Since I embarked on this podcast production and consumption journey I've found I'm now listening to international programming that I would never have conceived of when previously wedded to the usual media suspects, in my case mainly the BBC. A recent addition to my portfolio of listening pleasure is NPR's 'On the Media'. For the Brits National Public Radio or NPR is roughly the equivalent of the BBC. I say roughly because you're unlikely to find the following at the bottom of a BBC programme web site
“On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The John and Annamaria Phillips Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.”
Having said that wasn't the Naked Scientists the BBC regional radio programme funded by the Royal Society and the University of Cambridge?
Anyway, back to On the Media.
I listened to the 8 April 2005 edition on the way into work and a couple of items particularly caught my attention.
First up was Measure by Measure which described Arbitron's Portable People Meter a really scary way for gathering data about personal viewing/listening habits (and what else?). So don't go near that DVD or television it could contain an audio code below your hearing threshold but which the portable device you're wearing can 'hear' and use to contribute to stats about your behaviour.
Next up was The Chaos Scenario which proposes that the collapse of centralized media production empires is already underway and, for the interim period before the more disaggregated and personalised production model kicks in to replace it, chaos is likely and perhaps necessary. Oh yes? … and Rupert Murdoch, Sony et al will either want a piece of the action or to kill the 'clear and present dangers' (think 'Quick … outlaw peer-to-peer technologies').
I really like the way the On the Media site presents each item from its archive as an individual MP3 download and transcript.
Anyway, check it out if your interested in how our North American cousins approach media criticism and analysis and it might also be worthwhile sampling what else NPR has to offer as well.
Technology determinism at work or what? 🙂
