CBC had a media analyst on the current this morning who has done some research that says people still LOVE their traditional media (print, radio, TV, magazines).
Peter made a great observation to me that many people have the tendency to believe that the decline in traditional media has to do with a loss of interest. What we got to talking about is the fact that maybe it's not about interest but has much more to do with loss of time.
Maybe technology is the media equivalent of having a child. It’s not that you don’t still enjoy and want to do the activities you did before birth, it’s just that you simply don’t have the hours in the day to fit it all in.
With so many choices and the ever-increasing numbers of media types and technologies that support them, what we want to do, and what we are able to accomplish are two completely different things.
Thursday 29 March 2007
Loss of Interest or Just Loss of Time?
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"A new medium is never an addition to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never ceases to oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them." - Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media p. 174
The media analyst that CBC had extolling the virtues and longevity of traditional news delivery was from, of course, a traditional news delivery organization. And I never trust research that sets out to prove (or disprove) a hypothesis.
Great quote (you are the MM quote master after all)....
And I don't disagree with you about research in general but his point about pple still loving trad media seemed to ring true to me. But of course, I was listening to CBC radio at the time. ;-)
the bound book, i thought, when peter mentioned your conversation. books, my first-still-abiding love. the network won't supersede this relationship, why should it, but it has altered it.
books used to signify an investment of time, time to spend or spent reading. that's still so, only less so.
while the basic design of the book is unchanged, tech has given the design a new affordance, magically. time. so, to borrow from mcluhan, a new medium enhances an old one. away from the ever-demanding Kid Tech, i crack open a book & what? i create time.
reading a book, i used to sacrifice time, now doing so, i make time. same medium, new message (massage).
Love your insight Peter. It's what it all comes down to now. What we value the most, we give our time to. Speeding up is important but slowing down equally so. Creating time. A great way to put it.
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