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Current | Archives
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Monday, May 12, 2008
homophily
On NPR last week there was a story about homophily. From the on the Media website. Consuming the same media as your peers is what social scientists call homophily, better known as ‘birds of a feather flock together’. Ethan Zuckerman, blogger and internet theorist, has been trying to fight this instinct online. He offers techniques for surprising and challenging readers with news that they didn't know they wanted. I have thought about this idea for a long time. I have listened to people talk about communities on the internet. The problem is that communities on the internet are self selected and that leads to homophily. This is not an idea that is new in my life. When I was young all of my friends were close to my house. All you needed to be my friend was to be close to my house and us not want to punch each other. Until 6th grade this seemed to be the same for all the kids in my neighborhood. In Junior High School people grouped together by interests. Since I could get around on my bike, I could be much more selective about the people who I hung out with. In high school I had a car and could be very selective about my friends. I think that homophily is happening all the time. The question is about how much can we filter out the views of other people? Can we get in a world that we never have any outside opinions? I think we can, but it is up to us not to do that. We the people have to drive ourselves to find views that are different than our own. Too many people do want to do that right now. Labels: homophily, NPR, on the media
- Rich,
12:10 PM
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Black Search Engine
I heard a story today about Rushmore Drive from On The Media. Rushmore Drive is a search engine that is focused on Black people. Not only African Americans, but Africans, Afro-Caribbeans and Black people anywhere else in the world. The idea is that Google is currently a one side fits all solution. Minority have different ideas of what should show up on search results. I am interested in the idea that different things are important to different people. Right now Google is the king of search. I am not sure if Google gives the same search results depending on who is searching. Do people with the same ethnic background want the same search results. I am not sure the best way to figure this one out. There are two possible outcomes if this kind of search is important. Large search engines will let people tweeks the results that come to them. Letting people actively and passively edit the results that are served up to them. Smaller search engines will pop up that try to cater to people. I think that these search engines will not stop an ethnic ideas, but other lifestyle groupings. I think that gamers will get their own search engine, photographers will get there own search engine, and movie fans will get there own search engine. I searched for Rich Thomas on Rushmore Drive. I come up second on this search, which is better than Google where I show up 4th. My photo comes up on the search, but my blog does not come up on the blog search. It is good to know everyone can find me if they are looking for me. Search might not be the same in the future. There is an idea that we are getting to the end of Keyword search. Tagging has already had an impact on the way searches work. Who knows what search will be about in another five or ten years. It is possible that Google is something that is no longer important in 10 year. Labels: google, NPR, on the media, Rushmore Drive, search
- Rich,
8:04 AM
Monday, May 28, 2007
Favorite NPR Show
I am not sure if most people know or not, but I am a huge NPR fan. My guess is that most of my friends already know that. My favorite show on NPR is On the Media. I like this show because it looks at the news and how it is covered. In a world of spin and counter spin looking at the way the news is covered is very important. People on both the left and the right thing that the media is the enemy. People on the center left and center right are cynical about the media. People in the center wonder why the media is not doing a better job. I do not think anyone is happy with the media, maybe for maybe some of the people in the media. It is not enough to just complain about the media and throw your hands up. It is easy to just let the Daily Show be the only place you get your news. The problem is that will not make anything better. It will just let the people who watch To Catch a Predator decide what is on the news. I think that listening to On The Media is doing something about it. It is at least a start in the right direction. There is also a lot of good blog material on this show. Not only can you hear this show on your local NPR station. You can also hear it via podcast. That is how I have been listening to it. Labels: Daily Show, media, NPR, on the media
- Rich,
7:09 PM
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Killing Internet Radio
