The future of magazines

There are many views as what is the future of magazines. Some believe that printed magazines will not stand a chance against the ongoing challenge presented by the Web and all its new platforms. Others believe that even though new devices have been created to take over the printed magazine business, they will not cease to exist.  

Nancy Gibbs – a noted essayist and editor at Time magazine was interviewed in the Katie Couric show and together they discussed the future of magazines. In the interview Nancy Gibbs stated that the problem with an online article “was that writers who produce long pieces of work were going to have an issue once they went online, since users would not feel the same way about clicking an online article for sixteen pages- this was asking too much out of people”.  She also mentioned that since new devices have been developed for reading purposes like the Nook and Ipad, people most likely will not have an issue with reading lengthy articles on those devices.

A concern that was raised was about journalism. Nancy Gibbs was asked how will journalism was going to be compensated if people did not want to pay for the content in the web? Since on a recent interview only 7% of Americans said they were willing to pay for online news. The rest said that if their journal of preference put a price on their online articles they would not pay it and would choose to go elsewhere.

On a different article Cathie Black spoke about the industry as well. She said that “we are all working under a new business model. The problem is that the revenue model is not there yet”. She expressed that the “Amazon's Kindle is a phenomenal entry into the marketplace, but it's not a great reading experience, and it certainly isn't a great reading experience for a magazine reader because we are about a graphic presentation. We are about beautiful photography, illustration and great writing, so I think that we'll see that in this generation--whether it's via the Apple tablet or another device. There will be dozens of devices. We want to think about how we move content, illustration and photography across multiple [platforms]”.

Facebook vrs. Google

Google is traditionally known as a search engine and Facebook as a social networking site. Both companies work on different areas of the Internet, but with the desire to attract more people and advertising they have clashed and will continue to do so. Facebook has recently announced that users will be able to obtain a ‘facebook.com’ message service very similar to an email account. Although Mark Zuckerberg clearly states that this is ‘not an email account’ the message services comes really close to one. It will enable a much greater way of communication between users and will increase the amount of time spent on the site.

This message service will give users a chance to interact in an even more personal level by bringing emails, messages, sms’ and chats into one message. People will no longer have threads, but entire messages as wholes saved up on their Facebook page. This of course raises questions about privacy, since during the convention people were told that the messages were going to be saved permanently onto the Facebook server.

Internet users have increased their amount of time spent on Facebook drastically, which shows that people are using both Google and Facebook in an almost equitable way. This of course might change a bit now that Facebook has rolled its ‘email’ service; although they do not expect users to shut down their Yahoo or Gmail accounts, they believe Facebook’s messages –email, will be more fun and more valuable for the user to experience.

Just like Facebook plays hard and continues to push Google, this company has had its share in trying to compete with Facebook. They too have attempted to undertake the social networking world by creating Orkut. Both companies go back and forth competing and trying to gain more Internet, user and market share to the point where both Facebook and Orkut blocked its users from transferring friend’s contact information from Facebook to Orkut or vice versa. This is a battle that will continue through the years to come.

E-reader, Nook Color

1. What is the Nook Color device? How much does the Nook Color cost and where can it be purchased? How is the Nook Color different from previous releases of the device?

The Nook Color is the new version of the Nook, a luxury model that enhances reading and makes it more appealing to the user. The Nook Color can be found at Barnes & Noble and it costs $249.

This device is different from previous releases because it not only has color but also has a better system. It is also built to make ‘shopping for books enjoyable’ and it allows users to share books with each other. This ‘LendMe’ feature is a key aspect that differentiates this model from the old one. It also has the ability to be interactive for children because there is a vast library of children’s books that can be played (it is read by a professional reader).

2. What operating system does the Nook Color use? What are the expected future enhancements that will come to the Nook Color when the operating system is upgraded in the near future?

The Nook Color is built on the Android 2.1 operating system, which allows access to a full Web browser, which include checking Facebook, twitter and Pandora Internet Radio. It also allows multitasking and provides the user with Quickoffice software for Word, Excel and PowerPoint but users are only able to view these files and not edit them.

Early next year Nook Color will upgrade to Android 2.2 operating system. This new system will allow the Nook Color to play Flash videos and edit documents on Quickoffice; they will also be able to download free or paid applications for it.

3. How many book titles are available for users of the Nook Color device and how do users get access to the content? What options are available to users of the Nook Color if they want to loan or borrow books from friends?

