In my book, Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, I present “The seven truths ‘they’ don’t want you to know about the media.” These are essentially the seven thesis statements of the book, but that sounds so boring, so the Seven Truths they are. The first of these is “Media are a central part of our lives.” And the second is “There are no mainstream media.”
I saw a vivid reminder of both of these yesterday as I watched and listened to President Obama’s second inauguration using a range of media technologies.
I started by listening in my car to CNN’s coverage on my satellite radio.
I soon moved to watching NBC’s streaming coverage at the YMCA using a wifi signal on my iPhone.
As I let the gym and went to do a little shopping, I listened to the event on NPR first on my car radio and then using audio streaming via cellular data on my iPhone.
When I finally got home, I joined my wife and mother-in-law watching the end of it on CNN our HDTV set.
By the time I was done I had listened using both broadcast and satellite radio, streaming video on a 3.5″ screen via wifi, streaming audio via cell phone, and cable television on a 42″ screen. And I did all of these without really having to think about what I was doing. I just pushed a button or did a quick search on Google, and I had access to this.
We may not have jet packs yet, but we certainly live in an amazing media world.
Want to watch it all over again? C-SPAN is your friend!