Musical cyber-waves return to cyberspace

If you enjoy listening to radio stations over the internet, then you may have been downcast when MediaCorp Radio stopped its online broadcasting of radio stations in March 2009, due to copyright restrictions.

You can now take heart, though - those radio stations' internet simulcasts are once again free-to-cyberspace :D. This article: http://www.mediacorpradio.sg/ shows that MediaCorp Radio recently relaunched its 987FM, Class 95FM, Lush 99.5FM and Y.E.S. 93.3FM stations' online counterparts. The media giant now has licensing allowing it to continue broadcasting music in cyberspace.

Through radio stations' online simulcasts, you can:
- assess music through stations' websites easily,
- assess music from anywhere with an internet connection conveniently, and
- assess additional information like song title and artist name easily.

The shifting of radio to cyberspace demonstrates how new media overtakes traditional media's capabilities.

It also shows how new media can be more of a marketing tool than an opponent of its traditional ancestor. MediaCorp's online simulcasts reach a larger audience through cyberspace, but link web-users back and highlight awareness to the traditional radio stations.

Perhaps new media is not so much a threat to traditional media, but a tool with which traditional media can expand.

Still, people who listen to radio online would probably not be encouraged to buy a tradional radio set. They would instead appreciate and expect the benefits of online radio, or radio through new media, more.

Is traditional media branching out only to eventually have to convert to new media?

Celebri-tweets

To every Twilight fan: don’t leave my blog the moment you read my next sentence, okay? :D

Robert Pattison is on Twitter! And adding to all the flutter – other celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Bruce Willis have taken flight on the micro-blogging platform.

New media platforms like Twitter have lifted the curtains of entertainment. Through such socialising sites, fans can go beyond a movie set to read about celebrities' personal thoughts and actions.

What's interesting about this happening on Twitter is the site's character limit. How engaging can a maximum 140-character post be?

Yet Twitter's character limit actually allows celebrities to post snippets of their lives more easily. As posting doesn't demand a lot of effort and time, they can post instinctively and more often, building up a larger picture of their lives for readers.

Celebri-tweets are just one example of how new media is able to give more through less.

The downside is that celebrities risk losing their Twitter followers when they don't post regularly. Bruce Willis' last post, for example, was in June. Since Twitter posts are short, readers view them fast but then wait for more. True to new media's fast-paced lifestyle, Twitter accounts without new posts would be stagnant and bore followers.

I would rather read a celebrity's blog than his Twitter account, though. Through a blog's longer posts I can learn more about a celebrity's personality and thoughts. What about you?

Celebrity Twitter accounts:
Robert Pattison: http://twitter.com/rbrtpttnsn
Ashton Kutcher: http://twitter.com/APlusK
Bruce Willis: http://twitter.com/BruceyWillis

Celebrity Blogs:
Fann Wong: http://blog.sina.com.cn/fannhy
Tay Ping Hui: http://zhengbinhui.wordpress.com/

Photo: http://behindblondiepark.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/robert-pattinson.jpg

Entertainment in an entertaining way?

Entertainment covers fields like movies which have a naturally entertaining form. For example, a movie is instinctively entertaining through its audio-visual presentation.

However, when it comes to entertainment news – presentation is quite basic. Many news websites include an entertainment section featuring interesting news, but do not use any presentation features beyond text and pictures.

Should entertainment news be presented in an entertaining way?

There are more new media advances nowadays like YouTubeDirect which help websites present news in a more engaging manner. YouTubeDirect allows people to post their YouTube videos on news websites, so news websites can run their stories alongside videos.

An examiner.com article (included below) gives a good overview of how YouTubeDirect increases video uploading opportunities online. As YouTubeDirect is convenient to use, users would have little trouble uploading their videos.

While users can upload videos of any genre to YouTubeDirect, I believe such a video-uploading platform would be especially relevant to the entertainment section, where attractive entertainment events or celebrities can be shown in action.

Would video-presentation of entertainment news really affect readership, though? Take the Singapore Idol competition. Would you rather read about Charles 'Stitch' Wong winning Singapore Idol, or watch him perform in an accompanying YouTube video before reading the story?

Or would you prefer other presentation forms?

Take the entertainment news poll (found in the right panel), and comment at will :)!

Note: If you choose option D) in the poll, do comment to elaborate on what presentation forms you mean. Thanks!

Reference:
A new video reporting tool for third-party websites: http://www.examiner.com/x-23513-Baltimore-Computers-Examiner~y2009m11d17-YouTube-Direct--a-new-video-reporting-tool-for-website