

The key issues for New Media expressed in the article are that we must find a way to make a profit. Additionally, with the outburst of homemade Applications, it leads me to believe there are less and less jobs available for those involved in New Media. At the same time, if you were to get a job at the big three (Google, Facebook, or Apple), you would probably be well-off. There needs to be more business taught in New Media because distribution of it is a huge factor.

Google Face(book) Apple

Authors Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff debate this topic in a heated paralleled article. According to Wolff there are three major player involved in the Web. Google, Facebook and Apple. Each have approached the Web in a different way. “Google, by managing both traffic and sales (advertising), created a condition in which it was impossible for anyone else doing business in the traditional Web to be bigger than or even competitive with Google.”

Google was dominating for a while, but then entered Facebook. It was a club-like atmosphere which was original protected from sites like Google. Originally you were required to use a university or school email in order to create an account. People liked that it was a ‘closed system.’ In 2006 this changed. “Facebook’s organization of information and relationships became, in a remarkably short period of time, a redoubt from the Web 0- a simpler, more habit-forming place.” According to Wolff: “Facebook became a parallel to the Web. . .”

Apple had a different approach to interactive media. Steve Jobs “built two of the most successful media businesses of the past generation: iTunes, a content distributer, and Pixar, a movie studio.” Unlike the original plans of the Web, Apple was all about the profit and sale.

Is the Web Truly Dead?

Authors Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff debate this topic in a heated paralleled article. According to Anderson the Web is dead. He states in his piece, “Producers and consumers agree: The Web is not the culmination of the digital revolution.” In 1997 Wired, the publication that published this particular article published an article called Push! cover story. Anderson cited it by explaining “‘Sure, we’ll always have Web pages. We still have postcards and telegrams, don’t we? But the center of interactive media – increasingly the center of gravity of all media – is moving to a post-HTML environment,’ we promised nearly a decade and a half ago.” Anderson also claims that the web is just Web is just an application on the Internet. Speaking of applications, Morgan Stanley predicts that within five years more people will be accessing the Net via mobile devices than PCs. Mobile devices use the Net but not the Web. The Web is also feeling pressure from profits.

SMCR Model

SMCR was created by Wilber Schramm in 1982 – he is often credited as the founder of mass communication studies. SMCR stands for Source-Message-Channel-Receiver. This can be applied to text messaging.

According to the model, the source is the originator of communication – in this case the phone. The message is the content of communication or in other words the information that is being exchanged. In this case it would be the text itself. The channel is the medial of transition system used to convey the message from one place to another. Examples of this include Verizon or AT&T. The receiver of this is the destination of the communication or the phone to which you were texting.

Other important terms to remember when it comes to texting are encoder, decoder, feedback and noise. Encoder translates the message into a form that can be communicated – often a form that cannot be interpreted by the human senses. This, when texting, flows through the air via satellites. A decoder reverses the encoding process. This turns the unreadable text back to font that can be passed on to the next phone. A feedback mechanism between the source and the receiver regulates the flow of communication. Noise is any distortion or errors that may be introduced during the information exchanges. This includes a dropped text – similar to a dropped call.

Clearly each of these terms are key to the use of text messaging.

Convergence in Media Industries

A convergence trend continues to propel the transformation of conventional media to digital forms . . . although the forces behind this trend are shifting (Media Now 7). The early 1990’s was a prime time for convergence. One prime example is the when Time Warner merged with AOL (America Online). At the time Time Warner was a publishing and cable television giant; AOL was the largest internet provider. Other convergences include the time News Corporation, the owner of Fox News, bought networking site MySpace.com. Former enemies in the media industry National Amusements (owner of Viacom cable networks and CBS), Disney Corporation and NBC Universal made, distributed and exhibited content across the internet; as well as by print, radio, recorded music, television and film.

Later on, new media companies took over. Apple iTunes became the most powerful player in the recorded music industry. Google became the largest advertising medium. TiVo revolutionized the way people watched television.

During the crisis in 2007, media stocks began to crumble. This was due to a general economic downturn. The hardest hit industry was newspapers. The number of two city newspapers began to decrease. Some cities faced the idea of having no news paper at all. The damage of the crisis was not limited to print media.

Charter Communications, one of the largest cable companies in the US, filed for bankruptcy. The owner of CBS television and Viacom, was for to sell video game maker Midway Games at a huge loss.

“Now, strategic sales of media properties are the centerpiece of corporate strategies” (Media Now 8).