Tape and CD players, iPods and MP3 players, newspapers, television, and the internet by means of music downloading and a source of news are all objects that modern radio is forced into competition with in order to survive. Despite the competition, radio as a whole continues to claw to life and live hand-in-hand with all the new technologies in today’s world.
Radio continues to be a useful thing in today’s world. I believe the majority of the U.S. population still listens to the radio at least on their way into work in the morning. Morning talk shows mixed in with a catchy tune here and there is a great way to deal with a morning commute. Despite having a CD player in my car, I listen to the radio much more than any of my CDs because I enjoy hearing local music events going on, and also enjoy hearing new types of music.
As radio survives via the music industry, news radio seems to be headed on the way out. Sure, we get news updates every hour or so, but radio is not the useful place for news it was decades ago. Newspapers tackle news stories with more depth than radio reports, television has the same speed to reach viewers as radio and is able to show pictures from an event or story, and the internet is the fastest way for news to break to the public. The most useful news that comes from radio is the traffic reports every 15 to 30 minutes, since most people listen to the radios in the cars.
Radio won’t die in the near future, but it is certainly not the mega power it was in the middle of the 1900s.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Audience Segmentation
The most obvious form of audience segmentation is with political news channels. CNN, Fox News, etc. all claim they're neutral, but after watching a few minutes of programming, you can tell which side the specific channel is leaning toward. Most forms of media seem to at least lean one direction or another, it appears that no media form is 100% down the middle.
The main problem is that this splits the audience into different categories, and when watching these news programs that issues are "altered" somewhat to create an idea of one side being good and one side being bad. This divides the population. Unfortunately, this has formed, at least in the majority, two sides that seem almost like clones of each other. People watch whichever station is more geared towards their belief system and the information they see conveyed from that station they take as truth. Arguments happen between the two sides, seemingly not because of individual opinion, but because one side believes one thing and the opposite side believes the opposite.
The only time it appears that audience segmentation doesn't truly take place is in times of great tragedy. The U.S. came together during the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Major news sources just covered the news, they reported on what was going on, there was no political spin put on it. Although the unbiased media wasn't the only reason, in that time the entire nation was unified, hand in hand, as we all attempted to pick each other up.
Audience segmentation isn't all bad. Segmentation allows a program or a source to make its audience happy. It will discuss things that their target audience has an interest in. However, I personally believe the bad far outweighs the good.
The main problem is that this splits the audience into different categories, and when watching these news programs that issues are "altered" somewhat to create an idea of one side being good and one side being bad. This divides the population. Unfortunately, this has formed, at least in the majority, two sides that seem almost like clones of each other. People watch whichever station is more geared towards their belief system and the information they see conveyed from that station they take as truth. Arguments happen between the two sides, seemingly not because of individual opinion, but because one side believes one thing and the opposite side believes the opposite.
The only time it appears that audience segmentation doesn't truly take place is in times of great tragedy. The U.S. came together during the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Major news sources just covered the news, they reported on what was going on, there was no political spin put on it. Although the unbiased media wasn't the only reason, in that time the entire nation was unified, hand in hand, as we all attempted to pick each other up.
Audience segmentation isn't all bad. Segmentation allows a program or a source to make its audience happy. It will discuss things that their target audience has an interest in. However, I personally believe the bad far outweighs the good.
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