Brave New Media

Jac may not like Twitter, but then again, this time last year I think he would have said the same thing about Face-space or my-book. As for me I thing it is my new "killer app." I remember the day I fell in love with MC. It was a Saturday afternoon and i was engineering live radio. At the other end of the station there was this very old AP computer that would give 2 sentence updates of current events. This particular afternoon it was beeping constantly. The updates it was feeding me was the terminal status of Ronald Reagan. "RR went to the hospital" "RR is getting sick" "rr is yadda yadda... ... dead." I thought I knew information before anyone else and this excited me. I remember as soon as I noticed that RR died I told the host of the radio show and we broke the news to Santa Fe. I knew then that I loved the power of the media. Along those lines here is twitter. Now I can follow friends, colleagues across the country, track hurricanes, break news (although I work in advertising). I loves twitter's simplicity. No bull shit or all bull shit its debatable - bring it on Jac. Now if i can just find the application that pours beer, or wine, or hard liquor.

I attempted to introduce my Publisher to Twitter and open his eyes this new communication tool. But it seemed to get 86ed as quick as I hit enter and sent my email. Experience is the great educator. We learn from what we know and what we have experienced. Perhaps the only way the 'old guard' will learn to appreciate the value in these new applications is if they use it of if it effects them directly. The 'old guard' don't seem to want to give the new a chance unless they see the dividends in their bonuses. Which brings me to my media mediation: which came first the editorial or the advertisement? Of course I realize that editorial content came first but all those bells and whistles were not far behind. But why doesn't the 'old guard' make that same realization and have a greater affinity for the new and the experimental. Newspapers are in such dire straights to make a buck that are not attempting utilize new tools. Whats even worse is that applications like Twitter are FREE. Now, I read the article about some of the newspapers that are using and utilizing Twitter and other applications. In my limited experience, the general corporate culture of newspapers are not digitally savvy.


As for the curriculum in schools, I guess I have always felt an academic narcissism from the majority of my professors. (Cindy is definitely excluded from this list). If experience is the great educator and professors see the world with rose colored glasses what motivates them to change from what is feeding their family. When do we get to old to lose an open mind? What are the side effects of comfort?

Overall I have been more than pleased with my education here at Texas State (much different than my education at SWT I assure you). After reading one of the articles I felt much more please with my program, and I can't wait for the future and where we will all be in 10, 15, and 20 years.