Video killed the Radio Star...but so did piracy...and the iPod: Technological Change in the Radio Industry

In 2001, Steve Jobs unleashed what has been quite possibly the biggest change in the music industry ever: the Apple iPod. The iPod, introduced in 2001, held 1000 (highly compressed) songs in your pocket that you could take anywhere. This product completely revolutionized the music industry by eliminating the hassle of carrying CDs around and having to change CDs whenever you wanted to play a different artist. Today, that technological change, combined with Apple's software iTunes has severely hurt the radio industry, and caused some radical changes in the music industry altogether, by creating a music and radio industry that is based on digital downloads and sales.

"But that's not the radio industry in the 1920's; tangents are fun, but that paragraph is completely off topic!" It is, but let's be honest here, you weren't around in the 1920's, and neither was I. However, the above example from today can easily be compared to the technological change in the 1920's, which created the commercial radio industry.

Technological change is one of the most driving forces in the world. From the printing press, to radio, to television, and most recently the internet, technological change does not only change the industries around the world, but it changes people around the world. It changes how people communicate and how people give and receive information. The change that will be discussed here is the invention of the radio.

In Greek mythology, the Phoenix is a bird that rises from the ashes. Of course, this analogy is referring to the birth of the radio from the "ashes" of the Titanic. The Titanic disaster not only used radio to send for help,

                                                   (and made James Cameron a billionaire)

but the news of the disaster was broadcast over the radio and thus, the radio industry was created. People, companies, and even the government now knew how powerful of a technology they had on their hands. Sure, the radio was invented before this moment, but it was after the Titanic disaster that everybody realized that it was a viable technology. People flocked to the airwaves, and in the span of about 10 years, hundreds of radio stations had been established. Now, news, music, and various other shows were being broadcast to thousands of people, and the media spread much more quickly.

So there are the 1920s! But how has radio held up today? With the inventions of television, computers, and the internet, the radio is becoming much less of a factor, however; the industry is now in a state of conversion. Many radio stations are still around, but a majority of them have set up online streams that one can access from their mobile devices or their computers. Other, new types of radio stations such as Pandora (my personal favorite) seek to broadcast music, but personalize it to each user's taste by providing them with songs that are similar using "29 proven dimensions of compatibility". Wait, that's E-harmony's slogan. Well, it's still the same basic concept. Songs that have similar things get played. I predict that the actual radio waves will soon be coming to an end, and cars will eventually get nationwide internet connectivity. The movement to the internet would eliminate the need for a bunch of radio towers, and would probably use the 3G (or whatever-G in that time) towers which have already been built. It's a convergence, and probably the future. As you can see, radio continues to be shaped by new technology, even today.

"Social" Networking is the ultimate irony (or, "Internet addiction and you!"; whichever title you prefer)

In 2008, the Pixar animated film "Wall-E" debuted in theaters. The story of a human race who had become so dependent on products and technology that they had completely destroyed not only Earth, but human life as a whole. No, it's not just the story about some "kiddie robot". Anyways, "Wall-E" envisioned the great improvements to human life in the upcoming years, as seen by this still frame:

As you can see, our society has succeeded in becoming absolutely useless. But this is just an exaggeration. There's no real danger of our human race becoming this way. See:

Wait, that's not right. Here:

Our human race is already beginning to exist this way, due to addiction to media. Media addiction is another negative effect of the media, on par with the cultivation theory, stereotypes, etc. It essentially is the inability of a person to stop using a certain form of media. The example from "Wall-E" is just an exaggeration, sure, but the number of people who are becoming exactly like that is increasing exponentially. According to Facebook, the average user spends 7 hours a month online, and even more if you have Facebook on your mobile device. As Betty White said on Saturday Night Live, "Sounds like an awful waste of time". Betty, you couldn't be more right. 


The basic premise behind Social Networking is simple: make it easier for friends to connect to each other, and allow people to meet new friends. Social Networking, by design, is meant to be a "side item" (if you will) to the "entree" that is a person's social life. The problem that has arisen, and continues to rise, is the fact that people have swapped their hamburgers and french fries. A great number of people have begun to use social networks as their main social life, and allowed their real-life social life to fall by the wayside. People aren't using Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace as a compliment to their social life, they are using it as a substitute. 


