Monday, April 9, 2012

Media Technology in Communications



Web blogs, television, podcasts, and websites are media technologies that are used by corporations, journalists, and actors/actresses, and others. All these media technologies have an intended audience, user, and purpose. Marketing firms recognize the power of these technologies and use them to get out to mass markets.
 “To be more detailed the intended audience for web blogs is ‘bloggers themselves, and people interested in the topic of discussion on the blogs’” (Marsh, Guth, & Short  2009, p. 108; Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). “The users are the intended audience; ‘companies that want to get information out to their target audience; and writers of every sort’” (Marsh, Guth, & Short, 2009, p. 108; Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). According Marsh, Guth & Short (2009), “a web blog is short for Web log, which is an online personal essay” (p. 108). “Bloggers spend twice as much time online as U.S. adults 18-49, and spend only one-third as much time watching television (Good, 2008). “The ROI (return on investment) value of social media as a tool for brand building is a powerful in theory, but the metrics on its performance are still a work in progress, and not yet accepted widely in marketing circles” (Good, 2009). The way any media technology is measured is by CPM, which stands for click per minute. Each click per minute is a measure taken into consideration in order to determine the return on investment for a marketing firm (Good, 2008). Without any actual figures researched in regards of cost of a web blog versus return on investments a corporation cannot go wrong by any means. A corporation can do what some bloggers do and go to Google Blog, and create a blog for free, in turn; the return on investment is nothing but profitable.
 “Then for television, the intended audience is for TV viewers, and people who otherwise would not be able to learn about different topics and issues because of being illiterate” (Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). “The users for television media are ‘journalists, politicians, news casters, and small and large businesses’” (Marsh, Guth, & Short, 2009; Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). Now, “the purpose of television advertisements is to motivate the viewer to take a desired action, usually in the form of a marketplace transaction” (Marsh, Guth, & Short, 2009, p. 144). Stating that television even though it is a media technology is more effective in the online arena than in a traditional environment of sitting in the living room, and watching television programs with commercials. The reason for that is because of advanced technology, such as, the DVR or digital video recorder, a viewer can record television shows and fast forward through the commercials. According Nielson.com, “the expansion of new media technologies and devices has turned the average media consumer into a new breed of media mogul who chooses when and how to enjoy their content”. “The average American spends 20% of their day watching television”; in turn, the 80% percent is spent elsewhere (Nielson.com). Television ratings is measured by the Nielson organization my measuring who is watching what channel, when, and if it is a movie, TV show, news, or even a commercial (Nielson.com). With all the electronic methods of measuring Nielson using all the time a company investing in broadcasting will get an overview on what is working and what is not; so they can carefully decide how they are going to get a return on investment (Nielson.com).
“Now, according to Marsh, Guth, and Short (2009), ‘a podcast is an audio and/or video program’” (p. 111;  Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). “Stating that the intended audience are ‘stockholders, customers, government regulators, voters, and employees’” (Marsh, Guth, & Short, 2009, p. 111; Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). “The users are organizations, politicians, actors/actresses, singers, and other people whom want to get word out on policies, procedures, a new product, a formal apology, a statement, and/or interviewers” (Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). Podcasts can be an audio cast where there is no visual and a person can listen to someone’s lecture; instructions on how-to; or even a CEO of a company making an announcement. On the other hand, there are video podcasts where a person can see someone doing a lecture; instructions on how-to; or that CEO of the company making an announcement.  For example, an organization wants to announce the previous year’s achievements, and what the current year’s goals are to everyone in the organization from entry level clear to upper management. The organization uses a podcast to relay this information to its employees. According to Marsh, Guth, and Short (2009), “podcasts do not have a standard time length; they should be long enough to fulfill their strategic message without taxing listeners’ patience; if a podcasts is a lecture, experts recommend a length of no more than 10 minutes” (p. 113).  “Just as with blogs, the best way to learn to write good podcast scripts is to listen or watch podcasts”, states Marsh, Guth, and Short (2009, p. 112).
 “From experience, the intended audience for websites is people that use the internet as their main source for research, shopping, information, and reading the news” (Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). “The users are customers, social networkers, bloggers, online gamers, people who email, people that go to school on line, and people whose hobbies consist of information that is found online” (Spriggs, 2012, COM480 Week 2, DQ 1). For example, a social networker will go onto a website, such as, Facebook, to connect with old friends, share pictures, and share stories. The website needs to be created in such a way that is people friendly, and the users can navigate through pages easily. For a website selling products, it has to be created in such a way that is eye appealing, persuasive, and also people friendly. People friendly means an average person can go to the website and find what they are looking for very easily or the person may become frustrated and go to the competition.  Do you ever get frustrated going to a major corporation’s website only to find out it is difficult to navigate through or it does not lead you to another page you want to go to? Do you ever try to go onto a website to pay a bill just for it to tell you that you are entering a wrong account number or account number not found? Do you ever go to a website or attempt to go to the website, and find out it is not connected to that website? By having a well-written; people friendly; easy to access information website an organization cannot go wrong.
  Web blogs, television, podcasts, and websites are media technologies that are used by corporations, journalists, and actors/actresses, and others. All these media technologies have an intended audience, user, and purpose. Marketing firms recognize the power of these technologies and use them to get out to mass markets.







References
Marsh, Guth, & Short (2009). Strategic Writing: Multimedia writing for public relations, advertising and more. (2nd Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Good, R. (2009). Online Advertising performance and ROI: The changing value of online ad impressions. Retrieved from www.masternewmedia.org/online-advertising-performance-and-roi-the-changing-value-of-online-ad-impressions

Good, R. (2008) Online Marketing Trends: Brands Meet Blogs - State of the Blogosphere 2008. Retrieved from http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_marketing_trends_brands_meet_blogs

Nielsen.com (n.d.). How will you adapt to the media landscape to stay ahead of consumer demand and the competition? Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/industries/media-entertainment.html?gclid=CNCMvqz5pa8CFYXNKgodghUPXA
Nielsen.com (n.d.). Television measurement. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/measurement/television-measurement.html

 




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