October 31, 1950…Trick Or Treat? My Parents Would Say, BOTH!

October 31, 1950…Trick Or Treat? My Parents Would Say, BOTH!

Yep, today’s my birthday and at 3:20 this afternoon, I’ll be 64 years old. I’m not sure, but that probably makes me the oldest student at The University Of Georgia.

Most don’t know, but in August, I started back to school at my old alma mater to take some classes I thought would be interesting and helpful. The class I am taking now is on Media Technology and friends, I am here to tell you…it’s a whole new ballgame! Did you know that modulation is now “bit depth” and frequency is “sample rate”?

As an analogue guy in a digital world, I can hum the tune but the lyrics seem to have changed a good bit. It’s interesting though and so are my fellow students…especially their way of being. Fortunately, I’m not the only one taking notes on paper, but my Motorola Razor phone sure is a rarity.

The long, slow decline of television news has bothered me for years, and although I know how the trainwreck started at CBS in the 80s when accountants suggested making the news a profit center (instead of being supported by the entertainment side), some new aspects of this phenomenon are revealing themselves as we study “convergence” which is the process of merging print, broadcast and online news systems.

You would think that more access to more news would be better all around, but in my opinion…it has weakened reporting, especially in the mainstream media. Now, there are more blogs and more opinion based bloggers but fewer journalists reporting “news”. You would also think that with plenty of choices of political slants (like MSNBC vs Fox), people who wanted to understand both sides of a story would be better informed by having the ability to go to the other outlets, but…this seems to cause even more polarization. Why? Because human nature, being what it is, people tend to stay in their comfort zones and thus, find even more support for their beliefs on the web at sites like The Drudge Report or Huffington Post.

As for the softness of network evening news shows with all the YouTube videos and feel good stories…I know you guys are doing it to snare a younger demo, but you can stop now. They are not coming to dinner with you, so how about going back to real news with real reporters? Thank you for being a part of Eyes Of A Generation and Happy Halloween! -Bobby Ellerbee

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