Media Technology

     Mass media are useful because they reach huge numbers of people with single messages designed to appeal to a variety of audiences. The major disadvantage of mass media messages are created by people who often do not know personally the audiences to which they are broadcasting, and therefore must guess as to the needs of the public. Not every group within the audience needs every mass message, and, unfortunately, mass media does not address every group in a meaningful way. Perhaps the most difficult question any mass media writer must ask is, “Why should they care?” The answer is not always easy, and even in coming up with one, the writer may not be reaching all those s/he wants to reach.

"Radio Gets Results"

     Radio, since its invention, became an instant hit, spreading news and information to a far wider society than newspapers. Radio had the advantage of being able to reach even the illiterate masses of poor, working class families. In earlier days of radio, small stations sprang up at colleges and universities with experimental educational broadcasts. Franklin D. Roosevelt used radio broadcast to uplift the nation during the trying times of the Great Depression with his “Fireside chats.” Radio’s greatest advantage is portability. People listen to radios at home, at work, in cars, even while jogging or dining out. Because of the portability of radio, technical communicators must be very careful about planning for radio presentations. Impressive vocabulary and long, winding images may work well in a magazine article, but in radio they would only confuse the listeners.

     Audiences cannot backtrack and reexamine something they did not understand. Likewise, they cannot pause and look up words in the dictionary and continue on where they left off. Writers are charged with getting it right the first time because radio relies entirely on the sense of hearing. Though colleges and schools teach listening skills today, they did not always. Listening skills are only practical to those who know how to use them. Not only that, but radio is so portable that listening skills may simply be an impossibility. Try paying close attention to what is on the radio while driving in rush-hour traffic. Editing for radio has to respect these facts. It also has to account for the way music and sound effects will affect the listeners (media ecology). One does not have that problem with print media.

"No News Is Good News" 

     Newspapers have been around forever, practically since man developed a set of written characters to simulate language. Their distribution broadened, of course, along with books, with the perfection of a primitive printing press in the fifteenth century. Even though the press made it faster and easier to make identical copies, the main disadvantage of the newspaper was, and often still is, its locality. Most newspapers only concern themselves with their local constituents’ needs and interests. Wide-audience newspapers, such as USA Today, cover stories of national interest more in-depth than local papers. An inverted pyramid pattern of reporting, with the most important details in the first few paragraphs, makes newspapers easier to be skimmed rather than read thoroughly. Quotes and opinions of witnesses are usually held until the end of the article.

     Editors carefully plan the design of newspapers to attract readers to what they consider to be the most important information of the day. Front-page headlines are in very large print and can be seen by passers-by from a distance. Some argue that the design of newspapers is to influence sales. A large, bold, catchy headline may induce a reader to purchase the paper; however, it can backfire. If the headline is offensive or vague, readers may turn away. Price, too, has an effect on whether newspapers reach audiences. People generally resist spending money on an item they can get freely elsewhere, such as the Internet. Many newspapers publish everything in their print versions online, extending to a broader audience they may not otherwise have reached. In fact, some newspapers print entirely online, reaching ever-widening audiences as masses of Web surfers and students discover their websites.

"The American advertiser has made the superior American magazine of today possible."
-- Edward Bok

     Magazines, in contrast to the inverted pyramid style of newspapers, tend to save the most important information for the end, as they are meant to be read slowly and with more attention to detail. The impending “big bang” at the end of the article keeps readers attention. In fact, certain magazines actually end the article in the middle, to be continued in the next issue, so that the reader will come back again and again to purchase that issue. This comic-book style of publishing may work well for certain special interest magazines, such as those that publish fiction stories, but for general audiences, it may be irritating. Magazines vary widely in their audiences and purposes. There are specialized magazines that are geared toward specific groups, such as Field and Stream or Ladies Home Journal, as well as general interest magazines that cater to masses, such as People and Time.

     The actual content of magazines varies as widely as the audiences. With a newspaper, a reader can expect news. In a magazine, a reader should expect just about anything. There are magazines that publish news, but magazines are a diverse category. Some magazines publish anthologies of short stories, some publish how-to articles on everything from gutting a fish to installing an air conditioner to feeding a special-needs infant, and still others publish articles of questionable authenticity on the lives of the rich and famous. Magazines tailor messages, especially advertising, toward the group they consider most likely to read. Working Mother, for example, is more likely to feature a birth control ad than, say, Sports Illustrated. However, since many magazines end up on tables in waiting rooms, their messages are read by far more than the intended audience.

"We love our own cell phones but we hate everyone else's."
-- Joe Bob Briggs

     An explosion of cellular technology has blessed marketers with a way to get their messages directly to the intended audience individually. Text messaging has become competition for many of the traditional communication media. It is as portable as radio, perhaps more so, as a silenced cellular phone can reach people even in situations where radio would be distracting, and newspapers and magazines would take up excess space. The portability and instantaneousness of the text message has become an invaluable tool for marketers. Given the limited space that many cellular phones provide, however, many marketers and technical writers must be especially careful of the design and wording of a message. A recipient would be more likely to delete a long message without even looking at it. Hooking the audience is all the more difficult. Marketers must also pay close attention to the number of a certain type of message that is being sent, since spamming is against many company policies and, in some cases, illegal.

     Not only can advertising messages be sent out through text messages, but purchases can often be made directly through the text message, creating a whole new environment for impulse buyers. Convenience is the name of the game in today’s society, beginning decades ago with the Home Shopping Network, and now just about every brick and mortar store has an online version so that shoppers never have to leave the privacy of their own homes. Text message shopping is even more convenient than the Internet. It is targeted, so the actual “shopping” step has been removed from the equation. The advantages of text messaging are endless; as the technology continues to develop, more and more creative uses of messaging become available to marketers. “Telemarketing” has entered a whole new era.

     In a world where society makes the latest technology almost a necessity, media are in a flurry to grab hold of the next great messaging system. I am certain businesses everywhere were in a tizzy when television was perfected with all of the possibilities. Today, that technology can be broadcast literally anywhere with the advent of video-capable cellular phones and the like. Where will technology lead us in the future? Will we have enough money to use it?

A Brief History of NPR and Public Radio. (2011). Retrieved March 3, 2011, from National Public Radio website: http://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr/history.html#history 

Smith, G. V. (2010, May 6). Text Message Marketing. Ezine Articles. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Text-Message-Marketing&id=4206695

The Printing Press. (2004, May 13). Retrieved March 3, 2011, from The History Guide website: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/press.html