ECT Almost Over
We only have one more lecture in our Emerging Communications Technologies class before our final presentations, which end the semester. It's amazing that we haven't even gone on Thanksgiving holiday, and yet we are almost done. That's one of the advantages of starting class the first week in September.
I have some notes to catch up on here, as I haven't had as much time to blog as I would have liked. The best time to blog is right after a class, when the information is fresh in my mind. However, when I come home from class at 9:30 or 10:00 PM, I want to spend time with my husband in the two hours we have before going to bed. This is a work-school-life balance that I need to manage, since I'm sure it will only get more relevant as school continues. So I look at it as practice.
Over the past month, we've spent a lot of time in class studying the history of broadcasting, from public speaking to newspapers, from radio to internet.
Interestingly enough, the first newspapers in ancient China and Rome were used to control the population - they were a form of propaganda. Maybe it explains the instinct some restrictive governments have to control the media in their societies - it's an age-old desire to control their citizens. It shows a need for control that hasn't really gone away over human history. Now it's simply harder to do it, but the desire is still there.
Additionally, many newspapers have focused on the exact same types of news items, from ancient times through today: sports, weddings, obituaries, horoscopes, upcoming events. In other words, although technology has evolved over centuries, cultural needs and wants have basically stayed the same. We want to know what's going on around us, in our society and in our country.
But since we're in ECT, we also want to focus on changing technologies and how they effect us. For instance, newspapers in the 21st century are having to change their priorities. As less people subscribe to the printed paper and more people read it for free online, newspapers are relying more on advertising to pay for their production.
In general, we are going to have to manage the expectations of a new generation of people who expect most information on the Internet to be free: newspapers and information, music and movies. The recent strike in Hollywood is a result of this tension. In a capitalist society, you have a right to ask payment for the result of your hard work - but in capitalist society, you can only receive payment if you produce something the consumer is willing to pay for. The decreasing willingness of the consumer to pay for a product or service will force producers to look for some kind of reasonable balance, even as they adjust their production to allow for decreased revenue.
I have some notes to catch up on here, as I haven't had as much time to blog as I would have liked. The best time to blog is right after a class, when the information is fresh in my mind. However, when I come home from class at 9:30 or 10:00 PM, I want to spend time with my husband in the two hours we have before going to bed. This is a work-school-life balance that I need to manage, since I'm sure it will only get more relevant as school continues. So I look at it as practice.
Over the past month, we've spent a lot of time in class studying the history of broadcasting, from public speaking to newspapers, from radio to internet.
Interestingly enough, the first newspapers in ancient China and Rome were used to control the population - they were a form of propaganda. Maybe it explains the instinct some restrictive governments have to control the media in their societies - it's an age-old desire to control their citizens. It shows a need for control that hasn't really gone away over human history. Now it's simply harder to do it, but the desire is still there.
Additionally, many newspapers have focused on the exact same types of news items, from ancient times through today: sports, weddings, obituaries, horoscopes, upcoming events. In other words, although technology has evolved over centuries, cultural needs and wants have basically stayed the same. We want to know what's going on around us, in our society and in our country.
But since we're in ECT, we also want to focus on changing technologies and how they effect us. For instance, newspapers in the 21st century are having to change their priorities. As less people subscribe to the printed paper and more people read it for free online, newspapers are relying more on advertising to pay for their production.
In general, we are going to have to manage the expectations of a new generation of people who expect most information on the Internet to be free: newspapers and information, music and movies. The recent strike in Hollywood is a result of this tension. In a capitalist society, you have a right to ask payment for the result of your hard work - but in capitalist society, you can only receive payment if you produce something the consumer is willing to pay for. The decreasing willingness of the consumer to pay for a product or service will force producers to look for some kind of reasonable balance, even as they adjust their production to allow for decreased revenue.
posted by Allison at 9:31 AM
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