Media Now

This was an eye-opening and interesting look into the media. There were many statistics and studies done on the media I didn't even know they conducted. One of the interesting points I found was the growth in online news. I knew, of course, that newspapers were a dying breed and that many people used their tablets/iPhones/SmartPhones/etc. for surfing the web. However, I had no idea how much of that was attributed to online news websites like Fox, MSNBC, CNN, and the like. The online news industry grew 17.2% in 2011, outdoing the 4.5% of Network TV, and the 1% of Local TV, Audio, and Cable TV. Along the same lines, Facebook and Twitter are beginning to surface as sources of news also. At this point social networking only accounts for 9% of people's news sources. Twitter users were nearly split between the sense that they would get this news elsewhere (43%) and that they would not (39%).A majority, 56%, of those who get news recommendations from Facebook say they think they would have gotten that news from somewhere else. Only a third, 34%, said they would not have seen it otherwise.

The decline of newspapers was no secret. The numbers and rate at which print has dropped was quite astounding. Newspapers seem to have no hope in sight. They aren't able to come up with a viable game plan against network news. Network news channels such as ABC, CBS, and NBC are growing rather rapidly. All three saw an increase in revenue and viewership. This is pretty much the same song for magazines who've not seen an increase since 2009. I'm not surprised by these statistics necessarily, just how drastic they are. The digital age is rapidly taking over all aspects of American life with no hope for those who would like to keep things simple and old timey.

I thought this site was very interesting and informative. I learned quite a bit about the contrasts of the different medias of today and how "digitized" we are really becoming. There is so much on this site and the charts and graphs lay out the statistics and numbers so you can understand and learn about the media of today. Overall, I enjoyed writing this particular blog and getting to work with this website.