Media Technologies

Social media - Social media has many various uses. Keeping up with friends, sharing photos and thoughts, and now companies are using it to get their word and brand image out. According to Merriam Webster, social media is "forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)" (m-w.com, 2014) This media technology, although fairly new, seems to be the most common or most impactful in my opinion. I remember when I was a middle school student, someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was dead set on being a reporter or radio broadcaster. He told me I chose the worst possible career field because both of those were dying fields. Now, I see where he may have had an idea that these were decreasing in availability, but in my opinion he was wrong. The communication's career field as a whole has broadened many career openings and since that middle school time, thousands of different reasons to be in the communications career field has arisen. Social media is definitely important.


Audible media - this form of media can be heard in many different ways. Much like my dream of being a radio broadcaster used the audible form of media technology, audible books, radio broadcasts, podcasts are also on the rise. Podcasts, the most new of the ones I listed, seems to be fairly popular for audiences to follow important speakers in their life. Speakers such as pastors, comedians, actors, radio hosts --- they all can put their work onto Itunes and release it as a podcast. Audiences can range from young ages to old. It seems that you don't have to be a "tech savvy" person to figure out podcasts either, which is a major plus in my book.






Print media -- although going downhill or slowing down, this form of media has taken a hit in the recent growth of newer media technologies. Print media has been around for a while. In ancient Rome, "a daily gazette dating from 59 bce and attributed in origin to Julius Caesar." was posted in public places and was known as the earliest form of publication. This was called Acta Diurna. (britannica, 2014). There are several magazines who have recently stopped printing and have gone strictly to the world wide web, but magazines and books seem to still be thriving somewhat in today's culture.

and lastly, 
 

billboards -- It's a stretch, but think about how much the billboard has evolved from what it simply used to be? Kind of like the print media in Roman times, billboards have blown up over the decades. Now we have what is like a screen to project a selling product. We can use them anywhere from blank space in random fields along the highways to the sides of buildings in cities. The history of the billboard itself is pretty impressive, but that my friend is another topic for another post.



Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/482597/history-of-publishing/28657/The-Roman-Empire

"Social Media." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social media>.

Photo credit
billboard: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/05/15/gms-onstar-patent-suggests-technology-to-tailor-billboards-to-you-minority-report-style/

print media: http://www.scrummylondon.com/blog/using-print-to-promote-your-tourist-business.htm

audible: http://www.scrummylondon.com/blog/using-print-to-promote-your-tourist-business.html

social media: http://www.islandresortandcasino.com/blog/2014/01/stay-connected-with-the-island/