The Nook Color has access to the Barnes & Noble library of two million downloadable books and over one hundred magazines and newspapers. Users can highlight passages from books and share them on Facebook, Twitter or a limited in-book mail system with a feature called ArticleView. Users are also prompted to share their purchased e-books by using the new ‘LendMe’ feature. This feature allows users to exchange e-books for a period of fourteen days and interact in a different way. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab

1. What is the Samsung Galaxy Tab? How much does the Tab cost and what kinds of hardware configurations are available?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a new kind of tablet computer. It is considered the iPad’s first real rival because they both share similarities, but they too have considerable differences. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is going to be introduced by the cellular companies like Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon but unlike the iPad, the Tab will be sold with cellular capabilities. There are two fixed prices: $400 if you purchase the Tab with a cellular data contract and $600 if you purchase it with the cellular capability but no contract. This already gives the Tab an edge since the iPad is sold at a higher price and its lowest only has a WiFi connection.

The Tab uses Google’s Android operating system, which allows it to run programs like Adobe Flash and also lets it be multitasking. The problem is that there are not enough applications that have been developed to work on the Tab, therefore variety is not an option for these users. A plus is that this device possesses two cameras that allow the user to make video calls and/or record videos.

2. What is the size of the Samsung Tab's screen and in comparison to the iPad, how much smaller is the screen space actually?

The tab has a 7-inch screen, which makes it less than half the size on the iPad’s. The iPad’s screen is 9.7-inches and although it does not sound like a major difference, measuring it using diagonal measurements it is. An advantage to having a smaller screen is that it makes the device as a whole smaller and lighter, which in return becomes easier to be handled with one hand and easier to carry and store.

3. How does the Samsung Tab compare to the iPad in battery longevity tests? Overall, how did the reviewer rate the Samsung Tab in comparison to the iPad?

The life battery of the Tab is not the best. In a comparison study between the iPad and the Tab, both devices were left on their fullest brightness, WiFI ON and playing videos and the results were considerable. The iPad lasted for eleven hours and twenty-eight minutes, while the Tab only lasted six hours and fifty minutes.

Overall the Samsung Galaxy Tab is “attractive, versatile and competitively priced.” It provides users with a new real alternative that has advantages over the iPad but at the same time make it too simple to steal the iPad’s place.

Describe how cell phone works so a 12 year old could understand it.

A cell phone is a wireless device with which you can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world. It is a way in which people communicate and because it has become really useful, cell phones now can do much more than just calling. They are equipped with many other functions like text messaging, music playing, video recording, access to the Internet and many other things, but the true wonder comes from how all this works.

Cell phones work a little bit different than regular phones because they need to provide you with service everywhere you go. Cell phones use a cellular network that allows them to stay connected even when you are moving; it does it by jumping from one cell to another. These particular cells allow cell phones to stay connected thus providing you with enough service anywhere you are.

Cell phones today can do so many things that it is impossible to not be connected with people around the world. Depending on the kind of cell phone you have and the service you request, your cell phone is capable of sending and receiving emails, logging into chat rooms and having applications to play with. It can also record and play videos and play music -just like an iPod does. Text messaging is also very popular and easy to use; you just need to type up the message and press send. With text messages you might feel like you are in a chat room, because it allows quick responses and you can also incorporate emoticons to the text, making it more casual and friendlier.

What are the main issues in spectrum allocation?

The communication spectrum includes the range of electromagnetic radiation frequencies that are used in wireless communication systems. Their problems revolve around how technicians can make the service better, thus providing an improved system. At the beginning wireless communications were found at the center of the telecommunications network and they were used to carry bulk quantities of calls between cities rather than directly communication one person to another. With the development of Microwave systems, they were able to upgrade the service to carry thousands of calls simultaneously but the only set back was that this system uses directional antennas that make it impossible to extend networks for thousands of miles. This also led to the development of a new system that uses fiber optics, which also paved the way for satellite and cell phone systems. What all these systems were in need of was a more efficient way to use scarce channel space, which is way thanks to technology scientist and technicians continue to develop new ways in which to expand our communication system.  

What has been the main impact of the Telecom Act?

The development of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 brought new possibilities and had different impacts in the industry. One of them was that it enabled companies to merge and local telephone companies were able to offer cable and satellite TV and vice versa. Companies were able to compete globally and there were a succession of various big companies merging, giving them more power over others. The most significant impact this act had was long distance. With companies going global and the nation moving towards a more globalized world, long distance became an important factor in people’s lives, so companies needed to provide this service to ensure their success. Competition played a huge role on prices but as competitors began to drop, prices started to rise. Also, with technology being so innovative day by day consumers were looking more into what the companies could offer besides basic options, therefore the true competition is now placed in the providers that offer different technologies.

Imagine you are a PR practitioner hired to promote Concordia College event. What steps and tools would you use and why?

