E-publishing is just one of the changes being brought about by technology. Changes in print technology have definitely come at a rapid pace. I typed my dissertation on a manual typewriter. That was 1974, and while that may have been before you were born, in the grand scheme of things, it is essentially “yesterday.” I taught business communication through the period that saw the shift from manual typewriters, to electronic typewriters, to word-processing systems. I was consulting for a large pharmaceutical company during the period when typewriters were being replaced by computers. I had an up-close view of the wailing and gnashing of teeth. More than one secretary quit to avoid having to use a computer, only to discover that every company that was still hiring secretaries required “computer skills” for employment. Everything related to print changed over a few short years.
Print isn’t the only medium that has changed. When I was young (really young), music was disseminated on 78 rpm records. Then came 45s and “long-play” records. The first “home recording” devices were wire recorders with terrible sound quality. Audiotape (reel-to-reel and cassette) followed, only to be replaced by CDs, not only for listening, but also for recording. For serious music-listening, AM radio was replaced by FM. And now radio is increasingly being replaced by “streaming” services. Technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and, as Debra mentioned in her article this month, we (and especially those of us who are a bit older) are experiencing what Toffler called “Future Shock.”
In the “old days” (1960s and before), letters were handwritten or typed; folded; and put in a stamped, addressed envelope before being deposited in a mail box. In those days, it typically took an average of 7 days for a letter to be transported from one city to another. Airmail, which promised faster delivery, was an additional cost. Electronic mail began taking over in the 1980s. Just as many secretaries had resisted switching from typewriters to computer-based word processing, many professionals resisted the change from paper-based mail to electronic mail. In the late 1980s, when I was collecting email addresses to use for committee work, one of my business-communication colleagues said, “I don’t have an email address, and I don’t want one.” Not long after, she retired from the university where she had taught for more than 20 years.
At this point, video is becoming increasingly common. When I was in elementary and high school, educational videos were distributed on film. The teacher would schedule audio-visual help from the AV department in school, and a technical assistant would wheel a projector to the classroom on a cart, as projectors were considered too difficult for ordinary teachers to use. He (and it almost always was a “geeky guy”) would thread the film into the projector and start the film when the teacher finished introducing it. Early TV wasn’t much better in terms of quality, although some of the shows were “live” instead of old films. The changes in video technology have been faster, and in some ways more dramatic, than changes in other forms of communication technologies. We quickly went from “home movies” on 8 mm film to high-definition (HD) video shot on small, hand-held video recorders. Home movies can now be produced relatively quickly and easily. And professional video is “knock-your-socks-off” quality.
Take a quick look at some of the major Internet news sites, and count the videos:
- http://abcnews.go.com
- http://www.cbsnews.com
- http://www.cnn.com
- http://www.nbcnews.com
- http://www.npr.org
While some of us are good readers and prefer to get most of our information by reading (I can read a lot faster than I can watch a story unfold on video), others prefer the sense of immediacy video provides. Consider, for example, reading about the way the drought and wildfires are influencing California and watching videos of the shrinking reservoirs and the fire-damaged hillsides and homes. You get the same facts either way, but which has greater emotional impact? Also consider the increasing popularity of “amateur” video available over the Internet. YouTube has become a great source of both information and entertainment. Pick a subject, pretty much any subject, and search for it on YouTube. And YouTube isn’t the only source for online video, of course. Search the the Internet for “video” and see how many pages of links come up.
Most of us now use software with built-in video editing capabilities. Microsoft provides Movie Maker, and Apple’s iMovie and Final Cut Pro offer many of the video editing tools once available only on professional-level video processing equipment. The technology for video cameras has also been changing, with really good high-definition cameras being widely available at relatively low cost.
Amateur videos aren’t of course, the only video-based technology widely available for the “rest of us.” I can remember when major corporations dedicated entire rooms to video conferencing. These days, any two people with computers (including, of course, “smart” phones) and the right software can not only talk to each other, but also see each other. Skype is just one of the software programs available. Apple devices now come with FaceTime video chat as standard.
The main point, of course, is that video is increasingly ubiquitous—found virtually everywhere. One of the reasons for this is based on the idea of communication channel richness, which go from lean, including bulk mail and other routine impersonal, print messages, to rich, based on face-to-face communication. Video chats are, of course, more like in-person, face-to-face conversations than either written exchanges or audio-only phone calls. When others can see you as well as hear you, they are less likely to misunderstand you.
This post would not be complete, of course, without the addition of a brief video that Debra and I recorded and edited. Although it is 5 years old at this point, it illustrated the kinds of things amateurs can do with a video camera, editing software, and a YouTube account:
For more examples of what you can do with video, see the SCS Video page.