Waiting and Watching

     I was in the waiting room the other day and took note of who was there in the room with me:  An elderly couple, a mom with a couple of kids, and then myself; a great diverse group, no?  Anyways, I thought it was interesting how even with the smallest of co-hort groups, the way we get our information was vastly different.  Take the elderly couple.  They were adjusting the newspaper so they could read the tiny print through their bi-focals.  Intently reading every word on every page and then making comments to each other as if to criticize what they were reading.  Then comes Mom.  While wrestling her kids, trying to get them to sit and be quite, Mom was engrossed to CNN on the TV that the cold, small waiting room so conveniently provided.  She would often have to "shush" her kids to hear what was on the TV or watch the closed captions that scrolled across the bottom of the screen.  Finally, we come to me.  Oh how up on technology I am!  I was reading the newspaper on my phone.  Using the pinch to zoom function to zoom in so I could read on my 3.7in screen (why we even try to view a full webpage on such devices I'll never know but yet I still do!).  Scrolling down to the final words, I took a break from my daily news updates to take note of the room.
     We were all reading or watching basically the same story!  The newspaper the elderly couple was reading was an early print version of the continuously updated on-line story I was reading, which happened to be the same story that the guy on the TV was talking about and offering his commentary on.  WOW!  The same story in three different mediums to three different generations.  All of this made me think, how do you prefer to get your news?  Paper, TV, On-line/mobile?

Let's Get Started!

     So, I'm sitting around the station where I work getting ready to take a break over the air and I find myself checking my phone for updates be they e-mail, Facebook, or text messaging...my phone is always buzzing.  Today, I received a couple of requests from listeners that want a certain song to be played on the radio.  Not unusual in radio but the method I received these requests is: text messaging.  Listeners are texting their favorite stations for songs, contests, and more!  This got me thinking, what is the future of radio?  Better yet, what is the future of Mass Media?

     This semester, I'm driven to research how mobile technology is effecting Mass Media.  We live in a world that is moved by mobile technology.  Any time a new gadget comes out, it's out of date within a week!  These smartphones have anything and everything we could possibly want.  Mobile internet, mobile e-mail, we can check the statuses of our friends, heck now we can even find out where that friend is currently with "Places" or "FourSquare".  Not to mention these phones even make phone calls!  Mobile technology is effecting our everyday lives, it's effecting the way we do business, it's effecting the way we view our media.