If I was hired to promote an event on campus my first thought would be to consider which students are going to be our target market. This is done in order to know how to approach the target market and know their likes and dislikes. If my target market is the entire student body then I would start considering various ways in which I could reach out to them and promote the event in a way that is appealing and fun for them. Since the only people I am interested in targeting are Concordia students, I would ensure that all the marketing is done on campus and any other school related website. I would definitely use the following:

• Print publications – by posting posters all around campus students would be constantly reminded of the upcoming event. Of course these posters would be colorful, have catchy phrases and somehow tell students why they do not want to miss the event. I would also print it in the Compass, since this publications is seen by many students throughout the day.
• Viral campaigns – by creating a video with Concordia students highlighting aspects of the event, students will feel more inclined to attend.
• Email – emailing students would also be a technique of mine, since by doing so the email acts as a reminder to the students.
• Word of mouth – creating a big buzz about the event would also be another tactic. By doing this, I let the students interact and also create in them a sense of anticipation.
• Social networking sites ‘Facebook’ – advertising the event of Facebook will allow me to create blogs about it so students can talk about the event, which leads to promotion of the event. Also, by using Facebook as an advertisement technique I am able to reach out the students in a more personal manner and show them that we are interested in what they think.

What are the four models of public relations?

Public Relations has many models, but Grunig’s four primary models are the ones that stand out because they describe the evolution of PR.  The models go as follow:

1.)   Press Agentry/Publicity model: this is a one-way communication method, which uses persuasion and manipulation to influence audience to behave as the organization desires.

2.)   Public Information model: also uses a one-way communication channel and it basically uses the press releases and other one-way communication techniques to distribute organizational information. When working within this category, practitioners are often referred as ‘journalists in residence’.

3.)   Two-way Asymmetrical model: is the most common PR practice today. Its method consists in sending out information and then doing research to see if the public understands it in the way you intended it. If this is not the case, then you might have to refine your methods and research.  

4.)   Two-way Symmetric model: is the most conducive for optimum mutual benefit. It involves researching the audience and finding out what is important to them and how they get their information, as well as evaluating how the public and the company see their relationship as mutually beneficial. 

What are the key elements to successful public relations?

Public relations comes down to seven basic steps: research, including public opinion polls, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and literature searches; all done in a continuous process. By following all of these steps you know you are contributing to becoming successful at PR, but the most important element to remember is the assessment of public attitudes. Without adequate background on the people you are trying to reach and how they think it will be almost impossible to communicate effectively and reach the audience.

Without research and evaluation you will not be able to identify the customers’ needs nor the public’s attitude for your client. Another point that we must keep in mind is that PR is a detailed strategy and it has to be managed well. You should be able to multitask and balance everything out since many important factors will come into play. Also, we have to remember that the goal is to foster public support, since they are the key element towards success. Lastly, evaluating a campaign will always be good and it should be the last step in a strategy, because feedback is what will help the PR people figure out what worked best and what did not.

What are some of the specialties or functions of PR?

Public relations can be defined as: organized activities intended to favorably influence the public. People within this business have multiple responsibilities and employ various methods to target the people, these methods are: advertising, direct marketing and related tools and techniques in representing their employers’ or clients’ interests. PR is a job that requires multiple skills and specialized expertise and knowledge for the execution. The complexity of the field makes it hard to focus only on one thing, which is why PR has been divided into specialties, making it easier for people to select what they need or where they want to pursue a career. Amongst the different specialties we are able to find: publicity and media relations, promotion or selling, community and government relations, public information, special events, employee relations, lobbying and issues management –which also include reputation management and crisis communication. Also within these categories we are able to find those who serve as an early warning system and those who provide technical support for other management functions. 

mashable.com

Mashable.com is a news website. It was founded by Pete Cashmore and its primary focus is to present the user with social media news, but it also covers news and developments on entertainment, online videos, mobile, business, technology and the web. This site was ranked as one of the world’s largest websites and it recently acquired Blippr, a micro-reviews service based on the concept that users can review games, books, movies, music and web applications.

The site is extremely user friendly and is loaded in content. It has an option of singing up to receive news directly in your inbox, which a lot of people like since it makes it more ‘personal’. It also allows a connection between Twitter and Facebook, which again creates a more personal feeling to it. Blogging and commenting on articles is very popular and it gives the website a friendlier look, since everyone is welcomed to do it. In all it is a pretty interesting website and the fact that they even encourage people to write for them makes it more motivating in my perspective.

Are books an obsolete medium?

