Future of Mass Media

My last post made me think that most of the things I’ve been writing about are typically negative. In truth, that’s something that I struggle with a lot, since I typically don’t have much to talk about in relation to things that I enjoy; I simply enjoy them and don’t talk about it too much. Talking about my interest in the state of communications and why I decided to switch over from a different career got me thinking about my career-specific reasons for entering this industry, rather than the mental reasons I decided on it. While I’ve made it clear that I’m none-too-pleased with the state of the media, there are some aspects that I really do like about it. Particularly, I’ve had a lot of interest in radio for a long time, specifically talk radio. I’ve talked about how the FCC and lawyers have been steadily ruining AM and FM for a long time now, and I feel that the last bastion of hope lays in satellite radio, like SiriusXM.

Uncensored, unfiltered radio on XM is the only place where freedom of speech exists on a mass scale, barring the jumbled internet. XM is to radio communications what premium channels are to cable, but even premium TV has some limits and people do crack down hard on them at times. Even XM has faced some backlash over the past 10 years for mostly harmless things, and it has started to slowly go the way of FM in its early stages of regulation; however, I like the concept of all these excellent radio personalities combining in one place, most of them in the same building actually, and they work together to help each other’s shows out.

An example of this are my favorite guys on the radio, Opie & Anthony, who are just guys that speak unfiltered and say what they think without having to filter it and dumb it down, regardless of how politically incorrect it is. My first exposure to them was back in the mid-late 90s in Boston, when they were on the local radio in the city. They had just started, so they had some hacky bits at times, but compared to the other, extremely filtered radio at the time, they were many times better. That is, until they made a joke about Mayor Menino dying in a car crash, albeit on APRIL FOOLS, thus obviously being a joke. However, they were kicked off of the air for this obvious joke, because of overreacting FCC censors and immature people. They stuck to their guns, moved down to WNEW in New York, and even got syndicated in Boston again after a while, before a stunt committed by a viewer calling in, not spurred on by the hosts, where the viewer had sex with his wife in a church and got them kicked off again, even though you obviously couldn’t see it on the radio, and it was the callers’ own choice in a weird, misguided attempt to be funny. XM recognized their talent for humor and unfiltered opinions and immediately signed them upon their contract with Clear Channel running up, and they essentially lead the way for big names to join XM.

People like them, despite the restrictions they have to follow from XM bosses after the Sirius merger, give me some hope for the future of communication. Regardless of whether people like them or find them tasteless, freedom of speech has just been under attack for so long that it’s hard for supporters of that freedom to not also support people like them. XM shares a lot of similarities with another form of new media in the social networking age, particularly Podcasting. A lot of great comedians and hosts have started podcasts, and the quality has been surprisingly good in terms of entertainment and production, much better than YouTube channels and vlogs. Both XM and podcasting are created specifically to reach large audiences without the hassle of syndication contracts, and the same thing has essentially happened ever since the switch to digital TV, and from this I started to notice a trend; everything is moving toward mass communication.

TV OnDemand services, Netflix, Podcasts, XM, even video game systems and their online communities; all of them have been moving toward an epoch with similar communication models, and eventually, the lower grade technology is going to switch to these upgraded systems as they become obsolete. It’s becoming ever-closer, and it’s something that I aim to be a part of, much like the Dot-Com bubble in the 90s; not only will it be an excellent financial opportunity, but I predict that it will be the next step in mass communication. What use are weak FM and AM frequencies going to be soon, when everybody has a handheld device connected to the internet and the ability to access things? As wireless signals get stronger every year and internet servers get cheaper, why wouldn’t cars have an internet connection and subscription model right from their car with hundreds of nationwide channels, which has already occurred on satellite radio systems? People hate advertisements, and XM channels have very few to none, with most of the commercials being on the more expensive premium subscriptions, as opposed to FM which has tons of commercials. The only niche they would need to fill is local news, but even that is starting to disappear with social networking causing people to focus more on mass communication.

The last few innovations started with internet, then cell phones, followed by wireless internet, satellite radio, social networking, smart phones, and now podcasting, which has been around for almost 10 years when iPods came out, has finally started to really catch on, and I feel that future is finally on the horizon, as different types of media started to combine into one fluid system.