Blog Assignment #5

Digital television has been adopted even faster than color television was years ago. High resolution TV attracted tons of people, plus the Telecommunications Act of 1996 established the change from analog to digital. This switch provided easier access to TV by viewers. However, the ones that wanted to keep their analog TV had to get a converter box.

The move to digital TV brought open skies, HBO, WTBS, MTV and deregulation. DTV enabled broadcasters to no longer be limited to a single station, in the digital world; many broadcasters have launched three or four separate digital channels.

This transition made valuable spectrum available that is been reassigned to firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel. This high-quality TV spectrum is efficient and will ensure first responders can better communicate during emergencies.

Watching a clearer picture on TV matters because this goes along with innovation. Engineers were motivated because of this change and created more channel capacity, better shows, more variety and other devices. DTV enabled creatives to use new techniques and put their creativity on display.

After this switch, not only TV changed to higher resolution, cameras, cell phones and other types of media have more pixels now.

Blog Assignment #4

Camcorders and webcams are not the first communication technologies that pop to your head when you think about communication technologies. These devices have been created from a long time ago and still telephones, cell phones and other communication technologies play a bigger role in consumer behavior.

In my own life, home video technologies are not a big deal at all. I do not go around taping people. The most use I give to a webcam is when I use Skype (which is not really often) and camcorders sometimes when I travel but I have travelled and I have not even touched the camcorders. For YouTube up loaders though, home video technology must be really important.

Well-made videos from a camcorder or webcam are not common. Unless you are a Film major, people are not likely to know how to properly make videos. You can manage to do the basics without having studied it, but the quality and outcome of the video might not be great.

I am a Communication major and I definitely want to know how to shoot and edit a video. The more I can learn about my career, the better prepared I am when it's time to look for a job. In the other hand, I don't think most Comm. majors know how to do it properly. They focus more in advertising, public relations or journalism than in shooting and editing a video.

Blog assignment #3

The theory I chose is the Social Learning theory. I believe this theory is greatly applied in television. Since the beginning of television only wealthy families could afford having one. Neighbors of those families gathered to watch TV and they winded up saying: "ohh that's cool, I want to have one." Every time a new TV gets in the market, such as plasma or LCD TVs a few years ago, people tend to like them and wind up buying them because they saw other people having them.

Several TV shows portray behaviors and attitudes that viewers might find interesting and want to copy them. The first TV show that pops in my mind is "16 and pregnant", which made a lot of controversy. In my opinion, this show represents everything you do not want to go through while been a teen; therefore, it makes you have a negative perception of getting pregnant while been a teen. On the other hand, there are girls who get influenced by what they watched and believe it is ok to be sixteen and pregnant. There are also girls that are dying to become reality TV stars. Girls that are influenced in this way are likely to adopt that behavior, such as the case of the ninety girls that got pregnant at Frayser High School in Memphis, TN. I do not know if the show directly influenced those girls, but I believe it had something to do with it.

Other shows that come to my mind that are likely to have influenced viewers behaviors are Jersey Shore, Charm School and True Life. Violence is one of the primary behaviors that people adopt after watching some of this shows.

Another example of this theory is that once, I saw a friend playing Just Dance 2 for Wii. It looked fun so, I went to a game store a few days later and bought it. Even if I had not bought it, learning happened. As a result, this theory enables the adoption of new technologies.

As time pass by and people get more educated, it is likely that the practice of the Social Learning theory might reduce. As education increases people know better, making them likely to know which behaviors they should copy or not.

Blog Assignment #2

I listen to music through my iPod like 70% of the time. The other 30% I listen to it from my computer. Most of the time I am having a shower, driving or using my computer while I listen to it. If I get tired of my iPod while driving, I would put the radio on in order for me to know about new songs, but that does not happen very often. Obviously, if I go to a bar (which happens like two times a week), I'll be exposed to continuous loud music for hours.

I LOVE music. My life would be nothing without music. Since I was little, I've been always interested in how to play instruments and how to sing. I took piano, guitar y singing classes. I am not a professional in any of those instruments, but I know peculiar things about music. I like everything, from samba to blues. I also write songs. Music fulfills my soul. I think it is one of the most creative ways of expression. Just like Friedrich Nietzsche said: "Without music, life would be an error."

Blog Assignment #1

My name is Laura, I am from Panama and I'm 20 years old. I study Communications with a minor in Business and I'm a junior. I'm not constantly seeking new electronic toys. If I see something that I like I will get it eventually but it's not something that I constantly look for. I usually wait a while after the product is launched so that I can get a cheaper price. I like electronic devices because they make your life easier and they provide more variety. However, I dislike the fact that there is less face-to-face communication. In addition, I'm not a fan that cool and old devices get replaced and forgotten like the Nintendo NES, phonographs, etc.

I don't use the radio quite much. My experience with it is hearing the DJs speak on and on, and the signal was not quite good sometimes. That's why I rather listening to my iPod or a CD. If I happen to not have any of those I don't mind listening to the radio but I will get tired of it eventually. I think it's actually good to listen to it sometimes because I get updated on one or two new songs.

My family and friends use it mostly in their cars every day.

Since the radio is the cheapest, easiest and one of the oldest ways to get information, I don't think it will go anywhere in the future. There are a lot of poor people that hear the news or music that way only. In the worst-case scenario, if there is a crisis like a flooding or a hurricane, I think people are more likely to carry the radio with them instead of other communication devices because it's portable (the battery ones don't depend on electricity in case there is a power outage) and smaller than other communication devices. By saying that radio is "one of the oldest ways to get information" as one of its benefits, I mean that older people know how to use it. It's not a complicated device, that's why older people don't look down on it.

Obviously, it has developed like every other communication device. Now we have the satellite radio, which its signal is transmitted through one or more satellites. Therefore, it can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations.

I believe that the satellite radio, neither other future modernized radios will succeed as much as the traditional one did. I think it will be very complicated for future modernized radios to beat ten years to reach 50% of U.S. household penetration and being the number one communication technology.