Actions produce reactions. New Year’s predictions of continued growth in TV viewing, Internet use, mobile communications devices and apps, E-readers, order in social media and expanded “Web 3” services (including thinking with us, if not for us) are countered with jeremiads foreseeing the death of advertising, marketing and PR, the decline of critical thinking, Internet portals perishing and pay walls failing and on the bright side the possibility of bringing vast new markets within reach.
“A fateful day is coming when there will be no more advertising, marketing, or public relations,” claims Scott G. on The Club of Amsterdam Think Tank site. “Why? Simple: we’re killing our industry by being too successful at it.” He says the estimated 10,000,000 ads a person in the West will be exposed to in his or her lifetime is actually understated, what with “sponsored data built into your mail, e-mail, Web sites, video games, online games, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and media broadcasts. Ads are delivered by TV, radio, phones, outdoor boards, private vehicles, and transit posters. Marketing messages are sprayed on walls, chalked on sidewalks, printed on condoms, acted out in the streets, waiting to ambush you in restrooms, and beamed at you from electronic displays of every shape, size, and description, including sound-emitting urinal cakes.” He complains that by the pound, the Sunday newspaper advertising inserts outweigh news sections 3 to 1 and the latter contain ads as well, with some of those sections, including automotive, often paid-for puffery. Scott G, who owns G-Man Music & Marketing Miracles in Los Angeles (www.gmanmusic.com) where he creates radio commercials and composes music for radio and TV spots, decries a “pay to say society”, “the NASCARizing of everything,” when we can soon expect to hear: “Welcome to C-SPAN’s coverage of the Halliburton Congress, brought to you by Bechtel.” Writing for www.TechNewsworld.com Richard Adhikari believes the Internet destroys critical thinking because it makes it “alarmingly easy to avoid any troublesome information that might provoke one to really think.” He reasons, “Most people tend to read only what interests them. Add to that the democratization of the power to publish, where anyone with access to the Web can put up a blog on any topic whatsoever, and you have a veritable Tower of Babel.” More profoundly, he cites sociologist Herbert Marcuse to note that what we like is shaped by our industrial culture. Like fish who can tell us little about water, we navigate the Internet unaware of the currents that influence our choices. Portal perishing is what Ari Rosenberg, Online Publishing Insider, believes will happen to AOL, Yahoo and MSN when “boomers log off” because the generations behind them do not use Email, the chief source of revenue for these web portals. He says, “Once kids flip open their cell phones, they stop reading their email. It’s that sudden. For this demographic, communications occurs initially through texting and then onto Facebook.” He predicts there will be lots of maneuvering to stay profitable but the winner will be the portal that acquires or is acquired by Facebook. Eric Sass, writing in MediaPost Online, references a Fitch Ratings report to say, “While a few select newspaper publishers may succeed with a strategy of erecting pay walls around their online content, most of these attempts will fail . . . In areas such as national, international, business and entertainment, news content has become commoditized, with the majority of metro dailies offering content so similar that readers will not feel a need to pay for it.” Sass says Fitch expects most newspapers erecting pay walls to reverse course, especially with other news outlets continuing to offer their content for free. And, a “whole new ballgame” engendered by one of the latest Internet advances, WiFi plus Mobile, is what John Blossom sees, writing in his Shore Communications Newsletter. The continued development of gizmos now on the market will make it possible that, “Our smart phones, our eBook readers, our netbooks, our desktops, our in-home phones and our home entertainment devices can all be brought together on one seamless wifi-based communications medium.” Blossom says: “Today we’re seeing these devices powering personal communications, but I think that the larger potential is for devices that can (affordably) connect communities with one another first and foremost with a minimum of technology.” He sees these local communities connecting to form “bottom up networks” amongst the five-plus billion other people in communities that find themselves on a different economic and cultural playing field than the rest of the world.” |
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Michael Larner, a graduate of USC with degrees in Psychology and Chinese, has been a contributing editor of PC Quarterly Review for the past five years. He is a member of the first generation to grow up fully immersed in interactive media. In addition to recently being named managing editor of the new Automotive section of PC Quarterly Review, Michael’s duties require him to cover advances within the consumer electronics industry and to assess how they will affect our lives.” He can be reached at: mlarner@pcqreview.com
The Destructive Effects of Digital Distraction
With the ever-quickening rate of technological progress, we rarely pause to reflect upon the negative consequences that such advances have had on society. By the late 1990’s, more than 10 million families in America had signed up for unlimited Internet usage. Since then, instant messaging services have become an integral part of the desktop landscape of an ever-increasing number of Generation Y’ers. As the years have passed, that landscape has grown to include a number of instant messaging applications, social networking windows, RSS feeds, streaming media content, and a whole host of other digital content.
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Michael Larner, Managing Editor, Automotive Section, PC Quarterly Review |
Generation Y has become the first generation to integrate multiple streams of on-demand content into their daily lives, while the younger Generation Z will never experience anything but a fully integrated world. And with this consolidation of information, I fear that we’re witnessing a decline of the essential critical thinking and communication skills that have provided the foundation for society’s progress, including the technological revolution.
