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A recurring theme I've seen across my posts is how technology- the internet specifically, has made an impact on the world around us. Television has not been immune to this. This one is personal, as my job is television. The trend here is similar; why pay more, when I can pay less? Sometimes the currency is time, but in this case it's cold hard cash. Josephine Flood- CNBC Cable companies have had it good for decades. Recent improvements in technology, however is really staring to dig at their bottom line. As evidenced by this Pew Research study, there is a growing number of households who are cancelling their cable subscriptions. Among the chief complaints; the cost of TV subscriptions, or "bundles". "The cable bundle means that consumers can’t select and pay for cable TV channels a la carte. Instead, they have to buy dozens at a time. Media executives have long referred to it as the golden goose" (Sherman, 2020). That Goose might be cooked. Technology increa...

Radio has been around for a very long time, bested only by print media. It's served many different uses, emergency broadcast, radio plays, newscasting, entertainment... the list goes on. It's no wonder then why "In 2020, 83% of Americans ages 12 or older listened to terrestrial radio in a given week" according to a Pew Research study from June of this year. The number, maybe unsurprisingly has stayed relatively similar except for this most recent year. That might have something to do with the entire country being on lockdown, with commuting significantly reduced (possibly accounting for radio listeners in their cars), but this is only a guess. Of note, though is this comparison to those who listen online: The number has steadily increased since 2007, especially among weekly online audio listeners. The numbers paint a slightly different picture than I had anticipated, showing that of the group surveyed, over half noted that they listen to both terrestrial and online br...

 There was a point in time growing up that I almost became a paperboy. This quickly faded as the prospects of delivering papers at 4AM before school were enough to politely decline the opportunity. I am not a morning person, waking up that early in the morning is physically painful. Ironically, I'm now an AM News director who routinely wakes up at 2AM for his shift. The point being, print media was very popular in a big way. Technology has a way of shaking things up, though. Credit: FOX 61 To highlight this, back in 2004 a study was performed to see why young Finnish citizens still preferred print media over their digital counterparts (Hujanen & Pietikäinen, 2004). Yes, digital print was still in its early years but the fact that a study like this was performed at all speaks volumes about where we were as a content consumer then, compared to now. Look at the Hartford Courant. It's the country's oldest continuously published newspaper that once had a newsroom buzzing wit...

       The internet is a large digital space. With more users engaging every day, the content options available is many. But the location is varied. "What is needed is a comprehensive and continuously updated Web portal and search engine for online TV and video that encompasses all online video formats...as well as all the various digital video-distribution platforms" (Pavlik, 2008). That would be a massive undertaking. "The current situation essentially requires users to know all the locations of online TV and video and regularly visit them for updates. Many producers employ syndication technology known as really simple syndication (RSS)… to notify subscribers automatically of newly released or updated content, whether new video, audio, text, graphics or photographs" (Pavlik, 2008). Learning this skill, utilizing RSS or something similar, is a good first step for a communicator to have a regular audience. In a landscape where options are literally too numerous to c...

     " Despite facing revenue shortfalls, budget cuts and unprecedented operational challenges, local TV stations aired more news in 2020 than ever recorded by the RTDNA newsroom survey" (Papper, 2021), that kind of sums all of this up neatly with a bow. But, let's unpack a little bit. Local News stations rely on advertising revenue to operate. This advertising revenue is sold to local businesses in the form of "air time". When COVID hit, entire industries shut down. A lot of businesses couldn't afford to buy air time anymore. With a veritable captive audience, News Stations had to figure out how to capitalize on the sudden boom in potential viewers. They did.         (Papper, 2021) At the expense of furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs stations managed to rally to produce more aired news than the year before. Ratings went up across all audiences and many an executive patted themselves on the back for a job well done.      So, what did t...

 Technology is always changing. Which means, communicators are always learning, testing, looking ahead at what's next. It's that constant eye on the horizon that I want to focus on. With breakthroughs in new technology, comes excitement... or hype. Technology being a cyclical industry, naturally the hype is also cyclical. Fitting, then that the company Gartner explains this cycle of events as the hype cycle.                    (Raza, 2020) This cycle can be applied to many aspects of technology development and through it we get a glimpse of how a communicator adapts to and learns a new technology. Big Data, while also a really cool band, is what is generated by the usage of new technologies. The information, or data is collected and processed into usable information, like the disaster relief mentioned in this video. (Simplilearn, 2019) A study was also conducted, regarding the use of big data, mainly information gathered via so...