I have been thinking about the new internet radio fee structure. I think the Copyright Royalty Board is making a mistake by change. I am not saying that the fees cannot go up, but I think it is really early in the life of internet radio for the fee structure to change to radically. This is not the case where there are internet radio companies that are just raking in the revenue and the copyright royalty holder and being left out in the cold. I am not sure who is lobbying for this change, but my guess is that there will be few winners here. I think that the record companies might win, but individual royalty holder might lose. Increasing the fee structure is likely to send small internet broadcasters out of business. There is a good chance that the increase payment from the other broadcasters will not make up for the revenue that will be lost by sending smaller companies out of business. It will be bad for smaller record labels and smaller artists. They will be losing the venue to be heard and the revenue from being played on smaller internet broadcasters. If internet radio stations go away, I think this will encourage people to pirate music. A lot of these internet radio stations free to listen to. If they are not around many of those listeners will find other no cost ways to find music. What little money is going the the royalty holder would go away. I find this to be a little funny in the light of the XM and Sirius merger. One of the arguments for why the merger would be fine is because there is so much internet broadcasting out there. My guess is the XM/Sirius will not change their stance. I do not listen to much internet radio. I have way too much music to listen to already. I want there to be internet radio to be out there. The promise of the internet is that size does not matter. I will be able to find very specific niches out there. This change is designed to kill off some of those niches out there. That is a bad thing. In the end internet broadcasters will set up outside the US. In the US there is no door on the internet to block them. It is bad for business. That is reason enough for the US not to make this mistake. Read more about it. Labels: broadcast, copyright, Copyright Royalty Board, internet radio, media, on the media, radio
- Rich,
3:51 PM
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Air America Close to Signing Off?
I am not surprised that Air America filed bankruptcy. I will admit that I am not a huge radio fan, but I respect radio. This is not the first time Air America has run into problems. I remember hearing a story about Air America on NPR's On The Media. (I do not remember the specific show) The problem is that you cannot just stick a talker in front of a microphone and expect it to be good radio. The host or the producer has to understand radio. They have to know how to keep a audience through a brake and how to pace a show. Whenever I listed to Al Franken his shows sounded like he knew nothing about radio. When I worked in radio I remember that Rush Limbaugh's audience was extremely loyal to the sponsors to the program. When Snapple first launched nationally they advertised on Limbaugh. They could see the effect on their sales. Even as the ratings feel the audience would buy the products that were advertising on the show. I am not sure Air America ever got that loyalty. I wonder if it because their target audience is more cynical about advertising From the New York Times: "It was doomed to fail," Mr. Limbaugh said, according to news wire reports. "They were not a broadcasting concern to begin with. ... They went into business to affect elections." When I worked for WNZT in Columbia PA I talked to the owner a lot. He did not care about the politics of the shows he ran. He just carried that they made money. He was a very political man, but he knew that business was business. That is the problem with putting politics before business. Labels: air america, news, on the media, radio, Wikipedia
- Rich,
3:36 PM
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Open Letter to On The Media- Hot in Hollywood
I heard your interview with Laurie David and I had to write to you. I did not watch Earth to America because I cannot listen people who have made millions of dollars off television ads tell me how bad global warming is. I do not think TBS is going to stop taking ads revnue from people or companies who are causing global warming. Do these people not know that they are at the center of consumer culture? Did they not see the car ads during their shows? If they are not going to own up to their part of global warming what good is it for them to talk about it? Larry David might drive a Prius, but what does his total environmental footprint look like? If you add all the money he made from car advertisements from Seinfeld, what does it look like? I am happy that Oprah did a show about global warming, but who is advertising on her show? How is Oprah going to spend the money she got from that show? I am happy that Laurie David can pat herself on the back, but just getting these issues in the media does not really change anything. Hollywood is still making money off the business culture that is polluting. Until this changes, all of Laurie David's efforts are just window dressing. Labels: environmental, hollywood, Larry David, Laurie David, NPR, on the media, Oprah, pollution, Prius
- Rich,
3:18 PM
Monday, May 13, 2002
Really Postmodern Music
Really Postmodern MusicThe show On The Media had a feature about Dictionaraoke. If you go to the web site, you will find out how freaky this music really is. My Favorites are How Soon Is Now and Nothin' But A G Thing. There is something truly Postmodern about this artform. I am finding myself listening to the same tracks over and over again. I can almost hear my friend Ray say right now "Stop Using Your Mind As A Toy!" Labels: dictionaraoke, mashup, music, on the media, post mondern
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