Monday

Top ideas in new media?

One of the more interesting - if not thorough - posts on "new" (quotations there for being relative) media in my Integrated Marketing Communications course, which convinced me of its deserved status as being a top idea (perhaps not *the* top idea though), was a post regarding podcasts.

I hadn't given them much credit for where they were now, but I had remarked upon their potential, mainly for being something useful for a captive audience which would in fact be appreciative of them much of the time (as opposed to many mediums which can be considered intrusive and a nuisance). This post worked off that idea and expounded upon in it ways that made me reconsider the efficacy of podcasts *now*, placing them on a much higher rung of the latter.

One of the more interesting facts about podcasts is its usage; 18.5 million in 2007, we were informed. And by 2012, this will more than *triple*, with 25 million of those tuning in at least once a week. I think podcasts' only limitations now have to deal with technology, and not their usefulness. As products get better and more affordable, and people get more acclimated to them, the use of this medium and its frequency will grow exponentially. That's tremendous potential.


And, of course, if we're talking about top ideas in "new media," web sites have to be it. To a significant extent, many people seemed to agree.

One of the more telling signs was that it was not considered to be among the least effective tools in new media by anyone, while there were a few examples of some top ideas being considered the least effective among some respondents.

Web sites simply allow, at this point, for the most versatility and interactivity. They And, they're established enough to be considered an equal among more traditional media. Web sites can also integrate the various types of new media, while the converse can not really be said.

In short, the limits of web sites as a marketing communication tool are only in what one's budget may be, or in the level of skill and imagination in their creators. Nothing really competes, yet, among new types of media.

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