Media Consolidation

 Media Consolidation is a business strategy that has been expanding right in front of our eyes. Media consolidation is plan that big companies own smaller companies, making it so there are few companies that own almost everything. Media used to be separated into many small companies that worked on their own, to produce their own products, but over time large companies have started buying out these other business. In the chart below you can see that 50 companies turned into 6 purely because of media consolidation and these companies buying out others.

One major example of Media Consolidation is the Disney Company, Disney owns everything. Their productions, Star Wars, ESPN, ABC, they are constantly expanding and gaining more and more money. This is a danger for a few reasons, one being that these big name brands get to say what goes out and what stays in, this will affect what kind of product gets put out and in some cases, what kind of news gets out. Major Media Consolidation can also lead to the lacking of small media outlets which, if they are a news site, can limit what news small areas and towns get to hear.

What is the Overton Window?

 The Overton Window is not something known by many, but it has a significant affect on our life. The Overton Window is most easily described as the area of what is socially acceptable. It is the window can be used for any broad topic, and within the window is what is acceptable to mention at that time. This window can change over time, whether it would broaden out, shrink up or just move. The window is a chart that is shown in a vertical order, with the more free ideas being at the top and the more government restricting ideas being at the bottom.

The window applies to life in plenty of different ways, in your normal day, the impact it has is to what you think is okay to say and how other will react to what you say. Since the Overton Window is based on what is socially acceptable, you won't see people talk about things outside of that window, and if you do they will normally get pretty weird looks. The window shows what people think is okay to think about on a topic at a certain time and the change in the window is normally pretty gradual and people will adjust to it without thinking. The window itself isn't the thing that affect what is acceptable, rather it represents what has already happened. It is nothing to base yourself off, it reflects society.

In the image above you see an example of an Overton Window with the idea of kids schooling, as you can see there is a list of possible opinions with the top one saying that there should be no government involvement and the one on the bottom saying that all kids should go to government regulated schools. On the website, you are able to move the blue area, which is the actual Overton Window, the things that are okay to say. This is a good way to show how the window works because it lists examples of what people could think about a topic and also how the window works and looks. 

Another place that it is seen more commonly in life is with politics. In politics, polititians will direct their thoughts and opinions towards what is in the Overton Window at the time as it is what the community wants to hear, it also has the most people who will follow their ideas. The politicians that go outside the window are the people seen as radical and are normally not as popular with people as they like outside the common ground.

The danger of the Overton Window is most prevalent in politics. As I said, politicians will direct their ideas as to what matches the Overton Window at the time, this could lead to a misleading leader who says one thing and does something else. The window could also be good as it is a way that the community as a whole has an influence on how others think and can help guide things to common grounds.

The CDs History

 

The CD, the middle ground between what started with home audio and what we have now. A little disk that is full of music. The influence and change it had on our society was drastic. Before its invention in the 60s the walkman and cassettes were the main way of listening to music or listening to music while traveling. The introduction of the CD changed that. It is made easier to walk with and also the audio was made different.

When the CD was first introduced everyone was immediately on board with the idea and it took off very quickly. It replaced the walkman and cassettes very quickly, even though it wasn't too different from the walkman. Both being audio devices and both being able to be moved around easily while still walking. The main difference with the CD was the difference in audio, and the constant improvements that was wanted with the CD. After coming out, the plan was to find a way to make the CD digital, to make travel easier. They called it the CD-R and was a way to have your CD online, make it easier to travel and less work to have to change CDs. Another thing the CDs had available was to burn, you could burn songs or audios through a computer onto any CD that you would like. This gave a lot more freedom to people and also improved popularity.

The CD was a massively influential invention that gave way to a lot more inventions in the future. The CD was an improvement over the cassette and by the time the CD's time passed, it was digital and new things like online music was now available and was the new best thing.