I do not believe books are an obsolete medium, even though there are several alternatives to books, people still rely on them. Teachers, students and people who read for fun are still purchasing books and will continue to do so. Although technology has created e-books, kindles and nooks people still buy books. Yes, e-readers are easy to carry and they have other benefits like WiFi, an e-reader will never give you the same experience a book can. Personally, I have used both books and e-readers and I find it much more engaging and easy to concentrate when I use a traditional book rather than an e-reader. I am not saying there are people who love technology and will purchase one of these just to keep in the collection and use it, but there are also millions of other readers like me who prefer a simple book in which annotations can be done easily and there is no way it will break down. The fact is, if you are the kind of person that loves to read books or curl up and do some reading, the experience you get of smelling the printed pages, grabbing the book in your hands and flipping the pages will never be compared to scrolling or tapping ‘next’ on an e-reader.

Just like every other piece of technology e-readers have advantages too because they do not occupy too much space (compared to a 1000 page book), they are easy to carry, there is WiFi connection in them and you can purchase an e-book at any time. But, just like there are positives there are also negatives to these and owning a technological object means you need to always be careful with it by constantly making sure you keep it safe, it does not fall anywhere and giving it maintenance services like cleaning it up and emptying the memory every now and then. Books do not require most of the things mentioned above since they are easy to place, do not require maintenance and do not have a limited memory space. 

How do conglomerates affect print publishing? Are there positives and negatives associated with conglomerates?

“Beginning the 1960s, a major trend in publishing was the merging of houses, as well as the consolidation of retail sales outlets. One of the first mergers to occur was Random House's purchase of Alfred A. Knopf in 1960. In 1965 RCA acquired Random House for $40 million and added it to RCA's roster of media companies, which included NBC Radio and Television. In 1980, Random House was acquired by Advanced Communications and became part of the New house family's media empire. During this time a number of publishers, including Crown, Fawcett, and Ballatine, were merged with Random House. In 1998 Bertelsmann AG acquired Random House. Simon and Schuster was acquired by Gulf + Western in 1975. From 1984 to 1994, the company acquired more than sixty companies, including Prentice-Hall, Silver Burdett, and Macmillan Publishing Company. With the addition of these educational, professional, and reference imprints, Simon and Schuster's revenue grew from $200 million in 1983 to more than $2 billion in 1997. In 1989, the Gulf + Western corporation restructured and emerged as Paramount Communications. In 1994, shortly after the purchase of Macmillan, Paramount was bought by Viacom Inc., which also owned MTV. In 1998 the company sold its education, professional, and reference units to Pearson PLC, which later merged with Longman” (Greco).

This mass consolidation has made unlikely partners out of former competitors. By bringing down competition, publishers can focus more on the quality of the jobs rather than the quantity they sell and therefore the quality of every piece of information we get will be much higher. But as positive as this is, it has a negative side as well since all of those who do not have the economics or alliances that this massive conglomerates do, will not be able to be a part of this. Also, another negative aspect might be that the houses that are bought by this bigger power will no longer have a say in what they want to produce or how they wish to run things. Freedom of speech might be affected with this.

Greco, Albert N. The Book Publishing Industry. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997.

What are the main copyright issues for print media?

The main copyright issues that print media suffers, come from professors and students who constantly recreate material. Publishers are becoming increasingly concerned about how students and professors photocopy material that has been copyrighted by publishers. They are also concerned about the many informal newsletters, websites, and electronic publications that ‘borrow’ or sample images, photos, sections of text and headlines from newspapers, magazines and books. Because of this increase in electronic distribution, new intellectual property rules have been developed to ensure that each author or photographer gets royalties. Individual authors and photographers have rights to their intellectual property during their lifetime and their heirs have rights for 70 years after the author’s or photographer’s death.

One of the basic precepts of copyright law is fair use, therefore making single copies for personal use, citing a short passage in scholarly works and making multiple copies for classroom use are and should be permitted. 

What are the main trends in book publishing?

According to the Association of American Publishers, books are divided into various categories according to their genres. This is done because books are diverse and hard to characterize in general terms. The major categories are the following:

** Trade books: fiction and non fiction books both hard-cover and soft-cover. Examples of these are: the DaVinci Code, biographies and cook books.

** Professional books: education books, reference and professional education books aimed to professionals like doctors, lawyers, scientists, researchers, engineers and managers.

** Elementary, high school and college textbooks: any book that has been designed to assist students in their learning. An example is Media Now.

** Mass-market paperbacks: softbound books that are generally smaller in format and less expensive.

** Religious books: Bibles, prayer books, hymnals and any other sacred book.

** Book club editions: clubs that publish, sell and distribute their own editions of mass-market books, professional and other specialized books.

