Thursday, April 27, 2006

Week 6 Reading

Dan Gillmor's, "We the Media," brings up a really good point about the emergence of blogs and self-publishing. Before the internet, communication consisted of the printing press and broadcasting (one-to-many medium) and telephone which is normally a one-to-one medium. But as Gillmor says, "now we had a medium that was anything we wanted it to be: one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. Just about anyone could own a digital printing press, and have worldwide distribution."

Gillmor also uses the Sept. 11 tragedy to illustrate the immediacy of blogs vs. traditional media. People in New York were able to publish their views of the city as the attacks were happening. With instant access to the sites, sounds and smells of the city, bloggers were able to tell their accounts of the attacks to an audience, while traditional media did not have the same access. While not discussed, Hurricane Katrina likely had similar effects on blogs and the media.

Mark Glaser's article on NPR's podcasting brings up a valid point about advertising. While still ironing out some kinks, advertisers need to find out who is listening and how often they listen to these podcasts to determine if a particular podcast is a worthy advertising vehicle. Podcasts are gaining momentum, but still seem like they need financial backing to be successful.

1. How will mainstream media react to the emergence of blogs and compete with this immediacy?

2. How do you think 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina would compare in the use of blogs to publish information?

3. Will podcasts eventually eliminate radio? Explain.

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