Typically, it would not be shocking to be walking on the streets of New York City surrounded by hundreds of people listening to their iPods or listening to the radio in their cars as they drive by. Similarly, in the early mornings when riding the subway you most likely will spot many passengers reading the newspaper. For my second media experiment I was assigned to compare and contrast my relationship with two forms of media, clearly I have chosen the radio/iPod and newspapers.
I decided to conduct the experiment on Tuesday because I spend the day at my internship. I started the day by listening to the radio in my shower before leaving for work and then proceeded to listen to my iPod while traveling to and from work. I then decided to read the newspaper during any free time I had during the day at work, which ended up being a lot on this particular day. The first distinction between the two for me was that I felt like wherever I was I had access to the radio/iPod. Whether I am in the shower, walking to the subway, or riding in the subway. Additionally, I feel that when I am listening to Z100 in the morning hosted by Ryan Seacrest all the way out in Los Angeles, I am connected to those listening in LA, or any other area in the world with a radio. This of course made me recall Peter Gibson’s Understanding Media when he said, “ It certainly contracts the world to village size” (306). I completely agree with Gibson because I have a close friend who lives in Los Angeles and even though we are geographically so far apart I don't always feel the distance because of the media, particularly the radio because we both listen to the same stations so we are always receiving the same information.
Contrarily, I did not have the same relationship with the newspaper. I did not have access to the newspaper when I was in the shower, it was not delivered directly to my door so I couldn't read it in my apartment, I also could not read it on the subway (I always seem to get carsick if I read while in motion). Additionally, while the newspaper is technically found everywhere, it is not the same newspaper everywhere. My local news is not the same as LA’s local news, or anywhere else besides New York. Although this is an extremely large distinction between the two, after thinking about it I realized the radio and the newspaper do have a lot of similarities you would not necessarily think about it right away. Both have the amazing ability to brainwash me. When I am listening to the radio I automatically will take it to be fact instead of just an opinion, something that Jean Franco admits is not always true, “At a moment when political decisions are increasingly being reserved for the experts, the talk show remains one area in which it is legitimate and good to have opinions even when you know nothing at all about whatever it is you’re talking about” (Hello, You’re On the Air, 154). I definitely agree that there is a sort of "danger" with talk shows on the radio because it is acceptable to have a strong opinion even if you are not familiar with the topic you are discussing. This is dangerous in my eyes because I believe what I hear as fact most of the time. Similarly, if I read something in the newspaper, I automatically take this as fact without a question, even more so than the radio because a newspaper requires multiple editor approvals. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, most newspapers require citations, so it is more of a reason for me to trust them. Unfortunately, libel is not unheard of and I have been a victim to believing falsities many times. Lastly, the newspaper and radio are also similar in that both are intimate and private. When I was listening to my iPod on the subway it was inside my head mixed in with my own personal thoughts, no one else on the subway provided their interpretation to my music and I was closed off in my own world, and the same can be said when I read the newspaper at my internship, although it was a bit more difficult to tune distractions out while reading.
Overall, this experiment proved to be very eye opening to me because I assumed I would spend the entire time describing the differences between the radio and newspaper when in fact both have many more similarities than I imagined. While radio is not bound to geography and newspapers are, both offer intimacy as well as possessing the power to manipulate and control the user.
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