** Mail-order publications: books that are mainly and largely created by publishers to be sold by mail. These are classic novels or a specialized series.

** Subscription reference books: books that are sold as a package or series like encyclopedias and glossaries.

** Audiovisual and multimedia: Website materials, computer discs and other material that is marketed to schools, companies and training groups.

** University and scholarly press: scholarly or artistic books of primary appeal to scholars and libraries.

Analyze your online privacy and security practices and outline a plan for making yourself safer online.

Because there is so much danger in the world we also need to be careful when using the Internet and not trust everything we see or every piece of information we get. In my case, I own a Mac computer so the amount of viruses that affect this system are relatively low, therefore I do not need an antivirus installed in my computer, but I am still careful by keeping my firewalls and Spam alerts on their highest points. When using the Internet I avoid pages that seem off and only use search engines that can be trusted. Another precaution I take is that I never save my personal information on the computer, not even my own, nor leave my accounts ‘logged on’. I also change my passwords for all services (banks, Facebook, emails) every certain time so I can decrease the risk of having a hacked account. It is important to be very cautious and alert to anything that may seem different in our accounts, so even with the emails I am careful too. I do not open emails from unknown senders nor from advertisers. This decreases my chances of downloading something harmful into my computer and avoiding situations in which you might get ripped off. Upon receiving messages from unknown sources, they are immediately reported as spam so this saves me a lot of time and trouble.

With social networks, we must also be extremely careful. There is NO need whatsoever to put all of your information on Facebook or any other site; therefore my information is kept to the minimum on these sites. (no phone numbers, addresses nor emails). I also keep my Facebook extremely private by creating groups and putting restrictions on them, that way my information is shown only to those who know me well. I do not accept all friend requests, especially the ones that come from people whom I do not know and every aspect and application of my facebook is kept under the most private setting. 

Who runs the Internet?

Different associations run the Internet, so it is a mixture of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), ISOC (Internet Society), IAB (Internet Architecture Board) and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).  ISOC is a nongovernmental international membership society that promotes the orderly use and development of the Internet. Along with it is ICANN, an organization that is entrusted with assigning addresses and domain names to users. IAB is a committee within the Internet society that makes important policy decisions about operations and future developments. Its members are usually employees of large corporations like Microsoft. Lastly, IETF also plays a role by overseeing technical matters. 

What is the difference between a content provider and an Internet service provider?

*Internet Service Provider: connects users to the Internet and provides email accounts. AT&T, Comcast and AOL are leaders in this. ISPs usually provide access but little in the way of content. They lease high-speed connections to the Internet backbone from telecommunication carriers in order to do their job.

*Content Service Provider: their job is to make Web pages more interesting by providing content to the ISPs such as news, entertainment and graphic design. Raw information that others might shape into information services is part of CSP; therefore in a way anyone who has ever posted his/her own home page on the WWW or made a blog entry is a CSP.

Who are the leading makers of computer software and hardware?

*Hardware: although Apple and IBM are the two companies that started the personal computer trend, they are now minor players since Dell and Hewlett-Packard have conquered much. Dell & Hewlett-Packard are the leading makers of computer hardware. Just like these two companies are in control of the market share of hardware, Cisco Systems is still the leading maker of network gear for the Internet.

*Software: Microsoft dominates personal computer operating system software and also many application categories including word processing and Web browsers. A lot of software is becoming freeware or shareware like Linux, but the authors do not claim copyright protection, therefore users prefer Microsoft for all the benefits it gives.

What makes a good Web page design?

A good Web page is one that engages the user and makes the user stay longer and return. For it to have a good design, there should be a continual update of content and episodic story telling. Graphic designers adapt eye-catching colors and attractive layouts just like they do with magazines. Content plays a huge role, but it is said that users prefer short items to lengthy articles. Personalization of content to individual users is also a plus; since it establishes a personal relationship with the user by making the visitors linger longer and return often. Also, having giveaways, contests and sometimes videos make the design of the page even catchier. 

List the major types of content on the Web

The World Wide Web’s content can be characterized according to the various domains that are appended to uniform resource locators (URL’s).  These can be:

·      Electronic Publishing: this categorization includes information published only on the Internet and online versions of conventional print publications. Examples of these are: magazines, newspapers and books.

·      Entertainment: easy access to the Internet has made viewers switch from watching shows on TV to watching them on computers. New programs like Itunes, Hulu and Rhapsody have been developed to provide users with ways in which they can obtain music, movies, TV shows and other information. Big producers like ABC and FOX have uploaded free copies of their TV shows onto their websites so people can watch them at any time and no cost.

