The future of news and talk radio.
Jun 19, 2009 18:04:44 GMT -5
Post by Billy Uranus on Jun 19, 2009 18:04:44 GMT -5
I received an interesting email that was handed out by allaccess.com regarding the future of talk and news radio.
I'll just post the first part of it, that matters:
There was a lot of attention paid this week to the fact that news coverage of the Iranian protests was heavily dependent on Twitter posts directly from protesters themselves. It's pretty amazing, but some people see it as another nail in the coffin of "old media." Traditional news organizations couldn't get the information out in the same way, not with the government interfering, but people in the middle of the mob were able to get their observations, pictures, and video to the rest of the world using tools that didn't exist a few years ago. It was revolutionary in more than one way.
And it seemed to make traditional media obsolete. After all, if you really wanted to know what was going on up to the second, all you had to do was go on Twitter and do a simple search, and the information came at you like an avalanche. No need to wait.
Radio is, of course, perceived as "old media," but I think that radio in general and talk radio in particular have a role in the new media landscape, as long as we understand what that role is. If radio isn't any longer alone as the place to get the news first, there are things that radio can do that make it unique and able to remain viable and valuable. What are those things? Glad you asked:
1. Context. It's one thing to plow your way through hundreds of tweets describing and depicting breaking news, and it's another to make sense of it all. Twitter and Facebook and Google News dump a lot of information in front of users. You can filter the information, you can add your own perspective. You can help listeners understand what all that information means, and how the pieces relate to each other.
2. Aggregation. People are busy, and while some people can sit in front of their computers all day searching Twitter and going to hundreds of web sites to follow the big stories, most people just want the condensed version. Give them everything they need in one convenient package, one that they can listen to while doing other things. Save them time and trouble.
3. Perspective. By that, I mean your own perspective, and the opinions of your listeners. Sure, you can find lively exchanges about breaking news all over the Internet, but you can offer a real live conversation. Spoken word conversations are a different form of communication and entertainment from alternating postings on a message board or on Twitter. Sometimes, you just want to hear somebody talking about what's going on instead of reading it. There's a human element that you can provide.
Hey, that's an acronym: CAP. I swear, I wasn't trying for that. All I want to do is to point out that, unlike some other media that don't offer any benefits that can't be easily duplicated and bettered by newer forms of communication, radio still can do certain things very well that actually complement what you can get from, say, the Internet. The trick is to turn "can do" into "does do." As long as radio plays to its strengths, there's a future for this thing.
Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com
I'll just post the first part of it, that matters:
There was a lot of attention paid this week to the fact that news coverage of the Iranian protests was heavily dependent on Twitter posts directly from protesters themselves. It's pretty amazing, but some people see it as another nail in the coffin of "old media." Traditional news organizations couldn't get the information out in the same way, not with the government interfering, but people in the middle of the mob were able to get their observations, pictures, and video to the rest of the world using tools that didn't exist a few years ago. It was revolutionary in more than one way.
And it seemed to make traditional media obsolete. After all, if you really wanted to know what was going on up to the second, all you had to do was go on Twitter and do a simple search, and the information came at you like an avalanche. No need to wait.
Radio is, of course, perceived as "old media," but I think that radio in general and talk radio in particular have a role in the new media landscape, as long as we understand what that role is. If radio isn't any longer alone as the place to get the news first, there are things that radio can do that make it unique and able to remain viable and valuable. What are those things? Glad you asked:
1. Context. It's one thing to plow your way through hundreds of tweets describing and depicting breaking news, and it's another to make sense of it all. Twitter and Facebook and Google News dump a lot of information in front of users. You can filter the information, you can add your own perspective. You can help listeners understand what all that information means, and how the pieces relate to each other.
2. Aggregation. People are busy, and while some people can sit in front of their computers all day searching Twitter and going to hundreds of web sites to follow the big stories, most people just want the condensed version. Give them everything they need in one convenient package, one that they can listen to while doing other things. Save them time and trouble.
3. Perspective. By that, I mean your own perspective, and the opinions of your listeners. Sure, you can find lively exchanges about breaking news all over the Internet, but you can offer a real live conversation. Spoken word conversations are a different form of communication and entertainment from alternating postings on a message board or on Twitter. Sometimes, you just want to hear somebody talking about what's going on instead of reading it. There's a human element that you can provide.
Hey, that's an acronym: CAP. I swear, I wasn't trying for that. All I want to do is to point out that, unlike some other media that don't offer any benefits that can't be easily duplicated and bettered by newer forms of communication, radio still can do certain things very well that actually complement what you can get from, say, the Internet. The trick is to turn "can do" into "does do." As long as radio plays to its strengths, there's a future for this thing.
Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com