Given that these streams of information are designed to be digested simultaneously, they have been watered down to make for easier reading. Twitter limits its posts to 140 characters. Status updates on Facebook can only be three times longer. Communicating via instant messaging and texting has become such a prevalent issue that we’ve passed laws dictating when it’s acceptable. Add in the overwhelming number of one-paragraph blog posts that share a single interesting tidbit of content and it’s easy to see how this information can be absorbed so quickly. But an entire generation has been trained to instantly identify and use information in the most efficient manner possible. So when they come across a full-length article, it’s only natural that these same youngsters will revert to skimming the story. This wouldn’t be so bad if it were the extent of the problem, except that it’s not. All of these bite-sized pieces of information take little to no brainpower to extract meaning from and to understand. So, in a use-it-or-lose-it fashion, an entire generation is slowly forgetting how to process information. And, with their skimming method, they’re probably missing some important details as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Matt Farah and his cameraman, Tom Morningstar, work in the “Wild West” of what pundits say will become the heart of consumer automotive communications once the territory has been pacified by protocols and is monetized by a successful paradigm. Rather than enthusiasm expressed in print and delimited by publishers, it is entrepreneurial, visual and self-published with comparatively little capital investment and therefore, plenty of competition. Farah claimed no print credentials and had no on-air experience producing and hosting shows when he was retained to produce the opinionated Garage 419 episodes in Next New Network’s lineup of Internet video shows. His qualifications, like a host of freelance writers before him, began with a life-long enthusiasm for cars (he read his first car magazine at age 7, raced a Go-Kart at age 9, drove a car at age 11 and read and re-read and saved, he says, every issue of Car and Driver and Road & Track published). Other qualifications were verbal fluidity, energy and in his case, unique on-the-job experience. That began when he discovered his study of photography at the University of Pennsylvania would not lead to the income he desired. Instead, he went to work for Gotham Dream Cars, delivering exotic vehicles to their owners. An enthusiast’s “dream job” which led to the recognition that, like thoroughbred horses, these expensive, powerful machines need to run in order to be fully appreciated. |
Not unprecedented but unusual for by-the-numbers Consumer Reports, a subjective evaluation of car brands by adults in 1,750 households with at least one car who participated in a telephone survey ranked Toyota first, but Chevrolet and Ford made significant gains. Ford moved into second place and Chevy into fourth after responses in seven categories were tabulated. Domestics also dominated J.D. Powers’ annual customer satisfaction survey.
Good news – sort of – for auto journalists: automotive advertising by manufacturers will rise 14% in 2010 and from all sources 11% to $19.2 billion total according to a Borrell Associates prediction reported by the Center For Media Research. However, Steve Smith writes in www.Minonline.com that a survey of senior executives indicates money supporting print outlets will decrease and dollars for interactive media will go up. For example, a new Cadillac ad campaign described by Gavin O’Malley in Online Media Daily includes, “a pushdown format, interactive wallpaper, and a custom 3D cube, along with a variety of other interactive features like videos, photo galleries, “360 tours,” and real-time color selection for users.”
And, the squeeze on print dollars very probably explains why Media General, Inc. plans to consolidate the copy-editing and design functions of its newspapers in Winston-Salem, N.C., Richmond, Va. and Tampa, Fla. . . . Which makes 6 Tips for Recovering Journalists a timely offering (with elaborations) by Mary Ann Hogan in Poynter Online: 1) Learn Math, 2) Never Worry About Your Advanced Age, 3) Learn Multi Media, 4) Have a web site and a cool Facebook page, 5) Don’t spend too much time with journalists still in newsrooms and 6) Spend most of your time with creative, innovative types.
Something like a dead end sign, a recent MIT Sloan School of Management study concludes that the more precise audience targeting becomes the less profitable the targeting. That’s because, according to The Center for Media Research, the technology for reaching a specific audience also enables more competition for that audience and thus splinters the profit in doing so.
Lyndon Conrad Bell made artful use of the review copy of Basem Wasef’s book Legendary Race Cars. In his letter from the editor in a recent issue of African-American On Wheels, Bell tells how the book’s recounting of the men and dreams behind 25 of the most significant race cars ever became part of his nourishing the dream of his son, Julian, who wants “To own a company that designs, builds and sells cars” . . . The Aftermarket Fact Book has gone digital with the new issue orderable at www.aftermarket.org. . . . John “Jay” Lamm writes, “Luminaries of the automotive world will help judge each event (three Concours d’Lemons) risking their reputations and stomach linings to oversee classes such as Needlessly Complex Italian, Rueful Britannia, Bad(ge) Engineering, and Most Dangerous.” They will be held March 7 at Infineon Raceway. May2 at Road Atlanta and August 7 at Monterey Toro Park. Speaking of LeMons, below is one of the cars “honored” in recent selections for its “Hall of Blame.”
Just as Ford makes news with its latest in-car interactive electronics, (one writer suggesting it may become the next media company) the Transportation Department and the National Safety Council, a nonprofit group, have formed FocusDriven, an organization aimed at spreading awareness about the dangers of distracted driving, in particular, cell phone use while behind the wheel. New York Times Bits blogger Matt Richel reports many of the citizen instigators of the new group are survivors of loved ones killed in accidents caused by distracted drivers. He says they will pattern their campaign after that of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Coincidently, Sean Kane sent along a copy of the Safety Record published bi-monthly by Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. (www.safetyresearch.net) It features a disturbing article on tests of Driver Distractions and Vehicle Contraptions. Befitting the Fed’s investment in the auto industry, The Washington Auto Show is expanding its efforts to put innovation front and center while providing a central meeting place for policy makers and industry officials as well as consumers and the media. In addition to a public policy media preview days on Capitol Hill January 25, the shows themed, “Change Happens Here” will debut a 65,000 square foot display dubbed the “Advanced Technology Superhighway” at the show itself in the Walter E. Washington Convention January 26-31. |
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