It's time again for another response I have to post for my class. Disregard anything past here -->
The End?
The End is a series put together by the CBC and hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. It focuses on the effects that new technologies, primarily resulting from the development of Web 2.0, are having on traditional analog technologies; radio, television, and print.
Radio existed in largely the same format for decades after its inception, but in just the last decade, has changed dramatically. One of the biggest initial developments was the invention of satellite radio. As opposed to traditional radio that is bogged down with commercials and offers little in the way of customization, XM satellite radio offers hundreds of specialty channels catering to listeners specific preferences, largely commercial free. Although you have to pay for the satellite radio, there now exist new free forms of radio as well. Podcasts have drastically changed the radio landscape, offering the user to not only listen to programs that are more finely tuned to their interests, but the ability to download and store the content for later use. Without a doubt the biggest change to radio, or music in general as a result of internet progression, is the invention of music downloading services like napster, limewire, and eventually iTunes. Although pirated free music has delivered a crippling blow to the music industry, pay-per-download sites like iTunes and Amazon have been met with comparatively large success in the market in a very short amount of time.
In terms of television, it is impossible to ignore the influence YouTube has had on all forms of media in the last couple of years. Offering the ability to upload and view videos instantly, from around the world, creating a community millions strong in the process, YouTube is the epitome of a Web 2.0 success story. Other ways in which users can watch videos outside of television include the Slingbox, downloading videos using BitTorrent, even streaming content directly to cell phones.
The effect of Web 2.0 on print is a more recent development which effects are being seen more and more prominently. With the advent of blogs, Wikipedia, Google Books, and E-Readers, the importance of physical print documents is beginning to be questioned. Where once the question of print dying was absurd, it now seems not quite probable, but surely plausible. Online versions of traditional media, like the New York Times shows that, although they may say they are not worried about the future of print, they are not confident enough to completely ignore it.
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