Dyan M. Neary has written a well-researched and clear article on the anti-democratic implications of IBOC digital radio for NYC Indymedia’s newspaper, the Indypendent. A quote from media scholar Robert McChesney sums it up:
“Politicians and corporations have effectively conspired here—and I donÂ’t think thatÂ’s too strong a word—to take what should be our most democratically powerful medium and make it the medium of a handful of corporations…. It is unfiltered, unadulterated, 100 percent pure American corruption. Period.”
The simplest and most fundamentally telling way to evaluate any new technology push campaign is to ask “Who Benefits?” Do you benefit by having to buy a new, expensive digital radio that sounds the same as your old analog one? Do you really benefit from having a “buy” button to order–at a premium, I’m sure–the new Britney Spears song that’s been played every hour for the last week? Do you benefit when small non-profit and community stations are forced off the air because they can’t afford new multi-million dollar transmitters? Who does benefit?
As a life-long tinkerer, gadgeteer, technologist and mediageek I have learned one major but uncomplicated principle: digital does not necessarily mean better.
For more on digital radio see “Going Digital: The End of Radio As We Know It” at the Radio page at About.com
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