In trying to become more friendly with people, they become more isolated. This anti-social behavior, or, behavior that society does not value, is leading to more shallow interaction between people in the world. While violence and sexual activity are seen as anti-social behaviors, I would argue that isolation is bigger than all of these. But what causes this isolation? Do people like their friends so much (no pun intended, you habitual facebookers) that they have to stay connected with them at all times, or is it something else? The problem that is going on isn't the hunger for a social life, it's the addiction to the media that is the internet. It's a very basic version of Second Life, or even World of Warcraft and we have seen how addicting those can get. People like placing themselves in a controlled environment, which is a majority of social media sites. They can pick and choose which parts of their personality and image to portray online, which fragments a big part of basic human interaction. The scary part about Facebook is the addition of applications. Various games and apps keep people coming back, and actually endanger people's private information by allowing access to pretty much everything.


So will the future end up like "Wall-E"? While it shouldn't ever get this extreme due to the *ahem* certain drives of people that I won't go into in this blog, I think it will approach this to a point. People will become so reliant on media to interact with each other, that a majority of people will have trouble interacting with others in real life. It's already happening to thousands, if not millions of people. And while you were reading this blog, how many times have you checked your Facebook/Twitter/MySpace?

Media: More Conservative Than People Think

Since the dawn of its existence, the media has always been looked at as a frightening aspect of our culture. Many people don't like or want change, and they reject the media, bashing it as "liberal" or "trying to change society". To an extent this is true. Media often brings to the forefront various social issues and (mostly the news) usually endorses political candidates who are doing the same. What people fail to realize, however; is that there are various aspects of the media that are so blatantly conservative that people fail to realize that the bias is even there. It exists subliminally as part of our idea of common sense. This conservatism is a prime example of hegemony.

Hegemony, quite simply, is the domination of other social or political bodies by the most dominant one. The example here would be the people who make these newscasts, movies, TV shows, etc. The creators of these shows decide what to put out there for people to see, and it starts to change the ideology, or keep the existing ideology the same, of the people that see it.

So back to the example of the media's conservatism. It really is quite blatant when you see it.

Find a person who isn't white in this movie:

Star Wars is considered one of the biggest movies ever, if not the biggest. Often times, people say it "Changed the World" (wired.com). Sure, it was a great movie. It brought together various recurring themes that other movies had just hinted at, and placed them in a fantasy universe. Things such as the great journey, the wise old man, good vs evil, loss, and the dominance of white culture. Seriously, aside from the aliens (who are another species entirely) find a non-white human in this movie. Even Darth Vader, whose voice is that of African American James Earl Jones, is later revealed to be Luke's father, a white man. Even all of the X-Wing pilots in the assault on the Death Star are white. This reinforces the dominance of white culture, which to many just exists as common sense. White culture will always be seen as dominant over others as long as the media continues to portray it that way, and why shouldn't they? The people that make the media are white (in this case George Lucas)!

But that was 1977! Surely things have changed by now! It's a much more social society. It's becoming more equal. Movies now star other races. For example, check out this movie series whose main theme is a fellowship and willing to accept diferences to work together! The third one even won best picture and a lot of other awards!

Oh wait, they're all white too. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. In. The. Whole. Trilogy.

So on one hand we have a media who is seen as promoting social change and diversity, but it almost comes off as hypocritical, because the media itself has failed to adapt to social change and diversity. Nationally televised news shows are usually hosted by white anchors, even though, thankfully, this has begun to change slightly (namely ESPN).  Movies generally star a bunch of white actors, or, to cater to other races, a bunch of black actors, with a few exceptions of course.

The point is, the media is much more conservative than people think. They may promote liberal stories, but nearly their entire business is run by rich white males, and they exert their dominance over the hiring and creative processes. They promote social issues because it appeals to everybody, but that doesn't mean they have to have the minorities of which their stories are about presenting those stories. They still subliminally reinforce the basic ideologies that people have, and that is easily the best example of hegemony in our culture today.