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Assignment 3:

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For this assignment, I compare and contrast between the media usage of two classes of CSCE445 over a decade apart.

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Synopsis:

Despite 15 years passing between the two collections of media usage trends that are described, I believe that the same underlying means of entertainment(video, audio, etc.) have remained preserved. The primary difference between the two classes is that now the user's media is personalized and delivered to an individual, rather than broadcast to an audience. While both groups watched television, listened to music, and read articles in 2004 and 2019, the ways in which the groups obtained this media is drastically different. For the 2019 group, almost all media is delivered by a streaming service that allows the user to pick specific content they wish to consume. In 2004, the user had to make due with what was given to them by the content providers. 2004 users had to watch what was present on the television(typically on a weekly schedule), had to listen to music that was being broadcast on the radio, and read stories that were selected by the publishers in the newspapers. In 2019, the user has access to the collection of almost all media ever produced to consume at their own timing and desire. The user today has significantly more power and options to curate their media intake to their tastes. 

I believe this evolution in media consumption is contributed to the increase in power of the internet infrastructure, that being the wider access of devices with internet access and substantial increases in available bandwidth. The internet has been at the center of the media transformation between the two groups. In 2004, users utilized the internet for low bandwidth tasks: instant message, email, news websites. In 2019, users almost rely primarily on the internet for all their media. Users can stream movies, listen to the world's collection of music, and video-chat with a person across the planet. Today, users are dependent on the internet. Just think about what you use day-to-day that isn't connected to the internet. Almost everything has an internet alternative that is holistically a better alternative if we cast away our biased stances on why we continue to use things such as physical books. 

Wrapping up this summary, I just want to restate my analysis that the media consumption as its core has not changed much since 2004. Back then and today, we still watched videos, listened to music, played games, and communicated with others. No groundbreaking technologies have arisen that provide a drastically different medium of media, such as the first videos from a camera. Aside from social media's emergence, I believe that not much has changed from a medium stance.  I propose that that the primary difference is the platform on which we have come to receive our media. The internet's evolution has allowed the user to consume all the same types of media as in 2004, but today the user has much more of a choice due to the personalize aspect the internet and personal computers provide. Lastly, social media had ceased to exist in 2004, so I consider that to be a big plus for that era. (I chose not to consider this topic because I believe that it didn't pro 

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Types of Media in 2004:

  • Television

    • Lists of popular weekly television shows​

  • Movies​

    • Were considered to be a rare inclusion due to their lack of accessibility.​

    • ​Television was significantly more popular.​

  • Gaming​

    • Gaming was popular, but the games were much smaller in scope than today.

    • MMORPGs, on today's scale, were almost nonexistant in 2004. I contribute their absence to the inability for most user's networks to handle the large information transmission necessary to communicate the actions of thousands of users at once.

  • Music​

    • Music was restricted mostly restricted to the radio in 2004.​

      • Rather than the author including a list of streaming services they use, the 2004 authors talked about their favorite radio stations.​

  • Internet​​

    • Instant messaging and email were the primary things the students used the internet for.​​

  • Books​

    • Reading physical books was much popular in 2004 than today. I contribute the difference due to the lack of deep, immersive available via other mediums in 2004. Books have a timeless quality to them that has not changed over the past millennia. ​For example in 2019, we have the access to games that are able to contain content on scales impossible in 2004. I find that remarkable about books. Despite the evolution of technology, people today still read the same books that were authored in the pre-1000s.

  • Telephone​

    • Students in 2004 considered the telephone to be a medium of media while I believe that users in 2019 glance other this idea. I think of my telephone as much more of a tool(in the realm of voice communication) rather than a medium of entertainment. I think this difference goes to show how the perspective has changed over the past 15 years. I hypothesize that people today find the world to be much smaller than even back 15 years ago. ​

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