·      Online Games: although they too are a form of entertainment, their intense interactivity puts them in a category of their own. Sorcery and magic fantasy themes are the most common, but there are 200 multiplayer games to choose from.

·      Portals: are Web pages that users launch when they first log into the Web. It combines directories, interpersonal communication and information into an all-purpose launch pad. Leading portal sites are Yahoo!, AOL and MSN.

·      Search Engine: their job is to match the words you type into the search window to seek out online information based on matches to the key words supplied. Google has emerged as the giant among search engines.

·      Communities: is a place where users can post their opinions and share information with each other. Examples of these are: chat rooms, instant messenger, online forums and sites like Facebook and MySpace.

·      Blogs: these are a cross between a personal Web page, diary, online directory and a newspaper editorial page.

·      Electronic Commerce: e-commerce is known to have a business to consumer protocol. Businesses make sales directly to consumers.

What target markets do you belong to and how do advertisers reach each of your aspects?

A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and merchandise. There are many ways in which advertisers can do this and like the book discusses some of these persuasion forms are: mining pop culture, direct marketing and relationship marketing. Mining pop culture is when advertisers align themselves with the consumer through the art and entertainment of popular culture. They borrow familiar symbols from the culture to promote consumer identification with the product; an example of this is the commercial for iPod in which they feature a silhouetted hip-hop dancing and music. When I first saw this ad, it immediately grabbed my attention and I knew I wanted to be that silhouette because of the liberty and freedom it projected. Apple is not the only company that manages to grab my attention every time one of their ads comes up, Converse does it too. Being a female college student, it easy to believe that I belong to that particular target market and so Converse has managed to capture the essence of college life in different ways. They have various commercials and ads, each dedicated to the different age groups, but in general their target market is young adults.

Besides from age and gender, another target market I consider myself a part of is diversity. As an international student here in the US, I find myself feeling more in connection with commercials or ads that target this. By promoting unity or showing how no matter where you are from, we are still a part of one world, these commercials tend to make me feel valuable and that I am one of the many whose culture is being represented in those ads. Interest is also another by which I get targeted. Advertisements for movies like Harry Potter, Inception or Hangover, attract my attention and play a role in my decision making when watching a movie. Same works for music, books and clothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3n1hFLF_pc

What are the good things that advertising does for you and for society?

Advertising is a form of communication that is intended to persuade an audience into doing something, purchasing a specific product or taking some action towards an ideal or service. This form of communication can be good because it facilitates the way in which information is distributed to people and also allows this information to be taken into different levels. It also creates a whole new world of challenges and job opportunities in which people can work hard to be a part of. In today’s world advertising has gone from a simper form of communication to a sophisticated way in which technology plays a huge role. Living in a society in which technology has a major part, advertising allows professionals to explore new ways of thinking and new ways of targeting the audiences in order to actually get them to like whatever it is they are promoting. Aside from creating job opportunities and giving professionals a new field to explore, advertising can also be used as a support system of good causes, an example of this is how Converse, Apple and Gap have joined the battle against AIDS by adopting the RED brand and advertising for it.

On my part, advertising is good for me because it allows me to see what is the next big thing. By advertisements I find out about movie trailers, release dates, concerts and new books. It makes information come to me, rather than searching it myself, so it basically facilitates my life. It also makes information that I would normally not pay attention to, more accessible and actually interesting. 

Cannes Lions

Cannes Lions is dedicated to the Cannes festival that occurs once a year. Unlike Ad week and Mediabistro, Cannes Lions website discusses the future festival, as well as past festivals and winners. The Cannes Lions International Festival is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications and is also considered ‘the world’s only truly global meeting place for professionals in the communications industry’.  This festival is the door for many entrepreneurs in the advertisement world to meet important people and be honored in the highest way possible. More than 24,000 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged in the festival and the winners are presented with a highly coveted lion trophy. More than 8,000 delegates form 90 countries attend seven days of workshops, exhibitions, screenings, master classes and high-profile seminars given by industry leaders such as Yoko Ono, Kofi Annan, Mark Zuckerberg, Ben Stiller, Bob Greenberg and Sir Martin Scorrell.

This is the biggest global award show in brand communication and annual gathering of advertising professionals. The website gives users all the possible information on the background of this festival and coverage of past and future festivals. With stories on winners and links to free screenings, this site helps promote the Cannes Lions festival. 

Mediabistro.com

Mediabistro is another ad site that has been designed to bring professionals together and allow them to explore possibilities by meeting informally and work with each other. Their greater goal is to ‘revolutionize the way creative/content industry professionals relate’. They want people to have a place where these professionals can work on projects together, mentor each other and allow them to see how much in common they have from their past experiences. Their mission is to offer opportunities to share resources, improve career skills, become informed of job opportunities and showcase your work. The site is open to anyone who creates or works with content such as: editors, writers, producers and book publishers. They also want industries to participate and so they are also open to magazines, radio, newspapers, advertising, design, online media and PR.

