In week eight of the Radio and Popular Music module, we were set one reading about technology in the media, and had to find another reading ourselves to involve it into our reading response. The readings and the lecture of this week, helped to discover and understand the concept of technology and consumption.

Technology plays a massive role in the world of media in our days. Always when a new development in the technology of media happened, it brought advantages and disadvantages with it. The developing technology can’t create something absolute new, but it creates greater access and choice for the audience. New technologies in the media these days are mostly multi-media, global, offer 24-hour database access and have their own community. (Baker, 2010: 122)

But not everyone in this world can enjoy the luxury of greater access and choice.

What media we engage with and in what way we do this, depends on many factors like the cultural and ethnic background for example. (Baker, 2010: 126) People who are living under poor conditions or marginalized from new technology an media, haven’t got the choice and the requirements to access new mediums. If it is possible to access this media in the countries, the individual consumers have to ask themselves if it is affordable for them. (Baker, 2010: 127)

Some of the radio and popular music practices continue through new developed media in the industry. This also means that the new technology makes the media from before look old. (Baker, 2010: 124) This can cause a loose of consumers and the loose of profit, for those mediums. This brings the reconfiguration of markets with it, which can also be very profitable for the new media leaders. When the Mp3 player went on the market, kids stopped listening to the radio. (Albarran, 2007: 92) Now we are flooded by a massive wave of new devices like tablets and new technology glasses etc. and the classical mp3 player isn’t used anymore,

It is still not easy for new media mediums to compete against the mainstream media. The mainstream media like traditional radio, television and printed media are still heavily used and are still leading the media section. (Baker, 2010: 128-129)

Another big advantage of new technology and the convergence is the deeper understanding of audiences and consumption. The development of new technology makes it easier to build a relationship between producer and consumer. (Baker, 2010: 122) The relationship between producer and consumer is very important in the media industry, to target the correct audience in a professional way. This is done by using collected information about the audience and individual consumers. (Baker, 2010: 123)

I want to add that I think that certain things in the media are going to change in close future. The big variety of media we get offered in our days is too much to keep the traditional radio alive. The traditional television is loosing consumers to alternative providers like Netflix and lovefilm. The variety of new forms of radio in the online world is even bigger and too big for the traditional radio in my opinion.

I would suggest to take further academic research in the possible “dying out process” and the future of the traditional media. This could help to prepare businesses and the society for such big changes.

Reference:

Albarran, A.B.A., 2007. “What Happened to our Audience?” Radio and New Technology Uses and Gratifications Among Young Adult Users. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Volume 14, 92-101.

Baker, A. J, (2010). College Student net-radio audiences: A Transnational Perspective. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 8 (2), pp.121-137