The evolution of media has been something that we have discussed fairly thoroughly up to this point in the class, so adding a concept such as Technomedia, really adds depth to the understanding. Some of the main points that caught my attention were how media has been separated by technology, how technology is bringing it together and how the changing delivery of this media is changing the message.
Previous to the full expansion of the internet in the late 1990's, media was still governed by fairly strict delivery methods. There were options of print, television and radio which all had their method and time of delivery from semi-instantaneously through radio or television breaking news to late delivery which was the newspaper bringing the story you heard about yesterday. Now, with devices such as the iPad and smartphones media becomes as instantaneous as the first person to post video, a comment on Facebook or discussion on a blog. The traditional media need to follow up and produce this information quickly because people now have the desire and the capability to access it in real time. Whereas previously, this would occur with a group of people huddled around the nearest TV in the office, at a department store or in a restaurant, now each person is quietly reading and watching it unfold individually in the palm of their hand. Knowing this, media has prepared to offer services that account for this need through the development of mobile apps, Facebook alerts, notification text's and streaming video of on site cameramen. Media organizations have not and will not eliminate the other delivery methods of media coverage because of the ongoing "digital divide", and with the advent of technomedia the time/space separation that was previously bent, is now smashed together permanently.
--CG
It's interesting that you mention the latency of traditional news outlets compared to the instant delivery of news over social media. Although I am a heavy user of internet services and like to view news online, I still have my main trust of accredited information delivery with journalism and well-established television and radio news sources. Editorial content, newspapers and local broadcast-fed news reporting is still very important, and it's easy to dismiss it with the advent of the internet. However, I just can't consider bloggers and tweets to be as accurate as a real, vetted source like CNN, the New York Times, CBS News, etc. I'm sure it will reach that point soon enough, and the tweets are surely more timely than some television news alerts might be, but the reporting processes of investigation, editing and source-gathering that built up the industry is still what I place my trust on.
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