Like Ad week, Mediabistro also is very user-friendly and gives users a chance to use the site a medium of information to research jobs and post different things. Articles on this site relate to different topics and also provide new insight and information on how to do things better. Amongst the articles or posts found on this site are: “Get creative with a nonfiction proposal for Lit agent” and “Cheezburger network CEO Ben Huh’s career advise for entrepreneurs”.

Ad Week

Ad week is an online site that has been created to provide inside stories on creativity, client/agency relationships and successful global advertising strategies. They also provide news of accounts in review, the best creative work and new campaigns. The website is considered by several users to be very media rich, which can sometimes cause a few problems depending on the computer being used. Many employees in the advertising industry or any other industries are limited to using a standard, networked computer with Internet Explorer during their daily work and are unable to add plug-ins or upgrades, making it impossible for them to actually view the articles on the site.

Their mission or as they put it in their –about us section- is that Ad week ‘is the home for creative thought leaders and top agency influencers looking for the latest strategies, innovations and ideas”. They manage to keep their promise by keeping their site up-to-date with stories like “Fox’s Jon Nesvig to Retire” and “ASME issues new ad guidelines”. They also provide users with different forms of newsletters such as: Ad week creative, Ad week breaking news, Ad week IQ daily and Ad week daily update.

DVR’s Bring Some Shows a Boost in Ratings

According to the article by Bill Carter, DVR’s will boost the ratings of various TV shows. Amongst the TV shows he claims DVR’s will help are: Glee, House and Modern Family. All these shows have strong ratings amongst the population of 18-49, but with the help of DVR’s they all will show a better rating.

As Mr. Carter explains in his article: “the official numbers for the first week will be released Tuesday but those numbers will not reflect the reality of what viewers actually watched in Week One” this is because they will take into account the ratings once people with DVR’s have actually watched their favorite shows. As he tells us in the article, the results are not taken into consideration until two or more weeks. With this new number, ratings tend to usually look much more positive for both returning and new shows.

Although some shows still remained with a low rating, most of the shows that were DVR had a better rating. This also raises an important question about TV and its shows, why do people DVR shows? A simple answer to this is because of the lack of time, but there is much more than just that. People love to use DVR’s because it gives them more control over the shows. They can choose when to watch them and make sure they do not miss a thing of their favorite shows. Also, an important answer is that people dislike commercial breaks in between shows, therefore by DVR-ing their shows they can easily skip them and just watch the show.


http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/dvrs-bring-some-shows-a-boost-in-ratings/

If Conventional TV model is dying, what should replace it?

 I think computers and the Internet will replace conventional TV. With technology changing and becoming better each day, computers have a better shot at succeeding and staying in place of TV’s. The Internet too, has gone from being used only to deliver certain information, to be a place where we search our favorite shows and movies. So, basically this shows us that computers and the Internet are revolutionizing our world and the way in which we receive information.

If we ask ourselves: What function does TV play in our lives? We realize that it really only serves as a mode of relaxation and to deliver information. These two things can be done by using your computers and the Internet. Every TV show can now be found ‘online’ and watched in sites like: YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. These sites bring even more benefits that conventional TV, because you get the choice to watch them whenever and wherever you want. Even though, there are DVR’s and TIVO to provide a service similar to this one, people still choose to use their computers, because these are portable.

Another reason why computers and the Internet will replace TV is because the service is much cheaper than cable TV and there is much more variety than TV’s. Monitors can be as big as big TV sets, but the difference is that you can do much more in a monitor than the TV. People will always look to multitask or have hardware in which you can do more than just one thing; therefore computers fulfill this role much better than TV’s. For these reasons mentioned above, I believe computers and the Internet will replace conventional TV’s in the years to come.

How does the history of popular music help us understand where music is going as a business? Artistic statement? Politics?

As a business: With the development of new technologies, new sounds can also be developed. This allows the music industry to keep growing and enriching its portfolio year to year. Many want to be a part of this world because the amount of money that can be earned is absolutely insane! But in return, the level of competition is also insane. Artists and record labels continue to explore new horizons –in the music level- in order to recruit musicians and also to create new empires that will bring new hits to the world.

