PressEthic

According to an article about a recent study done at Ball State University Center for Media Design, Americans spend an average of nine hours a day consuming media. How can they not, when media today consists of television, books, internet, telephone, and radio? While television remains the “800 pound gorilla” in media, the study went on to report that people spend most of their time watching television and using the internet at the same time. This obviously presents an interesting marketing opportunity for advertisers that UPN and Google http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12751899.htm have recognized. Viewers can “Google” the pilot episode of the new comedy “Everybody Hates Chris” and watch the entire show on the UPN website.

While this test airing will be used to see how many more people will be watching next week’s show, the concept of watching sitcoms on the internet brings an interesting new dimension to media consumption. If search engines and production companies find this profitable, would all of our shows be available on the web? Or would people still prefer watching their programs in a traditional format?

It is interesting to theorize what the 800 pound gorilla of the media would look like in five years if that occurred. No longer would TiVo be the popular option to catch our favorite shows. Would television consumption begin to die out like the newspaper industry?