In the Words of Aretha Franklin...

In this week's readings, we read a little bit about the evolution of blogging in "Citizen Markerters." It was pretty interesting that today's blogger.com was really the Roman's Acta Diurna over 2,100 years ago. Imagine taking the time to carve this message right now into a huge stone and hanging it in the public square, who has the time for that?...my how technology has changed..
In addition, the chapter went on discussing the invention of the printing press. movable type 1.0, LiveJournal, podcasting, and even TiVO. Probably the most interesting of examples was the creation of TiVO. When I was in middle school, I can remember thinking that this was perhaps the coolest thing ever invented. I was very involved in dance, so I never had the time to watch much T.V., but when I did, nothing ever seemed to on. With TiVO, I could record the O.C. AND even pause it too, just like a movie! Much of the success came from the idea of personal FREEDOM. Audiences were no longer chained to their seats during their favorite show and were use the restroom and grab a snack for an extended period of time (longer than a commercial break at least).

Another interesting topic in this chapter discussed podcasting. From previously taking an advertising class, I was aware that radio is struggling in a world of iPods. However, until recently, I was not even aware of podcasting, and was really surprised with the 63 million podcast listeners that are expected for 2010. Maybe I just wasn't in the know? But it doesn't surprise me that since these are becoming more and more popular, radio is not only losing their viewers to music on the iPods, but to podcast. Again, we can hear Aretha in the background screaming "Freedom," for the cause of this shift in technologies. No longer do we have to be limited to radio stations on a family road trip, we can now play OUR chosen audio.

It's all about freedom.