Advertisers are always looking for new media by which to reach new audiences and potential consumers. With each successful new medium that emerges, advertisers will find a way to purchase access to audiences because each new medium, if it wants to survive, must have financial support. Advertisers support programs that attract their target audience. By selling access to a specific or a number of different audiences, media can continue to survive.
Hilmnes discussed the opportunities and possible drawbacks that one particular medium offered, radio. He discusses how our American society perceived the emerging technology of radio in the 1920s, and all of the "utopian hopes and dystopian fears" that were associated with radio. All of these hopes and fears are sociocultural in character and they provide us a good example of how our each generation might perceive the emerging technologies of its own era.
Hilmnes discusses a variety of Utopian dreams that 1920 American society expected radio to fulfill, "the most common recurring element in early discussions....was the notion of national unity." Hilmnes also discusses how people thought this medium was capable of tearing down the physical and geographic barriers to national unity. "Remote communities could tune in to symphony concerts and news analysis from faraway cities." People imagined that broadcast radio would help unify the country culturally as well by making positive and edifying programs available to the masses. Though Hilmnes discusses some of the fears that 1920 America had concerning radio, the opportunities are far more interesting to discuss.
Hilmnes notes that, unfortunately even early on, advertising on broadcast radio threatened to squelch the great possibilities of radio. "Advertisers wanted to sell products, and this they would do through whatever means proved most effective." The utopian potential of radio was beginning to be wasted by the corrupt force of advertising, the need to make a profit off of radio broadcasting. This trend of monetizing media would continue throughout the 20th century, tainting the utopian potential of many different media with the base need for profits.
With "The Rock Jocks" video, we learned about the emergence of FM Rock radio stations in the late 1950s, and how these once independent, creative, and free-thinking radio stations eventually sacrificed their creativity in order to generate profits. During the early 1960s, FM radio stations were characterized by witty and rebellious radio disc jockies who promoted free thought, a different style of music, and generally the Counter Culture Movement of the 1960s. They emphasized the right for their listeners to live their own lives, according to their own rules. These FM radio stations were perfect examples of what all radio stations could be: centers for creativity and community leadership. These DJs often organized and participated in Anti-War rallies, promoted the civil rights movement, or spoke out against "The Man"!
Unfortunately, as more and more of America paid attention by the late 1960s, corporate investors realized the potential market for advertisers that these once rebellious and creative radio stations represented. By the early 1980s, corporate control of these FM radio stations was pretty much a certainty, and the corporate "suits" made sure to control and schedule carefully crafted formats during every hour and during every minute in order to draw their target audience. FM radio stations, much like AM radio stations thirty years before, had simply become vehicles for advertisers and corporations to reach the masses. They had become money making machines, instead of the centers for creativity and community outreach that they had once been.
Hilmnes discussed the opportunities and possible drawbacks that one particular medium offered, radio. He discusses how our American society perceived the emerging technology of radio in the 1920s, and all of the "utopian hopes and dystopian fears" that were associated with radio. All of these hopes and fears are sociocultural in character and they provide us a good example of how our each generation might perceive the emerging technologies of its own era.
Hilmnes discusses a variety of Utopian dreams that 1920 American society expected radio to fulfill, "the most common recurring element in early discussions....was the notion of national unity." Hilmnes also discusses how people thought this medium was capable of tearing down the physical and geographic barriers to national unity. "Remote communities could tune in to symphony concerts and news analysis from faraway cities." People imagined that broadcast radio would help unify the country culturally as well by making positive and edifying programs available to the masses. Though Hilmnes discusses some of the fears that 1920 America had concerning radio, the opportunities are far more interesting to discuss.
Hilmnes notes that, unfortunately even early on, advertising on broadcast radio threatened to squelch the great possibilities of radio. "Advertisers wanted to sell products, and this they would do through whatever means proved most effective." The utopian potential of radio was beginning to be wasted by the corrupt force of advertising, the need to make a profit off of radio broadcasting. This trend of monetizing media would continue throughout the 20th century, tainting the utopian potential of many different media with the base need for profits.
With "The Rock Jocks" video, we learned about the emergence of FM Rock radio stations in the late 1950s, and how these once independent, creative, and free-thinking radio stations eventually sacrificed their creativity in order to generate profits. During the early 1960s, FM radio stations were characterized by witty and rebellious radio disc jockies who promoted free thought, a different style of music, and generally the Counter Culture Movement of the 1960s. They emphasized the right for their listeners to live their own lives, according to their own rules. These FM radio stations were perfect examples of what all radio stations could be: centers for creativity and community leadership. These DJs often organized and participated in Anti-War rallies, promoted the civil rights movement, or spoke out against "The Man"!
Unfortunately, as more and more of America paid attention by the late 1960s, corporate investors realized the potential market for advertisers that these once rebellious and creative radio stations represented. By the early 1980s, corporate control of these FM radio stations was pretty much a certainty, and the corporate "suits" made sure to control and schedule carefully crafted formats during every hour and during every minute in order to draw their target audience. FM radio stations, much like AM radio stations thirty years before, had simply become vehicles for advertisers and corporations to reach the masses. They had become money making machines, instead of the centers for creativity and community outreach that they had once been.
A contemporary example of the monetization of what was recently thought of as a Utopian medium is the recent advertising by Google on YouTube videos. When it first emerged, many predicted that YouTube would be a revolutionary sensation that would change the manner in which audiences and everyday thinkers could document themselves and broadcast themselves to anyone. Many people predicted that YouTube would chip away at commercially sponsored
television and film since it allowed normal people to make films and entertainment without any commercial support at all. Many also predicted that finally we would be able to escape commercial advertising by watching videos uploaded by other webslingers.
Much to the disappointment of the "free" man, that advertising monolith Google has finally found a way to insert advertisements on user generated videos on Youtube. The podcast Now Added to YouTube asserts that "YouTube and others have changed consumer behavior on a grand scale and ended Hollywood's monopoly on creating and distributing content." Of course YouTube has been very popular for at least 36 months now, and one of its most popular features has been that it is largely free from advertising. However, more and more advertising has been creeping up on the site, as many will note seeing the famous "PC vs. Mac" commercials being touted on YouTube's homepage. Now, however, Google has introduced content related advertising directly to user videos themselves. For most popular videos, a small banner will appear during the first minute of the video at the lower 20% of the video screen. According to the podcast, Google has not expressed great interest in running ads against zany or bizarre user generated content, but against content that has already received hundreds of thousands of views. The intrusion of advertising on YouTube videos is just another example of the monetization of successful media.
The latest "big" innovation in online data streaming is of course Twitter. The creators of Twitter have introduced a new phenomenon to the Internet, the ability to broad cast 140 character posts about yourself to a group of followers. In an article in New York Magazine, Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams remarks that "it's another step toward the democratization of information....I've come to really believe that if you make it easier for people to share information, more good things happen." The creators of Twitter have identified the utopian potential of their creation to bring us closer together socially (much like other social networking sites can, but in my opinion, Twitter's way is much lamer). This is a medium for which advertising has not yet caught on, as neither of the co-founders of Twitter are cognizant yet of the revenue producing potential of Twitter. The article does suggest that the creators have some idea of how to make money with Twitter, "each one sys that charging companies for brand verification (assuring users that JetBlue's Twitter is really from JetBlue for example) and for targeted prompts for users to join company feeds seems to make long term sense."
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