news-TEST

this is a test post.

Newspapers New Transition

The decline of the newspaper is no big news, but what is the newspaper doing to survive in the digital era? As our society has shifted to an information based society, the newspaper is reinventing itself while moving from a mass media economy to a new media economy. The newspaper is making this transition by finding new ways to earn money. They are doing this by providing digital copes online and selling advertising, moving paper subscriptions to online subscriptions and covering certain information for specific groups of people.

The newspaper was one of the first media’s to communicate to different parts of a city or country. It has been doing this for many decades and with the creation of the internet and how our society has moved to a information based society it has decade in its need. The newspaper has declined in use since the 90’s because information is more quickly accessed online then on paper.

As the internet is speeding up the process information can be spread from one place to another. This is creating no need for the paper, so the paper is changing what you can subscribe to. You now can subscribe to paper but as well to the information that you get online. While paying a fee you can get more information if you are a subscriber for online content.

This online subscription moves the need for paper material, the need for more information increases. What happens then though is the newspaper companies are narrowcasting. They targeting certain groups and creating information based on who is their subscriber. While they cover every genre or topic, they are creating more stories and covering certain topics more in depth. This is where a subscriber may choose one newspaper company to subscribe to over another.

The newspaper will survive, it may not be in the same format as it once was in its glory days, but it will remain as a source of information for our society. As our technology increases so will our need for more information. This need will only increase the devices the newspaper can use to keep itself from becoming an obsolete form of media.

This link is one of many that gives a opinion over how the newspaper may or may not survive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjUeJH4mdF4&feature=related

App Business and Culture: Apple's App Ampire. 25.01.12

Howdy everyone in COMM 330! Tomorrow (or today depending if I get this in on time), January 26, 2012, I will be one of the first 3 presenters of the “New Media Market” case study round table. In order to answer the question “How does media convergence influence new media markets?” I will be looking to, what I consider in my opinion to be, the pinnacle of 21^st century media convergence; the iPhone and all its glorious apps. My Case study titled “From Banking to Board Games: the Business and Culture of the Almighty App”

While the full effect of our iPhones and Androids is not yet known, I can say that these mostly user-created applications are integral parts in the billion-dollar a year smart phone/application development industry. For those of us living under a rock or born after 1985 (which I would suspect is most of us), I will cover a brief history of mobile phones and how the perfect conditions would come around to create the App. After I will dive into the array of Application stores which not surprisingly sprung up after Apple’s App Store was launched in the summer of 2008. Wait, so there were no Apps until after I graduated from High School? Damn, I feel old.  (Loving this blog post format)

I will then touch on the business requirements and results one can get out of making apps. There is actually some surprising stuff there if you know computer coding. (I’m looking at you computer science guy in the back whose name I fail to remember) The influence of Apple’s App store which started this era is so great that they control over 70% of stock and downloads of Apps. This is getting better with the popularization of Google’s Android phones but still has a long way to go. The interesting thing is that an App store does not produce its own product but rather is a wholesaler of one copy of an App. Yes, most developers get a very decent cut but for companies like Apple (making billions) and Google (making millions) on their commissions this seems to be too good to be legal.

Finally, I will dive a little into App culture. Like it or not, we all live here. Being included in pop culture is one of the best advertisements for Apple’s App Store. One of the best slogans by Apple has taken a life of its own and evolved to almost a way of life. The slogan “there is an app for that” first used in an advert in early 2009 translates to “there is an easier way to do ____”.  Apple has since trademarked the slogan. Hope to see all of you out there tomor…this morning so that all of us can know at least a little more about the still relatively new App industry.

Case Study Diffusion of Innovation, Apple, iPod 1/25/12

Diffusion of innovations describes the way consumers adopt a new technology. The presentation I will be giving will discuss the diffusion of innovation, convergence and how these two principles are affecting the economy today. I will be using the Apple company as an example as well as their well-known and diffused product, the iPod. 

Several factors affect the way a product diffuses into today's market place. Some of these include, the market and what barriers to entry are involved and the need for it. Does a new technology make life simple for the user or more difficult? These are all things a company must take into consideration before releasing a new media. The company is constantly trying to capture the client whether they are an innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority or laggard.

Convergence is multiple medias coming together into one media. A common example of this is a smart phone or tablet. Many economists and researchers are interested in finding out how convergences of medias are affecting the market today. Will people continue to buy products? Will there be multiple products for people to buy if they have all converged into one?

Upon doing some research, I argue that yes, there will always be a market for new media. In some cases I believe there will always be a market for some pieces of old media. Old media tends to be the foundational context for a lot of new or converged media products today. People have unlimited wants. It is a basic economic principle. When people have unlimited wants they will constantly be looking forward to the next new thing. For example, I have come across friends that refuse to buy the iPad 2 because they know the iPad 3 is just around the corner. There is nothing wrong with the latter but in a few months it will not be the biggest or the brightest.   

Welcome to Comm 330-Spring 2012!

Welcome to the COMM 330 class blog. This blog provides an opportunity to explore the intersection of communication technology, media industry and social use of media. This blog will be highlight issues raised in COMM 330: Communication and Technology being taught by Dr. Heidi Campbell at Texas A&M University this spring semester. Students will have an opportunity to use this blog to share their thought about the course material and more specifically post information related to their class case study presentations. I am looking forward to a great semester of interaction both online and offline!