Skip to main content

Welcome!



Welcome!

This is a technology, media, and culture analysis blog. Here you'll find tidbits on trends and technology.

As you read the infidivual posts, you'll see one common theme: technology has dramatically changes the way we live, work, and interact.

For communications professionals, the workplace has transformed. First of all, the workplace may not actually be a physical place, since technology enables us to work from anywhere. This changes the game for communications professionals mentally. We must prioritize to cut through the cacophony of information, as well as look at things with fresh eyes to reinvent as technology moves forward (read "Prioritize and Reinvent"). In order to accomplish that, we must be constantly learning, focusing on becoming more nimble communicators instead of digging into a niche (read "Be Nimble, Not Niche").

Culturally, we have come to expect not only convenient but meaningful interactions online, especially through social media (read "Know how to Get Social" and "Collaborate to Communicate"). And the way we interact with technology is becoming more social--we're talking to devices, asking them questions and consulting them for advice (read "Find Your Voice").

While some claim that technology has given us more time in our day (read "More Technology, More Time?), it has certainly increased the expectation that communications professionals are "always on." This represents both a technological and cultural limitation; technology paradoxically saves us time while connecting us to a wider array of time-consuming activities, and we are culturally expected to be connected. Kolodzy (2013) points out that "media multitasking continues to grow as a habit, especially for individuals under age 30," (p. 4). In the future, I hope a healthier balance between expectation and access is obtained--one that acknowledges that, while technology is advancing with increased capacity, the people using the technology are still only human.



References
Kolodzy, Janet. (2013). Practicing Convergence Journalism: An Introduction to Cross-media Storytelling. New York: Routledge.

Popular posts from this blog

Collaborate to Communicate

For communicators who are used to a one-way broadcast, today's media landscape is not very receptive. People are used to participating in communication and having their own voices broadcast to followers, thanks to the popularity of social media. Löwgren and Reimer (2013) point out,  "w ith many new forms of digital media--including such popular social media as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr--the people formerly known as the audience no longer only consume but also produce and even design media." The modern communicator must know how to have a conversation with people online, especially through social media and review sites. Through social media, people can engage with entities by tagging them, direct messaging them, and more. In review sites, companies often have the ability to respond to reviewers, joining a conversation that is being had about them.  In these circumstances, it's important for communications professionals to engage in a way that is authentic...
Read more

Find Your Voice

Marketing and Communications professionals often talk about "brand voice" as a nebulous characteristic of brand identity, but it will soon mean something more tangible--or audible. As voice search becomes more advanced--Tynan (2017) says " t oday’s voice discovery tools are about as basic as a Yahoo search circa 1995" --so too will the opportunities for brands to break through the noise and make their voice heard.  With the technology of devices like Amazon's Alexa, new opportunities to communicate will carve out new spaces for advertisers. Could companies pay to become the first recommendation Alexa makes, much like a paid ad to come up as #1 in a Google search? But as the technology has opened up new access for consumers, so too has it opened up their cultural expectations. Tynan (2017) points out, " rather than optimizing for the top keywords, brands will need to focus on more complex natural language queries... [people] tend to ask more detailed...
Read more