Mass Media vs. Reality

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with some non-radio people and it was their perception that radio was dead. They had moved on. I pressed further to find out more of how they got their information and how they shared it with others. What was clear was their deep desire to have complete control over their environment.

Radio is certainly not dead, but it's worth paying attention to what 'they' think.

Recently, I spent time with some friends and their 18-year old daughter. I was fascinated to watch her create her environment. I marveled as she traveled between the half dozen windows open on her Mac laptop. She was downloading a movie torrent, Skyping with her boyfriend who is in Japan on a work term, listening to iTunes, reading about the U.S. election, updating Facebook and putting up with my annoying questions.

Her entire life is at her fingertips and if she doesn’t know something she knows where to find it.

This is not a demographic issue. I’ve had friends comment about how I can juggle eleven things at once and keep track of them all. I have conversations with my father about how he finds music and the latest online games and he’s seventy.

So how does that affect mass media? The short answer - in every way.

If you create content to be delivered on radio, television or the vast ocean that is the Internet, it can be overwhelming.

So, how do you find an audience? How do you keep an audience? How you find the needs and desires of said target audience?

A good start – be interesting and remarkable.

km