Blog # 2

The changes we, as humans, have seen and experienced by media within the last 40 years are more than myself, a Generation Z, could ever imagine. In order to fully grasp the understanding of how media and media technologies have changed over the years, I interviewed my Grandma. My Grandma is 65 years old and has witnessed the changes of media and media technologies first hand. She has been able to live through the age of both old media and new media. My Grandma and I discussed her experience and use of media when she was my age, and the most significant changes in media she identified. Through our discussion I came to my own realizations as to how the media has changed, and some interesting points she made that sparked a curiosity in me. Are you dying to know what she said yet? Keep reading and visualize the differences with me. Maybe what she said will give you the same understanding of old and new media that it did for me or even spark curiosity in yourself. 

Paperboy

We started our discussion with the topic of Newspapers. She discussed with me that there were two papers that you could subscribe to, the one delivered in the early morning, and then the afternoon paper.  This was delivered by a “paperboy” who also came by on a weekly basis to collect what was due on the paper delivery. Check out the picture to the right for a better visualization on what a "paperboy" looks like because if you're anything like me this is a foreign concept to you. The paper was divided into sections, World News, National news, local news sports and then social type news, ie, weddings, deaths, births, etc. The thickness of the paper depends on the size of the city or town. The Sunday paper was really thick and included all the coupons and sales for the week.  Paper was only delivered once on Sunday. Now there are still papers that can be purchased at news stands and delivered by mail although uncommon. The majority of people today obtain the news electronically. Individuals now subscribe to certain news sources such as CNN or NBC, and go to their website for information or have it sent to their email or watch the news on television. 

Next we discussed the Radio. When she grew up there were only local radio stations, playing music and taking short breaks for the news. You listened to the radio at home or in the car or you could if you had a transistor radio. Now there is satellite radio, talk radio, and morning shows people tune into. My Grandma was surprised to learn that many individuals in my generation no longer listen to the radio. I can vouch for my friend and I that we prefer to bluetooth connect our phone and play our personally chosen songs from things such as Apple Music and Spotify.  

Television

Remember this (reference picture to the right)? No? Me either, but my Grandma does! TV’s in households were a fairly new idea when my Grandma was growing up. She told me there were just local channels, which were 3 channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC.   If you had both VHF and UHF frequencies, you could get two extra channels. The networks went off the air around midnight, depending on day or weekend and came back on around 6 AM with the news. There was an antenna on top of the house to receive the TV signal and TV was free. Now we have unlimited channels, cable, satellite. We even have streaming and fiber optic that goes for 24 / 7, and you pay depending on the package you purchase. Learning this would my generation (Generation Z) even be able to survive one day without our Netflix or Hulu? I know personally I watch one Netflix episode a night before bed. When further discussing how television has changed we found ourselves on the topic of Film. For Films there were live actors that filmed on sets or on locations.  There were G, R and X rated movies. They were shown at movie houses and drive in theaters. Now in addition to live actors and on locations and lots, there are now computer generated graphics.  Violence, bad language and nudity, and sex is the norm, and the rating system has changed. Now there are multiplex theaters, and drive in theaters are a thing of the past. It seems to be that the world is again changing and things like cable are disappearing almost as quickly as it began. Households no longer need cable TV thanks to streaming services. It is also said that television is being taken over by Web 2.0. In the article, The New Network, it states, "Today, a new wave of technology is widely speculated to be television’s long-awaited “next big thing.” The interactive platform of Web 2.0 is making a profound impact on both the personal and professional lives of people around the world."

Lastly we discussed our computers and phones. Computers and phones go hand in hand because everything we can do on our computers we can essentially now do on our smartphones. Telephones back then were landline only, which means in your house, or a building and wired to a particular location. You could not carry it from room to room and it had a dial pad, not push button.  It was only local calls and if you called long distance, it cost extra. We now see cell phone technology that has allowed us to take our phones everywhere, and it includes the internet and a camera. She talked about how when she was growing up there were no computers. Now computers are everywhere, can do everything and know all. We are to obtain information about anything at any time of the day. She even talked about how when she was growing up they played card games, board games, and read books to pass time. Although we do still have both card games and board games they are not played as often, and we can play our games on computers, phones, the internet, and on line with others. In addition, we now have game consoles such as the Playstation, etc.. Books used to be hard bound books, with covers and pages that you had to purchase or check out from the library or the book mobile. They also used to swap books with friends. Now we typically obtain ebooks and access them whenever we would like through tablets, computers, and cell phones. 

How I understand new and old media is that they had a lot of the same things we had but to a smaller degree. With the exceptions of computers they still had television, radio, and phones. As the years have progressed and technology has become more advanced we have gained more access and resources to these media forms that already existed. Although they did have a majority of the same things we had it has changed so greatly it could almost be viewed as a whole new invention within itself. In the article, The New Network, it states, “Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest, Shazam—the list of social media platforms in today’s digital media environment is astounding and ever changing.” This statement shows that although we have seen great changes in media we can expect to see even more. Additionally it states, “For television content creators, finding ways to utilize a variety of these platforms for programming is an ongoing experiment.” This statement helps you to understand how traditional media and new media are working together in this day in age.  We have experienced a completely different world than our older generations. I found our discussion on how the radio to be the most surprising. Although I knew the radio has become more advanced I didn’t really ever acknowledge the fact that it meant we didn’t have access to music 24/7. We have become so accustomed to listening to what we want and when we want to think about how not too long ago you strictly had to listen to the music played by the very select few radio stations.  

How we consume media and what type of media is provided to us has changed greatly over the years. It is hard for us to imagine a world where media is so limited due to our ability to constantly consume it being our normal. Discussing the changes the media has gone through just in a short span of time has grown a curiosity of what the world and media will look like in 30 to 40 years from now. I would love to look back at this blog when I am her age and reflect on the changes again. Me and her both can only imagine what the world will look like then. 

References

Cassella, R. (2015). The New Network . How Social Media Is Changing- and Saving- Television.