Radio & Social Media

From a very early age, I listened to Z100, a hit music radio station in the New York City. It was what woke me up every morning, and how I got my information for the day. I would hear some of the most important news, celebrity gossip, sports news, and more. I listened to Z100 daily until about 2008, when I decided I would rather play my own music from my iPod or laptop.

Learning more about radio today, I forgot that the radio industry was also changing with all of the new forms of technology. Since I stopped listening, I didn’t realize how important social media and Web 2.0 is in that industry. Now if I listen to Z100, they are encouraging listeners to use different forms of social media such a Twitter, Facebook, email, text messages, message boards and more to communicate with them. This is an easy way for them to instantly connect to their listeners and keep their shows fun, interesting and exciting.

A question that may come up though is how do they balance all of these different forms of social media and technology? Do they need to higher someone specifically for this purpose?

First of all, they do use a bunch of different platforms to reach people. But, I dont think it should be that complicated. If they ask people to tweet at them, they will check their Twitter. Same goes for Facebook, MySpace, etc. This is especially the case when they are live. Otherwise I do think that someone should be hired for the purpose of controlling the social media pages and other methods of communication. Maybe even more than one person. Someone needs to run the platforms and design them, and they need a few people to keep track of important information coming in on all of those platforms who can pick out the most important stuff.

Digital Storytelling

Multimedia is awesome. I love the concept of it so much because I think it has the power to completely change the way humans learn.  Today, we need constant stimulation, and multimedia can provide that. By using multimedia, people can digital tell stories, teach educational lessons, and more.

For those of you who aren’t sure what multimedia is, it is something such as a blog, article, or news story that uses many different mediums, such as videos, text, music, photos, voice notes, and more all together. For example, if I created a multimedia story about my time in Barcelona I could include the following:

-A brief description of my time spent in Barcelona.

-Photographs of my trips, various meals I’ve eaten.

-A clip of my favorite Spanish song I’ve heard while I’ve been here.

-A story about the time I got pickpocketed!

-A video of my friends and I dancing at the discoteca.

-A sound bite of my friend expressing how much she has loved being in Barcelona.

All of these different elements would make a great blog post, and give readers an exciting and stimulating story about my time in Barcelona.

I find multimedia to be so awesome because today people need exciting things to grab their attention. Yes, we can read a book, or read a blog, but because of our use of the internet, TV, cell phones and more, if something wants to keep our attention it has to be exciting and stimulating.

Multimedia is stimulating in every way because it uses different mediums to attract attention. In a course this past semester I took about education, our teacher told us how students today can’t learn as effectively in a boring, unchanging environment. Because of this, in his classes he would never talk about a topic for more than 3 minutes, and if he had to, he would interject with a demonstration, video, or some other stimulating tool. This reminds me of multimedia, because there are so many different ways to be stimulated, that it draws in attention and keeps your attention- ultimately being a very effective tool whether it is used for journalism purposes or in a classroom.

diaspora*

When I think of social networks, I think of the ones I have used before. So Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and MySpace come to mind. These are the ones I have invested most of my time in, and as of now I feel that investing in more social networks would just be too much.

But sometimes, a service comes along that changes things. Facebook bumped out Twitter, Twitter is moving in on Facebook, and who knows which service will be next to see their demise. All I know is that diaspora* has what it takes to really make a statement in the social media world.

For those of you who don`t know what diaspora* is, here is a brief summary. From whatisdiaspora.com: “In 2010, a few young programmers from NYU’s Courant Institute announced to the world that they wanted to create a new, safer, more privacy-aware social network.  They said they would need $10,000 to accomplish the task and instead, 6,479 people like you pledged $200,641.  Since then, the young programmers along with many volunteers from around the world have been working to create the next generation of Social Networks to allow you to socialize on the internet more safely.

You add your friends into groups called “aspects” such as family, work, sports team, or whatever aspects you want to create. When friends you’ve invited join, they will be automatically connected to your account, in whichever aspect or aspects you added them. You can then share information, photos and more just like on the other social networking sites, but, unlike on other social networks, you won’t see advertisements and your data will not be harvested to be sold or shared.”

I checked out this site for myself, and what I found interesting is that it seems like it is a combination of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. It feels simple and easy to use, and very easy to personalize and control privacy features. Honestly, I feel that if diaspora* came out before Facebook, it would be having the same world domination.

the unknown future

(One of my very first Facebook pictures from 2006. Middle School Graduation.)

In class on Monday we discussed social networking. We talked about which ones are the most popular, which ones were the most popular, and which ones might be the most popular in the future.

Our lives today (especially mine) revolve around social networking. It is like a database that holds the history of my life going back to 2005, whether its on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

What will the future hold? It´s a scary thing to think about.

Facebook, Twitter and other popular sites may continue their world domination, but what if they don´t? What will happen to all the connections I´ve made, the pictures I´ve taken, and the things I have written? We have invested so much of us in the internet that it would be devastating if it all disappeared.

Or what if the popular social network became something other than what we use today. I guess we could invest ourselves in that, but still keep our Facebooks around as a way to hold on to the past.

This brings me to my own idea, which is create a new social network (which is inevitable) but then somehow integrate everything on Facebook onto to it in order to integrate the past. This is similar to what Facebook is doing with their new Timeline, bring the hard to access past to the present. I just don´t know if Facebook has the staying power.

What do you think will happen with social networking in the future? Leave your comments below.