Week #3: Media Technology & Media Research

Chapter 2:

In reading chapter two one aspect I found interesting is that regulators are “non media people who influence communicators’ messages”. The Federal Communications Commission, a regulatory arm of the U.S. government, both grants and denies licenses to over-air stations greatly influencing media messaging.

My question is the U.S. is quick to comment on the fact that many foreign governments censor their own media communications, but isn’t the FCC through their regulatory process censoring media communications in the U.S? I am not aware of any censorship occurring on the internet besides installing restrictions on your personal computers to block certain websites from children, for example. Another question I have is do you think it’s possible that individual governments could censor media on the internet?

Chapter 15:

In reading chapter fifteen I found it interesting when in 2006 before the motion picture “Snakes on a Plane” was released film bloggers had already begun critiquing the film which ultimately had a positive effect on its debut in theatres. Executives from New Line Cinema came to the conclusion that, “the publicity from blogging far outreached whatever hype an orchestrated promotional campaign could have had.” This phenomenon reinforces the idea that advertisers may no longer need to spend huge money in traditional ad campaigns but can potentially leverage the internet through blogs promoting at maybe minimal costs with successful results.

My question is will the future of advertising exist primarily on the internet?

Media Technology:

One piece of media technology that has significantly altered my daily life in recent years would be the internet. The ability to access information and get up-to-date news stories is amazing. I no longer use the yellow pages to look up a phone number but rather google a name since it’s more easily accessible. In my family we use the internet to plan our vacations, do research on products before making purchases, look up recipes to plan our meals. To think how my life was so different without access to the internet and the idea of gathering information from so many different sources now sounds daunting.