As an artistic statement: Music has always been a way in which people were able to express any possible thought either with lyrics or only in a melody. Artists have been writing about love and/or other topics for most of the time, but this has changed with each generation. Each year, the music industry has lowered its ‘prerequisites’ allowing anyone to enter this world and succeed. The music of our generation has left people wondering, ‘if entering the business is so hard as label records claim, then why are we saturated with mediocre artist whose songs have no meaning?’ As the years come, more and more artists will continue to come and go, but only those who can offer the whole package and actually transmit something of interest to the audience will be able to survive this competitive business.

As politics: For years artists and people have used music as a way of expressing political thoughts. Music is used because of its catchy and trendy tunes in order to attract people and reach their audience. This music used as propaganda, is mostly made by people who strongly agree or disagree with any political party. We have seen this happen in the past especially during the times of elections and it will continue to happen for the years to come. People also use this so called ‘music of politics’ to be able to express their thoughts regarding social issues and political subjects.

What copyright challenges are raised by Internet music technologies?

            Technology has brought up many positive things into the music industry, like making it easier for artists to be ‘discovered’ or even as means of promotions, but it has also brought up several issues concerning legalities and the constant exchange of music files. Technology has made it so easy for the users to obtain music without actually purchasing a CD, which is why recording companies and managers are constantly on top of Internet radio and other several legal music programs in order to collect royalties and give them to their owners. This has been the most real and difficult issue to handle, the fact that there are several other programs that are illegal or allow you to download music and share it for free. Ares, Kazaa, Limewire and Vuze are just a few of these many programs that users constantly access in order to download and share music and even movie files amongst peers and not pay at all.

            Many forms of keeping track of files have been developed but none of them have really been that precise, since there is a lot of music piracy still going on. Although some regulations have also been implemented and users know that law penalizes copyright infringement, people continue to do it with the thought that they might not get caught. The AAC and RIAA are a few if the many ways that have been developed to protect music files. Apple uses the AAC or Advanced Audio Coding. Apple’s fair play digital rights management system lets users make a certain limited number copies of a song that has been directly bought and downloaded form the itunes store. This format permits sharing among a reasonable and small number of digital music players and computers. By encoding files this way they also make it very hard for users to share music online. The RIAA or Recording Industry Association of America has also been developed to keep track of online music piracy. It uses a library of digital fingerprints that can uniquely identify MP3 files that have been traded on the Napster service. 

What has led the segmentation of rock into subgenres since the 1960’s?

     During the 1950’s and 1960”s radio’s started to get affected by the record standards that had been set years before. For a while, the limits of the 45-rpm single had limited pop songs to be around 2-3 minutes long, which many radios also found to be very efficient, but by the mid 1960’s various groups found this form of audio to be very constraining. The Beatles and other music groups pushed toward producing longer songs that allowed much more complex ideas and better arrangements, therefore some songs would go up to 6 minutes. Many FM radios then moved towards a format of ‘album oriented rock’ that stressed longer songs. Artists like Pink Floyd, Funkadelic and Bob Dylan where few of the groups that helped expand rock’s horizons by introducing new ways of performing and also new sounds.

     By the 1970’s both radios and recording companies had begun exploring and diversifying rock formats. Rock’s diverse roots fed further diversification into a number of subgenres, which also led to the development of new radio formats. Amongst the different types of rock formats developed we can find: album oriented rock, rock oldies, top 40, heavy metal and adult contemporary. During the 1970’s rock also adopted punk and glam rock. Reggae and Ska (fusion of rock, R&B and soul with Jamaican styles) were also adopted later on. Between the 1980’s and 1990’s grunge rock, techno, alternative, rap and hip-hop were also added. By the 1990’s, dozens of subgenres had descended from the 1960’s rock, pop and soul roots.

Do you think new regulation would be justified to break up large groups and make radio a more local medium again?

No I do not believe so. Radio was the first way in which information was delivered to homes, offices and stores. It was also very local and did not found it necessary to achieve a national level to be successful. Like every other technological device, radio too has changed through the years and has found it necessary to cover more. Our society too has changed. It has evolved from being local to something national. Our interests are no longer local and with the rise of globalization, this locality has no room to continue. It is because of all this and many other factors that radios have turned national and they find it necessary have more coverage, now more than ever. They see that in order to keep up, radios need to be in tune with whatever is happening not only within US territory but also abroad. Also, competition has made it harder for radios to be local. The rise of many networks, internet radio, podcasts and other new audio media, has left no choice, but to move forward and think bigger and broader.

Our own needs would not allow for such thing to happen. We are so used to being informed with events that occur globally that it would not be possible for us to think local. Yes, we are still interested in our immediate surroundings, but radios have to find a way to bring that and also provide the global coverage. It is because of these situations and many other factors that radio will continue to be a large group that covers nation wide.