Good for a T'comm prof...but is it good overall?

One of the things I love about being a professor in Telecommunications is that my subject matter is certainly one that students recognize as a vital part of their lives. As an example of that, consider the new data from Nielsen showing that, on average, the American home contains more television sets than people!

However, with viewing up (on average the set is on almost 1/3 of the day...8 HOURS), I wonder if that is truly a good thing. I have been torn lately with all the non-TV related things I want to do and all the new or returning shows coming on now that the Fall premiers are here. For example, I'm taking a class at IU this semester on the math/statistics program Matlab. It's a very useful program...one that will certainly help in my research work. I'm also teaching a course on Psychophysiological Responses to Media and there are a variety of resources I'm exploring during my preparations for that course...which I find both interesting and enlightening, and ultimately helpful for the book project I'm involved in. Then there are piano lessons, dad-and-husband-stuff, etc. etc. etc.

All these things are huge draws to me...but then, there is: Grey's Anatomy, My Name is Earl, CSI, Numb3rs, Dirty Jobs, House, Bones. All of which have returned and been placed in my Tivo cue. And there are all the new shows: The Nine, Ugly Betty, Studio 60...time to buy more screens I suppose.

Shufflesition

I thought that some might be interested in checking out the latest creative work by Andrew Bucksbarg and his graduate student Charlie Hoyt. It's called Shufflesition (say it like 'composition)...and it's a game that uses ipod shuffles to deliver instructions to individual game players. Each player acts out the instructions--which vary from "clap three times" to "pretend you are a tornado...spin tornado, spin!". When you get several players responding to different instructions simultaneously it makes for interesting times for the players...and for people watching them.

Check out the Shufflesition website, and good luck to both Charlie and Andrew as they take Shufflesition on the road to the Come out and Play Festival this week in New York's Central Park

Z100 goes to the mobile phone

One of the largest CHR's in the country has made a deal with Cingular wireless to deliver their audio to subscribers' cell phones. Subscribers can also get downloads of special podcasts of artist interviews, plus get a signal sent to their phone 15-minutes before their favorite song is set to play.

Check out the Radio and Records article here: Click Me

The station, Z100, is owned by Clear Channel which says it will make similar deals with other stations in the coming months. The stations get very little of the roughly $4 monthly fee--most of it goes to Cingular. But, it's a way to get the station in the minds of listeners in a mobile way.

What's the name of that song?

When I was in the radio industry, focus group research would always tell us that something listeners HATE is not having the DJ announce the title of the song and who the singer/group was. Now this used to be a way for the live/local stations I used to work for to super-serve the local audience as a competitive move against the voice-tracked competitors coming from a far away city and unaware/unable to back-announce the songs.

After I left the industry I was always surprised at how little local stations took advantage of this easy way to please your audience. And now, technology has stepped up once again to fill the gap that radio leaves.

Check out www.yes.com

Heard a song on a local station and don't know what it is...go to the website and type in the call letters of the station. Don't know the call letters...type in the zip code and the stations show up. Just choose the one that you heard the song on.

Up comes the song...and the ones that played an hour before it.
Loved the song enough..if you have an itunes then you can click on the song and download it to your computer. Oh, and that reminds me, that's another way that radio becomes irrelevant.

I haven't figured out how they do it...althoughI know that stations have to be "member stations" in order to be included... I think that the stations simply submit their playlist --and the yes.com site doesn't use some sort of monitoring of "song signatures" in the way that Broadcast Data System or similar systems do.

The stations do get something out of the deal--a kickback on $$ paid for itunes downloads aggregate research data on who buys them.

If you're anything like me, you'll find it fun to type in call letters of former favorite stations.

Another semester of great speakers in the Telecomm Colloquium

Where did the summer go?
The first week of the Fall semester 2006 is behind us now and once again it is time for the schedule of the Telecommunications Colloquium to be released.

My colleague David Waterman has coordinated this series for several years now, and again has a great line up for us. Not only does it highlight how many different things the Telecommunications faculty at IU are doing...but we also have several very interesting guests lined up to speak at well.

Unless otherwise listed, the series takes place on Fridays in RTV 226 from 12:30-1:45pm:

Friday,Sept. 1
David Waterman, Dept. of Telecommunications
Changing Markets , New Technology and Violent Content: An Economic Study of Movie Genre Trends

Friday,Sept. 8
Ted Castronova, Dept. of Telecommunications
The Fun Revolution

Friday,Sept. 15
Erik Bucy, Department of Telecommunications
Taking Television Seriously:A Sound and Image Bite Analysis of Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1992-2004


Friday,Sept. 22
Herman Wasserman, Dept. of Journalism, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (visiting at IU)
RTV 226, 12:30-1:45 pm
The Search for a Global Media Ethic: A View from the South.


Wednesday,Sept. 27
Graduate students presenting at TPRC
RTV 180, 12:00-1:15 pm
Student conference presentations


Friday,Sept. 29
Mark Deuze, Department of Telecommunications
What Does it Mean to Work in the Media Today? Answers from Four Countries and Four Professions.


Wednesday,Oct. 4
Norbert Herber, Dept. of Telecommunications
RTV 180; 12:00-1:15.
Title: The Composition-Instrument: musical emergence and interaction


Friday,Oct. 6
Julie Fox, Department of Telecommunications
What can Blips on Radar Screens Tell Us About How People Process and Remember Mediated Messages?


Friday,Oct. 13
Betsi Grabe, Department of Telecommunications
RTV 226, 12:30-1:45 pm
The liberal bias accusation against journalism: An assessment of visual bias in network news coverage of U. S. presidential candidates from 1992 to 2004


Friday,Oct. 20
Lee Sheldon, Department of Telecommunications
Londontown: A Narrative-Driven Virtual World


Friday,Oct. 27
Andrew Weaver, Department of Telecommunications
Watching Eggle: Children's Enjoyment of Cartoon Violence and Action


Friday,Nov. 3
Thom Gillespie/MIME presentations
TBA


Friday,Nov. 10
James Watt, Departments of Language, Literature, and Communication, Rensselaer University (RPI)
The Place of a Research Laboratory in a Creative Technology Program


Friday,Nov. 17
Patrick Osei-Hwere, Dept. of Telecommunications
TBA

Nov. 24
Thanksgiving

Friday,Dec. 1
Annie Lang, Department of Telecommunications
TBA


Friday,Dec. 8
Joseph Cappella, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania